A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 A NOVEL. 
 
 BY 
 
 REBECCA HARDING DAVIS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 DALLAS GALBRAITH," "KITTY'S CHOICE," "WAITING FOR THE VERDICT, 
 "LIFE IN THE IRON MILLS," ETC. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 1878.
 
 Copyright, 1877, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & Co. 
 
 1 J. n.UPPIKCOTffc-CO'/S 
 
 "~ "^
 
 PS 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 O 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 a raw, cloudy afternoon in early 
 spring a few years ago a family- 
 "^ carriage was driven slowly down a lone- 
 rH ly road in one of the outlying suburbs 
 j5 of Philadelphia, stopping at last in front 
 "^ of an apparently vacant house. This 
 house was built of gray stone, and stood 
 r "\ back from the road, surrounded by a few 
 ) sombre pines and much rank shrubbery: 
 shrubbery and trees, and the house itself, 
 had long been abandoned to decay. 
 r-- " Heah am de place, sail," said the 
 
 CO - . , . 
 
 cr> footman, opening the carnage-door. 
 
 An old gentleman in shabby clothes, 
 . embellished dramatically by a red neck 
 tie, an empty sleeve pinned to his breast, 
 sprang out briskly ; a lady followed, and 
 stood beside him : then a younger man, 
 his head muffled in a close fur cap, a 
 yellow shawl wrapped about his neck, 
 ^ looked feebly out of the window. His 
 2? face, which a pair of pale, unkindled 
 eyes had never lighted since he was 
 <n born, had been incomplete of meaning 
 z. in his best days, and long illness had 
 =^ only emphasized its weakness. He half 
 rose, sat down again, stared uncertainly 
 at the house, yawned nervously, quite 
 indifferent to the fact that the lady stood 
 waiting his pleasure. His money and his 
 bodily sufferings for he was weighted 
 heavily with both were quite enough, in 
 $ his view, to give him the right to engross 
 5 the common air and the service of other 
 * men and women. Indeed, a certain in 
 domitable conceit thrust itself into view in 
 his snub nose and retreating chin, which 
 made it highly probable that if he had 
 been a stout day-laborer in the road yon 
 der, he would have been just as compla 
 cent as now, and have patronized his fel 
 lows in the ditch. 
 
 "Will you take my arm, William?" 
 said the old man waiting in the road. 
 "This is the house." 
 
 "No. I have half a mind to drop the 
 whole matter. Why should I drag out 
 the secrets of the grave ? God knows, 
 I shall find them out soon enough !" 
 
 "Just so. Precisely. It's a miserable 
 business for this April day. Now, I don't 
 want to advise, but shall we drive out on 
 the Wissahickon and fish a bit ? You'll 
 catch a perch, and Jane shall broil il 
 over the coals, eh?" 
 
 " Oh, of course I'm going through 
 with it," scowling and blinking through 
 his eye-glasses. " But we are ten min 
 utes before the time. I can't sit in a 
 draughty room waiting. Tell David to 
 drive slowly down the road until four, 
 Captain Swendon." 
 
 "Certainly, certainly," with the ner 
 vous conciliatory haste of a man long 
 used to being snubbed. "You hear Mr. 
 Laidley, David ? We'll arrange it in 
 this way, then. Miss Fleming and I will 
 stroll down the road, William, until the 
 time is up. No, Jane," as his daughter 
 was going to leave the carriage. "Stay 
 with your cousin." The captain was his 
 peremptory self again. Like every man 
 conscious of his own inability, he assert 
 ed himself by incessant managing and 
 meddling for his neighbors. 
 
 The carriage jolted down the rutted 
 road. The little man inside tossed on 
 the well-padded cushions, and moaned 
 and puffed spasmodically at his cigar. 
 
 Buff and David, stiff in green and 
 gold on the box, nodded significantly at 
 each other. "He's nigh unto de end," 
 said Buff. " De gates of glory am creak- 
 in' foh him." 
 
 "Creakin 1 , shore nuff. But 'bout de 
 glory I'm not so shore. Yoh see, I 
 knows," rubbing his gray whiskers with 
 the end of the whip'. " I have him in 
 charge. Mass' Swendon gib orders : ' Yoh 
 stick by him, Dave.' 'S got no friends: 
 *s got no backbone. Why, wid a twinge 
 ob toothache he squirms like an eel in 
 de fire swears to make de debbil turn 
 pale. It'll be an awful sight when Death 
 gits a holt on him. But I'll stick." 
 
 Captain Swendon and Miss Fleming, 
 left alone under the pines, both turned 
 and looked at the house as if it were an 
 open grave. 
 
 2GS893
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 "So it is here the dead are to come 
 back?" said the captain with a feebly- 
 jocular giggle. " We'll go down the road 
 a bit. Ton my soul, the atmosphere here 
 is ghastly." 
 
 They struck into the meadows, saunter 
 ed through a strip of woodland where the 
 sparrows were chirping in the thin green 
 boughs overhead, and, crossing some 
 newly -ploughed fields, came suddenly 
 upon a row of contract-houses, bold, up 
 right in the mud, aggressively new and 
 genteel. They were tricked out with 
 thin marble facings and steps. A drug- 
 shop glittered already at one end of the 
 block, and a milliner's furbelowed win 
 dow closed the other with a red-lettered 
 sign, which might have served as a mot 
 to for the whole: "Here you buy your 
 dollar's worth of fashion for your dime 
 of cash." 
 
 "Ah!" cried the captain, "no ghostly 
 work here! the last place where one 
 would look for any miraculous stoppage 
 of the laws of Nature." 
 
 "Stoppage, you should say, of the so 
 cial laws of ' gents ' and their ladies, 
 which are much more inexorable," said 
 his companion. " Oh I know them !" 
 glancing in at the windows, as she tramp 
 ed through the yellow mud, with keen, 
 amused eyes. "I know just what life 
 must be in one of these houses the 
 starving music-teacher on one side of 
 you, and the soapboiler on the other : 
 the wretched small servant going the 
 rounds of the block to whiten the steps 
 every evening, while the mistresses sit 
 within in cotton lace and sleazy silks, 
 tinkling on the piano, or counting up the 
 greasy passbook from the grocer's. Im 
 agine such a life broken in upon by a 
 soul from the other world !" 
 
 " Yet souls go out from it into the other 
 world. And I've known good women 
 who wore cheap finery and aped gen 
 tility. Of course," with a sudden gusty 
 energy, "/ don't endorse that sort of 
 thing ; and 1 don't believe the dead will 
 come back to-day. Don't mistake me," 
 shaking his head. The captain was al 
 ways gusty and emphatic. His high- 
 beaked, quick-glancing face and owlish 
 eyes were ready to punctuate other men's 
 
 thoughts with an incessant exclamation- 
 point to bring out their true meaning. 
 Since he was a boy he had known that 
 he was born a drill-sergeant and the rest 
 of mankind raw recruits. "Now, there's 
 something terribly pathetic to me," he 
 said, "in this whole expedition of ours. 
 The idea of poor Will in his last days 
 trying to catch a glimpse of the coun 
 try to which he is going !" 
 
 Cornelia Fleming nodded, and let the 
 subject drop. She never wasted her 
 time by peering into death or religion. 
 She belonged to this world, and she 
 knew it. A wise racer keeps to the 
 course for which he has been trained, 
 and never ventures into the quagmires 
 beyond. She stopped beside a tiny yard 
 where a magnolia tree spread its bare 
 stalks and dull white flowers over the 
 fence, and stood on tiptoe to break a 
 bud. The owner of the house, an old 
 man with a box of carpenter's tools in 
 his hand, opened the door at the moment. 
 She nodded brightly to him. " I am rob 
 bing you, sir. For a sick friend yonder," 
 she said. 
 
 He came down quickly and loaded 
 her with flowers, thinking he had never 
 heard a voice as peculiar and pleasant. 
 The captain, a little behind, eyed her 
 critically from head to foot, his mouth 
 drawn up for a meditative whistle, as 
 she stood on tiptoe, her arm stretched 
 up among the creamy buds. The loose 
 sleeve fell back : the arm was round 
 and white. 
 
 " Very good ! ve-ry good !" the whistle 
 meant ; " and I know the points of a fine 
 woman as well as any of these young 
 fellows." 
 
 Two young fellows, coming up, linger 
 ed to glance at the jimp waist and finely- 
 turned ankle, with a shrug to each other 
 when, passing by, they saw her homely 
 face. 
 
 The captain gallantly relieved her of 
 her flowers, and paraded down the road, 
 head up, elbows well out, as he used, 
 thirty years ago, to escort pretty Virgin- 
 ie Morot in the French quartier of New 
 Orleans. It was long since he had rel 
 ished conversation as he did with this 
 frank, generous creature. No coquetry
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 5 
 
 about her ! It was like talking to a clev 
 er, candid boy. Every man felt, in fact, 
 with Cornelia, that she was only a young 
 er brother. He liked the hearty grasp 
 of her big white hand ; he liked her 
 honest, downright way of stating things, 
 and her perfect indifference to her own 
 undeniable ugliness. Now, any other 
 woman of her age thirty, eh ? (with a 
 quick critical glance) would dye her 
 hair : she never cared to hide the streaks 
 of gray through the yellow. She had 
 evidently long ago made up her mind 
 that love and marriage were impossible 
 for women as unprepossessing as she : 
 she stepped freely up, therefore, to level 
 ground with men, and struck hands and 
 made friendships with them precisely as 
 if she were one of themselves. 
 
 The captain quite glowed with the 
 fervor of this friendship as he marched 
 along talking energetically. A certain 
 subtle instinct of kinship between them 
 seemed to him to trench upon the su 
 pernatural : it covered every thought and 
 taste. She had a keen wit, she grasped 
 his finest ideas : not even Jane laughed at 
 his jokes more heartily. She appreciated 
 his inventive ability : he was not sure 
 that Jane did. There were topics, too, 
 on which he could touch with this ma 
 ture companion that were caviare to Jane. 
 It was no such mighty matter if he blurt 
 ed out an oath before her, as he used to 
 do in the army. Something, indeed, in 
 the very presence of the light, full figure 
 keeping step with his own, in the heavy 
 odor of the magnolias and the steady 
 regard of the yellowish-brown eyes, re 
 vived within him an old self which be 
 longed to those days in the army a self 
 which was not the man whom his daugh 
 ter knew, by any means. 
 
 They were talking at the time, as it 
 happened, of his military experience : " I 
 served under Scott in Mexico. Jane thinks 
 me a hero, of course. But I confess to 
 you that I enlisted, in the first place, to 
 keep the wolf out of the house at home. 
 1 had spent our last dollar in manufac 
 turing my patent scissors, and they 
 well, they wouldn't cut anything, unless 
 I used to suspect Atropos had borrow 
 ed them and meant to snip the thread 
 
 for me, it was stretched so tightly just 
 then." 
 
 She looked gravely at his empty sleeve. 
 
 The captain caught the glance, and 
 coughed uncomfortably : " Oh, I did not 
 lose that in the service, you understand. 
 No such luck ! Five days after I was 
 discharged, after I had come out of every 
 battle with a whole skin, I was on a rail 
 way-train going home. Collision : arm 
 taken off at the elbow. If it had hap 
 pened just one week earlier, I should 
 have had a pension, and Jane Well, 
 Jane has had a rough time of it, Miss 
 Fleming. But it was my luck !" 
 
 They had returned through the woods, 
 and were in sight again of the house 
 standing darkly among the pines. Two 
 gentlemen, pacing up and down the soli 
 tary road, came down the hill to meet 
 them. 
 
 "Tut! tut! It is that Virginia lawyer 
 who has come up to get into practice 
 here Judge Rhodes. You know him, 
 Miss Fleming. There's an end to our 
 quiet talk. That fellow besieges a wo 
 man with his click-clack : never leaves 
 a crack for a sensible man to edge in a 
 word." 
 
 Miss Fleming turned her honest eyes 
 full on his for a moment, but did not speak. 
 The captain's startled, foolish old heart 
 throbbed with a feeling which he had not 
 known since that day in the boat on the 
 bayou when Virginie Morot first put her 
 warm little hand in his. Virginie as a 
 wife had been a trifle of a shrew. Love 
 in the remembrance often has a bitter 
 twang. But this was friendship! How 
 sweet were the friendship and confidence 
 of a woman ! Pretty women of late years 
 approached the captain in his fatherly 
 capacity, much to his disrelish. A man 
 need not have his gray hairs and rheu 
 matism thrown in his teeth at every turn. 
 Miss Fleming, now, saw beneath them : 
 she saw what a gallant young fellow he 
 was at heart. He looked down at her 
 eagerly, but she was carelessly inspect 
 ing the judge and his companion. 
 
 "Who is the fair-haired, natty little 
 man ?" 
 
 "Oh! Phil Waring, a young fellow 
 about town. Society man. Too fond
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 of cards. Nice lad, but no experience : 
 no companion for you, Miss Fleming." 
 
 A vague, subtle change passed over 
 her. It was no definable alteration in 
 mind or body, yet a keener observer 
 than the captain might have suspected 
 a readjustment of both to suit some pos 
 sible new relation. 
 
 Mr. Waring and the judge joined them, 
 and they all walked together toward the 
 house, engrossed with their errand. Miss 
 Fleming never expected from men the 
 finical gallantry usually paid to young 
 ladies, and even the gallant Virginian did 
 not give it to her. The captain indeed, 
 perceiving that she was occupied with 
 Judge Rhodes, gave her up to his escort. 
 "It is almost four. I will go down the 
 road and find the carriage and William," 
 he said, and left them. 
 
 Judge Rhodes, as they drew near the 
 house, regarded it darkly : " Decay ! 
 death and decay !" waving his pudgy 
 red hands theatrically. " A gloomy 
 gate indeed, through which the dead 
 might well choose to return." 
 
 " I should call it a badly-set stage for 
 a poor melodrama," said Miss Fleming 
 coolly. 
 
 " But your character is so practical ! 
 You are fortunate in that." The judge, 
 who was a stout, bald man, gazed at the 
 house with vague abstraction and dilating 
 nostrils. "Now, I am peculiarly suscep 
 tible to spiritual influences. I have been 
 since a boy as sensitive to pain, to, ah 
 sympathies, to those, ah electric cords, 
 as Byron says, wherewith we're darkly 
 bound, as as a wind -harp. I really 
 dread the effect upon myself of the rev- 
 'elations of to-day." 
 
 Miss Fleming was silent. The judge, 
 as she knew, was one of those shrewd 
 common-sense men who, when lifted out 
 of their place into the region of senti 
 ment or romance, swagger and generally 
 misconduct themselves, like a workman 
 conscious of his ill-fitting Sunday finery. 
 
 One or two carriages drove up to the 
 gate and stopped. 
 
 " Who are those people, Mr. Waring ?" 
 said the judge, dropping into his ordi 
 nary tone. 
 
 Mr. Waring put on his eye-glasses. 
 
 He knew everybody, and had as keen 
 an eye and strong an antipathy for ec 
 centric characters in conventional Phila 
 delphia as a proof-reader for false type. 
 "There is Dehr, the German homoeopath 
 and Spiritualist," he said in a little mild 
 voice, which oddly reminded Miss Flem 
 ing of the gurgling flow of new milk. 
 "That woman marching before him is 
 his wife." 
 
 " I know," muttered the judge 
 " strong - minded. Most extraordinary 
 women turn up every day here. This 
 one lectures on hygiene. Mad, un 
 doubtedly." 
 
 "Oh no," said Waring "very dull, 
 good people, both of the Dehrs. Not 
 two ideas to share between them. But 
 there are a dozen tow-headed youngsters 
 at home : they drive the old people into 
 such out-of-the-way courses to scratch for 
 a living. That man in white is the great 
 Socialist, Schaus. The others are scien 
 tific fellows from New York and Boston." 
 
 " I wish Van Ness was here," said 
 the judge, nodding ponderously. "Van 
 Ness is better known in Richmond than 
 any other Philadelphian, sir. Most re 
 markable man. Science is well enough 
 as far as it goes, but for clear intelli 
 gence, give me Pliny Van Ness." 
 
 "No doubt," said Mr. Waring grave 
 ly. "Great reformer, I hear. Don't 
 meet him in society. Of a new family." 
 
 "Mr. Laidley objected to his coming, ' 
 said Cornelia. 
 
 " He did, eh ? I'm astonished at that," 
 said the judge. " I consider Van Ness 
 But Laidley had the right to object, of 
 course. The meeting is one of the cap 
 tain's famous schemes to amuse Laid 
 ley. But they tell me that he knows he 
 is dying, and has determined to bring a 
 certain spirit out of the other world to 
 ask an important question." 
 
 "I should think," said Miss Fleming 
 dryly, "Mr. Laidley would always re 
 quire supernatural aid to make up his 
 mind for him. After I talk to him I 
 have the feeling that I have been hand 
 ling froth. Not clean froth either." 
 When Miss Fleming made the men and 
 women about her the subjects of her 
 skill in dissection, her voice took a neat
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 incisive edge, suggestive of the touch of 
 a scalpel. Little Mr. Waring, pulling his 
 moustache thoughtfully, studied her for a 
 moment without reply. 
 
 "Hoh!" laughed the judge. "You 
 have a keen eye ! There can be no 
 doubt," suddenly sobering, "that Laid- 
 ley has been uncommonly fast. But his 
 blood is good none better in Maryland. 
 High-toned family, the Laidleys. Mr. 
 Waring here could give you his life chap 
 ter by chapter if he would. But he would 
 skip over the dirty bits as carefully as he 
 is doing in the road." 
 
 " Laidley's life is so very nearly over," 
 suggested Mr. Waring quietly. 
 
 There was an awkward silence of a 
 moment. 
 
 "Now, I can't understand," blustered 
 the judge, "how Captain Swendon can 
 nurse that fellow as tenderly as he is 
 doing. I've got my share of humanity 
 and forgiveness, and all that. But if 
 any man had thrust my wife and child 
 out of their property, as he has done, he 
 had better have kept out of my sight, 
 sir. I know all about them, you see, for 
 two generations. Captain's wife was a 
 New Orleans girl Virginie Morot. It 
 wasn't a matter of property : it was star 
 vation. Poor little Virginie pretty crea 
 ture she was too! would have been 
 alive to-day, there's no doubt of it, if 
 she could have had proper food and 
 medicines. And there's his daughter ! 
 What kind of a life has she had for a girl 
 with such blood in her veins ? Why, if 
 I should tell you the sum on which that 
 child has supported herself and her fa 
 ther in Baltimore and here since her 
 mother died, you wouldn't believe me. 
 And Laidley did nothing for them. Not 
 a penny ! Under the circumstances it 
 was a crime for him to be alive." 
 
 " What were the circumstances ?" ask 
 ed Miss Fleming. 
 
 " The property, you understand, was 
 old Morot's Morot of New Orleans. 
 Virginie was his only child : she married 
 Swendon, and her father came to live 
 with them in Baltimore. The two men 
 were at odds from the first day. Old 
 Morot was a keen, pig-headed business 
 man : he knew nothing outside of the to 
 
 bacco - trade ; worked in the counting- 
 house all day ; his o'ne idea of pleasure 
 was to swill port and terrapin half the 
 night. Swendon Well, you know the 
 captain. He was a brilliant young fel 
 low in those days, full of ideas that never 
 came to anything an invention every 
 month which was to make his fortune. 
 They quarreled, of course the wife sided 
 with her husband, and Morot, in a fit 
 of rage, left the whole property to his 
 nephew, Will Laidley. When he was on 
 his deathbed, however, the old man re 
 lented and sent for Laidley. It was too 
 late to alter the will, but he charged him 
 to do justice to his daughter. Laidley 
 has told me that much himself. But it ' 
 never occurred to him that justice meant 
 anything more than to keep the estate, 
 and allow it at his death to revert to Jane 
 and her father." 
 
 "Well, well!" cried Mr. Waring has 
 tily, " that cannot be far off now. Laid 
 ley is so nearly a thing of the past, judge, 
 that we might afford to bury his faults 
 with him, decently out of sight." 
 
 " I can't put out of sight the years of 
 want for Virginie and her child while he 
 was throwing their money to the dogs in 
 every gambling -hell in Baltimore and 
 New York. Why, the story was so well 
 known that when he came down to Rich 
 mond he was not recognized, sir ! Not 
 recognized. He felt it. Left the county 
 like a whipped cur." 
 
 "Yet, legally, the money was his own," 
 remarked Cornelia. 
 
 "Oh, legally, I grant you! But mor 
 ally, now " The judge had counted 
 on Miss Fleming's sympathy in his 
 story. Only the day before he had seen 
 the tears come to her eyes over his hurt 
 hound. He was disappointed that she 
 took little Jane's misfortunes so coolly. . 
 "Of course this sort of crime is unappre- 
 ciable in the courts. But society, Vir 
 ginia society, knows how to deal with it." 
 
 "I happen to know," said Waring, 
 "that Laidley's will was made a year 
 ago, leaving the whole property to Miss 
 Swendon." 
 
 "And he knows that in the mean time 
 she is barely able to keep herself and her 
 father alive. Pah-h !"
 
 8 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 "Really, Jane has quite a dramatic 
 history, and you are precisely the per 
 son to tell it with effect, judge," said 
 Miss Fleming, smiling good-humored- 
 ly, with that peculiar affable intonation 
 which always numbs the hearer into a 
 conviction that his too excessive emotion 
 is being humored as the antics of an ill- 
 disciplined child. 
 
 The judge grew red. 
 
 "Yes," continued Miss Fleming, her 
 eyes upon him, "Jane is pretty. Your 
 zeal is excusable." The road was mud 
 dy at this point, and she passed on in 
 front of them, picking her steps. 
 
 "Damn it!" said the judge, "they're 
 all alike ! No woman can be just to 
 a pretty face. I thought this girl had 
 sense enough to lift her above such 
 petty jealousy." 
 
 "She is not jealous," said Waring, 
 looking critically at her back as he ar 
 ranged his thin tow-colored moustache. 
 " She is an Arab among her own sex. It's 
 a common type in this part of the coun 
 try. She fraternizes with men, horses 
 and Nature, and sneers at other women 
 as she would at artificial flowers and per 
 fumery. I don't know Miss Fleming, 
 : but I know her class very well." 
 
 The Virginian, whose blood revolted 
 at this censure of a lady, rushed to the 
 rescue : " She's honest, at any rate. No 
 mean feminine tricks about her. She's 
 offensively truthful. And, after all, she's 
 right : "Swendon is a good-for-nothing, a 
 well-born tramp ; and Jane is hardly a 
 subject for pity. She's a remarkably 
 healthy girl ; a little dull, but with more 
 staying power in her than belongs to a 
 dozen of those morbid, strong-minded 
 women of yours in the North. I suppose 
 I do let'my sympathy run away with me." 
 
 They joined Cornelia and entered the 
 broken gate. The door of the house 
 swung open at a touch. Within were 
 bare halls and rooms covered with 
 dust, the 'floors of which creaked drear 
 ily under their tread. Following the 
 sound of stifled voices, they went up to 
 a large upper chamber. The walls of 
 this room were stained almost black ; a 
 thick carpet deadened the floor; the solid 
 wooden shutters were barred and heavily 
 
 curtained. They made their way to the 
 farther end of the room, a little apart 
 from a group of dark figures who talked 
 together in whispers. Miss Fleming no 
 ticed a nervous trepidation in the man 
 ner of both men, and instantly became 
 grave, as though she too were more 
 deeply moved than she cared to show. 
 
 The whispers ceased, and the silence 
 was growing oppressive when steps were 
 heard upon the stairs. 
 
 "Hoh!" puffed the judge. "Here is 
 Laidley at last." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IT was not Laidley who entered, but 
 Mrs. Combe, then the most famous clair 
 voyant in the United States. According 
 to statements of men both shrewd and 
 honest she had lately succeeded in bring 
 ing the dead back to them in actual bod 
 ily presence. The voice was heard, then 
 the spirit slowly grew into matter beside 
 them. They could feel and see its warm 
 flesh, its hair and clothing, and even while 
 they held it it melted again into the im 
 palpable air, and was gone. The account 
 was attested by persons of such integrity 
 and prominence as to command atten 
 tion from scientific men. They knew, 
 of course, that it was a trick, but the 
 trick must be so well managed as to be 
 worth the trouble of exposure. Hence, 
 Mrs. Combe upon her entrance was re 
 ceived with silent, keen attention. 
 
 She was a tall pillar-like woman, with 
 some heavy drapery of black velvet or 
 cloth about her : there were massive 
 coils of coarse black hair, dead narrow 
 eyes of the same color, a closely-shut 
 jaw : no point of light in the figure, but 
 a rope of unburnished gold about her 
 neck. She stood with her hands drop 
 ped at her sides, immovable, while her 
 husband, a greasy little manikin with a 
 Jewish face, turned on the light and 
 waved the attention of the audience to 
 her: "This is Miriam Combe, the first 
 person since the Witch of Endor who has 
 succeeded in materializing the shpirits 
 of the dead. Our meeting here to-day 
 is under peculiar shircumstances. A 

 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 zhentleman unknown to me and Mrs. 
 Combe, but who, I am told, is near 
 death, desires to recall the shpirit of a 
 dead friend. Zhentlemans will reconize 
 the fact that the thing we propose to do 
 depends upon the states of minds and 
 matters about us. If these elements are 
 disturbed by unbelief or by too much 
 light or noise when the soul shtruggling 
 to return wants silence and darkness, 
 why it cannot make for itself a body 
 dat's all." 
 
 " You compel belief, in a word, before 
 you prove to us that we ought to believe," 
 said a professor from a Baptist college in 
 New Jersey, smiling blandly down upon 
 him. "Scientifically " 
 
 "I knows noting of scientifics. I 
 knows dat my wife hash de power to 
 ashist de souls to clode demselves wid 
 matter. I don't pretend to explain where 
 she got dat power, I don't know what 
 ish dat power : I only know she hash it. 
 If zhentlemans will submit to the condi 
 tions, they shall zhoodge for demselves." 
 
 " Now, the ignorance of this man im 
 presses me favorably," said the professor 
 to his friends. " He is evidently incapa 
 ble of inventing a successful trick even 
 of conjuring. If any great unknown 
 force of Nature has chosen him or his 
 wife as tools, we should not despise the 
 manifestation because the tools are very 
 gross matter. They are the steel wire 
 charged with the lightning, perhaps." 
 
 Dr. Dehr came forward and touched 
 the motionless woman, shaking his head 
 solemnly: "She is highly charged with 
 electricity now, sir. The air is vital, as 
 I might say, with spiritual presences. I 
 have no doubt, gentlemen, before we 
 part, that we shall see one of the most 
 remarkable phenomena of the nineteenth 
 century." 
 
 " How well she poses!" whispered Miss 
 Fleming to the judge. "But the stage- 
 properties are bad: the velvet is cotton, 
 and the gold brass-gilt." 
 
 " Now, to me," said the judge emphat 
 ically, " there is a dreadful reality, a dead 
 look, in her face. What Poe would have 
 made of this scene ! There was a man 
 who could grapple with these supreme 
 mysteries ! No ! that woman undoubt 
 
 edly has learned the secret of life and of 
 death. She can afford to be passive." 
 The judge's very whisper was judicial, 
 though pulpy. 
 
 It was not possible that the woman 
 should have heard them, yet a moment 
 after she lifted her eyes and motioned 
 slowly toward them. 
 
 "God bless my soul, ma'am! You 
 don't want me !" cried the judge. 
 
 Waring half rose, laughing, but with 
 cold chills down his backbone, and then 
 dropped into his seat, relieved : " You 
 are the chosen victim, Miss Fleming." 
 
 Cornelia went up to the medium. She 
 was confident the whole affair was a vul 
 gar trick, but there was a stricture at her 
 heart as if an iron hand had been laid 
 upon it. The energy went out of her 
 step, the blood from her face. 
 
 The woman laid her hand on her arm. 
 " I need you," she said in a deep voice. 
 " You have great magnetic force : you 
 can aid this soul to return to life if you 
 will. Sit there." She placed both her 
 hands lightly on Cornelia's forehead. 
 Miss Fleming dropped into the seat : 
 she could not have done otherwise. 
 
 "Before we opens the seance," pro 
 ceeded Combe, "zhentlemans can ex 
 amine de cabinet and convince dem 
 selves dere is no trick." 
 
 The cabinet was a light triangular 
 structure of black walnut, about seven 
 feet in height, placed in one corner of 
 the room, though with an open space 
 between it and the wall. It moved on 
 casters : the door was on the side facing 
 the audience. Miss Fleming observed 
 with amusement that the seat given her 
 removed her to the farthest distance from 
 this door. 
 
 " You will notish dat dere is absolute 
 ly noting in de cabinet but a chair 
 zhoost de walls and de floor and de chair. 
 Miriam will sit there, and de door will be 
 closed. When it opens you will see de 
 embodied spirit beside her." 
 
 "Hillo!" cried the judge, "what's 
 this behind the cabinet?" 
 
 " It is a window overlooking de gar 
 den : I had it boarded up to prevent 
 you sushpecting me of trickery. But 
 you sushpect mine boards, mein Gott!
 
 10 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 Exshamine dem, exshamine dem ! Go 
 outside." 
 
 The judge did so. "They are screw 
 ed on honestly enough," he said to the 
 spectators. "A ghost had need of a bat 
 tering-ram to come through that window. 
 It opens on an area thirty feet deep." 
 
 The woman went into the cabinet and 
 the door* was closed. Steps were heard 
 upon the stairs. 
 
 "It ish de zhentleman who calls for 
 de shpirit to appear," said Combe in a 
 whisper. 
 
 The door opened, and Laidley, sup 
 ported by Captain Swendon, entered, 
 giving a quick appealing look about him 
 as he halted for a moment on the thresh 
 old. The dignity of approaching death 
 was in his weak, ghastly face, and the 
 judge rose involuntarily, just as he would 
 have stood uncovered if a corpse had 
 gone by. Laidley took the seat which 
 the captain with his usual bluster placed 
 for him opposite the door of the cabinet. 
 Combe turned out the lights : the room 
 was in absolute darkness. The judge 
 moved uneasily near to Waring : " Don't 
 laugh at me, Mr. Waring. But I really 
 feel that there is a Presence in this room 
 which is not human. I wish I had lis 
 tened to my wife. She does not approve 
 of this sort of thing at all : she thinks no 
 good churchman should meddle with it. 
 But there is something in the room." 
 
 "Yes, I am conscious of what you 
 mean. But it is a physical force, not 
 spiritual. Not electricity, either. It is 
 something which has never affected my 
 senses before. Whatever it is, it is the 
 stock in trade of these people." 
 
 They were ordered by Combe to join 
 hands, and everybody obeyed excepting 
 the captain's daughter, who stood unno 
 ticed by one of the curtained windows. 
 
 A profound silence followed, broken 
 by a stifled sob from some over-nervous 
 woman. The low roll of an organ filled 
 the void and died. After that there was 
 no complete sound, but at intervals the 
 silence took breath, spoke in a half-ar 
 ticulate wail, and was dumb again. 
 
 Pale nebulous light shone in the cab 
 inet and faded : then a single ray fell 
 direct on Laidley's face. It stood out 
 
 from the night around like a bas-relief 
 livid, commonplace, a presentment 
 of every-day death. Each man present 
 suddenly saw his own grave open, and 
 the world beyond brought within reach 
 through this insignificant man. 
 
 " The spirits of many of the dead are 
 present," said the sepulchral voice within 
 the cabinet. "What do you ask of them ?" 
 
 Laidley's lips moved : he grasped the 
 arms of his chair, half rose : then he 
 fumbled mechanically in his pocket for 
 his cigar-case, and not finding it sank 
 back helplessly. 
 
 "What do you ask of them? Their 
 time is brief." 
 
 " I'm a very ill man," he piped feebly : 
 " the doctors give me no hope at all. I 
 want advice about a certain matter before 
 before it's too late. It is a great wrong 
 I have done that I want to set right." 
 
 " Can any of the dead counsel you ? 
 Or do you summon one soul to appear ?" 
 
 "There is but one who knows." 
 
 "Call for her, then." 
 
 Laidley looked about him uncertain 
 ly : then he said in a hoarse whisper, 
 "Virginie Morot!" 
 
 The captain sprang to his feet : " My 
 wife ? No, no ! for God's sake !" 
 
 The light was swiftly drawn back into 
 the cabinet and extinguished. After 
 several minutes the voice was heard 
 again : " The spirit summoned is pres 
 ent. But it has not the force to resume 
 a material body unless the need is urgent. 
 You must state the question you would 
 have answered." 
 
 "I must see Virginie here, in bodily 
 presence, before I'll accept any answer," 
 said Laidley obstinately. "I'll have no 
 hocus-pocus by mediums or raps. If 
 the dead know anything, she knows why 
 I need her. I have had money to which 
 she had a well, a claim. I've not spent 
 it, perhaps, in the best way. I have a 
 mind now to atone for my mistake by 
 leaving it to a charity where I know it 
 will do great good." 
 
 An amazed whistle broke through the 
 darkness from the corner where the judge 
 sat. The captain caught Laidley's shoul 
 der. "William," he whispered, "surely 
 you forget Jane."
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 II 
 
 Laidley shook him off. "The money 
 is my own," he said loudly, "to do with 
 as I choose. But if Virginie can return 
 from the dead, she shall decide for me." 
 
 "It's enough to bring her back," mut 
 tered the judge. "Do you hear that?" 
 thumping Waring's knee " that miser 
 able shrimp swindling her child in order 
 to buy God's good-will for himself!" 
 
 There was a prolonged silence. At 
 last a voice was heard : " She will ap 
 pear to you." 
 
 The organ rolled heavily, low soft 
 thunders of music rose and fell, a faint 
 yellowish vapor stole out from under the 
 cabinet and filled the darkness with a vis 
 ible haze. Captain Swendon stumbled 
 to his feet and went back to his daugh 
 ter : " I can't bear it, child ! I can't bear 
 it !" dropping into a chair. 
 
 She took his hand in her own, which 
 were quite cool, and stroked and kissed 
 it. But she did not speak nor take her 
 eyes from the door of the cabinet. 
 
 It opened. Within sat Miriam, im 
 movable, her eyes closed'. Beside her 
 stood a shadowy luminous figure covered 
 with a filmy veil. It moved forward into 
 the room. So thick was the vapor that 
 the figure itself appeared but a shade. 
 
 Laidley stooped forward, his hands on 
 his knees, his lips apart, his eyes dilated 
 with terror. 
 
 The veil slowly fell from the face of 
 the spirit, and revealed, indistinctly as 
 the negative of a photograph, a small 
 thin woman with eager, restless eyes, 
 and black hair rolled in puffs high on the 
 head in the fashion of many years ago. 
 
 "Virginie!" gasped Laidley. 
 
 The captain shuddered, and hid his 
 face. His daughter, with a quick step 
 backward, threw aside the curtains and 
 flung open the shutters. The broad 
 daylight streamed in. 
 
 Combe sprang toward her with an 
 oath. 
 
 The young girl held back the curtain 
 steadily. "We need fresh air," she said 
 smiling resolutely in his face. 
 
 The rush of air, the daylight, the 
 cheerful voice wakened the room as out 
 of a vision of death. The men started 
 to their feet ; there was a tumult of voices 
 
 and laughter ; the materialized soul stag 
 gered back to reach the cabinet. The 
 whole of the cheap trickery was bared : 
 her hair was an ill-fitting wig, the chalk 
 lay in patches on her face, the vapor of 
 Hades was only salt burning in a dish : 
 the boards removed from the window 
 showed her snug hiding-place inside. 
 
 Dr. Dehr's fury made itself heard 
 above the confusion : " You have brought 
 Spiritualism into disrepute by your in 
 fernal imposture !" clutching the poor 
 wretch by the shoulder, while another 
 intemperate disciple called loudly for 
 the police. The woman began to sob, 
 but did not utter a word. 
 
 " Let her go, doctor," said Mr. Waring, 
 coming up. "We paid to see a farce, 
 and it was really a very nice bit of act 
 ing. This poor girl was hired, no doubt : 
 she is only earning her living." 
 
 "What has she done?" cried Dehr. 
 " Spiritualism in Philadelphia never has 
 attracted the class of investigators that 
 are here to-day, and she " shaking her 
 viciously "she's an impostor!" 
 
 "Damnation! she's a woman ["wrench 
 ing his hand from her. She gave Waring 
 a keen furtive glance, and drew quickly 
 aside. While some of the seekers after 
 truth demanded their five dollars back 
 with New England obstinacy, and Combe 
 chattered and screeched at them, she 
 stood in the middle of the room, immo 
 vable, her sombre sallow face set, her 
 tawdry stage-properties about her the 
 crown of false black hair, the sweeping 
 drapery, the smoking dish with fumes 
 of ghastly vapor. 
 
 Mr. Waring went up to a short, broad 
 ly-built man in gray who had been seat 
 ed in the background during the seance. 
 " I did not know that you were in town 
 or here, Mr. Neckart," he said with a 
 certain marked respect. "That is not 
 an unpicturesque figure, I think. She 
 would serve as a study of Night, now 
 a stormy, muggy town-night, full of ooze 
 and slime." Mr. Waring's manner and 
 rhetoric were uneasy and deferential. Mr. 
 Neckart was a power in a region quite 
 outside of the little fastidious gossiping 
 club of men and women whom he was 
 wont to call the World.
 
 12 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 "Your Night, apparently, has little rel 
 ish for the morning," he said. 
 
 The woman's threatening eyes, in fact, 
 were fixed on the tall fair girl, the cap 
 tain's daughter, who stood in the window, 
 busied with buttoning her father's over 
 coat and pinning his empty sleeve to his 
 breast. She was looking up at him, and 
 talking : the wind stirred her loose pale- 
 gold hair ; behind her branches of white 
 roses from a vine outside thrust them 
 selves in at the window : the birds chirp 
 ed in the rustling maples beyond. 
 
 " What a wonderful effect of light and 
 color !" said Waring, who had lounged 
 through studios and galleries enough to 
 enable him to parcel out the world into 
 so many bits of palette and brush-work. 
 " Observe the atmosphere of sunshine 
 and youth. Cabanel might paint the girl's 
 face for the Dawn. Eyes of that profound 
 blue appear to hold the light latent." 
 
 "There seems to be unusual candor in 
 them," said Mr. Neckart, glancing care 
 lessly at Jane again, and drawing on his 
 gloves. "A lack of shrewdness remark 
 able in aA American woman." 
 
 " The Swendons are Swedes by descent, 
 you know. A little phlegm, a lack of 
 paseion, is to be expected, eh ? Now, 
 my own taste prefers the American type 
 features animated by a nimbler brain ; 
 as there, for example," looking toward 
 Miss Fleming. "Ugly beyond apology. 
 But there is a subtle attraction in it." 
 
 "No doubt you are right. I really 
 know very little about women," indiffer 
 ently. He nodded good-evening, glan 
 cing at his watch as he went out. 
 
 The captain was conscious of some 
 malignant influence at his back, and 
 turning, saw the woman, who had grad 
 ually approached, and now stood still. 
 He hastily stepped between her and his 
 daughter : " Good God ! Stand back, 
 Jane ! This woman is following you." 
 
 " She looks as if she had the evil eye. 
 But they are very fine eyes," said the 
 young girl, inspecting her quietly, as if 
 she had been a toad that stood suddenly 
 upright in her way. 
 
 "I owe you an ill turn, and I shall pay 
 it," said the woman with a tragic wave 
 of the arms. " I had a way to support 
 
 myself and my boy for a year, and you 
 have taken it from me." 
 
 " It was such a very poor way ! Such 
 a shabby farce ! And it was my mother 
 that " She stopped, a slight tremor on 
 the fair, quiet face. 
 
 "Oh, I shall pay you !" The woman 
 gathered her cheap finery about her and 
 swept from the room. 
 
 In the confusion Judge Rhodes had 
 sought out Laidley, full of righteous 
 wrath on behalf of his friend the cap 
 tain, against this limp fellow who was 
 going to enter heaven with a paltering 
 apology for dishonesty on his lips. Laid 
 ley, however, was reclining in the easy- 
 chair with his eyes closed, and the closed 
 eyes gave so startling an appearance 
 of death to the face that the judge was 
 thrown back in his headlong charge. 
 "Why, why, William! I'm sorry to see 
 you looking so under the weather," he 
 said kindly. 
 
 Laidley's eyes began to blink : he 
 smiled miserably : " It's too late to throw 
 the blame on the weather, judge. Though 
 I'm going back to Aiken next week. I 
 came North too soon." 
 
 " This affair has turned out a more pal 
 pable humbug than I expected," trying 
 to approach the point at issue by a gentle 
 roundabout ascent. "I wish Van Ness 
 had been here Pliny Van Ness. There's 
 a man whose advice I seek since I came 
 to Philadelphia on all important matters. 
 A man whose integrity, justice God 
 bless me, William ! You must know 
 Pliny Van Ness. Why don't you take 
 his counsel, instead of meddling with 
 these wretched mediums ? Raising the 
 dead to tell you what to do ? Bah ! If 
 you had asked me, now " 
 
 Laidley had drawn himself up in the 
 chair, his watery eyes gathering a faint 
 eagerness: "Sit down. Here. I wish 
 to speak to you, judge. Nobody will 
 hear us." 
 
 " Certainly. As you ask me now I 
 know the whole case. Don't try to talk : 
 it only makes you cough. You want to 
 say that the property " 
 
 " I want to say nothing about the prop 
 erty. My will was made last week. I 
 am determined to throw my means into
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 that channel where it will best contribute 
 to God's service. He will not scorn a 
 late repentance. But Van Ness it was 
 about Van Ness I wanted to talk to you." 
 
 " If your will was made last week, why 
 did you try to bring back poor dead Vir- 
 ginie to advise you ?" 
 
 " I don't know," said Laidley, coughing 
 nervously "I don't know. I thought 
 she would confirm me I I want to 
 be just to her daughter, God knows !" 
 
 "What is your idea of justice ?" 
 
 "Why this this," eagerly, catching 
 the judge's red, fat hand in his cold fin 
 gers. " Jane will be a woman whom Van 
 Ness would be apt to approve. I know 
 he's fastidious. But she's very delicate 
 and fair as fine a bit of human flesh 
 as I ever saw. As for mind, she has 
 none. A mere child. He could mould 
 her mould her. Eh ? I think I could 
 throw out an inducement which would 
 lead him to look favorably on her when 
 she's of a marriageable age, that is. If 
 the girl were married to such a man 
 as Van Ness, surely she would be well 
 placed for life. Nobody could blame 
 me for not making an heiress of her." 
 
 "Jane? Van Ness?" said the judge 
 thoughtfully. " Well, Van Ness is a man 
 whom any woman in the country should 
 be proud to marry. But he is impreg 
 nable to that sort of thing. And Jane 
 
 is but a child, as you say. The scheme 
 seems to me utterly unfeasible, Laidley. 
 Besides, what has it to do with her claims 
 on you ?" 
 
 " It has everything to do with them. 
 I give her instead of money a home and 
 husband such as no money can buy. 
 They must be brought together, judge. 
 You must do it. I have a word to say 
 to Van Ness that will open his eyes to 
 her merits. I will plant the seed, as I 
 might say. It will grow fast enough." 
 
 The judge was silent as he helped 
 Laidley, still talking eagerly, down the 
 stairs and into his carriage. The whole 
 fantastic scheme was, as he saw, the 
 cowardly device of the dying man to 
 appease his conscience. That this poor 
 creature should have any power to in 
 fluence Van Ness, the purest and strong 
 est of men, was a mere bit of bragga 
 docio, which surely did not deceive even 
 Laidley himself. 
 
 But what could he do ? To stab with 
 reproach, even to argue with this nerve 
 less, worn-out man, flaccid in mind and 
 body, seemed to the kindly old*fellow as 
 cruel as to torture a dying fish or other 
 cold-blooded creature of whose condi 
 tion or capacity for suffering he could 
 have no just idea.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CAPTAIN SWENDON, with the ma- 
 V^ jority of his sex, was never less a 
 hero than when at home. Brute force, od, 
 backbone, whatever you call the resistant 
 power which keeps a man erect among 
 other men, weakens under the coddling of 
 feminine fingers and the smoke of conju 
 gal incense. The aching tooth, the gnaw 
 ing passion or the religious problem 
 that strikes across his life like a blank 
 wall, all of which he pooh-poohs out of 
 sight in the street, master him indoors. 
 A woman puts on her noblest virtues 
 with the fireside slippers, but to a man 
 they are a chance for remorse, for re 
 pining, for turning God's mighty judg 
 ments on himself into a small drizzling 
 shower of miseries for his wife and the 
 children. Give the same man his boots 
 and the fresh air, and he will go to the 
 stake .gallantly. 
 
 The captain, pacing up and down the 
 garden-alleys that night, thinking of the 
 blow which would fall on his daughter 
 in Laidley's threatened disposal of his 
 property, was not altogether unheroic. 
 There was nothing mean in the big gaunt 
 figure with its uncertain strides, or in the 
 high-featured, mild-eyed face : neither 
 was there anything mean in his wrath. 
 It was all directed against himself. His 
 Swedish blood had infused a gentle lazi 
 ness into his temper, and he had forgiven 
 Laidley long ago for his lifelong swindle, 
 as no American with English grandfa 
 thers would have done. 
 
 " It's Will's nature," he said now. 
 "Will's a coward and desperately ill. 
 He wants to pay his way into heaven, 
 and I can't blame him. But I- I'm an 
 incompetent fool ! I can't even pay my 
 girl's way on earth !" The captain's life, 
 in fact, was a long ague of feverish con 
 ceit and chills of humility. Yesterday 
 he was an inventor who would benefit 
 the world : to-day he was fit for nothing 
 but to dig clams. Going up and down 
 the lonely walk, he summed up all the 
 14 
 
 capital he had had to make his fortune 
 in the world's market the education, the 
 opportunities, the great inventions that 
 all fell just short of their aim. For him 
 self, he did not want money. His work 
 bench, his iron bed, a bowl of Jane's 
 soup, a fishing-rod and a tramp into the 
 hills now and then with the girl, if he 
 had millions they could buy him nothing 
 better. But she Why should she not 
 be as other women ? Why could he not 
 work for her as other fathers ? 
 
 He raised his right arm, and the empty 
 sleeve fell back from the stump, which 
 burned and throbbed impotently. There 
 was will enough in it to conquer the 
 whole world for her. There was that 
 aching love which mothers feel in his 
 breast for her, as though his heart were 
 physically wrenched. 
 
 But at breakfast the next morning, 
 while quite as ready to die for her, he 
 nagged and scolded incessantly, and 
 thfew the blame of their ill-luck on her, 
 his voice sounding like the clatter of a 
 brass kettle: "Omelette? No no ome 
 lette for me. I am quite content to break 
 fast on dry bread and coffee. It is time 
 we practiced economy. I'll make out a 
 system for you, Jane. A system, and I 
 desire you to follow it." 
 
 Jane laughed and helped him to cher 
 ries, and then devoted herself in earnest 
 to her own breakfast. She never argued 
 with anybody, and had that impregnable 
 good -humor which so often passes for 
 lack of feeling. Little griefs, either her 
 own or those of other people, dwindled 
 out of notice in the atmosphere about 
 her, like mosquitoes buzzing in a large 
 sun-lighted room. 
 
 " We certainly must practice economy. 
 God knows where to-morrow's meals may 
 come from !" 
 
 "Jane's hens are in good laying con 
 dition, and there are the cherries on the 
 tree," said Miss Fleming tartly. She did 
 not like Jane nor any other woman, but 
 she usually fought for her sex against
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 men in a mannish way for the pleas 
 ure of fighting for the weaker party. 
 
 "Hens? Yes, and but for the whim 
 of renting this tumble-down house with 
 its great gardens out on the suburb, we 
 could have had snug rooms in some bu 
 siness street, where I could have earned 
 our bread and butter." 
 
 " It was your whim, captain. Why, she 
 has kept up the table out of the garden, 
 and you know it. Don't interfere with 
 the child. She can turn a penny to the 
 best advantage. Her ability is of the 
 most practical kind." 
 
 The captain did not like her tone. He 
 glanced uneasily at Jane, who ate her 
 cherries in calm unconsciousness. 
 
 " I might as well stick pins in the di 
 vine cow Audhumbla!" Miss Fleming 
 said to herself every day. This child, 
 as she called her, irritated her, just as a 
 machine did, or an animal, or any other 
 creature whose motive-power she could 
 by no means comprehend. She was 
 herself a mass of vitalized nerves, all 
 of which centred in that secret I, Cor 
 nelia Fleming, over whose hopes, nature 
 and chances she brooded night and day. 
 This other woman, who simply grew in 
 her place, concerning herself no more 
 about her own mind, body or future than 
 the larch yonder did about its roots or 
 leaves, and who took praise and blame 
 as indifferently as the tree, the sun or 
 rain, roused in her a feeling of active dis 
 like. She called Jane stolid to other peo 
 ple, but she was by no means satisfied 
 that she was stolid. She was often sorry 
 that she had brought herself measurably 
 under the protection of Captain Swen- 
 don and his daughter by renting two of 
 the rooms in their house, though she had 
 planned and manoeuvred a long time to 
 accomplish that end. When Miss Flem 
 ing came up to town to join the art-class 
 at the Academy, she was exceedingly 
 careful not to join also the emancipated 
 lonely sisterhood, who set social laws at 
 defiance. She might live alone, but it 
 must be under the roof of conventional 
 ly correct people. She abjured the whole 
 tribe of literary and artistic adventurers 
 who haunted the studios and lecture-halls. 
 She wrote home to he.r old mother that 
 
 the Swendons, descended from the lead 
 ers of the first Swedish settlers, that fam 
 ily of Svens from whom Penn bought 
 the land for his village of Philadelphia, 
 had possessed culture and social rank, if 
 no money, for centuries. Miss Fleming 
 found for herself a lodging-place under 
 their roof, with very much the motive of 
 the low-born blackbird burrowing in the 
 high, bare nest of the osprey. 
 
 She was on her way to the Academy 
 now, and touched her hat jauntily and 
 shook loose her flowing-sleeve as she 
 said good-bye with a lingering look at 
 the captain, to which he did not reply. 
 
 The cold ague of despair was on him : 
 he combed his grizzled beard with his 
 fingers, stared at the carpet and saw no 
 body. " Yes, I ought to have rented two 
 small rooms up town, and found work 
 that would pay. I'll do it now," he 
 grumbled. 
 
 Jane had uncovered a long table heaped 
 with tools, glue-pots, drawing -materials, 
 models in wood, in paper, in clay, with 
 others finely draughted on large sheets 
 of Bristol board. The captain preserved 
 his failures as sacredly as a Chinese the 
 dead bodies of his ancestors. She took 
 up one of these models and studied it 
 thoughtfully : " Very well, father. 1 could 
 go on with the business, I suppose." 
 
 The captain burst into a laugh : "Ab 
 surd ! Though," relapsing into anxiety, 
 "this is, as you say, really my business. 
 But I could easily find a place as pro 
 fessor of Latin and Greek in some West 
 ern college which would support us." 
 
 "Now, I don't quite understand the 
 action of this screw, A, B," meditatively. 
 " It interferes with the force of the piston, 
 in my judgment." 
 
 "Impossible!" hurrying over to the 
 table. "I'll explain that in a moment, 
 Jane. Why, that screw is the finest idea 
 in the machine. It's the meaning, in fact. 
 It all hinges on that." 
 
 In five minutes his smoking-cap was 
 pushed back, his spectacles on his hook 
 ed nose, and he was lost in the depths 
 of valves, gauges and levers. 
 
 Jane took the place of a dozen lost 
 hands. She made the models, she 
 draughted them, she worked with car-
 
 i6 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 penter's tools, needles, pencils, clay, by 
 turns, and was both swift and skillful. 
 She had been at this daily work, indeed, 
 since the time her father had lost his 
 arm. Now and then, being really noth 
 ing but a child in years, she clasped her 
 hands over her head and yawned when 
 he was not looking, or, when she was sent 
 to the fire for the glue, sat down on the 
 floor and began a rough-and-tumble romp 
 with the dog, or while she was at work, 
 sang scraps of songs into which the cap 
 tain threw a fine rolling bass. 
 
 The morning was warm : the fire had 
 burned down low in the grate, and both 
 windows were wide open. The wind 
 which entered, though raw, had a breath 
 of spring in it. The scraggy plum trees 
 outside were covered with deep pink 
 blossoms, yellow dandelions blazed up 
 out of the grass, and even in the muddy 
 walks : a half-frozen bee buzzed among 
 them feebly for a while, and then lost 
 his way into the room and fell with a 
 thump on the table. 
 
 Jane dropped her tools, and put out 
 her finger for him to crawl upon. " Now 
 you are too early afoot : you're greedy, 
 you fellow," she said. "You are in too 
 great a hurry to be rich. Haven't you 
 a comfortable house ? And plenty of 
 honey ?" She carried him to the win 
 dow and set him in the sun on the sill. 
 " He'll fall in some puddle and be frozen 
 to death ; and serve him right ! I hate 
 your early birds and ants and bees, al 
 ways at work." 
 
 " It is work you hate, Jenny. Now 
 tack this strip in place, child, and then 
 paste on the muslin. We must finish 
 this before night, and there is more than 
 a day's work on it." 
 
 Jane tacked and measured diligently 
 a while, and then dropped her elbows 
 on the table and rested her chin on her 
 palms. Her face was just in front of her 
 father's. " I was thinking " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " I mean that I saw in the paper this 
 morning that there was a school of black- 
 fish on the coast, the largest for years. 
 I suppose the Lantrims will be out for 
 them?" 
 
 " No doubt. The old captain wrote to 
 
 me that he had bought Sutphen's Tuck- 
 erton skiff." 
 
 "Aha? You did not tell me that. 
 What else did he say ?" 
 
 " Oh, nothing. ' Crabs would be scarce 
 this season ; and couldn't we come down ?' 
 The larks were beginning to rise in the 
 marshes." 
 
 Jane nodded thoughtfully: "A Tuck- 
 erton skiff? Now, I'm surprised at that, 
 father. I should prefer something heavier 
 a yawl, say for coming in on that 
 beach. Well The wind must be 
 dead sou'-west to-day. It would bring 
 the spray right up into your face if you 
 were lying on the sand." 
 
 She was silent for some time, looking 
 steadily out of doors. 
 
 The captain glanced uneasily once or 
 twice at the dark blue eyes and at a ray 
 of sunlight glistening in the loose yellow 
 hair. " It is sou'-west. It really does be 
 gin to feel like summer," he said, drop 
 ping his pencil and fumbling for his to 
 bacco. 
 
 Jane brought his pipe and lighted it for 
 him. "I am dreadfully tired !" stretch 
 ing her arm out, pushing up the sleeve, 
 and looking at it as if it had done a day's 
 ploughing. " Now, I suppose the men 
 are all out in their boats by this time, 
 but a person could easily rig Lantrim's 
 little sloop and join them ; or we could 
 camp on the marshes all day. The scent 
 of the pines would be heavy in this damp 
 wind." 
 
 The captain nodded gravely and puff 
 ed in silence a while : " It's no use, Jane," 
 taking the pipe from his mouth. "I 
 haven't a penny." 
 
 She sprang up, ran to a writing-desk 
 and took out a glove-box. In it were a 
 pair of well-darned kid gloves and two 
 tiny paper packages. She laid them be 
 fore him : " It's all in silver : this is for 
 your summer hat, and that for my shoes. 
 What do you say, father ? We are in 
 time for the eight - o'clock train. We 
 should have nearly the whole day on 
 the beach." 
 
 "Hat? What do I want with a hat? 
 But your shoes are broken." 
 
 "They can be patched," with a gasp 
 of delight. "Here ! clear away the work,
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 father, while I put up a basket of din 
 ner." She stopped by the window, look 
 ing out: "Somebody is coming through 
 the apple trees : I smell a cigar. Now, 
 remember, nothing must detain you. We 
 can't break our engagement." 
 
 The visitor came in sight from under 
 the apple trees a sombre, heavy man 
 in gray, the editor Neckart, to whom Mr. 
 Waring had criticised the Swendons with 
 such freedom the night before. Mr. 
 Neckart had known the captain years 
 ago. When he was a boy, too poor to 
 pay for schooling, he used to go to the 
 captain at night for help in his Greek 
 or mathematics. Swendon had always 
 preferred the companionship of younger 
 men than himself, and was never with 
 out a "following" of clever, unruly 
 schoolboys, whom he was as ready to 
 help when they were lazy, as to tip 
 with silver half-dollars when he had 
 them. Some of them had brought young 
 Neckart to the captain, knowing nothing 
 about him, except that he was miserably 
 poor, with a desire for knowledge which 
 they thought insane enough. Now that 
 Neckart was a man, living in New York, 
 and with very different problems to work 
 from those of Euclid, he had but little in 
 tercourse with the slow, easy-going cap 
 tain. They met occasionally, when Neck- 
 art came to Philadelphia, at the club or 
 at dinner somewhere, when there would 
 be a few minutes' hasty gossip about the 
 old pranks of the boys White, who 
 died in California, or Porter, who was 
 now in the Senate and then a shake of 
 the hand and good-bye, Neckart usual 
 ly wondering to himself, as they parted, 
 how soon that fellow Laidley would cease 
 to cumber the earth and the captain would 
 have his own and wear a decent coat 
 again and the bits of gaudy jewelry in 
 which he used so to delight. 
 
 The old man hurried down the garden- 
 walk now to meet him, and wrung his 
 hand heartily : " Bruce ! is it possible ? 
 You have not crossed my threshold 
 since the old Epictetus days." 
 
 "No, and I interrupt you now? You 
 are going out ? I only called for a few 
 words on business." 
 
 " Plenty of time, plenty of time ! My 
 
 little girl and I were going to run down 
 to the shore to vagabondize for a day. 
 Jane, this is my old friend Mr. Neckart. 
 We have plenty of time in which to 
 catch the train. Sit down, Bruce." 
 
 Mr. Neckart did not sit down, how 
 ever. He found some difficulty now in 
 putting his business into a few concise 
 words. He had heard Laidley 's avowal 
 the night before that he proposed to 
 leave the captain penniless. All his 
 boyish regard for the old man woke in 
 force. His boyish feelings were apt to . 
 waken and clog Mr. Neckart's strait- 
 lined path to success. He did not sen 
 timentalize about his old teacher, but he 
 set aside half an hour in which to look 
 in on him and see what could be done 
 for him. Anything could be done in 
 half an hour by a man who chose to . 
 work hard enough. 
 
 He expected to find the captain totally 
 disheartened by this blow, but here he 
 was making ready for a day's fooling on 
 the beach ; for the captain, finding that : 
 his visitor did not promptly broach the 
 subject of his errand, went on with his , 
 preparations. 
 
 So it happened that they fell into a, 
 brief silence. The old man by the fire 
 screwed his rod as though rods were the 
 business of life: the young girl sat by 
 the window, a white-covered lunch-bas 
 ket on the floor beside her, sewing strings . 
 on a wide-rimmed hat which she meant 
 to wear. Her yellow hair was bound 
 loosely about her head, fastened by a 
 band of black velvet: it made a faint 
 shadow about the calm, delicate face. . 
 The dog sat at her feet, his head on her 
 knee, watching her intently. She took, 
 her stitches slowly and with care, stop 
 ping now and then to put her hand on , 
 Bruno's muzzle and nod at him signif 
 icantly about the fun they were going 
 to have presently. It was a quiet, pretty 
 picture. 
 
 Now, silence or leisurely calm of any 
 kind was rare in Mr. Neckart's daily 
 life. He was the controller of a great 
 journal : he was a leading politician. 
 He had been making his own way, and. 
 dragging and goading slower men along, 
 since he had left his cradle. Even his
 
 i8 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 own party found the indomitable energy 
 of this dwarfish giant intolerable some 
 times. But his own action did not sat 
 isfy him. He had held his finger so 
 long on the world's pulse that affairs in 
 New York or Washington seemed but 
 small matters. He liked to feel that 
 they and he were linked by a thousand 
 sympathies to the chances and changes 
 of every country on the globe. A fam 
 ine in India or an insurrection in Turkey 
 were not mere newspaper items to him, 
 but significant movements of the outer 
 levers and pulleys of the great machine, 
 part of which he was. 
 
 It is the straining horse that is always 
 loaded, and there was no man in the par 
 ty from whom such work was exacted as 
 from Neckart. The night before he had 
 received a deputation of French Commu 
 nists proposing emigration : this morn 
 ing he was to meet in secret caucus the 
 .leaders who would decide on the next 
 candidate for the Presidency. So it went 
 on day after day. To fall suddenly into 
 this little room, among people to whom 
 a day's fishing or sauntering with a dog 
 through salt marshes was the object of 
 life, startled him. 
 
 For years, too, people who talked to 
 Neckart, though in but a street greeting, 
 invariably recognized his power to help or 
 harm them. If they had no favors to ask, 
 they bore themselves deferentially, as to 
 a power that could grant favors. To the 
 captain he was still the boy Bruce, a good 
 fellow, though dull in Greek : to the girl, 
 intent on her holiday, he saw that he was 
 an unwelcome guest, who would inter 
 fere with her journey. The jar of fall 
 ing to the common level was sudden, 
 yet oddly pleasant. 
 
 The captain, to fill up the time, began 
 to discuss the different makes of fishing- 
 rods. Mr. Neckart was used to give ten 
 minutes each to men seeking interviews': 
 their words had to be sharp as arrows, 
 and driven straight home to the bull's 
 eye of the matter to command his atten 
 tion. Yet he listened to this lazy talk. 
 The damp wind drove the perfume of 
 the apple- blossoms in at the open win 
 dow : the sunlight touched the glisten 
 ing rings of hair on Jane's throat. How 
 
 slow-moving and calm the girl was ! He 
 was quite sure that the blood had flowed 
 leisurely in the veins under that pearly 
 skin ever since she was born. None of 
 that true American vim, sparkle, pushing 
 energy here which he admired in his 
 countrywomen. 
 
 "I really don't understand the new 
 kinds of tackle," he said to Captain 
 Swendon : " I have not had a rod in my 
 hand for fifteen years." 
 
 " No. Of course not. You have other 
 work to do. But Jane and I run down 
 to the shore whenever we have money 
 I mean whenever we can manage to 
 leave home. She knows every fisher 
 man's hut from Henlopen to Barnegat. 
 No better place to go for a breath of salt 
 air than Sutphen's Point. You can troll 
 with him all day, or dig for roots in the 
 pine woods, or sleep on the beach in the 
 sun." 
 
 Neckart smiled and glanced at his 
 watch. At nine the committee would 
 meet. Sun ? Sleeping on the beach ? 
 He was a stout, strongly-built man, with 
 muscles like steel, but, like most Ameri 
 cans who have urged their way relent 
 lessly up,, his brain before middle age 
 gave signs of disease. As any other 
 creature would, when overdriven for 
 years it revolted, and failed in its work 
 now and then. Night after night he lay 
 sleepless, conscious only of a dull vacu 
 ity at the base of the brain ; and by day, 
 when some crisis demanded his most 
 vigilant, keenest thought, thought sud 
 denly blurred into momentary stupor. 
 Any man who overworks his brain will 
 understand how it was with him, and 
 why, for physical reasons, this glimpse 
 of absolute quiet and rest should touch 
 his nerves as the taste of cordial would a 
 fainting man. A sudden vision opened 
 before him of yellow, silent sands, and 
 dusky stretches of solemn pines, and the 
 monotonous dash of the green sea all day, 
 all night long. No doubt there were "old 
 Sutphens " there, whole generations of 
 people, outside of the living world, sleep 
 ing and sunning themselves. It was like 
 a glimpse into some newly -discovered, 
 silent, sunlit Hades. 
 
 Mr. Neckart put back his watch in his
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 pocket, and looked irresolutely at the 
 captain. The foolish, kindly old face 
 belonged to his .boyhood to the time 
 when his shoes were patched and his 
 feet chilblained, but all the world was 
 waiting for him to be a man to do him 
 honor. If he could sit for an hour with 
 the old man on the beach, would it bring 
 the boyish feeling back again ? He was 
 conscious of a purposeless temptation 
 unreasonable as that which he had felt 
 at the edge of a precipice to throw him 
 self over. Nonsense ! The committee 
 would be waiting ; there were appoint 
 ments for every hour of his stay in 
 Philadelphia ; there was the leading 
 article on the situation which nobody 
 but he could write, that must go to his 
 paper by the next mail. 
 
 He took up his hat: "It is time for 
 you to catch the train, captain. Will 
 you take me with you ?" 
 
 Captain Swendon looked at him has 
 tily : " The very best thing you can do, 
 Bruce ! Just what I should advise. Jane, 
 go on before with Bruno. Mr. Neckart 
 and I will follow." 
 
 Mr. Neckart was annoyed. He had 
 forgotten that the girl was to go, and had 
 thought of the captain as his only com 
 panion. But she walked far in front of 
 them, through the apple trees, and down 
 the quiet street, engrossed with the dog. 
 She probably would not be in his way. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DOWN on the coast the world sudden 
 ly broadened and lifted into larger spaces. 
 In lieu of eight-feet strips of pavement 
 to walk on, there were the gray sweeps 
 of sand, and great marshes stained with 
 patches of color in emerald and brown, 
 rolling off into the hazy background : 
 instead of the brick and wooden boxes 
 wherein we shut ourselves up with bad 
 air in town, there were the vast uncover 
 ed plain of the sea, shapeless ramparts 
 of fog incessantly rising and fading, an 
 horizon which retreated as you search- 
 ed for it into opening sunlit space, re 
 fusing to shut you in. The very boats 
 and ships in which these people lived 
 
 were winged, ready for flight into some 
 yet farther region. 
 
 "Are you glad to come out of doors, 
 Bruno ? I am," said Miss Swendon to 
 her dog as she stood looking at the sea ; 
 and then they sauntered away together. 
 
 Her father and Mr. Neckart went 
 down to the mouth of the Inlet, where 
 some fishermen were patching a boat 
 which they had drawn up on a heap 
 of mussel-shells. One or two crabbers, 
 standing on the bow of their little skiffs 
 and poling them along the edge of the 
 water by the handles of their nets, had 
 stopped to watch the job, which was 
 being done with rusty nails and a bit of 
 barnacle-moulded iron from a wreck in 
 stead of a hammer. When the iron and 
 nails broke they all sat down and talked 
 the matter over, with any other subject 
 which happened to be lying loosely about 
 on the fallow fields of their minds. When 
 Captain Swendon came up they shook 
 hands gravely with him, and made room 
 for him on the bottom of an up-turned, 
 worm-eaten scow. They were all cap 
 tains as well as he, and he was hail, fel 
 low ! well met ! with them as with every 
 body. 
 
 Air. Neckart, who was formally intro 
 duced, nodded curtly, but did not sit 
 down. 
 
 "A good day for the perch, Sutphen," 
 said the captain, handing round a bundle 
 of cigars. 
 
 " Yaas." 
 
 " But you ought to have been on the 
 banks by daylight." Mr. Neckart's sharp, 
 irritable voice jarred somehow on the 
 quiet sunshine. 
 
 " Yaas. But I lent my boat last week, 
 and this here one's out of repair. Give 
 me more of them nails, David." 
 
 "The boat could have been mended 
 at night, and ready for use," in the tone 
 which a teacher might use to idle boys. 
 " It is singular, Captain Swendon," 
 turning his back on the men as on so 
 many mud-turtles, " that the sea-air be 
 gets improvident habits in all coast-peo 
 ple. You cannot account for it ration 
 ally, but it is a fact. Along the whole 
 immediate shore-line of Europe you find 
 the same traits. Unreadiness, torpor of
 
 20 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 mind and body. Ah ! Captain Swendon 
 and I wish to hire a boat for the day," 
 turning to the fishermen again. "Can 
 any of you men furnish us with one ?" 
 
 Sutphen lighted his cigar leisurely : 
 "We always manage to provide Captain 
 Swendon with a boat when he wants it. 
 We kin obleege him," with a slight stress 
 on the pronoun. 
 
 "At what rates ?" sharply. 
 
 "Waal, we kin talk of rates when the 
 day's over. The captain and us won't 
 disagree, I reckon." 
 
 " I never do business in that way. 
 Bring out your boat and put a price on 
 it." 
 
 "Come, Neckart," said the captain, 
 rising hastily, " we will walk up the beach 
 a bit. I'll see you about the boat pres 
 ently, Sutphen. You don't know these 
 fellows, Bruce," when they had passed 
 out of hearing and found a seat in the 
 thin salt grass. "They are not used to 
 being dealt with in such a prompt, drill- 
 major fashion." 
 
 " I deal with all men alike. Order 
 and promptness have been necessary to 
 me in every step of my way. I must 
 have them from others. I pay to a pen 
 ny, and I exact to a penny. It is not 
 the money I want : it is discipline in the 
 people about me. They must move as 
 if they were drilled if they move to fur 
 ther my ends." 
 
 The captain took his cigar out of his 
 mouth and turned blankly on him : 
 '" Further your ends?' But, Bruce? " 
 
 Neckart laughed : "Oh, no doubt they 
 were created with some other object in 
 view than to serve my purposes. But 
 that is the cognizance which I take of 
 them. Really, captain, if you were in 
 public life, and saw with what eagerness 
 masses of men follow feeble leaders who 
 know the trick of piping to them, and 
 how willing they are to be manipulated, 
 you would soon come to look upon the 
 American public simply as a machine 
 ready for your own use when you had 
 the skill to work it." 
 
 The captain's cigar went out in his 
 fingers as he sat staring with dull per 
 plexity at Neckart. There was a certain 
 nobility in the carriage of the powerful 
 
 figure and black shaggy head, an occa 
 sional fire in the deep-set eyes, a humor 
 in the fine smile, which argued a differ 
 ent order of man from this scheming, 
 selfish politician. 
 
 " I can't place you at all, Bruce. Now, 
 I should have thought you would have 
 been a reformer worked for humanity 
 that line, you know. You were a sen 
 sitive lad, like a girl." 
 
 " I am quite too warm-hearted a fellow 
 to be a philanthropist," laughed Neck- 
 art. "The philanthropists I know work 
 for principles, liberty, education and the 
 like: they don't care a damn for the in 
 dividual Tom and Jerry. The chances 
 are, that your reformer is a cold-blooded 
 tyrant at home : he makes a god of his 
 one idea : his god makes him nervous, 
 ill-conditioned the last man in the world 
 to choose for a friend or a husband." 
 
 "You amaze me ! I should have said 
 that they were the wisest and purest of 
 men. Next to clergymen, of course. I 
 don't go to church myself, but I respect 
 the cloth. But speaking of yourself, 
 Bruce, you were a most affectionate lit 
 tle fellow. Do you remember how you 
 referred every new idea to your mother ? 
 I recollect you told me once that you 
 read your lessons in your school classics 
 to her to amuse her. You must have 
 cleaned the translation sometimes to 
 make it fit for her ear." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And I remember, too," regardless of 
 the sudden silence which had fallen on 
 his companion, "how you watched my 
 wife making a cap one day she had 
 nice fingers in such work, Virginie 
 and how you saved your money to buy 
 lace and ribbon for her to make your 
 mother a cap ; and how anxiously you 
 sat watching every stitch as it went in, 
 and carried it off triumphantly when it 
 was done." 
 
 " I remember quite well. Mrs. Swen 
 don was very kind to me in the matter." 
 
 The captain did not reply : he glanced 
 at Neckart with sudden alarm. What 
 was it that he had heard of Bruce's mo 
 ther? Some wretched story that came 
 out at the time of her death : had she 
 committed a crime or gone mad ? He
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 21 
 
 could not recall it, but something in the 
 silence of his companion told him that 
 he had blundered. He began to smoke 
 violently in contrition of soul, and re 
 mained silent, while Neckart lay still in 
 the sand, his hands clasped behind his 
 head, looking at the surf. 
 
 It was not the surf he saw. 
 
 It was that little silly cap which he 
 had held on his boy's chapped fist de 
 lighted and proud. Twenty years ago ! 
 He had earned the money to buy it by 
 work after the other boys in the shop 
 had gone home. He could see the very 
 pattern now that was worked in the lace, 
 and the ribbon a pale blue, just the 
 color of his mother's eyes. He had car 
 ried it home in the evening, and smooth 
 ed the gray hair over the gentle little face, 
 and tied it on her before he would let 
 her go to the glass. She was just as 
 pleased as he, and kissed him with her 
 arms tight about his neck and the tears 
 in her eyes. An hour afterward he had 
 found her tearing it into bits with an 
 idiotic laugh. A little later 
 
 He shut his eyes, as if to keep out 
 some real sight before him. 
 
 It seemed to him as if his whole boy 
 hood had been made up of just such 
 nights as this one which he remembered. 
 
 It was not often that Neckart looked 
 back at that early time. He was nei 
 ther morbid nor addicted to self-torture. 
 He had carefully walled up this miser 
 able background of youth from his busy, 
 cheerful, wide-awake life. Why should 
 he go back to it ? Something, however, 
 in the air to-day, in the moan of the sea 
 through the sunlight, brought it all be 
 fore him, more real than the stretch of 
 water and sand. 
 
 The captain smoked out his cigar and 
 began to talk. Gaps of silence were so 
 much wasted time in the world ; and be 
 sides, he owed a duty to Bruce. Here 
 was a man going headlong to the devil 
 by the road of ambition, a sweet, high 
 nature becoming soured and tainted, all 
 for the lack of honest direction from 
 somebody of age and experience. 
 
 When Neckart roused himself enough 
 to understand, the captain was in the full 
 swing of his dictatorial oration. "I don't 
 
 want to intrude with my opinion. But 
 no man should live for himself," he said. 
 "Now, if my scissors had turned out as 
 I expected, I should have been worth a 
 million to-day. I'd have spent a good 
 share of it let me see on churches, I 
 think. Small churches at corners in 
 place of grogshops. Pure Gothic, say " 
 
 "Stained glass and gargoyles instead 
 of whiskey ? You must bid higher for 
 souls in back alleys than that, captain." 
 
 "Well, schools, then colleges, asy 
 lums, soup -houses. I tell you, Bruce, 
 if I had your opportunities, if I could 
 work political machinery, I'd lift this 
 festering mass below us up at least 
 to civilization and Christianity." 
 
 " I thought you meant me," laughing. 
 "Go on." 
 
 " Of course I can't give you detailed 
 advice. Take me on pistons and screws, 
 and I'm at home ; but I know only the 
 broad outlines of political economy. My 
 view," ponderously, "is purely philosoph 
 ic. Our politics need reform, sir. An 
 honest man who would come to the front 
 just now would save the country. The 
 masses would follow him to honesty. The 
 Americans are a just people by instinct. 
 I tell you, sir, if I had your chances 
 Talk to Pliny Van Ness, Bruce. There's 
 a keen man of the world, who is as pure 
 and lofty in his notions as an enthusias 
 tic woman. He has a scheme just now 
 for bettering the condition of the children 
 of the dangerous classes of Pennsylvania. 
 I wish you knew Van Ness." 
 
 "I've seen him;" adding, after a mo 
 ment's hesitation, "He is as upright a 
 man, I believe, as you say the very 
 man to be inspired with your heroic rage 
 for reform, and to carry it into effect. I 
 am not the same kind of material." 
 
 " Bruce, you belie yourself. I knew 
 you as a boy " 
 
 "Then you knew an ordinary, not bad 
 sort of a fellow, captain, but no hero. I 
 have had one or two qualities which have 
 pushed me up a skill craft with using 
 words, as you have with tools, for in 
 stance, an inflexibility of purpose, a cer 
 tain tact in influencing large bodies of 
 men. I have never had any affection for 
 them. I have two or three stanch friends.
 
 22 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 Other men and women are part of the 
 world's furniture to me. Nothing more." 
 
 " But the power which these qualities 
 have gained for you ? How do you mean 
 to use it?" 
 
 " You press me closely," with an amused 
 scrutiny of the captain's monitorial face. 
 " I shall use it, just now, to make money. 
 That is the thing of which I have had 
 the least in the world, and which has 
 yielded me most substantial pleasure. 
 When I am a rich man I can command 
 knowledge, power and whatever else I 
 covet." His eye kindled at the last words. 
 There was a darkened background in his 
 thoughts, to which Neckart, with all his 
 easy frankness, admitted no man. 
 
 The captain studied him with per 
 plexity : then his face lightened : " I 
 have it ! You must marry ! A wife and 
 children are the very influences you need 
 to soften and broaden your aims. Yes, 
 I know I'm speaking plainly. But have 
 you never thought of it?" 
 
 Mr. Neckart did not reply for a few 
 moments. " It is impossible that I should 
 ever marry," he said gravely. " There 
 is an obstacle which would make it sim 
 ply criminal in me. I never think of it." 
 
 The captain colored : " I beg your par 
 don, Bruce. 1 did not know " 
 
 "You have not intruded : you have not 
 hurt me in the least," laying his hand 
 for an instant on the captain's knee. "It 
 is not a matter about which I have any 
 soreness of feeling. The obstacle arose 
 from circumstances : I am not in any 
 sense guilty." 
 
 Captain Swendon nodded and occupied 
 himself with rebuckling his shoes. He 
 could neither answer to the purpose nor 
 rid his face of the shocked alarm visible 
 in it. To have been told that Neckart 
 was dying would have startled him less, 
 and seemed not so pitiable to him as to 
 know that he was shut out for life from 
 love and marriage. 
 
 Neckart read his thoughts. " There's 
 a difference in men," he said, concealing 
 a smile. " It would not suit you, cap 
 tain, to go through life as an anchorite 
 or a Catholic priest, but it really agrees 
 with me very well. I am not a domestic 
 man by taste, nor susceptible to woman's 
 
 influence. I have met a few women, of 
 course, beautiful, and with the intellect 
 and wealth which would make them de 
 sirable wives ; and I have no doubt if I 
 had been differently situated I should 
 have loved and married. But it never 
 cost me a second thought to pass them 
 
 by." 
 
 " But this obstacle it may some day 
 be removed?" ventured the captain. 
 
 Mr. Neckart's features settled into the 
 hard lines again. " Not while I live," he 
 said. 
 
 If there was one quality in himself on 
 which the captain could build with con 
 fidence, it was his keen insight into other 
 men. He read Neckart's life as an open 
 book. "Bruce is married already," he 
 said to himself. "He was precisely the 
 kind of lad to be taken in by some crea 
 ture that is now a secret burden on him. 
 Drinks or chews opium, I've no doubt, 
 or has gone to the devil with one jump. 
 Tut ! tut ! He would not be divorced. 
 I know what his opinion is on that head. 
 But she'll die : that sort of women never 
 live long. It will all come right, Bruce," 
 he said aloud. "There's more ruling of 
 eternal justice in all of our lives than we 
 give God credit for. But this matter as 
 tonishes me. I've heard of your inti 
 macy with certain women in Washington 
 leaders of society. I always thought 
 of you as a marrying man." 
 
 "Because I cannot marry I have the 
 more right to accept whatever entertain 
 ment or friendship women can give me," 
 falling into his ordinary easy tone. " I 
 have the keenest appreciation for an 
 ambitious woman who has intellect and 
 culture, and is alive with energy and 
 coquetry. I know such women. They 
 seem to be full of subtle flame. Cer 
 tainly, I would make a friend of such a 
 one. Why not ? I would marry her if 
 I could." 
 
 A moment after he looked up the beach, 
 and seeing the captain's daughter, smiled 
 to think what an absolute contrast she 
 was to this ideal live, brilliant woman. 
 She was sitting on a log, the dog asleep 
 at her feet, her hands clasped about her 
 knees, looking out to sea, and he could 
 swear she had sat there motionless as
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 the stretch of gray sand about her for 
 an hour. Such torpidity revolted Neck- 
 art. Neither did it appease him that the 
 nobly -cut, dim -lighted face, the mass 
 of yellowish hair rolling down from its 
 black band, the coarse brown dress which 
 hung about her in thick folds, all gave 
 him pleasure. In the moment he had 
 met her first he had felt an odd repulsion 
 to this girl. The women with whom he 
 had fraternized were akin to himself: 
 Jane, child as she was, was antagonistic. 
 He felt for her the same kind of irritated 
 dislike as that which Miss Fleming gave 
 to her, and which people of active brains 
 are apt to give to any creature whose 
 animus is totally different from their 
 own. 
 
 What did the girl sit there for, think 
 ing her own thoughts ? Young women 
 at her time of life blushed and fluttered 
 and plumed themselves when a man 
 came near who was of the right age to 
 love and marry. And so they ought, so 
 they ought ! Neckart was used to see 
 women of any age plume themselves 
 when he was in sight. It was simple 
 admission of his position. They knew 
 their own capital of beauty or wit, and 
 showed him the best of every point, just 
 as a pheasant turns every golden feather 
 to the sun when a passer-by comes near. 
 He liked these radiant, self-asserting wo 
 men, to be sure, very much as he did the 
 silly fowl or a Skye terrier conscious of 
 its beauty in every hair. But beauty 
 was so much wasted material on this 
 daughter of Swendon's, who did not 
 seem to know she had it. 
 
 Besides, Mr. Neckart had always been 
 thrown into contact with women who had 
 careers and aims. Each one of them 
 wished she had been born a man, and 
 did what she could to snatch a man's 
 prerogatives. One wrote, another paint 
 ed, a third sang; this one strove for po 
 litical power in the lobbies of Congress, 
 that for money, the majority for hus 
 bands : they were wits, litterateurs, socie 
 ty women. But for a young girl to jog 
 on from year to year striving neither for 
 knowledge nor lovers, making her world 
 of the whims and wants of a weak-mind 
 ed old man, composedly building up 
 
 every day models which she knew would 
 prove failures to-morrow, here was a 
 most inane life. 
 
 Any eye which had grown used to the 
 flash and flutter of brilliant tropical birds 
 in a cage would be apt to find the little 
 dull-breasted swallow sitting motionless 
 by her nest a very insipid subject of study. 
 Probably no other man, as active and 
 busy in the world as Neckart, would 
 have wasted so much thought on a chance 
 young girl sitting on a log. But women 
 being forbidden fruit to him, he was mor 
 bidly curious about them all. Old Chrys- 
 ostom, barred into his cave by an im 
 passable line, was much more inquisitive 
 about the princess asleep outside than if 
 he had been a hearty young fellow free 
 to go out and kiss and make love to her. 
 
 Miss Swendon came up presently, the 
 dog marching alongside. "Father," she 
 said, "you' are spending the whole day 
 with Mr. Neckart. You have not told 
 Sutphen the town news. I am afraid 
 the old man will be hurt." 
 
 "That's a fact: I'll go over directly. 
 You will like to be alone a while, Neck- 
 art, at any rate. Come, Jane." 
 
 Neckart rose : " You are not going 
 over to those rough fellows, Miss Swen 
 don ? There are no women there." 
 
 Jane laughed. " / am a woman," 
 with an arch little nod. "One queen- 
 bee makes the whole hive proper, con 
 ventionally." 
 
 "Of course. But really those men 
 are vulgar and fishy to such a degree 
 Nothing but a missionary spirit can take 
 you to them ?" 
 
 "On the contrary," gravely, "they are 
 the best-bred men I know. Their talk 
 is fuller of adventure and sincerity than 
 arty book I ever read." 
 
 "Still, stay with me. I have feelings 
 to consider as well as Sutphen." 
 
 " Very well. I will come over present 
 ly, father. Tell the little boys to make 
 a fire clear enough to broil the fish for 
 dinner." She sat down and called Bruno 
 to her feet. There was a grave, childish 
 simplicity in her motions which was a 
 new study to Neckart. 
 
 " I believe," watching her keenly, 
 "you would rather have gone. Sutphen
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 would have been a better companion 
 than I?" 
 
 " I don't know as yet. I have never 
 tried you. I do know Ichabod." 
 
 " Or perhaps the truer courtesy would 
 be to leave you alone with the sea ? You 
 were making a picture of it in your mind 
 a while ago ?" 
 
 "No," knitting her brows. "I could 
 not do that. I know people who look 
 at the sea or mountains or sky as so 
 much canvas and gamboge and burnt 
 umber and bits of effect. They are very 
 tiresome." 
 
 "You have imagination rather than 
 fancy, then ? You hear the secret words 
 in that everlasting moan yonder ? You 
 know what the mountains say to you at 
 nightfall ?" Neckart vaguely remem 
 bered the jargon of sentimental novels, 
 the heroines of which always keep their 
 heads on Nature's breast. He did not 
 mean to chaff any woman, but he would 
 gladly have proved this one sentimental 
 and weak to explain his strong antipathy 
 to her. 
 
 " No, I never thought of those things. 
 But one grows tired in town housekeep 
 ing, models and all of it. My work is 
 very light, but I do not like to work at 
 all. And here the beach is silent and 
 the sky blue and the sea rolls rolls all 
 day long : it is like coming home after 
 one has been out on the streets." 
 
 "About as keen comprehension of Na 
 ture as the tree yonder," thought Neckart 
 contemptuously. But, after all, the tree 
 was warmed, and its sap ran stronger, 
 and it grew and broadened in the sun 
 and air ; and that was more than he 
 could say of painter or poet. 
 
 He lay at her feet, leaning on his el 
 bow, for an hour or more. He had 
 meant to gauge her intellect, experience 
 and character in a few minutes. It was a 
 recreation which had sometimes amused 
 him when with women. As soon as his 
 curiosity was satisfied he was done with 
 them. But the discoveries he had made 
 in those pretty little dwellings innocently 
 opening their doors to wandering hearts 
 of marriageable men ! The miserable 
 shams inside, the traps, the dark rooms 
 full of all uncleanness ! To-day he for- i 
 
 got his system of exploration. He began 
 to feel the physical effect of coming from 
 close streets and striving work into this 
 vast open space the drowsiness which 
 men experience on high mountains or 
 by the sea, and which has a subtle, last 
 ing enchantment in it. The damp wind 
 bent and whitened the stretches of salt 
 grass in the meadows behind him ; brown 
 clouds swept from west to east overhead 
 in endless procession; the great dun-col - 
 ered plane of the sea rose and fell stead 
 ily: for the rest, except the shrill pipe 
 of a fishhawk perched on a dead tree 
 by its nest, there was silence. He spoke 
 to Jane now and then, but for the most 
 part forgot her. She had fallen into the 
 motionless quiet which seemed habitual 
 to her. Some of the brilliant women he 
 knew would have dug holes in the sand, 
 or chattered gossip, or interpreted to him 
 with much intellectual force the meaning 
 of land and sky, or have taken their last 
 love-affair or other private little misery 
 to give words to the complaint of the 
 sea. This girl seemed only a part of the 
 shore, as much as sea or sand. The sun 
 warmed, the air blew on her as on them : 
 if they gave her anything besides, she 
 too kept their secret. 
 
 Occasionally Neckart roused himself 
 to talk briefly to her, and noticed then a 
 blunt directness in her speech that would 
 have appalled an ordinary hearer. It 
 was her habit and choice to say noth 
 ing, but if pushed to the wall what was 
 there that she would not say ? 
 
 The dog, lying at her feet watching 
 him steadily, did not give up to him the 
 secret of its own being or its opinion of 
 himself; but if it once did speak it would 
 do both, and with no white lies in the 
 words either. " The girl is like her dog," 
 thought Neckart. 
 
 She rose at last, and went across the 
 sands to her father. Xeckart was soon 
 conscious of an uneasy change in every 
 thing about him. The atmosphere of 
 sunlit rest was broken. The clouds only 
 meant rain, the sand was sand, and the 
 sea but a wet swash of water : he began 
 to look at his watch and think of the 
 trains. The influence that had quieted 
 him so unaccountably had been in the
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 girl, then ? He shut his eyes and tried 
 to recall the erect figure, the fall of yel 
 low hair, the clear Scandinavian face. 
 He felt the same strong repulsion from 
 her, yet in their brief interview she had 
 certainly affected him uncontrollably 
 brought him back to old boyish ways of 
 thinking. It was perhaps, he thought, 
 because he was unused to such abso 
 lutely honest women. 
 
 He sauntered up the beach, and in five 
 minutes wondered how he had based such 
 magniloquent ideas on a child out for a 
 holiday. The fishermen on this solitary 
 beach apparently made a holiday when 
 ever Swendon and Jane came, and hu 
 mored the latter in all her vagaries. No 
 doubt they would have preferred to eat 
 properly in their own kitchens, but the 
 cloth was spread on the sand beside the 
 fire. The captain, with the perspira 
 tion streaming, was broiling ham at the 
 end of a long stick ; Sutphen cleaned 
 the crabs ; Lantrim's wife cooked the 
 perch, and Jane herself was making 
 the coffee. 
 
 "Don't speak to me: I'm counting," 
 as Mr. Neckart stopped beside her. 
 "Five, six, seven. You can't trifle when 
 you make coffee," peering into the pot 
 with the gravity of a judge on the 
 bench. 
 
 The smell of the broiling ham in the 
 salt air suddenly brought back to Neck- 
 art a day when he had gone fishing with 
 his mother in the old place in Delaware. 
 How happy and hungry they were ! 
 
 "Give me your stick, captain. You 
 are burning up," he said, sitting down 
 on the log beside him. 
 
 "You've been on this beach afore, 
 sir?" said Sutphen, who was his neigh 
 bor, and felt it his duty to play host. 
 
 " Never but once, when the Argyle 
 went ashore." 
 
 " You were here fur the Treasury De 
 partment ?" 
 
 "Yes. Did you know anything about 
 that case?" eying him with sudden in 
 terest. " It was a muddled account that 
 was sent up to Washington." 
 
 " Likely. Yes, I knew. I've been in 
 the wracking and life-saving service thir 
 ty years come June." 
 
 When Jane came to that side of the 
 fire twenty minutes later, none of the 
 crabs were cleaned, and the ham and 
 stick burned black together while Neck- 
 art held them in the fire. 
 
 " I ought not to have allowed two men 
 to sit together : I might have known they 
 would gossip," she said. 
 
 Mr. Neckart had just made up his 
 mind that Sutphen and the two Lantrims 
 were as shrewd, common -sensed wit 
 nesses as he had ever examined. He 
 was hungry too, and as they ate togeth 
 er he borrowed Sutphen's clamp-knife, 
 and told some capital stories, and hand 
 ed about his cigars when they had all 
 finished. 
 
 " I misjudged that black-a-vised fel 
 low," said Ichabod to Lantrim. "He's 
 consid'able of a man." 
 
 Lantrim nodded ponderously. One 
 story or slow monologue followed an 
 other of shipwrecks, frequent on that 
 murderous coast, of rescues by wreck 
 ers, of "vyages" down the coast or to 
 India, Africa, with plenty of sailors' 
 superstition in it all. Neckart lay on 
 his back smoking, his hands under his 
 head. It seemed as if he were the boy 
 he was on that day's fishing long ago. 
 His blood quickened and heated at these 
 tales of adventure, just as it used to do 
 when he pored over La Perouse or the 
 History of Great Navigators. The after 
 noon was darkening, raw and cold ; their 
 fire was a mere ruddy speck in the indis 
 tinct solitudes ; a wall of gray mist moved 
 down the marshes toward them. 
 
 Jane, he noticed, was uneasy, watch 
 ing her father anxiously after the dinner 
 was over, until Sutphen proposed to have 
 some music and begged the captain to 
 sing. Then she was quite happy, sat 
 closer to him, taking his hand, and as 
 his cracked voice piped manfully out 
 some ancient drinking-song she nod 
 ded complacently and beat the time soft 
 ly with his hand upon his arm. 
 
 Mr. Neckart watched her furtively 
 through his half-shut eyes. She was 
 wrapped in her cloak, her head rose in 
 clear relief against the background of 
 fog. The men and their wives, he saw, 
 looked upon her as a child, a straight-
 
 26 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 forward little girl, with whom they had 
 fished or cooked crabs for years : very 
 different from the ladies who came down 
 in summer, and were a fearfully and won 
 derfully made species of human being. 
 Neckart would have analyzed these wo 
 men at a glance as easily as he could 
 impale a butterfly on a pin : why should 
 he watch Jane as though she were the 
 Sphinx ? The dark-blue eyes that met 
 his now and then were the most frank 
 and friendly in the world, but the naked 
 truth in them irritated him as though it 
 had been the gleam of a drawn sword. 
 He sat erect, thinking that if there was 
 anything repulsive to him in a woman, 
 it was physical indolence, and a strength 
 of any sort greater than his own. 
 
 Old Sutphen presently asked him if he 
 too wouldn't give them a song. Now, 
 Neckart never sang except when alone, 
 as his voice was a very remarkable bari 
 tone, and he had no mind to make a 
 reputation on that sort of capital. He 
 could not afford to be known as a trou 
 badour. But he sang now, a passionate 
 love-song, of which, of course, he felt 
 not a word : the air was full of fervor, 
 with an occasional gay jibing monotone. 
 The words in themselves meant nothing: 
 the music meant that whatever of love 
 or earnestness was in the world was a 
 sham. The men nodded over their pipes, 
 keeping time : Jane held her father's 
 hand quiet in her own, looking straight 
 before her. 
 
 "Thank you, sir. Very lively toon 
 that," said Lantrim when it was ended. 
 
 " Kind o' murnful too," ventured his 
 wife. 
 
 Jane, with the Inst note, rose and 
 walked hastily down the beach, where 
 the fog was heavy. She did not return. 
 Mr. Neckart smiled : he could only guess 
 the result of his experiment, but he did 
 guess it. 
 
 "Miss Swendon did not ask me to sing 
 again," he said to the captain. 
 
 " Well, no. The song hurt her some 
 how. Jane had always an unaccountable 
 dislike to music," apologetically. "I'm 
 exceedingly fond of it myself: it's a pas 
 sion with me. I enjoy anything from an 
 organ to a jewsharp. But she does not. 
 
 When she was a baby it seemed to rouse 
 her. She's a very quiet little body, you 
 see. Go, Bruno: bring your mistress 
 back." 
 
 She came in a few minutes, as they 
 were making ready to meet the train. 
 She hurried to her father, caught his 
 arm, and when they were seated in the 
 train still held him close : " Stay with 
 me, father. Mr. Neckart does not need 
 you. Don't leave me alone again : / 
 need you." 
 
 " But, dear child, that is hardly cour 
 teous. He is our guest." 
 
 " He need not have made himself a 
 guest. He has spoiled our whole holi 
 day. He has spoiled the whole dear old 
 place for me," her eyes filling \vith tears. 
 "I shall never hear the sea again without 
 hearing that song in it." 
 
 " It was a very good song, I assure you, 
 Jane. I do wish you had a better ear. 
 Why, Bruce has a voice of remarkable 
 compass. I fancied he struck a false 
 note once, though." 
 
 "It was all false false and cruel!" 
 vehemently. "And why should he sing 
 it there, where you and I have always 
 had such good times?" 
 
 " I am astonished, Jane ! But you never 
 had any perception of character. Bruce 
 is such a thoroughly good fellow, I fan 
 cied you would be friends." 
 
 " I never saw any one before whom I 
 disliked so much," slowly, as if to collect 
 her verdict with certainty. "He seems 
 to me like so much unmitigated brute 
 force." 
 
 " Tut ! tut !" said the captain absently, 
 looking out to seehow the early wheat 
 was coming on. 
 
 She touched his arm presently: "Fa 
 ther, you said you thought we should be 
 good friends. I never had a man for a 
 friend but you." 
 
 " Certainly not. Good Heavens ! what 
 are you thinking of?" 
 
 "Most girls do," gravely, her color 
 rising. " Oh, I know all about the world. 
 Miss Fleming told me that when she was 
 my age she had a dozen chums hearty, 
 good fellows." 
 
 The captain hastily put his arm about 
 her : " All very well for Cornelia Fleming,
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 27 
 
 child. She's a middle-aged woman. But 
 not for you." 
 
 " When I am middle-aged, then," look 
 ing up at him anxiously, "if I have a 
 friend I know precisely what he will be. 
 Of fair complexion, placid, truth -tell 
 ing" 
 
 "Yourself duplicated," laughed the 
 captain. " But here is Mr. Neckart." 
 
 The two men took the seat in front of 
 her, and as night came on and the lamps 
 burned dimly, Jane wrapped her veil 
 about her head and fell asleep. Mr. 
 Neckart remembered at last the purpose 
 of his visit in the morning. 
 
 " Surely something can be done to com 
 pel Laidley to leave the property to its 
 rightful owners. Have you stated the 
 case to him plainly ?" he asked. 
 
 " I ? State it ? Now, Bruce, how could 
 I ? If I were not the one to be benefited 
 by it, I'd put it to him forcibly enough. 
 But as it is No, I've not the moral 
 courage for that." 
 
 " But for your daughter's sake " 
 
 " I know. I've thought it all over. But 
 Jane and I can keep on in the old way 
 a little longer. Scanty and happy-go- 
 lucky, but, on the whole, comfortable." 
 He was silent a while, and then in a cau 
 tious whisper said, " I'll explain to you, 
 Bruce. I might have made Jane's life 
 easier if I had worked. I know that. I 
 know our friends look on me as a lazy, 
 selfish dog, a dead weight on the child. 
 But you are the first person to whom I 
 have ever told this I have had for many 
 years a disorder, an ailment, which must 
 in any case make my life a short one. 
 Confinement and continued exertion 
 would bring on a crisis at once. My 
 physician told me that five years ago. 
 Now you know why I have indulged 
 myself. I still hoped some of the in 
 fernal patents " He choked, and turn 
 ed to look out of the window. 
 
 " But your danger is another reason 
 why you should not be kept out of your 
 property." 
 
 "Of course. But it's my luck." 
 
 " Does your daughter know this story ?" 
 
 " Xo. Don't tell her, for God's sake !" 
 Nothing more was said until the train 
 rolled into the station. 
 
 "Come, Jane, child," the captain call 
 ed briskly. She rose and took his arm. 
 
 Mr. Neckart took leave of them under 
 the flaring lamps outside. " You have left 
 all the life and color of your face down 
 in the salt air, Miss Swendon," he said. 
 "You will not mark this holiday with a 
 white stone, I fear." 
 
 "No," she said, waiting until he was 
 gone before she spoke again. " We shall 
 go to Cousin Will's now, father. I wish 
 to say good-night to him." 
 
 "Very well, my dear. I'll leave you 
 to read to him while I run round to see 
 if any letters have come. I feel confident 
 somebody will answer my advertisement 
 about the scissors." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A LUXURIOUS apartment, of which the 
 most salient features were excess of heat 
 and color. A glowing fire burned in the 
 grate. Persian rugs, richly-tinted cur 
 tains, tiger and leopard skins, light and 
 gilding on every side, threw into more 
 miserable contrast Laidley's pinched, 
 pallid face as he stood in the midst. 
 His back was to the fire, his claw-like 
 hands behind him, opening and shutting 
 mechanically as if to grasp the heat, his 
 pale eyes blinking through his eye-glasses 
 on Jane standing before him. 
 
 "Do I understand what you say?" in 
 a tone of blank amazement. "That you, 
 a child, come here to a dying man to as 
 sert your claim to his property ! It is in 
 credible that you came of your own free 
 will. Who sent you ?" 
 
 "Nobody, Cousin Will. It seemed to 
 me the thing I ought to do. I do wish 
 you would sit down," anxiously. "You 
 are not able to stand." 
 
 He sank into a chair: "Bring me 
 some wine." 
 
 She brought the wine, tucked the leop 
 ard skins about him, wiped his forehead 
 tenderly, placed a cushion beneath his 
 feet. He shivered, closed his eyes for 
 a moment, then fixed them on her : 
 "Now go on." 
 
 She did go on without the slightest 
 hesitation, without even a flush of color,
 
 28 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 quick as her blood was to come and go 
 when she was moved. The thing she 
 had to do evidently seemed to her ex 
 ceedingly simple and easy : " I knew you 
 did not see the matter just as it is, or 
 there would be no difficulty about it. 
 No one else seemed willing to speak to 
 you, and so I came myself." 
 
 He put out his hand toward the wine : 
 she set it within his reach, and resumed 
 her place, one arm resting on the man 
 tel-shelf, looking down at him. There 
 was only that sorrowful pity in her face 
 with which any large-hearted, healthy 
 woman would look at a diseased, dying 
 man. 
 
 " I don't deny," he said, coughing 
 feebly, "that at first sight you have a 
 crude, illegal claim on my property " 
 
 "My father not I," throwing out her 
 hand hastily. 
 
 " But even your claim admits of argu 
 ment argument," staring into the fire. 
 "Yet what if I should meet Virginie Mo- 
 rot yonder, and she should tax me with 
 having wronged her child?" looking 
 about him with a sudden turn. 
 
 A tricky girl could have gained her 
 point now on the instant. But Jane, 
 dull and straightforward as usual, knelt 
 quickly down and took his fingers in her 
 own cool, strong hands, as if she were 
 dealing with a nervous child. 
 
 " Put my mother out of the question. 
 She is not going to blame you for doing 
 what seems to you just. I want you to 
 see that it is not just. It is of the living, 
 not the dead, you ought to think." 
 
 "Give me that medicine, can't you? 
 My blood is like fire. Oh, you stand 
 there," after he had swallowed it, "with 
 your dogged, calm way of putting the 
 question, as if it were a matter of a new 
 gown. Hush !" as she began to speak. 
 "You are but a child. You're not even 
 a clever child. How can you under 
 stand the relations of a dying man to 
 his. Maker? It has been shown to me 
 how with this money I could make peace 
 with with Him. The way has been 
 opened for me to give it to the poor and 
 the churches. Why, the rich man was 
 commanded to ' sell all that he had and 
 give to the poor, and he should have 
 
 treasure in heaven.' The place is mark 
 ed in the Bible there." His hands work 
 ed feebly together, and he looked from 
 side to side, avoiding the face in front 
 with its steady dark eyes. " Why should 
 I take from the poor to give to your 
 father ?" 
 
 " Because it is not yours to take or 
 give." 
 
 He waited for her to go on, but she 
 said no more. "I haven't forgotten you, 
 Jane. I've planned for you as your fa 
 ther never would have done. There's 
 good-fortune waiting for you which any 
 woman would envy you. Go now 
 go!" 
 
 " I did not come to you with any claim 
 of my own," the indignant lips trembling. 
 "You shall not think so meanly of me as 
 that. I told you why my father needs 
 the money all that he told to Mr. Neck- 
 art. Surely, you don't understand ?" 
 
 "Oh, I understand your father very 
 well." smiling dryly. It suited him just 
 now to consider the captain a shrewd 
 humbug, and his mysterious ailment the 
 last dodge to raise money and sympathy. 
 
 The man at that moment looked so 
 ill, so small and spiteful, that Jane's 
 heart gave a sudden wrench of pity. It 
 was a cruel, brutal thing, she felt, in her 
 to stop him on the edge of the grave and 
 demand his money. She put her hand 
 to his forehead : it was cold and clam 
 my. " Don't wrong my father in this 
 way," she said in a lower voice than be 
 fore. " You have had our money all the 
 time, and our life has been hard hard. 
 I never said that before, but it is true." 
 
 He looked at her now, his courage 
 flickering up to meet the crisis : " I hear 
 you. Go on !" 
 
 "My father's life depends upon your 
 honesty. I only ask you to remember 
 that." 
 
 "You use plain words. So shall I." 
 He thrust his hand into a drawer of the 
 table before him/drew out a folded paper 
 and pushed it toward her : " There is your 
 answer. That is my will. My property 
 is left in the way it will do God service. 
 You can read it if you choose." 
 
 "And my father ?" 
 
 " I have not left him a dollar."
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 29 
 
 She turned on him, silent, a moment : 
 he cowered and evaded her eyes. 
 
 "You shall not wrong him. He shall 
 not die for the want of the money if I 
 can help it," in the same quiet voice. 
 She took up the paper, passed him and 
 laid it on the fire, then watched it shrivel 
 and burn to ashes. He could not have 
 detained her, any more than he could 
 stay the scorching flame with his hand. 
 
 She threw her cloak about her with 
 out a word, and drew the hood over her 
 head. 
 
 He pulled the bell violently: "You 
 have only given me the trouble of pre 
 paring a second copy. It shall be iden 
 tical with the first." 
 
 Old Dave, coming in, observed that 
 Miss Swendon's very lips were without 
 color. But as she went out of the room 
 she halted to move a screen, so as to pro 
 tect Laidley from the draught. 
 
 She met her father on the stairs. "Do 
 not go up," she said. " David is with him, 
 and I want you to take me home." . . . 
 
 Before daylight the next morning Cap 
 tain Swendon was summoned by David 
 to his master. A keen north-east wind 
 had caused a sudden change in the 
 weather, and Mr. Laidley had sunk rap 
 idly, and was now scarcely conscious. 
 
 " It is only what I anticipated," said 
 the physician, meeting the captain at the 
 door. "Though if he had remained in 
 the South he might have lingered until 
 midsummer. Not longer." 
 
 The captain nursed the dying man 
 anxiously all day, and when he was dead 
 came home excited and haggard. It 
 seemed to him by that time that one of 
 the most lovable fellows in the world 
 
 had gone out of it. He always was of 
 that opinion at a funeral. 
 
 "Well, it's all over, Jane!" he cried, 
 coming just at dusk into the room, where 
 she stood at the window, her back turn 
 ed toward him. "Yes. Poor Will ! He 
 was a good fellow years ago witty, hos 
 pitable. You didn't know him in his 
 prime. Your mother liked him. That 
 is, well " He sat down by the fire, 
 staring at it with his owlish eyes, pull 
 ing off his old boots and soaked coat, 
 for it was raining hard, and wondering 
 a little that Jane had not a warm change 
 of clothes ready for him as usual. But 
 she did not move. " Yes," with a groan. 
 " He knows the great secret now, poor 
 fellow ! I wish I'd been kinder to him. 
 There's lots of things I might have done. 
 But that damned money ! I suppose it 
 soured me." 
 
 Jane turned. " I am glad / did what 
 was right to him," she said slowly. 
 
 The captain looked at her surprised. 
 The shock had been too heavy on the 
 child, he thought : her eyes were quite 
 sunken in her white face. "Yes, yes. 
 You were always a very nice, attentive 
 little nurse. But when anybody dies one 
 is apt to remember one's shortcomings 
 to them, and wish for even an hour to set 
 all right." 
 
 " I have done nothing to him which I 
 would wish to set right," she said again, 
 her lips moving with difficulty. 
 
 Her father did not answer. But she 
 was so unused to speak of herself in any 
 way that he observed her persistence now 
 as peculiar.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A YEAR after Laidley's death, Judge 
 Rhodes, being in New York, break 
 fasted with Mr. Neckart. He noticed 
 that the editor had grown lean and sal 
 low. "And God knows he had no good 
 looks to spare," smoothing down his own 
 white beard over his comfortable paunch. 
 Something, too, of that easy frankness 
 which had made Neckart so popular was 
 gone ; no topic interested him ; his eye 
 was secretive and irritable : he spoke 
 and moved under the constant pressure 
 of self-control. The judge, as he water 
 ed his claret, eyed the dark face opposite 
 to him critically. "Now, I never," he 
 thought, "saw a sign of ill -temper or 
 cruelty in that man. Yet I have a queer 
 fancy that if the reins were once taken 
 off he could not master himself again. 
 It must be devilishly uncomfortable, hold 
 ing one's self in in that way," the last mor 
 sel of quail sliding down his throat unc 
 tuously, "/can let myself out without 
 danger." 
 
 "Why, you eat nothing! The cam 
 paign's been too much for you, Mr. 
 Neckart," he said aloud. " You've run 
 down terribly in the last year. Always 
 the way. You young men make too 
 many spurts in the first heat, and break 
 down before the middle of the race. 
 Well, that's our American policy. But 
 the American physique won't stand it." 
 
 " Do you only mean that I have broken 
 down physically, or do you see any change 
 in my work ? The leading articles are 
 mine, you know. Don't be afraid to be 
 frank." 
 
 "Well, now that you ask me Your 
 articles are more forcible lately, more 
 popular : they bring down the galleries, 
 eh ? But it's a sledge-hammer force, it's 
 vehemence, d'ye see ? There's a lack of 
 that moderation, that repressed power, 
 in which was your real strength. You 
 asked me to be frank ?" 
 
 "Yes. And I knew just what you 
 would say. Well, what must be, is !" 
 30 
 
 with a gesture which dismissed the sub 
 ject. 
 
 " Nonsense ! It's your nervous system 
 that needs toning, that's all. If our side 
 goes in, get a foreign mission some 
 warm, lazy place on the Mediterranean, 
 say. Rest a few years, and when you 
 come home take an easier pace for the 
 rest of your life. Lord bless you, boy ! 
 I've been through it all. When I was a 
 young fellow mere bundle of nerves, 
 high-strung, sir high-strung ! Ambition, 
 love ! Constitution wouldn't stand it ! 
 Bit of the steak, John, rare. Joe Rhodes, 
 I said, either come down to the jog-trot 
 level or die. So here I am ! Good for 
 forty years yet, please God ! When you 
 are my age you may be just what I am, 
 if you choose." 
 
 Neckart's eye twinkled : " Try the 
 birds, judge." 
 
 He made an effort after that to re 
 sume his old careless manner, and the 
 judge had tact enough to drop the sub 
 ject. But he was not deceived. " There's 
 more here than meets the eye," he said 
 shrewdly to himself. " Neckart has had 
 a blow that has made him stagger. He 
 has worked like a -horse in a treadmill. 
 But he has the constitution to stand it. 
 Functions in healthy condition tremen 
 dous vital power. Either hereditary dis 
 ease is at work, or some morbid passion, 
 or he would not have given way." 
 
 He urged him to eat with tender solici 
 tude, even gave him his famous recipe 
 for a salad. No matter what our sym 
 pathy, our help for each other can sel 
 dom come any closer than skin or stom 
 ach, after all. 
 
 "By the way," he said presently, "I 
 hear that Swendon has bought a place 
 up the Hudson. Can you tell me any 
 thing about him ?" 
 
 " I meet him everywhere," said Neck- 
 art. "The old man is failing fast. But 
 he takes life just as he always did like 
 a boy let loose for the holidays." 
 
 "And his daughter?"
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 " She never comes into town : she is 
 not a woman of society." 
 
 " I remember the little Swede was no 
 favorite of yours," noticing a certain re 
 serve in Neckart's tone. " But I had an 
 object in asking for her. Of course you 
 would not be likely to know much about 
 them : they are out of your line." 
 
 " I have met the captain and his daugh 
 ter several times during the year," said 
 Neckart. "They were camping on the 
 Maine coast last summer, and I stumbled 
 into their tent one day. Miss Swendon 
 fancied her father would grow strong on 
 a diet of fish of his own catching. When 
 the cold weather set in she took him to 
 St. Augustine. I ran against him by the 
 old fort the very morning I arrived, and 
 in the spring we met at Omaha, and 
 made the overland trip to California to 
 gether. There is no kind of air and no 
 kind of amusement which she has not 
 tried, since she had the means, to give 
 the old man his health back again. To 
 no purpose, however." 
 
 "Very odd!" the judge nodded mys 
 teriously. "Very odd indeed about that 
 property ! Laidley told me the very 
 night before he died that he had made 
 a will leaving it in charity. Now, Jane 
 inherited by virtue of a will made two 
 years before. No other forthcoming. I 
 suppose remcirse seized him in articulo 
 mortis. There was a curious thing oc 
 curred in that last interview of mine with 
 Laidley. How can I see Swendon?" 
 interrupting himself. "Where is their 
 house ?" 
 
 Mr. Neckart hesitated a moment : " I 
 am going there this evening to dine and 
 spend the night, and I will take you with 
 me. It will be a surprise which the cap 
 tain will like." 
 
 "The very thing! Precisely! The 
 truth is, Neckart light a cigar the 
 truth is," lowering his voice and leaning 
 over the table, " Laidley exacted a half 
 promise from me that night which trou 
 bles me. The fellow died forthwith, 
 you see, and so clenched it on me. He 
 had a plan for Miss Swendon's future, 
 and asked me to forward it. I thought 
 he was going to cheat the girl, and paid 
 little attention to it. But he did the 
 
 clean thing after all, and then died prompt 
 ly. I must say Laidley acted in a much 
 more decent and gentlemanlike way than 
 I expected. So, now I feel as if I owed 
 it to the fellow to keep my word." 
 
 Mr. Neckart nodded. He asked no 
 questions, but scanned the judge's flabby 
 face narrowly. Rhodes lifted one leg on 
 to the other knee and nursed it. It was 
 his confidential attitude. 
 
 " It's a delicate matter, you see. Van 
 Ness is concerned." 
 
 "Van Ness, the antiquarian?" 
 
 " Oh. he's more than that ! You don't 
 suppose a man of his breadth of intellect 
 confines himself to old bricks and dry 
 bones ? Why, God bless you ! Pliny 
 Van Ness is the final authority in Phila 
 delphia on new singers or pictures or 
 cracked teapots or great religious or 
 philanthropic reforms. If he were taken 
 from it, the underpinnings of that town 
 would be knocked away, and it would 
 fall flat." 
 
 " Last fall, I think, I heard he had a 
 plan for enforcing compulsory education 
 in Pennsylvania ?" 
 
 "Well, yes. I don't know why that 
 didn't pass. It died out. Van Ness was 
 trying, too, to establish a grand scheme 
 for the benefit 'of the mining population. 
 But somehow I haven't heard of that 
 lately. Oh he's a great man, sir ! When 
 I hear him talk half an hour it quite lifts 
 me up to purer air. I always say when 
 I come away, 'Joe Rhodes, you're a self 
 ish scoundrel ! A selfish scoundrel !' " 
 
 The judge smoked in silence a few 
 minutes. "Yes," he resumed thought 
 fully, "it was about Van Ness. Poor 
 Laidley had that reverence for him which 
 men of his calibre are apt to have for a 
 character of perfect excellence, and in 
 his anxiety for Jane he planned that a 
 marriage should be brought about be 
 tween them. I was to inaugurate the 
 matter bring them together. Easily, 
 naturally, you understand ? The sort of 
 thing that is done every day. I've seen 
 excellent matches made in Virginia by a 
 little quiet management of friends." 
 
 "Yes. It is done every day." Mr. 
 Neckart yesterday would have talked 
 of the marriages of half the women he
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 knew as "good matches" or "well man 
 aged " without knowing that he was vul 
 gar in so doing. But now the whole idea 
 struck him as loathsome and disgusting. 
 Were women to be paraded before their 
 buyers as in a slave-market? He look 
 ed at the poor judge babbling innocently 
 as he might at some venal go-between in 
 the markets of Cairo. 
 
 "Thinking the matter over," pursued 
 the judge anxiously, "it has occurred to 
 me that Laidley would not have been so 
 confident of Van Ness's ultimate concur 
 rence in the scheme unless Pliny had 
 shown some prepossession in favor of the 
 little girl." 
 
 "You think, then, the sultan is ready 
 to throw the handkerchief?" dryly. 
 
 "Oh, that's a coarse way of putting it, 
 Neckart. But, considered as a match, 
 now, really, you know, Van Ness is 
 The idea that he was favorable to it was 
 suggested to me again yesterday when 
 he proposed that we should look up the 
 captain and call upon him. He is not a 
 man who usually makes advances." 
 
 " Is Mr. Van Ness in New York with 
 you ?" 
 
 "Yes, certainly. I thought you knew 
 that." 
 
 "And you propose to take him out to 
 night?" 
 
 " Why, that seemed a good plan. Un 
 less you have some objection ?" 
 
 "What objection can I have? What 
 does it matter to me?" He stooped to 
 pat his dog, that sat upright watching his 
 face. 
 
 " Surely, that is that savage wolf-hound 
 of Miss Swendon's ?" 
 
 "Yes. He divides his time between 
 us." After a few minutes he said, "You 
 seem to anticipate no difficulty in the 
 way of your conquering hero ? Yet Miss 
 Swendon by no means belongs to the 
 warm-blooded, susceptible order of wo 
 men. This Van Ness, as I remember 
 him, is a starved, insignificant - looking 
 fellow." 
 
 " Oh, on the contrary ! He has a very 
 noble presence. Pliny is tall, with much 
 dignity of carriage." 
 
 " Pompous, eh ? 'I am Sir Oracle ' ?" 
 
 " Nothing of the kind. Rather depre 
 
 cating manner, with a calm face, beam 
 ing blue eyes, and abundant fair hair and 
 beard. The very finest of Saxon types, 
 in fact." 
 
 "Ah ? But these reformers are apt to 
 be underbred, irritable, with nasty pe 
 culiarities of habits and manner which 
 they never have thought it worth while 
 to cure. I suppose your friend is like 
 his brethren ?" 
 
 "Now, Neckart, just wait until you see 
 Van Ness. You'll be charmed, or I've 
 no judgment. Most men are, and all 
 women," laughing significantly. 
 
 They rose at the moment. As they 
 left the room Neckart caught sight in a 
 mirror of his own dwarfed bulk and the 
 massive head set in its black mane. He 
 stopped and looked for an instant at him 
 self fixedly, a thing which he had not 
 done perhaps for years, and then walked 
 on in silence beside the judge. When 
 they parted in the street he wrote a line 
 on a card and gave it to him. 
 
 " In case I am not able to go out on 
 the same train with you, this is the route 
 to the farm," he said. 
 
 He could scarcely be courteous. He 
 was in a rage of indignation. Not, of 
 course, that it mattered to him whether 
 Jane married this or any other man whom 
 she loved. She was only an acquaintance 
 more perhaps his little friend. She 
 must marry: he had thought of that 
 often ; and she would love with a 
 strength and fidelity beyond that of any 
 woman he had ever known. He had 
 often thought of that too. When the 
 time came years hence, perhaps he 
 would consult with her father as to the 
 man. They must be satisfied that he 
 would make her happy they two. It 
 must be a careful, cautious, slow matter. 
 He might surely claim so much of a 
 guardianship over her ! He had studied 
 her character very carefully, and appre 
 ciated it as a rare and delicate one ; and 
 he was very fond of the captain very 
 fond of the captain. But as for the plan 
 of marriage Mr. Neckart understood 
 his own disgust at the judge, and account 
 ed for it naturally. He had but little of 
 the ordinary chivalric belief in woman's 
 modesty and purity. Much knowledge
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 33 
 
 of female lobbyists and literary tramps 
 and champagne - tippling belles had 
 shaken his faith, probably. 
 
 "But this girl is the most innocent, 
 sincerest thing God ever made," he said. 
 " She is clean in thought and body and 
 word." 
 
 In those long days on the Maine coast, 
 or by the sea-wall at St. Augustine, or 
 crossing the interminable mountairi- 
 ranges or alkali deserts, he had had time 
 to read this candid soul page by page : 
 her clear skin and liquid eyes were not 
 more transparent than her thoughts. All 
 through that day's work a young noble 
 figure moved like a shadow a woman 
 with the brave blue eyes, the ruddy lips, 
 the grand unconsciousness of the great 
 women of her race. The blood of As- 
 lauga and Ingeborg was in her veins. 
 So strong was this feeling upon him, that 
 always, when he was making ready to 
 meet her, he bathed and arrayed him 
 self as if he was going to take part in 
 the rites of a church or some sacred 
 place. " ' So white, so fair, so sweet was 
 she !' " he sang softly to himself. And 
 guzzling Rhodes, with his oily laugh and 
 fat hands, meant to show her off, exhibit 
 her fine points to this Admirable Crich- 
 ton of morality, and persuade him to 
 marry her ! Was there any danger that 
 she would love or marry him ? She was 
 undoubtedly dull in perception of charac 
 ter : had she not always made a demigod 
 of the silly old captain ? The finest ves 
 sels were always first to break themselves 
 to pieces against some earthen pitcher. 
 
 He made haste to take an early after 
 noon train. He would see his friends 
 again before Rhodes arrived. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE Hemlock Farm, the captain's new 
 possession, was a great untrimmed tract 
 of farm and woodland on the Hudson, 
 with a rough-hewn stone house, open- 
 windowed and wide-doored, uncivilized 
 and picturesque, set down hospitably in 
 the midst of it. Mr. Neckart, striking 
 across the fields from the little station, 
 caught glimpses through the forest for a 
 3 
 
 mile or two of its walls and heavy chim 
 neys stained with smoke and lichen. 
 They seemed to grow out of the ground as 
 naturally as the oaks and gray beeches. 
 
 It was a damp, cool day in June. Rag 
 ged patches of clouds were driven down 
 across the tree-tops ; the dark blue of 
 the sky had yet a tinge of moist yellow 
 in it after the night's rains ; the wind was 
 wet as it blew now and then gustily in 
 Neckart's face. He jumped across a 
 brush hedge overgrown with smilax and 
 blackberry vines, and passed in under 
 the hemlocks. They were dark and still. 
 Outside, the sunshine flashed sometimes, 
 pale and watery, and the blackberries in 
 the hedge were getting rid of their white 
 blossoms and reddening their green 
 knobs, and a wild tiger-lily here and 
 there blazed its answer to the summer ; 
 but the old hemlocks, just as Neckart 
 knew them when a boy, kept silence and 
 nodded thoughtfully together, meditating 
 over their ancient secret. He walked 
 more slowly. How long was it since he 
 had left the office or sat in the club-room 
 at breakfast with Rhodes's puffy face and 
 unsavory talk ? 
 
 Why, even the hedge with its sleepy 
 hum of bees and yellow butterflies seem 
 ed to be of the world, worldly here. He: 
 left it far behind. The aisles of the wood . 
 grew higher and more solemn, and slow 
 ly filled with pale-green light. The wind 
 and rain last night had not reached these 
 solitudes, yet he climbed over fallen 
 trunks rank with soaked emerald moss 
 and branching fungus yellow or red as 
 coral. A lizard with bulging eyes of jet 
 darted across his foot : now came the 
 whir of a partridge from under the dead 
 leaves, now the veery cut the air with its 
 fine silver pipe. 
 
 Neckart stood still and drew long slow 
 breaths. The life of the woods was like 
 sleep to him ; the air was marrowy, stim 
 ulating; he could feel himself growing 
 quiet and stronger in it. A moment 
 later he drew his breath deeper. 
 
 "She is coming!" A tall, erect girl, 
 bareheaded, came noiselessly down be 
 tween the gray trunks of the trees, her 
 feet sinking at each step into the dead, 
 ash-colored moss. Her color rose as she
 
 34 
 
 A LA W UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 saw him, and her eyes lighted, but she 
 put her finger on her lips. "You have 
 frightened them," she whispered. " They 
 have all gone into their houses." 
 
 "They?" 
 
 "Hush-h!" She sat down on a fall 
 en log and motioned him to a place be 
 side her : then she waited, listening. 
 There was a space of silence : presently 
 a red squirrel came out overhead and 
 darted along the limbs ; the ragged bark 
 of the tree in front of them was sudden 
 ly full of creeping things, busily hurrying 
 up and down ; the coffee - colored water 
 of the brook at their feet began to glance 
 with silvery flashes of minnows and wag 
 tails ; out of a miniature hill came a long 
 procession of ants ; they marched, de 
 ployed, disappeared, and came again ; 
 monster spiders, like lumps of glittering 
 enamel, swung in the air by invisible 
 threads ; two black beetles rose to view 
 by Neckart's foot, rolling a white ball 
 twice as big as themselves toward a flick 
 er of clear sunshine on the grass. 
 
 "They are taking the babies for a sun- 
 bath," whispered Jane. 
 
 The muffled hammering of a wood 
 pecker, building its nest, came from a 
 hollow tree at a little distance. A flock 
 of kingbirds dashed boisterously through 
 the underbrush. The pewees began their 
 pitiful cry of " Lost ! lost !" a scarlet tan- 
 ager sat like a sentinel on a dead branch 
 and challenged them with a sharp single 
 note. The whole air grew full of that 
 strenuous, mysterious wood-sound which 
 is next to silence the voice and move 
 ment of millions of living things too 
 small for sight. It rose to a full orches 
 tra as the two human listeners sat mo 
 tionless, though only a few notes were 
 familiar to Neckart the tic-tic of the 
 grasshoppers, the low monotone of count 
 less unseen springs escaping under the 
 grass, the lone call of the thrush, a single 
 minor note from a golden bugle. But it 
 was not the grasshoppers or thrush to 
 which he listened breathlessly : it was 
 the soft breathing of the young girl be 
 side him, as she sat attentive, a quiet 
 delight in her face, her blue eyes gather 
 ing soft lustre. Nature, when she and 
 the world were young, might have look 
 
 ed with such motherly tenderness on all 
 her living things. Her large nervous 
 hands were clasped about her knees : the 
 yellow hair glistened close beside him, 
 and as her full bosom rose and fell he 
 could hear her heart beat in the silence. 
 
 He stood up quickly with a shiver : 
 "Shall we go to the house?" 
 
 She rose : " Yes, if you will. They are 
 learning to know me now. I come here 
 every day. There is a partridge lives 
 under that bush, and he came out and 
 actually let me see him drum once, and 
 yesterday I found a blacksnake attack 
 ing a bluebird's nest in time to help fight 
 the battle." 
 
 They had reached the hedge : Neck- 
 art held apart the thorny bushes, but did 
 not give her his hand to help her through, 
 as he would have done to any other wo 
 man. He was always scant in personal 
 courtesies to her. 
 
 She looked back at the woods: "Yes, 
 there they all live and keep house, and 
 marry and quarrel and die. It does not 
 concern them at all what man you make 
 President, Mr. Neckart. It is very hard 
 to make their acquaintance. I think they 
 ought to know their friends at sight." 
 
 "I don't know. I know two human 
 beings," said Neckart gravely, "who, 
 when they first met, felt a strong mu 
 tual antipathy, and now they 
 
 She turned, looking keenly at him. 
 
 "They are good friends. Miss Swen- 
 don," looking into her eyes. 
 
 "Yes. There could not be any bet 
 ter," putting out her hand frankly. He 
 held it but an instant, as he might have 
 done a boy's when offered to him ; but as 
 she turned away a soft lovely color dyed 
 her throat and face. 
 
 "There is so much wild mint growing 
 here," she said incoherently, stooping to 
 gather it, " and pennyroyal, and a plenty 
 of sweet basil. I am going to have an 
 herb- and seed-room, and give out the 
 seeds to Twiss myself next spring. I 
 have not told you any of the news. Fa 
 ther has slept every night without a tonic. 
 Don't you think his color is better ? Did 
 you see him yesterday ?" anxiously. 
 
 "Oh, it is better without doubt." 
 
 " I am quite sure, now, we did the very
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 35 
 
 wisest thing in coming here. The house 
 is on an elevation, you see above any 
 chance of malaria and then the warm 
 moisture from the river just what he 
 needs. And the going to town Do 
 you often meet him in town ? Is he en 
 joying himself? Did it strike you that 
 he was improving until I suggested it?" 
 
 " Why, it was only to-day," said Neck- 
 art, "that I told Judge Rhodes how I met 
 Captain Swendon everywhere at the 
 club " 
 
 "Yes. /urged him to join the club, 1 ' 
 her face beaming. 
 
 " Couldn't have been a wiser move. 
 At the club, at dinners, at the theatre, 
 meeting old friends, taking in new life 
 everywhere, and making new life for ev 
 erybody. Why, to see him on Broadway 
 waving his hat and calling ' Hillo !' to 
 somebody across the street puts even the 
 cab-horses in good humor." 
 
 She laughed : " I knew it, I knew it ! 
 And here on rainy days he has so much 
 to do. He is trying every one of his pat 
 ents in the house or grounds. I am fit 
 ting up a billiard-room to surprise him 
 on his birthday. But come and I'll show 
 you some of the patents at work. And 
 I have never showed you the barn or the 
 orchard. Father will not be at home un 
 til evening. He expected to meet you 
 on the train. We can go exploring all 
 the afternoon." 
 
 They crossed the meadow to the barn, 
 Jane explaining that the former owner of 
 the Hemlocks had lived for years in Eu 
 rope, and left house and land to run into 
 their present overgrown decay. " Farm 
 er and gardeners worry about new fences 
 and repairs, but I will not have even the 
 dead leaves cleared from the paths. I 
 remember you said once you liked to 
 hear them crisp under your feet," sliding 
 her own feet among them. 
 
 There was nothing in the idle, pur 
 poseless afternoon which any practical 
 man or woman would have thought wor 
 thy of an hour's remembrance ; yet it 
 stood out for ever after, above all of 
 Bruce Neckart's life, as some fair table 
 land lifted from the fogs near to the 
 sun. 
 
 They went into the house, examined 
 
 patent hinges and locks, and explored 
 the vacant rooms and mysterious gar 
 rets filled with lumber. She sat down 
 by an old spinning-wheel, turning it and 
 singing a scrap of Gretchen's song, while 
 the light from the dormer window touch 
 ed her white arched throat and yellow 
 hair. They went to the stables, and the 
 old Scotch hostler brought out the horses 
 and talked with Neckart of the mysteries 
 of flanks and strains of blood, while Jane 
 looked on shyly, standing with the dog 
 in the wide door. 
 
 " Maybe I shall know them as well as 
 I do you some day, Bruno," she said 
 gravely to him. " But I shall never like 
 them as well. That wouldn't be possi 
 ble: they're strangers." The dog nuz 
 zled his head into her hand and march 
 ed steadily beside her. Then she took 
 Neckart and Bruno over a little hill to 
 a spring- house, into which you went 
 through a mossy door across a spark 
 ling little brook. She went inside and 
 brought out a bowl of yellow cream, all 
 of them watching the kitchen windows 
 guiltily as she did it ; and then they went 
 on aimlessly across the stepping-stones 
 in the brook up through the field of young 
 corn until they skirted the brush hedge 
 again, when Bruno left them in pursuit 
 of ground-squirrels. There was a bank 
 running along the river -shore, topped 
 with nodding ferns and purple iron-weed, 
 and brown with the soft, feathery tops of 
 the mouse-ear. The bank was on one 
 side, the water on the other, swift, dark, 
 mobile, throwing back now a still belt of 
 sunshine, now gloomy woods, now the 
 yellow shadows of low -driven clouds. 
 They walked with the river, not against 
 it. The wind blew damp in their faces. 
 Since Neckart had talked so confidently 
 of her father's improvement, Jane had 
 been gay and light-hearted as a child, 
 with a nervous quaver now and then in 
 her voice as if a word would bring the 
 tears. She looked at him thoughtfully 
 as they walked on. 
 
 "You ought to go to California again," 
 she said abruptly. 
 
 " I can take tonics at home, if you mean 
 that I need them." 
 
 " Yes. You are more worn and hag-
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 gard than when we left Omaha. Every 
 day of the journey I used to see how the 
 wrinkles left your forehead, and your eye 
 cleared and your voice changed. It was 
 the mountain-air. There is no tonic for 
 you like the mountain-air." 
 
 Neckart shifted his hat uneasily, and 
 turned to look at the river as though the 
 frank blue eyes anxiously inspecting his 
 face hurt him. 
 
 "I was harassed and perplexed then 
 as to the policy which I should adopt for 
 the paper in a certain political question. 
 My grim looks were no doubt owing to 
 that. You decided the question for me." 
 
 " I ? Why, I know nothing of politics." 
 
 " No. But the choice offered me was 
 between right and financial ruin on one 
 side, and a fortune and neutrality on the 
 other. It would be impossible," in a tone 
 which suddenly became careless and 
 matter of fact, "for any man to come in 
 contact with a nature as absolutely hon 
 est as yours, Miss Swendon, and not be 
 influenced by it. I do not think I spoke 
 to you at all of this question, yet it seem 
 ed to me that you dictated every step of 
 my course. I never have told you of my 
 affairs since, yet every day I take your 
 advice on them. It is always different 
 from that of my political friends, because 
 it is simply the broad truth and common 
 sense. I follow it." He turned to her 
 with one of his rare smiles and an odd 
 break in his controlled voice. " I hold 
 your hand in mine every step of my 
 way." 
 
 She did not smile in return. She was 
 standing still in the path, as though she 
 had been stopped by a blow. " Honest ? 
 / honest ?" she said. 
 
 The dog jumped up on her breast to 
 go on with his romp. She pushed him 
 down, looking straight into Neckart's 
 amazed face. 
 
 "You may have made mistakes: ev 
 erybody is liable to do that," he stam 
 mered. "But as for sincerity " 
 
 She drew a long breath as if throwing 
 off a burden : "No. I have been honest. 
 You are not wrong about me there. I 
 have made no mistakes." She turned 
 and walked on quickly. 
 
 As he followed her he observed for the 
 
 first time how steady was her step and 
 how close set the finely-cut jaws. His 
 own mouth, by the way, was coarser, 
 but more facile : it spoke when silent : 
 the chin was cleft and sensitive. 
 
 "When she once makes up her mind, 
 the verdict of the whole world will not 
 make her flinch," he thought with keen 
 approval. The quality which he had that 
 very day damned as mulish obstinacy in 
 one of his clerks was infinitely alluring to 
 him in this young girl. He came closer to 
 her, watching her averted face, a passion 
 of delight and longing gradually dulling 
 all past resolves or reason. 
 
 If she would but turn her eyes on his 
 face again searching for signs of trouble 
 or illness ! It was actually the first time 
 in Neckart's life that a woman had taken 
 any care of him. His mother had been 
 a burden and charge on him since his 
 boyhood. That single kindly glance had 
 opened to him unknown possibilities of 
 tenderness, of the touch of a woman's 
 fingers, and all that came to other men 
 through them. 
 
 But she walked on without speaking, 
 her head sunk on her breast. She seem 
 ed to have forgotten that he was in the 
 world. 
 
 At a bend in the road they met the 
 captain. He was heated and agitated, 
 and tried to hide it by tremendous hilar 
 ity. He welcomed Neckart boisterous 
 ly, shaking hands with him again and 
 again before he turned to Jane, who 
 stood watching him with delighted eyes. 
 
 " How well you are looking this after 
 noon, father ! Your cheeks are as red as 
 a girl's !" 
 
 " Oh, I'm all right ! Don't bother about 
 me. Think of other people sometimes, 
 child. Now, there's a matter I want to 
 speak to you about, if I could only put 
 it to you properly." 
 
 "I am ready. Put it directly, point- 
 blank : that is the best way in delicate 
 questions." 
 
 " Don't laugh. It's no laughing mat 
 ter. It's the most serious business of my 
 life, and I've only a few minutes to make 
 you understand," mopping his hot fore 
 head with his handkerchief. "The train 
 will be due in half an hour."
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 37 
 
 " The train ? Serious business ? The 
 commissioner of patents is coming? " 
 
 " Damn the patents ! I beg your par 
 don, Jane. But really This is a re 
 quest I have to make of you. A request 
 of you from poor Will Laidley." 
 
 She drew back. The weight which 
 she had a moment ago thrown off fell 
 on her again. "A request of me?" she 
 said slowly. "Whatever he asked me 
 to do I shall do. I owe him at least so 
 much." 
 
 " Of course ! You owe him everything. 
 You know he might have left us without 
 a penny, as he thought of doing. In 
 stead of which, there was not even a 
 legacy to any charity." 
 
 " No. Every dollar of it came to me. 
 I know." 
 
 "Oh, Will behaved most generously, 
 nobly, to you, there's no doubt of it ! 
 And this plan of his shows such tender 
 care of you. I never heard of it until 
 to-day from Judge Rhodes. God forbid 
 that I should influence you ! But you 
 would be sorry to thwart him in his 
 grave." 
 
 " I will not thwart him again." 
 
 "If I could put it to you properly 
 now !" The captain grew red and cough 
 ed. Mr. Neckart looked at him with 
 fierce disgust. Was he so brutal as to 
 talk to any woman of her marriage with 
 a man whom she had never seen ? 
 
 "You forget," he said coldly. "Miss 
 Swendon owes no gratitude for money 
 which was justly her own. William 
 Laidley, too, was a weak, impure man 
 the very last who should be allowed to 
 stretch his hand out of his grave to con 
 trol any woman's life. You should not 
 hamper her with any such gratitude." 
 
 "You cannot judge of this for me, Mr. 
 Neckart," said Jane. " He has the right, 
 especially when it concerns his money. 
 What is it he wished me to do ?" 
 
 The captain stammered with embarrass 
 ment. 
 
 " Tut ! tut ! Money has nothing to do 
 with it. As for poor Will, Bruce, he had 
 his good points. De mortuis you know. 
 I knew him in his prime. It's a trifle, 
 after all," evading Neckart's eye, of which 
 he had read the meaning. " But you are 
 
 so apt, Jane, to take unreasonable preju 
 dices against people. This is a friend 
 of Will's, whom Judge Rhodes will bring 
 out this evening. And it was your cou 
 sin's wish that he should be your friend 
 also adviser, eh ? I've no head for 
 business, you know, and you might refer 
 knotty questions to him. Consult him 
 about stocks, and the drainage of the 
 stables, and this and that," glancing at 
 Neckart for approval of his delicacy and 
 cunning. "I only wanted to warn you 
 not to take an antipathy to him, but I 
 am clumsy " 
 
 " Is that all ?" putting her hand to her 
 eyes for a minute as though they ached. 
 " Come, Bruno. It is time to dress for 
 dinner." 
 
 " Yes, do, my dear. Haven't you any 
 dress with frills and fal-lals, such as the 
 ladies are wearing now ? These cling 
 ing gowns do well enough for home- 
 folks like me and Bruce, but Some 
 thing airy, gay, now. It's only as an ad 
 viser that Will recommended Mr. Van 
 Ness to you, you understand ? Your 
 cousin consulted him of late years in 
 all financial matters. I do suppose Van 
 Ness and Laidley too," turning to Neck- 
 art "would think the child was flinging 
 the money to the dogs, buying such a 
 place as this to humor her old father's 
 whims." 
 
 Jane halted, her hands on the dog's 
 collar : " I will have no advice from Mr. 
 Van Ness, father, as to my disposal of 
 the money. It is mine. No man, dead 
 or living, shall interfere with my use of 
 it," she said in a low voice. 
 
 " Now I've prejudiced her against him," 
 groaned the captain as soon as she was 
 out of sight. " I saw you thought me 
 coarse in urging this matter on her so 
 abruptly, Bruce. But you do not under 
 stand. My time here is short God 
 knows how soon it may end and I 
 can't bear the thought of leaving the 
 child alone. Van Ness is so pure a man 
 a Christian whom all the world rever 
 ences What better can I hope than 
 to see her his wife before I go ?" 
 
 " His wife ?" 
 
 "Yes. Is there any objection to him ? 
 Be frank, Bruce. It is nothing to you, 
 
 268893
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 but it's life and death to me. Van Ness 
 told Judge Rhodes candidly this morning 
 that he had watched Jane since she was 
 a child, himself unknown, and that it 
 was his hope their acquaintance would 
 deepen into something- wanner than 
 friendship." 
 
 " Good God ! what a model lover ! 
 Stands off watching for years weighs 
 her carefully in his scales. Item, so 
 much amiability : item, so many pounds 
 of healthy flesh ; item, annual income 
 so much. Then he steps in to inspect 
 her a little closer, and if she prove satis 
 factory he will marry her." 
 
 "Bruce, you're unjust. Every man 
 has not your sensitiveness. The way 
 that Rhodes stated it there really was no 
 indelicacy in it. Do you know any ob 
 jection to Van Ness? Be candid. Have 
 you any reason to urge against the mar 
 riage in case ?" 
 
 Mr. Neckart did not answer for a few 
 moments. He had been smoking, but 
 the cigar went out in his mouth. "No," 
 he said at last. " I have no objection to 
 urge to it. I have nothing to say. Go 
 in, captain. The train is due now. I 
 will follow you when I have finished my 
 cigar." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Miss SWENDON, going up the wooded 
 hill toward the house, raising her head, 
 saw a man coming toward her down the 
 narrow path. The low sunlight struck 
 through the trees on his broad forehead 
 and magnificent golden beard flowing 
 full on his breast. He was in evening- 
 dress ; a topaz blazed on his snowy shirt- 
 front ; he walked meditatively, his hands 
 clasped behind him ; his eyes rested on 
 her with beaming pleasure. She turned 
 her head away, but saw him, without her 
 eyes, advancing upon her coming, it 
 seemed to her, into her life. 
 
 Mr. Van Ness's personality indeed was 
 too potent to admit of his slying unno 
 ticed, like an ordinary human being, in 
 and out of anybody's vision. You might 
 look at him but for a moment, but his 
 majestic port, the fineness of his linen, 
 
 the very set of his high hat, his Christian 
 benignity and grace, remained with you 
 ever after, a possession of comfort and 
 joy. 
 
 Jane knew him at a glance, though 
 they had never met before. All of her 
 life she had heard Aristides called the 
 Just, and been a trifle bored by it. Un 
 doubtedly this was he. She was not 
 petulant or bored now. 
 
 If we want a key to her feeling, we 
 can find it in the fact that there was not 
 a moment since she burned the will that 
 she had not known that she was right in 
 doing it, and that there was not a mo 
 ment in which she had not remembered 
 that in the judgment of the world she 
 was a thief. 
 
 Here was the man sent by Laidley 
 out of his grave to judge her, a man 
 who was embodied Virtue and Honor 
 in the world's eye. 
 
 There was evidently no doubt in Mr. 
 Van Ness's mind, either, as to who the 
 slight erect woman might be who came 
 slowly up the rocky path, one hand on 
 the dog's collar, the folds of her blue 
 dress falling about her like the drapery 
 of an antique statue, the coils of yellow 
 hair only held in place by a black velvet 
 band. If he had been watching her 
 growth for years, as he said, waiting for 
 this supreme moment, he gave no sign 
 of emotion now that it had arrived, ex 
 cept that the radiance in his protruding 
 light eyes became more intense. I may 
 as well say, once for all, that Mr. Van 
 Ness never was known to yield to weak 
 emotion, irritability or any of those vi 
 cious humors which beset other men. 
 If he had done so it would have griev 
 ously wounded the faith of his disciples. 
 He possibly had met these temptations 
 in his cradle, as the infant Hercules the 
 serpents, strangled them and left them 
 dead there, so passing into a serene boy 
 hood and victorious middle age. 
 
 Bruno at this moment caught sight of 
 the stranger, and began to growl omi 
 nously. Now, the dog was an amiable, 
 courteous dog ordinarily, but subject, like 
 his mistress, to irrational antipathies, and, 
 like her, with a large reserve of untamed 
 blood to support his prejudices. He
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 39 
 
 stopped, dropped his head between his 
 fore legs, his eyeballs reddened, he 
 barked a short, sharp warning. Miss 
 Swendon knew the signs : she had seen 
 them once before. She caught him by 
 the collar, looking straight at the excep 
 tionally handsome man with the un 
 derbred blaze of yellow on his shirt- 
 front: "Down! down, sir! You had 
 better go back," to Mr. Van Ness. "I 
 beg of you to go back." 
 
 "No, no," gently, and still advancing. 
 "Poor fellow! Let me catch his eye, 
 Miss Swendon." 
 
 It was something in the eye, however, 
 which maddened the dog: he shook in 
 every limb ; his lips were drawn back ; 
 the sharp teeth glistened. 
 
 Jane threw herself on her knees, her 
 arms about his throat : she motioned Van 
 Ness back with her head, but the en 
 raged animal threw her off as he would 
 a wisp of straw, and sprang straight at 
 his throat. Van Ness, though a heavily- 
 built man, staggered back ; but he caught 
 the dog about the throat with both hands, 
 and held him as in a vise. The red eye 
 balls and panting tongue were close to 
 his face. Next, Bruno struck with his 
 paw at one of the white soft hands, and 
 tore a great gash in it, from which the 
 blood gushed ; but the pleasant smile 
 did not leave the lips of his antagonist. 
 
 " Now, Miss Swendon," he said gently, 
 "I think you can soothe him. I will 
 hold him quiet to listen to reason." 
 
 Jane came to him, and in a few mo 
 ments had the beast subdued and lying 
 panting at her feet, his bloodshot eye 
 still fixed on Van Ness. She was pale 
 and trembling, offered her handkerchief 
 to tie up the wounded hand, and was 
 humble in her apologies ; but Van Ness 
 knew all the while that her sympathies 
 were with the dog. Judge Rhodes had 
 heard the scuffle, and arrived now, out 
 of breath, and violent in his abuse of 
 poor Bruno. 
 
 "Why you keep such an ill-condition 
 ed beast, Jane, I cannot understand," he 
 cried as he swabbed and tied the wound. 
 
 Mr. Van Ness beamed down unruffled 
 on the stout little man : "You are always 
 unjust to dogs, Rhodes. Now, I should 
 
 say that our friend Bruno was one of the 
 Brahmin caste fine-natured and well- 
 bred as a rule. Liable to mistakes, per 
 haps. I am right, Miss Swendon ?" and 
 he beamed down in his turn on Jane, 
 who sat on the bank, stroking the dog's 
 muzzle as it lay on her knee. She forced 
 a smile which proved a failure, said that 
 he was right, and that she must hurry 
 before them to the house. She stopped 
 as soon as she was out of sight to hug 
 the dog with a sob : " But we are not wild 
 beasts, are we, Bruno ?" 
 
 She felt the dog's insane desire to tear 
 off this amiability, this cloying gentle 
 ness of the newcomer, and. find what 
 was beneath. It was just as it used to be 
 long ago when prim, polite little misses 
 came to play with her white, pink-eyed 
 poodles consorting with a big Newfound 
 land. She used to feel clumsy and worst 
 ed beside them, possessed by the devil 
 too to scare and disgust them. Yet she 
 knew herself more right than they all 
 the time. 
 
 When she sat at the head of the din 
 ner-table an hour or two later, soft silk 
 en drapery having taken the place of the 
 soft woollen, and her usual calm good 
 temper on the surface instead of pallor 
 and tears, her secret mood was very 
 much the same. Mr. Neckart sat apart 
 from her : he spoke little, and that only 
 to the captain, who was eager about the 
 political question of the day. Judge 
 Rhodes, dropping his voice, poured into 
 her ear eulogiums on Van Ness. 
 
 " Did you see him smiling down on 
 that brute ? Now, how did he know but 
 he had given him the hydrophobia ?" 
 
 "I appreciated the self-control," smi 
 ling. "So did Bruno. It drove him mad." 
 
 " Self-control ? I tell you, it's super 
 human ! I've thought sometimes it was 
 a divine power sustaining him. Why, 
 I saw that man at his mother's deathbed. 
 She lay in his arms, and he sang to her 
 hymns, you know sang to her in a 
 clear, unbroken voice until her spirit had 
 passed out of hearing. I couldn't have 
 done it, even for a stranger." 
 
 " I am sure you could not," said Miss 
 Swendon. 
 
 " He sinks self out of sight wholly, you
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 see. Now, he had a dog once a hound 
 like yours brought him up. It was 
 touching to see them together the de 
 votion of the poor brute. Well, he sold 
 him, and gave the hundred dollars to his 
 State Home for Children. He could not 
 afford such a luxury as the dog's love, he 
 said, while these poor wretches needed so 
 much." 
 
 "But my dog," said Miss Swendon 
 quite distinctly, "is more to me than all 
 the wretches in Pennsylvania." 
 
 There was an awkward silence. 
 
 Mr. Van Ness turned his handsome 
 face on her with a benign nod: "How 
 natural and beautiful that is ! Her dog 
 and her babe and her lover are more to 
 a woman than all the outside world. So 
 they ought to be ! Love is like air : when 
 it is confined it only fills a given space, 
 but give it escape and it spreads over all 
 God's creation. The day is not far dis 
 tant when young, fair women will freely 
 give themselves to the work of raising 
 the dangerous classes." 
 
 "Well, I don't know about that," said 
 Rhodes. " I'm growing hopeless. What 
 with ignorance and whiskey and conceit, 
 the dangerous classes even here are too 
 heavily handicapped to make any run 
 ning. They will need two or three lives 
 after this, it seems to me, to bring them 
 up to a fair starting-point." 
 
 " That's a fact !" cried the captain. 
 "Now, there are beggars. My plan is 
 to give to 'em all, and so be on the safe 
 side ; but the organized charities tell us 
 they are all impostors ; and then every 
 day some organized charity turns out a 
 swindle ! What is a man to do ?" 
 
 "To do? Give himself up, I suppose, 
 to the cause of the poor and the Lord, as 
 this man has done !" cried the judge 
 earnestly, touching Van Ness on the 
 shoulder, who shook his head and smiled 
 a sad, deprecating smile. 
 
 " Don't look for wages of any sort, 
 then. If a man wants to be suspected 
 by the rich and abused by the poor, let 
 him take up my work," he said a mo 
 ment after, meeting Neckart's eye with 
 a frank laugh. 
 
 "No doubt you are right," said Mr. 
 Neckart gravely. "I never tried it." 
 
 They were rising from the table at the 
 moment. As they passed through the 
 hall, Mr. Neckart halted beside a window 
 in which grew some house-plants. Jane 
 came directly to him. She had fallen of 
 late into the habit of consulting him in 
 all her plans, as they both knew very 
 well that she was not at all a capable 
 woman according to the New England 
 idea : she lacked acuteness and know 
 ledge of facts and all the fashionable 
 aptitudes. She had not even cognizance 
 enough of Wagner or cloisonne or old 
 andirons to put her en rapport with her 
 times. 
 
 It was a daily matter for her to appeal 
 to Neckart to help her ignorance here or 
 there, yet when he heard the soft rustle 
 of her skirts beside him he grew percept 
 ibly colder and stiffer, waiting without a 
 smile for her to speak. 
 
 "I have brought my mind, as usual, 
 to have it made up," she began gayly, 
 growing instantly sober when she caught 
 his glance. " What do I want with this 
 ready-made Mentor ? Do you think I 
 need a financial adviser?" 
 
 " I have no doubt you will find Mr. 
 Van Ness both shrewd and honest in 
 that capacity, if you choose to consult 
 him." 
 
 " Why should I ? I suppose the mon 
 ey is invested properly. I draw the div 
 idends regularly, and I have no use for 
 money but one. I mean to make my 
 father's life happy with it, and I know 
 how to do that. Nobody can teach me. 
 What have I to do with this reformer and 
 his State Home ?" 
 
 Mr. Neckart had been in the habit of 
 looking down on her in her occasional 
 outbursts with an amused indulgence as 
 from an immeasurable difference of years. 
 He was looking down at her now with 
 unsmiling and, as she thought, unfriend 
 ly eyes ; but she was suddenly, for the 
 first time, conscious of how young he 
 actually was, and how near to her in 
 many unworded, fathomless ways. She 
 drew back within the narrow limits of 
 the window, and was silent. 
 
 He withdrew his eyes from her with 
 an effort, and did not immediately an 
 swer. When he did, it was in a cool
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. ' 
 
 business tone. " I do not know what 
 relation Mr. Van Ness may hold to you 
 hereafter, if "any," he said. "But he 
 seems to me thoroughly honest and 
 manly. He is the first professed re 
 former I ever saw who was not either 
 subservient or aggressive to me, as a 
 newspaper -man who did not ride his 
 hobby." 
 
 " I do not see him with your eyes," she 
 said with a shrug. " Bruno's, rather." 
 
 Neckart laughed. After the manner 
 of men, he had judged the man who was 
 crossing his life with calm common sense 
 and justice, but he was quite satisfied that 
 the woman with neither should condemn 
 him. 
 
 The late clear twilight lingered with a 
 haze of red in the sky, although the sun 
 had been down for an hour or more. 
 Jane stood irresolutely in the window. 
 Through the bushes she could see the 
 stoop where her father and the judge sat 
 smoking, Mr. Van Ness beside them, his 
 benign, sheep-like gaze wandering slow 
 ly around in search of her. 
 
 " Of course he does not smoke !" she 
 said. "He has not a single weak 
 ness on which one can hang a liking ; 
 and he has actually taken father's own 
 chair !" which by the way she had cush 
 ioned herself years ago, when it and 
 two small stools furnished their shabby 
 room. No wonder that she and the cap 
 tain looked upon it as a sacred relic. 
 
 The window where they stood was 
 shaded on the outside by privet and 
 althea bushes : it opened to the ground, 
 and a sandy little footpath ran directly 
 to the river, where her boat was moored. 
 Usually, while the captain took his after- 
 dinner nap, she rowed along the shore, 
 and Neckart, when he was there, would 
 sit in the stern reading or scribbling his 
 next leader, but oftener leaning back, 
 his hands clasped behind his head, listen 
 ing with half-closed eyes to her chatter. 
 It is significant to note the occasion 
 on which a silent woman has a flux de 
 bouche. The necessity for talking was 
 upon Jane at this moment. There were 
 twenty things which she must tell Mr. 
 Neckart to-night how the shoemaker 
 Twiss, who used to live or starve in the 
 
 alley back of their garden, was here as 
 head-gardener; and how capitally that 
 consumptive sempstress, Nichols, man 
 aged the dairy and was growing quite 
 fat at the work ; and how that boy in the 
 stable, whom Neckart had brought from 
 the printing-office, where he was going 
 headlong to the devil, had really turned 
 out the best of fellows. The truth was, 
 that there were very few people who had 
 been kind to Jane or the captain in the 
 days when they were all hungry together 
 whom Neckart had not met at the farm, 
 either as visitors or settled in fat sine 
 cures of office. He had arranged the 
 business part of their removal, indeed, 
 in many cases. But he was in no mood 
 for consultation to-night answered brief 
 ly when she spoke to him : his face, hard 
 and inflexible, was turned toward the 
 river. "His mind is filled with some 
 matter of state that Navy appropriation 
 bill, I suppose," she thought, looking at 
 him deferentially. Her little affairs and 
 thoughts fell back on her as if they had 
 struck against iron. 
 
 She never wanted sympathy or advice 
 from others : sometimes there were whole 
 days in which, her father being gone, she 
 scarcely spoke a word. But now, at the 
 necessity for silence, her heart sunk with 
 a miserable emptiness, her throat choked, 
 hot wretched tears came up into her eyes. 
 She had thought all the week of this day, 
 and she had kept the best of all she had 
 to tell until this evening. She thought, 
 of course, they would go out in the boat, 
 and now his mind was full of the Navy 
 appropriation bill ! 
 
 She pulled the white threads from the 
 ragged cactus leaves beside her, looking 
 at him sometimes from under her lashes. 
 "I think I will go out on the river," she 
 said timidly. 
 
 " Shall I push out the boat ? The wa 
 ter will drift you without rowing," going 
 promptly before her down the path. He 
 took up the little anchor, wiped the seat 
 of the bateau with the sponge, and held 
 out his hand to help her in. She seated 
 herself and took the oars. Surely he 
 was coming ? He never had allowed 
 her to go alone. No : he waited with 
 one hand on the stern, and then pushed
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 her off, taking off his hat as the boat 
 darted out into the current and her oars 
 struck the water. 
 
 It was the bill : no doubt it was the 
 bill ! She knew he had been sent for to 
 Washington on business concerning it. 
 Of course he was a statesman, and it 
 was quite right that the government and 
 the country should have the benefit of 
 his best thoughts. But what if this bill' 
 and other bills should always fill his 
 mind, and leave no room there for for 
 the poor little affairs of his friends ? 
 "What would father do then?" 
 
 The oars rested motionless in the row 
 locks. Her eyes were dry, but there was 
 a breathless stricture on her breast, as 
 though an iron hand had clenched her 
 and for the moment crushed the life 
 back. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MR. NECKART, standing back in the 
 shadow of the scrubby althea - bushes, 
 his hands clasped behind him and his 
 eyes following the skiff as it drifted down 
 the river in the twilight, compelled him 
 self to argue the matter out according to 
 the rulings of common sense, just as he 
 would the appropriation bill. 
 
 He had been coming too close of late 
 to this little girl in a brotherly way of 
 course in a brotherly way. He must 
 stand farther off. She must marry. He 
 had always looked forward to her marry 
 ing, and the time, in all probability, had 
 come now. Van Ness was a manly, 
 strong fellow : her father would urge it, 
 and Jane would soon be won. For Neck- 
 art, with the majority of men, regarded 
 amiability and high-colored, beefy good 
 looks in his own sex as the irresistible 
 attractions in a woman's eyes. 
 
 "They both have youth and personal 
 attractions and culture everything to 
 make a marriage suitable. I can find 
 no objection to it," proceeded his most 
 reasonable meditation. 
 
 " But I can never see it !" 
 
 He had not spoken, but it seemed to 
 him as if he had cried out. Then he 
 laughed to think what an egregious ass 
 
 he was. What was this yellow-haired 
 girl in the boat to him more than any 
 other of the millions of women with whom 
 the world was filled ? Nothing. They 
 all were nothing to him. 
 
 He turned his back on the river and 
 struck into one of the dusky alleys of the 
 garden, pacing up and down below the 
 old plum trees. He whistled to himself, 
 and ran his hand through his shaggy 
 hair as if to be rid of some cobwebs in 
 his brain. As he brushed against the 
 branches a bird fluttered out of its nest 
 and chirped angrily. Why, women and 
 their love and their homes could no more 
 come into his life than that silly robin or 
 her brood ! Two years ago this inex 
 orable necessity did not even give him a 
 moment's chagrin. The newspaper, his 
 army of followers, the policy of the coun 
 try, these made life big and full enough. 
 If he wanted little selfish pleasures, there 
 was his arm - chair and open fire, his 
 shelf of old books, or a dinner at Del- 
 monico's with some clever fellow, or a 
 dash to Europe, or across the continent, 
 to pry into the background against which 
 other clever fellows, whether white or yel 
 low or black, lived and worked. He 
 would go back to the office to-night ; he 
 could hear the engine puffing at the 
 station now, making ready for the next 
 train ; he could finish the evening with 
 his old friends, the books ; he could order 
 a dinner to - morrow that would satisfy 
 even his palate, and he used to be an 
 epicure. He ought to go. He would go. 
 
 He walked up the open path leading 
 to the house. Then he stopped, turned 
 and struck directly through the trees 
 and bushes to the river-side. The boat 
 was at some distance : he called once or 
 twice for her to come and take him on 
 board before she heard him. His voice 
 sounded hoarse and strange to himself: 
 he did not know himself in what he did. 
 As for the world, there was nothing in it 
 but that boat yonder which shot through 
 the water, and the woman with eager 
 face rowing swiftly toward him. 
 
 There was not a Wall-street banker or 
 a politician among Neckart's confreres 
 who would not have looked upon him as 
 insane for the moment. This dull wisp
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 43 
 
 of a woman to blot out all business, pow 
 er, place, from his life ? But, after all, 
 there is no insanity so practical or long- 
 lived. Why does A bull and bear the 
 market, or B sell himself and his party, 
 but for the sake of some ugly, faded wo 
 man and the commonplace children she 
 has borne him ? They are not thought 
 worth notice by anybody but himself, 
 but he ignores honesty, death, God him 
 self, for them his life long. A plodding, 
 shrewd fellow too, probably not a whit 
 heroic. 
 
 Neckart was tramping along the com 
 mon road which all of us know, but it seem 
 ed to him that he was breaking ground 
 in a new world full of misty splendors 
 and untried action. When he called to 
 her his breath failed him, as it used to 
 do when he was a boy wild with excite 
 ment. The sand under his feet, the 
 brambles on the bank, the overarching 
 sky, were not the same they were an 
 hour ago. When the boat darted up to 
 the shore, rocking as she held it fast with 
 the oar, it seemed strange to him that she 
 should speak in her ordinary tone. Did 
 she not know ? 
 
 She stood up in the bow steadying the 
 skiff as he sprang into it. His hand 
 touched her fingers for an instant, and 
 she noticed that it shrank from hers. 
 
 " Did my father call me ?" 
 
 " No : I wanted to talk to you alone." 
 
 She pushed from shore and dipped her 
 oars : in a moment they were out in the 
 current. It was a rippling belt of steely 
 blue, the banks making indistinguish 
 able ramparts of shadow on either side. 
 Overhead was the soft starless twilight 
 of June, through which a nighthawk 
 flapped heavily and vanished. When 
 it was gone they were alone. Could she 
 not understand that they were alone ? 
 In this wide dark world that there were 
 only they two, a man and a woman ? 
 
 He could not distinguish her face, and 
 her figure was but a light dark outline 
 like a silhouette against the air. But the 
 power of her womanhood was upon him, 
 a something which Neckart had never 
 felt before a terrible, pure passion. 
 
 "Give me the oars," he said. "Let 
 me help you," reaching forward to take 
 
 them. His hand rested on hers acci 
 dentally : he did not remove it. Now did 
 she understand ? His mouth was closed. 
 It seemed to him as if words were poor 
 to say what was in his blood, in his soul, 
 in the water, the air, the very ground. 
 
 She was startled, and turned to him 
 wondering. The moon, rising higher, 
 showed him the childish, sensitive mouth, 
 the dark eyes heavy with tears, for she 
 had been crying. What was that which 
 gleamed through them, half answering 
 him, frightened at itself? It seemed to 
 him in this brief pause that they had 
 been waiting all their lives for this word 
 he to speak and she to hear. 
 
 "Jane!" He took her hand in both 
 of his and held it close, and then he 
 threw it from him, drawing back: "My 
 God ! I had forgotten." 
 
 "Forgotten?" She closed her eyes 
 once or twice, bewildered, as if sudden 
 ly wakened from sleep. "You are in 
 trouble," she said anxiously. " Can I 
 help you ?" 
 
 The question brought him to sober 
 reason sharply enough. It was precise 
 ly the frank, tender tone which she 
 would use to her father; and the truth 
 was, that the girl to herself did not yet 
 distinguish between her father and this 
 friend. A moment before a strange 
 emotion had touched her. But it had 
 passed like a warm gust of summer. 
 There was not a seven-year old child in 
 the city yonder who did not know more 
 about love than Jane. She had never 
 heard servants or schoolmates chatter 
 about it ; novels had bored her ; the cap 
 tain, whatever he had left undone, had 
 kept the air pure and cold about her as 
 for a very nun. 
 
 "What is this trouble, Mr. Neckart? 
 You have been ill for months, I know. 
 Can I ? Or perhaps father " 
 
 She leaned forward, the oars suspend 
 ed in her hands, her lips apart, attentive 
 and eager. 
 
 He leaned over the edge of the skiff 
 and wet his forehead and eyes, forcing 
 a careless laugh: "One moment, Miss 
 Swendon, and I will explain to you," 
 adding presently, precisely in the man 
 ner with which he would have discussed
 
 44 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 the weather, "We men each have our 
 skeleton to hide, according to popular 
 belief, and mine is no worse than the 
 rest. It is the most practical of facts. 
 Only I am apt to forget it, and then, 
 when it meets me unawares, it is as grim 
 as death." 
 
 She nodded, watching him intently as 
 if he were physically ill : she would not 
 let the oars strike on the water, lest the 
 noise might jar on him. All kinds of 
 wild plans for helping him filled her 
 brain. If the trouble were anything 
 which money could help, there was 
 plenty of that, thank God ! If it was 
 political difficulty bills maybe she 
 could not even understand it. If God 
 had only not made her so stupid ! the 
 humble tears rising slowly to her eyes. 
 
 Mr. Neckart did not see them. He 
 was careful not to look at her as he 
 spoke, and hurried on with his explana 
 tion, as if it were business of small im 
 portance. But she was not deceived by 
 that. " I never have talked of this mat 
 ter, and least of all should I have told it 
 to you. I can bear the trouble when it 
 comes without difficulty. The most or 
 dinary men meet disaster coolly which 
 they know is inevitable. Commonplace 
 fellows who are born with scrofula or 
 consumption march along with them to 
 early death cheerfully. They make no 
 tragedy out of it. There is no reason 
 why I should complain of my lifelong 
 companion." His tone was harder than 
 he had ever used in speaking to Jane 
 before. 
 
 " I have never told you of my mother ?" 
 
 "No," eagerly, hastening to spare him 
 pain. "But I have heard of her from 
 Gornelia Fleming, who was your neigh 
 bor in Delaware. I know all that she 
 suffered. You need not tell me." 
 
 " She was the last of the Davidge fam 
 ily. There was not one of them for gen 
 erations who had not inherited disease 
 of the brain. They were either epilep 
 tics from youth, or became, as she did, 
 incurably insane. The disease invari 
 ably manifested itself in that way after 
 middle age, and from that time they 
 were helpless burdens to their children. 
 Yet there was not a Davidge who re 
 
 frained from marriage, so entailing the 
 curse on another generation. It would 
 have been more righteous to have put a 
 pistol to their heads and have blown out 
 their brains." 
 
 His manner was quiet and cold. Jane 
 made no answer. 
 
 " Naturally, I have studied the pathol 
 ogy of insanity closely. I know that I 
 have inherited the disease. The symp 
 toms within the last six months are un 
 mistakable. I know that in five or ten 
 years at the outside I shall be of no more 
 use in the world than any other mindless 
 animal. But I will have no woman, nor 
 child, suffer for me." 
 
 When he ceased to speak the silence 
 and the night fell oppressively on them. 
 The boat had drifted down to the edge of 
 the bank and grounded. The moonlight 
 showed her to him sitting in the bow of 
 the boat facing him, her hands clasped 
 on her knees. She was so near that if 
 he but opened his arms he could take 
 her to his breast. Yet he knew that she 
 was separated from him now as though 
 death itself lay between. 
 
 " I have known this necessity which 
 lay upon me for years, Miss Swendon," 
 he said quietly, but leaning forward to 
 watch her immovable face. " It is my 
 duty to isolate myself as other men need 
 not do. The more dear" his voice 
 failed suddenly, but he recovered him 
 self in a moment and went on "the 
 more dear a woman is to me, the more 
 I must shut her out of my sight. I can 
 never try to win her nor marry her." 
 
 Was the girl stone ? Had she not even 
 common human sympathy for him ? 
 
 "You understand why I do this?" 
 
 "Yes, I understand." 
 
 "And you think I am right?" 
 
 She looked up at him with her usual 
 blunt directness: "You are altogether 
 right. An honest man could not do 
 otherwise." Her chin fell on her breast 
 again. Not a moan, not a breath of re 
 gret, at the blow which struck them apart. 
 Weaker women would have cried a lit 
 tle at parting from a dog who had been 
 sometimes a companion. This cool- 
 blooded Swede gave her verdict on the 
 right and wrong of the matter as though
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 45 
 
 it had been a sale of goods, and there 
 was the end of it! All the long-latent 
 passion in Neckart's nature revolted and 
 flamed into life. He moved restlessly, 
 watching her sit there stony and im 
 movable. He would have flung away 
 life, as men used to do against the dumb 
 Sphinx, to tear from her some word of 
 pity or life. 
 
 The boat rocked in the shallow water. 
 She rose to leave it. Neckart mechan 
 ically held out his hand to help her jump 
 ashore. She held it tightly, and when she 
 stood beside him on the grass took it in 
 both her own: "No. You ought never 
 to marry. You ought' to hold yourself 
 apart from the world. These strange 
 people would only irritate and wear you 
 out. Now you can give yourself entire 
 ly to us. We are your nearest friends. 
 You shall give up the paper and politics : 
 it is the work and anxiety that are telling 
 on your brain. You shall live here with 
 father, in the quiet and country air. I 
 will take care of you both." She stroked 
 his hand as a mother might that of her 
 dying child, trying to believe that it was 
 not growing cold. For a year the girl 
 had fought death back from her father 
 step by step. Now, her one friend, who 
 with the old man filled all the world for 
 her, was to be taken from her. 
 
 He seated her on a fallen log and push 
 ed back the hair from her clammy fore 
 head : " Child ! child ! you do not un 
 derstand ! All I have told you has gone 
 for nothing !" 
 
 " I do understand. I can cure you 
 both. Rest and the air I am dull, 
 but you don't know how good a nurse I 
 can be for my own people," with a piti 
 ful laugh. 
 
 He did not speak. The soft golden 
 hair lay in his hand, warm and alive. 
 He looked down at her. He could soon 
 turn this childish affection into love : he 
 could wrench her soul into his own. Why 
 should he not take what God had set be 
 fore him ? All the other men of his race 
 had done it. 
 
 One moment he stood irresolute. Then 
 the hair dropped from his hand. "Jane," 
 he said, as if reasoning with a child, 
 "when I remember my mother first she 
 
 was a pretty, tender little woman, with 
 hardly a thought outside of her boy. 
 For years before she died I was forced 
 to fasten her as one does a wild beast, 
 that she might not kill me. Do you 
 understand what that was to me ? Do 
 you think I can bring the misery I knew 
 in those years to any woman ? My wife 
 shall never have it to bear." 
 
 " But you can have no wife !" she 
 cried. "You said you dared not marry ! 
 / can bear the misery. You will come 
 to us us. Those women in Washing 
 ton of whom you tell me how could 
 they know what you need ? I have no 
 body but you and father." 
 
 She felt herself so young and strong ! 
 Death, a most horrible and certain death, 
 was creeping upon him. In her agony 
 of pity she held his hand to her wet, 
 burning cheeks. 
 
 "Jane, you drive me mad!" stooping 
 over her trembling. " It is you you that 
 I dare not marry !" 
 
 She stood erect: "/marry you? I 
 never thought of that," simply. 
 
 " You never thought of it ?" with a 
 queer uncertain laugh. " You never 
 thought that I loved you ?" 
 
 "That you loved me, Mr. Neckart? 
 Me ?" The blue innocent eyes that had 
 been fixed on his suddenly filled with 
 light ; she dropped her face into her 
 hands ; 'her whole body burned with 
 blushes, and she turned away. 
 
 Neckart slowly followed her. Jane's 
 thoughts were always transparent as 
 crystal : he had read in that one brief 
 glance all the delight, the tender passion, 
 whose first impulse was to escape from 
 him. 
 
 " I have been a damned scoundrel !" 
 he said to himself: "I have ruined her 
 life !" 
 
 He was now thoroughly awake to what 
 he had done saw it as any other prac 
 tical, honorable man would do, unbiased 
 by his passion or his pity for himself. He 
 walked silently beside her as she went 
 up the steep path to the house. 
 
 As for Jane, she did not know that 
 he was silent: she would scarcely have 
 heard if he had spoken to her. She did 
 not know what this was that had come
 
 A LAW UNTO IfEKSELF. 
 
 to her, that had lifted her whole life up 
 ward as by a touch. She could not look 
 at him. If she could only reach her fa 
 ther and hide from him, that he might 
 never find her never ! She remember 
 ed how a minute ago she had held his 
 hand to her face, and the hot flood of 
 shame covered every other thought : the 
 next she glanced shyly at him with a 
 sweet pride ; he loved her, he would 
 understand ! The terrible story he had 
 told her had passed out of her mind like 
 a breath of smoke in sunshine. He loved 
 her : she could keep him out of all dan 
 ger. Even if she had remembered that 
 she could never be his wife, it would 
 not have troubled her. He loved her ! 
 She thought no more of marriage than 
 the bird in its first song of dawn thinks 
 of the barred lines and visible notes to 
 which its music might somewhere be 
 written down. 
 
 Neckart followed her up the steps and 
 into the wide hall, carrying his hat be 
 hind him in his hand. The damp air 
 wet his hair, and it hung lankly back 
 from his haggard face. He felt physi 
 cally ill. He had acted like a brute, a 
 
 coward ! This was the end of his stern 
 resolve, his lifelong self-denial ! 
 
 A lamp burned at the foot of the wide 
 staircase. He paused beside it : she had 
 gone up a step or two, and halted, her 
 hand on the rail, looking down. "Good 
 night !" she said shyly. 
 
 The light shone full on the pink glow 
 in her cheeks, the loose hair glistening 
 like a golden mist, the half-frightened, 
 half-triumphant gleam shot down from 
 the blue eyes. 
 
 He did not answer her. 
 
 The delicate virgin bloom of this love 
 which he had coveted so madly an hour 
 ago scarcely stirred his heart now with 
 pleasure. A man cannot live all the 
 time on the heights of emotion or of re 
 ligion ; the air is too rarefied up there for 
 healthy lungs ; he comes down punctu 
 ally to the ordinary levels of his saner 
 self; and Neckart, on his ordinary level, 
 was an exceedingly practical, honest man. 
 He knew that he had brought irreparable 
 injury to this girl, and that it was his duty 
 now to make amends as best he could.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MISS FLEMING arrived that even 
 ing while Jane was on the water. 
 She was in the habit of coming out to the 
 Hemlock Farm for a day's holiday, and 
 went directly to her own room as though 
 she were at home. When she stepped 
 presently out on the porch, where the 
 gentlemen had gone to smoke, a soft 
 black silk showing every line of her sup 
 ple figure, glimpses of the rounded arms 
 revealed with every movement of the 
 loose sleeves, one or two thick green 
 leaves in her light hair ugly, quiet, 
 friendly they all felt more at home than 
 they had done before. There was a 
 pitcher of punch by the captain's elbow : 
 she tasted it, threw in a dash of liquor, 
 poured him out a glass and sat down 
 beside him, and he felt that a gap was 
 comfortably filled. 
 
 " You have turned your back on Phil 
 adelphia, they tell me, Miss Fleming," 
 complained Judge Rhodes. " New York 
 sucks in all the young blood of the coun 
 try the talent and energy." 
 
 "Oh, I came simply to sell my wares. 
 New York is my market, but Philadel 
 phia will always be home to me," in her 
 peculiar pathetic voice. " I left good 
 friends there," with one of her bewil 
 dering glances straight into the judge's 
 beady eyes, at which his flabby face was 
 suffused with heat. 
 
 "You do not forget your friends, that's 
 certain," he said, lowering his voice. 
 " That was a delicate compliment, send 
 ing my portrait back to the Exhibition. 
 I felt it very much, I assure you." 
 
 Cornelia bowed silently. Neither she 
 nor the judge said anything about the 
 round -numbered cheque which he had 
 sent her for it. In the moonlight they 
 preferred to let the affair stand on a 
 sentimental basis. 
 
 Mr. Van Ness meanwhile eyed Miss 
 Fleming's pose and rounded figure with 
 a watery gleam of complacency. 
 
 "An exceptional woman," was his ver 
 
 dict. He turned the conversation to art, 
 and asked innumerable questions with 
 a profound humility. Cornelia replied 
 eagerly, until the fact crept out from the 
 judge that there was not an aesthetic 
 dogma nor a gallery in the world with 
 which he was not familiar. Then to 
 pottery, in which field his modesty was 
 as profound, until the judge pushed him, 
 as it were, to a corner, when he acknow 
 ledged himself the possessor of a- few 
 " nice bits." 
 
 " I have some old Etruscan pieces 
 which I should like you to see, Miss 
 Fleming," with his mild, deprecating 
 cough, "and a bit of Capo di Monte, 
 and the only real specimen of Henri 
 Deux in the country." 
 
 " I must see them," emphatically. 
 "Where are your cabinets?" 
 
 "Oh, nowhere," with a shrug. "My 
 poor little specimens have never been 
 unpacked since I returned to this country. 
 They are boxed up in a friend's cellar." 
 
 "God bless me, Cornelia!" cried the 
 captain in a muffled tone, "how could 
 Mr. Van Ness spend his time koo-tooing 
 to cracked pots ? He has, as I may say, 
 the future of Pennsylvania in his hand. 
 When I think what he is doing for the 
 friendless children thousands of 'em " 
 The punch had heated the captain's zeal 
 to the point where words failed him. 
 
 After that the friendless children swept 
 lighter subjects out of sight. Mr. Van 
 Ness, whose humility in this light rose to 
 saintly heights, had all the statistics of 
 the Bureaux of Charity at his tongue's 
 end. He had studied the Dangerous 
 Classes in every obscure corner of the 
 world. He could give you the statiis 
 quo of any given tribe in India just as 
 easily as the time-table on the new rail 
 way in Egypt. No wonder that he could 
 tell you in a breath the percentage of 
 orphans, deserted minors, children of 
 vicious parents, in his own State, and 
 the amount per capita required to civil 
 ize and Christianize them. As he talked 
 
 47
 
 4 8 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 of this matter his eyes became suffused 
 with tears. The great Home for these 
 helpless wards of the State he described 
 at length, from its situation on a high 
 table-land of the Alleghanies and the 
 dimensions of the immense buildings 
 down to the employments of the chil 
 dren and 'the capacity of the laundry 
 a perfect Arcadia with all the modern 
 improvements, where Crime was to be 
 transformed wholesale into Virtue. 
 
 "Where is this institution?" asked 
 Miss Fleming. " It is strange I never 
 heard of it." 
 
 "Oh, it is not built as yet: we have 
 not raised the funds," Mr. Van Ness re 
 plied with a smothered sigh. 
 
 The judge patted one foot and looked 
 at him compassionately. It was a dev 
 ilishly queer ambition to be the savior 
 of those dirty little wretches in the back 
 alleys. But if a man had given himself 
 up, body and soul, to such a pursuit, it 
 was hard measure that he must be 
 thwarted in it. 
 
 Miss Fleming also bent soft sympa 
 thetic eyes on her new friend. The 
 Home was not built, eh ? Not a brick 
 laid ? She wondered whether that box 
 with the priceless treasures existed in his 
 friend's cellar or in his brain : she won 
 dered whether he had not seen those pic 
 tures of the old masters in photographs, 
 or whether he had travelled in Japan and 
 the obscure corners of the earth in the flesh 
 or in books. There was more than the 
 wonted necessity upon her to establish 
 sympathetic relations with this new man : 
 she had never seen a finer presence : the 
 beard and brow quite lifted his mascu 
 linity into aesthetic regions ; she caught 
 glimpses, too, of an unfamiliar mongrel 
 species of intellect with which she would 
 relish Platonic relations. Yet with this 
 glow upon her she regarded the reform 
 er's noble face and benignant blond beard 
 doubtfully, thinking how she used to stick 
 pins in brilliant bubbles when she was 
 a child, and nothing would be left but a 
 patch of dirty water. 
 
 "Jane is out on the river, as usual?" 
 she asked presently. 
 
 "Yes," said her father: "Mr. Neckart 
 is with her. Neither of them will ever 
 
 stay under a roof if they can help it. 
 They ought to have a dash of Indian 
 blood in their veins to account for such 
 vagabondizing." 
 
 "Is Bruce Neckart here?" with a 
 change in her tone which made the cap 
 tain look up at her involuntarily. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " I thought he was in Washington : I 
 did not expect to meet him." 
 
 The judge puffed uneasily at his cigar. 
 He was a family man, with a stout wife 
 and married son. He did not meet Miss 
 Fleming once a year, but he felt a vague 
 jealousy of Neckart. 
 
 " By the way, you must be old ac 
 quaintances ?" he said abruptly. "Both 
 from Delaware ? Kent county ?" 
 
 " Oh yes," with a shrill womanish laugh, 
 very different from her usual sweet boy 
 ish ha! 'ha! "Many's the day we rowed 
 on the bay or dredged for oysters to 
 gether, dirty and ragged and happy. 
 There is not very much difference in 
 our ages," seeing his look of surprise. 
 "I look younger than I am, and Bruce 
 has grown old fast. At least, so I hear. 
 I have not seen him for years." 
 
 She was silent after that, and preoccu 
 pied as her admirers had never seen her, 
 and presently, hearing Jane's and Neck- 
 art's steps on the path, she rose hastily 
 and bade them good-night. They each 
 shook hands with her, that being one of 
 the sacred rites in the Platonic friendships 
 so much in vogue now-a-days among clev 
 er men and women. Mr. Van Ness offer 
 ed his hand last, and Cornelia smiled cor 
 dially as she took it. But it was clammy 
 and soft. She rubbed her fingers with 
 a shudder of disgust as she hurried up 
 to her own room. There she walked 
 straight to her glass and turned up the 
 lamp beside it, looking long and fixedly 
 at her face. She knew with exactness 
 the extent of its ugliness and its power. 
 
 " It is too late now even if it ever could 
 have been," she said quietly, and put out 
 the light. Then she went to the window. 
 Mr. Neckart had left Jane inside, and, 
 not joining the other men, turned back 
 to the garden. She saw the bulky dark 
 figure as it passed under her window. 
 
 She stretched out her hands as if for
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 49 
 
 a caress, with the palms pressed close. 
 "Oh, Bruce !" she said under her breath. 
 "Bruce !" 
 
 After he had passed out of sight she 
 stood thinking over all the men who had 
 made a comrade of her since she saw 
 him last how they had handled her 
 fingers and looked into her eyes ; how 
 her every thought and fancy had grown 
 common and unclean through much 
 usage ; how she had dragged out what 
 ever maidenly feeling she had in the old 
 times, and made capital of it to bring 
 these companions to her who were nei 
 ther lovers nor friends. 
 
 "When I could not have the food 
 which I wanted, I took the husks which 
 the swine did eat," she said, leaving the 
 window, with a short laugh. " Well, I 
 could not die of starvation." 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 WHEN Jane woke the next morning a 
 bluebird was singing outside of the win 
 dow : she tried to mimic him before she 
 was out of bed, and sang scraps of songs 
 to herself as she dressed. The captain 
 heard her in his room below, but pretend 
 ed to be asleep when she came down as 
 usual to lay out his clothes, for, although 
 she insisted that her father should have 
 Dave as a valet, she left him but little to 
 do. 
 
 Watching her from under the covers, 
 the captain saw that she had left off the 
 black snood and tied her hair with a 
 band of rose-colored ribbon. Her lips 
 were ruddy and her eyes alight : once or 
 twice she laughed to herself. 
 
 " What high day or holiday is it, Jane ?" 
 
 " Oh, every day is a high day now !" 
 running to kiss him. " I was just think 
 ing how comfortable money is, and how 
 glad I am that we have it," glancing 
 about delighted at his luxurious toilet 
 appointments before the low wood-fire. 
 Then she spread out his dressing-gown 
 and velvet smoking-cap, and eyed with 
 her head on one side the fine shirt and 
 its costly studs. 
 
 " Do you remember the rag-carpet in 
 your room which we thought such a tri- 
 4 
 
 umph ? and the old tin shaving-cup ? 
 Now, my lord, look out upon your estate !" 
 opening the window. " Your musicians 
 have come to waken you, and your ser 
 vitors stand without," as Buff tapped at 
 the door with hot water. 
 
 " He is as comfortable as a baby wrap 
 ped in lamb's wool," she thought as she 
 ran down the stairs. "And this air is so 
 pure and the sun so bright ! Oh, he 
 must grow strong here ! Anybody would 
 be cured here anybody !"* 
 
 The captain followed her to the barn 
 yard. It was one of her inexorable pre 
 scriptions for him that he should drink a 
 glass of warm milk-punch before break 
 fast, and smell the cow's breath during 
 the operation. She was milking the white 
 cow herself, while the pseudo sempstress, 
 Nichols, waited with the goblet, and the 
 bandy-legged shoemaker, Twiss, stood 
 on guard, eyeing Brindle's horns sus 
 piciously. 
 
 " Now the glass ! These are the strip- - 
 pings. Oh you'll soon learn, Betty !: 
 You'll make butter as well as you used . 
 to make dresses badly." 
 
 The little widow and Twiss laughed, . 
 as they always did at Jane's weak jokes, . 
 and took the punch to the captain. She 
 was the finest wit of her day in their 
 eyes. The hostler's boy ran down from 
 the stable to speak to her. She thought 
 he had as innocent a face as she had ever 
 seen. No doubt he would have gone to 
 perdition if Neckart had not rescued him. 
 She stopped to talk to him with beaming 
 eyes, and meeting Betty's toddling baby 
 took it up and tossed it in the air, and 
 then walked on, carrying the soft little 
 thing in her arms. The farm was like 
 the Happy Valley this morning ! God 
 was so good to her ! She could warm 
 and comfort all these people. Then she 
 turned into the woods and sat down on 
 a fallen log. It was the place where they 
 had stopped to rest yesterday, Neckart 
 lying at her feet. There was the imprint 
 still in the dead moss where his arm had : 
 lain. She looked guiltily about, and then 
 laid her hand in the broken moss with ai 
 quick passionate touch. The baby caught- 
 her chin in its fingers. She hugged it to- 
 her breast, and kissed it again and again
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 From the hemlock overhead a tanager 
 suddenly flashed up into the air with a 
 shrill peal of song. Jane looked up, her 
 face and throat dyed crimson. Did he 
 know ? She glanced down at the grass, 
 at the friendly trees all alive with rustling 
 and chirping. The sky overhead was so 
 deep and warm a blue to-day. It seem 
 ed as if they all knew that he loved her. 
 
 The captain found Mr. Neckart stand 
 ing on the stoop listening to some sound 
 that came up from the woods. 
 
 "It is Jane singing," he said. "You 
 would not hear her once in a year. He 
 reditary gift ! In the old Swedish annals 
 we read of the remarkable voices of the 
 Svens." 
 
 " I never heard her sing before." Yet 
 he had known at once that it was she. 
 It was the most joyous of songs, but 
 there was a foreboding pathos in the 
 voice which moved him as no other 
 sound had ever done. 
 
 "You are not going before breakfast ?" 
 cried the captain. 
 
 "Yes, and I shall not be able to come 
 again for a long time. Say to Miss Swen- 
 don But no. I will go and bid her 
 good-bye." 
 
 He met her as she was crossing the 
 plank thrown across the brook, and they 
 stopped by the little hand-rail, not look 
 ing directly at each other : " I came to 
 bid you good-morning." 
 
 " Do you take the early train, then ?" 
 
 "Yes." He did not mean to tell her 
 that he would not come again. The 
 more ordinary their parting the sooner 
 she would forget it and him. He had 
 thought the matter out during the night, 
 and being a man who was apt to under 
 rate himself, was convinced that the feel 
 ing which she had betrayed was but that 
 transient flush of preference which any 
 very young and innocent girl is apt to 
 give to the first man of whom she makes 
 a companion. 
 
 " There is nothing in me likely to win 
 enduring love from her. A more intel 
 lectual woman, indeed " He had gone 
 over the argument again and again. 
 When he was out of sight her fancy 
 would soon turn to this new lover, so 
 much better suited to her in every re 
 
 spect. For himself But he had no 
 right to think of himself. He struck that 
 thought down fiercely again as they stood 
 together on the bridge. No more right 
 than he would have, were he dead, to 
 drag down this young creature into his 
 grave. 
 
 He patted the child on the head as it 
 clung to her dress, and talked of the 
 chance of more rain with perfect correct 
 ness and civility ; and when Jane man 
 aged to raise her eyes to his face she 
 found it grave and preoccupied, as it 
 usually was over the morning papers. 
 He saw Van Ness coming smiling to 
 meet her. 
 
 " It is time for me to go," he said, his 
 eyes passing slowly over her : then with 
 a hasty bow, not touching her hand, 
 he struck through the woods to the sta 
 tion, thinking as he went how she was 
 standing then on the bridge in the sun 
 shine, with the man whom she would 
 marry beside her. She looked after him, 
 her eyes full of still, deep content. He 
 loved her. She had forgotten everything 
 else. 
 
 "A perfect morning, Miss Swendon," 
 said Mr. Van Ness, stroking his magnif 
 icent golden beard. "You see just this 
 deep azure sky above the Sandwich Isl 
 ands. Now, I remember watching such a 
 dawn on Mauna Loa. Ah-h,jjw; would 
 have appreciated that. Our friend has 
 gone, eh ? Most active, energetic man ! 
 I heard him tell your father he should 
 not return soon again." 
 
 "Not return?" stopping in her slow 
 walk. 
 
 " No. It really must be impossible for 
 an editor to spare time often for visits to 
 even such an Arcadia as this. No stock- 
 market or political news in Arcadia, 
 eh?" with a benevolent gurgle of a 
 laugh. "Business! business! Miss Swen 
 don. Ah, how it engrosses the major 
 ity of men !" shaking his head ponder 
 ously. 
 
 She said nothing. It was as if she 
 had been suddenly wakened out of a 
 dream in the crowd of a dusty market 
 place. He had gone back to the world, 
 to his real business and his real trouble. 
 She, with her love and her intended cure
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 for him, was a silly fool wandering in a 
 fantastic Arcadia. 
 
 Miss Fleming was walking up and 
 down on the porch as they came up, 
 more carefully dressed than usual. The 
 captain had just told her that Neckart 
 had gone. 
 
 "Ah? I'm very sorry," carelessly. 
 " I should have been glad to see him 
 again. Though no doubt he has for 
 gotten me." 
 
 She went forward to meet Jane with a 
 smile, but a withered gray look under 
 her eyes. " I have been making a tour 
 of your principality," she said as they 
 went in to breakfast. " I see you have 
 brought out a colony of Philadelphia 
 paupers. Twiss, and Betty, and the 
 rest." 
 
 " They were not paupers," said Jane, 
 taking her place behind the urn. " Did 
 you see into what a great boy Top has 
 grown? And Peter?" It gave her a 
 warm glow at heart to remember these 
 people just now. At least, there her 
 care had not been fantastic or thrown 
 away. 
 
 " I hardly expected you to take up the 
 role of guardian angel. It requires study, 
 after all, to play it successfully," pursued 
 Cornelia with an amiable smile, cutting 
 her butter viciously. "Very young girls 
 are apt to be impetuous in their charities, 
 and damage more than they help," turn 
 ing to the judge. "These poor people, 
 for instance. Betty had her kinsfolk 
 about her in Philadelphia, her church 
 and her gossips. She complained bitter 
 ly to me this morning that she ' had no 
 company here but the cows : Miss Swen- 
 don might as well have whisked her off 
 into a hay then desart.' " 
 
 "She complained to you!" cried the 
 captain. " Why, the trouble and money 
 which Jane has given to that woman and 
 her family ! They were starving, I as 
 sure you !" 
 
 Jane listened at first with her usual 
 quiet good-humor. Miss Fleming's wasp 
 ish temper generally amused her, as it 
 would have done a man (if he was not 
 her husband). But she began to grow 
 anxious. 
 
 "You really think Betty is not con 
 
 tented here ?" her hand a little unsteady 
 as she poured the cream into the cups. 
 
 " Contented ? She seems miserable 
 enough. Home is home, you know, if 
 it is only a cellar and starvation. But 
 perhaps" with a shrug "that class 
 of Irish are never happy without a grie 
 vance. Now, Twiss, it appears to me, 
 has just ground for complaint. A shoe 
 maker," turning to the judge a face 
 beaming with fun, "whom this young 
 lady has transported and set down in 
 charge of gardens and hot-houses. He 
 does not know a hoe from a mower, and 
 he is too old to learn. He had a good 
 trade : now he has nothing." 
 
 " But he could not live by his trade," 
 cried Jane. 
 
 " Well, cobbling is looking up now. 
 In any case, you have pauperized him." 
 
 "That's bad bad! Now, in Virginia 
 we used to feed everybody who came 
 along !" said the judge, shaking his 
 head. "But I've learned wisdom in the 
 cities. Every bit of bread given to a 
 beggar degrades human nature and rots 
 society to the core." 
 
 "But suppose he is starving?" urged 
 the captain. " The Good Samaritan 
 wasn't afraid of pauperizing that poor 
 devil on the road." 
 
 " Let him starve. He will have pre 
 served his self-respect. The Good Sa 
 maritan knew nothing of political econ 
 omy, sir." 
 
 Jane left her breakfast untasted. She 
 understood nothing about political econ 
 omy, but she saw that she had done irrep 
 arable injury to these people whom she 
 had tried to serve God knew with what 
 anxiety and tenderness of heart. In one 
 case, at least, there had been no mistake. 
 
 " Did you see Phil ?" she said, turning 
 with brightening countenance to Miss 
 Fleming. " We intend to have Phil ed 
 ucated. He is such a keen-witted little 
 fellow." 
 
 Miss Fleming laughed outright now : 
 "Mr. Neckart's protege? Yes, I saw 
 him. He has been stealing tobacco and 
 money from Dave, it appears, ever since 
 he came, and was found out this morn 
 ing. There was a horrible row in the 
 stable as I passed."
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 "Of course he stole!" said the judge 
 triumphantly. " I tell you, the more ef 
 forts you make to reform the dangerous 
 classes the more hardened you will grow. 
 It's hopeless hopeless !" 
 
 Her other listeners each promptly pre 
 sented their theory. Like all intelligent 
 Americans, they were provided with the 
 ories on every social problem, and were 
 ready to hang it on an individual stable- 
 boy or any other nail of a fact which 
 might offer. Jane alone sat silent. She 
 did not hear when her father spoke to 
 her once or twice. 
 
 "You are disappointed," Mr. Van 
 Ness's soft soothing voice murmured in 
 her ear. " I know how these baffled ef 
 forts chill the heart. I will explain to 
 you the machinery which I propose to 
 bring to bear on these classes." 
 
 "I don't know anything about ma 
 chinery or classes. Twiss and Betty 
 were friends of mine, and I tried to help 
 them, and have failed." 
 
 Miss Fleming, who was watching her 
 furtively, saw her dull eyes raised pres 
 ently and rest on the captain, who with 
 a red face and bursts of laughter was 
 telling one of his interminable stories. 
 
 "This girl," Cornelia said to herself, 
 "has everything which I have not beau 
 ty, wealth, Bruce Neckart's love. Yet 
 she looks at that weak old man as if he 
 were all that was left her in the world." 
 She had put Jane before on the general 
 basis of antipathy which she had to ev 
 erything in the world that was not mas 
 culine, but the feeling had kindled since 
 last night into active dislike. 
 
 When breakfast was over and their 
 guests had gone to their rooms to make 
 ready to meet the train, Jane decoyed the 
 captain away to Bruno's kennel, where 
 he was tied during Mr. Van Ness's stay. 
 Once out of sight, she retied his cravat, 
 arranged his white hair to her liking, 
 stroked his sunken cheeks. Here was 
 something actual and real. She knew 
 now that she had never had anything 
 that was truly her own but the kind fool 
 ish face looking down on her. She nev 
 er would have anything more. Only an 
 hour ago life had opened for her wide 
 and fair as the dawn : now it had nar 
 
 rowed to this old hand in hers, to his 
 breath, that came and went O God, 
 how feebly ! 
 
 "You are looking stronger to-day, fa 
 ther. You are gaining every day. Oh 
 that is quite certain ! Very soon we shall 
 have you as well and strong as you were 
 at forty." 
 
 What if she had not had money this 
 last year ? He never could have lived 
 through it. God had been kind to her 
 kind ! She pressed his hand to her 
 breast with a quick glance out to the 
 bright sky. The captain saw her chin 
 quivering. His own thoughts ran partly 
 in the same line as hers. 
 
 "Oh, I'm gaining, no doubt of it. 
 Though I never could have pulled 
 through this year if we had had to live 
 in the old way. God bless Will Laidley 
 for leaving the money as he did !" 
 
 " It was not his to leave otherwise !" 
 she cried indignantly. 
 
 " Tut, tut, Jane ! Of course it was his. 
 By every law. He could have flung it 
 away where he chose ; and he had a per 
 fect right to do it." 
 
 It was not God who had been kind to 
 her, then : it was only that she had stolen 
 the money ? 
 
 "Come, Jenny: we must go back to 
 the house." 
 
 " In a moment, father. Go on : I will 
 follow you." 
 
 She walked up and down the tan-bark 
 path for a while. She was sure of noth 
 ing. Wherever she had done what seem 
 ed to her right and natural, she was bar 
 red and checked by the world's laws 
 and experience. She had brought these 
 starving wretches out of a hell upon 
 earth into this paradise, and even they 
 laughed at her want of wisdom : the very 
 money which was her own in the sight 
 of God, and which had lengthened her 
 father's life, ought to be given back to 
 day to the poor, its rightful owners. If 
 there was any other cause for her to fight 
 blindly against the narrow matter-of-fact 
 routine which ruled her life, she did not 
 name it even to herself. 
 
 Looking toward the house, she saw her 
 father escorting their guests to the gate, 
 where the carriage waited, David re-
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 53 
 
 splendent on the box. The captain 
 walked with a feeble kind of swagger : 
 his voice came back to her in weak gusts 
 of laughter. She laid her hand on a tree, 
 glancing about her with a firm sense of 
 possession. "The property is mine," she 
 said, " and I'll keep it as long as he lives, 
 if all the paupers in the United States 
 were starving at the gates !" 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MR. VAN NESS returned to the Hem 
 lock Farm at stated periods during the 
 summer. He had, to be plain, sat down 
 before Jane's heart to besiege it with the 
 same ponderous benign calm with which 
 he ate an egg or talked of death. There 
 was a bronze image of Buddha in the 
 hall at the Farm, the gaze of the god fix 
 ed with ineffable content, as it had been 
 for ages, on his own stomach. 
 
 Jane went up to it one day after an 
 hour's talk with Mr. Van Ness. " This 
 creature maddens me," she said. "I al 
 ways want to break it into pieces to see 
 it alter." 
 
 Little Mr. Waring, who had .come with 
 Van Ness, hurried up as a connoisseur in 
 bronzes, adjusting his eye-glasses. "Why, 
 it is faultless, Miss Swendon !" he cried. 
 
 "That is precisely what makes it in 
 tolerable." 
 
 Much of Jane's large, easy good-humor 
 was gone by this time. She had grown 
 thin, was eager, restless, uncertain of 
 what she ought or ought not to do, even 
 in trifles. 
 
 Mr. Waring and Judge Rhodes were 
 both at the Farm now. They ran over 
 to New York every week or two. Phil 
 Waring was not a marrying man, but it 
 was part of his duty as a leader in society 
 to be intimate with every important heir 
 ess or beauty in the two cities. Out of 
 sincere compassion to Jane's stupendous 
 ignorance he would sit for hours stroking 
 his moustache, his elbows on his knees, 
 his feet on a rung of the chair, dribbling 
 information as to the nice effects in the 
 Water -Color Exhibition, or miraculous 
 "finds" of Spode or Wedgwood in old 
 junk-shops, or the most authentic infor 
 
 mation as to why the Palfreys had no 
 cards to Mrs. Livingstone's kettledrums, 
 while Jane listened with a quizzical gleam 
 in her eyes, as she did to the little ban 
 tam hen outside cackling and strutting 
 over its new egg. 
 
 "We must have you in society this 
 winter," he urged. "It is a duty you 
 owe in your position. You have no 
 choice about it." 
 
 "You are right, Mr. Waring," called 
 the captain from the corner where he sat 
 with Judge Rhodes. "The child must 
 have friends in her own class." He 
 dropped his voice again: "The truth is, 
 Rhodes, she has no ties like other girls. 
 Her dog and two or three old women 
 and some children that is all she knows 
 of life. It's enough while she has me. 
 But I shall not be here long, now. Not 
 many months." 
 
 The eyes of the two men met. 
 
 "Does she know?" asked the judge 
 after a while. 
 
 "No." The captain's gaunt features 
 worked : he trotted his foot to some tune, 
 looking down from the window and whis 
 tling under his breath. " It was for this 
 I sent for you," he added presently. " If 
 I could only see her settled, married, be 
 fore I go ! She is no more fit to be left 
 alone in the world than Bruno." 
 
 The judge shook his head in gloomy 
 assent. His own opinion was that Jane 
 would follow her own instincts in a dog- 
 like fashion if her father was out of the 
 way, and God only knew where they 
 would lead her ! He had brought his 
 own girls, Rose and Netty, with him to 
 visit her, in order that she might have a 
 domestic feminine influence upon her. 
 They found, accidentally, that she did 
 not know a word of any catechism, and, 
 terrified, loaned her religious novels to 
 convert her : she took them graciously, 
 but never cut the leaves. There were to 
 them even more heathenish indications 
 in her hoopless straight skirts : the good 
 little creatures zealously cut and trimmed 
 a dress for her from the very last pat 
 terns. She put it on, and straightway 
 went through bog and brake with Bruno 
 for mushrooms, coming back with it in 
 tatters. They chattered in their thin fal-
 
 54 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 setto voices the last Culpepper gossip into 
 her patient ear the story of Rosey's 
 balls at Old Point, and Netty's lovers, 
 all of whom were "splendid matches 
 until impohverished by the war." She 
 listened to their chirping with amused 
 eyes, tapping them, when they were 
 through, approvingly on the head as 
 though they were clever canaries. The 
 girls told their father that they "feared 
 her principles leaned toward infidelity, 
 and that it was never safe to be intimate 
 with these original women," and had 
 gone home the next day, not waiting for 
 the judge. They washed their hands of 
 her, and gloved them again, but he still 
 felt responsible for her. After he left 
 the captain he went to her, fatherly in 
 terest radiant in every feature : " Mr. 
 Waring is right, Jane. It is high time 
 that you were taking your part in society. 
 Your father wishes it." 
 
 "I will do whatever he wishes," quiet 
 ly. "You did not know us when we 
 lived in the old house in Southwark, Mr. 
 Waring. We invented our patents then. 
 Sometimes we could afford to go to the 
 gallery at the theatre when the play was 
 good. Father and the newsboys would 
 lead the clapping. And we went once a 
 year in our patched shoes a-fishing for a 
 holiday. Those were good times." 
 
 " Perfect child of Nature !" telegraph 
 ed Mr. Waring uneasily to the judge. 
 "How Mrs. Wilde will rejoice in you, 
 Miss Swendon ! Nature is her specialty. 
 She is coming to call this morning. 
 Miss Swendon," turning anxiously to 
 the judge, "can have no better sponsor 
 in society than Mrs. Wilde. She only 
 can give the. accolade to all aspirants. 
 No amount of money will force an en 
 trance at her doors. There must be 
 blood blood. 'Swendon?' she said 
 when I spoke to her about this call. 
 ' The Swedish Svens ? I remember. 
 Queen Christina's gallant lieutenant 
 was her great-grandfather. Good stock. 
 None better. The girl must belong to 
 our circle.' So, now it is all settled !" 
 rubbing his hands and smiling. 
 
 "Jane is careless," said the captain 
 eagerly. "People of the best fashion 
 have called, and she has not even left 
 
 cards. Her dress too Now a Paris 
 gown, fringes and " 
 
 The three men looked at her at that 
 with a sudden imbecile despair, at which 
 she laughed and went out. 
 
 The captain found her presently down 
 by the boat in which she had heard 
 Neckart's story. She bailed it out and 
 cleaned it carefully every day, but she 
 had never gone on the river in it since 
 that night. 
 
 " Father," stepping ashore, "what have 
 I done that I must be turned into anoth 
 er woman ?" 
 
 " Now, Jenny, making models and 
 crabbing were well enough for you as 
 a child. But, as Waring justly observes, 
 the society to which you belong is inex 
 orable in its rules for a woman." 
 
 She flung out her arms impatiently, 
 and then clasped them above her head. 
 It seemed as if a thousand fine clammy 
 webs were being spun about her. 
 
 "If you had any especial talent, as 
 Waring says if you were artistic or 
 musical, or concerned in some asylum- 
 work you could take your own path, 
 independent of society. But " looking 
 down at her anxiously. 
 
 " I understand. I don't know what I 
 was made for." 
 
 It was the first time in her life that she 
 had been driven in to consider herself. 
 She stood grave and intent, saying noth 
 ing for some time. Every other woman 
 had some definite aim. The whole world 
 was marching by, keeping step to a neat, 
 orderly little tune. They made calls, 
 they gave alms, they dressed, all of the 
 same fashion. 
 
 "Why not be like other people?" her 
 father was saying, making a burden to 
 her thought. 
 
 " I don't know why," drearily. 
 
 "What would you have, Jenny ?" tak 
 ing her hand in his. 
 
 " Father, I never loved but one or two 
 people in the world. You and Bruno 
 and not many others. I can do noth 
 ing outside of them." 
 
 "Nonsense ! You cannot be a law to 
 yourself, child. God knows I want to 
 see you happy !" his voice breaking. 
 " But," straightening his eye - glasses,
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 55 
 
 "Waring says, very justly, you are out 
 of the groove which all other girls are 
 in." He stopped inquiringly, but she 
 did not answer. She was a strongly- 
 built woman in mind and body, and just 
 then she felt her strength. The blood 
 rushed in a swift current through her 
 veins. Why should she be hampered 
 with these thousand meaningless, sham 
 duties ? She was fit for but one purpose 
 to serve two men whom she loved. 
 Her father was ill, and he pushed her 
 from him into Society ; and Bruce Neck- 
 art was alone, and with a worse fate than 
 death creeping on him, and he 
 
 "Why does not Mr. Neckart come to 
 us ?" she asked abruptly. " It is months 
 since I have seen him." 
 
 " His health is failing. There is some 
 trouble of the brain threatened. I hear 
 that he is going to give up the paper, 
 and is settling up his business to go to 
 Europe." Her question startled him : he 
 watched her with a new keen suspicion. 
 
 " If this must come on him, why should 
 he not come here to bear it ? I can nurse 
 you both. Surely, that is as good work 
 as returning calls or learning to dress in 
 Parisian style," with a short laugh. 
 
 The captain's face gathered intelligence 
 as he listened. He knew her secret now. 
 For a moment he felt a wrench of pity 
 for her. But love, with the captain, had 
 been a sentimental fever ending in a cold 
 ague : he had experienced light heats and 
 chills of it many a time since. This wild 
 fancy of the girl's would speedily burn it 
 self out if judiciously damped. He would 
 at once take the matter in hand. 
 
 "Neckart," he said deliberately, eying 
 her to gauge the effect of his words, "is a 
 man of sense and knowledge of the world. 
 He knows his condition, and in the little 
 time left to him he attends to his business 
 and important political affairs, instead of 
 nursing a romantic friendship which can 
 not serve him, and would only compro 
 mise you." 
 
 " Compromise me ? I don't understand 
 you, father." 
 
 "A woman could not render such ser 
 vice as you offer except to her betrothed 
 lover or husband." 
 
 "Why, he would understand." 
 
 " But Society, child " 
 
 "Oh, Society!" with a laugh. "But 
 you do not remember !" clasping her 
 hands on his shoulder. " If this thing 
 comes upon him he has looked forward 
 to it all his life he has nobody. He is 
 quite alone." 
 
 "At least," impatiently, "you will not 
 be involved. I did not understand be 
 fore why Bruce had deserted us lately. 
 I see now that he has acted very proper 
 ly. It was not his fault nor yours this 
 flirtation preference or whatever you 
 may choose to call it. But Bruce knows 
 the world, and knows just how long-lived 
 such fancies are, and he intends that it 
 shall be no hinderance to your marriage 
 making an excellent match." 
 
 " I marry ? Make an excellent match ?" 
 
 "Yes. Certainly. What else should you 
 do ? Don't look in that way, my darling. 
 It frightens me. I'm not strong. It is not 
 death that is coming to you, but a good 
 husband. You need not turn so white." 
 
 "And Mr. Neckart planned this for 
 me?" 
 
 " N-no. I can't say ' planned,' to be ac 
 curate. But he agreed in our plan. Why, 
 Bruce has common sense. He knows it 
 is the way of the world that a woman 
 should marry, and he will be much hap 
 pier to know that you are the wife of a 
 good man good and good-looking too. 
 Much more presentable than Bruce, poor 
 fellow !" 
 
 The captain watched her closely as he 
 gave this home-thrust. How a woman 
 could turn from that magnificent, devout 
 reformer to any lean, irascible politician ! 
 Her foot was on the edge of the little 
 skiff. She pushed it into the water. 
 While he sat in the boat there that night, 
 with the moonlight white about them, 
 while he told her that he loved her, he had 
 been planning this good match for her ! 
 There was no such thing as love, then, 
 in the world ? Or truth ? But there was 
 Society and common sense and the in 
 exorable rules of propriety. Bruce Neck- 
 art represented to her Strength itself, and 
 he submitted to these rules cheerfully. 
 He was happy to think of her as the 
 wife of a good, presentable man ! 
 
 When she had thought of him as going
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 alone with his terrible burden away from 
 her into the wilderness, true to her until 
 the last breath of reason was gone, there 
 had been a thrill of delight in the intol 
 erable pain. But planning, like finical 
 little Waring, that she should fall snugly 
 into a fashionable set, Parisian gowns, a 
 suitable marriage ! 
 
 Jane had not the womanish faculty of 
 thinning every fact or thought that came 
 to her into tears or talk. Neckart had 
 gone out of her life. She accepted the 
 fact at once, without argument. What 
 the loss imported to her would assured 
 ly be known only to her own narrow, 
 one-sided mind, and the God who had 
 given it to her. 
 
 "Shall we go to the house, father? 
 Can't you laugh again, and look like your 
 self ? Why, I will give myself up, body 
 and soul, to Society or Philanthropy 
 anything you choose rather than see you 
 so shaken." She hung on his arm as 
 they went up the path, talking incessant 
 ly, and laughing more, as even the cap 
 tain felt, than the jokes would warrant. 
 The moment was favorable for introdu 
 cing the subject he had at heart. 
 
 "The last train brought out a dozen 
 men to consult Mr. Van Ness," he be 
 gan "deputations from church and 
 charitable organizations. 'Pon my soul, 
 I don't know what Christianity in this 
 country would do without that man !" 
 
 " It would wear a very different face," 
 absently. 
 
 " I went with Rhodes to a great revival- 
 meeting in town one night lately, and 
 Van Ness, of course, was called up on 
 the platform. Rhodes thought he look 
 ed like one of the apostles in modern 
 dress ; and all the ladies near me said 
 that his face beamed with heavenly light. 
 It would have made anybody devout to 
 look at him. Are you listening ?" glan 
 cing at her abstracted face. " You cer 
 tainly think him remarkably handsome ? 
 As to his nose, now ?" 
 
 "I don't suppose anybody could find 
 fault with his nose," smiling. 
 
 "Nor with his manner?" 
 
 "Nor with his manner." 
 
 "And yet you are not friends, eh?" 
 holding his breath for her answer. 
 
 "No," carelessly. "Mr. Van Ness 
 and I could not be friends." 
 
 "Why? why?" 
 
 "How could I tell?" with a shrug, 
 and looking at Bruno, who was fighting 
 a cat just then without cause. 
 
 The captain looked and sighed. It 
 was of no use, he thought, to try to ac 
 count for the prejudices or likings of 
 any of the lower animals. 
 
 Mr. Waring met them at the moment 
 in an anxious flutter : " Mrs. Wilde is 
 here. She is coming down the path." 
 
 Mrs. Wilde was a small, plump old 
 lady with a sober, tranquil face framed 
 in soft puffs of white hair; her dress 
 never rustled or brought itself into any 
 notice; her language never fell uneasily 
 out of its quiet gait ; when she spoke to 
 you, you felt that something genuine and 
 happy dorninated you for the moment. 
 
 "I followed Mr. Waring here," hold 
 ing out her hand. " One makes acquaint 
 ance so much more quickly out of doors. 
 I must begin ours by asking for your 
 arm, Miss Swendon. I am fat and scant 
 o' breath, and apt to forget it." 
 
 Jane drew the puffy hand eagerly 
 through her arm. She would have liked 
 to say outright how welcome the moth 
 erly presence and the honest voice were 
 to her just then. 
 
 Mrs. Wilde dismissed the captain and 
 Mr. Waring, and the two women sat 
 down in the arbor, and at once were at 
 ease and at home with each other. Bru 
 no came up, eyed and smelled the new 
 comer, and snuggled down on her skirts 
 to go to sleep. 
 
 "He vouches for me," she said nod 
 ding. "You must take me at his valua 
 tion." 
 
 " He makes no mistakes." 
 
 " Nor do you, I suspect. That reminds 
 me, Miss Swendon. I brought a friend 
 with me, and now that I have seen you 
 I mean to bespeak your good-will for 
 her. She needs just such healthy in 
 fluence as yours would be." 
 
 "Is she ill?" 
 
 "Only in mind. One of those morbid 
 women who must make a drama out of 
 their lives, and prefer to make it a trag 
 edy. A Madame Trebizoff, an English-
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 57 
 
 woman who married a Russian prince. 
 She is a widow now, with large means 
 came to New York a few months ago, 
 and has had much court paid to her. 
 But her nature makes her always a very 
 lonely woman." She spoke hastily as 
 the trailing of heavy skirts approached 
 on the grass. " Here she is, poor thing ! 
 Be good to her," she whispered before 
 presenting her in form. Madame Tre- 
 bizoff was draped in black, with a good 
 deal of lace about her head and an arti 
 ficial yellow rose at her throat. Jane 
 went up to her with outstretched hand, 
 but when the sallow face turned full on 
 her she stopped short, looked at it a mo 
 ment, and then bowed without a word. 
 
 "It is the materialized spirit!" But 
 she did not speak, for in a moment she 
 remembered that she had once taken the 
 bread from the wretched woman's mouth. 
 She would not do it again. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MR. VAN NESS came beaming down 
 through the lilacs to the arbor, and was 
 received with much reverence by Mrs. 
 Wilde. She was a devout woman, and 
 Pliny Van Ness's name was in all the 
 churches. They all sauntered back to 
 luncheon presently, Mrs. Wilde and Jane 
 going before, while Mr. Van Ness and the 
 Russian princess walked more slowly 
 through the woods, the foreigner talking 
 with animation and many gestures of 
 American trees, while the reformer lis 
 tened benignly, ineffable calm in his 
 smiling eyes. 
 
 "You followed me here purposely, 
 Charlotte ?" he said gently as she dilated 
 eloquently on our autumnal foliage. 
 
 "No. I did not know that you were 
 in New York. But I meant to call upon 
 you soon. I have had no money from 
 you since last August." 
 
 "Somebody, apparently, has filled my 
 place as your banker," his placid eye 
 sweeping over the costly dress and be- 
 diamonded fingers. 
 
 "What is that to you ?" with a sudden 
 shrill passion. "Once you would have 
 cared, Pliny. But that was years ago." 
 
 "Yes. Many years ago," buttoning 
 his glove carefully. "A Russian princess, 
 eh ?" after a short pause. " You are play- 
 inghigher than ordinary, Charlotte. You'll 
 find it dangerous. I should advise you to 
 keep to begging letters or the role of me 
 dium or literary tramp." 
 
 "One class is as ready to be humbug 
 ged as the other. Who knows that bet 
 ter than you ?" 
 
 "In the religious and charitable work 
 to which I have given up my life," de 
 liberately measuring his words, "there 
 are few impostors to be met. We usual 
 ly detect fraud, with God's help, and do 
 not suffer from it, therefore." 
 
 She stopped short, looking at him with 
 blank amazement. Then walked on with 
 a shrug : "Absolutely ! He expects me to 
 believe in him ! He believes in himself! 
 Can imposture go further than that ?" 
 
 Mrs. Wilde, in the distance, caught 
 sight of the two figures as they passed 
 through a belt of sunlight, and smiled 
 contentedly. 
 
 " I am so glad to bring poor madame 
 under direct religious influence ! Mr. 
 Van Ness is speaking to her with great 
 earnestness, I perceive." 
 
 The Princess Trebizoff scanned the 
 great reformer as they walked, apprais 
 ing him, from the measured solemn step 
 to his calm humility of eye. She would 
 have relished a passionate scene with 
 him. After terrapin and champagne, 
 there was nothing she relished so much 
 as emotion and tears. But they had play 
 ed up to each other so often ! The trag 
 edy in their relation had grown terribly 
 stale ! You could not, she felt, make 
 Hamlet's inky cloak out of dyed cotton. 
 But he would serve as audience. 
 
 " I'm growing very tired of good so 
 ciety," talking rapidly as usual. " Now, 
 you always enjoyed a dead level, Pliny." 
 
 "Yes. There's no Bohemian blood in 
 my veins. I was designed for respect 
 ability." 
 
 "So? I mean Ted shall be respect 
 able," with sudden earnestness. " He is 
 in a Presbyterian college. I should be 
 glad if he'd go into the ministry. Yes, 
 I should. Provided he had a call from 
 God. I'll have no sham professions
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 from Ted," her black eyes sparkling. 
 "You did not ask for the boy. In your 
 weighty affairs doubtless you forgot there 
 was such a human being." 
 
 " No, indeed. In what institution have 
 you placed Thaddeus ?" 
 
 "No matter. He's out of your influ 
 ence, thank God ! He never heard your 
 name. But as for me, I think I'll drop 
 this princess business soon," meditative 
 ly. "I began down town," with a fresh 
 burst of vivacity. "On the boarding- 
 house keepers. Last December." 
 
 " You are Madame Varens ! Is it pos 
 sible?" turning to look at her. "The 
 papers were filled with your exploits last 
 winter." 
 
 " Precisely !" She had a joyous girlish 
 laugh, infectious enough to draw a smile 
 from Van Ness. 
 
 "You are really very clever, Charlotte," 
 admiringly. 
 
 " I made a tour in the West just before 
 that," excitedly, patting her hands togeth 
 er. "Agent for Orphans' Homes in the 
 Gulf States. I wrote a letter of intro 
 duction from one or two bishops to the 
 clergymen in their dioceses : that started 
 me, and the clergy and press passed me 
 through. What a mill of tea-drinkings 
 and church-gossip I went through ! But 
 it was better fun than this." 
 
 Looking up, she happened to catch the 
 cold, furtive glance with which he had 
 listened, and kept her eye fixed on him 
 curiously. 
 
 " Do you hate me so much as that?" 
 she said with a long breath. "Well," 
 frankly, " it must be intolerable to carry 
 such a millstone about your neck as I 
 am to you. You know I could pull you 
 down any minute I chose," tossing her 
 head and laughing maliciously. " No 
 matter how high you had climbed. I 
 often wonder, Pliny, why you do not rid 
 yourself of me. It could be easily done." 
 
 The usually suave tone was harsh and 
 hoarse as he began to speak. He cough 
 ed, and carefully modulated his voice be 
 fore he said politely, " Yes. But it would 
 involve exposure unless carefully man 
 aged. That is certain damnation. There 
 is a chance of safety for the present in 
 trusting to you. You were always good- 
 
 natured, Charlotte. And," turning his 
 watery eye full on her, "you loved me 
 once." 
 
 "Possibly," coolly. "But last year's 
 loves are as tedious reading as last year's 
 newspapers. Better trust my good-nature. 
 You show your shrewdness in that. I 
 don't interfere with people. The world 
 uses me very well. It's a hogshead that 
 gives the best of wine if you know how 
 to tap it." 
 
 "You've tapped it with a will. You 
 go through life perpetually drunk," he 
 thought as she ran lightly before him up 
 the steps. He habitually made such 
 complacent moral reflections upon his 
 companions to himself, and took spir 
 itual comfort in them. 
 
 The hall was wide and sunny, made 
 homelike by low seats and growing 
 plants : it was occupied by half a dozen 
 committee-men, who were waiting im 
 patiently to see Mr. Van Ness. The 
 princess seated herself, attentive, her 
 head on one side like some -bright-eyed 
 tropical bird. 
 
 Van Ness, without even a glance to 
 ward her, took up his business of Chris 
 tian financier. " Do not go, I beg," as 
 the captain opened the inner door for 
 Rhodes and the ladies to retire. "Our 
 affairs are conducted in the eyes of the 
 public. Sound integrity has no secrets 
 to keep. That is our pride. Ah, gen 
 tlemen ?" 
 
 The captain was glad to stay. Surely, 
 Jane would be impressed with the vast 
 influence of this good man. Van Nessdid 
 not look at her once. But he saw nobody 
 but her, and spoke directly to her ear. 
 
 Asylums, workingmen's homes, hos 
 pitals, in all of which he was a director, 
 were brought up and dismissed with a 
 few hopeful, earnest words. The vast 
 system of organized charities through 
 which the kindly wealthy class touch the 
 poor beneath them was opened. Mrs. 
 Wilde, a manager in many of them, join 
 ed in the discussion. 
 
 " What a useless creature I am !" 
 thought Jane. " But the money," dog 
 gedly, "is mine, and I choose to give it 
 to father if the whole world go hungry." 
 She turned, however, from one repre-
 
 A LAW UNTO HEKSELF. 
 
 59 
 
 sentative of these asylums to the other 
 with a baited look. Was it this one or 
 that whom she had robbed ? 
 
 "Now, as to Temperance City our 
 city?" demanded a puffy little man im 
 portantly. "You are the fountain-head 
 of information there. We look to you, 
 Mr. Van Ness." 
 
 "You shall have the annual report 
 next week. Temperance City," turning 
 to Rhodes, his balmy gaze aimed straight 
 over her head, "is a scheme to protect 
 people of small means in the churches, 
 especially women, from wrecking their 
 little all in unwise investments. It is a 
 town on the line of the Pacific Railroad. 
 Lots are only sold to colonists who are tee 
 totallers and members of some church. 
 The stock is owned largely by the same 
 class." 
 
 "Oh, almost altogether!" cried the 
 little man enthusiastically. "Mr. Van 
 Ness's name, as you will understand, 
 gives it authority among all religious 
 people. We distribute prospectuses at 
 camp-meetings and at all sectarian sea 
 side resorts. Shares go off this summer 
 like hot cakes. There's nothing like re 
 ligion, sir, to back up business enter 
 prise. There's Stokes, for instance. His 
 shoes are sold from New Jersey to Ore 
 gon on the strength of the hymns he has 
 written." 
 
 " Yes," said the judge solemnly. " We 
 used to keep religion too much in the 
 chimney-corner spoke of it with bated 
 breath. But it's in trade now, sir. We 
 hear every day of our Christian shoe 
 makers and railway kings and states 
 men. The world moves !" 
 
 " Moves ? Oh there's no lever like 
 religion!" gasped the little man. "No 
 advertisement to equal it. And a good 
 man ought to succeed ! Are the swin 
 dlers to take all the fat of the land ? 
 Does not the good Book say, ' To the la 
 borers belong the spoils' ?" 
 
 " But this is so charming to me !" cried 
 the princess. "We foreigners have so 
 few opportunities of looking into the 
 workings of your politics and trade !" 
 
 Van Ness bowed respectfully. 
 
 "And the State Home for destitute chil 
 dren ?" asked a raw-boned Scotch-Irish 
 
 man. "We're interested in that here in 
 New York. We've subscribed largely, 
 as you're aware, Mr. Van Ness. May I 
 ask when you wull begin the buildin' ?" 
 
 " In the spring, I trust. If enough 
 funds are collected." 
 
 "And hoo air the funds invested in the 
 mean while ?" 
 
 "Oh, in corner -lots in Temperance 
 City." 
 
 The committee-men had hurried away 
 to catch the next train : lunch was over, 
 and Mr. Van Ness stood apart on the 
 lawn under the drooping branches of a 
 willow, when the princess tripped lightly 
 out to him. 
 
 " You have an object in coming here ? 
 You had an object in bringing those 
 men to-day and opening out your affairs. 
 What is it ?" 
 
 He regarded her composedly for a mo 
 ment without answering : " You always 
 erred, Charlotte, in ascribing your o\Vn 
 skill in intrigue to me. It was a flattering 
 mistake. What I am to others I am to 
 myself." 
 
 She laughed, a merry, hearty laugh : 
 "Yes, Pliny, because you are not satisfied 
 with cheating the world and the God that 
 made you into the belief that you are a 
 Christian, but you parade in your godli 
 ness before yourself. There is not a spot 
 within you sound enough for your real 
 soul to lodge in. It is all like that," set 
 ting her foot viciously on a fallen apple. 
 " Rotten to the core !" 
 
 A shadow of disgust passed over his 
 handsome face. Van Ness had a fas 
 tidious taste. Her melodramatic poses 
 had been familiar to him for years : they 
 always had annoyed and bored him. 
 
 " What is it that brings you here ? A 
 woman ?" 
 
 He hesitated a moment : "Yes." 
 
 " This yellow-haired girl ? You mean 
 to marry her ?" 
 
 " I may marry her," cautiously. 
 
 Their eyes met. " I did not think you 
 would push me so far," she said thought 
 fully. 
 
 " It is to your interest not to interfere. 
 You are mad, Charlotte. But you never 
 lose sight of the dirty dollar in your mad-
 
 6o 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 "That is for Ted's sake," quietly. " I 
 dislike that girl. She's so damnably 
 clean ! She's of the sort that would 
 walk straight on and trample me under 
 foot like a slug if she knew what I was. 
 I owe her an old grudge, too. But that's 
 nothing," laughing good - humoredly. 
 " It was the most ridiculous scene ! But 
 it lost me a year's income. She nearly 
 recognized me to-day. On the whole, I '11 
 not interfere. Marry her. She deserves 
 just such a punishment. By the way, 
 there is my card. You can send the back 
 payments that are due, to-morrow." 
 
 Van Ness received the card and com 
 mand with a smile and bow, meant for 
 the bystanders: "Of course, Charlotte, 
 you understand that these payments 
 must soon stop. I shall rid myself of 
 any legal claims you have upon me 
 before marrying another woman." 
 
 "Oh, I've no doubt you'll walk strict 
 ly according to law ! You will not run 
 the risk of a lawsuit, much less prosecu 
 tion, even for Miss Swendon. You will 
 have no trouble in gaining your freedom 
 from me," shrilly. 
 
 "None whatever," stripping the leaves 
 from a willow wand. She left him with 
 out a word, going to the house. 
 
 Mrs. Wilde had just summoned her 
 carriage. " Where is the princess ?" 
 looking lazily around. 
 
 " Is Madame Trebizoff a guest in your 
 house?" asked Jane suddenly. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " I will call her. I have something to 
 say to her." 
 
 She went to meet her with the grave 
 motherly firmness with which she would 
 have gone to give a scolding to black 
 Buff or a lazy chambermaid. The prin 
 cess, crossing the grass, slender, dark, 
 sparkling, had no doubt of her own 
 smouldering passionate hate against her. 
 It was the proper thing for Hagar to hate 
 Sarah. Life was thin and insipid without 
 great remorses, revenges, loves. The 
 poor little creature was always aiming at 
 them, and falling short. She was won 
 dering now why Jane wore no jewelry. 
 "Not an earring! Not a hoop on her 
 finger! If I had her money !" glancing 
 down at the blaze of rubies on her breast. 
 
 They met under a clump of lilacs. 
 
 "Stop one moment," said Jane, look 
 ing down at her not unkindly. "You 
 must not let this go too far, you know." 
 
 "What do you mean ?" The princess 
 fixed her eye upon her, with a somewhat 
 snaky light in it. Indeed, when she as 
 sumed that attitude toward Van Ness or 
 any other man she could frighten and 
 hold him at bay as if she had been a 
 cobra about to strike. But the lithe dark 
 body, the vivid color, the beady eye only 
 reminded Jane oddly of a darting little 
 lizard, and tempted her to laugh. 
 
 "No. You really must keep within 
 bounds. Because I have my eye upon 
 you. I can't let you cheat that good 
 soul, who brought you here, to her dam 
 age." 
 
 The princess gasped and whitened as 
 though a cold calm hand was laid on her 
 miserable sham of a body. 
 
 "Do you know who I am?" stiffening 
 herself into her idea of regal bearing. 
 
 " Not exactly. It does not matter in 
 the least, either. I took your means of 
 earning a living from you once, you told 
 me, and I don't wish to do it again. I 
 will not interfere as long as you hurt 
 nobody." 
 
 The princess stared at her and burst 
 into an hysteric laugh : " I believe, in my 
 soul, you mean just what you say ! You 
 are the shrewdest or stupidest woman I 
 ever saw ! Do you sympathize with me ? 
 Do you feel for me?" tragically, "or 
 are you trying to worm my secret from 
 me?" 
 
 "Neither one nor the other," coolly. 
 " I know your secret. You are no spirit 
 and no princess. I shall pity you per 
 haps when you go to some honest work. 
 Why," with sudden interest, " I can find 
 steady work for you at once. A stay- 
 maker in the village told me the other 
 day " 
 
 "/ make stays !" 
 
 They both laughed. Jane's chief 
 thought probably was how bony and 
 sickly this poor woman was : her own 
 solid white limbs seemed selfish to her 
 for the instant. She took the twitching, 
 ringed fingers in her hand. 
 
 "Play out your own play," she said
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 61 
 
 good-humoredly. "You will not hurt 
 anybody very seriously, I fancy." 
 
 They walked in silence to the house. 
 
 The princess bent forward in the car 
 riage-window as they drove away to look 
 back at her. " I wish my son knew such 
 women as that!" she cried. 
 
 "Son?" said the startled Mrs. Wilde. 
 " You have not spoken before to me of 
 your son, madame." 
 
 " I have always kept him under tutors 
 at Leipsic." 
 
 She leaned back as they drove through 
 the sunshine, her filmy handkerchief to 
 her painted eyes, seeing nothing but an 
 ugly, honest-faced boy hard at work in 
 a bare Presbyterian chapel. He would 
 never know nor guess the life of shame 
 
 which his mother led ! Her tears were 
 real now. 
 
 She even had wild, visionary thoughts 
 of a confession, of staymaking, of so 
 many dollars a week regularly. But 
 she remembered the time when some 
 fussy, good women had put her in 
 charge of a fashionable Kindergarten. 
 There was a fat salary ! The house was 
 luxurious : the teachers did the work. 
 But one night she had broken the fin 
 ical apparatus to pieces, left a heap of 
 bonbons for the children, scrawled a 
 verse of good-bye with chalk on the 
 blackboard, and taken to the road again 
 without a penny.
 
 V. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE Hemlock Farm was awake to 
 its farthest worm-eaten old fence. 
 Never since its trees grew or its grass was 
 green had such a breath and stir of de 
 light swept through them. The low Oc 
 tober sun reddened the stubble-field and 
 thrust lances of light through the dark 
 ening boles; a string band, hidden some 
 where, as evening fell sent long wafts 
 of music through meadow and woods ; 
 everywhere was the sound of children's 
 voices in the trees, in the hay-mow, 
 down in the old-fashioned rose-garden, 
 up in the dusty garrets. Boys and girls 
 of every shape and size, from pale, gray- 
 eyed midges to big, beefy hobbledehoys, 
 beset the captain at every turn. With 
 his one arm and his uniform, and his 
 gusty delight in themselves, and the back 
 ground of this marvellous old farm and 
 nut trees, he was a hero belonging to the 
 family of Signer Blitz or Kriss-Kringle. 
 In fact, this fea'st offcasts given by Miss 
 Swendon yet lingers in the memory of 
 its guests alongside of the enchanted gar 
 den of figs. 
 
 The feast had grown out of a word. 
 Miss Swendon had talked of the nuts 
 going to waste, and Mrs. Wilde of the 
 hundreds of children she knew "who fan 
 cied nuts grew on a fruit-stand." Jane's 
 face began to kindle. " Let us all go nut 
 ting with them," she said. 
 
 So it easily came to pass with tre 
 mendous exertions, however, on the part 
 of Judge Rhodes and the captain, whose 
 ideas, vague and vast, of the necessary 
 amount of cake and ice-cream doubled 
 with each day. 
 
 "Our fear in Virginia always used to 
 be that we should not have enough," 
 said the judge in solemn consultation. 
 
 "When I was a boy I never did have 
 enough," rejoined the captain. 
 
 The Twiss and Nichols children were 
 
 put into their Sunday finery and turned 
 
 out, their jealous mothers watching how 
 
 the city children treated them, Betty's 
 
 62 
 
 face red with delight as she announced 
 to Jane that they were "paler and more 
 delicate than any of 'em, and much bet 
 ter-looking." Buff and his father grum 
 bled loudly how they " weren't goin' to 
 let one of dem young debbils inter de 
 stable ;" but before the day was over 
 even gray old Dave was at the top of 
 every nut tree, shouting louder than any 
 boy of ten. As for Jane, she was every 
 where : she climbed trees and filled all 
 the pockets, told no end of stories, laugh 
 ed at the least jokes, and wiped away a 
 hundred sobbing miseries. 
 
 " I did not know you were excitable," 
 said Mrs. Wilde, meeting her suddenly 
 with pink cheeks and shining eyes on 
 her way to her father. 
 
 " I don't know. I never played with 
 young people before. Did you ever 
 know such a happy day?" 
 
 Mr. Van Ness came out in the after 
 noon, and stood in odd corners beaming 
 down on the little folk. But she passed 
 him without seeing him, as she might 
 the bronze Buddha shining in the hall. 
 
 " Do you really think the children are 
 having a good time, father ?" hanging 
 on his arm. " Have you been happy all 
 day ? Every minute ?" 
 
 As the twilight deepened the moon came 
 out yellow and round ; a few Chinese lan 
 terns were hung in the mossy crannies 
 and projections of the old house ; the car 
 riages began to drive away with the hap 
 py children, who all came to say good 
 bye and cling about her with that wild 
 fervor which children give to a new 
 friend. Jane might be cold and slow with 
 grown people, but she hugged these lit 
 tle folks as if she were mother to all of 
 them, and ran to hug them again more 
 closely, and could not keep the joyous 
 tears down in her eyes as their soft 
 kisses rained on her. Some of their 
 mothers and friends had come to thank 
 the beautiful young heiress for giving 
 their children such a happy day, and 
 they stayed, wandering about the queer
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 old house and the illuminated grounds : 
 they were the very people whose formal 
 calls Jane had forgotten to return. But 
 she did not think of that : she only saw 
 that they were quiet, friendly folk, and 
 that her father's face was glowing with 
 hospitality and content. The band struck 
 up a waltz, and some of the pretty girls 
 began to dance.on the grass. Jane stood 
 apart watching them thoughtfully : her 
 hands were folded together. This couple 
 who floated past her now surely they 
 were lovers. What a magnificent young 
 fellow he was ! She caught the meaning 
 of his eyes bent -on the sweet fair face. 
 She knew that little girl would be the 
 best wife for him in the world. She was 
 certain that she loved him dearly. 
 
 The yellow October twilight lingered 
 warmly ; even the cold moon glowed in 
 the colored haze ; the darkening woods, 
 the shadowy house on the hill, the laugh 
 ing dancers, the broad river at the foot 
 of the slope, were softened into the mel 
 low atmosphere of a dream. The music 
 was faint, a single fine harmony often re 
 peated. 
 
 The grave girl with the arched white 
 throat who stood attentive and silent un 
 der a tree, a wolf-hound beside her, her 
 gown of some soft creamy hue belted 
 about her waist and falling in heavy 
 silken folds, was to the visitors the most 
 noticeable point in the picture. Mr. Van 
 Ness, a few yards away, waited, hoping 
 she would come to him. But Jane saw 
 only the sky and the running water and 
 the lovers who passed her by. " There 
 are persons," said Mr. Van Ness suavely 
 to the judge, "who are like children or ani 
 mals. No intellectual poise. Good weath 
 er or a little amusement throws them com 
 pletely off their balance." 
 
 The dog, which Jane held by the col 
 lar, began to pull and bark joyfully. 
 There was a tall dark figure coming to 
 ward the group near her father. Jane 
 trembled more than the dog. 
 
 "No, you must not bring him to us, 
 Bruno : he doesn't wish to come." 
 
 He did not come. She could hear a 
 word now and then. Everybody was hur 
 rying to greet him. How had he been 
 able to leave his post ? Would this new 
 
 platform save the country ? And what 
 would the Syndicate do in view of this 
 last complication ? She knew he was the 
 leader of the Syndicate. Great leaders 
 and the Syndicate and the country, all 
 these things were in company. 
 
 She crept back out of sight in the 
 bushes. Bruno broke loose and ran 
 toward him. She went down to the 
 river. 
 
 In a moment Bruno came dashing 
 back, crunching through the bushes. 
 There was a steady step on the grass. 
 
 "Are you here, Miss Swendon?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Any of the finical little ladies yonder, 
 had they been in her place, would have 
 met this lover who gave no sign of love 
 with all the self-respect and dignity of 
 womanhood. Not unwooed would they 
 be won, yet every resentful word or tear 
 that drove him back would have been 
 alluring and maddening. Honest Jane 
 went straight to him and gave him her 
 hand. She could not keep the hot color 
 from her face or the water from her eyes. 
 She had told him once that she loved 
 him. With her, done was done. Death 
 itself, coming between, would no give 
 her love back again. 
 
 Mr. Neckart took the frank hand and 
 let it fall. " I came to you for this one 
 evening," he said, " before before I go. 
 One evening surely can import nothing. 
 It can make no difference to you." 
 
 Mr. Neckart was a fluent speaker in 
 public : he had been used to talk to Jane 
 by the hour with the lazy freedom of 
 thinking aloud. Now, arguing perhaps 
 against himself, he was awkward and 
 stammered. He did not know what she 
 answered, or if she answered at all. 
 
 They both fell into silence. For months 
 Neckart had looked forward to this su 
 preme moment of parting. He must see 
 her once more. But she should not have 
 a glimpse of his starved soul. He would 
 act with perfect honorable propriety. A 
 few friendly words, one look to carry with 
 him until death, that was all. He did 
 not remember now that it was a supreme 
 moment : it was only a deliciously happy 
 one. What rare fine shades of meaning 
 came out on her face each minute ! The
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 absurd downright sincerity of the girl 
 too ! Surely all these men must be 
 mad with love of her ! Where had she 
 discovered that wonder of a dress ? Did 
 other women ever wear such garments ? 
 his eyes following the soft slopes. 
 
 As for the young woman in the creamy 
 robe, she was filled with a great content. 
 She did not once think of the actual in 
 sanity which had its hold upon him. She 
 did not think of her dying father, or of 
 Jane Swendon's crime, or of Jane Swen- 
 don at all. All her real life had dropped 
 out of her memory. There was left the 
 warm air and the happy day and the 
 music, and this one living being beside 
 her. His hand rested on the bough of an 
 apple tree : she could see on his palm a 
 peculiar red mark, a birth-mark, which 
 she had often watched darken or fade. 
 She never thought of Neckart without 
 remembering it. But why she should 
 settle into a great content at the sight 
 of this mark, which was in no wise a 
 beautiful or desirable thing, is not for us 
 to say. It is certain that as soon as she 
 saw it her hold on life became quite 
 secure, and the world righted itself in 
 stantly. 
 
 The music deepened, it filled the night ; 
 warm air stirred all the trees ; a robin 
 chirped in its nest overhead. The lov 
 ers whom Jane had watched waltzed past 
 them. Neckart and Jane looked after 
 them. Then they turned to each other. 
 After all, they were young : life that 
 night throbbed high as it had never 
 done before. 
 
 " Come with me," he said, and put his 
 arm about her waist. 
 
 He had danced when he was a boy, 
 and had since seen a thousand women 
 waltz : it was to him nothing but music 
 and a pleasant motion. But no boy or 
 man had ever danced with Jane before 
 or touched her. It was to her her wed 
 ding-day. 
 
 It lasted but for a moment. The mu 
 sic stopped and left them standing under 
 the pines, the spicy smell strong in the air. 
 When Neckart removed his hand he saw 
 how bloodless and grave her face was. 
 
 " I ought not to have asked you to 
 dance, Jane. But it will be something 
 
 for me to remember as long as I live. 
 And men are selfish." 
 
 " You do not mean to leave me now ?" 
 
 " My God ! I don't know !" 
 
 In the shadow of the pines he could 
 see the white face upturned to his. He 
 took it between his hands. Why should 
 he not take her to his breast and dare 
 his fate ? Nothing came between them 
 but that shadow of honor. 
 
 He would obey it. 
 
 She would forget him : women were 
 shallower than men. They always for 
 got. But for him there was only intol 
 erable solitude to the end. He would 
 meet it, although he had come back 
 weakly to the forbidden fruit. He gloried 
 in the consciousness that he was a most 
 heroic martyr as he stooped and kissed 
 her mouth again and again. 
 
 " Neckart !" called the captain. 
 " Somebody find Bruce. He has not a 
 minute to spare." 
 
 Neckart released her. " I must make 
 this train," he said. "I must go back to 
 the office. You know that I go on the 
 steamer that sails to-morrow." 
 
 Trains ? Steamers ? With these kisses 
 on his lips ? 
 
 "What line do you cross in, Bruce?" 
 The captain had hurried down with the 
 other men. " Where do you go first ?" 
 as they walked to the house. 
 
 "To France, and then to the East," 
 buttoning his coat nervously, without a 
 glance toward the stunned girl beside 
 him. 
 
 " Be back in the spring, Mr. Neck- 
 art?" said a lisping young lady. 
 
 "Not for years. At least, that is my 
 present intention." 
 
 The warmth, the happy day, music, 
 love that had filled all earth and heav 
 en but now, were gone. In their place 
 the gaslight, trains, conventional talk of 
 duty! 
 
 "Neckart" she heard a whisper be 
 hind her "goes to Russia and Turkey 
 on secret business for the government." 
 
 The kindly old judge, seeing Jane's 
 face, quietly gave her a chair and shel 
 tered her from notice. If Neckart had 
 waited on this girl, he was an infernal 
 scoundrel, no matter what his political
 
 A LAW UXTO HERSELF. 
 
 rank. He knew she was as good as be 
 trothed to Van Ness. 
 
 Jane watched all these brilliant women 
 flutter around Neckart, giving him mes 
 sages to their friends abroad. His cloak 
 was thrown loosely back from his broad 
 shoulders : he bent to listen to them. 
 She knew nothing of this world of theirs. 
 She was like a poor limp rag of human 
 ity, blown aside into a corner. She had 
 her fantastic passion : all the world be 
 sides was orderly, moved in the grooves 
 of common sense and duty. 
 
 Mr. Neckart looked at his watch : " I 
 must really go now." He shook hands 
 with Mrs. Wilde, giving a swift glance 
 to the corner where Jane sat. Waring 
 and his attendant young ladies closed in 
 on him with more last words and purling 
 laughter. He made his way through 
 them. 
 
 "Good-bye! good-bye!" cried the cap 
 tain, wringing his hand. "God bless 
 you, Bruce ! \Vhat is it ? Jane ? Oh, I'll 
 make your adieux to her. You'll miss 
 your train." 
 
 But he had reached her at last, and took 
 her hand in his, all the world looking on : 
 "Good-bye, Miss Swendon." 
 
 She could not say a word. They all 
 followed him out, one pretty little girl 
 taking off her slipper to throw after him. 
 But Jane sat alone in the deserted room, 
 looking at the door through which the 
 heavy cloaked figure had disappeared. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 JAXE was roused by a wild shriek from 
 without. She thought at first it was an 
 animal in an agony of pain or rage. The 
 wind had closed the door, and she could 
 not open it. She went round by a pas 
 sage to reach the lawn. While she had 
 been in the hall a scene fit for a melo 
 drama was in progress without. The tiny 
 black Russian landauletwith three ponies 
 abreast which Madame Trebizoff usually 
 drove stood a few paces back near the 
 woods. In the centre of the open space, 
 in the full light both of the moon and the 
 lights from the house, stood the princess, 
 black lace draping her tragically, rubies 
 5 
 
 flaming in her jetty hair, and a blood- 
 red poppy in her breast. She was turn 
 ing from one group of men to another 
 like a hunted animal : her voice, once 
 let loose from the thin smooth level on 
 which she held it, squeaked and chat 
 tered, and then fell into doglike growls 
 and sobs. Mrs. Wilde stood between 
 her and a burly man in gray. 
 
 " I assure you, sir, that there is no Ma 
 dame Varens here. This is an English 
 lady and my guest. My guest ! You 
 know who I am Mrs. John Schuyler 
 Wilde." 
 
 " Very sorry, Mrs. Wilde, to annoy you, 
 or these ladies," turning to the group 
 of frightened girls to whom the princess 
 had flown for succor. She looked back 
 from their midst like a furious crow from 
 out of a covey of white doves. " I won't 
 swear that her name's Varens. She's 
 down in the description also as Mrs; . 
 Swift and Aurelia Lamb. Regular confi 
 dence-woman, madam. I didn't want t& . 
 follow her in here. Nobody respects la 
 dies as are ladies more than I do. Now, 
 ma'am," turning to Charlotte, "you'd, 
 better come quietly. It's nothing serious. . 
 A few hundreds. Small operation for you. 
 Not worth disturbing people of this class," 
 nodding back over his right ear as he 
 caught her by the arm. 
 
 " Class ! What do you mean ? This is , 
 my class !" shaking him back as if he 
 had been a snake and tapping her breast 
 as she lifted herself to her tiptoes. " My 
 class! Do you hear? I am the Princess 
 Trebizoff. I have witnesses. Mr. Van 
 Ness! Mr. Van Ness is here to speak 
 for me." 
 
 " Pliny Van Ness ?" said the awed der 
 tective. " If Avouches for you, ma'am " 
 
 Mr. Van Ness, who had watched the 
 arrest with much placidity, was sudden 
 ly left by the withdrawal of the crowd 
 standing alone facing the detective and 
 his prisoner. He stroked his blond 
 beard and looked down at her with 
 thoughtful compassion. 
 
 "Mr. Van Ness," she said shrilly, ad 
 vancing a step, "I am in danger of a 
 jail. Certify for me that I am your 
 friend, the woman whom I represent my 
 self to be."
 
 66 
 
 A LAW UNTO HEKSELF. 
 
 "Of course any friend of yours, Mr. 
 Van Ness I may be mistaken," inter 
 jected the officer. 
 
 " I am very sorry, officer," said the re 
 former, his mellow tones full of pain. 
 "But this lady " 
 
 " Do you refuse ?" she shrieked. Then 
 springing up to him and thrusting her 
 face in his, she whispered, " For Ted's 
 sake ! I am your child's mother ! If he 
 should find me in jail !" 
 
 " I was about to say, officer," calmly 
 pursued Mr. Van Ness, " that this lady 
 is unknown to me except as a casual 
 acquaintance. She may be a princess. 
 Sne may be a thief. That is for you to 
 settle. As for me " And waving his 
 white hands and shrugging his broad 
 shoulders, he turned away. 
 
 The princess looked after him steadily 
 a moment, then she turned to the men : 
 "Are you going to see me hauled away 
 to prison without a word ? I am a wo 
 man ! An Englishwoman ! This is Amer 
 ican justice !" She lifted herself again 
 into her favorite attitude of malediction, 
 shaking her fingers against the air as if 
 scattering curses. 
 
 "Good gracious!" cried Mr. Waring. 
 " Why ! why ! Surely I have seen that 
 done before ! I say, judge ! Don't you 
 remember? The medium Combe? The 
 spirit " 
 
 "Come!" said the officer gruffly. 
 "We've had enough of this. Your 
 friends disown you, ma'am. I'll trou 
 ble you to step down to the hack " 
 
 It was then that the poor princess gave 
 the despairing shriek which 'Jane had 
 heard. Eluding the officer's clutch, she 
 darted across the open space and faced 
 them, while she plunged her hand into 
 her pocket and drew out a vial full of a 
 dark liquid. There was a cry of horror 
 as she put it to her lips, drained it and 
 sank to the ground. 
 
 "Good God! she has taken poison!" 
 cried the captain. 
 
 There were immediate shouts for a 
 doctor, and frantic rushes out and back 
 again on the part of Buff and Dave and 
 the young men, who wanted to scatter 
 the news, but were afraid something 
 would happen while they were gone. 
 
 Mrs. Wilde came up to her. " She really 
 is an impostor, then ?" holding out her 
 trembling arms to take her. 
 
 " Oh, the worst kind ! Dead-beat, con 
 fidence as much lower as you can go. 
 Don't touch her, ma'am. You'd better 
 take them young ladies away too. This 
 isn't the sort of thing for them to see." 
 
 "Certainly not," running off like a 
 scared hen - partridge. "Come, girls, I 
 will take you home at once. This is a 
 phase of life not fit for you to look into." 
 
 But she could not drive them farther 
 than the porch, where they huddled, pale, 
 all talking at once, looking back and de 
 claring it was as exciting as any tragedy, 
 and was the poor creature dead ? and oh, 
 to think they had all called on her ! 
 
 By this time Jane was on her knees 
 and had the princess in her arms. " Poor 
 thing! poor thing!" she said. Her own 
 heart was so bruised and sore that she 
 might have sobbed over this other wo 
 man if she had had nothing else to do 
 for her. 
 
 "Lay her down, miss, if you please. 
 A doctor's been sent for. She's in the 
 hands of medicine and the law." 
 
 " Father, where is your patent stomach- 
 pump ?" 
 
 "The very thing, Jane !" dashing into 
 the house. 
 
 "May the Lord have mercy on her 
 soul !" said Waring. 
 
 " Mr. Waring, are you there ? Help 
 me to carry her. Into my room." 
 
 " Somewhere else ! Not there !" ex 
 claimed the judge. 
 
 " These proceedings are very irreg 
 ular!" blustered the officer. "Accordin" 
 to New York law, the body shouldn't be 
 touched until the coroner arrives." 
 
 " But is she dead ?" interposed Mr. Van 
 Ness, bringing the little procession to a 
 full halt. "A she dead? That is the 
 question. Allow me. Lay her on this 
 settee : one moment, Miss Swendon," 
 prying one eyelid open and bending his 
 ear to her heart with an air of judicial 
 decision. 
 
 " Life," said the detective ponderously, 
 " appears to have become extinct." 
 
 Jane pushed back the hair from the 
 lean face. "Perhaps," she said, "she
 
 A LAW UNTO HEXSELF. 
 
 has a child," and then stooped and 
 kissed her on the mouth. 
 
 Van Ness, at the word, paused and 
 looked for a moment sharply from one 
 woman to the other. Then with a sad 
 smile he lifted the hand which clenched 
 the vial tightly. It required a wrench to 
 remove it. He uncorked it and put it to 
 his tongue. 
 
 "Prussic acid!" said the detective. 
 "Strong odor of peach-blossoms." 
 
 "Give me space one moment," said 
 Van Ness excitedly. "There is a chance 
 of saving her ! Stand back, Miss Svven- 
 don." 
 
 The officer and Jane drew back has 
 tily. He stooped and -whispered vehe 
 mently into the ear of the dead woman. 
 She opened her eyes, sparkling and full 
 of malice, stared at him doubtfully, then 
 nodded. The captain, a physician and 
 a dozen other aids arrived at the mo 
 ment. 
 
 "You are too late," said Van Ness 
 calmly, meeting them. "Madame Tre- 
 bizoff had only swooned. She is willing 
 to go with the officer. Will you take my 
 arm, Miss Swendon ? You are faint, I 
 am sure. As for the poison," lowering 
 his voice as he bent toward her, "it was 
 only sweetened water. The princess has 
 taken it before." 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE steamer began to cut at last 
 through the short curled waves, a bit 
 of spray blown up on Neckart's mouth 
 was salt, and, looking back, the great 
 congregation of ships in the offing had 
 dwindled to a few black spears of masts. 
 
 It was done, then ! He had left all be 
 hind and cut loose, finally and for ever. 
 He was glad that there was not a fa 
 miliar face in the ship's company. The 
 other passengers, looking critically at 
 the well - known politician as he paced 
 up and down, rated him as a keen, vig 
 orous man in the maturity of power, 
 wholly engrossed in affairs. He did not 
 once think of the affairs of his own or 
 any other country : he knew now but 
 one fact that the time was at hand 
 
 when he must meet the fate to which he 
 had looked forward so long, and that the 
 sea must be between himself and Jane 
 before that day came. But he was not 
 likely to give any hint by appearance 
 or words that this matter troubled him. 
 There was a young mother with her first 
 baby near him. God only knows what 
 thoughts of Jane were in his mind as he 
 looked at her. But he stopped to talk 
 with her husband, who spoke to him 
 about a shoal of porpoises ; and after 
 ward, when the captain inquired if health 
 or pleasure took him from home, stated 
 carelessly that it was a cerebral affec 
 tion, and discussed the efficacy of some 
 recommended bromide. 
 
 There was a lady sitting alone on the 
 deck, a dark -green cloth dress belted 
 neatly about a jimp figure, and cut 
 short enough to show tight-laced boots : 
 a close fur cap tied over her ears an 
 ugly little woman, but all alive and ready 
 for action. 
 
 Something familiar in her carriage drew 
 Neckart's eye to her a second time. She 
 nodded and smiled : " You have quite 
 forgotten me ?" 
 
 " Miss Fleming ! It is so many years 
 since I saw you ! Or ought I to say Miss 
 Fleming?" looking about for her com 
 panion. 
 
 She laughed: "I am quite alone. On 
 the ship, and everywhere else, for that 
 matter. They are all gone, Mr. Neck- 
 art." She stopped abruptly and turned 
 her head away. Cornelia never could 
 speak of her mother without choking. 
 
 " I did not know," said Bruce gently. 
 " It is long since I was at the homestead." 
 
 "Yes, there's nobody but me," she 
 said presently with a nervous laugh. " I 
 manage to support myself by art. It's 
 poor support, and poorer art. But I have 
 scraped together enough money to take 
 me to Rome to make it better. With 
 shawl - straps and a satchel American 
 women can go anywhere, you know." 
 
 "You do not look like one of the mod 
 ern Unas," glancing down. There was, 
 on the contrary, a singular degree of 
 femininity in this woman : he remem 
 bered now how it used to impress him 
 as a boy. In the crowds that had filled
 
 68 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 his later years Cornelia's face had faded 
 completely out of his mind. It began to 
 come up now out of his boyhood, not un 
 pleasantly, but rather with much of the 
 glamour of those early days clinging to it. 
 Yet he was annoyed that any old remem 
 brance was to be kept awake during the 
 voyage. He had meant to make it a lapse 
 of absolute forgetfulness, and after that 
 what? "A season of dreadful looking- 
 for of judgment," he found himself re 
 peating as he talked civilly to Cornelia 
 about the color of the water. He rose 
 at last, being under such a nervous strain 
 that he could not keep still. 
 
 " I shall go and beg the captain to give 
 me a seat next yours at table," he said 
 smiling. " I must take an oversight of 
 you." 
 
 " Pray do not," she said anxiously, lay 
 ing her hand on his sleeve. " I will not 
 be a charge on anybody. Why, I am 
 as independent as any female doctor ! 
 Just let me come and go without notice, 
 and if ever you feel like talking to me, 
 don't think of me as a young lady, but 
 only as somebody whom you used to 
 know when you were a boy." 
 
 Neckart bowed and smiled. There 
 was something very cordial and sweet 
 in the little speech. Was it genuine na 
 ture that dictated it or only fine tact ? In 
 any case, he was glad to be relieved of 
 the duty of paying petits soins to any wo 
 man. Of course he would not neglect 
 the poor creature, who appeared to be 
 very lonely, and, in spite of her gro 
 tesque little swagger, as ill able to stand 
 alone as any woman he had ever seen. 
 He glanced at the homely attractive face 
 looking far out to sea when he turned in 
 his walk. The second time he caught 
 her looking at him with a sadness and 
 hunger in her eyes that drove the blood 
 to his heart like a blow. What was that 
 which had happened between them when 
 they were both children? A love-affair? 
 Absurd ! It was impossible that any sane 
 woman could remember such folly. With 
 every drop of blood tingling hot within 
 him he turned down the deck and buried 
 himself in the crowd in the cabin. Why 
 had she never married ? But what did 
 that matter to him ? He did not come 
 
 near her at the table, nor join her dur 
 ing the rest of the day. But why had 
 she never married ? Could it have been 
 the thought of him which had kept her 
 aloof and solitary all her life ? 
 
 Miss Fleming was one of the last to 
 forsake the deck that night. She was 
 a good sailor, and not likely to lose any 
 time by sickness. " I can't afford to lose 
 any time," she said to herself, her lips 
 making a thin seam across her face, as 
 she sat hour after hour waiting for him 
 to return. "What I do must be done 
 now or never." She had taken every 
 penny she had in the world to pay for 
 this fortnight in the ship with him. 
 
 " I shall succeed," rising, her thin 
 cheeks pale, but her eyes like coals of 
 fire. As she went through the cabin she 
 scowled at the pretty young girls, who, 
 like the birds in the fable, had a thou 
 sand lures of innocence and beauty and 
 plumage. She was Reynard with his 
 one trick friendship and whatever she 
 hid behind it. " But I never failed yet," 
 she said as she shut herself into the dark 
 ness of her state-room. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE captain reported himself "under 
 the weather" the day after the nutting 
 frolic. His guests had all gone except 
 ing Van Ness, who remained in New 
 York, appearing at the farm every after 
 noon with a fresh invoice of diffusive 
 sweetness and light. In a week the cap 
 tain gave up his daily visit to the club, 
 and one morning Jane found him in the 
 work-room, busy again among the dusty 
 models, with a gray pinched line about 
 his jaws. She ran to put on her apron, 
 and worked with him, jesting and laugh 
 ing, but as soon as she could escape sent 
 Dave to the doctor. The old gentleman 
 came, chatted a while, and soon followed 
 Jane out to the hall. 
 
 " Florida to-morrow ? Southern Califor 
 nia ? No, not now. Let him have home 
 comforts and good nursing this winter. 
 Anything he wants to eat. Humor him 
 as much as you choose." 
 
 Jane stood holding by the back of a
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 69 
 
 chair : " You do not mean that there is 
 danger ?" 
 
 " I see no change in the symptoms," 
 cautiously. "We'll try the new prescrip 
 tion a few days, and we shall see we 
 shall see." 
 
 Jane went back to her father and the 
 models, and talked calmly of screws and 
 pistons. If she could only take the shak 
 ing old gray head to her breast and cry 
 her heart out ! If she could lie down in 
 the grave with him ! They had been 
 such friends all her life ! He was the 
 only friend she ever had. She got up 
 and ran out of doors once or twice : 
 her breath was leaving her : his face, 
 with the strange change in it, drove her 
 away. Outside, the ducks were wabbling 
 in and out of the pond, the sun was shin 
 ing, the chrysanthemums and crimson 
 prince's feather were all in flower. Dave 
 was currying a horse in the stable-yard 
 and whistling a dancing tune. What a 
 foolish fright she had been in ! Every 
 thing in the world was going just as usual. 
 When she went back, too, the captain 
 was pulling out his patent scissors from 
 a drawer, laughing, his face flushed. He 
 never looked better in his life. 
 
 She never left him after that. She 
 had a couch made for herself at his door, 
 that she might hear the moment that he 
 stirred in the night. She could see no 
 change in him from day to day, but she 
 watched everybody keenly who came 
 near him, trying to read their opinion 
 of him in their faces. She fancied there 
 was a difference in the manner of even 
 Dave and Buff to him a forced jocu 
 larity, a peculiar tenderness of voice. 
 Bruno, she observed, had deserted her 
 altogether and kept close to his master. 
 
 It was at this time that Mr. Van Ness 
 began to monopolize the house : the very 
 air of it grew bland and decorous. He 
 came early, and stayed until night. The 
 captain treated him with reverential def 
 erence : Jane fell into the same habit. 
 She was weak and suasible as a reed just 
 now. She had lost all root and marrow 
 out of her life. Every day her father 
 dilated on Mr. Van Ness's virtues. She 
 could not deny one of them. They be 
 gan to fence her in as with smooth polish 
 
 ed walls, with no breath inside. Bruno, 
 alone inexorable, never allowed him to 
 pass without a snap and growl, although 
 he had yielded enough to the pressure of 
 public opinion not to fly at his throat. 
 
 "Mr. Van Ness, my dear," said the 
 captain one day, " has been good enough 
 to look into the affairs of the farm. He 
 says the income from it should be trebled. 
 Ask his advice, Jane. Especially as to 
 turnips. We failed there. What intel 
 lectual scope that man has ! It grasps a 
 vast theory one moment and the minutest 
 detail the next." 
 
 "Yes, father." It mattered little to 
 Jane who meddled with the farm now. 
 
 "Mr. Van Ness" the next day 
 "was glancing over your book-shelves 
 this morning, Jane. A course of read 
 ing such as he would dictate would be 
 of immeasurable benefit to you." 
 
 " I know it," humbly. " I am shame 
 fully ignorant." 
 
 " Why not put yourself wholly into his 
 care, Jenny ?" taking her hand tenderly. 
 " He is one of the best of men." 
 
 " I believe he is," candidly. 
 
 At this moment the reformer came in 
 sight on the lawn without, the full sun 
 shine falling on him. They both looked 
 at him. 
 
 " His intellect is of a high calibre, Jen 
 ny : he saw into that idea of mine for the 
 gauge to-day in an instant." 
 
 Jane nodded dully. 
 
 "And as for looks have you any fault 
 to find with him, Jane ?" 
 
 "No, none." 
 
 "Then, in God's name, why " He 
 checked himself. " Mr. Van Ness asked 
 me to speak with you this afternoon. It's 
 a very solemn matter, Jenny. It's for life. 
 You know what I wish. Don't shove off 
 your life's happiness for a prejudice of no 
 more weight than so much fog. I think 
 I'll lie down and sleep a while. Think 
 the matter over. There he is outside. 
 He wishes to talk to you of it now." 
 
 Jane lingered, tucked the cover over 
 his feet again and again. She could not 
 go out and talk to this man in cold blood 
 of marriage. When she told him that it 
 could not be, that she could not love him, 
 what reason could she give ? She had
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 no reason. There was none. This hus 
 band waiting out on the gravel-path, and 
 smiling in on her, was in every way ad 
 mirable and lovable. But Bruno and 
 old Dave were better comrades for her 
 nearer kinsfolk. 
 
 The captain opened his eyes drowsily : 
 "You are going to read? That's right, 
 Jenny." 
 
 She brought the book gladly, and Mr. 
 Van Ness moved disappointed away. 
 There were certain chapters in St. John 
 which the old man himself had taught 
 Jane. Her mother had little to do with 
 the Bible, which she declared was full 
 of Presbyterian bigotry, but the captain, 
 who was at bottom a devout soul, had 
 anxiously tried to give the child as soon 
 as she could speak what he supposed to 
 be the milk of the Word. Every day 
 now she would hear him muttering to 
 himself these passages from the Sermon 
 on the Mount or in John's Gospel, and 
 he would presently call on her to repeat 
 them, explaining them to her as though 
 she were still a child. 
 
 "We got away from the Master as we 
 grew older, Jenny : that was the mis 
 take," he said now, stroking her hair as 
 she kneeled by the bed. " I ought to 
 have kept you close by Him. But you 
 see the patents and the other worries 
 It's all been so hurried I've hardly be 
 gun fairly. But we'll try and do what's 
 right now. There's plenty of time before 
 us." 
 
 " Oh, father !" She buried her head on 
 his breast. 
 
 " If I've done wrong to any man, I'd 
 like to have his forgiveness and to make 
 restitution. Restitution" the captain 
 said, talking into the vague space which 
 widened slowly about him every day. 
 Jane, holding his shaking old hand, 
 groped, as every other human soul in 
 pain does, to find this Master. 
 
 She had but little faith then : like all 
 other feelings, it would probably come 
 slowly into her slow nature and abide 
 there. But could He come close as her fa 
 ther said ? She was so utterly alone ! She 
 would be glad to make restitution, though 
 the money had been her own, if that would 
 please Him. But restitution to whom ? 
 
 " Go now : I want to sleep. Mr. Van 
 Ness is waiting." She moved to the 
 door: "Jenny, you'll say what is right 
 to him. I trust you." 
 
 Mr. Van Ness did wait at the door of 
 the conservatory. His white hand was 
 held out, as if to lead her into perfume 
 and light. Was it this which He would 
 order her to do ? \Vas it ? The very 
 touch of his hand seemed to her an 
 indecency. 
 
 " Miss Swendon " Van Ness began 
 abruptly, in so rough and candid a tone 
 that Jane looked at him startled and re 
 spectful "you are prejudiced against 
 me. I see that my manner impresses 
 you as artificial. It is so, and I know it. 
 I wish to account to you for that before 
 I open my business to you." He passed 
 his soft fingers slightly down the fold of 
 his shirt, opened his thick red lips once 
 or twice and shut them again, his eyes 
 fixed on her own, probing, gauging her. 
 " I must give you the keynote to my 
 whole life," he resumed. "You were 
 born among people of culture and gen 
 tle habits. I was a foundling, the child 
 of vice, reared in it, fed by it, until I was 
 old enough to stand by myself. Then I 
 swore by God's help to leave it behind 
 me for ever. I have struggled- on this 
 far. It has been hard work. That is 
 all," with a long breath. "You know 
 what I am now. I wanted you to know 
 precisely what I have been." 
 
 It was unwomanly not to make a 
 friendly sign to the man who had thus 
 frankly humiliated himself before her. 
 Jane forced herself to speak : 
 
 "You are very sincere more sincere 
 than is necessary. But I respect you for 
 it." 
 
 " You can understand now why my 
 manners and voice bear the evident 
 marks of training. They both have an 
 artificial twang which has prejudiced you 
 against me. Am I right?" 
 
 " Possibly you are right," said down 
 right Jane. "If it was only the manner 
 and voice, I have been unjust to you." 
 
 He waved his hand with humble 
 deprecation, and sighed audibly. Jane 
 moved restlessly. No exhibition of cha 
 racter could be more noble or genuine :
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 nothing could be more winning than the 
 handsome blond head between her and 
 the shelves of flowers. This senseless 
 antipathy which she felt to both was 
 that of an animal. She was ashamed of 
 it, and stood smiling, her head bent with 
 clumsy politeness, and the same look in 
 her eyes which Bruno gave him. 
 
 "You will understand now, too," he 
 continued gently, "why my interest in 
 vicious and hungry children is so deep. 
 I have been one of them. It is little for 
 me to have given my life to help them." 
 
 " It must be a comfort to give your life 
 to any certain work," cried Jane hotly. 
 " It's very hard to reach middle age, as 
 I have done, and find one's self fit for 
 nothing! Nothing whatever!" 
 
 Mr. Van Ness did not at once reply. 
 He scanned her curiously, as he might a 
 tool about whose temper he was not cer 
 tain, but which it was necessary for him 
 to use. 
 
 "Your father has told you my reason 
 for wishing to speak to you to-day ?" he 
 said abruptly. 
 
 Jane's head and very throat were scar 
 let: "Yes. But we will not talk at all 
 of that matter, Mr. Van Ness," stam 
 mering with haste. " It is impossible, 
 unnatural. You are more experienced 
 than I : you must see that it is impos 
 sible more clearly than I do." 
 
 " In hoping," he resumed, after calmly 
 dropping his light eyelashes while she 
 spoke, politely attentive, "in anxiously 
 striving, I may say, to gain you as my 
 wife, I did not intend to give up the cause 
 of the orphan and the fatherless." 
 
 "Oh you ought not to give it up! It 
 would be really criminal ! After you 
 have gone so far! And I should be no 
 help to you at all," she added breath 
 lessly. 
 
 "But," with his light confusing gaze 
 full on her, "you know, to speak plain 
 English, that your father on his death 
 bed desires that you shall marry me?" 
 
 The blood came and rushed back from 
 Jane's face, leaving it colorless. 
 
 "Why will you not grant this last 
 wish ?" 
 
 Why ? There was no reason why she 
 should not. She was dear to nobody 
 
 else in the world than this old man- 
 she was of use to nobody else. To no 
 body. She looked for some time di 
 rectly into the shallow eyes facing her 
 with aggressive complaisance. " I can 
 not do it," she said at last. She seemed 
 to have grown stolid from head to foot. 
 
 " Why ? What is this bar between us ?" 
 coming a step closer. 
 
 "How can I tell?" with a nervous 
 shudder. " If I lived with you as your 
 wife for years, you would be none the 
 less a stranger to me." 
 
 " Miss Swendon," suddenly, and with 
 the indulgent smile which he would have 
 given to a child, "I will not accept such 
 an answer. Take time. Consider the 
 matter calmly. You speak rashly now. 
 You have not a single reason to give for 
 your decision." 
 
 " No," said Jane quietly. " But I shall 
 not alter it." 
 
 "This woman," thought Van Ness, " is 
 all mule." But he went on blandly : "In 
 any other case the fact that you were pos 
 sessed of large means and that I am al 
 most penniless would have deterred me 
 from approaching you in this way " 
 
 " The money counts for nothing with 
 me," quickly. 
 
 " I know that. I know that if you were 
 my wife your generous nature would re 
 joice in giving it to me in furtherance 
 of my great work. In fact " He 
 stopped, measured her again with the 
 same hesitating inspection, and then, 
 while Jane listened intently, proceeded: 
 "To be quite candid, Miss Swendon, but 
 for a sudden and most unexpected change 
 in Mr. Laidley's disposition on the last 
 day of his life, my Home for Friendless 
 Children would have been made a cer 
 tainty without your aid." 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 "The will," deliberately, "which he 
 made but a week before his death left 
 his whole property intact to me as trus 
 tee for this charity. You know that he 
 changed his mind and destroyed this will 
 apparently in the very act of dying, and 
 gave it to you. I am rejoiced that he 
 did so : be assured of that. But if it 
 should come back, after all, to the Home, 
 and you with it as a helper, there would
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 be a fine poetic justice in that, I think," 
 with a pleased gurgle in his throat. 
 
 Mr. Van Ness had always regarded 
 Jane as a young, insignificant -looking 
 girl. But now, for some strange reason, 
 she impressed him as a middle-aged, 
 powerful woman. 
 
 "So you were the heir?" 
 
 "Yes. Or the Home, to be exact 
 the Home." 
 
 Jane raised her arms and clasped her 
 hands over her head. She said at last : 
 " The money is mine. It was mine when 
 William Laidley gave it to you. I will 
 keep it as long as my father lives. As 
 soon as he is dead I shall give it to you. 
 I shall be glad to give it up glad." 
 Her arms fell to her side : a great relief 
 came slowly into her face. 
 
 At last the burden was to fall off. The 
 way before her was simple and clear. 
 
 Mr. Van Ness laughed with keen 
 amusement, but checked himself with 
 an apologetic cough : " Forgive me, but 
 really, Miss Swendon, you are so incred 
 ibly innocent ! A mere baby in your 
 knowledge of the world or ordinary cus 
 toms. It would be impossible for you to 
 make such a transfer. You could not 
 give the estate, and I could not take it, 
 unless upon one condition." 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 "That you give it as my wife." 
 
 "There is no other way," he resumed 
 after a pause, finding that she made no 
 reply. "Of course," with a bitter laugh, 
 " I do not expect your zeal in behalf of 
 the friendless children to tempt you to so 
 repugnant a step as marriage with me. 
 But that is the only way in which this 
 property could be restored to them." 
 
 Still she was silent. A pot with a half- 
 dead geranium was near her : she began 
 to break off the yellow leaves and lay 
 them in a neat little heap one by one. 
 Did Van Ness suspect the truth ? He 
 stood erect, regarding her from calm 
 heights of virtue. Presently he con 
 tinued: "The property, as you say, is 
 legally your own. The tenor of the 
 will makes it so. But when I think of 
 the starved bodies and souls of these 
 poor children, and remember how little 
 jou value your great wealth, I feel that 
 
 surely God meant it for them. It was 
 some strange mistake that took it from 
 them." 
 
 Jane did not meet his eye. She pushed 
 open the little door, and went out hur 
 riedly into the fresh air. Van Ness fol 
 lowed her. It is not probable that he 
 had guessed her secret, but he certainly 
 knew that for some reason this fact of 
 the lost will had given him an inflexible 
 hold upon the jaded, fluttering woman. 
 He meant to press it with peremptory 
 force. 
 
 The wind without was blowing keen 
 and cold. Jane rallied in it. She turned 
 to Van Ness with something of her ordi 
 nary courage. She was absolutely cer 
 tain of her own honesty, and she hoped 
 that God believed in it. What did it 
 matter if by the laws of men and society 
 she was a thief? It was some time be 
 fore she caught the meaning of Van 
 Ness's words. He was urging his cause 
 with a surfeit of honeyed and long-con 
 ned phrases. He remembered as he 
 talked how many women would receive 
 any hint of courtship from him with de 
 light, and the consciousness gave him a 
 factitious dignity. He walked beside her 
 down the path. Bruno, who leaped the 
 barnyard fence to join her, marched on 
 the other side, fixing a red suspicious 
 eye on him. 
 
 " I have not made love to you as a 
 younger man would do. I never have 
 told you how different from every wo 
 man you are in my eyes. How attrac 
 tive how fair " His eyes rested on 
 hers for a full silent moment. She 
 turned away with a shiver. " I never 
 have told you how dear you are to me. 
 But you must have seen it. * 
 
 " No, I did not see it," said Jane blunt 
 ly. " But what has my beauty to do with 
 the matter ? Or your love ? They do not 
 alter you or me." 
 
 Even Van Ness was stunned by this 
 calm delivery of fact. He recovered him 
 self presently, and with a smile of hurt 
 feeling gently replied, "Your antipathies 
 are strong, Miss Swendon. Most women 
 would cover them over courteously. But, 
 do you know, I really like your hon 
 esty," pointing the tips of his fingers
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 73 
 
 together mildly. "Yes, I do. Now I 
 shall not urge myself personally on your 
 notice any more. I did not seek an im 
 mediate marriage. I am willing that 
 time should work for me. Promise me 
 this," halting and suddenly facing her; 
 " look at me as the representative of 
 those poor friendless children whom I 
 love so dearly, and whose inheritance 
 you now enjoy." (He saw and took 
 note of the sudden quailing of her whole 
 bearing.) "You will give your wealth to 
 them some day." 
 
 " God knows I shall be glad to do that." 
 
 "And yourself to me." 
 
 "Never!" she said quietly. But she 
 smiled politely in his face. All the cur 
 rents of her future life were ebbing from 
 this half hour of time, and she knew it ; 
 yet that little taunt at her discourtesy had 
 galled her sorely. Since she was a child 
 she had felt herself and her rugged talk 
 big and boorish and coarse-grained be 
 side the polished complaisance of small 
 er women. When Van Ness, therefore, 
 took her hand now, and, after kissing the 
 thin fingers with his slow sultry glance, 
 drew them within his arm and held them 
 there close, she did not resist, and walk 
 ed patiently beside him down the path. 
 Van Ness's hand, as we have said, was 
 unpleasantly cold and clammy. 
 
 Jane remembered a story in her prim 
 er of the little princess, who, having told 
 a lie, was given over thereafter to the 
 ownership of a frog. It sat on her plate, 
 on her lap, on her bed, on her mouth as 
 she tried to pray. It never left her. It 
 was her master and owner. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 As they turned into another path, Jane 
 saw the boy Phil running toward the sta 
 bles, and Betty came toward her, walk 
 ing calmly, but twisting her sleeve into a 
 rag with nervous fingers. 
 
 " My father !" cried Jane. 
 
 " Yes. He's awake, and he don't seem 
 quite so peart as he was this morning. But 
 it's nothing : don't you be scared, miss. 
 I took the liberty of sending Phil for the 
 doctor," panting after her as she ran. 
 
 Van Ness quickened his pace and fol 
 lowed. 
 
 The captain was in his arm - chair, 
 wrapped in his flowered dressing-gown. 
 Buff and Dave were busy over him, their 
 black lips turning blue with fright. 
 
 "No, I'll not go to bed !" he cried tes 
 tily. "What good will blankets and feath 
 ers be to me ? It's death, you blockhead ! 
 But don't tell her don't tell Miss Jane." 
 
 "Hyah she is, sah." 
 
 "Keep her out! Oh, Jenny! Go, 
 finish your walk. I I'm very well, and 
 I'd rather be alone a while. Dave will 
 stay with me," looking helplessly up into 
 her white face. Then he broke down 
 and fumbled for her hand: "Oh, I'm 
 going I'm going, Jenny." 
 
 " No, no, father, you shall not go. It's 
 just a passing pain. Swallow this," hold 
 ing the gray head close to her breast. 
 Her hand shook so that she could not 
 put the spoon to his lips. 
 
 " I wish you would go away, child. It 
 will worry you so. I never meant you to 
 be with me when It came." 
 
 She could not answer. She laid him 
 down, drenched his hands with camphor, 
 seeing how blue and sunken they were. 
 "His feet are like ice, Betty," she cried. 
 "What shall I do? what shall I do?" 
 
 " I've got mustard draughts here, 
 ma'am. Try and get him to take these 
 drops." 
 
 "Yes, yes. Don't go out of the room, 
 dear Betty ! Don't leave him." She 
 caught hold of this savior who was wise 
 in mustard draughts and tonics. Why 
 had she never learned such things in 
 all her long, useless life ? She would not 
 look beyond the blue marks on his hands 
 and the cold of his feet. She and Betty 
 could fight them until the doctor came 
 just as the wrecked man sees only the 
 floating logs and the raft, and will not 
 look below at the unfathomable black 
 sea waiting for him. 
 
 " 'Pears to me, Miss Jane," said Dave 
 presently in a pitying whisper, " as dat ar 
 camphire on'y vexes him. His bref is 
 mos' gone." 
 
 "Whah de debbil am dat doctor?" 
 muttered Buff, going to the door, with a 
 thrill of terror at his oath. For in the
 
 74 
 
 A LAW UNTO HEXSELF. 
 
 last moment the approach of an awful 
 Power was felt in the commonplace lit 
 tle room. Yet the afternoon sunshine 
 shone as before in the open door, the 
 green curtains waved to and fro, a chick 
 en came pecking up on to the wooden 
 steps. The captain's feeble glance wan 
 dered to it. 
 
 " The gate of the poultry-yard is bro 
 ken, Dave. Remind me to-morrow, 
 Jane my new lock." 
 
 " De Lohd sabe us ! Can't you take 
 his mind off his patents, Miss Jane, an' 
 Death jes' at -hand ?" 
 
 " I told Phil to bring the minister with 
 the doctor," whispered Betty. She took 
 the useless mustard away from the poor 
 old feet and covered them reverently. 
 They would never feel any touch again. 
 Then she and Dave drew away from 
 him, and stood back from the chair, 
 leaving him alone with his child. 
 
 Jane knelt, holding him by the hand, 
 looking into the dimming eyes. " Fa 
 ther !" she said. "You must not go. You 
 shall not leave me ! Father !" 
 
 The old man's soul, as always irreso 
 lute, halted at the call, going out to its 
 long journey : " I will not leave you un 
 til I have taken care of you, Jenny," try 
 ing to smile at her. 
 
 "And how are you, my dear sir?" 
 said a mellow voice behind her. "Feel 
 ing better, are we now eh ?" 
 
 "Van Ness? Yes." The captain's 
 voice gathered a little of its old author 
 ity, and he struggled to rise. " Is it all 
 settled? Have you promised to marry 
 him, Jenny ?" 
 
 "She will! she will!" replied Van 
 Ness hastily. " It will be arranged as 
 you wish, my dear sir." 
 
 " I must be sure of it," uneasily, with 
 the restlessness of coming death and 
 the old desire to control. " I cannot 
 go until I see you his wife, Jane." 
 
 Jane held his hand immovable. She 
 did not stir nor show any feeling more 
 than the wooden plank on which she 
 kneeled. 
 
 There was a slight stir at the door. 
 Doctor Knox came in with Mr. Lam- 
 pret, the meek little Methodist minister 
 from the village. The doctor went up to 
 
 the captain, who waved him impatiently 
 aside. 
 
 " Too late, doctor. Your occupation's 
 gone. I have a matter to arrange, and 
 only a few minutes." 
 
 Jane raised her head, looking dully at 
 the physician. 
 
 He shook his head. "There is no 
 chance," he said. As he drew back he 
 watched the girl, rather than the dying 
 man. He was used to seeing women 
 suffer, but he felt an unwonted pity for 
 this friendless Jane. 
 
 The captain beckoned feebly to Mr. 
 Lampret: "I'm glad to see you here. 
 Now Van Ness now. I can give her 
 to you. I can die in peace." 
 
 Van Ness's color changed, perhaps 
 for the first time in his life. He stood 
 irresolute. He had not thought of im 
 mediate marriage with Jane. He scan 
 ned in that instant the danger involved 
 in it the probability that Charlotte would 
 "make trouble" the chance of buying 
 her off. The actual risk involved was 
 great enough to make even his ruddy 
 face ghastly. 
 
 But if he allowed this chance to escape 
 he would never regain his hold on her. 
 Was this property twice to slip from his 
 grasp? He took a step closer to her, 
 and laid his hand on her arm. 
 
 " Will you consent ?" he said. 
 
 She let fall her father's hand and stood 
 up. She and Van Ness were a little apart 
 from the others, so that his words were 
 heard only by herself. There was abso 
 lute silence in the room, except for the 
 breathing of the dying man. 
 
 Van Ness stooped closer to her: she 
 could feel his warm clammy breath on 
 her cheek. " You are very dear to 
 me." Seeing that she shuddered, he 
 changed his mode of attack to direct 
 assault : " If you marry me you will 
 restore the property restore, you un 
 derstand? to the children to whom it 
 belongs." 
 
 "Jenny," moaned her father, "are you 
 ready ? I cannot die in peace until this 
 is done." 
 
 The clergyman took pity on the girl : 
 something in her set, deep -lined face 
 alarmed him : " Is there any reason why
 
 A LAW UKTO HERSELF. 
 
 75 
 
 you do not wish to gratify your father's 
 last wish ?" 
 
 She did not answer. There was no 
 reason but her hopeless passion for an 
 other man, whose wife she could never 
 be. Yet it seemed to her that God was 
 bidding her to be true to that true love 
 at whatever cost. 
 
 "I infer," said the little man, turning 
 to Van Ness, " that the marriage was ar 
 ranged before, and is only hastened now 
 by" glancing at the captain "circum 
 stances." 
 
 "Yes, yes! Precisely !" suavely. "You 
 may trust me. You may have heard my 
 name before Pliny Van Ness." 
 
 Mr. Lampret bowed deferentially : 
 "The name is well known. Our church 
 has reason grateful," he murmured. 
 "My dear Miss Swendon, this is a hard 
 trial hard. A young girl would fain 
 give herself away with joy and rejoicing. 
 But as your father will not depart in peace, 
 I see no reason why the ceremony should 
 not immediately take place." 
 
 "Jane ! Jane !" cried the captain shril 
 ly, "why do you delay ?" 
 
 There was no answer for a minute. 
 Then there came into her face a sudden 
 resolve. She turned and held out her 
 hand to Van Ness : " I will marry you." 
 
 The words revived the captain. " Lift 
 me up," he said to David. " Closer, 
 closer, Mr. Lampret! I can't hear very 
 well." He listened eagerly until the last 
 words of the marriage service were said. 
 Then his head sank on his breast : " I'm 
 always loth to interfere. But I am glad 
 that is settled properly." 
 
 Van Ness turned to kiss his wife, but, 
 without seeing him apparently, 'she went 
 up to her father and put her lips to his. 
 Van Ness followed her, as if to assert his 
 rightful place, and, standing on the other 
 side of the sofa, possessed himself of the 
 captain's one hand, pressing it gently. 
 
 " He is sinking very fast," he said. 
 "Let him rest in my arms." 
 
 She shivered, and held him tighter to 
 her breast. When she would have stroked 
 back the gray hair from his forehead, 
 Van Ness's soft ringers were there with 
 hers, soothing them: "Compose your 
 self. Our dear father will soon be gone." 
 
 "Jenny !" 
 
 "Yes, father." 
 
 " I'll hear you now your chapter, you 
 know. We ought to have read the Bible 
 more. We forgot the Lord, we were so 
 busy. But but " He lifted his hand, 
 struggled to rise, his dim eyes lighting 
 with sudden energy. "Jenny! He does 
 n't forget me now !" 
 
 "No, father, no !" 
 
 There was a long silence. Dave sob 
 bed aloud. Mr. Van Ness cleared his 
 throat composedly. " I will sing," he 
 said. "A hymn would soothe his pas 
 sage, probably; or shall I pray?" 
 
 Jane leaned forward : "Go away !" 
 
 "How? Eh?" aghast, and not sure 
 he had comprehended the vehement 
 whisper. 
 
 "Go. You shall not come between us 
 in these last minutes. You have the 
 money now. Go away !" 
 
 Van Ness wheeled instantly. He was 
 plentiful in expedients for so slight an 
 emergency as this. He beckoned the 
 clergyman and doctor out of the room, 
 and shut the door. 
 
 " It would be better to leave them alone, 
 gentlemen. The relation between Cap 
 tain Swendon and his ah Mis. Van 
 Ness has always been singularly close 
 and intimate. The presence of so many 
 strangers oppresses them both." 
 
 "I readily understand that," rejoined 
 Mr. Lampret eagerly, "as far as we are 
 concerned. But do you return, my dear 
 sir. Surely you " 
 
 But Van Ness waved his hand lightly: 
 " No, no ! I am comparatively a stranger 
 to the dear old man. In a few moments 
 when all is over I shall return to sup 
 port and console her" 
 
 " Delicate feeling there ! Remarkably 
 fine feeling, sir!" said the clergyman as 
 he strolled with the doctor to his buggy, 
 leaving Mr. Van Ness to the sanctity of 
 his grief. "Going now? I shall remain 
 until all is over. There appears to be a 
 storm coming up," with a sad subjection 
 of tone. 
 
 The gathering clouds darkened the 
 room where the captain lay dying : the 
 wind sobbed gustily through the open 
 window. His feeble eyes were steady
 
 7 6 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF, 
 
 as they never had been in life : he nod 
 ded from time to time as Jane repeated 
 the old verses which he had taught her 
 when she was a little child. 
 
 " ' Come unto Me.' That's good ! It's 
 all good. Some water, Dave. What are 
 you crying about, old fellow ? Yes, we'll 
 read the Bible every day, Jenny. We'll 
 begin all fresh. We've plenty of time 
 plenty of time " 
 
 Dave, holding the water to his lips, 
 took it quickly away and fell upon his 
 knees. 
 
 "Oh, father! father!" 
 
 The darkness was heavy and the wind 
 blew fiercely as this overgrown boy's soul 
 went out to love and dogmatize and make 
 mistakes elsewhere. 
 
 They let Jane lie a while upon his 
 breast : she was as cold and motionless 
 as the dead when they took her up. 
 
 " I'll go for her husband," said the sob 
 bing old negro. 
 
 "No," said Betty shrewdly. "Let her 
 alone a while. This is trouble enough, 
 God knows, poor child !" 
 
 When Jane's senses came to her, and 
 she looked about her intelligently, old 
 Dave cried eagerly, "I'll fetch Mr. Van 
 Ness : I'll fetch yoh husband, Miss Jen 
 ny." 
 
 She stood up quickly : " No. Let me 
 be alone with my father a little while. 
 Go out, please, and watch the door." 
 
 "Nobody shall come in," said Betty. 
 
 The room was nearly dark. She was 
 alone with the dead for a long time. She 
 stooped at last and kissed passionately 
 the poor hand and face which had been 
 close to her all her life. 
 
 "Good-bye!" she said. "Good-bye, 
 father!" 
 
 When Mr. Van Ness and the clergy 
 man entered the room later, they found 
 Betty there, her lean visage half terrified 
 and half defiant. 
 
 "Where is my wife ?" said Van Ness 
 with the sad authority becoming the mas 
 ter of this house of mourning. 
 
 "She she begs that she may not be 
 disturbed until to-morrow," said Betty 
 with a scared look behind her. "She's 
 ill. The fact is, she's clean worn out 
 with trouble." 
 
 " I can readily conceive that," said Mr. 
 Lampret. 
 
 But Van Ness said nothing : he only 
 glanced toward the still figure which lay 
 upon the sofa covered with a white sheet, 
 and turned away with a gloom and alarm 
 on his benignant face quite new to it. 
 
 A couple of hours afterward, being 
 alone, he met Betty coming out of Jane's 
 apartment, and stopped her sternly : 
 
 "Mrs. Nichols, I must see my wife. 
 If she is ill, my place is beside her." 
 
 For her answer Betty, with a gasp, 
 threw open the door. 
 
 The room was vacant. 
 
 "Where is she?" 
 
 "As God sees me, I don't know. She 
 bade me say this to you That she had 
 paid you the debt, and had gone where 
 you would never find her." 
 
 Van Ness's smooth countenance scarce 
 ly evinced surprise. He went into the 
 room and walked about it, and as he 
 touched little articles of dress and the 
 toilette which she had left scattered here 
 and there, which were yet warm from 
 her presence, the stout, bulky man could 
 scarcely draw his breath. He stopped 
 in front of the white pillow with the im 
 press of her head on it, took up the vel 
 vet band which had fastened her hair, 
 the knot half untied. So nearly within 
 his hold to escape ! 
 
 " What is the money to me ?" he 
 muttered. "It is Jane that I want 
 Jane" 
 
 Betty was standing at the door when 
 he went out. She cowered back when 
 she saw the sultry fire in his eyes. 
 
 "I don't know where she went. She 
 only said as you would never find her, 
 sir." 
 
 " I will find her," said Van Ness quietly.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE reason which Mr. Van Ness of 
 fered for Jane's disappearance, he 
 protested, would suggest itself to every 
 body as the only possible one: her grief 
 had deranged her, and she had wander 
 ed away bent on self-destruction. But 
 the house was filled now with the friends 
 of the captain, among them Judge Rhodes 
 and Mrs. Wilde, and he read doubt and 
 lurking suspicion on every face. The 
 judge, it is true,' directed the hurried 
 searches through the grounds and the 
 dragging of the lake. 
 
 " But I wish the captain had not push 
 ed the marriage so hard. Drill-major to 
 the last gasp. I was to blame in suggest 
 ing it at first," he said, point-blank to Van 
 Ness. 
 
 " Suicide ? Nothing of the kind," said 
 Mrs. Wilde. "Jane is eccentric, as every 
 thoroughly truthful woman is. But sane. 
 One of the sanest people I know." 
 
 She summoned Betty, and the two wo 
 men were closeted together for half an 
 hour. 
 
 "You should have sent for me," she 
 said when the story was ended. " The 
 child should not have been left to the 
 tender mercies of these men. Call him 
 in." 
 
 When Van Ness appeared he saw that 
 the old lady's eyes were red. 
 
 " You are going in pursuit of her ? 
 Mrs. Nichols has told me all," she said 
 blandly. 
 
 " I shall search for her, undoubtedly. 
 Her mind was evidently shaken. There 
 is a bare chance that she may have gone 
 on the train. But the river being so near 
 and her grief so great, I fear the worst, 
 Mrs. Wilde." 
 
 " No doubt, no doubt ! But if you do 
 follow her on the train How was she 
 dressed, Betty ?" 
 
 " In gray. Black hat and gray feath 
 er," said Betty like a parrot. 
 
 " Thank you ! That will be of assist 
 ance to me. They are trying to help 
 
 her escape," he thought as he went out, 
 with a bow and melancholy smile. He 
 had waited to talk with Mr. Lampret. 
 He asked him for a certificate of the 
 marriage. 
 
 " If my wife is living and wandering in 
 sane through the country, it will be neces 
 sary to prove my right to claim her." 
 
 To his surprise, the clergyman grew 
 red and stammered, with a painful anx 
 iety in his boyish face. 
 
 " I fear we were too hasty, Mr. Van 
 Ness. Are you quite sure she consented 
 freely to the marriage ? There was no 
 moral compulsion used ?" 
 
 "There was none," coldly. "My mar 
 riage, as I believe, had in it all the ele 
 ments of future happiness. Besides, that 
 is hardly a question, it appears to me, for 
 you to consider now. Whether suitable 
 or not, the marriage was legal. When 
 can you give me the certificate ?" 
 
 Mr. Lampret did not speak for a mo 
 ment. " I suppose it is irrevocable," he 
 said with a long breath. " The making 
 out of the certificate will involve a delay 
 of a couple of hours." 
 
 " I shall wait for it," said Van Ness. 
 
 It was midnight before he left The 
 Hemlocks and took the train into New 
 York. There he had other work to do, 
 which consumed an hour or two. He 
 must lay plans to free himself from any 
 hold which Charlotte had upon him. He 
 had not courage to live, in even the rare 
 delights to which he looked forward as 
 Jane's husband, with that sword at his 
 throat. He could find no trace of Char 
 lotte. But he wakened up a lawyer (not 
 the eminent counsel who systematized 
 his vast benevolent schemes), and gave 
 him full instructions and a blank cheque. 
 
 "I must have this connection closed at 
 once. And at any price," he said as he left 
 the door at one o'clock in the morning. 
 
 "To Desbrosses street ferry. In time 
 to catch the Philadelphia express," he 
 ordered the cabman. 
 
 77
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 He had not tried to find a clew to her 
 in New York. She was unknown there 
 not likely to be recognized even by 
 officials on the trains running up to The 
 Hemlocks. 
 
 "She would try to escape from a place 
 where she is a stranger. But it would 
 cut her deeply to leave her father unbur- 
 ied," he argued shrewdly. "She would 
 go direct to their old home in Philadel 
 phia, where the associations with him 
 were strongest. She is full of such fool 
 ish notions !" He glowed with admira 
 tion of these warm affections, so becom 
 ing to a beautiful woman, as he leaned 
 back in his seat in the car. Van Ness 
 had indeed a keen appreciation of fine 
 sentiments in books or in people. A no 
 ble thought fitly uttered or a pathetic 
 strain of music would bring the tears 
 to his eyes. All his friends will testify 
 to-day that he is a man of most sensitive 
 nature. He remembered this admirable 
 trait in himself as he sat thinking over 
 his future married life that night. It was 
 one of the means by which he would be 
 sure to win the love of his wife, and drive 
 away her grief for the poor old captain. 
 He took out a tiny volume from his pock 
 et and studied it carefully by the dull 
 light of the lamp overhead. The con 
 ductor, who knew the great Christian 
 financier by sight, looked on reverently 
 at a distance. It was some epitome of 
 wisdom that he pored over: perhaps the 
 Book of books. There was, in fact, a 
 little mirror set in the inside of the bind 
 ing. Van Ness studied the glisten on 
 his yellow beard, the gluey softness of 
 his blue eyes. "There never was a wo 
 man who would not yield to me," he 
 thought, shutting the book. " But it does 
 not matter whether she does or not," he 
 added, his fingers searching for the mar 
 riage certificate in his pocket and closing 
 on it with a fierce grip. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 VAN NESS had really but slight know 
 ledge of the places in which Jane's early 
 life had been passed. On reaching Phila 
 delphia he was forced to search through 
 
 old directories for the houses in which the 
 captain had lived, and go to them in turn 
 a tedious process enough, as the old 
 man had migrated, as his whim or purse 
 dictated, from Kensington to Sotithwark, 
 from a close -built block in the business 
 quarter to a tumble-down cottage on the 
 Wissahickon. It was near night before 
 he arrived at the old house surrounded 
 by trees in the Neck which had been 
 their last home in Philadelphia. Dis 
 appointment and secret rage had only 
 made the unctuous sweetness of his man 
 ner a little coarser in flavor. The woman 
 who came to the door adjusting a pink 
 bow at her collar found his familiar greet 
 ing exactly suited to the level of her own 
 breeding. 
 
 "A young lady? With blue eyes and 
 yellow hair ? Oh yes, sir. Colored pretty 
 much like yourself. But she don't favor 
 you, either. Come in ! come in ! My 
 name's Crawford. Young lady's yer sis 
 ter, likely?" 
 
 "At what time was she here ?" 
 
 "Just at breakfast -time. Well, say 
 seven. She didn't come in no furder 
 than this room. Said she'd lived here 
 with a friend, and would like to take a 
 look ag'in at the old place. She sat there, 
 on that settee, and looked in the fire a 
 while, and then went out to the garden 
 and walked up and down. I suspicioned 
 she wa'n't right in her mind," volubly. 
 " The idee of comin' back to look at a 
 house and yard ! I guess I was right. 
 Somethin' wantin' eh?" touching her 
 forehead. 
 
 "Yes. Do you know in which direc 
 tion she went, Mrs. Crawford ?" 
 
 " I haven't the least notion. If I'd ha' 
 had any intimation, now, that she had es 
 caped from her friends, I'd ha' done all 
 I could to help 'em. My George could 
 hev' followed her all day, for that mat 
 ter. What was the cause, now ? Re 
 ligious excitement? Disappintment ?" 
 
 " Both, both ! You did not observe 
 her dress, I suppose ?" 
 
 "Oh yes, I did. Brown waterproof 
 and brown hat. 'Twouldn't be easy to 
 trace her by her dress." 
 
 " Did she speak of returning here ?" 
 
 " No. I wish I'd incouraged her !"
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 79 
 
 her zeal reaching fever-heat in this hint 
 ed tragedy. " She come in an' thanked 
 me very gravely, an' said she would 
 probably never see the old house ag'in. 
 Poor thing ! She gave George some 
 money, which wa'n't at all necessary, 
 I'm sure." 
 
 " If she did not expect to see the house 
 again, she meant to leave the city," said 
 Van Ness when he was again in the 
 street. " She will be easily traced at the 
 railway-stations." 
 
 But in this he was disappointed. Young 
 women dressed in the uniform travelling 
 costume daily came and went in troops 
 through the avenues of travel : a dozen 
 indifferent ticket-agents had hazy recol 
 lections of this especial traveller on her 
 way to Boston, to San Francisco, to Bal 
 timore. Mr. Van Ness, too, found that 
 his own social dignity and prominence 
 sorely hindered his researches. Every 
 body in the city knew Pliny Van Ness 
 by sight. It would not do for him, as 
 for any common man, to go from office 
 to office inquiring for the heroine of a 
 mysterious elopement. The Christian 
 humanitarian must keep his garments 
 clean of suspicion as jealously as Cae 
 sar's wife. 
 
 Reporters, too, had their eyes upon 
 him, turn which way he would, for the 
 opinions and movements of Mr. Van 
 Ness had long furnished welcome ma 
 terial for the columns of " Personals " in 
 the morning journals. What if a hint of 
 this episode of his marriage and his wife's 
 disappearance should creep into the bla 
 tant newspapers ? He moved, threaten 
 ed, hampered, by this open -day terror, 
 one unsuccessful day slipping into an 
 other until three weeks had gone by. 
 
 Early one chilly October morning he 
 found himself without any definite aim 
 knocking at Mrs. Crawford's door, and 
 was welcomed by her with effusion, for 
 she had supposed her chance of any 
 share in the tragedy to be gone. 
 
 "And you hain't found her yet, eh? 
 Dear ! dear ! If I'd only knowed in 
 time ! It's told on you, sir. Yes, in 
 deed. You've aged considerable in this 
 month." 
 
 The only real change in Van Ness was 
 
 a certain new alien expression which was 
 now and then perceptible under the blan 
 dishment of his smile, like some savage 
 beast peeping out from behind the paint 
 ed canvas of his cage. His news from 
 the lawyer in New York was unsatisfac 
 tory ; he was baffled at every turn by 
 insignificant difficulties in his search for 
 Jane ; there was every temptation for the 
 beast which was in him to break its bonds. 
 But luck had turned for him. 
 
 "Dear! dear!" continued Mrs. Craw 
 ford. " Have you tried the police ? 
 Though they're of little account. She 
 could not have come to any bodily 
 harm. The dog would protect her." 
 
 " Dog ? You said nothing about a dog. 
 Had she that damnable brute with her ?" 
 starting up. 
 
 " A large hound, sir. Why, to be sure, 
 I told you ! Lord! he's gone!" 
 
 Here at last was a clew ! It proved ef 
 fectual. The agent at the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad office remembered distinctly the 
 young girl who wished to take her dog 
 with her down to some station on the 
 coast, and the difficulty which the train 
 master meant to make about it. " But she 
 took him," he added. "She was a very 
 beautiful woman. Nobody cared to re 
 fuse her." 
 
 Van Ness went down to the Branch, 
 to Beach Haven, Manasquan, all the fish 
 ing-villages along the coast, among the 
 rest to Sutphen's Point. He talked to 
 old Sutphen himself, his foot resting on 
 a barnacle-eaten log where Jane herself 
 had sat the day before. But the old man 
 was loyal. He was stupid, stared vacant 
 ly at Van Ness, had seen no young wo 
 man and no dog : there had never been 
 any such at the Point. Van Ness, went 
 hurriedly on to the next station, spent a 
 couple of days in the search, and return 
 ed to Philadelphia. 
 
 "So the young lady came back before 
 you ?" said the agent, nodding familiarly 
 as he passed the ticket-window. 
 
 "Yes. You saw her?" 
 
 "Oh, she bought her ticket of me. 
 Yesterday, you know." 
 
 " For what point ?" Van Ness's voice 
 was so hoarse that the man heard him 
 with difficulty.
 
 8o 
 
 A LAW UNTO HEX SELF. 
 
 " Richmond. Took the dog. too." 
 
 "Give me a ticket for Richmond, 
 please. When does the next train go ?" 
 
 "In half an hour. She has twenty- 
 four hours the start of you, sir," with a 
 significant laugh as he handed out the 
 ticket and change. 
 
 Van Ness arrived at dawn the follow 
 ing morning at the little wooden shed 
 with its garden of dahlias and lilacs 
 which called itself a depot on the out 
 skirts of the drowsy country town so 
 lately the focus on which had rested 
 the eyes of the civilized world. Two 
 or three negroes bustled into activity 
 as the train rolled in : an old woman 
 dusted the rocking - chairs about the 
 stove. They all remembered the tall, 
 handsome young lady with the dog, who 
 had flung about her money so freely the 
 day before. 
 
 " I brought her breakfast, sah. I'm 
 Dabney. Everybody knows Dabney 's 
 reliable. Mighty fine hound, sah. De 
 young lady went on to Morganton, Nothe 
 Callina. Oh, tank you, sah !" 
 
 Morganton is a village perched on a 
 spur of the Blue Ridge, made dusky by 
 shadows of overhanging hills. The gar 
 rulous landlord of the inn was ready to 
 point out his prey to Van Ness. 
 
 "A lady ? Miss Swendon, you mean ? 
 I've known her since she was a child. 
 Captain Swendon came to the Balsam 
 Mountings for years for the hunting. 
 Allays brought the little girl. She's 
 broken down terrible. Her father's 
 death's interrupted her, powerful." 
 
 " She is here, then ?" lowering his voice. 
 
 "No. She went on to the captain's 
 camping - ground on the Old Black. 
 Seemed as if she must go every place 
 where he had been. He allays buried 
 himself among the mountings. I doubt 
 if you can find the place." 
 
 "Where Miss Swendon can go I sure 
 ly can follow." 
 
 " Dunno. She's used to the moun 
 tings. P'raps you can get a guide at 
 Asheville. It's the last place whah hu 
 man beings live high up on the Black : 
 an old hunter, Glenn and his wife 
 kind, decent people, but not jest civil 
 ized. The captain was allays in cahoot 
 
 with them, and they was powerful fond 
 of Jane." 
 
 There was no regular conveyance then 
 across the Blue Ridge to Asheville. Van 
 Ness crossed the range on horseback 
 with a guide: the horse broke down, 
 and caused a delay of a day. He ar 
 rived, therefore, at the little hill - town 
 late in the afternoon of Friday. Miss 
 Swendon had gone up into the moun 
 tains two days before, he learned, with 
 the old hunter Glenn, who happened to 
 be in the village with a load of roots and 
 peltry. 
 
 "1 must go on to-night," said Van 
 Ness urgently. 
 
 The ex-Confederate colonel who kept 
 the inn surveyed him leisurely. "Glenn's 
 house lies about thirty miles up in the 
 Balsam Range," he said deliberately. 
 "The passes are dangerous in daylight: 
 it would be impossible to make the as 
 cent at night. I shall not be able to find 
 a guide for you until to-morrow." 
 
 Van Ness was exhausted in mind and 
 body. The night's rest was tempting. 
 
 " I shall find her at this man Glenn's ? 
 She will not go farther ?" 
 
 The colonel laughed : "Not unless she 
 turns hermit or takes up her lodging with 
 the wild beasts. Glenn's hut is the last 
 human habitation on the mountains. You 
 have her, sure." 
 
 "Then I will take supper and a bed." 
 
 He slept soundly that night, and sip 
 ped his coffee at breakfast comfortably, 
 smiling now and then to himself. The 
 silly creature was making herself happy 
 this morning in the mountain -fastness, 
 going over her father's old haunts, think 
 ing that she was hidden where he would 
 never find her. But how easily he had 
 run her down ! The horses and guide 
 were waiting at the door. Before the 
 sun set he would have her in his hold 
 securely, as easily as he could grasp that 
 bird in its cage yonder. 
 
 Glenn's house was in fact but a ram 
 bling log hut built under the shelter of 
 one of the peaks of the Old Black. The 
 Appalachian ranges at this point reach 
 their highest altitude on the continent. 
 The unbroken primeval forest came up
 
 A LAW UNTO HEX SELF. 
 
 81 
 
 to the very door of the hut. A few feet 
 off a stream, the head-water of the Swan- 
 nanoa, dashed over the precipice. 
 
 As the sun was setting that evening, 
 the old hunter's wife waited in the door 
 to meet Jane, who came slowly down the 
 gorge, with the dog beside her. The two 
 women stood together watching the red 
 ball of fire go down behind Old Crag 
 gy. It threw sharp shafts of light into 
 the heavy cloud that hung halfway up 
 the peak, while overhead the sky was 
 green and translucent as the sea. 
 
 The hunter's wife did not speak to 
 Jane as she stood beside her, and did 
 not watch her. The incurious habit of 
 silence of these mountaineers rested the 
 girl. They had been her friends when 
 she was a little girl : she had come back, 
 as sure of finding their friendship as the 
 rock on which their house was built. 
 She had come up with her heart and 
 brain full of unwholesome sickness to 
 be cured in these silent solitudes of the 
 world. The cure was begun. Her eye 
 was clearer, the hopeless load was lifted 
 from her life. What did pain matter ? 
 Or death ? There was about her here 
 a great repose in which these things 
 faded out. 
 
 She looked at the glittering stream 
 close by, at the unending slopes of un 
 derbrush blazing scarlet with the rowan 
 and the shonieho, and then beyond these 
 lower hills fold and fold of living color 
 to the great bare peak wrapped in 
 clouds, a few dead trees climbing its 
 base, which stands like a mighty ward 
 er of the Atlantic coast. The tears rose 
 to her eyes. 
 
 "One must have a mean and selfish 
 soul to be unhappy here," she thought. 
 The twilight fell suddenly. The sides 
 of the mountains went into shadow : 
 only the sky about the peaks burned 
 redly. Jane went in and sat down by 
 the old hunter before the big log-fire. 
 
 " I wish you to let me stay with you," 
 she said. " I have a little money, which 
 will last a long time here. After it is 
 gone I can make more, somehow." 
 
 Glenn for answer only put out his hand 
 and touched hers gently. The hand was 
 as bony as her father's, and his hair was 
 6 
 
 as white. That comforted the girl more 
 than any words. His wife, who was al 
 ways the speaker, said, "You've always 
 been welcome, Jane. You know that. 
 You won't need money. We get our 
 living out of the mountings for the tak 
 ing of it. When your father was gone 
 it was nateral for you to come straight 
 here, an' to stay." 
 
 "Yes, I will stay," said Jane. 
 
 Presently the old man raised his hand : 
 " Hark ! There's folks coming." 
 
 " I hear nothing, father," said Mrs. 
 Glenn. 
 
 "Yes. There's horses at the lower 
 ford. Two of 'em. They're acrost now. 
 It's more'n a year since anybody's bin 
 up the mounting. Kin it be any one 
 a-followin' you, Jane ?" 
 
 She got up slowly : "Who could follow 
 me?" 
 
 The next moment the hoofs of the 
 horses rang on the shelving rocks out 
 side. The door opened, and Van Ness 
 stood on the threshold. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE Scotia was within a few hours of 
 Liverpool. The passengers were all ga 
 thered on deck the women, eager and 
 garrulous, eying each other a little curi 
 ously in their new costumes even the 
 most blase traveller among them roused 
 by the smell of land. Miss Fleming, how 
 ever, sat quietly apart, with Mr. Neckart 
 beside her. The other passengers were 
 accustomed to see these two together, si 
 lent and uncommunicative even to each 
 other. Cornelia had early understood 
 that Neckart's ailment, whatever it was, . 
 whether mood or disease, craved quiet. 
 She instantly suited herself to its need. 
 Captain Swendon had always rejoiced in 
 her as one of the most loquacious and so 
 ciable of human beings. Bruce, on the 
 contrary, was strongly attracted by the 
 aloofness and unconscious repose of this 
 taciturn woman, who held herself apart 
 from the vulgarly fashionable crowd in 
 the cabins, not being of their kind. He 
 fell into the habit of taking his seat near 
 her, partly to avoid the others, partly for
 
 .82 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 the comfort of being able to sleep, talk, 
 
 or be silent undisturbed. After a few 
 days he began to be conscious of a fine 
 similarity of taste and convictions be 
 tween them. Whether it was a question 
 of political law or the color of a curling 
 wave, Cornelia's thought about it evi 
 dently ran in the same groove as his 
 own, though more weakly, as became 
 the intellect of a woman. A word or a 
 laughing glance was enough to convey 
 this subtle sympathy between them. It 
 had undeniably soothed and brightened 
 the passage. 
 
 Bruce Neckart, at night, alone in his 
 state-room, knew that he had left ambi 
 tion, love, happiness, behind him that 
 he was cut off from all the chances of 
 i life. At night the indescribable feeling 
 
 of vacancy at the base of the brain, the 
 stricture as of an iron band about his 
 jaws, the occasional sudden numbness 
 
 of nerve and thought, as though he were 
 stricken for the instant with extreme old 
 age, were hints' which brought his ap 
 proaching fate before him as with a hor 
 ror of great darkness. But on deck, in 
 daylight, the swell lapping the vessel, 
 his feeble appetite gratified by a well- 
 cooked meal, there was some interest 
 yet to be found in the Southern prob 
 lem or the claims of the Pre-Raphael- 
 ites ; and he was grateful to Chance for 
 this companion who sat ready to grasp 
 
 . any subject which attracted him, with a 
 woman's fine intuition, but who demand- 
 
 . ed only the personal courtesy due to an 
 innocent, manly boy. She showed him, 
 too, during the voyage, much womanly, 
 personal kindness, for which, being of 
 an honest, affectionate nature, he was 
 grateful. 
 
 Now that they were nearing land, 
 therefore, Mr. Neckart's thoughts as he 
 sat beside her were wholly busied with 
 his companion. He was heartily sorry 
 for her. Ordinary observers, he reflect 
 ed, would mistake her for one of the 
 strong - minded Advanced Sisterhood, 
 but he knew her to be sensitive and 
 delicate in the extreme. He felt a cer 
 tain sense of ownership in her as his 
 discovery. How was she to find her 
 way alone in Europe ? He had meant 
 
 to cut absolutely loose from every tie of 
 his past life on landing, but this thread 
 held him still. Could he arrange any 
 future occasional intercourse with her ? 
 He did not mean to hamper himself at 
 all. Still, he might be useful to her, etc., 
 etc. In short, the pillow on which he 
 had rested his aching head had been 
 warm and pleasant to him, and he threw 
 it away reluctantly. There really was no 
 reason, he argued (according to the inva 
 riable argument of men concerning this 
 woman), no reason whatever, why firm 
 and fervent friendships should not exist 
 between persons of opposite sex. He 
 would have been insulted at a hint that 
 this sympathy, bonne camaraderie, with 
 the little woman in green beside him 
 involved disloyalty to Jane. The little 
 woman, however, gave neither of these 
 fine names to their traffic of sentiment. 
 The Cornelias of their sex make no mis 
 takes in this matter. 
 
 It was a sombre, foreboding day. The 
 passengers were gathered on the forward 
 deck. Neckart and Cornelia were alone, 
 the gray fog shutting them iu. She sat 
 with her head turned from him, immo 
 vable, but he was conscious, through the 
 strong subtle magnetism that belonged 
 to this woman, of the powerful excite 
 ment which she controlled. He quite 
 forgot his own trouble. This delicate, 
 lonely creature venturing into the world ! 
 He asked her some questions as to her 
 plans on landing, but she answered vague 
 ly. She heard only the throb of the steam 
 er beating out the few moments left to 
 her. Her whole life was risked upon 
 this voyage. Had she failed ? There 
 was but an hour left. What woman 
 could do she had done. Good God ! 
 why must she be silent? Her whole 
 soul had called out for this man for 
 years : she had loved him with a man's 
 force of passion. Why could she not 
 speak now and tell him so ? She must 
 sit beside him dumb, lifeless, unless he 
 put out his hand to take her ! 
 
 "Half-past four," said Neckart, look 
 ing at his watch. "I am sure you are 
 sorry the voyage is so nearly over." 
 
 She did not speak, but he caught a 
 gleam in her eye that startled him. Un-
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 der all her coldness she was a strange, 
 vivid creature well worth study. He 
 leaned forward eagerly. 
 
 "Your undertaking terrifies you, now 
 that the time has come. You would 
 rather turn back ?" 
 
 She moved restlessly under his keen 
 scrutiny, as though it hurt her. Her 
 hands were clasped on her knees, her 
 eyes fixed on the black line on the hor 
 izon which marked land. " No, I will go 
 on." 
 
 " Cornelia," with warm kindness in his 
 face and voice, " I am afraid you have 
 overrated your devotion to your work. 
 A woman must be possessed by her art 
 as by a demon to enable her to endure 
 years of solitude in a foreign country, 
 homeless and friendless. Have you 
 counted all the cost ? When you leave 
 me you cut yourself loose from all your 
 old life." She turned her head away, 
 but made no reply. "I do not believe 
 you are strong enough, poor child !" he 
 said presently. 
 
 Silence pleaded for her as no words of 
 her own could have done. Neckart saw 
 the strained eyes, the quivering chin : 
 his interest suddenly became alive, in 
 tense a feeling quite apart from the 
 kindliness which his words expressed. 
 
 "I begin to think you have mistaken 
 your vocation altogether. You are too 
 dependent, too tender a woman, for an 
 artist. You should have chosen a do 
 mestic life, Cornelia." And, after an 
 embarrassed pause of a moment, "You 
 should have married." 
 
 He saw the quick shudder : his own 
 blood beat feverishly. He had always 
 been curious about women. He would 
 push the probe a little deeper : " If there 
 had been any friend who was more to 
 you than your art? " 
 
 She turned her head slowly. The 
 bleached face and burning eyes fasten 
 ed on his own told her story before she 
 spoke : " I have had no friend but you, 
 Bruce." 
 
 Neckart started to his feet, hot from 
 head to foot like a blushing girl. He 
 paced the deck dumb with shame and 
 confusion. It was long before he found 
 courage to look at her. Her hands were 
 
 clasped over her face : she was sobbing 
 in a helpless, strengthless way .that seem 
 ed to put her on the ground at his feet. 
 He looked toward the land. Would it 
 never come nearer ? Finally, feeling him 
 self wholly a scoundrel, and moved by a 
 great compassion and as great annoyance, 
 he pushed the green cloak aside and sat 
 down hastily on the bench beside her, 
 beginning to talk rapidly. If the limb 
 must come off, the quicker the better. 
 
 "I understand just what you mean, 
 Miss Fleming. You need a friend, an 
 adviser, being here in Europe alone. 
 Of course you turn to me, remembering 
 old times in Delaware, and and " 
 She had stopped sobbing now, and was 
 watching him breathlessly, her eyes fol 
 lowing his lips as he spoke. Neckart, 
 looking at her, broke down. 
 
 " How can I do it ?" he thought. "This 
 woman's whole life has been given to me, 
 and I did not know it! It's natural," 
 he began again aloud, "that you should 
 turn to me. You know how gladly I 
 would be your friend " 
 
 She shook her head, her straining 
 eyes on his. "Yes, gladly thankfully !" 
 (Surely, it was only right to soften the 
 blow.) "You cannot know how how 
 dear you have always been to me, Cor 
 nelia. But I can have nothing to do 
 with friendship or any other relation 
 which makes a man's life worth endur 
 ance. I am barred out from so much 
 of my birthright by my blood." 
 
 "What do you mean, Bruce ?" 
 
 "You know the fate of the Davidges : 
 I need not go over the story. God knows 
 it is not a pleasant subject for me to dwell 
 upon. But for the last year I have had 
 unmistakable proof that I have the he 
 reditary disease. That is the reason why 
 I have given up my business and every 
 tie in life, and expatriated myself." 
 
 As he spoke she rose, shaken with ex 
 citement ; her face took on a new mean 
 ing ; for the moment she was a young and 
 beautiful woman: "Oh, Bruce! Bruce! 
 you are all wrong ! Is it possible that you 
 have never been undeceived ? There is 
 not a drop of the Davidge blood in your 
 veins !" 
 
 " What do you mean ?"
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 " I have heard the story from my moth 
 er a hundred times. Your father was mar 
 ried twice the first time in Maryland, 
 where you were born. Your mother died 
 at your birth. He came to Kent county 
 and married Miss Davidge, who never 
 had any children. It was the first symp 
 tom of her insanity that she conceived 
 the idea that you were her own son, and 
 your father willingly humored her in the 
 belief. You were deceived too as a child, 
 lest you might betray the real facts to her. 
 But I thought when you were a man you 
 would be told the truth." 
 
 "How could I?" said Neckart, bewil 
 dered. "My father died when I was a 
 boy of ten, and my mother But she 
 was not my mother!" His eyes filled: 
 he turned hastily away. It seemed to 
 him as if the dear old mother had just 
 then died to him. 
 
 Cornelia timidly touched his arm : " But 
 you do not understand. You are not a 
 Davidge. You are free from the Davidge 
 disease." 
 
 "Free ?" It was not easy to turn back 
 the convictions and terrors of a lifetime 
 in a moment. He stared at her stunned : 
 "Then these symptoms have been only 
 caused by overwork, as the doctors said ? 
 I I am like other men?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Merciful God!" 
 
 Cornelia leaned over the taffrail. Would 
 he come to her? The blood ebbed weak 
 ly in her veins ; the rush of the water be 
 low roared like thunder ; as the minutes 
 passed a deadly sickness came into her 
 breast. She looked to find him. He was 
 at the other end of the deck, talking with 
 the captain, his swarthy face glowing, his 
 eyes like coals of fire. 
 
 " The Russia is the first steamer to New 
 York," she heard the captain say. "You 
 can board her to-night. This is a very 
 sudden resolution, Mr. Neckart?" 
 
 " Yes. But I must return to my busi 
 ness at once. There are other matters 
 too which matters which I have ne 
 glected." 
 
 " But your health ? You mentioned a 
 cerebral disorder which required rest?" 
 
 "Oh, I am much better! The sea- 
 voyage I am another man, sir !" 
 
 He walked down the deck, his back 
 toward her. It was the heavy figure, the 
 swinging awkward gait, which she re 
 membered twenty years ago on the old 
 farm-road. The world was born anew to 
 him : health, work, chances he had but 
 to stretch out his hands and clutch them 
 all again, and under all was the sweet 
 triumphant passion. 
 
 "Jane! Jane!" 
 
 His eyes strained back over the long 
 waste of water. But as for Cornelia, 
 he had forgotten that she was in the 
 world. 
 
 When the people were leaving the 
 steamer to go on the tug, she came up 
 to him. It was easier to bear another 
 turn of the rack than be utterly dropped 
 out of remembrance. 
 
 "We part here, Mr. Neckart," with an 
 admirably cordial little smile, holding 
 out her gloved hand. 
 
 Neckart stammered with sudden re 
 morse and pity : " Ton my soul, Miss 
 Fleming, I forgot that you were going 
 ashore ! Forgive me. But a man re 
 prieved with the axe at his neck can't 
 be expected to have his senses at call." 
 
 "You go back, then ?" 
 
 " Oh, immediately ! I must regain my 
 my work. What can I do for you ?" 
 zealously. " Your baggage, now ? There 
 will be nothing dutiable, of course. Will 
 you have it sent to London or direct to 
 the Continent ? You told me your plans, 
 but " 
 
 "You have forgotten them," smiling. 
 " The baggage is already on its way. 
 You forget I am one of the capable, self- 
 reliant sisterhood. No. You can do no 
 thing for me but to say good-bye." 
 
 Neckart caught her hand and wrung 
 it vehemently, but it lay with its smooth 
 kid covering passive in his palm. He 
 began to say something to her about her 
 art and success, but the words seemed a 
 ghastly mockery and died in his throat. 
 
 " Oh, I shall succeed, undoubtedly, 
 but in a low grade. My ability is of in 
 ferior quality. I know all my limita 
 tions," with a sudden metallic laugh. 
 
 . " You will return in a year or two, 
 and " 
 
 "No, I shall not return. I shall never
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 see you again," looking for the first time 
 in his face. 
 
 Neckart glanced beyond her to the 
 strange city, vast and dreary in the 
 twilight and drizzle and falling soot. 
 The docks were swarming with life. 
 Some of their fellow - passengers had 
 already landed and been met by eager 
 friends, and were driven away to their 
 homes. This woman was going friend 
 less into the night and crowd. She was 
 so little and lonely and hardly used ! But 
 what could he do ? He had not a minute 
 to lose if he would board the Russia. 
 
 "Miss Fleming, I owe a fresh lease of 
 life to you. I shall always think of you 
 with gratitude." 
 
 "What I gave you was a free gift," 
 she said in a very quiet voice. " I want 
 no gratitude in return for it. Good-bye." 
 
 " Good-bye." 
 
 She suddenly raised his hand and kiss 
 ed it. 
 
 " Cornelia !" 
 
 But she was gone, and in a moment 
 was lost in the hurrying crowds, on 
 which a sullen rain was beginning to 
 fall. 
 
 Before midnight Neckart was plough 
 ing his way back. His brain was quite 
 clear no threats of paralysis or sudden 
 age. He lay awake building honest air- 
 castles new plans for the paper, dreams 
 of happiness for Jane as fresh and sweet 
 as a boy's of his first love. But through 
 them all the kiss on his hand burned 
 like fire. He rubbed it again and again 
 angrily. 
 
 He wanted no guilty damned spot 
 about him when he came to Jane. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 WHEN the door of the hut opened 
 Bruno growled furiously. Mr. Van Ness 
 appeared on the threshold, smiling, be 
 nign, a goodly sight, from his blond head 
 and the yellow topaz on his snowy shirt- 
 front to the polished boots. 
 
 "Down, Bruno, down !" said Jane. 
 
 The old hunter observed that though 
 she stood erect she could not bring her 
 voice above a whisper. She looked at 
 
 Van Ness like a kid that the dogs were 
 going to tear to death. Glenn came up 
 hastily between her and the stranger. 
 He had the dog's sudden antipathy to 
 him and to his smile. 
 
 " What is your business ?" 
 
 Van Ness advanced and held out his 
 hand cordially. The mountains had had 
 their effect upon him : his irritated nerves 
 lay now quieted out of sight in the thick 
 cool flesh. As he ascended the heights 
 he had laid his plans. Gentleness first, 
 force if need be : gentle measures would 
 no doubt suffice. The law would ensure 
 to him immediate possession of his wife. 
 She had the devilish obstinacy of a mule, 
 but she was his wife. He would bring 
 her to love him at last, and their future 
 life would be eminently respectable and 
 comfortable. Laidley's estate must yield 
 now, on an average ? The remainder 
 of the ride had passed in pleasant calcu 
 lation. Never had his temper been more 
 serene or firm than when he presented 
 himself before his wife. 
 
 "What's your business?" said the old 
 man. 
 
 "My business," gently, "is with that 
 lady. I have followed her here from 
 New York, and I thank you heartily, 
 sir, for taking care of her." 
 
 "Of course I'll take care of Jane. I'll 
 not allow her to be follered or disturbed, 
 neyther. Do you want to see this man, 
 child?" 
 
 Jane did not hear him. Her eyes were 
 fastened on the handsome figure, all light 
 and benignity. She had thought she was 
 done with it for ever. It seemed to her 
 now as if it never would leave her sight 
 again. 
 
 "You kin see clearly that you're un 
 welcome to her," said Glenn. "Wife, 
 take Jane into her own room until this 
 gentleman is gone." 
 
 "When I go," said Van Ness with a 
 pleasant, airy wave of the hand, "she 
 goes with me. You are kind, my dear 
 sir, but unreasonable. I have a claim 
 upon this lady which even you will al 
 low is sufficient." 
 
 "What claim has he on you, Jane?" 
 turning his back abruptly on Van Ness. 
 " Has he any right to talk in this way ?"
 
 86 
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 "Yes. I am his wife." 
 
 " Wife ! Married ! Not accordin' to 
 law ?" 
 
 "There is the certificate." 
 
 At the sight of this slip of paper, and 
 with the rustle of it in Glenn's hand, her 
 strength ebbed away from Jane. It was 
 the Law. Her prejudices and dislikes 
 seemed suddenly insignificant, helpless, 
 in this mighty force. It had the same ef 
 fect on the ignorant, law-abiding moun 
 taineer. 
 
 " I don't see but as it's correct," turn 
 ing it over, perplexed. "She's yer legal 
 wife." 
 
 " No matter ef she were his wife a hun 
 dred times," cried his wife: "she shall 
 not go back ef she chooses to stay. 
 P'raps he's abused her. He shall not 
 force her away." 
 
 " I have no wish to force her to leave 
 you," in the same gentle, cheerful tone. 
 " Be rational, dear friends. I leave Jane 
 to answer whether I have ever used to 
 ward her a word or action that was not 
 loving and tender." 
 
 "No," said Jane, dully. 
 
 "Do you know anything of me which 
 would justify your flight? Answer me 
 candidly. Is there a single reason why 
 you should not honor and respect me as 
 your husband ?" 
 
 Jane was silent. The law within her 
 gave a savage answer. But what was 
 that but blind prejudice ? She must an 
 swer according to the judgment of the 
 outside world. 
 
 " Is there any reason ?" 
 
 "No none." 
 
 Van Ness nodded cheerfully, and mo 
 tioned the hunter and his wife confiden 
 tially to his side : " I will explain the mat 
 ter to you precisely as it stands," his light 
 eyes looking over their heads to Jane. 
 
 She stood irresolutely a moment, and 
 then went into the little room which had 
 been set apart for her. She could not 
 draw her breath so near to him. 
 
 Van Ness, peering through the open 
 door, saw that there was but one narrow 
 window inside, opening over a sheer de- 
 sce'nt of rocks. " It is quite natural that 
 you should love Jane and wish to defend 
 her, as you knew her when she was a 
 
 child," he said, raising his voice that she 
 might hear. " But you do not understand. 
 She married me of her own free will by 
 the bedside of her dying father. His last 
 act was to give her to me with his bless 
 ing. You can judge whether he would 
 have chosen an unworthy husband for 
 her." 
 
 "'Tain't likely," said Glenn. But his 
 wife shook her head. 
 
 "An hour after his death Jane escaped: 
 left her dead father left me whom she 
 loved. The only rational way of account 
 ing for her course is that the nervous 
 strain had proved too much for her, and 
 that she was temporarily insane. You 
 can question her whether I have stated 
 the facts correctly." 
 
 The old people glanced doubtfully in 
 at the tall figure standing motionless at 
 the open window. 
 
 "She don't contradict you in nothin", 
 sir. I'm sorry ef I was onjust to you," 
 said the old man slowly. 
 
 " I honor you for it ! You could have 
 no claim to my friendship as strong as 
 your affection for my wife." 
 
 "Yes," with. deliberation, "we've allays 
 been powerful fond of Jane. But mar 
 riage is marriage. We won't interfere. 
 Them as God hes jined together " 
 
 Van Ness rose : " I shall take her with 
 me to Asheville. Her mental trouble 
 may make her seem disinclined to go. 
 But firmness and affectionate care will 
 soon restore her." He walked to the 
 door: "Come, my dear wife." 
 
 Jane turned and faced him. Her very 
 lips seemed withered : " I have given you 
 the money." 
 
 Van Ness waited smiling, without a 
 word after that, his white hands held 
 out. 
 
 "Come, my pretty!" whispered the old 
 woman, stroking her arm soothingly. 
 "Suppose you don't like him so much 
 at first? You'll grow into it. Hundreds 
 of women marry without love. You must 
 give up to the law." 
 
 The law, the whole world, were against 
 her. 
 
 Van Ness came closer, step by step, 
 with the inexorable steadiness of Fate in
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 87 
 
 his eye. Mrs. Glenn drew back and left 
 them alone. 
 
 "You married me." 
 
 "I wanted to give you the money. 
 There was my mistake." 
 
 "You cannot repair it. There is no 
 one to help you." 
 
 She looked out at the bare peaks and 
 the sky near at hand, and raised her 
 arms, clasping her hands back of her 
 head. Her lips moved. " God will help 
 me," Van Ness thought he heard her say. 
 
 He put his hand on her shoulder : 
 "Come. We must return to-night, at 
 least part of the way," with quiet au 
 thority. 
 
 He drew her toward him, stooped to 
 kiss her lips. 
 
 At that moment there was a loud 
 knocking at the outer door, and a man 
 and woman entered. Van Ness saw 
 them. His hand fell from Jane's arm, 
 his countenance relaxed : for a moment 
 he stood unnerved : then with quick de 
 cision he stepped boldly forward to meet 
 them, drawing to the door of the cham 
 ber behind him. 
 
 " Charlotte ?" 
 
 "Yes," with a shrug, "or Princess Tre- 
 bizoff, Madame Varens, what you choose. 
 By any other name I am as dear to you. 
 Heavens ! what a chase !" perching her 
 self airily on the settle in front of the fire. 
 "I am one living ache. I can't congrat 
 ulate you on your roads, madam. But 
 your scenery ! Ah, that goes to the 
 heart!" 
 
 Mr. Neckart stood beside her, calmly 
 waiting until Van Ness should turn to 
 him. The great reformer was brought 
 to bay : he was alert, prompt, ready. 
 
 " You followed me here, Mr. Neckart ?" 
 turning sharply. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " For what purpose ?" 
 
 "To bring your wife to you," glancing 
 at Charlotte. 
 
 " I inferred that was the story which 
 this poor creature had imposed upon you. 
 Surely, you know her character, Neckart ? 
 Why, she has levied blackmail for years 
 by just such ingenious devices. I did not 
 suppose any statement of hers would bear 
 a minute's investigation from a shrewd, 
 
 practical man like yourself. So she real 
 ly deceived you, eh ?" with a discordant 
 laugh. 
 
 Charlotte, drying her dainty feet at 
 the fire, looked contemptuously over her 
 shoulder at him. 
 
 " There is no need of any discussion in 
 the matter," said Neckart dryly. "We 
 are not here to play melodrama. The 
 matter is easily understood. I returned 
 from Europe last week, and went direct 
 to the Hemlock Farm. From the ser 
 vants I heard the details of the forced 
 marriage and of Jane's flight. I follow 
 ed her." 
 
 "How did you find her here?" 
 
 " Betty Nichols knew that she was 
 coming." 
 
 " Damn her ! She hid it from me, her 
 husband !" 
 
 Neckart stepped hastily forward, then 
 controlled himself and drew back : " She 
 had given the route to Charlotte also. 
 I overtook her at Baltimore. She had 
 stopped to obtain legal proof of your 
 marriage to her in 1847. We followed 
 an hour behind you from Richmond." 
 
 Even in this imminent moment Van 
 Ness secretly wondered how this passion 
 ate brute of a Neckart held himself in 
 check and talked coolly to the man who 
 had stolen from him the woman that he 
 loved. It would have been in character 
 for him to tear his life out, like Bruno. 
 But this was admirable self-command! 
 It really gratified Van Ness's taste, totter 
 ing on the verge of ruin as he was. The 
 truth was, that Neckart was conscious of 
 little else than that Jane was in the hut. 
 The rage against this scoundrel which 
 had maddened him through the long 
 journey had strangely died out. He had 
 not harmed her. He was like a fangless 
 snake, to be trampled under foot at any 
 moment. 
 
 But she was there ! He had caught 
 a glimpse of the proud, delicate head 
 and its crown of yellow hair behind the 
 door as Van Ness closed it. 
 
 The door moved. It opened, and she 
 came out among them. Neckart rose, 
 his head bent upon his breast. He was 
 deaf and blind for the time could not 
 tell whether she spoke to him or not.
 
 88 
 
 A LAW UNTO HEKSELF. 
 
 She went directly up to Van Ness : " I 
 am not your wife ?" 
 
 He cowered for a moment. Then, 
 rapidly shifting his defence, he stood up, 
 benevolent, impregnable : " I do not de 
 ny that I was once married to this wo 
 man. It was a mad error of my youth, 
 long since repented of. I was divorced 
 from her last June." 
 
 "Ta, ta, Pliny, take care!" interrupt 
 ed Charlotte. "The application for di 
 vorce was not made until after your mar 
 riage to Miss Swendon. I told you you 
 would not risk a criminal trial for her 
 sake. But I underrated your affection. 
 You did it." 
 
 "Then I am free ?" said Jane. 
 
 "You are free," said Charlotte. 
 
 Jane turned to the door and went into 
 the open air without a word. 
 
 " I took a good deal of trouble to come 
 here," resumed Charlotte, brushing some 
 dust from her flounces, " to tell her that. 
 I shouldn't have done it for any other 
 woman. But you remember that day 
 when I was shamming death, how she 
 kissed me, Pliny ? I didn't forget that 
 kiss." 
 
 Van Ness stood silent, hesitating. The 
 firelight shone upon his tall figure, the 
 dainty gray clothes, the shining stone, like 
 a watchful evil eye, upon his breast. He 
 was a perfect presentation of prosperity 
 and peace. He looked at Neckart, but 
 he was looking through the open door at 
 a slight figure moving among the rocks. 
 
 Van Ness rubbed his hands softly. " I 
 do not see," he said with unctuous pre 
 cision, "that further discussion will be of 
 any use in this matter. I was evidently 
 mistaken as to point of time in the di 
 vorce. No one who knows me will sus 
 pect me of any worse error than a mis 
 take. I will accompany you to Ashe- 
 ville, Charlotte, with pleasure. I owe 
 you no grudge for the bitter wrong you 
 , have done me." 
 
 Charlotte rose and laughed good-na 
 turedly : "You have your virtues, no doubt, 
 Pliny. So have I. I always thought we 
 were well mated. Shall we continue one ? 
 You may have to fall back upon my black 
 mailing devices, after all. I forgot to tell 
 you that there was an inquiry last week 
 
 into the disposition of the funds entrusted 
 to you for the Home for Friendless Chil 
 dren, and that they were reported nil" 
 
 For the first time in his life Van Ness 
 blenched. The story of the marriage 
 could be smothered. But this was total 
 ruin. 
 
 "The sooner you go the better," said 
 the hunter, tapping him on the shoulder. 
 "Ef I understand right, you're not the 
 kind of man as ought to pizen these 
 mountings long." 
 
 Van Ness moved heavily to the door. 
 But he turned on the threshold with a 
 sickly smile : " I forgive you your rude 
 ness, my friend. It is not my nature 
 to bear malice. Farewell, Mr. Neckart. 
 You have mistaken my motives in this 
 matter. But I shall think of you kindly. 
 I shall bear you all to the throne of grace 
 in my prayers." He shook his hand as 
 if scattering blessings, and went out with 
 a lofty step and head erect. 
 
 Charlotte lingered and went up to 
 Neckart. 
 
 "You are going to cling to that poor 
 wretch ?" he said. 
 
 " Well, he's down now, you see. 
 There's nobody but me to stay by him. 
 And I can always draw on him when 
 I'm out of funds." 
 
 "You will remember what I told you 
 of the school in Indiana ? You could 
 live in respectability and comfort ; bring 
 your boy home too." 
 
 "My boy? Home?" Her eyes filled 
 with tears. "These are very tempting 
 words, Mr. Neckart. But oh-h ! Re 
 spectability is such a bore ! I must go 
 my own gait to the end ;" and with a 
 merry laugh and shrug she followed 
 Van Ness. 
 
 When they were out of sight down the 
 gorge, Neckart rose and went slowly out 
 to the cleft in the rock where the girl sat 
 alone. 
 
 "Jane," he said, "the way is open be 
 tween us at last. Will you come to me ?" 
 
 I cannot write Finis to the story of any 
 of these people. They are all alive to 
 day, and the current of each life goes on 
 with very little change. 
 
 You may still see Van Ness on the plat-
 
 A LAW UNTO HERSELF. 
 
 89 
 
 form at all large religious or benevolent 
 meetings in the great cities. There was 
 much talk of the missing funds, but he 
 quieted it satisfactorily. Cynical report 
 ers throw out hints of ugly shadows in 
 his life, but his disciples gather more 
 solidly about him, trust their souls to his 
 direction and their money to his pockets. 
 Simple followers of Jesus fear to condemn 
 a light which shines so splendidly in the 
 market-place, and men who are not His 
 followers accept it as Christianity, and 
 damn the religion as spurious and a 
 fraud. 
 
 Charlotte is just now the successful 
 leader of an English opera-bouffe com 
 pany which is travelling in the West. 
 She gave the proceeds of her benefit in 
 every town to the poor last winter, which 
 was supposed by all respectable people 
 to be an advertising trick. But it was 
 not. The little woman would do more 
 than that to buy herself an entrance into 
 the heaven where her boy is going. She 
 would do anything, in fact, but lead a 
 decent life. 
 
 Miss Fleming is still in Rome. She 
 belongs to the modern school which re 
 gards the nice reproduction of drapery 
 and dry goods as the highest art. She 
 sends home pictures, which sometimes 
 gain a place by sufferance in a dark 
 corner at the spring exhibition. 
 
 Mr. Neckart once bought one, a La 
 dy s Toilette. 
 
 "A fair specimen of the millinery cult," 
 he said, showing it to Judge Rhodes. 
 "Poor Cornelia! Why is it that she 
 never, even by chance, paints a clean- 
 minded woman ?" He sent a cheque 
 for double the price asked for it. But he 
 threw the picture on the market again, 
 not wishing to take it home. He had 
 married a singularly clean-minded wo 
 man. 
 
 Cornelia's first impulse was to send the 
 cheque back. But, instead, she bought a 
 ring with a single costly ruby in it, and 
 has worn it ever since, though she has 
 been hungry for bread many a time. 
 
 Hungry or not, she makes her studio one 
 of the pleasantest resorts for the young 
 artists in Rome. She has cut her hair 
 short, wears a jaunty velvet coat and 
 man's collar : her arms are bony, but she 
 bares them, and still shoots languishing 
 glances from out of the crowsfeet. The 
 young men laugh to each other. "A good 
 fellow, Corny," they say, "but what a pity 
 that she is not a man !" 
 
 The Home for Friendless Children is 
 at last a reality in New York, though 
 Van Ness is not a director. It was es 
 tablished by the editor Neckart, whose 
 wife, it is said, endowed it with her own 
 fortune. This charitable deed left them 
 with but a very moderate competency. 
 Neckart managed to buy in the Hem 
 lock Farm, out of his income, for her 
 and the boy. 
 
 He drives them over once a week to 
 see the children in the Home, each of 
 whom Jane knows and tries to spoil. 
 
 "You are glad that we made this act 
 of reparation, Jane ?" he said to her one 
 day. 
 
 " Reparation ?" She hesitated, and 
 then said, "I know that I made many 
 mistakes when I was a law to myself. 
 You are my law now, Bruce." 
 
 " But you are satisfied that it was right 
 to give back the money ?" he insisted. 
 
 " Oh, of course ! The money was un 
 lucky ! It made you uncomfortable too. 
 And I look on it as a free gift from Swen- 
 don here to the poor little babies," taking 
 her boy on her knee and stroking his 
 curls. "But," she added in a low voice, 
 "the money was mine. I was quite right 
 when I burned the will." 
 
 Neckart laughed good-humoredly, and 
 touched the horses with his whip. There 
 is no man living who loves his wife more 
 tenderly; and Jane is the most simple 
 and prosaic of women. Yet there are 
 times when she seems, even to him, a wo 
 man whose acquaintance he has scarce 
 ly made, and whom he can never hope 
 to know better.
 
 J. B, LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 THE WORKS OF E. MARLITT. 
 
 THE OLD MAMSELLE'S SECRET. 
 
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 GOLD ELSIE. 
 
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