.
 
 " 'Give me a day of your life. One day !' " Page 10
 
 THE 
 
 WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 BY 
 
 MARAVENE THOMPSON 
 
 WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 W. D. GOLDBECK 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 Copyright, 1913, 1914, by 
 THE PHILLIPS PUBLISHING Co. 
 
 Copyright, 1914, by 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign 
 languages, including the Scandinavian 
 
 March, 1914
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 : Give me a day of your life. One day!'" . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 " Would even the most astute officer of the law look 
 further with this before him in George Orcutt's 
 
 home?" 18 
 
 "'Don't stare at me so!'" 66 
 
 "'What I want is right here'" 104 
 
 "'Please go! please please!' she whispered" . . 148 
 
 " ' Gail ! ' he cried hoarsely. ' She is not my ' " . 160 
 
 "'You do not forgive ' she mumbled. 'I I did not 
 
 expect Only '" 196 
 
 2133530
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 TTUSBAND and wife sat in a long silence after 
 A A his recital. The man's face was ghastly 
 with fright. By degrees the woman's stunned gaze 
 changed to one of questioning. 
 
 "Why did you kill him?" 
 
 "Why?" repeated George Orcutt. 
 
 "Was it in self-defense?" There was an im- 
 ploring cadence in quaver. 
 
 "No," he groaned. "We were both in ugly tem- 
 per I was playing with the knife I didn't intend 
 Then somehow it was done and he was at 
 my feet, the knife in his heart. It is there now 
 my knife with my name on the handle." 
 
 Her shivering hands came to her eyes as though 
 to shut out the thing he told her was "there." 
 
 "And Earle and Adams knew we went to the 
 studio together," continued the man despairingly. 
 "Charlie Knox passed me as I was coming out of 
 Emmet's door I was so undone that I almost 
 blurted it out to him I used my latch-key for fear
 
 2 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 I should tell it to the footman It was too awful 
 to keep alone " 
 
 The wife gazed into his terrified eyes, and into 
 the glaze of her own crept a strange light. She 
 leaned forward, her parched voice threaded with 
 a note of hope. 
 
 "And no one saw you as you came through the 
 halls no one of the maids?" 
 
 "No one." 
 
 Half rising, she stared at something ahead of 
 her, then stumbled to the door and turned the key. 
 She caught him by the arm. 
 
 "Take your hat and coat and cane and get be- 
 hind that tapestry." 
 
 The tapestry in question was of exquisite work- 
 manship and fabulous value a shepherd leaning 
 upon his staff, gamboling lambs, a boy playing upon 
 a flute, the dimensions full five feet by seven. It 
 hung against a surface flat to outward appearance; 
 but behind it was a recess that had once held a life- 
 size statue. 
 
 George Orcutt drew in a breath as of new life. 
 
 "What a head you have ! I believe you can save 
 
 me." 
 
 "I shall try to save my baby from the dis- 
 grace of your arrest," returned his wife, maternal 
 tenderness flooding her breaking voice. "You quar- 
 reled over a woman?" 
 
 "It was a woman." George Orcutt's gaze was 
 dully wondering. The incomprehensibility of it
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 3 
 
 would never leave him. That he could kill his 
 friends for so slight a cause a pair of faithless red 
 lips and a provocative smile! 
 
 "There will be room for a chair," she went on, 
 a little wildly. "I will arrange it so that you can 
 get enough air. And keep very quiet and don't 
 come out Oh! don't get afraid and come out 
 not till / tell you It is only a hope yet But stay 
 there quietly till I know " 
 
 The tapestry again in place with him seated be- 
 hind it, Gail Orcutt unlocked the door and threw it 
 open. Then she went to a window and opened it 
 and stood still, drinking in the cold air. The past 
 seven years spread before her. To-day was the 
 seventh anniversary of their marriage. She had 
 been seventeen then, an ardent girl, believing the 
 man she loved so chivalrous a creature that worship 
 was not more than his due. Acolyte had never be- 
 lieved more in his patron saint than she in George 
 Orcutt when she married him. Her belief in him 
 had lasted six months. Then she had learned that 
 he was faithless to her. He was a lover of women, 
 not of one woman. 
 
 More, this wife of seventeen had learned that 
 her own father knew! He had smiled when she 
 came to him with her tears and hot anger and 
 heart-break, had smiled patronizingly as he had 
 years before when she cried over a broken doll! 
 A shattered plaything, an unfaithful husband did 
 she not know that these were mere incidents in her
 
 4 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 life? Of course, a china toy would break; of course 
 George Orcutt would be untrue to her. But why 
 cry his unfaithfulness aloud to the world? This 
 was a thing to hide, not to bruit abroad. 
 
 And she had hid it. She had crept back home, 
 an outraged child, heart-broken over her shattered 
 idol. But she could do no more than play the part 
 of wife. The arrangement had been consented to 
 by George Orcutt readily enough. He was proud 
 to have this beautiful girl wear his name. He liked 
 scandal no better than did his father-in-law. His 
 amours were clandestine. It was only by chance 
 that his wife had discovered his inconstancy. For 
 which he was at first sorry, and later, glad. Sorry, 
 because in his way he loved her; and glad, for the 
 reason that he had nothing further to fear. Out- 
 side of perfunctory courtesies toward his family his 
 life was henceforth his own. Till to-day he had not 
 entered his wife's rooms for seven years less the 
 six months' honeymoon. 
 
 That honeymoon had become more hideous to 
 Gail to contemplate than the later years' preten- 
 sions. Her most poignant suffering had been caused 
 by the knowledge that sire had ever loved the man 
 whose name she bore. There was a sense of outrage 
 against herself that she could ever have been at- 
 tracted by one so wholly unworthy. 
 
 And George Orcutt was now a murderer. She 
 was the wife of a murderer. And Vance her 
 beautiful boy! Her chivalrous, high-minded little
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 5 
 
 son! The being to whom she pinned all her hope 
 and faith and love ! What would it mean to Vance 
 to be branded as a murderer's son? Her hands 
 clenched more tightly. The boy was peculiarly sen- 
 sitive. He would carry the burden of his father's 
 guilt as fully as though it were his own. As boy 
 and man he would be under the shadow of this 
 awful thing that had happened to-day. It did not 
 matter what Vance himself was or what he should 
 become. He was irrevocably George Orcutt's son 
 George Orcutt, murderer! 
 
 And she had given Vance his father. Somehow, 
 somehow, she should have divined the ignominy of 
 George Orcutt's soul and saved herself and her boy 
 from him. She had been blind a child unthink- 
 ing, unquestioning; yes but even so 
 
 Her head came up like a mother doe's at bay; 
 purpose, purpose indomitable, mingled with the 
 glazed agony of her eyes. 
 
 Last week at dinner she had sat beside Judge 
 Allison in his home and heard him denounce the 
 police in biting tones. He had said that 80 per cent, 
 of all the murderers went uncaught and that less 
 than 2 per cent, got punished. And he had said 
 something else. He had told her how to save 
 George Orcutt. George Orcutt was not then a mur- 
 derer; Frederick Allison was not then acting in the 
 capacity of judge. He was a host entertaining a 
 beautiful woman a woman seemingly as far re- 
 moved from the sordid crime of to-day as noon
 
 6 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 from midnight. The Orcutt name was one of the 
 oldest and most dignified in New York. George 
 Orcutt's great-grandfather had raised and supported 
 a regiment in the Revolutionary army; his father, a 
 major-general of the Civil War, had been prouder 
 of his title and his maimed leg than of his millions. 
 It was by a grant of land from King George II. 
 to the first American Orcutt that the foundation for 
 the Orcutt millions had been laid. 
 
 Gail had told Judge Allison of Vance, her boy; 
 not tales of his childish prattle and cleverness, but 
 revelations of his character; and she had told of 
 these with a pathetic questioning in her eyes her 
 being unconsciously pleading for assurance that her 
 son was destined to become a good man. 
 
 And the Judge had smiled on her tenderly on 
 the mother. For she was now primarily not woman, 
 nor wife, his experienced mind apprehended, but a 
 creature who had borne a son, and who would al- 
 ways and forever bear him upon her heart. 
 
 It was the mother who stood now by the window 
 and laid her plan the plan that was to swing her 
 like a pendulum between heaven and hell. 
 
 As a woman Gail Orcutt would not have had the 
 strength nor the cunning either to conceive this plan 
 or to carry it into effect. As George Orcutt's un- 
 loved wife she would not have had the inspiration. 
 But as strength and endurance had come to meet 
 the physical travail that gave her baby life, it came
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 7 
 
 now to save the boy and the man he was to be from 
 the devastating shadow of the electric chair. 
 
 She did not realize the terrific odds against her 
 in a conflict with the law; she had no knowledge of 
 the long arm with which it encircles th,e globe. It 
 was a menace that threatened her offspring, and she 
 pitted her puny strength against it with the instinct 
 of a mother sparrow against a hawk. She was blind 
 to everything but her motherhood. She was Pro- 
 tector, Defender, Love, for him her child! 
 
 She turned from the window. She had spent nine 
 minutes in laying her plan. For another minute she 
 stood motionless and gathered her resources to- 
 gether her courage, her pride, her woman's cun- 
 ning, her society poise, her mask of coldness under 
 which she had hidden the burning misery of these 
 six and a half years. 
 
 "Insight Wit Nerve!" These were the three 
 winning cards in the game of crime, had been Judge 
 Allison's pronouncement. Insight to divine the road 
 the pursuer would take; wit to extricate oneself 
 when cornered; nerve to play the game through to 
 the end making no admissions, conceding no 
 points, proclaiming innocence in the face of an army 
 of accusers. Insight, wit, nerve she would have 
 these because she must have them! And one 
 other card was hers. She was a woman and beauti- 
 ful. There had been times when she had loathed 
 the beauty that had won George Orcutt's fancy; 
 times when she had hated her dependency as a
 
 8 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 woman. Now Now! She whispered the word in 
 scared breath. Her hands came up to her throat in 
 a clutch of agony. Now! the word held but one 
 significance the awful present and the weird thing 
 that she must carry through. 
 
 She went to the call-bell, pressed the button to 
 summon her maid. The girl appeared, trim, 
 smiling. 
 
 "Tell Bryan to have the car here in fifteen min- 
 utes," said Gail, and said it carelessly to her own 
 amazement. Then quietly, with no haste, she 
 waited while Sylvie enveloped her in the long sable 
 coat, set her hat at just the right angle, patted a 
 loose lock into place, fastened her gloves, pinned a 
 fragrant rose at her waist, handed her the pillowy 
 muff. 
 
 "Zat is all," said Sylvie, surveying her work 
 carefully. "Non, one thing more, madame. Ze 
 cheeks want a little color, a vair little." Sylvie said 
 this coaxingly, for she and "madame" did not al- 
 ways agree as to the necessity of rouge. 
 
 But to-day, to the delight of Sylvie's French art- 
 istry, madame was complacent. Nor did she dis- 
 sent when the "vair little" became considerable. 
 Sylvie was radiant. 
 
 "Now madame is trans cendente" she cried. "It 
 is ze color zat gives ze vivacitf, ouif" 
 
 Gail smiled, with her lips, and the long lashes hid 
 the terror that leapt to her eyes as she went out and 
 left Sylvie in the room the room with the tapestry.
 
 II 
 
 RIVE very slowly, and near the curbing," was 
 Gail's order to the chauffeur. "And keep to 
 the thoroughfares, where the sidewalks are crowded 
 with people. Keep going till I signal you to stop." 
 
 The car moved forward. Down the Drive to 
 Seventy-second Street, through the Park and on to 
 Fifth Avenue; down the Avenue to Sixteenth Street; 
 across to Broadway; up Broadway; thence on Forty- 
 second Street to the Grand Central Terminal. The 
 car turned, went back over the ground. 
 
 Gail's eyes, filled with desperate questioning, 
 gazed out on the medley of faces. There was every 
 face there but the kind she sought. Yet Judge Allison 
 had said that he could find his double in a search 
 of three blocks his double as regarded height, 
 weight, shape of head, color of eyes and hair, his 
 double in these and all of the characteristics that 
 could be conveyed by a description. 
 
 At the corner of Forty-second and Broadway the 
 automobile came to a full stop, held up with a score 
 of other vehicles by the white-gloved hand of an 
 officer till the waiting pedestrians were escorted 
 
 9
 
 io THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 across the crowded thoroughfare. Gail, her eyes 
 still filled with agonized questioning, gazed out on 
 the passing faces. An instant's wild staring, then 
 she opened the door and almost flung herself on 
 the man standing on the curbing directly facing her. 
 She pushed him within the limousine and sat down 
 pantingly beside him. The chauffeur, eyes on the 
 officer, ears deadened by the din of the jangling 
 traffic, drove on, unaware of the scene so quickly 
 enacted. 
 
 For a breathless moment Gail's eyes traversed 
 the face of the man beside her. She took stock of 
 his features; of his shoulders; his body. Then 
 
 "You are a gentleman," she uttered rapidly. 
 "And I am a woman in need, the greatest need. 
 You can help me. I can't tell you why. But Give 
 me a day of your life. One day! On a hazard 
 without questions." She bent her face nearer to 
 him, her alluring face whose power she knew. "I 
 am asking you for a service that requires courage 
 and faith in me. Will you go blindly into what 
 may seem to you grave peril? for the sake of an 
 unknown child and and a mother? It is my 
 motherhood that makes me brave enough to ask this 
 to beg you to give a day of your life to me to 
 use for myself, in my own way. Will you?" 
 
 The man's eyes rested on her in a dazed, un- 
 blinking way. He knitted his brows. His lips 
 opened, but he did not speak. 
 
 "Will you?" she repeated, tensely.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW n 
 
 His hand reached up and grasped his hat between 
 wavering fingers. He laid it on his knee. 
 
 "Excuse me, dear," he stammered. "I forgot I 
 was in the house. I " 
 
 There was bewilderment in the eyes he fastened 
 upon her. Again he knitted his brows. She saw 
 that he did this in an effort to think a vain effort. 
 It was apparent that he did not understand her 
 words. His lips parted, mumbled something, stayed 
 parted in a vacant smile. 
 
 Gail looked at him again, closely. 
 
 It came to her comprehension that the vague un- 
 winking orbs and the lax mouth bespoke a stunned 
 brain. 
 
 She drew in her breath. 
 
 Here was a graver risk than the other. A gen- 
 tleman might serve her through chivalry, or daring, 
 or from desire for a new adventure, or for all 
 reasons or for no reason at all ; and a gentleman's 
 word once passed would remain inviolate. But the 
 befogged brain beside her was there any depend- 
 ence in it? Was it passive or 
 
 She did not complete the question. Her being, 
 keyed to action, instinctively girded itself for the 
 plunge. 
 
 She placed the man's hat on his head. "Keep it 
 on," she urged, her voice coaxing, as to a child. 
 The man smiled in a tired way, and let her envelop 
 him in a fur-lined coat of George Orcutt's that she 
 drew from beneath the seat. She brought the collar
 
 12 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 up over his necktie. A long scrutinizing look at her 
 work, then she drew the stop-strap and waited. 
 
 The chauffeur's face betrayed surprise as he saw 
 the other occupant. 
 
 "Mr. Orcutt got in when the car stopped a few 
 blocks back," she explained, and listened in a daze 
 at her own voice. "I received a telephone message 
 that he was wandering about the streets alone and 
 not not well. I was looking for him." She stepped 
 out. "He is ill, out of his head somewhat. Stand 
 close by the door and don't let him get out." 
 
 She swept by him and into the candy shop before 
 which she had stopped the car. 
 
 The chauffeur smiled as he guarded the door. 
 So Mr. Orcutt was "ill." And his wife thought she 
 needed to tell him, Tom Bryan, who drove Orcutt 
 home after his nights' debauches! That is, when 
 he went home. Yet it was unusual for him to be 
 "ill" at this hour. And he did look strange, curi- 
 ously unlike himself. Bryan's gaze, unconsciously 
 questioning, turned on Mrs. Orcutt as she appeared. 
 
 The woman's tense muscles tightened a fraction 
 more. It was here that the test was to come. Bryan 
 saw that there was a difference between the George 
 Orcutt of yesterday and the George Orcutt of to- 
 day. 
 
 Her being sickened with fright. Judge Allison 
 had said that the easiest way to deceive a fellow 
 being was to lead him into deceiving himself; that 
 a man involuntarily questions another's opinion and
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 13 
 
 instinctively defends his own. Once having said 
 that green is blue he would insist upon it, and swear 
 to it, and eventually believe it. 
 
 Yet to direct Bryan's attention to the differ- 
 ence he saw Things reeled before her eyes So 
 much depended upon the successful carrying out of 
 her plan And how could she be sure 
 
 Bryan's eyes still questioned. 
 
 "Mr. Orcutt looks very strange to me," she whis- 
 pered. "I have never seen him look nor act so 
 peculiar. Is it anything unusual? Or have you 
 known him to be like this? I wonder if I had 
 better have our physician see him." 
 
 Tom Bryan's open face could not fully hide his 
 inward laughter. A physician? 
 
 "A few hours' sleep'll fix him. There's nothing 
 to worry about, Mrs. Orcutt. Home?" 
 
 A smile bordering on hysteria came to Gail Or- 
 cutt's face as the car shot forward. Bryan had ac- 
 cepted this stranger for his employer! Bryan who 
 had known Orcutt for five years! 
 
 Her drooping head rose the proud head that 
 not even George Orcutt's mad, foolish crime could 
 lower. No! she breathed fiercely. No! She had 
 set herself to find a way to save her baby. There 
 was always a way, the judge had said, when one 
 had a brain and eyes and ears. 
 
 Different, strange, unusual, bewildering, the 
 looks of this man might be thought to be, but it 
 would be George Orcutt who looked peculiar,
 
 i 4 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 George Orcutt, no other. This stranger thrown up 
 at her from the curbing should be George Orcutt 
 till the true Orcutt was safely out of the country. 
 This was her plan. And somehow she should make 
 it succeed. Unless But ah! the man must re- 
 main passive must! 
 
 "Don't cry, dear." 
 
 Her eyes questioned his hopefully. 
 
 But vacancy again replaced his fleeting under- 
 standing, blankness suspended the compassion of 
 his gaze. His eyes, bent on her face, seemed not 
 to see her, not even as she drew him to his feet at 
 the halting of the car. 
 
 Bryan, acting on the premise long since learned, 
 that his employer always needed support when "ill," 
 put an arm under the man's elbow and carefully 
 guided him into the house. He moved without pro- 
 test. 
 
 The mistress of the house followed languidly, 
 as though no shaking figure crouched behind a tapes- 
 try, no stark body lay grimly silent on a floor, a Chi- 
 nese dirk piercing its heart. Yet Gail Orcutt's eyes 
 held these two images. And another the image 
 of herself playing a weird part. And this was as 
 unreal as the other two. Lucas Emmet was not 
 dead George Orcutt was not a murderer She 
 was not seeing a stranger go into her home on 
 Bryan's arm. 
 
 An hour ago she had watched a ship go by, a 
 six-masted schooner, sails outspread. She had
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 15 
 
 thrilled aesthetically as it skimmed, like an eerie 
 human thing, over the blue water. And she had 
 thought of a sea-blue gown that she was to wear to 
 the opera that night. That night? This night! 
 
 No ! There was no reality in these images be- 
 fore her eyes. There was not because there could 
 not be! Yet 
 
 "Take Mr. Orcutt to my room," she heard her- 
 self saying to Bryan. "I want to see how long one 
 of these attacks lasts." 
 
 Bryan chuckled to himself over this new move of 
 the madam's. He left George Orcutt in his wife's 
 hands with the hope that he would get a little of 
 what was legitimately coming to him. Not that 
 he felt it would do him any good. But that was 
 beside the point. A man who had a peach of a 
 wife and didn't know how to treat her should at 
 least be made to pay for his neglect by being hauled 
 over the coals and made as uncomfortable as pos- 
 sible between whiles. 
 
 Gail waited till she could no longer hear Bryan's 
 retreating footsteps, then she closed and locked the 
 door, and staggered to a chair. Again a catching 
 sob broke from her aching throat. 
 
 The man moved toward her, a comforting hand 
 outstretched. 
 
 "Don't, dear, don't!" he entreated. 
 
 Shivering, she shrank away from him a 
 woman's instinctive shrinking from the touch of a 
 stranger.
 
 1 6 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 But, as before, the man's interest was but transi- 
 tory. His hand fell aimlessly to his side. He stood 
 still in the strange room with only a dumb stare in 
 his eyes, the unheeding stare of one who has no 
 mental vision. 
 
 Gail left him where he stood, removed her wrap 
 and hat, took a few moments to quell the beating of 
 her overwrought heart. Then in a low voice she 
 called her husband.
 
 Ill 
 
 /^EORGE ORCUTTS bulging eyes leapt from 
 ^^ the face of the man to the strained counte- 
 nance of his wife. 
 
 "Am I out of my head? What does this mean, 
 Gail? Good God! What does this mean?" 
 
 His wife did not answer. Her eyes travelled 
 from man to man. Theirs was the same shaped 
 face, the same full forehead and thick brown hair, 
 the same golden-brown mustache and Vandyke 
 beard, eyes of almost identical brownness. The 
 noses were different, but not pronouncedly so; the 
 contours of the cheeks were unlike, but only slightly; 
 the ears were of different shapes but who ever 
 remembered an ear save it was deforming in its in- 
 dividuality? Till now she could not have told what 
 shape her husband's were. 
 
 Both were of medium height and build, the pos- 
 sible inch's or pound's difference would not attract 
 notice even from intimates. No; for Bryan's mo- 
 bile boyish face had shown that nothing strange 
 impressed him about the stature and weight of the 
 man he helped from car to room. The dissimilari-
 
 1 8 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 ties were unimportant, the likeness striking. A 
 Vandyke beard was so unusual a feature of a man's 
 face of to-day that it alone would cause one man 
 to be taken for the other in almost any crowd of 
 ordinary acquaintances. And when this beard was 
 golden-brown! Would even the most astute of- 
 ficer of the law look further with this before him in 
 George Orcutt's home? 
 
 "Gail! Tell me!" 
 
 There was the agony of hope in Orcutt's frenzied 
 voice. 
 
 "Wait." 
 
 Gail led the stranger into her boudoir, inaccessi- 
 ble except from the one entrance, and placed him 
 in an easy chair. She waited till she saw his head 
 sink back among the cushions and his eyes close in 
 stupor, then she left him, closing the door between 
 them. 
 
 "Now!" cried George Orcutt. He laid a fever- 
 ish hand on her arm. "That man have you bribed 
 him to take my place till I'm on safe territory? But 
 
 can you trust him? And " Amazement spoke 
 
 above all else "where did you find another beard 
 and forehead like mine? Did the devil fling up this 
 man from the pavement?" 
 
 "Perhaps it was the devil they say he looks out 
 for his own," she returned in tired voice. "We 
 have something to do now whether it is with or 
 without the devil's aid. And you must obey me 
 without questioning. First, you are to go in there
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 19 
 
 and strip that man and put the clothes on him that 
 you are now wearing every article. You will find 
 a bath-robe of mine in the closet that you can put 
 on yourself till I can bring you other clothes from 
 your room. Wrap his clothes together so that you 
 can take them with you behind the tapestry. When 
 he is ready to do duty as George Orcutt, you and 
 I can plan further. . . . He is out of his head, 
 he will not resist you. . . . He is a gentleman I 
 am not buying him Go ! there is no need now for 
 you to understand." 
 
 George Orcutt's wife sat with locked hands, al- 
 most motionless, till he returned. 
 
 A week ago she had told Judge Allison that a 
 good woman could not commit a crime, that some 
 force from within would keep her from it. And the 
 judge had smiled curiously. And he had asked 
 her just what she meant by a "good woman." And 
 he had told her that some of the greatest crimes 
 were committed by women whose inner lives had 
 always been pure. Love of country, love of hus- 
 band, love of offspring a good woman would lie 
 and rob and slay for these idols of her heart. Gail 
 had wondered vaguely to herself how a good woman 
 a woman who had always been honest, honorable, 
 truthful, frank, could scheme and plot and intrigue. 
 She wondered now how she herself could. She 
 scorned lying and deceit. She had a passion for 
 truth. In all her life she had never wantonly hurt 
 any living creature. In her dealings with trades-
 
 20 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 people and servants she was deeply considerate. She 
 had a yearning tenderness for all helpless things. 
 
 Yet 
 
 There was a helpless stranger in the other room 
 a helpless stranger that she had brought here ! 
 And she, no other, was going to hold him from 
 mother? wife? child? She did not know, and 
 it did not matter. This was the horrifying part of 
 it. She crouched low in her chair, tried to hide 
 herself from her own accusing vision. 
 
 "A day, two days at the most, and he will be 
 again with the one he calls 'dear,' " she uttered 
 in a childish whisper. 
 
 George Orcutt entered the room. His wife 
 started a little at his appearance; the voluminous 
 bath-robe draped about him was becomingly Gre- 
 cian, and his face in his excitement had lost some 
 of its pallor of dissipation. His dulled eyes were 
 bright now, and his voice had recovered its reso- 
 nance. 
 
 "I am saved," he announced. "George Orcutt 
 is in there. A clean shave, a new name, hair parted 
 differently, my pivot teeth removed, will be the only 
 disguise I need to leave the country. How long 
 can you keep him doped?" 
 
 She did not explain. 
 
 "You're a witch," he continued. His head 
 bowed dejectedly. "And I've lost you now forever 
 and my boy! If I had my life to live over 
 again!"
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 21 
 
 His wife looked at him wistfully. 
 
 "I wish I weren't such a rotter," he added, with 
 feeling. 
 
 "I wish you weren't," she returned with low 
 fervor. "Till to-day I never fully lost hope that 
 you might sometime do differently. I should have 
 no pity for you. Yet I have. I can never forget 
 that you are Vance's father. And for his sake, 
 your son's who loves you, try, try, with all your 
 strength to keep enough control of yourself not to 
 betray your secret. Lock your name, your past, 
 every identifying link, within your heart and keep 
 them there. I will find a way to provide you with 
 an income. But you must wait always for my move. 
 The unforgivable thing now would be for you to 
 allow yourself to be taken." 
 
 George Orcutt shuddered. 
 
 "I've put my mind in hell. I'll try to keep my 
 body out of prison." 
 
 "You must!" Her voice was passionate. "You 
 owe that much to Vance." Her words ended in a 
 dry sob. "Let us not talk any more just now. I 
 need my strength. I must plan to get you away 
 and for a hundred details." 
 
 She walked to the window, stood immovable. 
 
 He took a step toward her. 
 
 "I wish you could be free of me in some way. 
 Free to marry some one else. I've never thought 
 about it before if if there should be some one 
 you want, why " He groaned remorsefully.
 
 22 
 
 "You don't owe me anything, remember. No mat- 
 ter what a man is himself he wants his wife 
 
 straight Only there's a limit, and I've gone it. 
 
 I have no claim you er understand what I 
 mean." 
 
 "I have lost my faith in love between man and 
 woman," she answered dully. "To-day's murder is 
 not the first that you have committed and slaying 
 my faith is not the lesser crime. After knowing 
 you I never want to know another man intimately." 
 
 "You mustn't feel like that," he cried with sud- 
 den virtue. "There's Vance, our boy. You must 
 bring him up " 
 
 "Stop ! There is something that it is now too 
 late to give him a decent father. When I look 
 at my innocent baby, at his dear open face, his hon- 
 est eyes, his precious smile, I feel that surely, surely, 
 surely, he will be a good man, honorable, faithful, 
 a loyal husband and father. Then I remember 
 the look that is in your pictured face as a little boy, 
 
 the same honesty and truth that " She broke 
 
 off, shivering. "Let us not talk about it! I shall 
 love him as he is now, and try not to think about 
 what he may be " 
 
 "But he must be kept from from oh! the 
 things that make a man go to the devil!" he com- 
 manded. 
 
 Gail smiled drearily. 
 
 "Does a mother ever know what those things 
 are? I shall do all I can now. Nor can I blame
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 23 
 
 myself for not giving him a good father I thought 
 
 the man I married was good My boy and I 
 
 were both cheated " 
 
 She turned abruptly, her bearing suddenly calm. 
 
 "They are coming up the walk now an officer 
 and another man. The tapestry!" 
 
 Her eyes swept the room to see that nothing sus- 
 picious lay about, then she went swiftly and looked 
 at the man reposing in her boudoir. He still half 
 reclined in the be-pillowed chair she had arranged, 
 his eyes partly closed in stupor. As she bent over 
 him to see that all was as it should be, his eyes 
 took on a gleam of intelligence. 
 
 "My own girl " he mumbled. 
 
 "Gail," she pronounced slowly. "Gail. Say it 
 Gail!" 
 
 His brows came together pathetically. She saw 
 that it was useless to try to impress her name on his 
 fleeting consciousness. 
 
 And just then there came a knock at the door.
 
 IV 
 
 * I V HE killing of Lucas Emmet by George Orcutt 
 * was front page news next day. Each news- 
 paper reported the crime according to its particular 
 custom. Among them all no detail was knowingly 
 allowed to escape publicity. There were pictures 
 in numerous poses of the murderer and his victim, 
 pictures of the woman in the case, pictures of the 
 room where the murder took place, pictures of the 
 men's homes, their clubs, their relatives and serv- 
 ants. But the thing most featured was the knife 
 found in the dead man's heart. The imaginations 
 of the reportorial staffs created a background for 
 the present crime with tales of other crimes en- 
 compassed by the use of this ancient Chinese dirk 
 lurid, ghastly, blood-congealing in their horror. It 
 lifted the commonplace killing of man by man into 
 a realm of mystery and romance and occultism. It 
 wrapt the magic of the Orient about it. 
 
 Bared of tawdry sensationalism, melodrama, and 
 cheap moralizing, the story as known was bald 
 enough, similar to hundreds in the back files of city 
 dailies. One paper told the tale in half a column. 
 
 24
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 25 
 
 Following upon a few mild headlines came the la- 
 conic statement: 
 
 "Yesterday at three in the afternoon George W. 
 Orcutt, millionaire, clubman, noted whip, stabbed 
 and instantly killed Lucas Emmet, well and favor- 
 ably known as a painter of the nude. Friends for 
 a number of years, jealousy over a beautiful model 
 of Emmet's alienated the men. Though still friends 
 outwardly they had been figuratively at each other's 
 throats for a year. 
 
 "The murder occurred in Emmet's studio in the 
 Landseer Building. Neighboring studios were oc- 
 cupied at the time, but no one knew anything of 
 the tragedy, or had any suspicion of it till discovery 
 at five o'clock by Edgar Just Brewer and Frank 
 Adamson, artist friends of Emmet's. Orcutt and 
 Emmet were known to have had lunch together and 
 to have started together at 2:30 for Emmet's stu- 
 dio. Orcutt was seen leaving Emmet's studio at 
 3 :3O. There was no evidence of a struggle. Em- 
 met lay on the floor in a pool of blood, his heart 
 pierced through with a Chinese dirk having Orcutt's 
 name in full engraved on the handle. This dirk is 
 one of unusual workmanship and beauty, and very 
 old. Orcutt always carried it, but as an antique to 
 be shown, not as a weapon. 
 
 "Orcutt was apprehended at his home on River- 
 side Drive at 5 130 P. M. by Officer Fagan and De- 
 tective Warren, to their great surprise, as his home
 
 26 
 
 was the least likely place it was expected to find 
 him. 
 
 "The exact circumstances of the murder may 
 never be known. Orcutt is mentally unbalanced. At 
 first his stunned expression and disjointed speech 
 were looked upon as acting. But the testimony of 
 alienists Upman and Scott who examined him last 
 night show that his brain is seriously affected. By 
 their diagnosis the malady is the immediate effect 
 of a shock in their opinion terror contingent upon 
 the killing of his friend. Upon this premise they 
 also base a hypothesis that the murder was not pre- 
 meditated. For had it been planned his mind would 
 have been prepared for the catastrophe and no seri- 
 ous shock would have resulted. Orcutt is now at 
 his home under guard. He will be placed in an 
 asylum for the insane, whether one for the crim- 
 inal insane or in a private hospital will be at the 
 discretion of the Court. 
 
 "Seven years ago yesterday George W. Orcutt 
 was married to Miss Gail Revelling, daughter of 
 the late Hon. Clayton Revelling, at one time consul 
 to Rio Janeiro. Miss Revelling was then seventeen, 
 and considered one of the most beautiful girls in 
 New York. A painting of her by Hugh Orville, 
 entitled 'Youth/ made a furore in artistic circles 
 and was the beginning of Orville's great popularity 
 as a painter of women. Until that period he had 
 vainly sought recognition for his talent. It was this 
 painting that attracted the attention of George Or-
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 27 
 
 cutt and led to his marriage with the original. They 
 have one child, a boy of six. 
 
 "Lucas Emmet was unmarried. He had an in- 
 ternational reputation as a painter of nude figures. 
 He was engaged on a work entitled 'Innocence,' a 
 group of five elfish urchins preparatory to a swim." 
 
 The first thrill of the murder over, the public 
 mind focused itself upon the punishment that should 
 be meted out to the murderer. Press and pulpit, 
 the man in the street, the newsboys, the matinee 
 crowd, the suburbs, all of Gotham argued the case 
 and passed judgment upon it. A few believed the 
 testimony of the alienists, but the majority smiled 
 cynically at or openly derided the plea of insanity. 
 Letters and telegrams poured in upon the district 
 attorney demanding that this "millionaire mur- 
 derer" be sent to the electric chair, to Sing Sing, to 
 Matteawan. Many of the communications con- 
 tained a dire threat against the district attorney's 
 life in case the given mandate was not obeyed. 
 
 Meanwhile, the man supposed to be George Or- 
 cutt remained in the Orcutt home under guard. 
 Here came the district attorney daily and a succes- 
 sion of alienists. Orcutt was examined and his 
 condition passed upon hourly, or so it seemed to 
 Gail, awaiting the outcome in agony of spirit. 
 
 But the outcome to Gail was not, as with the 
 people, where should this man be placed, but when 
 would he be claimed by his friends and the search 
 for the real George Orcutt begin.
 
 28 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 Every minute that first day she listened for the 
 ring of the door-bell and every ring meant that she 
 was found out. But day was added to day till a 
 week had passed, and no one came to claim the 
 stranger. 
 
 Under the alert eyes of two guards he sat in 
 George Orcutt's room, his brows puckered in the 
 painful effort to think that he had shown that first 
 day. He obeyed Gail, the guards, his attendant, 
 the alienists, the district attorney, all automatically. 
 He lived in a dreamlike state broken by fitful gleams 
 of lucidity, a pathetic straining effort after the con- 
 sciousness he had lost. He called Gail "Dear," 
 and though he remembered no one else from day 
 to day, her he distinguished from the others. He 
 would take her hand and hold it between his own, 
 gently, starting up with fright when she drew it 
 away. 
 
 "Don't leave me, dear, don't leave me!" 
 
 Always the same cry and in the same suffering 
 voice. 
 
 Gail sat for hours beside him, her hand in his. 
 His eyes, in the fleeting moments of comparative 
 consciousness, were boyishly candid. And there 
 was a simple dignity in his manner that gave a curi- 
 ous impression of poise, despite his shattered mind. 
 
 It was the man himself that finally decided the 
 district attorney upon the course he took. He had 
 heard alienists of repute and standing testify against 
 a prisoner's sanity, and alienists of equal repute and
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 29 
 
 standing testify for it; he had listened many times 
 to the plea of a heart-broken wife, and he was re- 
 peatedly asked mercy for the sake of a child. 
 
 He watched the accused, studied him, and as the 
 man's personality grew upon him, he began to ques- 
 tion George Orcutt's part in the murder and to 
 doubt the enormity of his other sins. 
 
 Gail saw him soften, saw, too, that this shrewd 
 man of the law had begun to wonder a little, an 
 aimless wonder as yet, a wonder that was partly 
 annoyance that this man should not conform to the 
 case against him. To brand George Orcutt a crim- 
 inal would please the people the voter and it 
 could be so easily done. Mrs. Orcutt had not en- 
 gaged counsel, she waited like a dazed child for 
 the law to take its course. He wondered if she 
 knew how astute she was in throwing herself upon 
 his mercy, trusting her case wholly to his honor; 
 and if she realized the strength of her statement 
 repeated with nai've simplicity at his every visit. 
 
 "You won't let them put him in a prison of any 
 kind, you won't, you won't! He didn't know what 
 he was doing. It would be as wrong to shut him 
 up with criminals as to to shut me or you." 
 
 That this innocent man should be put in a crim- 
 inal institution was a new horror for Gail to con- 
 template, and a horror that she felt she could not 
 live under daily. If he were searched out and his 
 family and friends should find him herded with 
 criminals! She had known nothing about the law
 
 30 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 when she asked this man for a day out of his life. 
 A day's respite while her husband got aboard a ship 
 and sailed away had seemed enough to ask then; 
 now she knew that a day would have availed her 
 nothing. 
 
 She had dared mightily in her ignorance and fate 
 had done the rest so well that she now let it sweep 
 her along unresisting. But she could not let this 
 
 hapless man be branded a criminal No, no, 
 
 no I The awfulness of his position and her own 
 part in it clutched her till the horror of it got into 
 her voice. 
 
 "To make a criminal of him would be oh! a 
 dreadful, dreadful wrong," was weighted with a 
 truth that carried conviction. 
 
 The district attorney was a man who had the 
 courage of his beliefs. Eight days after the killing 
 of Lucas Emmet he pronounced Orcutt insane, and 
 remanded him, a ward of the State, to a private in- 
 stitution, the sanatorium of Doctor Morris Under- 
 wood, near Valhalla, an institution that took only 
 male patients and that was unusually successful in 
 its treatment of mental diseases. 
 
 A fury of protest and abuse broke loose upon 
 the attorney's head. Press and park agitator and 
 people jeered and shrieked and threatened for a 
 day. The day after, the Emmet-Orcutt tragedy 
 was forgotten by the public. The Japanese had 
 fired upon the Russians at Port Arthur and the
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 31' 
 
 Russo-Japanese war was front page news for that 
 day and for many a day thereafter. 
 
 Gail did not read the war news, she hardly knew 
 it was there. She was still searching for mention 
 of a lost man of unbalanced mind and Vandyke 
 beard. But day followed upon day and each suc- 
 ceeding day's news was as void of the one vital 
 matter as the day's before. There were lost men in 
 plenty; lost women and girls; lost children; lost 
 babies. She was amazed at the number of missing 
 people. And dumbfounded when a week, two weeks, 
 three weeks went by, and no notice appeared about 
 the man she had picked up from the curbing. 
 
 Four weeks after the murder she gathered the 
 array of dailies and piled them together to be car- 
 ried out of her room. She gave orders that she 
 did not want to see any but her regular paper there- 
 after. She had searched through every column of 
 every New York daily for four weeks. She would 
 search no more. If the man had a mother she 
 would have found him before now. It was the 
 thought of a heart-breaking mother that had driven 
 Gail to seek to learn the identity of the demented 
 man. And she had sought diligently, even though 
 reason told her that had there been any one to claim 
 him, this would have been done very shortly after 
 the murder. Had he relatives or friends they must 
 surely have seen George Orcutt's picture in the 
 papers and noted the resemblance to the other man, 
 and when George Orcutt was declared insane, then
 
 32 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 they must know that here, in Orcutt's home, was 
 the man they sought and no other. 
 
 Four weeks. A man with friends could not be 
 lost for four weeks and no search made for him. 
 And this man had been well-groomed and was a 
 man of breeding. The doctors had said that his 
 insanity was caused by a shock. He had lost some 
 one that he loved the some one that he called 
 "dear." Gail's lips quivered with tenderness. 
 Alone with no one who cared for him ! Perhaps 
 the abused charge of an attendant who was profiting 
 by his absence ! If this sort of thing should ever 
 happen to Vance! 
 
 Vance! She was back again to the starting point 
 of her interest. An insane father this was not a 
 good social heritage, no! But viewed as an in- 
 fluence in the developing years of Vance's life it 
 was an infinitely better heritage than the other. All 
 of George Orcutt's sins could be gracefully ac- 
 counted for under the guise of insanity. Here was 
 a father neither to be ashamed of nor to follow as 
 an alluring example of profligacy. The latter had 
 always been her fear, an icy dread in her heart 
 that Vance would seek to emulate his father's sod- 
 den life under the youthful impression that it was 
 an expression of manliness to live riotously. And 
 it was not an idle fear. 
 
 From infancy Vance had adored his father, and 
 neglect by his idol had never decreased his affec- 
 tion. By his own solicitation the boy went now
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 33 
 
 twice a week to see the man he believed to be his 
 father. Either Bryan took him in the automobile 
 or he was driven by Gregory, the groom, behind 
 a pair of spirited horses the pride of the true 
 George Orcutt and the delight of his son. It did 
 not seem strange to Vance that his mother did not 
 go with him. He had known only a divided house- 
 hold. Yet within the childish breast was always a 
 pathetic longing for a united papa and mama. He 
 had never understood why his parents were unlike 
 other papas and mamas in their attitude toward 
 each other. He had early ceased asking, for his 
 mama's eyes always darkened with misery and his 
 papa laughed loudly in a way he did not like. 
 
 He brought no messages now from the sanato- 
 rium. He went and came silently. There were 
 things that he wanted to tell his mama, but he was 
 afraid to mention his father's name for fear of 
 bringing on a wild sobbing and frantic walking of 
 the room. 
 
 But Gail, looking now out over the Hudson, was 
 calm. She should seek no more to learn the identity 
 of the stranger. He had been given into her hands. 
 No one wanted him but herself. Four weeks ! why 
 should not this stretch to four years? to four 
 times four? and on and on? The four weeks had 
 been horrible in their suspense and trepidations. 
 But these four weeks were now behind her. And 
 she was young and life beckoned her. 
 
 Standing there by the window, her favorite spot,
 
 34 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 her eyes upon the blue river, the quickened blood of 
 hope began to thread her veins. Then a warm glow 
 suffused her. It was happiness nothing less. She 
 laughed softly, then laughed again at the strange- 
 ness of her own voice. This behind her the night- 
 mare terror ! It was but a dream now, a scorching, 
 rankling dream that had seared and creviced into 
 her memory; but, even so a dream, to be viewed 
 retrospectively. She had saved her son's name from 
 the brand of ignominious murder. George Orcutt 
 was a free man. The demented stranger was lux- 
 uriously cared for and as happy as a man in his 
 condition could be anywhere. And she and Vance 
 were alone together. She laughed again, an almost 
 gay little laugh. 
 
 Afterwards, she knew that her pagan joy was 
 mostly relief in finding herself free from the man 
 she had married. Though stoically accepted, she 
 had never grown indifferent to his liaisons. Her 
 pride rebelled against his open neglect. And she 
 was ashamed of him before her friends, the ser- 
 vants, the passers-by in the street who turned to 
 stare at his bloated face with its tale of debauchery. 
 
 Now he was gone for good and all. No matter 
 how he had gone, nor why he went, nor what he 
 had done; he was gone gone! The breezes seemed 
 to sing it to her, the leaves of the trees, the chirp 
 of the sparrows. "Gone Gone!" And she was 
 free! 
 
 She began to plan for the future. She would
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 35 
 
 close the Riverside Drive house with its memories 
 of suffering and live at their summer home at 
 Mamaroneck, except for a few months in the 
 winter; then she would stay at a hotel. And she 
 would travel in her own country and the Orient. 
 She would keep away from Europe; she knew it 
 well already; and she would take no chance of run- 
 ning into "George Ormond." It was by this name 
 that her husband was now known. 
 
 Ah! there were so many things that she would 
 do now, which she had not had the heart to do be- 
 fore. And she would spare no expense to give 
 whatever comfort and happiness she could to the 
 crazy stranger who had helped her to her freedom. 
 He should be her tenderest charge always. 
 
 More, she felt charitable to the world at large. 
 She sent checks to numerous Homes and Societies 
 that had long vainly solicited Mrs. Orcutt's patron- 
 age. She smiled whimsically to think that not suf- 
 fering but relief from suffering had quickened her 
 sympathies. She did not know that she was uncon- 
 sciously trying to propitiate the gods trying to 
 bribe fate to leave her and her child alone now 
 that they were comparatively happy.
 
 TT was May. 
 
 * Gail sat in the sun-parlor overlooking the Hud- 
 son. The windows were open and a warm breeze 
 swept through it. She drew her breath in deeply, 
 responsive to the radiance of the day, the sunny, 
 blue-skyed, spring-perfumed day. Three months! 
 and all was well. 
 
 The Mamaroneck house, now undergoing 
 changes in construction and furnishings, would be 
 completed in another month. Soon she would be 
 by the Sound, in a house that held no memories of 
 her husband; for it was her own castle, and one 
 that Orcutt, by mutual arrangement, had never vis- 
 ited. And Kate Lorme, the friend she loved best 
 in the whole world, would be with her, the motherly 
 woman who had known and been devoted to her 
 since babyhood, the one person she could trust 
 not to tell her secret to, but to reveal her emotions 
 before. 
 
 A home free from memories, her boy, her friend, 
 and the blue water! 
 
 "Mama!" 
 
 36
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 37 
 
 The mother turned quickly, all tenderness and 
 love. 
 
 "Did you have a nice ride?" she asked, and kissed 
 the upheld face. 
 
 The boy rested a hand on the arm of her chair. 
 
 "Yes," came quietly. Then "How old will I 
 need to be before I can have a horse?" he asked. 
 "A pony's nice, but a horse stands up so much 
 higher. I like papa's saddle horse; he holds his 
 head 'way up and moves it as though he's going 
 to rear and tear things to pieces, but he doesn't. 
 Ponies aren't very frisky." 
 
 "Frisky enough for a boy of six, dear." She 
 smiled, and kissed him again. "Surely, you're not 
 tired of Cinders. You were so joyful over him but 
 a year ago." 
 
 "No; I'm not tired of him; he's awfully cute." 
 He laughed heartily. "He kicked out his legs to- 
 day all of a sudden and jolted my cap off. I wish 
 he'd kick oftener. It was sport holding on." 
 
 "And you fed the squirrels and pigeons?" 
 
 "Yes." His eyes sparkled. "There was an- 
 other boy tried to get my pigeons away from me; 
 he kept throwing bread at his feet and on his 
 shoulders and clucked for 'em to come to him." 
 
 "And they stayed around you?" 
 
 "Most of 'em. And those that went to him just 
 snatched the bread and flew back to me again. 
 They didn't know him, you see; then he was noisy
 
 3 8 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 and waved his arms too much. You have to be 
 ju ust as quiet and move as slo ow " 
 
 The boy leaned a little against her knee and 
 looked at her out of eyes whose lids were now partly 
 closed. His mother waited patiently, knowing that 
 this attitude was the preliminary of a question that 
 he was doubtful about voicing. 
 
 There was a strong resemblance between mother 
 and son. The features of both were finely chis- 
 eled, giving the immediate effect of distinction. 
 Strength of will and mind was revealed, not by un- 
 due prominence of jaw or brow but by a unity of 
 forceful lines so masterfully distributed that instead 
 of detracting from, they were in themselves largely 
 responsible for the famed beauty of Mrs. George 
 Orcutt and her son. The boy's eyes were a lighter 
 gray than the woman's, but they had the same heavy 
 black fringe encircling them, doubling in effect their 
 real size. His brown hair still had a childish gold- 
 en tint seemingly far removed from the bronze of 
 the mother's. But her hair had been as gold-tinted 
 as his when she was a child. In appearance the 
 boy had partaken wholly of the mother; even the 
 slow smile, that came so rarely, was a duplicate of 
 hers. Yet there was an immeasurable difference in 
 the very likeness between them, a difference due to 
 sex; even at six years, scarcely beyond babyhood, 
 the boy's features were of a more virile cast than 
 the adult woman's, of a bold design that bespoke 
 masculinity. The mother was called "beautiful,"
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 39 
 
 the son "handsome," a subtle distinction usually 
 made unconsciously. But to Gail these separate 
 designations for features termed "exactly alike" 
 were pregnant with meaning. He was a man-child, 
 made in the mold of his father, destined to lead a 
 man's life, to fulfil a man's destiny. 
 
 This was her somber thought as she watched him. 
 He was longer than usual in bringing himself to 
 the point of actual questioning. He began tenta- 
 tively. 
 
 "Gregory likes to watch me feed the pigeons 
 So do the nurse-maids there are always nurse- 
 maids and babies there. . . . Gregory talks to 'em, 
 the maids, a groom and maid don't have to be in- 
 troduced, you see, they just talk and tell each other 
 their names. Mostly they talk 'bout themselves 
 and laugh, kind of silly, I think. To-day they 
 talked about you know " 
 
 His eyes opened to their fullness, held hers with 
 the authority of a judge. His mother shivered. 
 Would he never cease talking about it? But she 
 explained as she had so many times before. 
 
 "Yes but Papa did that when he was out of his 
 mind, dear. Papa didn't know what he was doing, 
 so it wasn't wrong, only sad, very sad." 
 
 "But you said a man " 
 
 "Yes; Mr. Lucas Emmet, one of his friends 
 so he didn't mean to kill him, you see, dear." 
 
 "You are sure, sure it wasn't a lady he killed? 
 She one of the maids said that when I was grown
 
 40 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 I'd be a a lady-killer like my father a lady- 
 killer!" 
 
 The boy waited breathlessly. His voice came 
 again, in a whisper. 
 
 "Will I kill somebody when I grow up? I 
 want to be like Papa and ride a horse and drive a 
 tallyho but I don't want to kill anybody. Was 
 it a lady? and will I " 
 
 "Hush!" 
 
 "Oh!" cried the child, frightened before the 
 pallid Mama that had replaced the joyous one. 
 
 "A lady-killer is merely a term for a man that 
 the ladies all admire," explained the mother shak- 
 ily. "It is not a nice expression." 
 
 The child's worried expression lifted. He nodded 
 his head in understanding. His governess had ex- 
 plained the use of hyperbole he being prone, as 
 children are, to take all statements too literally 
 and she had illustrated her lesson by examples from 
 the servants' use of the phrases "tickled to death," 
 "knocked senseless," "up in the air," "dead gone" 
 and like exaggerations. 
 
 "I'm glad Papa didn't kill a lady," he said simply. 
 "Even if he wasn't right in his head it would have 
 seemed cowardly to hurt a lady. Gregory says a 
 man is made strong on purpose to support a lady 
 he told one of the maids that. He says a lady 
 should lean on a man, and that he should use his 
 arm for her service. The maid, her name's Hilda, 
 is real pretty. Her hands are kind of red, but she
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 41 
 
 has a cute little foot Gregory told her it was as 
 little as yours." He looked down at his mother's, 
 contemplatively. "I don't think it is, though." 
 
 A new dread leapt to Gail Orcutt's eyes. 
 
 "How would you like Miss Lauder to ride with 
 you?" she cried. 
 
 "Miss Lauder?" Vance's tone was scornful. "I 
 don't want a woman taking care of me when I go 
 out. She's all right to teach me lessons and do 
 things for me in the house. Babies and girls have 
 women tagging them round. I like Gregory he 
 tells me 'bout the big hunts he used to ride in in 
 Scotland and the packs of hounds they had, and how 
 the deer and boars act when they're surrounded. 
 He's shot quail, too, and knows 'bout horse races. 
 I like to talk 'bout the things men do. Women are 
 all right for girls, but I'm not a girl." 
 
 "No," said his mother slowly, to herself rather 
 than to him. "You're a man-child." 
 
 Vance's arms went around her neck. 
 
 "Don't cry, Mama. I'll be your boy, always. 
 Aunt Kate Lorme always calls Uncle Dick her 
 'boy,' and he's lots older'n Papa. It sounds silly 
 to hear a big man called a 'boy,' but I'll let you do 
 it. Gregory says it makes a fellow manly to stand 
 for women's weaknesses. It's a weakness for a 
 woman to want a man to be a boy always, isn't it?" 
 he queried anxiously. "I didn't like to ask Gregory 
 just what a 'weakness' is. You see he was talking
 
 42 
 
 to Hilda, not me. He's going to marry Hilda, I 
 guess. Anyhow, he asked her and she said 'yes.' ' 
 
 "You listened!" 
 
 "Oh, no! I just heard. They always talk be- 
 fore me. Gregory said he loved Hilda and he didn't 
 care if everybody in the Park knew it. She asked 
 him to get her a place here as housemaid after 
 they're married. And he said he would if he could. 
 Hilda's a nice girl, / think." 
 
 The woman smiled tenderly, and drew the boy 
 within her arms. 
 
 "We shall have to have Hilda, I see." 
 
 Vance's laugh rang out merrily. But it was be- 
 cause the smiles had come to his Mama's face 
 again.
 
 VI 
 
 'ITT'HAT so rare as a day in June? Ah! a day 
 in September at Mamaroneck, with a 
 myriad sun diamonds on the water, and white yachts 
 that float like great birds on the waves," cried Gail, 
 stretching her arms toward the sea. "I'm happy! 
 happy! I'm not sure that my delirium of joy is 
 not plain hysterics, but I don't care a jot." 
 
 "That's good, Gail." 
 
 It was Mr. Lorme who spoke. He was a pink 
 and silvery bland-faced man of fifty-five, looking 
 always as freshly scrubbed and clear-eyed as an ad- 
 vertisement baby. He sat now in a deep willow 
 rocker on the veranda, immaculate in white flannels, 
 a pink carnation in his hand. He waved its long 
 stem, jubilantly. 
 
 "Hurrah! It's good to hear you say you don't 
 care, Gail. You've always cared so blasted much." 
 
 "Which was a great mistake, I now see," laughed 
 Gail, pirouetting giddily. "I'm a dryad. My role 
 is to gambol and sing. Since time began there has 
 never been a more glorious summer than this!" 
 
 "Right!" 
 
 43
 
 44 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 The voice was hearty, as was everything about 
 Kate Lorme. She was as pink and cherubic as her 
 husband. Her eyes, like blue larkspur, looked 
 fondly at the laughing "dryad." In a moment Gail's 
 arms were around her. 
 
 "Stay here with me during October, Kate, you 
 and Dick. We will motor every day feast our- 
 selves to bursting with autumn's gorgeous golds and 
 reds. I had forgotten that the world is so beauti- 
 ful. You will stay you will!" 
 
 "Sure, Gail girl," assented Mrs. Lorme. 
 
 Gail kissed each round, rosy cheek. 
 
 "You blessed old darling!" she crooned. Then, 
 lightly as the dryad she claimed to be, she ran from 
 the porch to the velvety cushioned lawn down to 
 the Sound, trilling an air from A'ida. 
 
 Mrs. Lorme reached out a hand and touched her 
 husband's. There was a film of moisture in her 
 eyes. 
 
 "I never realized till this summer just what Gail 
 had suffered. I'd surely have killed George if I'd 
 known she would be so like her old self without 
 him." 
 
 Mr. Lorme chuckled. 
 
 "If George had only known the danger he was 
 in from you, Kate, he would Ve died from sheer 
 fright." ' 
 
 Mrs. Lorme laughed, too, a gurgling fat laugh. 
 Her eyes still followed the dancing figure. 
 
 "Why, bless me, Dick, she's our Gail Revelling
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 45 
 
 again, as light-hearted and girlish as she was before 
 she met that scoundrel Orcutt. She's been a trag- 
 edy queen for so long I had almost forgotten what 
 a blithesome lass she was. This has been a won- 
 derful summer. But will it last? I wonder." 
 
 "Eh?" 
 
 "Dick, I wonder if it hasn't been too wonderful? 
 Doesn't there seem something like like defiance 
 in her happiness? A little too much protesting, too 
 much delirium in it?" 
 
 Mr. Lorme smiled, airily. 
 
 "A colt that's been shut up has to prance and 
 kick up its heels a little, old girl. Gail's the love- 
 liest thing under the sun, and the most bewitching. 
 It's been a deuced fine summer almost as good 's 
 having children of our own to have her and Vance 
 to dote on. There's a chap ! Vance is like old 
 Frank Orcutt, George's father as honest as the 
 day. He inherits Gail's beauty, and nothing from 
 George that I can see. He'll redeem the Orcutt 
 name, give it the dignity that Frank Orcutt did." 
 
 "I wonder how George is?" mused Mrs. Lorme. 
 "Vance hasn't been to see him since they came to 
 Mamaroneck, and it's not more than twenty miles 
 from here." 
 
 "Child like, he's lost his interest " 
 
 "No," said Mrs. Lorme decidedly. "It's because 
 he's sensed that Gail doesn't want him to go. It's 
 pathetic the way the little fellow enjoys seeing her 
 happy. But he hasn't forgotten his father. It's
 
 46 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 curious how he adores that wastrel. I believe he 
 would risk even making Gail unhappy if George 
 knew him and took any pleasure in his company." 
 She leaned forward, squinted up her eyes so as to 
 see better. "Gail must have intercepted the letter 
 carrier isn't that a letter in her hand? And what's 
 happened?" she cried. "Look at her, Dick!" 
 
 Mr. Lorme glanced carelessly across the lawn at 
 the figure moving slowly toward them, a drooping, 
 listless figure, unlike the dryad that had skimmed 
 over the grass a few minutes before. His mind 
 was on the letter carrier. He went hurriedly into 
 the house to get a letter he wanted to mail. His 
 wife gazed anxiously ahead, fearful; yet she knew 
 not of what. She rose and went down the path to 
 meet her, her arms held out protectingly. 
 
 "What is it, Gail? What has happened?" 
 
 Gail held out a letter. 
 
 "Read," she moaned, and pushed Mrs. Lorme 
 to a bench, sliding beside her to the ground, her 
 head burying itself against the woman's knees. 
 
 The letter was from Morris Underwood, the 
 alienist in whose charge Orcutt had been placed. 
 It read: 
 
 "DEAR MRS. ORCUTT: 
 
 "For the past three months Mr. Orcutt has been 
 steadily improving. His condition is now so satis- 
 factory that I have notified the District Attorney 
 that there is no occasion for him to remain in a 
 sanatorium. Acting upon this notification, Drs. Up-
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 47 
 
 man and Scott, appointed by the law, have this 
 week examined Mr. Orcutt, and they concur in my 
 opinion. The District Attorney has consented to 
 his discharge. You should shortly receive a com- 
 munication from him and legal instructions as to 
 the definite steps to take for Mr. Orcutt's removal 
 from my custody, if such have not already preceded 
 this letter. Mr. Orcutt will still be under the es- 
 pionage of the State, but only perfunctorily. I did 
 not consult you about his removal, feeling that it 
 would be kinder not to arouse hopes till I had 
 something definite to tell you. 
 
 "Though Mr. Orcutt is virtually a well man, he 
 is still unable to remember about himself and his 
 personal affairs. Old associations may (I only 
 say may) bring him to full consciousness of his past. 
 If this does not follow, he will have to learn anew 
 about his family and associates. In either case early 
 renewal of his family life is advised. 
 
 "It would be well for you and your little son 
 to see him here once before his return home. He 
 remembers having seen Vance here; of you he has 
 no recollection. It seems to impress him as very 
 odd, and amusingly so, that he should have a wife 
 and child. It will be easier for him to adjust him- 
 self to the new environment (his home will now 
 be new to him) if he first loses any sense of strange- 
 ness he may have in your society. 
 
 "Please come prepared to find a husband who 
 does not know you and is somewhat frightened 
 over the prospect of meeting you. 
 
 "Kindly notify me upon receipt of this as to the 
 day and hour of your visit. 
 
 "Yours respectfully, 
 
 "MORRIS UNDERWOOD."
 
 4 8 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 Mrs. Lorme let the letter weakly flutter to the 
 floor. She strove in vain for words to give com- 
 fort to the woman crouching at her knees. But 
 what was there to say or do in this awful dilemma 
 awful even to her restricted knowledge of it. 
 
 "Blast George!" she uttered feebly. "Blast the 
 whelp !" She stroked the soft hair. "Gail, my 
 dear girl. Oh, if there was only something I could 
 do to rid you of him." 
 
 Gail's face rose slowly, more stricken with terror 
 than her friend had yet seen it. She stumbled to her 
 feet. 
 
 "You can't help me, Kate. . . . No one can 
 help! No one can help me!"
 
 VII 
 
 /^EORGE ORCUTTS wife locked herself in 
 ^-* her room and sat down alone to face her prob- 
 lem. Even in the anxieties and fears of the first 
 weeks after the murder she had not in her wildest 
 moments conjectured anything so terrible as the 
 reality confronting her. She had feared that the 
 man she had substituted for her husband would sud- 
 denly come into his reason and declare who he was, 
 and that herself and her husband would be appre- 
 hended, herself as an accessory after the crime; 
 she had feared that some one would come forth 
 and claim the man and arraign her on a charge of 
 abduction; she had feared that Orcutt would be 
 recognized or do something inadvertently to betray 
 himself. She had pictured herself in the criminal 
 docket, had shivered and almost shrieked aloud 
 under the supposititious belief that she was being 
 carried to prison. There had been nothing that she 
 had not conjectured and harrowed her nerves over 
 save the awful fact now staring at her from Doc- 
 tor Underwood's letter. 
 
 She must take a strange man into her home as 
 
 49
 
 50 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 her husband ! as Vance's father ! That, or denounce 
 the real husband and father. The two roads spread 
 baldly before her. There were no side paths through 
 which she could slip secretly and evade both high- 
 ways. None. The eyes of the law would be upon 
 her; and of the press and the public. 
 
 She looked out over the Sound, blue with the re- 
 flected blueness of a cloudless sky, looked at the 
 rookery where she had been standing a short half- 
 hour before when the letter carrier handed her an 
 innocent-looking white missive. . . . She had been 
 singing singing and happy and unafraid of the 
 future. . . . Fate, in her cruelly ironic way, had 
 allowed her to catch breath and to hope ah ! even 
 to believe that she had successfully defied her! 
 
 She had thought the game ended and it had 
 only begun ! 
 
 And somehow she must win. To lay down her 
 hand now was to lose no less fully than she should 
 lose at any time. She had started in with open eyes 
 to play a dangerous game. Her hand was cruelly 
 weak and the cards against her cruelly strong. But 
 there was still a fighting chance. This man was 
 alone in the world. He was a gentleman, and 
 kindly. Even his halting remarks had been voiced 
 in tones that held a caressing cadence. He could 
 not but respond to Vance's winsome nature. Once 
 let him learn to love the child and he might volun- 
 tarily protect him. Should he regain memory of his 
 past he could go away and resume his own name.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 51 
 
 Some way could surely be found for him to pre- 
 serve his own identity, and that of George Orcutt 
 at intervals sufficiently often to satisfy the law. 
 
 "Insight Wit Nerve!" These were the three 
 magic possessions that must now be hers. Must be ! 
 She was fighting for her boy's future. Fighting 
 Yes, it was fighting now. Her eyes blazed hotly. 
 Men had fought despicably for a throne, men great 
 in the annals of history. She would fight fairly, 
 if she could, but fight somehow to save her boy 
 from knowing himself the son of a murderer. 
 
 A grim defiance replaced the girlish curves of 
 cheeks and lips. Shivering, as though she were 
 touching actual things, she ran over her weapons of 
 defense her courage, her quickness of wit, her in- 
 sight into the motives of others, the unreckonable 
 strength of feminine beauty and charm. 
 
 She rose from her silent conference a woman 
 inexpressibly weary, in whom joy and careless laugh- 
 ter seemed never to have been. The radiant, 
 pirouetting girl of an hour before was gone as com- 
 pletely as though she had physically died. 
 
 She wrote briefly to Doctor Underwood that she 
 would arrive at the sanatorium the next morning at 
 eleven o'clock. She then called the housekeeper and 
 gave orders for her to open the town house on the 
 same day, and to close the Mamaroneck house as 
 soon as could be done thereafter. To Mrs. Lorme 
 she explained the reason for this. 
 
 "I want no tragic memories connected with this
 
 5 2 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 place," she said unsteadily. "I have been truly 
 happy here this past summer yes happy! though I 
 am still in wonder over it. And I have never been 
 as unhappy here as in town. George never came 
 here." 
 
 "Not he!" exclaimed her friend. "He wanted 
 Saratoga, when there was horse-racing, or Narra- 
 gansett or Atlantic City." 
 
 Gail did not heed her outbreak. 
 
 "Kate," she said softly, "Vance is wild with joy 
 because his father is coming home." 
 
 "And that pleases you!" ejaculated Mrs. Lorme 
 in amazement. "Upon my word! A few months 
 ago you were frantic because the child wanted to 
 
 visit George Forgive me, Gail, I didn't mean 
 
 to question your actions. I was so surprised I spoke 
 without thinking." 
 
 "No matter, Kate. I shall probably surprise you 
 more and more. I amaze myself. It is a curious 
 sensation to find myself doing things seemingly out- 
 side my own volition. Wait!" intercepting her 
 friend's disturbed utterance. "It is only seemingly 
 involitional. The amazement comes from finding 
 that I am a different woman than I had supposed. 
 I do things that I can't quite understand how I 
 dare. Yet I must. I have no power not to do 
 them. I am afraid, horribly afraid yet I go on 
 I can only tick-tock, tick-tock to the inevitable end 
 whether black midnight or sunlit noonday. Do 
 you remember Charlie Abbot's telling us how he
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 53 
 
 was always sure he was going to turn and run when 
 the enemy opened fire, but that he couldn't do any- 
 thing but advance when the time really came. Can't 
 you hear him say, 'It was just as though there was 
 some other fellow inside my hide running into the 
 firing-line and I a-looking on dumb with surprise'? 
 She shivered visibly. "It is madness, stark, raving 
 madness, yet I shall bring him home!" 
 
 u Um-m," murmured Kate Lorme. "But what 
 else could you do now that the doctors have ordered 
 his removal? George is a wastrel, but it's his house, 
 and you're his wife and Vance is his child." She 
 stopped before Gail's start and deathly pallor. 
 "La ! la ! I seem bent to say the wrong thing. You've 
 sort of flustered me with your pleasure in Vance's 
 desire to see his father." 
 
 "I was clutching at straws. That Vance should 
 be happy, if only for a little while, seemed some- 
 thing to offset my misery." 
 
 "But why be miserable, dear? Why should you 
 not divorce George and have your liberty? Even 
 though you have condoned his past offences he will 
 soon give you fresh grounds. Dick and I have been 
 talking it over and we feel that you should be free 
 of the scoundrel once and for all. You owe it to 
 yourself. You are young, with love and happiness 
 your due." 
 
 "It is too late," came drearily. 
 
 "Too late! Why? Your father believed in 
 keeping everything under cover, sores and all.
 
 54 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 Well, I don't. And now that your domestic af- 
 fairs have become public property despite you, why 
 not air them a little more and be free? Gail, you 
 must! Dick and I look upon you as our own child, 
 and it is as our own daughter that we advise this." 
 
 "Only it is Gail Orcutt that you advise," was 
 the low, tired answer. "And she was wound up 
 ages ago to go on just this way. She wishes with 
 all her heart that she had divorced George Orcutt 
 seven years ago; she wishes yes! that he was pay- 
 ing the penalty of his crime; and she may wish 
 later that she had not done what she is going 
 to do now if she can." 
 
 "Then don't do it, child, whatever it is," pleaded 
 the elder woman. 
 
 Gail's lips parted over a moan. She walked back 
 and forth, her tired brain still struggling with its 
 burden of thought. 
 
 "Good? What is a good woman? It would not 
 
 be good to sacrifice my baby. Yet Oh! I am 
 
 so afraid to go on And somehow that's the 
 
 reason I must. I gave Vance his father. I now 
 know that I divined then that George was not a fit 
 husband. But / wanted him for my own pleasure. 
 I married him. Now I must pay the best that I 
 can pay him, my baby. Before everything else in 
 the world I owe Vance reparation. To hold back 
 in fear for myself when I may save him from ever 
 knowing even the chance that I may win is enough 
 to arm me with courage for this or anything. . . .
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 55 
 
 "There is no one but myself and Vance. We are 
 alone. We must stand or fall by ourselves. There 
 is no one of our blood to help us or to be hurt 
 through us. A child should have his chance even 
 could he know now, he should surely want that a 
 little child should not be burdened with shame. To 
 think himself the son of a good father ! oh my dear ! 
 my baby! that would mean more to you than any- 
 thing else in the world. And perhaps If I 
 
 am courageous Iff Ah ! I must be. I will be!" 
 
 She dropped beside her friend on the divan, con- 
 vulsed with sobs, a racking torrent of grief and 
 dread. 
 
 Kate Lorme folded her in her arms. 
 
 "Divorce George," she pleaded. "Start over." 
 
 "The moving finger has passed beyond that line, 
 Kate," came brokenly. 
 
 "Then what do you intend to do?" 
 
 The gray eyes, deep as forest pools now, gazed 
 straight ahead. 
 
 "I am not a seer, Kate. I am simply waiting till 
 to-morrow."
 
 VIII 
 
 TT\OCTOR UNDERWOOD, a big hulking man 
 - L ^ with little black eyes that squinted behind 
 thick glasses, and a broad flat face, Chinese in its 
 impassivity, sat opposite Gail in his private office, 
 talking. 
 
 "Mr. Orcutt's is a curious case," said he. "Not 
 curious because of his recovering his sanity and fail- 
 ing to remember who he is and particular instances 
 in his life such occurrences are common. In fact, 
 the vagaries of the workings of the mind in both 
 sane and insane make no case actually strange to 
 the alienist. It is another aspect of your husband's 
 case that puzzles me. I have been told, and authori- 
 tatively, that he was a hard drinker, a fast liver, 
 licentious, given over entirely to material pleas- 
 ures." 
 
 "Why are you speaking of this?" Gail asked, as 
 Doctor Underwood's silence seemed to demand an 
 answer. Her voice was not wholly steady, despite 
 her heroic efforts at calmness. 
 
 "In hopes that you may be able to throw some 
 light on a very vexing question. Your husband is 
 
 56
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 57 
 
 either the most maligned man of his time or else 
 he deliberately chose to play a role. I cannot con- 
 ceive of his ever being anything but a gentleman, 
 a cultured, honorable man of temperate habits and 
 pure thoughts." 
 
 "Yet he killed Lucas Emmet and about a 
 woman." 
 
 "It remains a question who killed Lucas Emmet," 
 answered the physician sharply. "I am not con- 
 vinced that my patient did it." 
 
 Her eyes met his scrutinizing ones unflinchingly. 
 
 "The George Orcutt I knew was was not 
 maligned." 
 
 "Mrs. Orcutt, your husband to-day is as differ- 
 ent from the man the newspapers described as white 
 from black. You will find this out for yourself in 
 time. But now I ask you to take my word for it, 
 and to meet him in kindly spirit. Let him see that 
 you are his friend." 
 
 "You like him!" 
 
 "I seldom meet with a man as interesting and as 
 likable. I shall miss our discussions on psychology 
 and biology greatly." 
 
 "Psychology biology," she muttered. "Psy- 
 chology ! biology !" 
 
 "Ah ! Then you did not know of his interest in 
 these subjects." 
 
 "No," she breathed, her voice a whimper of fear. 
 "No." 
 
 Her face sank to her hand. Was it any use to
 
 58 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 struggle further? Had she not better confess the 
 truth now, the awful truth? George Orcutt with an 
 intimate knowledge of the sciences was too unbe- 
 lievable for his friends to accept. And could she 
 force her will on a man such as this? 
 
 "Your husband has evidently kept his studious 
 life very secret indeed," continued the alienist. "He 
 has hid his virtues and made a parade of his physi- 
 cal dissipations, reversing the usual order. Um-m! 
 Um-m! His grosser self though, Mrs. Orcutt, is 
 buried very deep now, and will be, as long as mem- 
 ory of his past is lost, which loss may be perma- 
 nent. He has been virtually well for three months 
 and yet memory of himself and his personal ex- 
 periences is wholly missing. He has not lost the 
 memory of written language, nor of the subject mat- 
 ter of books he has read, nor of the arts and sciences 
 he has studied, but he knows these only as they 
 pertain to themselves and not at all in association 
 with himself and the part they have played in his 
 life. 
 
 "He hasn't the faintest idea of how or why or 
 when he ever acquired his knowledge. He is like a 
 phonograph into which records have been read; 
 yes, veritably, for he seems to have as little actual 
 connection with the many important and erudite 
 facts he enunciates as a machine. I do not mean 
 by this that he talks like a parrot, no indeed; he is 
 interested, enthusiastic, returning argument for ar- 
 gument, his brain as active in marshalling his sub-
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 59 
 
 jects and correlating his details as mine is. It is 
 only that he, like the phonograph, seems never to 
 have been part and parcel of the things about which 
 he discourses so admirably. He does not remem- 
 ber his name but he knows the history of the de 
 Medici family; he has no recollection of himself 
 as a boy but he knows about the boyhood of Lincoln 
 and Cromwell and the Great Corsican. An inter- 
 esting case, a most interesting case." 
 
 "But now? does he remember about the things 
 he does now?" asked Gail faintly. 
 
 "Yes; he is perfectly normal as regards his pres- 
 ent experiences. He will not know you for his wife 
 to-day till he is told, but when you come again he 
 will remember as fully the events of to-day as I. 
 Ah! when have you arranged for him to return 
 home? He insisted that I should leave the whole 
 matter to you." 
 
 "Monday, I think," she responded in a low voice. 
 "Our town house is just now being opened and 
 could scarcely be ready for occupancy before then. 
 That will do?" 
 
 "Yes, or later. No rush is necessary. Now" 
 body bent forward, face lowered to a line with hers 
 "have you anything to say to me? Think care- 
 fully. Your husband is your husband, Mrs. Or- 
 cutt. The law is with him, I am with him, in de- 
 siring this. He is expecting his wife. Do you think 
 you fully understand?" 
 
 Gail sat silent. She felt her courage oozing from
 
 60 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 out her pores, leaving her sick with weakness. She 
 could not go on. She had not calculated aright. 
 To pit her woman's feeble strength against the 
 law against the penetrating mind of this alienist 
 against him, the other, who believed himself her 
 husband, and so believing 
 
 Morris Underwood watched her from behind his 
 thick glasses with their black frames. To her fev- 
 ered conception he had the look of an ogre. 
 
 A deathly nausea assailed her. Doctor Under- 
 wood was waiting for her to speak and she could 
 not! 
 
 "Mama!" 
 
 Face pressed against the window, Vance peered 
 in for an instant, his eyes brimming with glee. He 
 was accompanied by a hospital attendant who was 
 conducting him to his father. 
 
 Her boy! 
 
 The mother's body became rigid: steel in en- 
 durance. The twentieth century and civilization 
 and dependent femininity! all were blotted out. 
 She was primal, a female defending her young, sav- 
 age and fearless as a lioness in the jungle. 
 
 She rose and faced the alienist, beneath her soft 
 armor the strength now to fight a multitude. 
 
 Her manner was haughty. 
 
 "I understand, fully. And I have nothing to say 
 to you but this: I shall not promise to be friends 
 with my husband, doctor. It is his home and he 
 can go to it without permission from me. He and
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 61 
 
 I will live our lives apart as we have before. Will 
 you please not encourage him to think otherwise." 
 
 "Ah ! that is your attitude. Do you think it fair?" 
 
 She flashed a keen glance at the man's inscrutable 
 face, a little shiver of fear playing down her back 
 at the curious inflection of his voice. An intense 
 dislike for him swept her. There came a clammy 
 feeling that he, like herself, was wearing a mask. 
 It was borne in upon her that here was an enemy, 
 and one to be feared. But she answered evenly: 
 
 "That matter, I think, rests between me and my 
 husband. When he leaves here he is beyond your 
 jurisdiction, is he not?" 
 
 "Technically," he retorted. "But inside or out- 
 side my walls I am his friend, Mrs. Orcutt." 
 
 "But not necessarily my enemy," she said archly, 
 favoring him with a brilliant smile. "Won't you 
 please leave the matter to me the one who is most 
 vitally concerned. I may know better what is fair 
 than you. I am a woman and a mother." 
 
 "I abdicate in favor of the woman and mother," 
 he pronounced gravely. "Are you ready to see 
 him?" 
 
 "Yes," she said evenly. "But alone. Will you 
 please have Vance taken to the car before I go in." 
 
 She stood motionless, her hands pressed tightly 
 together, while the doctor saw that her order was 
 carried into effect. "Come," he then said, and led 
 her through the hall to a door partly open, ushered 
 her in and closed the door upon her.
 
 IX 
 
 A T the sound of Gail Orcutt's step the man stand- 
 ^ ing by the window slowly turned and faced 
 her. He did not advance; nor did she, further, 
 after a full view of him. She stood stock-still, 
 breathless with a new amazement. He did not even 
 look like George Orcutt. Save for the Vandyke 
 beard and the full brow all resemblance was gone. 
 Here were not George's nerveless mouth, nor his 
 flaccid cheeks nor vacuous expression. No; the 
 mouth was firm, characterful, the eyes clear and 
 strikingly intelligent, the flesh compact, glowing with 
 the health of pure living. And he held himself 
 with soldier-like erectness. 
 
 "Gail!" 
 
 He flushed as he pronounced her name, his eyes 
 on hers in somewhat abashed questioning. 
 
 She started violently, and stepped back, stretched 
 out her hands to push him away. But he did not 
 attempt to approach her. 
 
 "You are afraid of me?" he asked. "Why? 
 because you fear I am insane and may hurt you?" 
 
 "No," she cried, and withdrew a step further. 
 
 62
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 63 
 
 His eyes searched her features, dwelt on them 
 one by one, swiftly traversed her slender, shapely 
 body. 
 
 "It is all very strange," said he, a flicker of hu- 
 mor about his lips. "But the strangest of all is to 
 find myself possessed of a beautiful wife and not 
 to be able to recollect anything about her. To have 
 been your lover, husband, the father of your child 
 and not to recollect one moment of it all. It is 
 inexplicable." 
 
 His eyes were deeply admiring, his voice vibrant 
 with tenderness. Gail felt herself shivering. His 
 admiration had been the thing she had dreaded most 
 and had felt would be the most difficult to combat. 
 
 "What is it?" he persisted, noting her alarm. 
 "You fear me for some reason." 
 
 "Hasn't Doctor Underwood told you 
 about " 
 
 He folded his arms. 
 
 "I have been told that I killed a man, my friend, 
 and over a woman. . . . Did I ? .... Ah ! 
 your eyes say 'yes.' Well, now tell me what you did 
 to drive me from you?" 
 
 I_ w hat / did?" 
 
 "Yes you. It is not incompatible with my judg- 
 ment of myself that I should have killed a man. I 
 can conceive of incentives for doing that yes, and 
 without regret. But it is inconceivable that I should 
 have been faithless to you and because of some 
 pitiable creature. Unless "
 
 64 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "What?" she whispered, almost without volition. 
 
 "Unless you goaded me to it by your indifference 
 to my love. But there was still Vance. No! ask 
 me to believe anything but that I dishonored you 
 and my boy." 
 
 She felt herself reeling. She had not before 
 thought of the cruelty of imposing George Orcutt's 
 past on an innocent man. She tried to reach a chair. 
 With quick hand he caught up the chair and pushed 
 it toward her. His arm encircled her shoulder as 
 he endeavored to guide her to its depth. 
 
 With a cry of terror she flung his arm off and 
 stood erect, her eyes ablaze. 
 
 "Don't touch me," she screamed. 
 
 "Sit down, please," he entreated, then he stood 
 looking down on her as she clung tremblingly to the 
 arms of the rocker. "Do you feel faint? Shall I 
 call Doctor Underwood?" 
 
 "No, no!" 
 
 He brought a glass of water. 
 
 "Drink this and try to calm yourself. Come, 
 there is nothing to be frightened over. When you 
 are composed enough to talk I am ready to listen 
 to whatever you may have to tell me and to obey 
 your commands to the letter. Truly, I'm a great 
 deal more afraid of you than you are of me." 
 
 The laughter in his voice gave her an assurance 
 that no verbal protestation could. She interpreted 
 him as a soldier of fortune, accepting with equani- 
 mity victory or defeat, not refusing the luxuries that
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 65 
 
 fate might bestow, but accepting calmly, even if 
 ironically, her proffered hardships. She raised her 
 eyes valiantly only to find his bent admiringly upon 
 her. 
 
 "Don't stare at me so !" she cried out impulsively, 
 then reddened at a rudeness she had not intended, 
 and at his still searching gaze. 
 
 "I can't help it. To tell the truth I'm so be- 
 fuddled I don't know just how to act. You're as 
 strange to me as though I had never seen you be- 
 fore yet, you're my wife, my wife!" 
 
 He walked to the window, returned, looked down 
 at her curiously. 
 
 "You have borne me a child you must have 
 loved me once. And the boy he loves me now. . . . 
 Yet it's so strange for me to contemplate my own 
 wife that I can only look at her in stupid bewilder- 
 ment. And to find myself rich, literally a man of 
 millions ! it's staggering. Everything that repre- 
 sents my past life seems utterly foreign to me 
 wealth, a wife, a child, a reputation for sordid 
 amours." He walked the room again. "It's weird 
 this returning to a past that somehow doesn't 
 fit." 
 
 A flash of humor lighted his whole face, yet there 
 was no muscular disturbance of the features a phe- 
 nomenon so striking and withal so singularly win- 
 ning that Gail forgot her fears for the instant and 
 gazed at him in round-eyed curiosity. He misin- 
 terpreted her expression.
 
 66 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "It isn't exactly diplomatic to say this to you, I 
 know. But the idea of a wife is the most staggering 
 of all. When I first beheld you I felt a wave of 
 tenderness sweep over me that made me for a mo- 
 ment believe you had kindled a forgotten passion. 
 But no; it was your beauty, your charm, the alto- 
 gether alluring sweetness of you. . . . 
 
 "I should like to take you close in my arms and 
 kiss you but as a woman that appeals to the man 
 I am to-day, not because of an affection that once 
 existed between us." 
 
 Another expression lighted his countenance, an 
 intensity of longing. 
 
 "Ah the past ! to find it again. This baf- 
 fling of memory is maddening!" He looked at her 
 steadily. "Doubly maddening now that you are a 
 part of that past. You command me not to touch 
 you ever so casually, yet I have been your hus- 
 band and lover. We " 
 
 He stopped before the tremulous cry that escaped 
 her and the blushes that crimsoned her face from 
 hair to neck-band. He laughed, with a sort of boy- 
 ish enjoyment in her discomfiture. 
 
 "Ah ! and you are now ashamed. Tell me why, 
 my wife. Is it because I have forgotten? But 
 why should that make me seem strange to you? I 
 am no less your husband." 
 
 She clutched at this opening. Her embarrass- 
 ment lost itself in the thought of the battle yet to 
 be won.
 
 
 'Don't stare at me so !' " Page
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 67 
 
 "No, you are no less my husband than you have 
 been for seven years," she uttered coldly. "Six 
 months ended our marriage save in name and out- 
 ward formality." 
 
 As she looked into his frank face and felt the 
 straightforward nature confronting her duplicity 
 she found herself wavering again. Could she carry 
 out her deception day after day under the honest 
 eyes now gazing so steadily into hers? Would she 
 not grow confused in contact with his simple direct- 
 ness? And his strength that she so readily felt 
 could she meet it successfully? 
 
 "Tell me why our marriage ended in six months," 
 he insisted gently. 
 
 No; it would not be easy to go on; but it was 
 impossible to stop. Her articulatory muscles were 
 working automatically, giving birth to words even 
 as she debated. 
 
 "Will you listen patiently while I tell you a little 
 tale?" she asked. 
 
 "About you and me?" 
 
 "About George Orcutt and Gail Revelling," she 
 answered, averting her eyes. She felt less guilty 
 toward him in using the subterfuge. 
 
 She spoke in a low voice. 
 
 "Gail's mother died while she was a baby. She 
 was brought up by her father and an old Brazilian 
 nurse. The mother was a Brazilian of Spanish and 
 French blood. From the time Gail could ask for a 
 story she was fed on romance by the old Carlotta.
 
 68 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 Ah ! those were strange tales she heard ! but in 
 all, love was the central theme. Carlotta did not 
 care for tragedy in itself. There were always a 
 beautiful senorita and a gallant cavalier, separated 
 sometimes by cruel parents or mercenary relatives, 
 or again divided by jealousy and anger. But no 
 matter how harrowing the separation nor how 
 heightened with adventure elopement, bloodshed, 
 war in the end the loving pair married and lived 
 faithful to each other till death parted them and 
 even after for one of the choicest stories was 
 where the husband shut himself up in his castle and 
 never looked on a woman's face again. 
 
 "These seemingly virtuous tales of the old Car- 
 lotta were bad for the child Gail. They misrepre- 
 sented life." Her eyes flamed with passion. "They 
 were founded on lies. The girl was taught to be- 
 lieve a man faithful to the woman he married. 
 Marriage was one long honeymoon. And the gay 
 cavalier was handsome and wealthy and somewhat 
 of a swaggerer, a daring brigand outwardly, with 
 a heart tender and true." She laughed bitterly. 
 "Was it any wonder the seventeen-year-old Gail 
 took George Orcutt for a knight? Even his marks 
 of dissipation helped on the illusion. She loved, 
 not him, but the knight she believed him, loved 
 madly, pouring out her love in ecstatic ca- 
 resses " 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 She turned swiftly upon his exultant exclamation.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 69 
 
 "To her shame, now ! If she lived to be a thou- 
 sand she would shudder under George Orcutt's 
 touch and the remembrance of those days. There 
 were a month of courtship and six months of mar- 
 riage while she was blindly happy. Blindly, for she 
 had shared him from the beginning with a public 
 dancer that he had met the same evening he first 
 saw her. And a previous favorite shared him with 
 both wife and dancer. It was jealousy of the dancer 
 for this woman they were both indifferent to the 
 wife, knowing that she did not really count that 
 enlightened Gail about her knight. The dancer fol- 
 lowed him home and " 
 
 The dry sob that cut off her words was sympathy 
 for the girl, Gail. The old poignant anguish welled 
 up. The flood of her own misery drowned the con- 
 trition she had felt in hurting the man before her. 
 He became simply Man cruel, sensual, faithless 
 to all principle and honor. 
 
 She resumed her story, the softness gone from 
 her voice. 
 
 "They the other two continued their fight, but 
 it was about air. George had deserted both for 
 yet another. The wife did not even struggle she 
 learned in one interview that her day was over, that 
 in reality it had never been except in her own de- 
 luded imagination. Her life had not been of a na- 
 ture to make her self-reliant. She did go to her 
 father Ah-h!" beating her hands fiercely together 
 in a torrent of memory "She was sent back the
 
 ,70 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 same day to her home, her path mapped out for 
 her her tortuous path that she has walked for 
 seven years and is still walking. . . . She is 
 not quite sure whether she could have acted 
 differently. . . . The child was coming " 
 
 "Stop!" 
 
 She rose and faced him. 
 
 "That is 'Why.' " 
 
 A spot of red flamed his either cheek. 
 
 "It's a damnable past to fall heir to. But in 
 God's truth, Gail, I am not that man." 
 
 "You are not " She felt the floor sink- 
 ing beneath her. 
 
 "No!" His tone was authoritative. "It is a 
 case of double personality. It must be. Two sep- 
 arate and distinct personalities occupy my body 
 one, a brute, the other, well, at least, a gentle- 
 man." 
 
 She laughed a long, shrill peal of hysteria.
 
 X 
 
 >"T" V O be prepared for exposure, to await with 
 bated breath the denouncement of herself as 
 a hypocrite and a cheat, then to have her duplicity 
 bolstered up into an interesting phenomenon, 
 weighty with the trade-mark of science. It was 
 ghastly funny. 
 
 "Don't laugh, Gail !" said the man sternly. "You 
 must believe me. There are two George Orcutts 
 two. I, the / of to-day, refuse to be punished 
 for the sins of the other George." 
 
 She waited a moment before answering, looked 
 at him meditatively. He was helping her just as 
 he had helped her before. She had looked to find 
 a double of George Orcutt that might serve her 
 for a day; and he, the man before her, had risen 
 out of the curbing to save her! And now he had 
 strengthened her pitifully weak hand with this card ! 
 Double personality ! She knew too little about it to 
 venture to use it herself. But she realized that it 
 would account for many of the differences between 
 this man and the real George differences for 
 which all her soul's harrowing had not been able 
 
 71
 
 72 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 to create a satisfying explanation. He was helping 
 her even if unconsciously. And there was a boy- 
 ish candor in his eyes. A nausea, not of weakness 
 now, but revolt, assailed her. She did not want to 
 hurt him. It was almost as though she was hurting 
 Vance. 
 
 Vance! 
 
 Her voice came now, and coldly: 
 
 "It is not for you to choose, as far as your rela- 
 tions with me are concerned. I cannot prevent your 
 return to your home, nor do I desire to, but I can 
 leave the house if you intrude upon my privacy. I 
 am not now financially in your power as I was seven 
 years ago. When your father died last year he left 
 the Mamaroneck house to me, and the incomes from 
 the Bowdoin apartments and the Orcutt office build- 
 ing. He also provided for Vance's minority inde- 
 pendently of you. And your property is safeguarded 
 so that you can use only the income. Your father 
 was as insistent that I should live with you and pre- 
 serve 'the integrity of the family' as mine was, but 
 his will shows that he knew the same George that 
 I knew yourself, no other." 
 
 The man was pale now, and his eyes were no 
 longer mildly brown; they were black with anger. 
 Yet he spoke calmly, even with pleasing dignity. 
 
 "I contend that I am not the man who dishon- 
 ored you by his unfaithfulness. I demand that you 
 allow me to prove to you the sort of man I am now. 
 I do not intend that you shall belittle me in my son's
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 73 
 
 eyes and in our friends' estimation by punishing me 
 for acts that / did not commit. You shall treat 
 me with the respect that my present personality 
 deserves." He held out his hand. "Are we to be 
 friends, my wife?" 
 
 "And if I refuse?" 
 
 "I am asking only justice. I appreciate what 
 you have suffered through the other George Orcutt. 
 But he is a stranger to me I should not be held 
 responsible for his sins." 
 
 Again she maintained a long silence, trying to 
 find the best way to meet his challenge. She was 
 stupefied at the situation she found herself in the 
 man's calm assumption of being her master, and 
 his refusal to identify himself with George Orcutt's 
 past. She felt her ground slipping from under her. 
 
 "I asked you what you would do if I refused 
 to accept your proffered friendship?" she asked in 
 a low voice. "You cannot force me into any- 
 thing against my will." 
 
 "Nor have I any desire to force you to do any- 
 thing against your will. I have no intention of 
 asserting my rights as your husband in a way obnox- 
 ious to you. Neither have I the intention of docilely 
 accepting your decree of virtual separation between 
 us. I ask that you forget the past and meet me 
 with an open mind allowing the man I now am to 
 win you or lose you. As long as I am your husband 
 in name, isn't it better that we should try to be hus- 
 band and wife in spirit also? We must eventually
 
 74 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 become husband and wife in truth or not at all. I 
 shall either have a wife or not have her. But I 
 demand the chance to earn your respect and love 
 and to let your charms quicken my affections. Out- 
 side of our own feelings is our duty to Vance we 
 could scarcely divide him." 
 
 "You would not Oh God in Heaven! you 
 would not take Vance from me!" she shrieked. 
 
 "Not willingly." His voice was grimly pleasant. 
 Again he held out his hand. "Come, Gail, you 
 cannot deny my right to make amends for the past. 
 I am simply asking for justice. Give it to me 
 don't force me into driving you to be fair." 
 
 She clutched the arms of the chair. A deadly 
 pallor overspread her face. The law would give 
 the son to the father. He was to hold this cudgel 
 always over her head; first, to force her to be 
 friends; then 
 
 She sprang up, screamed wildly. 
 
 "But you can't! Vance is mine! You are 
 
 not not not " But the right words would 
 
 not come "not worthy of him " It 
 
 was scarcely more than a whisper. 
 
 "The other George may not have been, / am," 
 was his reply. Humor illuminated his face again. 
 "He agrees with me. He told me just now that 
 he loves me better than anyone except his mama." 
 
 "Oh!" It was a heart-breaking cry. She buried 
 her face against the chair-back, moaning pitifully.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 75 
 
 "Gail!" He bent over her. "My own dear 
 girl ! I didn't mean to hurt you so." 
 
 "It is true, he does love you," she moaned bro- 
 kenly. "You have me at your mercy " 
 
 "You won't find me a hard bargainer, my wife. 
 I ask only that we be friends in truly platonic fash- 
 ion till I win or lose you. Perhaps with such a past 
 I should be more humble and ask nothing. But I 
 simply can't get the proper connection with that 
 past to make it seem my responsibility to atone for 
 it. But, zounds ! I don't want you without your 
 love." He twinkled again. "Really, you're not my 
 wife. I didn't choose you. Nor did you choose 
 this me. Let's begin all over again, dear." 
 
 She looked up at him curiously, trying to fathom 
 what manner of man he really was. Beneath the 
 gay banter of his smile she read purpose, an unflinch- 
 ing purpose that could indulge in laughter and 
 badinage without swerving a hair's breadth. And, 
 strangely, as she read his strength, her own failing 
 strength revived. The game they were playing 
 became something desirable in itself. She ignored 
 the fact that he was not playing a game. To her 
 fevered brain they became two skilled opponents, 
 the only question to be settled between them the one 
 of supremacy of skill. 
 
 As she still stared at him in contemplation the 
 door opened and Vance entered. 
 
 "Excuse me," he apologized. "I thought you'd
 
 76 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 surely be through talking by this time." He sidled 
 up to his "father." 
 
 "Did you truly mean you'd go riding with me, 
 Papa? Oh!" clapping his hands at the affirmative 
 shake of the head. "Oh! bully! What was it you 
 called me? partner? and it means? " 
 
 "That you and I are to be pals and that means 
 that we're to stand by each other through thick and 
 thin; that if we get down to our last dollar or 
 dime, perhaps we'll share it. And with a smile, 
 partner, always with a smile." 
 
 "Do you hear, Mama? Papa and I are to be 
 pals! Oh! Oh!" jumping up and down in his 
 joy. 
 
 "Yes, partner," repeated the man. "And your 
 Mama and I are to be friends, good, true friends, 
 who trust in each other's fairness and will play 
 
 square by each other always Isn't that right, 
 
 Gail?" 
 
 She rose and held out her hand. 
 
 "Yes, friends," said she, and forced herself to 
 smile.
 
 XI 
 
 / ~|~" V HE atmosphere of the Riverside Drive house 
 was charged with excitement. The house- 
 keeper, a portly matron with iron-gray hair and 
 double chin; the butler, portly and bald; the up- 
 stairs girls and the parlor-maid, near-pretty young 
 things; the fat cook, Miss Lauder, the governess; 
 Gregory, Bryan, and the other retainers of the 
 household, all anxiously awaited the return of the 
 master of the house. Gail's first impulse had been 
 to discharge the whole retinue and replace them with 
 servants that had never known the real Orcutt. She 
 feared the quizzing eyes of their servitors more 
 than those of friends. Experience had shown her 
 that they were more discerning of trifles. The 
 butler had once suggested, with much coughing and 
 many digressions, that he knew a remedy that would 
 painlessly remove the mole on the back of Mrs. 
 Lorme's neck, the existence of which Gail had not 
 known till then. Gregory had discovered that one 
 of Vance's ears set a fraction lower than the other, 
 a fact overlooked for five years by his mother. From 
 recriminations during a quarrel between the cook 
 
 77
 
 78 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 and the parlor-maid, Gail had learned that the par- 
 lor-maid's eyes were green rather than blue and 
 that the cook had "more hair on her face than a 
 lady ought to have." Eyes open to details would 
 find many little differences between the two men 
 that had escaped her, carefully as she had studied 
 them. 
 
 Second thought told her that, however great the 
 risk, it must be taken. To discharge the old help 
 in a body and engage new would arouse suspicion 
 outside her walls that would not end till the truth 
 or something damagingly near it had been 
 reached. The newspapers were again giving their 
 readers the Orcutt case in prominent headlines. 
 Moralizing editorials were appearing The papers 
 that seek to prejudice "mass" against "class" were 
 sneering and scathingly wrathful over his recov- 
 ery. Alienists, district attorney, public, all were 
 arraigned and violently denounced for this latest 
 "outrage." The joke-makers added their share, 
 finding the "lost memory" and "double personality" 
 rich material for their pens. So, too, the cartoonists. 
 A financier just then in the public eye, a corpora- 
 tion head, the President, the Mayor, and lesser 
 lights, disported themselves in caricatures labeled, 
 "Another lost memory," " 'Twas not I, dear Public, 
 but my double!" etc. 
 
 She would take her chances with the servants, 
 trusting them to invent their own explanations for 
 whatever difference they discovered. Having
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 79 
 
 invented an explanation, they would believe it 
 against any and all proof to the contrary. She 
 harked back to the talk she had had with Judge 
 Allison the pregnant talk upon which she had 
 builded George Orcutt's escape. He had said that 
 the charm of a mystery lies not in its actual solution, 
 but in its vulnerability to innumerable solutions, 
 and that a mind, especially the untrained mind, once 
 inoculated with its own intoxicating "discovery," 
 is immune to every other professional deceivers 
 having thrived through all the ages on this trait 
 in human kind. To come upon an intricately woven 
 partition, seemingly impenetrable, then to find a 
 secret opening through, or over, or under! and 
 by oneself ! Joy in the marvelous achievement blinds 
 the eyes to the ordinary gateway, though it be as 
 high and wide as the sky itself. 
 
 She gave no information to her household save 
 that Mr. Orcutt had recovered from his illness 
 except for loss of memory of people and places, and 
 that he was to return home. She refused to be in- 
 terviewed by reporters. The newspaper informa- 
 tion about the lost memory and double personality 
 came from the sanatorium. And though this was 
 of the most meagre sort, it afforded sufficient ammu- 
 nition for the reporter. Books on double person- 
 ality were quickly scanned and their contents used 
 as material out of which to weave a marvelous 
 psychological story, with George Orcutt as the cen- 
 tral figure. The information was given out as
 
 8o THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 though coming directly from Doctor Underwood. 
 He did not dispute this, allowing both the public 
 and Gail to believe that he had been correctly 
 reported. 
 
 That Morris Underwood, noted for his penetra- 
 tion and canny wisdom, should mistake fiction for 
 fact, inspired Gail with new courage. Her spirits 
 rose with a bound that almost carried her doubts 
 away, bringing her perilously near to the self-hyp- 
 notic state of belief that desire so often induces. 
 She found herself smiling fearlessly at the gruff 
 alienist as she bade him adieu. 
 
 Orcutt, for such we must call him, held the doc- 
 tor's hand a long while in parting. 
 
 "You haven't seen the last of me," said he soberly, 
 a note of affection in his voice that brought an 
 answering gleam to the beady eyes behind the big 
 spectacles. "I'm coming out to talk with you as 
 o'ften as you will let me. And you're to make our 
 home your city headquarters, remember. I've told 
 you all this before, and am simply emphasizing it 
 now. I'm feeling very much at sea; you're my one 
 landmark don't desert me, Underwood." 
 
 "You can depend on me to see you through," 
 replied the doctor, and his laugh held a deeper 
 meaning than any of his hearers realized. He 
 stepped back, smiled encouragingly at his ex-pa- 
 tient. Bryan moved the lever and the car shot 
 down the driveway and out upon the road. 
 
 "We're off," cried Vance. "We're off for home,
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 81 
 
 Papa." The child sat between the two on the wide 
 back seat of the big car. Orcutt looked humorously 
 over his head at Gail. 
 
 "We're off for somewhere; destination unknown, 
 is as near as we can say it, isn't it?" 
 
 "Papa !" Vance caught an arm in both hands. 
 "You're going home. And you and I are going 
 riding in the morning. You haven't forgot that?" 
 anxiously. "And you're going to stay home lots 
 more'n you used to. You've promised me." 
 
 "And you say my horse has a white star in his 
 forehead; I always like a horse with a white star in 
 his forehead, if his legs are good," bantered the 
 man. 
 
 "His legs?" Vance looked disturbed for a mo- 
 ment; then relievedly: "But you bought him, Papa; 
 of course his legs are good. You told me once the 
 time I went riding with you before," proudly, "that 
 you always knew a good nag even when you were 
 a little boy. And that it was a remarkable thing for 
 a city boy to know that." 
 
 "A city boy? Was I a city boy? I have a curious 
 feeling that somehow the city and I are only speak- 
 ing acquaintances. I should have said I was raised 
 in the country. Where else did I learn about birds 
 and insects, and berries and wild flowers and a mass 
 of wood lore? The doctor and I never walked in 
 the woods that I didn't surprise him with my inti- 
 mate acquaintance with it and its habitants."
 
 82 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 He was speaking to himself, meditatively, his 
 brow puckered in the painful task of trying to catch 
 the elusive something that seemed always on the 
 point of being caught, and always, at the seemingly 
 crucial moment, evading him. 
 
 "You had a summer home on the Hudson," came 
 Gail's voice, quickly. "And you attended a prepa- 
 ratory school at some little town in New Jersey 
 Leighton, I think." 
 
 "Why, Papa, don't you remember what you did 
 when you were a little boy?" 
 
 "Dear, I told you that Papa had forgotten all 
 about the things he used to do, and the people he 
 used to know. I thought you understood." 
 
 "Yes; but I didn't know you meant he had for- 
 gotten the things he did when he was a boy. I don't 
 see how he could forget that!" 
 
 The man laughed so heartily that Gail's set lips 
 relaxed to an almost merry smile. The day was 
 conducive to lightness of spirits. The foliage along 
 the roadway was gorgeously resplendent, reds and 
 golds and burnished greens; the air was splendidly 
 fresh and cool; the swift, motionless speed of the 
 car along the smooth highway, intoxicating in the 
 illusion it gave of being borne on wings through the 
 air. It was impossible not to tingle with the fullness 
 of living. 
 
 "You say you got my letter and have learned 
 the names of the servants," she said. "I thought it 
 would make it less confusing for you and for them."
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 83 
 
 "Yes," he laughed. "It's a good thing I've grown 
 accustomed to so many attendants at the hospital; 
 otherwise the thought of those twenty servants 
 would be more disquieting than you can imagine. 
 I have a feeling that I've bossed a crowd of men 
 around, but I can't seem to accept the fact of white- 
 capped and obsequious females as being natural to 
 me and my house. Did we always have so many 
 maids?" 
 
 "Why, Papa !" Vance's voice was shrill with 
 remonstrance. "You know we have. Why, Per- 
 kins said you could keep a hundred servants on the 
 jump. And it was the maids you liked to wait on 
 you always. They didn't, because well, I don't 
 know just why; I guess because they weren't engaged 
 for that they're very particular to do just what 
 they're engaged to do " sagely. "But " 
 
 "Papa has forgotten, dear. And you keep for- 
 getting about his lost memory." She looked straight 
 at Orcutt for the first time that day. "I think it 
 would be well not to speak too freely about the 
 change you feel within yourself. It is not easy for 
 others to accept the situation as it is. It is so 
 strange that " 
 
 "To make them see it straight it must be pre- 
 sented obliquely," he concluded, smiling. "I accept 
 your advice. But we mustn't exclude the boy; he'll 
 soon learn that his Papa is really two men. One 
 spirit has occupied his body for a while and gone 
 away, and the new spirit doesn't remember what
 
 84 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 the other spirit did. It's still Papa, but a different 
 phase of him, a presentation Vance hasn't seen 
 before." 
 
 "Oh! that's why you're so much nicer," cried the 
 boy. "This spirit understands a boy better or 
 something. You were always pretty nice, but now 
 you're bully. But I wish this spirit didn't use 
 such big words." 
 
 The man laughed, though again unsatisfied ques- 
 tioning appeared in his eyes. 
 
 "I thought I was a very unpretentious speaker, 
 Vance. I'll remember and simplify my vocabulary." 
 
 "There you go again!" The child was seriously 
 disapproving. "You use bigger words than Mama. 
 The other spirit didn't. And I liked it. It's tire- 
 some to stop all the time and have words explained, 
 and 'less they are explained I don't know exac'ly 
 what's meant, and I like to know exac'ly." 
 
 "But that's the way you learn," expostulated his 
 mother. She again looked fully at Orcutt. "I have 
 never talked down to him; I don't believe in it." 
 Her look said "and you must not." He did not 
 answer, but a humorous twist of the lips made her 
 think he would do as he pleased in the matter. 
 
 The car stopped. 
 
 "Home!" cried Vance. 
 
 The man looked quickly at the imposing stone 
 structure. "Home?" he said blankly. "Home?"
 
 XII 
 
 TTOME?" 
 
 Orcutt repeated the word again a few 
 hours later. He stood in George Orcutt's room by 
 the mantel, an elaborately carved mantel of Bac- 
 chantes in marble. Over his head, disporting them- 
 selves against a background of soft blue, were other 
 graceful nymphs, done by the master-hand of the 
 man Orcutt had killed. Still others of ivory and 
 of bronze stood on pedestals and brackets; and 
 these were but a beginning. The walls were cov- 
 ered with pictures of female beauty, scantily draped, 
 if at all. Scenes of reveling maidens were painted 
 on the head and the foot-boards of the great cano- 
 pied bed; the canopy was embroidered with laugh- 
 ing sprites. A rare tapestried screen added other 
 ravishing visions. 
 
 More than all Gail's words the room told him 
 what sort of man the "other George Orcutt" was 
 the man he believed himself to have been. He stood 
 there, faint with a strange nausea, sickened as is 
 one with the stenching perfume of a closed roomful 
 of strongly fragrant flowers. There was nothing 
 in statue or painting or tapestry that was offensive 
 in itself. Any one or any half-dozen of the por- 
 
 85
 
 86 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 trayed nymphs might acceptably grace the room. It 
 was the insistence on the one side of art, the harping 
 on the one theme, the excessive numbers of the one 
 subject that betrayed the warped mind of its pos- 
 sessor. The emphasis was on woman, and not on 
 art. It was art solely for the sake of revealing 
 woman, her beauties and seductiveness. There was 
 no pretence at disguising the ruling sentiment art 
 was merely a tool for the glorification of female 
 nudity. The possession of millions had made the 
 possession of real art productions possible; but no 
 observer could doubt that a penniless George Orcutt 
 would have had his room crowded with presenta- 
 tions of the same subject, let them be tawdry litho- 
 graphs or prints or whatnot, and however cheap 
 and glaringly inartistic. 
 
 Nor was his room all that caused his sickening 
 sense of disappointment and his feeling of oppres- 
 sion. The whole house appeared crowded to him, 
 overburdened with furniture and rugs and endless 
 works of art. He admitted that it was harmonious 
 in color and arrangement, but it did not bring the 
 "home" feeling to him. He felt rebellious against 
 it and the ceremonious servants and the formalities 
 of the dinner table. He felt alien to the house 
 and everything in it, and wondered how he was to 
 adjust himself to an environment that, however old, 
 persisted in seeming new. In the midst of his medi- 
 tations, Jackson, the butler, appeared. He carried 
 a salver holding a decanter and glass.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 87 
 
 "I've brought yuh some apricot brandy, sah. You 
 never was overfond of wine, an' I noticed yuh didn't 
 drink any at dinner, sah. Brandy was always yuh 
 favorite yuh ordered this jist before yuh was ill." 
 
 "Wait!" Orcutt stayed him as he lifted the 
 decanter. "You've been with us a long while 
 how long, Jackson?" 
 
 "About twenty years. I came to your fathah 
 when I was eighteen and you twelve. And I came 
 to you and Mis' Orcutt when you was married, sah." 
 
 "Do you find me greatly changed, Jackson? The 
 truth now. I am so changed in my feelings and my 
 views on things I want to know how I seem to you 
 who have known me for years." 
 
 "Well, yuh look a little different, sah," said the 
 man cautiously. He was a mulatto, with little look 
 of the negro in his features, and with a shrewdness 
 and natural intelligence recognized by his employers 
 and the other help, all white. That and his long 
 years of service in the Orcutt family made him the 
 virtual head of the serving force. 
 
 "How?" 
 
 The man hesitated. 
 
 "Yuh ain't been drinkin' hard foh a long time > 
 p'raps it's just that you look sober, sah." 
 
 "So you're bringing me some brandy to see if you 
 can make me look natural, eh? I'll cut out all 
 liquor for a while, Jackson. Come, tell me how 
 I am different." 
 
 "That's your forehead an' your hair an' beard
 
 88 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 an' body, sah; but the nose seems smaller, the 
 swellin' gone down more'n likely. But the expres- 
 sion of the eyes an' the laugh an' the speech, sah, 
 are considerable different, considerable, sah." 
 
 "But why should they be?" questioned the other 
 irritably. 
 
 Jackson cleared his throat. 
 
 "I think the answer to that is simply, sah, that 
 it always happens." 
 
 "Always? You mean the times that I've been 
 like this before?" 
 
 "No, sah. I never saw you like this before. But 
 it happens to all the other persons who have a 
 double personality. The outward man always 
 changes along with the inner one, sah. 'As a man 
 thinks,' the Bible has it, sah." 
 
 Orcutt shook his head, somewhat belligerently. 
 
 "But why haven't you seen me this way before? 
 For I must have been, some time during the twenty 
 years you've lived with us, to have learned the things 
 I know now and didn't know before by all ac- 
 counts." 
 
 "Yes, sah, you have been; only " 
 
 "Go on!" impatiently. 
 
 "We've not been fair to you, Mistah George," 
 said Jackson, a faint huskiness in his throat. "No, 
 sah; we suhtainly have not. The times you were 
 away, sah, we always thought " 
 
 "The times I was away! Ah! And those, Jack- 
 son? How often? When? Where did I go?"
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 89 
 
 "That's just it. No one evah knew where you 
 went, sah; yuh would disappear foh weeks at a 
 
 stretch, and we all thought " He coughed, 
 
 deprecatingly. "Well, sah, we didn't think you 
 were reading scientific books and doing serious 
 study, sah." 
 
 "And I was." 
 
 "Yes, sah, you were a-doing that very same. We 
 all owe you considerable apology, Mistah George." 
 
 Orcutt tapped his fingers against the mantel shelf. 
 
 "Away from home for weeks at a stretch," he 
 mused. "About how many times, Jackson? And 
 how long were the periods between my disappear- 
 ances, would you say?" 
 
 Jackson meditated a little. 
 
 "You disappeared several times a year, sah, for 
 the past ten years." 
 
 "And everybody thought I was on a debauch 
 and let me alone," said Orcutt. "So now nobody 
 knows where I was." 
 
 Jackson bowed acquiescence. 
 
 "No, sah, nobody knows. But yuh were busy 
 with some mighty interesting things, I see now, Mis- 
 tah George. I overheard you talking about books 
 and things at the dinner table," he explained. "You 
 were a very busy man while you were away those 
 times, and I think a uh " 
 
 "Decent one," completed Orcutt. 
 
 "Yes, sah. But it's always that way one good 
 personality, and one uh one not so good, sah."
 
 9 o THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "You seem well versed on the subject of dual 
 personalities, Jackson. I see that some of the news- 
 papers claim I'm faking. If so, I'm doing it pretty 
 well eh?" 
 
 Jackson chuckled. 
 
 "You could always see the funny side o' things; 
 you're like your old self that way, sah." 
 
 "My old self " Orcutt took up the word. 
 
 "That old self is a stranger to me, Jackson, and 
 this new self somewhat of a stranger to you, I 
 suppose?" he laughed. 
 
 "Yes and no, sah. You're different, of course, 
 sah. But I expected you would be." 
 
 Orcutt straightened up. 
 
 "Look here. I'm not faking. Get that out of 
 your head, Jackson." 
 
 "You misunderstood me, Mistah George," 
 returned Jackson, with dignity. "According t' the 
 books on double personality, two personalities are 
 two personalities, whether they're in two bodies or 
 in one body, sah, and it's natural to expect to find 
 two men more unlike than like, sah." 
 
 "So I'm all right, according to the rules," grinned 
 Orcutt. "I'm glad I'm all right according to some- 
 thing, for to myself I'm about the queerest fish in 
 five seas." 
 
 "You'll get used to yuhself after a little, Mistah 
 George," consoled Jackson. "And we-all will get 
 used to you. The new self is uh a mighty lik- 
 able sort, sah."
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 91 
 
 Orcutt laughed, a boyish laugh of pleasure. 
 
 "Thank you, Jackson. No, no brandy, and noth- 
 ing more for to-night." 
 
 "Good-night, Mistah George," returned the man, 
 departing. 
 
 "Wait!" 
 
 Orcutt held a book in his hand. 
 
 "Jackson, 'George W. Orcutt' is written on this 
 fly-leaf. This isn't my writing." 
 
 Jackson eyed the sprawling hieroglyphics. 
 
 "I take it, sah, that you write a close, fine hand, 
 very legible. Isn't that right, sah?" he queried, a 
 triumphant smile hovering on his lips. 
 
 "Hm!" chuckled Orcutt. "So that may happen, 
 too ! You've gone pretty deep into double person- 
 ality, I see, so I'll take your word for it that I'm 
 the simon-pure article. I'm waiting to study it first- 
 hand in myself." 
 
 Jackson chuckled in answer. 
 
 "It's suhtainly funny, but each personality seems 
 always t' scorn the other one, sah. No matter how 
 one personality does a thing, it's a good guess that 
 the other'll do it just the opposite." 
 
 Orcutt looked at the title after Jackson left. La 
 Bete Humalne, he read, and flung the book savagely 
 to the floor.
 
 XIII 
 
 JACKSON took his way to the servants' dining- 
 room. There was the same clatter of tongues 
 as when he left. Gregory's voice reached him as 
 he entered the lower hall. 
 
 "Double personality! Huh! It's just a case of 
 a drunk Orcutt and a sober Orcutt. Seven months 
 on the water wagon has made a man of 'im. Of 
 course, he looks different; the bloat's gone down 
 and his flabby muscles has tightened. I was on a 
 bat once for a week, an' when I was sobering up I 
 caught sight of myself in the mirror an' mistook 
 my bleary red mug for a burglar's an' struck out my 
 fist and smashed the mirror to bits." 
 
 "The mirror! Hivins! Shure an' it was bad 
 luck it must have brought ye!" 
 
 "No, Kitty, bad luck to the brewers: I've been 
 sober ever since." 
 
 "But the doctor says it's double personality," 
 said Lottie, the parlor-maid. "Mary and I've been 
 reading up on it, and it's straight goods that it can 
 happen; and it fits Mr. Orcutt's case exactly. Just 
 a change from drunk to sober wouldn't account for 
 
 92
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 93 
 
 his forgetting about everything he ever did and 
 everybody he ever knew, would it?" with asperity. 
 
 "It might," laughed Bryan. "If forgetting 
 would account for the fact that he killed a man. 
 But it won't. The double personality stunt does 
 the trick so, it's double personality, thickhead." 
 
 "You think he's faking?" 
 
 A yowl of derision arose. 
 
 "'Ear! 'ear!" cried the footman. "She arsks 
 if he's a-fakin'." 
 
 "Just a moment," interrupted Jackson pleasantly, 
 appearing from the shadowed doorway. "I've 
 known Mistah Orcutt foh twenty years. I knew 
 him when he was a boy and I knew his father and 
 his mother before him. No matter what else he is, 
 he's honest. It's in the blood to speak and act 
 straight from the shoulder. If he'd been one of the 
 sly kind he could of lived just as he did and had 
 the respect of his wife and household at the same 
 time. 'Assume a virtue if you have it not,' was not 
 Mistah Orcutt's way. No; take my word foh it, 
 he's not fakin'. I've known him when he was sober, 
 as a child and boy, an' it's not just that he's sober 
 that makes the difference we see now. It's no argu- 
 ment against it to say that we never knew of a case 
 of dual personality. If there wasn't anything in 
 the world but what we know about 'twould be more 
 interestin' to leave this life an' take our chances 
 on " 
 
 "Hell fire and brimstone," chortled Bryan,
 
 94 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "That's the idea, though not exactly what I was 
 goin' to say. Mistah Orcutt is as much puzzled 
 over the change in himself as we are. And the 
 change goes deeper than just his looks an' manners. 
 He says he shan't keep a valet! And he's sore on 
 his rooms! We're goin' to see new differences 
 every day. It's just as the psychologists say two 
 men in one body. An' the sooner we forget the 
 man we knew an' get acquainted with the ways of 
 the man that's upstairs now, the better he'll like it, 
 I'm thinkin'." 
 
 "Now, yez ar-re talkin'," returned the cook. "An' 
 by phwat yez all say I'm glad it's this side of him 
 an' not the other I'm buckin' me head into. If he 
 plays fair by the madam I shouldn't think it would 
 make any difference at all, at all, how the change 
 came about. I'll be dommed if I'd cook for a man 
 that'd leave her for some hussy. She's a lady, 
 which all the high cracky dames ain't, and ye can 
 believe me! An' she's han'some, which is phwat 
 more of 'em ain't, an' ye can believe that, too ! An* 
 it's no disputin' me I think ye'll be doin'." 
 
 "To-night's the first dinner I ever knew him to 
 eat here, and I've been here three years," snickered 
 the up-stairs girl. "So you wouldn't had to cook 
 much for him like he was before. And he didn't 
 sleep here more'n once a month." 
 
 "There was just one stage he struck," Bryan 
 laughed, "when he would make us bring him home
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 95 
 
 or fight. If we took him to his rooms at the Buckley 
 he'd smash the furniture an' yell like a pirate." 
 
 "We?" snorted the cook. "An' does yez mean 
 you an' some hussy?" 
 
 "His man. Where is Perkins now, Greg? Didn't 
 you say you saw him lately?" 
 
 "He's with old Biddington; was, a month ago." 
 
 Bryan rose, still laughing. 
 
 "I had a reversible coat once, black on one side 
 an' tan on the other. Didn't take the tan side long 
 to get grimy-looking the black streaked through 
 from the other side whenever it got wet." 
 
 "An' yez thinks this Orcutt'll show pretty much 
 the same color of the old Orcutt whin he starts in 
 boozin', and it's thinkin' the same I am meself," 
 said the cook. 
 
 "Mistah Orcutt isn't drinkin' now. He gave 
 orders not to serve him with any liquor whatever," 
 announced Jackson, loftily. 
 
 "Hell!" Bryan's face was blank with amaze- 
 ment. "Well, anyhow, it's the same Orcutt; sooner 
 or later his spots'll show through." 
 
 Jackson resumed authority. 
 
 "Our business, I'm thinkin', is to serve Mistah 
 Orcutt," said he. 
 
 A figure glided swiftly from a recess hid by a 
 curtain outside the room and out of range of the 
 door. It was Gail. She had played eavesdropper. 
 There had been no other way. She must know what 
 was being said in the world downstairs. She must
 
 96 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 know what was going on behind the inscrutable 
 faces that would tell her nothing, not even by the 
 glimmer of an eye. She sat down in her room and 
 uttered a sigh of relief that was almost a sob. 
 Bryan's "Well, anyhow, it's the same Orcutt," was 
 a truth so evident that he used it to prove his con- 
 clusion. No matter what else they might suspect, 
 it would not be the reality. The man up-stairs was 
 to them George Orcutt, no matter now what he 
 said or did, nor how he looked or acted. She went 
 to bed and to sleep. To-morrow might bring its 
 anxieties, but to-night she should rest unafraid. 
 
 Orcutt went to bed, but not at once to sleep, and 
 not under the canopy embroidered with dancing 
 houris. He had installed himself and personal ef- 
 fects in another suite, turning his back in disgust on 
 the nymphs and Bacchantes. He could not accept 
 the past that those rooms thrust so avowedly upon 
 him. And he had begun to question his own explana- 
 tion for the change in himself. Hour after hour 
 he lay and tried to find a solution that would now 
 satisfy his mind. Why had he no recollection of 
 previous occurrences of his personality? In the 
 cases of double personality on record there was unity 
 within each personality at least. It was not strange 
 that number two, as he termed his present personal- 
 ity, did not recollect anything about number one, the 
 "other George," but surely it should have some 
 memory of its own previous occurrences. And why 
 had Jackson never seen him before as number two,
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 97 
 
 but always as number one? And why had Gail 
 never known him as he was now? Why ? 
 
 But he turned over to sleep with a disgruntled 
 groan: 
 
 "Whether I feel the part or not, I am George 
 Orcutt. There's no question as to that. At some 
 stage of my life I've been a beast, and the sooner I 
 accept the disgusting truth the better. Only " 
 
 But the curtain had rung down on a sleeping 
 household, as tranquil as though the drama had 
 ended rather than just begun.
 
 XIV 
 
 TTANCE clapped his hands and laughed glee- 
 fully, a performance he had done many times 
 the past hour. His "papa" had just tied a last glit- 
 tering ornament on the topmost spray of the Christ- 
 mas tree, which now stood fully bedecked with tin- 
 sel and burnishings and many-colored electric bulbs. 
 
 "Now for the presents," cried the boy, his childish 
 treble shrill with excitement. "I've got all the lit- 
 tle ones piled together for the top branches, and 
 I'm going to climb up and tie 'em on." 
 
 "Let Papa tie those, Vance; you tie the ones on 
 the lower branches." 
 
 "But I like the climbing up and leaning over to 
 
 reach the places it's not just the tying 'em on " 
 
 cried the boy. 
 
 "Would you like to fall and hurt yourself?" 
 
 "No; but he likes to feel he might fall and hurt 
 himself, break an arm or leg and then not fall," 
 said Orcutt, with a laugh. 
 
 The man and the boy looked at each other and 
 both twinkled with a mirthful understanding be- 
 tween them. The child's head was thrown slightly 
 
 98
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 99 
 
 back, his slight figure in its white serge suit held 
 with the dignity of a general, his already flushed 
 face kindling with a new delight. He turned to 
 his mother. 
 
 "Papa knows because he was a boy once him- 
 self. He always knows," he continued. "Women 
 know how girls feel 'bout things, I guess, but they 
 just never know exac'ly how a boy feels." His 
 tone was aggrieved. "And they always say to a 
 boy, 'You don't want to do that' just as though 
 they know what he wants to do !" 
 
 "Condemned by a jury of my peers!" Gail's 
 laugh was as gay as a bird's trill. "All right, Vance. 
 But let me warn you that a broken arm feels worse 
 than the mumps. I know, I've had both." 
 
 "But I won't break my arm," he answered stoutly. 
 "The fun's in not breaking it, like Papa says." 
 
 "As Papa says." 
 
 "As Papa says," he repeated docilely. "As .. 
 Papa says," trying to impress the correction on 
 his memory as he had been taught. "Now, Papa ! 
 the presents! the presents!" 
 
 There were packages of various sizes and shapes, 
 two big hampers full, all now of one identity in their 
 white tissue and holly ribbons. There were pres- 
 ents for each other, presents for every one that 
 served them in the house and outside of it, and for 
 many of the relatives of these, presents for the 
 Lormes and other friends who were to come next 
 morning to help them celebrate the first family
 
 ioo THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 Christmas tree of the George Orcutt household. 
 There had always been presents for the help, lav- 
 ish distributions of money by the master of the 
 house, and appropriate gifts of ornaments and ap- 
 parel by Vance and his Mama. And there had al- 
 ways been a tree for the child in the play-room, as 
 beautiful as it could be fashioned. Christmas had 
 been kept always as regarded its letter, but its 
 exuberant spirit had not before found a place there. 
 The wife's pride had not allowed her to have a 
 family tree with the head of the family so promi- 
 nently absent. She could not blind herself to its 
 irony. 
 
 More ironical yet was the present situation. But 
 not to Gail's present seeming. The "tragedy 
 queen" had given place once more to the "dryad." 
 Her Latin inheritance of blood was upon her 
 an excessive buoyancy that made her oblivious to 
 all but the joys of the hour. She had been thus 
 for three months, since the day of Orcutt's home- 
 coming. Free from the suspicions of the servants 
 that she had dreaded; free from Doctor Under- 
 wood's suspicions as she believed; the new Orcutt 
 accepted complacently, even if curiously, by friends 
 and acquaintances; Vance happy beyond words; 
 and the man playing his role of friend to the letter ! 
 all this provided an anaesthesia that quieted her 
 fears. As people in the throes of war and disaster 
 throw themselves with abnormal abandon into 
 ephemeral gaieties, so did Gail turn her back for
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 101 
 
 the nonce on her anxieties and avidly embrace the 
 feast the gods in a lenient mood had allowed her. 
 
 She had never known a man like this one; she 
 had not even known that such existed. It had been 
 her rather vague belief that a man who was inter- 
 ested in the mysteries of the universe and in prob- 
 lems beyond the simplest additions and subtractions 
 that life presents, was necessarily old, or fusty, or 
 intolerant of ordinary intellects, and excessively 
 tiresome to live with. The capacity to converse 
 lightly on art and music, the drama and works of 
 current fiction, and to have opinions on religion, 
 had seemed to her heretofore to betray a wide cul- 
 ture and all the knowledge that was really worth 
 while for people who were not "queer." 
 
 She had been at first bewildered by his conver- 
 sation, conversation not meant to instruct her, but to 
 pass the time between them that he insisted they 
 should spend together, so many hours each day. 
 He talked about the things he knew best, the knowl- 
 edge of which had cut so deep into his brain that 
 their tracks had withstood the shock that obliterated 
 all memory of purely personal experiences. It was 
 seemingly no more natural for him to breathe than 
 to discuss the whys and wherefores of life and the 
 underpinnings of the world that harbored him. It 
 was his matter-of-course way of interjecting pro- 
 fundities into the conversation, and his pervasive 
 humor, and a delightful boyish spontaneity of ex- 
 pression that made it possible for his interest in his
 
 102 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 subjects and something of their tenor to "get across" 
 to Gail. In the beginning she was too much in 
 doubt of her understanding to answer; soon she 
 had shyly questioned; then she had secretly bought 
 books books on sociology, psychology, philosophy 
 and read them, to her confusion more often than 
 enlightenment. But she gleaned sufficient ac- 
 quaintance with the new words and phrases to em- 
 bolden her into discussion one-sided arguments in 
 which he bantered, and challenged, and laughed at 
 her, yet meanwhile clarifying the subject under con- 
 sideration with simplified explanations that she 
 could not fail to comprehend in some degree. 
 
 It was largely her excited delight in these novel 
 excursions of thought that blinded her to the dan- 
 gers of the intimacy they brought. Philosophy and 
 science seemed such safe, impersonal subjects. And 
 it was such a new and wholly delightful sensation 
 to use her thinking powers that she was absorbed 
 in the very novelty of it. She basked in the warmth 
 of this strange and most entrancing friendship, with- 
 out stopping to ask where it was leading them. 
 
 She had grown to think of him as a relative, as 
 one who belonged by right to the family. He was 
 Vance's father, not in the flesh, but in spirit. The 
 curious sensation that she had felt when Vance first 
 called him "Papa" had passed. He was her boy's 
 godfather had come to be her attitude of mind. 
 And "Papa," said by the child, held a wholly dif- 
 ferent content for her than its correlate "Mama."
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 103 
 
 But Vance had said the two pregnant words so 
 many times this Christmas evening, had included 
 them together so closely in his holiday spirit of 
 happiness, that even she, knowing the truth, be- 
 lieved almost that the three were one family. 
 
 It was as though he had always been there 
 
 And would always be there. He surrounded her 
 and Vance with such an atmosphere of being cared 
 for, was so chivalrously protective! George Or- 
 cutt's neglect had made her peculiarly appreciative 
 of this other man's courteous attentions. And they 
 were given so unconsciously, as though not to serve 
 her would be the unnatural thing. The mask of 
 coldness under which she had hid her misery as 
 George Orcutt's wife had wholly melted away under 
 the new Orcutt's deference and homage. 
 
 And she had paraded him before her world with 
 a pathetic pride in his possession a husband who 
 honored her and of whom she was not ashamed! 
 Joy in this revelation had mingled with even her first 
 fear of discovery. Which fear was groundless, she 
 soon found. Her world had known George Orcutt 
 only as a name and a position which his wife bore 
 for him. The golden-brown Vandyke of this man 
 placed him satisfactorily in society's eyes the one 
 distinctive thing it had ever remarked about him; 
 that, and the fact that he was always intoxicated. 
 
 She had found, also, that society, tradespeople, 
 friends, every one save the new Orcutt himself and 
 some of the servants who held to the theory of a
 
 104 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 double personality accounted for the change in 
 him on the ground of his now being sober. And her 
 dread that his broad knowledge would arouse sus- 
 picions was quickly allayed. He had not displayed 
 his erudition to her social friends. He was singu- 
 larly silent. He conversed at length only with her 
 and Doctor Underwood, a matter that delighted 
 her personally, even outside the question of his be- 
 traying himself. That he should talk to her as an 
 intellectual equal and not merely as a woman to be 
 prattled to ! she was as vain over this as a peacock, 
 and laughed to herself over her vanity. 
 
 These things were in her mind as she helped to 
 dress the Christmas tree a treat that Vance had 
 insisted that only himself and his Papa and Mama 
 should have. 
 
 "The presents are all on," the child cried. "Now, 
 Papa, a romp! Let's see if I can climb up to your 
 shoulder hand over hand." 
 
 Gail fingered the holly in her hair and smiled 
 tenderly. How beautifully he helped Vance without 
 the child's knowing it. 
 
 "There!" The man swung the little figure in 
 the air, then set him on his feet, and pressed the 
 call-bell for his governess to come and take him to 
 bed. 
 
 Gail waited to arrange Vance's presents, the man 
 drawing them forth from their hiding-places. She 
 stood a moment and looked the tree over, then held 
 out her hand to Orcutt.
 
 'What I want is right here.' " Page 705
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 105 
 
 "Good night. I have still a few things in my 
 room to get ready." She assumed the air of mys- 
 tery that had been Vance's for the past week and 
 whispered, "For you." 
 
 "What I want is right here," said he, and took 
 her in his arms and kissed her.
 
 XV 
 
 TT was so unexpected that for a moment she lay 
 unresisting against his breast, receiving pas- 
 sively the kisses that showered her lips. 
 
 Even when free of his clasp she could only stare 
 at him in a sort of daze, and regret rather than 
 wrath was in her low voice. 
 
 "You have broken our agreement Oh! why did 
 you!" 
 
 "Why? You are my wife, and I love you." 
 
 "But I do not look on you as a husband and I do 
 not love you." 
 
 "Gail! Don't say that! Why for these three 
 months we have been " 
 
 "Three months!" she cried, forcing scorn into her 
 voice. "You expect three months' decency to drown 
 out of my memory seven years of humiliation, of the 
 most brutal neglect!" 
 
 The man walked the floor for a few moments, 
 stopped abruptly beside her. 
 
 "I know nothing of those seven years. Am I to 
 be punished forever for the wrongs that I did not 
 commit?" 
 
 She was speechless, her eyes fell before his, a 
 106
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 107 
 
 deadly nausea seized her it seemed to her that 
 she could not again lay George Orcutt's sins upon 
 him. 
 
 "Stop shivering, Gail. I will not touch you." 
 He spoke roughly, then his voice softened. "For- 
 give me ! I forgot that you yet have your mem- 
 ories, that you cannot so easily dissociate me from 
 my past. Zounds! it's all a muddle. To save me 
 I can't but feel that I don't deserve your scorn 
 Oh, I do I realize it when I study my past record 
 only, I can't quite believe it's my past record 
 that's the damnable part of it all." 
 
 He took another turn about the room, again 
 stopped beside her. 
 
 "It's not my present self, but the past that stands 
 between us, the other George yes, dear?" 
 
 "It's the other George," she mumbled. "He 
 stands between us and always will. And always 
 
 "No ! As soon as you don't want him to he 
 won't. Your pride won't let you offset seven years 
 of neglect with a paltry three months of devotion. 
 You aren't sure, that's it. You're afraid this George 
 will go into retirement and the other George re- 
 appear. You're ashamed of having loved me once 
 you don't want to be ashamed again. Isn't that 
 it, my wife?" 
 
 She laughed shakily. It was always some one 
 else who found the best explanation for her con- 
 duct.
 
 io8 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "I only know that I'm afraid," she answered 
 truly. "I was beginning to trust you, and now " 
 
 "I've broken out of my traces and you're afraid 
 I won't go back into harness again. But I will 
 for a while. I can't promise how long. You're 
 my wife I'm mad with love for you it's inevita- 
 ble that sometime But we'll be friends as be- 
 fore, dear. Come, shake hands as you intended." 
 
 The face she turned to him was ghastly. 
 
 "It's the end. I can't be friends with that hang- 
 ing over me. I must go away. I leave it to your 
 fairness about Vance. He's my baby you 
 
 you will let me have him half the time Oh ! 
 
 you will, surely you will!" 
 
 His eyes were bewildered. Then he smiled pity- 
 ingly. 
 
 "Why, Gail, dear! I shall not force you to my 
 arms, my wife. I'm not a brute, whatever the other 
 George may have been. Come, forget what has 
 happened. We are good friends, and shall be only 
 friends till you want us to be husband and wife 
 again." 
 
 "No, I must go away," she uttered in deliberate 
 voice. "I can never be more than friend. But you 
 will not believe you will not care at last what I 
 want it will be yourself I know now that you are 
 like all men. I have been blind you seemed 
 different " 
 
 He pushed a chair toward her. 
 
 "Sit down," he commanded gently. "Now,
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 109 
 
 Gail, try and tell me what your terror means 
 for it is terror, and to me out of all pro- 
 portion to any explanation you have given me. For 
 three months we have been daily companions, good 
 comrades, joyous as six-year-olds. Nor was it 
 friendship that caused our happiness. It was love, 
 Gail, love!" 
 
 "No!" The words were carefully chosen. "It 
 was not love I loathe you." 
 
 It was the man's face now that was gray. He 
 passed his hands feebly over his eyes, blinded by his 
 sudden misery. A moment, then a grimly sardonic 
 smile curled his lips. 
 
 "Let me congratulate you on your perfect acting," 
 he said curtly, but with a note of jagged pain. "I 
 really believed that you enjoyed my society I 
 thought that you wanted to be in my arms as much 
 as I wanted to have you there. Forgive me." He 
 bowed gravely. "And good-by. I shall leave the 
 house after the Christmas festivities in the morn- 
 ing." 
 
 "No ! You must not go. I must pay, not you !" 
 
 "Pay? For what? For making me think you 
 loved me?" A play of humor mingled with the 
 glaze of pain in his eyes. "And why should you 
 pay for my stupidity, an asininity that could mis- 
 take loathing for love?" 
 
 She sprang up. 
 
 "No! No! I lied. I do not loathe you. I 
 like you."
 
 no THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 She stood like a child, wistful, wanting forgive- 
 ness, yet tremblingly afraid. He regarded her 
 soberly. 
 
 "I'm afraid you did not lie, my wife. Your 
 terror bespeaks loathing more than liking, I fear. 
 Anyhow, I make you unhappy. And it's been no 
 easy matter for me to stay quietly here. This life 
 of inactivity doesn't suit me. Zounds! I feel like 
 a caged lion. . . . You see, I've been so mad over 
 you that I was willing to be caged to be near you, 
 to see you to win you. But you say I can never 
 win you, that I must always stay at arm's length. 
 So, it is better good-by now, isn't it?" 
 
 "And you would go where?" she whispered. 
 
 "I think I shall go first to Colorado and see 
 Father's relatives. I should like to find out more 
 about my family than you seem able to tell me. 
 Jackson says that Aunt Maria was with us during 
 
 most of my boyhood Surely, she could throw 
 
 some light on the very mysterious change in my- 
 self." 
 
 She gripped the chair's back. 
 
 "Vance," she mumbled. "It would break his 
 heart for you to leave now. The doctor thinks 
 that he will have to be operated on for his 
 throat He would want you here " 
 
 He folded his arms and stood in meditation. 
 
 "No," he uttered at length. "I can't stay. Ac- 
 tions speak louder than words, and your terror of 
 me is not compatible with liking. If my touch is
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW in 
 
 so repugnant to you that you would give up Vance 
 for half the time rather than endure it, I should 
 be a monster to stay on here and keep you in daily 
 dread of another outbreak." 
 
 "But if we could be just friends " 
 
 "I couldn't, Gail, not for long. If we were a 
 young man and a young woman with no tie between 
 us, I could, even to the fourteen years that Jacob 
 served for Rachel. But you are my wife, you are 
 the mother of my child. Knowing this and loving 
 you as I do " 
 
 u But when you know I don't want you " 
 
 He laughed grimly. 
 
 "Your portrayal of friend is rather misleading. 
 I'm afraid I shouldn't know any better another 
 time what you want, Gail. With due allowance for 
 egotism, and for my own love and desire blinding 
 me, I should yet have sworn it was love I saw in 
 your eyes not loathing, not liking but love ! and 
 again and again. My patience for so it seems to 
 me was occasioned by fear of myself, not of your 
 reception of my caresses. Wait! you misunderstand. 
 
 Not fear of my affection for you, but fear that 
 
 Yes, Gail, that this T should give place to the other 
 personality, the George that had hurt you. I waited 
 to test myself, to try to be sure that I should not 
 again betray your faith." 
 
 She stared up at him in a sort of horror. She 
 had been envying him his peace of mind while he
 
 ii2 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 was silently groaning and writhing under the re- 
 volting past she had fastened upon him ! 
 
 His brooding gravity gave place to sudden mirth. 
 
 "Gail, the other George should make me shud- 
 der, but frankly he's too unreal for me to take seri- 
 ously. His amusements, his friends, his ladies I 
 can no more believe that they ever interested any 
 phase of me than that the sun is inhabited. Mud- 
 dled as everything is I yet know that that George 
 will never 'come back.' ' 
 
 "You have seen them?" 
 
 "All." He smiled humorously. "So Kessell tells 
 me, and he seems to have been very much in the 
 other George's confidence. Dear, it couldn't have 
 been that I neglected you for them." He suddenly 
 changed to gravity again. "Ah! no wonder you 
 
 loathe me, believing that I But no ! it wasn't 
 
 I you know that Oh God! this mystery!" 
 
 He held out his hand. 
 
 "Let it be good-by now, Gail. I'll slip off in the 
 morning while Vance's busy with his presents." 
 
 "You won't leave Vance " 
 
 "A child forgets quickly." 
 
 "But " 
 
 "Stop ! You ask me to chain my emotions, stay 
 like a muzzled dog by the side of a wife that shud- 
 ders if I touch her!" His eyes met hers squarely. 
 "I'm not the sort to take a kick and grovel for 
 another." 
 
 She swayed unsteadily. He must not go to Col-
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 113 
 
 orado. Aunt Maria was not of a disposition to 
 tolerate a mystery. In some way she would dis- 
 cover the truth. She knew every feature, every 
 distinctive mark, every blemish and beauty of body 
 of the real George Orcutt. She would not be satis- 
 fied with hypotheses nor enraptured with her own 
 nor any one's else explanation unless it really ex- 
 plained. No, he must not go. Yet could she de- 
 ceive him again, play with his affections? 
 
 Yes; for already she heard her voice making 
 sweetly appealing sounds! 
 
 "I don't want you to go I, too, have been happy 
 these three months it is only that I can't yet for- 
 get and am afraid. For my sake won't you stay 
 and be friends a while longer " 
 
 "Gail! Gail!" His voice was rapturous. "We 
 will be only friends, dear, till you do believe in me. 
 
 And you must believe in me There is no other 
 
 George Orcutt, beloved. / am your husband, the 
 image you hold was an interloper. Please, dear, 
 
 say 'George, I ' ' He stopped. "Gail, you 
 
 have never called me 'George.' Why?" 
 
 "Because I called him that," she cried impul- 
 sively. 
 
 He laughed, with boyish happiness. 
 
 "I must have a name, dear. A name from you 
 will make a priceless Christmas present." He bent 
 over her. "What shall you call me, my wife?" 
 
 "Friend," she answered soberly.
 
 n 4 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Friend? I don't need a constant reminder of 
 our pact, Gail !" 
 
 She looked steadily into his grieved eyes. 
 
 "Please let me call you 'friend,' " she said wist- 
 fully. "More than husband or lover or anything 
 else in the world, I need a friend." 
 
 There was no acting now. She was pathetically 
 in earnest. She held out her hand. 
 
 "Good night, Friend." 
 
 "Good night, my wife," he answered simply.
 
 XVI 
 
 TT was two weeks later. Doctor Underwood 
 was visiting Orcutt in his room, a common oc- 
 currence. The doctor partly reclined on a wide 
 leather couch, his elbow jabbed in a pillow sup- 
 porting his head, feet on the floor. His host sat 
 near in a leather rocker, sunk heavily to its soft 
 depths. Both were smoking. 
 
 "So, that's why I didn't get the Psyche I hinted 
 for so diligently for Christmas? And why you 
 have closed your old rooms and occupy these in- 
 stead? You feel that those things are not yours 
 to disturb nor give away. Um-m!" 
 
 The alienist chuckled during this commentary, 
 but his keen eyes behind the broad spectacles were 
 bright with anticipation, his nostrils quivered like 
 a beagle hound's on a scent. 
 
 The younger man's face behind the thick smoke 
 of his cigar held a rueful smile. 
 
 "I've said the 'other George' so often that I've 
 grown possessed of an uncanny feeling that he's 
 objective a person outside this carcass of mine. 
 Zounds! Underwood, I never write my name to 
 
 115
 
 u6 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 a check that something doesn't pull so hard from 
 the inside of me that I feel like a forger. Houses, 
 servants, all this rank luxury, seem the other George 
 Orcutt's, not mine. To save my buttons I can't get 
 the feel of ownership." 
 
 "Um-m! And your wife and child?" 
 
 "Gail? Vance?" His brows knit. Then he 
 laughed, a low rumble of mirth peculiar to him. 
 "They're mine. And only mine, Underwood. The 
 feeling of ownership is good and strong there. But 
 Gail's my wife, Vance's my child, through and by 
 myself, not as an inheritance from the other George. 
 Which shows the absurdity of my emotional atti- 
 tudinizing. I feel that the pictured harem across 
 the hall is the other George's and that I have no 
 right to disturb it. I also feel that Gail's my wife 
 and never has and never could have belonged to 
 that beast." 
 
 The doctor twinkled till the rolls of fat under- 
 neath almost hid his eyes. 
 
 "Beast eh? That's the way you speak of your- 
 self?" 
 
 "Myself?" With quick wrath. "That libertine 
 
 never inhabited Oh the devil! Can't I stop 
 
 the lunacy of disowning my own past!" 
 
 The alienist raised himself from his pillow and 
 sat upright. 
 
 "There is no absurdity, Orcutt, in your feeling of 
 ownership of your wife and child and of nothing 
 else. It is simply, that of all the possessions of
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 117 
 
 the other 'you,' your wife and child are all that the 
 'you' of to-day would voluntarily choose." 
 
 "For heaven's sake, say the other George; the 
 other 'you' seems too personal. I have a certain re- 
 spect for my body; it's obnoxious to think it's a 
 common possession of myself and a blackguard." 
 
 "It is not just the body one might expect to re- 
 ceive from a debauchee," returned the physician 
 with seeming carelessness. "Muscular, symmetrical, 
 healthful, it's the sort one might inherit from an 
 outdoors man of simple tastes and habits." 
 
 The other man shook the ashes viciously from 
 his cigar. 
 
 "It's all a rotten muddle! Outdoors man? Un- 
 derwood, that's what I am. House life is getting 
 on my nerves. I'll close the door on George Or- 
 cutt's past some day as I have on that room and cut 
 for the open." 
 
 "And Mrs. Orcutt? shall you leave or take 
 her?" 
 
 "You old quizzerl Why does it always seem to 
 interest you so greatly how I get along with my 
 wife? Well, for once I shall answer you. My wife 
 is hysterically afraid of me. I kissed her Christ- 
 mas eve and she was in a blue funk of terror, threat- 
 ened to leave the house forever if I as much as 
 laid a finger on her again, sentimentally, that is." 
 
 The doctor's huge body jerked itself up from 
 the sofa where it was again reclining.
 
 n8 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "You mean Christmas eve was the first time you 
 kissed her?" 
 
 "And the last, probably. Despite my insistent 
 belief in my respectability the fact remains that my 
 body has housed a homicide and all-round rake. 
 Unfortunately, my wife hasn't lost her memory." 
 
 "Then make her lose it," commanded the physi- 
 cian. "If she's your wife then let her be your wife." 
 
 "Easier said than done with a wife that shud- 
 ders at the approach of my caresses as a gazelle 
 might at a gorilla's! .... Gorilla? Gorilla?" 
 he repeated slowly. "Go-ril-la?" 
 
 He trembled violently, sprang to his feet, stood 
 clutching the air. 
 
 "Underwood, help me to remember," he en- 
 treated piteously, turning dazed eyes on his friend. 
 "Ah!" half falling to his chair. "It's gone the 
 door closed before I could look in." 
 
 "What door?" The alienist's quiet voice hid a 
 palpitating excitement. 
 
 "Memory's door. It seemed for an instant that 
 something great was going to happen." 
 
 "Something great has happened; memory has 
 stirred," muttered the alienist under his breath. 
 
 "Underwood," came in sharp tones, "why should 
 that particular word have been a touchstone? or 
 seemed for the moment to be?" 
 
 "God knows !" returned the alienist. "I'm only a 
 doctor. You might make a study of gorillas; they're
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 119 
 
 interesting in themselves. By the way, have you 
 found me a picture of yourself before your illness?" 
 
 With brows still drawn with labored thought 
 Orcutt opened a drawer of the desk by which he 
 sat and handed out a pasteboard box. 
 
 U A boxful. I ran across them in the storeroom 
 Wednesday while looking for a mechanical toy 
 Vance wanted and thought was there. The other 
 George liked to pose before the camera. I don't. 
 The usual consistent difference, you see." 
 
 The alienist gave him a quick glance, then at- 
 tacked the photographs and left him to his own 
 thoughts. His method with his patient was indirec- 
 tion. He carefully nursed all his mental gropings 
 while apparently insensible of them; and he re- 
 frained from interjecting into the conversation his 
 own ideas on the subject ever uppermost in Orcutt's 
 mind the mysterious change in himself. He was 
 a man as well as alienist and he knew that Orcutt 
 needed a friend to bare his troubled thoughts to, 
 and that as friend he could learn much more of the 
 workings of his mind than he could as a specialist 
 professionally viewing him in the light of a "study." 
 
 "Gone!" he heard Orcutt exclaim dejectedly. 
 Then heard him rise and walk restlessly from ob- 
 ject to object in the room. 
 
 With the exclamation Orcutt temporarily discon- 
 tinued rapping upon memory's closed door. He was 
 thinking of his wife. Since their renewed pact of 
 friendship she had been as gracious and gay as be-
 
 120 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 fore, only it was a simulated gaiety, a graciousness 
 measured exactly to the need of the occasion. Fear 
 of him lay just beneath her friendliness, its palpi- 
 tations never allayed sufficiently for her eyes to 
 meet his in the careless joyousness of the past 
 months. The belief constantly intruded itself that 
 she was dextrously baiting him, releasing her sweet- 
 ness only to a length where she could recover it with 
 a slight effort yet releasing it enough to keep him 
 hovering near. Why, he asked himself again and 
 again, did she trouble herself to keep such an evi- 
 dently burdensome person around? If egotism had 
 deluded him into thinking hitherto that her eyes 
 were love-laden, it did not so delude him now. He 
 had grown skeptical of any feeling she displayed 
 toward him except fear. 
 
 And he loved her so fully her curving slender- 
 ness, her smile of witchery, her unfathomable eyes, 
 her melodic voice, the mobile mind, the wit that 
 sparred so nimbly, the motherly solicitations over 
 his son, the exquisite femininity of her lovely, grace- 
 ful person every attribute of body and of mind 
 was simply adorable to him. He had tasted Para- 
 dise when he held her to his heart and kissed her. 
 If he were given the choice of the gifts of the uni- 
 verse it would be his wife's love he would demand. 
 And she shuddered at his touch! shuddered as 
 though he were a hissing rattler! And he could 
 not bring the "other George's" past near enough 
 home to feel that it stood between them. He was
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 121 
 
 entirely himself, the other George so alien, that he 
 was impelled to the distasteful conclusion that it 
 was he, himself, now, that was repugnant to her. 
 He loved her and she loathed him! 
 
 His miserable cogitations were interrupted by the 
 doctor's terse: 
 
 "Does Mrs. Orcutt know that you have these 
 photographs?" 
 
 "No," he returned drily. "It's not good form to 
 do anything for oneself here. I should have sent a 
 lackey to get Vance's toy." 
 
 "She said there was no picture of her husband in 
 the house." The doctor's voice was carefully un- 
 critical. 
 
 "Yes," absently. 
 
 "Then she couldn't have known these were in the 
 storeroom?" 
 
 "No, of course. She has ordered them destroyed 
 and Jackson I am sure it was Jackson has saved 
 them. He has been in the family a long while and 
 has the old retainer's devotion to even a black sheep. 
 Then he seems to have a mania for ticketing things. 
 That storeroom is quite a wonder in its way: no 
 confusion, no careless dropping of things anywhere 
 and everywhere. Everything is shelved and labelled 
 like an apothecary's shop." 
 
 Underwood reached for a small leather bag he 
 had with him. 
 
 "I shall take these with me," said he, depositing 
 them. "I want you to go right away and sit for
 
 122 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 your picture. Have an exact profile, left face view, 
 cabinet size. Come to me when you get the proofs, 
 don't wait for the finishing process." 
 
 Orcutt turned upon him quickly. "What is it?" 
 he demanded. "Have you found a key to our Ba- 
 conian cryptogram?" 
 
 "How could that be?" chuckled the other. 
 
 Orcutt's face was curiously grave. 
 
 "For a month you've been after a picture; you've 
 had me search those rooms over there till my head 
 ached with looking. I asked Mrs. Lorme, all our 
 friends, er everybody." 
 
 "And you found none," returned the alienist, still 
 chuckling. "You were informed in each case that 
 Mrs. Orcutt had been before you and had obtained 
 the likeness, when there was any. And each time 
 on the plea that she desired to have it for her son. 
 She informed you that it was to destroy them. Why, 
 please, should she desire George Orcutt's pictures 
 on either plea? As long as the original lives it 
 seems folly to entail so much trouble and humilia- 
 tion to destroy mere presentations. I think Mrs. 
 Orcutt's explanation shows lack of her usual per- 
 spicacity. It doesn't explain even to you, fully as 
 the wool is over your eyes." 
 
 "You don't like Mrs Orcutt. Why, Under- 
 wood?" 
 
 "Say, rather, I like you and am indifferent to Mrs. 
 Orcutt," was the jocular reply. "You'd be as 
 wrathy if I liked her too well as too little. No
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 123 
 
 pleasing a husband in love I've found." He laughed 
 broadly, gripped his friend's hand and departed on 
 the words: "Say nothing to her about these' pho- 
 tographs or the one you sit for. No don't ask 
 me why."
 
 XVII 
 
 T NFECTED with something of the doctor's ex- 
 citement Orcutt started at once for a photogra- 
 pher's. There was a pleasurable thrill in connec- 
 tion with something definite to do. At first he had 
 been absorbed in the multitudinous interests of the 
 city. He viewed it as one who had not known it 
 before. It was new, strange, delightful, wonderful 
 in all its aspects. Nothing seemed beyond his at- 
 tention. Museums and art galleries, factories and 
 sweat shops, Fifth Avenue and Third Avenue, the 
 wharves and ocean steamers, bridges and tunnels, 
 and every race of the conglomerate peoples, had 
 interested him in surpassing degree. He had at- 
 tacked each with the voracious hunger of one who 
 had waited for just such a feast. 
 
 There had been, too, a stranger's curious zest in 
 contemplating theatrical and operatic productions. 
 A boyish buoyancy exuded from him as he sat in 
 the Orcutt box at the opera and viewed the gor- 
 geous spectacle of the stage and the gorgeous spec- 
 tacle of the boxes. Only that his culture was so 
 evident, and that, strangely intermingled with his 
 
 124
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 125 
 
 simple bearing, was an impressive air of distinction, 
 Gail would have believed this his first experience of 
 the world of drama and fashion. Even his icono- 
 clastic criticisms were those of one who had not been 
 educated to the conventions of the stage rather than 
 of one who had broken away. There seemed to be 
 a beam of truth in his eyes that spotlighted incon- 
 gruities, unrealities, overripeness at a glance. Some- 
 times scornful, but oftener good-naturedly satirical, 
 was his general attitude toward plays, tearing them 
 to pieces with a subtle humor that, for the first 
 time since Gail's girlhood, made theater-going a real 
 joy. 
 
 Orcutt liked grand opera, the music and the spec- 
 tacular magnificence of stage settings and scenery 
 afforded him undisguised delight. But after read- 
 ing an English translation of // Trovatore he de- 
 clined to enlighten himself further as to the words 
 of an opera his terse verdict being that it was 
 grand opera only when he didn't know what they 
 were singing, that the banalities of the words made 
 it comic opera, and the only really comic opera he 
 had yet encountered. 
 
 The city and its attractions had not lost interest 
 for him. But it was no longer new; he was not 
 driven onward by curiosity, impelled out of him- 
 self. And he had ceased to expect pleasure from 
 intercourse with the social friends he had fallen 
 heir to. The "other George's" intimates had been 
 dropped after a first meeting, a cessation of friend-
 
 126 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 ship as agreeable to them as to him, the new version 
 of George Orcutt being too puzzling for the sport- 
 ing set of the old version to solve. He and they 
 both knew after one evening that he was not now 
 one of them. Nor did he fit much better in his 
 wife's circle of acquaintances. They found pleas- 
 ure in things so foreign to his tastes that he could 
 only look on somewhat stupidly, wondering wearily 
 how mature men and women could continue a round 
 of cards and dancing and theater-going that seemed 
 never to end. Any way he turned he was a square 
 peg in a round hole. Outside of Doctor Under- 
 wood and the Lormes he made no friendships. He 
 accompanied his wife to social functions with 
 amused toleration for her desire to do things that 
 bored her. He pondered the question whether or 
 not all the social butterflies he saw were bored, each 
 accepting this kind of martyrdom because it had, 
 by some peculiar evolutionary process, become the 
 proper thing; his decision being that the majority 
 for some mysterious reason liked small talk and suf- 
 focating rooms and parading themselves like pea- 
 cocks before the others. 
 
 And he could not shake off the haunting sensa- 
 tion that he should be about his work and be done 
 with playing and sight-seeing. Yet there was no 
 work George Orcutt had ever done! His life had 
 been all play! 
 
 On his return from the photographer's two hours 
 later, Gail's voice called from the drawing-room:
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 127 
 
 "Hello! I'm in here." 
 
 Firelight from blazing logs illumined the circle 
 wherein she sat; around her were dusky corners and 
 deep shadows cast by the furniture. She occupied 
 a tall, elaborately carved chair, sitting in it very 
 upright. She was already dressed for dinner and 
 the opera, wearing a gown resplendent with tur- 
 quoise and golden spangles; diamonds, rainbow- 
 hued from the playing firelight, adorned her bare 
 neck and arms. His eyes passed by the splendors 
 of her apparel, and rested on the elfish beauty of 
 her face. 
 
 "Where have you been just now?" she questioned, 
 after he was seated. 
 
 "I thought I heard Vance admonished this morn- 
 ing," he returned deftly. "Or no, it couldn't have 
 been." 
 
 "Vance? Admonished?" She was quite blank a 
 moment. "Oh! and you think I should profit by 
 my own preachment and not ask questions?" 
 
 "Oh, no, I like such wifely questions, they savor 
 so of the conjugal that I'm filled with bliss. I've 
 just had a hair-cut perhaps Joan will tell Darby 
 whether it's satisfactory." He was laughing, in 
 open banter. 
 
 "Why do you talk so flippantly of late?" she ar- 
 raigned. "I wish you would be more as you used 
 to " 
 
 "More wifely remonstrance ! Positively, you'll 
 be selecting my neckties next."
 
 128 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Your wit is descending," laughed she. 
 
 "Wit?" He smiled. "I talk nonsense because 
 I feel serious. You don't like me when I'm seri- 
 ous." 
 
 "Please be nice," she coaxed, leaning toward him 
 a little and smiling wistfully. 
 
 "I'll try," returned he, his eyes dwelling tenderly 
 upon her. "How would you like me to take a job 
 as park gardener? Wait! I'm only attacking a 
 serious proposition obliquely. The call of work 
 is dinning in my ears and I've found nothing that 
 appeals to me quite as much as working in the park. 
 Business, the professions, clerical work, the arts, I 
 don't seem to warm up to any of them. Now, I 
 can't don overalls and keep the park tidy for my 
 wife's enjoyment. Convention forbids that spon- 
 taneous and wholesome expression of myself." 
 
 "We'll go to Mamaroneck in May," she replied 
 quickly. "You can boat and play tennis, be out of 
 doors all day." 
 
 "You don't understand, Gail. I want work. I'm 
 aching for it." He doubled up his right arm. "I 
 want to work with that. The sight of men digging 
 sewers makes me green with envy." 
 
 "Work with your arms! You George 
 never " 
 
 "I know," brusquely. "The other George never 
 worked with his arms or his brain either. I've 
 worked with both. When, God knows !" 
 
 Gail's hands played together nervously. She did
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 129 
 
 not know just how to meet this new complication. 
 
 The man looked at her quizzically. 
 
 "You were a queen a moment ago, sitting regally 
 on your throne; now you're a dazed little girl 
 why, my wife?" 
 
 "You ask why," she retorted, laughing shakily. 
 "Isn't it enough to daze me to hear you talk about 
 digging sewers ? Ugh !" 
 
 "Knowing the other George it is rather startling 
 doctrine for you to hear," he admitted with a smile. 
 
 "And one I must brood over," she answered. 
 "Let your mind dwell on opera while you're dress- 
 ing." ' 
 
 "A more manly occupation, eh?" 
 
 She flushed, yet said: 
 
 "More congruous with your position, certainly. 
 George Orcutt as day laborer would " 
 
 "Truly disgrace the untarnished name," he in- 
 terpolated, a touch of temper in his voice. "I've 
 no intention of making you ridiculous in an attempt 
 to exercise my muscles. If possible, I'm willing to 
 stay within the limits of respectability as you see 
 it. I have a truly humble desire to please my dear 
 lady. But there are too many closed doors of emo- 
 tion; some one must soon burst through." His 
 face lighted with humor. "Wife or work is the 
 slogan." 
 
 "Alliterative," she mocked gaily. 
 
 "More alliterative than true." His voice grew 
 heavy with purpose. "It is wife and work."
 
 130 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Go now," she commanded lightly. 
 He rose and stood looking down at her. Then 
 he turned her face back and kissed her on the lips. 
 "Wife and work," he repeated.
 
 XVIII 
 
 A WEEK passed. 
 
 Gail endeavored to be deeply offended, and 
 to show Orcutt that she was. Only it is hard to 
 transmit resentment where there is none. As her 
 husband he had done nothing unforgivable. And 
 to himself he was her husband. And a most con- 
 siderate, tender, adoring husband, her heart had to 
 acknowledge. It did more than acknowledge, it 
 thrilled warmly because of this queer, delicious 
 thrills. 
 
 They were together the larger part of every day. 
 She had left off going to a number of social affairs. 
 He was not interested, she had soon learned. She 
 must keep him contented with his life here, was 
 her explanation to herself for studying his wishes. 
 To this end she sat beside him and did embroidery 
 work while he read to her. She took up horseback 
 riding so that she could accompany him and Vance 
 on their mornings' outings. She resumed her music, 
 playing and singing the ballads and ditties that he 
 and Vance liked. She was girlishly eager for in- 
 struction, often poring over a book till he laughingly
 
 132 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 reprimanded her for "cramming" and took it from 
 her hands. 
 
 It was easy to see why he loved her. And in his 
 ignorance of the real situation her ardent interest 
 in him could have but one meaning that his love 
 was fully returned. That love would conquer her 
 distrust of him he had no doubt. He humored her 
 whim to remain friends only because he had an 
 idealistic conception of marriage it was the wife's 
 arms that should first be open. But to-day Doctor 
 Underwood had spoken to him professionally and 
 told him that he must subdue his wife's fears now, 
 before they became an obsession. The doctor had 
 been curiously insistent. He had not given the ad- 
 vice lightly, to be taken or left as Orcutt chose. He, 
 the physician, had issued the command arbitrarily, 
 and had invoked Orcutt's promise before he could 
 be made to dismiss the subject. Orcutt was some- 
 what puzzled. Morris Underwood had always 
 seemed to dislike Gail. But his interest now was 
 for her "For your wife's sake" "In fairness to 
 Mrs. Orcutt," he had stated, and emphatically, ur- 
 gently, even impassionedly. 
 
 It was a clear, sunny day. Gail was in the con- 
 servatory. She had a pair of embroidery scissors 
 and a silver fish-fork. For a half-hour she had been 
 busy, snipping off dying leaves, loosening the earth 
 around the plants in boxes and tubs. She was not 
 sure she was doing the work well. Her face was 
 flushed with exertion and anxiety over just which
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 133 
 
 leaves should come off, and just how deeply she 
 could safely thrust in the fork. She had never 
 thought about working with flowers till he came. 
 The conservatory was one of the two places in the 
 house that seemed to content him; the other was 
 the sun-parlor. Michael and he had long conversa- 
 tions about the plants, and Michael, usually silent 
 and jealous of interference, was loquacious and ex- 
 pansively hospitable to Orcutt. He liked Mrs. Or- 
 cutt, but not when poking a finger about his plants. 
 He was willing to give way before the master's 
 knowledge; but he stood his ground firmly against, 
 ignorant interference, even from the mistress. But 
 to-day was Michael's day "off." 
 
 The flush deepened on her cheeks. Her fingers 
 cleansed themselves on the white embroidered 
 frock. Her bronze hair, copper colored under the 
 sun, gathered some of the loam as she pushed the 
 soft locks away from her forehead. The gray eyes, 
 purple with excitement, peered out from their en- 
 circling black fringe in careful scrutiny of each 
 stroke she made. Her red mouth was slightly open, 
 her breath coming in soft catches. 
 
 Orcutt stood in the doorway. An indulgently 
 amused smile was on his lips she was trying so 
 hard and doing so poorly. He stepped forward on 
 the cement floor. Gail turned, scissors and fork 
 thrust behind her with the guilty confusion of a 
 child caught in a misdemeanor.
 
 134 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Oh!" Her laugh rang out, "I thought it was 
 Michael." 
 
 Orcutt took the fork from her hands. 
 
 "Look," he enjoined, thrusting it into the earth. 
 "This is the way to dig. Why didn't you ask me 
 to show you?" He smiled. "Together we might 
 safely resist Michael's wrath, I think." 
 
 Her eyes, smiling, yet somewhat wistful, upraised 
 to his. 
 
 "I was ashamed to. I have to ask you so many 
 things. I don't seem to know anything about 
 real things." 
 
 He caught her hands in his, his brooding expres- 
 sion giving way to boyish excitement. 
 
 "Dear, let's cut for the open and have a taste 
 of real things. As soon as Spring opens up let's 
 get a covered wagon and two stout horses and a 
 couple of men to drive and cook, and let you and 
 I and the boy go gypsying. It came to me as I drove 
 home that this is the thing of all things that I 
 should like to do. We'll go as the grass begins to 
 look through. Think! to lean against a tree burst- 
 ing with blooms and view the pageant of Spring ! 
 to lie on a bank and listen to a brook gurgle its 
 way to the river! And to hear the birds in the 
 early morning! And to smell the earth! It puts 
 new life into me to think of it!" 
 
 Her mouth opened again over soft catches of 
 breath. The only pageant of Spring she had ever 
 seen had been from a whizzing automobile. The
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 135 
 
 smell of the earth! she had caught a whiff of its 
 intoxicating fragrance from the soil she had been 
 turning over. 
 
 Her eyes raised again, filled with hurting wonder. 
 
 "I've never seen the Spring really. And I 
 didn't know till now that I hadn't." She laughed 
 softly. "I'm like a flower in a pot, my roots have 
 twisted round and round in one little close circle 
 and I've never known how cramped they are till 
 they began to reach out into fresh earth." 
 
 He brought her hands up to his shoulders and 
 his arms encircled her. 
 
 "Poor little house flower," he whispered. "Not 
 to have seen the woods in the early morning! And 
 at dusk! And after a storm when it is profana- 
 tion to do more than peep in with bated breath." 
 
 "I have always been afraid of the woods. Think 
 of it!" 
 
 There was shame in her eyes. And for more 
 than this statement. She was beginning to realize 
 the infinite resources of life and was in a daze over 
 them. 
 
 "Oh! I do so want to learn about about the 
 deeper things of life that I don't understand 
 now Do you think I ever can?" 
 
 The man's eyes dwelt tenderly upon her. He had 
 never quite lost a thrill of wonder that this ex- 
 quisite being was his wife. And it came to him 
 now that she was in his arms, unafraid ! And wist- 
 ful, seeking knowledge, dreamily lovely with the
 
 136 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 dawn of a broader vision that carried her without 
 herself. 
 
 "You can be anything you want to be. Those 
 wings of yours that are beating against the chrysa- 
 lis are so wonderful that you can't imagine all their 
 glory. Convention this deadly routine indoors ! 
 We'll leave it all. We'll go away. We'll be our 
 own happiness. Instead of a diamond tiara we'll 
 wind a red 'kerchief about this pretty head in true 
 gypsy style, and get you " 
 
 "Glass beads," she dimpled. "I must have glass 
 beads ! And big ear-rings that dangle, and a short 
 skirt a red brocade one ! Oh ! I know how a gypsy 
 should dress!" 
 
 "Sure !" chaffed he. "You've seen them in opera." 
 
 "And you," she went on excitedly, "must wear 
 a red 'kerchief about your head with a black slouch 
 hat over it, and have a cloth of gold waistcoat and 
 velvet trousers ! And you must look villainous 
 like a terrible, terrible bandit!" 
 
 "And all the while I'll be a skulking poacher. 
 We'll filch chickens from nice respectable barn- 
 yards and roast them on a spit before a brushwood 
 fire. And the smoky taste will seem ambrosia " 
 
 "We'll have the fire by the river," cried she, "so 
 that we can see the reflection in the water a red- 
 gold flame- 
 
 "And we'll catch silver-spangled fish " 
 
 Her eyes quickened. "And we'll have a dog, a
 
 (THE WOMAN'S LAW 137 
 
 floppy-eared dog that runs under the wagon day- 
 times and bays at night at the stars while " 
 
 "We sit on the ground before an ember fire," 
 quoth he, "an ember fire that isn't a fire at all, but 
 is music and poetry and magic. We'll gaze into it 
 and " 
 
 "Talk," she whispered, "about the things I don't 
 know. It'll be dark so that I can't see if you are 
 laughing at my foolish questions. And I'll " 
 
 "Be too full of the wonder of the night to know 
 whether I'm answering wisely or foolishly. I'll tell 
 you marvellous tales, and hold you to my heart 
 like this. . . . And " 
 
 His mouth came to hers. 
 
 They kissed each other, rather solemnly, then in 
 a clinging, tumultuous, hungry way. 
 
 "My wife!" 
 
 Wife! At the word a tremor passed through 
 her. She sent a dazed look into his face, then her 
 eyes fell upon her hands that clasped his neck. 
 
 "Oh !" It was a cry of dismay. "Let me go ! 
 Let me go!" 
 
 "Why?" he asked, a tender laugh in his tone. 
 
 "Please," she begged, her hands tugging franti- 
 cally at his 'arms. 
 
 "Come," he soothed, with a faint humor in his 
 eyes. "You've kissed your husband but that's a 
 wife's prerogative, isn't it, dear? Don't struggle, 
 beloved. You can never go now. You know that." 
 
 She gazed up at him, affrightedly.
 
 i 3 8 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 His hands were immovably locked behind her 
 the hands of a husband! And there was nothing 
 that she, a wife, could say to unlock them! The 
 surrendering of her lips had nullified every argu- 
 ment that she could now bring forth. 
 
 The man smiled, indulgently. 
 
 "Just a little gypsy girl!" he crooned. "A little 
 gypsy girl who is going to love her husband and 
 be happy! Yes?" His mouth brushing hers. 
 
 Her lips opened over a shriek a loud piercing 
 cry that reached to the hall and the rooms beyond, 
 and that brought hurrying footsteps down the hall- 
 way. With a hysterical sob she sprang from his 
 loosened arms, crushed a prickly cactus leaf within 
 her hand, and held the hand up, scratched and bleed- 
 ing, before Jackson's inquiring eyes. 
 
 "You must have thought I was dying by that 
 shriek," she gasped. "I was so interested in 
 what Mr. Orcutt was saying that I grabbed hold 
 of the cactus without thinking " 
 
 Jackson looked at her hand, then ran nimbly for 
 the aseptic box and bandages. Orcutt turned the 
 cold water on at the faucet. 
 
 "Put your hand under this," said he quietly. 
 
 "Mama!" 
 
 Vance ran into the room, palpitating with excite- 
 ment. He looked up at his father. 
 
 "Is it a big hurt or a teeny one?" he questioned 
 anxiously. 
 
 The footman, the parlor-maid, an up-stairs girl,
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 139 
 
 appeared at the door. Other steps came down the 
 hall. 
 
 "Mama has hurt her hand," explained Vance, in 
 rising staccato. 
 
 "And I screamed very foolishly," added Mrs. 
 Orcutt, with a nod of dismissal. 
 
 Jackson appeared with the bandages. Jackson's 
 fingers were very deft at this. 
 
 "I bandaged your hand once, Mistah George, 
 when your mother thought it was cut in two. My! 
 but she was a scared woman that day! She 'most 
 fainted before the doctor got here." 
 
 Vance watched the performance and questioned 
 eagerly about each move. Gail kept her eyelids 
 lowered. Orcutt, standing quietly to one side, 
 scrutinized her white, shaken face. It was hys- 
 terics, was the result of his cogitations.
 
 XIX 
 
 9 I V HE mother caught the child close in her arms. 
 *- They were in her room. 
 
 "O, my baby! my baby!" 
 
 Vance wriggled. He did not like to be called a 
 baby. And he could not understand his mother's 
 wild outburst of tears. Hadn't she just told Jack- 
 son that her hand felt all right now that it was 
 bandaged? 
 
 "Does it hurt so very bad, Mama?" 
 
 The mother kissed him, distractedly. 
 
 "Let me hold you so, against my heart! Mama 
 
 needs you. I meant to save my boy And 
 
 and my boy must save me " 
 
 "Save you! How, Mama? What are you afraid 
 of?" 
 
 "Myself," uttered Gail wildly. "Day after day 
 
 seeing him And my life was so bare 
 
 And to be loved tenderly like this " 
 
 "Him! Do you mean Papa? Why, Papa 
 wouldn't hurt you now, Mama ! Papa's good now 
 isn't he?" Vance's eyes were suddenly troubled. 
 A long while ago his Mama's shoulder had been 
 
 140
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 141 
 
 bruised where Papa had thrown something against 
 it, a funny reeling Papa, who had wanted to take 
 Vance riding and his Mama wouldn't let him. "My 
 my Papa didn't hurt your hand did he?" 
 
 "No!" she answered, fiercely. "I hurt my own 
 hand wilfully as I have done all the other 
 things." 
 
 "But why don't you let Papa help you? Papa's 
 strong enough for anything." 
 
 "Strong!" She caught her breath. "It's his 
 
 strength that draws me I am so tired 
 
 And a protecting love No! No! No!" 
 
 The boy squared his shoulders. 
 
 "Tell me, Mama. I'll help you, the best I can." 
 
 "You have helped me," she whispered. "You 
 can go now and telephone Aunt Kate Lorme. Tell 
 her that I want her to come here right away, to 
 leave anything she's doing and come." 
 
 Vance went, delightedly. It was only recently 
 that he had learned to use the telephone by him- 
 self. 
 
 Gail beat her hands together. 
 
 "Oh! Oh!" she uttered frenziedly. 
 
 Her plight had been awful enough before. Wak- 
 ing or sleeping she was never fully at ease; her 
 nerves were always keyed to a strained expectancy. 
 The clang of the door-bell; the telephone; the ap- 
 proach of a messenger boy; a policeman at her 
 gates; all these brought a suffocating apprehension. 
 
 She had wondered if a woman could be in a more
 
 i 4 2 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 perilous position Any moment some one might 
 
 cross her path who knew this man His mem- 
 ory might return, bringing with it attendant obli- 
 gations that would necessitate his declaring him- 
 self George Orcutt, always under the influence of 
 liquor, was not a safe person to hold a secret 
 and the other dread thing when he should refuse 
 to remain quiescent as a friend 
 
 She had been quakily apprehensive of each and 
 all of these, and prepared for them in a measure. 
 Nothing could have surprised her but this act of 
 her own, this mad, blind, weak act of a girl, she 
 called it in her fury. She had been forgetful of 
 her responsibilities, of her womanhood, of her 
 motherhood ! 
 
 Yet it had been so natural a thing to do. To 
 be in his arms, to raise her lips to his had been 
 just another step in the life they had lived together 
 for the past four months. She saw now the stages 
 that had led to it: their daily contact; their inter- 
 change of thoughts and courtesies; their dependence 
 upon each other for companionship ; their mutual re- 
 lationship toward Vance they had laughed to- 
 gether with the child, their child! and had worried 
 over his ailments, and exchanged humorous glances 
 of understanding above his head. 
 
 The bars that separated her from him had come 
 down so gradually that she had not noticed their 
 absence. "Gypsying?" When he had spoken the 
 word a magic had come with it. She wanted to be
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 143 
 
 free! And freedom was in the word. Her blood 
 had thrilled. An intoxication had shaken her. 
 There had been no bonds. There had been only 
 the Open the great Open! a blue sky, the fra- 
 grance of flowers and he and she ! 
 
 She rose and walked the floor, twisted her hands, 
 unmindful of the bandage and the lacerated flesh. 
 
 What was she to do now? 
 
 "Mama, I telephoned Aunt Kate," piped Vance. 
 "She says she'll be here in ten minutes. She was 
 just going out and the car was at the door. And 
 Papa's going riding, and I'm going with him." He 
 held up his face to be kissed. "Papa's nicer now 
 than Charlie Snow's papa, or Clyde Emmon's, or 
 any boy's isn't he?" He broke away from her. 
 "Papa's whistling for me!" 
 
 Gail stood at the window and watched the two 
 ride down the drive. The man's erect, muscular 
 figure was well suited to riding clothes. Vance, on 
 his pony, emulated his father's manner, as nearly 
 as possible. Gail watched them and planned, 
 planned desperately, all the while feeling herself in 
 an eddy that was whirling her to the bottom and 
 destruction. 
 
 "He is a father that will not shame him," she 
 uttered feverishly. "Vance idolizes him. And it 
 is a chance." 
 
 "What is a chance?" 
 
 It was Mrs. Lorme.
 
 i 4 4 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 Gail turned, held out her hands with impassioned 
 gesture. 
 
 "After Vance's operation I want you to ask 
 George and Vance to go with you to Florida. Miss 
 Lauder will take care of Vance. He wants to 
 work out-of-doors there is your orange grove 
 
 get him interested in that Get him to buy one ! 
 
 He can keep Vance half the time." 
 
 "Gail! What is this! Keep Vance!" 
 
 "Please! Please!" sobbed the piteous voice. "No 
 matter about my reasons. Take him away!" Her 
 feverish hands clasped Mrs. Lorme's neck. 
 
 "Gail, what is the matter! Why yesterday when 
 you and George were at our house you and he were 
 as chummy " 
 
 "Yesterday?" Gail shivered. "It seems a life- 
 time since yesterday. ... I was on the height 
 
 then You remember that time on Mount Pis- 
 
 gah when we were up above the clouds, only the sky 
 above us, the clear blue sky, that seemed to draw us 
 up up up ! and the rarefied air that made us gid- 
 dily happy like foolish children! and the disregard 
 we had for the heavy rain-filled clouds beneath. . . . 
 There was no beneath to our seeming no rocks, 
 no dangerous passes; no declivities waiting for a 
 false step to destroy us! .... We stood on the 
 summit and laughed and inhaled the intoxicating 
 air and were irresistibly, wildly, ecstatically happy. 
 We were children of Pan." A long tremor shook 
 her, she spoke scarcely above her breath. "For
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 145 
 
 four months I was on a summit, a child of Pan. . . . 
 I'm down now with the clouds blinding me and 
 hidden fissures waiting to catch my feet and throw 
 
 me The blue sky and transparent air are 
 
 gone " 
 
 Mrs. Lorme patted the bowed head. 
 
 "Poor little chick! Why do you beat your wings 
 this way? You are going to make up wholly with 
 George some day why not now? This holding off 
 a month more or less what does it matter? And 
 dear, it's. not fair to George. If he should go to 
 the bad again, I'd blame you, not him. A husband 
 is a husband. You can't talk about favors when a 
 man's position entails rights. You could make terms 
 before because George knew that the law was on 
 your side. It's different now. George offers you 
 his undivided affection. And he's different. Now 
 that his flesh has lost the bloat and puffiness he's 
 a mighty handsome man. I never talked to him two 
 hours before all told, so I can't say from first hand 
 what he used to be like, but he's mighty fascinating 
 now. I have an old woman's foolish fondness for 
 him. If I were in your shoes I'd be crying for his 
 kisses, not crying out against 'em." 
 
 "Kate, there is something between him and me 
 as wide as the ocean. He can never be more to me 
 than he is now. I want you to understand this 
 just the fact, for I cannot explain and understand- 
 ing this, you will help me."
 
 146 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 Mrs. Lorme sat back and dropped her hands to 
 her lap with a dumbfounded thump. 
 
 "Are you out of your head? You must be to 
 talk like this ! Why of course you and George are 
 going to live together like rational beings. What 
 sort of conduct is this for a wife? It's not that 
 you're afraid he'll be going to sporting again? Re- 
 turn to the other personality?" scornfully. 
 
 "N-o." 
 
 "That's good to hear anyhow. I don't believe 
 one mite in the double personality business. George 
 has just swung around to his better self as many 
 another man has. He had too noble a father and 
 mother not to be good himself at bottom. In the 
 sanatorium he was sober and out of temptation long 
 enough to get a new grip on himself. Losing his 
 memory was a blessing; he didn't have old associa- 
 tions filling his mind and contending against his 
 better ideas. The bad in him has simply given way 
 to the good. It's no mystery to me about his knowl- 
 edge of literature and scientific things. You re- 
 member the occasions he used to disappear for 
 weeks at a time?" 
 
 Yes; Gail remembered the occasions when George 
 Orcutt was in a private hospital with doctors and 
 nurses laboring to bring him safely through deli- 
 rium tremens. 
 
 "He was studying," asserted Mrs. Lorme. "He 
 was off alone somewhere reading and instructing 
 himself. His father used always to shut himself up
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 147 
 
 to read. George's mind has held on to the things 
 he learned on those occasions to the good he 
 wrought for himself in secret. That's my opinion 
 and always will be. Nowadays, everything outside 
 of the simple A B C of life is called a psychologi- 
 cal phenomenon. But no matter how it's happened, 
 George has reformed. I was as down on him as 
 any one when he was a wastrel. But he's no wastrel 
 now. He's a husband to love and be proud of. 
 And you ask me to carry him away from you! to 
 keep him away!" 
 
 "And you will! you will! Promise me!" 
 
 "Gail, sweet, I don't like to go against you, 
 but- 
 
 "You are against me," uttered Gail, in a wail of 
 despair. "And Vance, my own baby, is against me! 
 
 And and he is Oh! I realize' that you 
 
 wouldn't be if you knew And and he 
 
 wouldn't be if he knew. That's the thing that's 
 killing me. I can't tell I must keep it all locked 
 here in my breast. . . . You all love me yet I'm 
 alone alone ! And I can only fight and fight and 
 fight alone!" 
 
 Her face was ghastly, ravaged as though with 
 sickness. Mrs. Lorme, who had loved her all the 
 years, looked at her now in troubled questioning. 
 This utter desperation what could it mean? 
 
 "Dear, I want to see you happy. And that's 
 the reason that I want you and George "
 
 148 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "No no no !" came frantically. "And he must 
 not kiss me again, Kate. He must not!" 
 
 "Why why you act as though you're afraid of 
 yourself!" 
 
 Mrs. Lorme contemplated with staring eyes 
 Gail's crimsoning face. 
 
 "You are ! Well, of all " 
 
 "Crazy old Kates, you're the craziest," came in 
 a shaky voice. The slender fingers dug into the 
 woman's arm. "Promise me to do what I ask," 
 she implored. "Promise! Promise!" 
 
 "Child, it's all wrong. I feel it I know it! But 
 I promise."
 
 *f!/i 
 
 "'Please go! please please!' she whispered" Page
 
 XX 
 
 /CLUTCHING wildly at her open kimona of 
 ^-^ white and gold, Gail closed it over the flimsy, 
 beribboned night-dress beneath, shrank into a 
 friendly shadow, cast a hapless look about the room. 
 
 "You! Here!" she panted. 
 
 "Why not?" answered Orcutt. 
 
 He stood a few feet from her, arrayed in a long 
 velvet dressing-gown. 
 
 "Go!" she commanded. "Go, or " 
 
 "What?" asked he. 
 
 She gazed at him in a sort of frozen terror. 
 
 "Come, Gail, there is nothing to be frightened 
 about. To see your face one might think I was a 
 lawless intruder criminally invading a strange 
 maid's sanctuary. Sit down, please. I want to talk 
 to you." He smiled. "Don't blush so, dear." 
 
 "Please go ! please please!" she whispered. 
 
 "Go where? Away from you forever? Is that 
 what you are asking? I told you that first day at 
 the sanatorium that I should either be your hus- 
 band or not be. Don't you see, beloved, that you 
 and I must live our lives wholly together or wholly 
 
 149
 
 150 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 apart? There can be no middle course for me, lov- 
 ing you as I do. And not after to-day. You have 
 kissed me; nothing you may say can ever undo 
 that." 
 
 Gail gripped the silken drapery of the window 
 and drew it before her. 
 
 "I don't want you here," she cried, "and you 
 know I don't. It is cruel for you to to " 
 
 "What, dear? To want to have my wife for my 
 own? My God! sweetheart, if you knew how my 
 arms have ached to hold you ! Not a day but I 
 feel I must draw you close against my heart. You 
 are my world. And I want to take you away some- 
 where with me. I want you to leave this burden- 
 some house with its wretched memories, and go with 
 me to find a new happiness. What is a man's 
 strength for if it cannot protect the woman God 
 gave him!" 
 
 "Protect! Do you call it protecting to to try 
 to f o r ce ' ' 
 
 "Yes," he said gravely. "You have dwelt on the 
 injuries that I did you the I that my present con- 
 sciousness knows nothing about till you have lost 
 the power to judge rightly. There can be no true 
 harmony in our home, no right atmosphere for 
 Vance, till you and I are leading normal lives to- 
 gether." 
 
 He reached his arms toward her. 
 
 "My own darling! Where do you belong, where 
 is your safety, your happiness, if not here? Forget
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 151 
 
 everything but that I love you with my whole 
 heart. . . . And that I need you! Dear, tender 
 little wife, don't you see how badly I need your 
 love? What a strange world this is that I am now 
 groping in! .... And when my own wife treats 
 me like a stranger! Dear God! What have I to 
 turn to ! I am a man adrift, with no anchorage but 
 you. And you ! you are love, life, everything to 
 me. Oh, my dear wife, don't you see that your 
 place is here, in my arms?" 
 
 Her eyes dropped so that he should not see 
 their pity. An enveloping tenderness assailed her. 
 His eyes were so frank and boyish. And he had 
 been so generous, so considerate of her, had ac- 
 cepted so uncomplainingly her mandate of friend- 
 ship. Her tongue stuck to her throat. 
 
 "Dear!" he whispered. 
 
 "I you " she essayed weakly. 
 
 Then her own desperate case clutched her. 
 Somehow she must get him out of her room. He 
 was a husband, with rights. 
 
 "You must go, go now!" she commanded pas- 
 sionately. "You shall not stay here. I will call 
 the servants, the police, any one!" 
 
 "You will not," he returned sternly. "This is 
 my house and you are my wife; no one shall inter- 
 fere with my conduct with either. And I ask you 
 now, in simple justice, never to repeat your per- 
 formance of this morning. I ran into Gregory and 
 Bryan just as they were agreeing that 'the old Or-
 
 i 5 a THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 cutt had broken out again, as they had predicted.' 
 They believed that / had injured your hand!" 
 
 His arms fell to his side, and a clammy fear 
 looked out from his eyes. 
 
 "Good God! Did I ever abuse you, Gail?" 
 
 This was her opportunity to prove his unworthi- 
 ness. Her head raised in scorn. But she did not 
 speak. 
 
 He had never injured her and he loved her 
 she was his wife he was in her room yet there 
 was a chivalrous gentleness in his seeking. 
 
 "No," she whispered. "You never did." 
 
 He laughed, a rapturous utterance. And quickly 
 his hands came out and caught her, his arms wrap- 
 ping her closely to him. 
 
 "My blessed wife! You do care, don't you?" 
 
 "No no no!" She evaded his lips, her face 
 burying itself against the velvet shoulder. 
 
 He laughed again, and kissed her hair, her neck, 
 the soft bare arms. 
 
 "Come," he whispered, "let me look into your 
 eyes," and put a hand on either cheek to raise her 
 face. 
 
 A swift move and she had reached the opposite 
 side of the room. She stood behind a table and fum- 
 bled with the drawer. Then he saw the gleam of a 
 pistol, and pointing toward her heart. A fraction 
 of a second and he had taken it away from her 
 and was gazing into the magazine. It was empty. 
 
 "So it's not loaded. That's good. I shouldn't
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 153 
 
 want a loaded gun around where Vance might get 
 hold of it," he said quietly. 
 
 "Vance! You didn't think then that I was 
 going to shoot myself?" she asked faintly. 
 
 "Yes ; I think I did," he returned. "But I'm glad 
 to see that you're still in possession of your senses. 
 And an empty gun serves your purpose just as 
 well." He seated himself. "Sit down, Gail. You 
 can keep the table between us. I'm going to try 
 to see things from your point of view. Now, tell 
 me what the trouble is the real trouble." 
 
 "The real trouble?" she mumbled, crouching to 
 a chair behind the table. 
 
 He waited impassively. 
 
 "Come," he urged at length. "There's a dam- 
 nable mystery somewhere. And I intend to get at 
 the bottom of it, and soon. When I go away, out 
 to the Open that's calling me, you're going with me. 
 Yes; you are. Without you life would be hell. 
 Just that." 
 
 "I can't go. But you can stay here I want 
 
 you, if " 
 
 He shook his head impatiently. 
 
 "There would always be 'if,' Gail. You might 
 as well tell me not to breathe as not to make love 
 to you. I can't help it. To kiss you and have you 
 in my arms seems the most natural thing in the 
 world. And to save me, / can't see why I 
 shouldn't." 
 
 "I've told you "
 
 154 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "I know. And your lips on mine this morning 
 told me that all the rest was a lie. Gail, there's 
 something underneath all this. You're sick with 
 fear but not of my love." He drew up to the 
 table, laid his arms upon it. "Dearest, I want you 
 to tell me what this is. I am the best friend you 
 have in the world. Let us face our trouble to- 
 gether. . . . Come, dear, tell me ! I shall find out 
 by myself otherwise. . . . Come, trust me! No 
 matter what it is, I should share your burdens." 
 
 Her eyes searched his piteously. 
 
 "Your friend and lover," he answered. "Dear, 
 tell me ! Don't you see that in the end this is what 
 it must come to, that there is no other way?" 
 
 Her eyes turned from his, and a burning blush 
 spread from her throat up over her face. He would 
 know some day. She saw now that the game was 
 ending the hand against her was too sure and 
 strong. And perhaps, could she tell him now, his 
 love might make him pitiful. But 
 
 Here alone with him in her bed chamber at two 
 in the morning arrayed in a flimsy negligee a 
 few minutes before clasped in his arms his mind 
 still awake to her passionate kisses of the morning 
 and to tell him that he was a stranger, a man whose 
 name she did not know! 
 
 She cowered in her chair, the red blood rioting 
 in her face. 
 
 He watched her curiously. His hands reached 
 over the narrow table and took hold of hers.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 155 
 
 "Your friend," he whispered. 
 
 She met his eyes despairingly. 
 
 "I can never tell you." 
 
 "Then there is something!" 
 
 "Yes," she returned, the word drawn from her. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 The crimson o'f her cheeks gave place to a pinched 
 grayness. Her eyes were stupid with anguish. Why 
 had she said this? She was alone with him. He 
 had locked the door and the key was in his pocket. 
 The call : bell was at the far end of the room. His 
 hands were on hers impellingly. She must tell him 
 or 
 
 But he was speaking. 
 
 "This something Does it mean that I should 
 
 not be here with you?" 
 
 She nodded her head. 
 
 There was a tense moment while he looked into 
 her eyes, contemplatively. It was a "mania," as 
 Doctor Underwood had said. For what could she 
 have to hide from him that could cause her such 
 wild terror? Christmas eve she had been palpitant 
 with fear and this morning she had kissed him 
 impassionedly, her soft body nestling in his arms. 
 
 She saw his eyes change. Shivering, she tried to 
 draw her hands from his. He half rose, brushed 
 the light table aside with his foot, and drew her 
 with one quick move to him. 
 
 "My wife!" He spoke softly. "There is noth- 
 ing that could separate you from me, dear. Poor:
 
 156 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 little girl! with your fevered fancies! It's this 
 oppressive house. Out there in the Open, where you 
 and I are going, the dear wife will get well." 
 
 "Wait!" 
 
 Her voice came faintly from his shoulder. 
 
 "Yes?" he whispered. 
 
 "I I am am not - not - " 
 
 "Not what, dear?" 
 
 Her tongue would not go on. Her lips shut and 
 drove the words back. Yet she must speak she 
 must she must! 
 
 Her chattering teeth closed. 
 
 He took a few steps, still holding her. 
 
 "No wonder your teeth are chattering. This win- 
 dow is open, and an icy blast that would freeze an 
 Esquimau coming in." 
 
 He loosed a hand to close the window. There 
 was an iron balcony beyond. The window was lit- 
 tle more than a foot from the floor. There was 
 a catch on the outer side as well as the inner. Her 
 mind grasped all this in a blinding flash. Fren- 
 ziedly she tore herself from him and leapt through 
 the open space. Her convulsive fingers clutched 
 the sash and drew it down and locked it, and all so 
 quickly that the man was staring at her through the 
 closed window before he had grasped her intent. 
 
 He looked at her bare arms and neck, and the 
 thin gown that sheathed about her in the wind. It
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 157 
 
 was biting weather. "Mania?" Yes; it was that, 
 nothing less. 
 
 Gail did not feel the cold. The window barred 
 him from her! And she had not told her secret! 
 She watched him leave the room. Then she bowed 
 her head to her hands, nervously sick. A little 
 while, and she heard the door open. But she did 
 not look up. Safety lay here, outside. 
 
 "Mama!" 
 
 Vance shook the window violently. 
 
 "Papa sent me to bring you in. Come on, quick! 
 Quick! 5 '' 
 
 He watched her breathlessly as the window 
 raised. Then his little warm body launched itself 
 upon her. 
 
 "My baby! My baby!" 
 
 She was kissing him and crying wildly. But 
 Vance did not mind now. His Papa had come and 
 wakened him and had carried him to his mother's 
 door. And he had told him "to be very good to 
 Mama." 
 
 Vance told her this. Also: 
 
 "Papa says for you to get into a hot bath right 
 away. There were tears in Papa's eyes. He said 
 they were for you. Are things going bad again?" 
 
 Bad? She caught her breath so sharply that the 
 child was a little frightened. There was some- 
 thing so strange about his Mama to-night. 
 
 "Yes, things are going very bad. . . . Oh, my 
 baby! I have done all I can for you. . , . And
 
 158 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 I am so afraid so dreadfully afraid of the 
 end." 
 
 "The end? Do you mean the end of the world, 
 Mama, that Jackson talks about?" he asked, half in 
 tears. 
 
 "No," she comforted. Her voice sank to her 
 throat: "The end of the world for me."
 
 XXI 
 
 T^\OCTOR UNDERWOOD looked at his visi- 
 "^ tor critically. The puzzled frown on Or- 
 cutt's face was deeper than ordinary. And his usual 
 buoyancy was lacking. They were in the doctor's 
 study, an enormous high-ceiled room that persisted 
 in looking big and gaunt despite the combined efforts 
 of the occupant and a competent decorator to make 
 it look low-ceilinged and cosy. It faced the east; 
 this particular morning it was flooded with sunshine, 
 a welcome visitor after a week of dull gray days. 
 
 "The sun hasn't been out like this since I was at 
 your house," remarked the doctor. "You were going 
 to sit for your picture. Did you bring the proofs?" 
 
 "Yes," returned Orcutt, and laid an envelope on 
 the flat-top desk beside him. The doctor reached 
 for it eagerly. He opened the envelope and ran his 
 eyes over the proofs in swift appraisal. 
 
 "How is life going now?" he questioned. "Sat- 
 isfied ? Happy ?" 
 
 "Underwood," said the other. "If it's a mania 
 that makes my wife afraid of me, it's a mania 
 founded on something that's beyond my ability to 
 overcome. She's sick." 
 
 i59
 
 160 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "You " 
 
 "I was brutal. But God knows my intentions 
 weren't. I want her happiness. I want to get the 
 sick terror out of her eyes. It wrings my heart. 
 I had a talk with Mrs. Lorme before coming here. 
 She sent for me. I shall take Vance to the Lormes' 
 Florida home after his operation. Mrs. Orcutt in- 
 tends to remain in New York. Underwood, I want 
 you to treat her. I have consented to this arrange- 
 ment almost wholly so that she may have time to 
 get over her fright and be under your care without 
 my disturbing presence around." 
 
 "I never treat a woman," answered the alienist. 
 
 "I know. But you will treat Mrs. Orcutt. No 
 other physician could understand the case as you 
 do." 
 
 The alienist remained silent for some while, his 
 gaze on the proofs in his hands. When he spoke 
 it was abruptly. 
 
 "Orcutt, I'm going to give you a blow. It has 
 to do with Mrs. Orcutt. I wanted her and you to 
 have it out alone. I advised you as I did purposely 
 to try to force her hand. I was in hopes that you 
 had come to tell me that she had told you her 
 trouble. But it's left to me. And the only way 
 to give a blow between the eyes is to hit out 
 squarely." 
 
 Deftly extracting one of the proofs and taking 
 a photograph from the table where it lay face down-
 
 F \ 
 
 'Gail !' he cried hoarsely. 'She is not my Page 161
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 161 
 
 ward, Morris Underwood handed the two to the 
 waiting man. 
 
 Orcutt looked at them, drew them nearer to his 
 eyes, looked at them again, stared at the two pre- 
 sentments with a dull comprehension that somehow 
 saw yet could not believe. He gazed from them 
 to the alienist, his healthy face pallid and covered 
 with cold moisture. 
 
 "These are the pictures of " 
 
 "Yourself and the 'other George Orcutt,' " com- 
 pleted the alienist in significant tones. 
 
 Fascinated, Orcutt's eyes returned to the pic- 
 tures, both left face profiles, both singularly alike, 
 yet in two respects contour of the backs of the 
 heads and the bridge outlines of the noses so 
 strikingly unlike that a glance sufficed to reveal that 
 they were the likenesses of two individuals, not 
 two likenesses of one. His nerveless hands relaxed, 
 and, without his knowledge, the objects he had been 
 holding fell to the floor, the cardboard with a slight 
 thud, the paper fluttering noisily against a table- 
 leg. His face grew still more ashen. 
 
 "Gail 1" he cried hoarsely. "She is not my " 
 
 ''Come, let me give you a stimulant," said the 
 physician, fussing over a medical case on the desk. 
 
 "Sit down, Underwood." The voice was shaky 
 but peremptory. "How long have you known 
 this?" 
 
 "Since the day you first came here," was the terse 
 reply.
 
 1 62 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "You mean that you suspected that I was not 
 George Orcutt?" 
 
 "I knew you were not. Let me explain. About 
 four days before the murder Orcutt and the artist 
 dined at Sherry's. I had a table facing them. I 
 was with Doctor Addington. He knew the two 
 men by reputation and regaled me with their his- 
 tories, particularly Emmet's, whose paintings he 
 praised extravagantly the doctor goes in for art 
 and likes to think himself a connoisseur. I was men- 
 tally fagged and enjoyed the gossip as I do a novel 
 when tired. I sat where I had a perfect left face 
 view of Orcutt. I studied his head carefully, an in- 
 stinctive habit, and would have known it in forty 
 years and when and where I saw it. I studied Em- 
 met's also a much better head than Orcutt's. I 
 was interested in reading about the murder and 
 rather amused over the plea of insanity. My 
 opinion of Orcutt excluded a sensibility that would 
 succumb to a shock. Any head trouble he would 
 have would be paresis. But Allen Scott, one of the 
 alienists who examined him, is a wonder in his line 
 and beyond any bribery. I was really disturbed over 
 the matter. On top of this I was asked to receive 
 the patient in my hospital. I was full, but so great 
 was my interest that I gave up my bedroom to you 
 and stacked up here in the study till I had a vacant 
 room." 
 
 The narrator stopped to draw a chair forward 
 for his feet, then tilted himself back comfortably.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 163 
 
 "My brother alienists, the State, his wife, said 
 that you were George Orcutt. I received you as 
 George Orcutt, doctored you as George Orcutt, dis- 
 missed you as George Orcutt." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 The doctor smiled and directed his gaze a few 
 moments to the window opposite and the view of 
 snow-covered fields beyond. 
 
 "Lucas Emmet was dead justice thwarted or 
 righted could not help him; a little less wrangling 
 than more would not wreck the State. It resolved 
 itself into a question of whether I should accept 
 or challenge a lady's word." 
 
 His listener shrank as one who is expecting a 
 blow. 
 
 "Underwood," said he, in tense voice, "we will 
 leave Mrs. Orcutt out of the discussion." 
 
 "You are willing, then, that the whole matter 
 should drop right here?" questioned his friend, his 
 voice hardening perceptibly. "For that is how it 
 stands. We must either face things as they are 
 or close the case without further discussion. Mrs. 
 Orcutt knows you are not her husband; she is pur- 
 posely using you as a tool to save the real Orcutt; 
 and she is not playing her game squarely. She 
 forced George Orcutt's name and vile reputation 
 on you. All right, hers was a desperate situation; 
 we'll not criticise her on that score. But when she 
 wantonly arouses in you a passion destructive of
 
 1 64 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 your peace and happiness she is going beyond the 
 rules of even a game like hers." 
 
 "My God my God!" muttered the hoarse voice. 
 "The horror of these months for her!" 
 
 "Her? Think of yourself! Who are you? 
 Who beside yourself is being sacrificed for her 
 benefit?" 
 
 The alienist smiled ironically at Orcutt's bewil- 
 dered look. The bewilderment changed slowly to 
 blank horror. 
 
 "There is someone waiting I have always 
 
 somehow known " He shivered slightly. 
 
 "Who is it, Underwood?" 
 
 "God knows !" was the grave response. "I know 
 only that you are not George Orcutt. I have endea- 
 vored without betraying the secret to find out who 
 you may be. No institution in the city or environs, 
 public or private, has record of such as you on its 
 books. My advertisements, carefully worded so as 
 not to tell anything to those who did not know you, 
 would surely have brought answer from one who 
 did. I have learned nothing except the mere fact 
 that you are not the man you are claimed to be. Nor 
 have I formed an hypothesis. Mrs. Orcutt knows 
 and Mrs. Orcutt must tell." 
 
 Orcutt did not answer directly. He sat a long 
 while in stony silence. Then he laughed, a jarring, 
 hideously mirthful outburst. 
 
 "I accept the role of George Orcutt. I shall go
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 165 
 
 away alone and leave her in peace. And you shall 
 leave her in peace, damn you!" 
 
 The doctor folded his arms and gazed steadily 
 at his friend. His expression partook of the God- 
 like, the magnanimous toleration of a Father Incar- 
 nate. Morris Underwood's childhood had been 
 bleak, devoid of sentiment and almost devoid of 
 tenderness; in budding manhood he had fallen in 
 love with a worldly woman, who had played with 
 him in the thoughtlessly cruel way that some women 
 delight in using him as a foil to quicken an unre- 
 sponsive admirer to action. The youth Underwood 
 emerged from the affair a man, his heart encased in 
 a steel covering that made him impervious to 
 woman's most alluring witcheries. Nor was it 
 unsheathed to any one. He espoused reason, gave 
 himself wholly to his profession and viewed human- 
 ity in two aspects: patients on whom to lavish his 
 surpassing skill, and crowds apart from himself to 
 study for his enlightenment and amusement. But 
 he had dammed, not dried up the love stream 
 within him. From the first encounter with his 
 patient known as George Orcutt, trickles of affec- 
 tion began to find their way through unsuspected 
 crevices, trickles that grew rapidly to veritable pools 
 of affection a tender, indulgent, unselfish affection 
 that was willing to give all and ask nothing. He 
 was Jacob and this his Benjamin. 
 
 Orcutt's haggard face flushed under his com-
 
 1 66 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 passionate gaze; flushed, then crinkled to a sort of 
 ghostly humor. 
 
 "I'm an ingrate, Underwood. And a fool. I 
 know it. Only I'm willing to be both ingrate and 
 fool to help her." 
 
 "But not a scoundrel," voiced the other quickly. 
 
 Pallor settled on Orcutt's forehead and cheeks 
 again. 
 
 "You think there is some one? A a 
 
 wife perhaps? But no! Gail would 
 
 never have consented " 
 
 "Bah!" grunted the alienist. "A female will sac- 
 rifice any one to save her young. It was for the 
 boy's sake, not the husband's, she consented to play 
 such a hazardous game. You say you feel that 
 there is some one waiting for you. Are you willing 
 to go on in ignorance of whom it is letting the 
 some one wait? Wife? Child?" 
 
 There was a stony silence.
 
 XXII 
 
 '"T^HERE is no wife," pronounced Orcutt posi- 
 tively, at length. "When you first told me 
 about Gail and Vance it brought no feeling of my 
 being husband and father. The thought was new, 
 alien, and it took me weeks after I knew them to 
 feel that they were really mine. With love came 
 the natural feeling of possession. But there is 
 some one. From the beginning I have had a sense 
 of being wanted somewhere else, that some one was 
 waiting for me. I'm inclined to give full credence 
 to my feelings they are memory's expressions, 
 shadowy but real." 
 
 "Right," said the alienist. "I have kept a record 
 of them and have found in every instance that 
 your 'feelings' are accurate barometers. You 'felt' 
 that Orcutt's possessions, his manner of living, his 
 friends and servants and paramours, all his past, 
 had never belonged to you. Not once have you 
 'felt' an intimacy with things and people in your 
 new life. The greatest joke of all to you at first 
 was the thought of a wife and child. I think we 
 may safely trust the mute expressions of your sub- 
 
 167
 
 1 68 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 conscious memory to guide us. I believe, there- 
 fore, that you have no wife or child, and have 
 believed it from the time I first told you of Mrs. 
 Orcutt and Vance. You are an outdoors man, have 
 lived an active life, and it is not unlikely that it is 
 your work that is calling to you, the 'some one' a 
 possible partner or employer. I have eliminated 
 the idea of a mother for mother love would have 
 found you if you came from the other end of the 
 earth. I was trying to bluff you into doing for a 
 wife what I now fear you will not willingly do for 
 yourself a contingency I had not counted on. You 
 see," with quiet scorn, "I forgot that you might 
 belong to the braying class." 
 
 Orcutt rose, his hands clasped loosely behind him. 
 He walked to the fire-place, turned his back on the 
 sputtering logs. He measured glances with his 
 friend in a deliberate, uncompromising way. 
 
 "I shall protect her. And the boy. They are 
 mine in spirit." 
 
 "You are mine in spirit; I shall protect you," 
 muttered the doctor, under his breath. Aloud he 
 questioned, "How long will you be content to go on 
 not knowing who you are?" 
 
 Orcutt walked to a window, stood a few minutes, 
 walked to another, still in meditation, turned 
 abruptly, his face distorted with misery. 
 
 "I taste the hell of it already. I must know who 
 I am, who is waiting. It is not an employer, not a 
 partner; it is a woman."
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 169 
 
 "Sister, sweetheart, friend, who?" plied the 
 alienist, stopping after each word, watching intently 
 the haggard face. 
 
 "I don't know," was the dismal answer. "I only 
 know that there is a woman who needs me. Her 
 name is Victoria. Last Wednesday I heard a 
 woman in the park call 'Victoria' to a child, and I 
 had something of the same sensation as when I 
 uttered the word 'gorilla.' That is, it seemed as 
 though I was about to remember, that something 
 inside my brain was loosening. But there was no 
 terror aroused by the name; only tenderness." 
 The perspiration ran from his face. "My God! 
 who is that woman?" 
 
 "Pray your good angel it is a sweetheart and 
 that she is still waiting for you, ready to heal your 
 wounds," uttered the doctor fervently. "Although," 
 he added, "there may be no wounds to heal. When 
 memory of your past returns your consciousness 
 may revert to the point where memory was lost, 
 and start from there as though there had been no 
 lapse of time between. The experiences of the 
 intervening months may be completely lost; you 
 may wake to find Mrs. Orcutt, Vance, myself, all 
 those you now know, utter strangers." 
 
 Orcutt clutched the table for support. 
 
 "Not that!" he cried. 
 
 "Why not?" growled the doctor. "Better lose 
 all memory of the woman than wreck your life with 
 an unsatisfied passion. Mrs. Orcutt is not for you."
 
 i 7 o THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Underwood!" Orcutt was at his side, a com- 
 pelling hand on his arm. "No matter what hap- 
 pens, save to me my consciousness of the life I have 
 lived as George Orcutt. I want it all, even its tor- 
 ment. Don't rob me of her and Vance; don't rob 
 me of yourself; don't don't! If I should awaken 
 only to the past you can synthesize my present expe- 
 riences with my past Yes, you can. By some 
 
 artifice of the alienist you can connect the side 
 stream of consciousness with the main stream. It 
 has been done. It can be done by you for me. 
 Promise me, my friend." 
 
 "The other woman who is waiting?" said the 
 doctor. "If it is a sweetheart? if you are bound? 
 if your life would be worth more to not your- 
 self but to society, by losing the side stream, what 
 then?" 
 
 "Promise me," reiterated Orcutt. 
 
 "I can't. As your physician, I question any exter- 
 nal power over you. As your friend, I would wish 
 you to forget Mrs. Orcutt at any cost to myself. I 
 have seen too many wrecks caused by the machina- 
 tions of soulless women to aid voluntarily in 
 your damnation. Instead of assisting, I should 
 rather " 
 
 "Not so fast," came imperiously. "The whole 
 matter rests with me. It is for me to determine 
 my own course if I choose damnation, it is riot for 
 you to gainsay me. And as for another woman 
 if there is one I am bound to, God help me! I'll
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 171 
 
 do my duty toward her afterward if I know. But 
 Mrs. Orcutt shall not be sacrificed to her or to you 
 or to any one in this world; do you understand me?" 
 
 "Get Mrs. Orcutt to reveal her secret; she shall 
 not keep it," pronounced Underwood in tone of 
 finality. 
 
 "Do you mean that you would publicly betray 
 her!" 
 
 "If necessary. It is one thing for her to save 
 her husband and shield her son from shame I can 
 and did admire her fortitude, her brigand bravery. 
 It is another thing for her to injure an innocent man, 
 to wreck the happiness of another human creature. 
 It was not in my mental contract for her to make 
 a sacrifice of you." 
 
 Without replying, Orcutt walked to the chair he 
 had vacated, seated himself, chin resting on his 
 chest, a hand automatically plucking the loose flesh 
 between the eyes, his habitual attitude when in deep 
 meditation. The doctor's little blinking eyes bent 
 upon him, grimly humorous. He wanted to laugh, 
 laugh roaringly, albeit his heart felt like lead. 
 
 He had failed to take into account the alchemy 
 of love, its blinding, stupefying power. He had 
 expected his friend to shout with delight over the 
 news that he was not George Orcutt; he had thought 
 to deal with a man frantic with eagerness to learn 
 his true identity; he had believed that he would 
 descend upon the woman and hotly demand his 
 secret his infatuation killed at a blow by knowl-
 
 i 7 2 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 edge of her perfidy and wanton playing with his 
 affections. In his mental conception of the scene, 
 it was for him, Morris Underwood, to defend nec- 
 essarily the woman from the righteous wrath of an 
 outraged man. 
 
 Yes; it was grimly funny. He had made the 
 mistake of judging this man by himself his own 
 love had died and hate had been born the very hour 
 he knew he was deceived by his temptress. There 
 had been no pity; only a relentless scorn that yet 
 lived, shadowing his regard for all women. He had 
 known that men made fools of themselves over the 
 frail charms of womankind, but he had deemed all 
 such inherently weak, fools by birth, the woman 
 merely the incident that revealed a silliness which 
 would have flared out as easily over anything else 
 cards, drink, speculation, freakish fads or "isms." 
 
 But the man before him was strong in character, 
 resolute, forceful, with a powerful will and the 
 saving grace of subtle humor. Was love of the 
 sexes, after all, a greater thing than he had 
 dreamed? Could he, the alienist, be now just 
 learning an eternal truth about man's will and 
 man's mind? 
 
 He gazed at his friend as at something new, won- 
 dering how far he had penetrated the man's nature. 
 
 "Why did you not keep me here and save these 
 complications, knowing I was not George Orcutt?" 
 asked the other, with seeming abruptness. 
 
 The alienist started from his reverie, startled by
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 173 
 
 the ringing tones on top of his silent musings. Then 
 his face lighted with the fond look a father wears 
 over the cleverness of a precocious child. He 
 chuckled softly. 
 
 "A pertinent question. The answer simple, 
 though. I knew Mrs. Orcutt's hand and 'called,' 
 not knowing her ability to bluff. You were a sound 
 man, ready to take your place in the world; to keep 
 you here longer would have been an injustice. As 
 you know, I had tried to hypnotize you, hoping by 
 that method to bring about disintegration and learn 
 your past. I explained this to you at the beginning 
 and you said you wanted to be hypnotized to that 
 end and would help me. But subconsciously you 
 willed not 'to be ; your nature rebelled so strongly 
 against surrendering itself to the will of another that 
 it encompassed my defeat and your own for I give 
 you credit for trying to help as far as lay in your 
 conscious power. The mysterious underlying self, 
 the masked performer who keeps us alienists always 
 guessing, took a hand and won." He chuckled 
 again, a little gurgle of amusement over his own 
 discomfiture, and added: 
 
 "And Mrs. Orcutt 'raised' me and 'called.' I 
 had expected to force her into a confession. I was 
 magnanimously prepared to make terms with her, 
 giving her time, if his place of residence required 
 it, to get her husband beyond the arm of the law. 
 He was then, and is now, in Paris. Wait; we'll dis- 
 cuss that later. I had not then located him or I
 
 i 7 4 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 might have called her bluff I say might, for I'm 
 not sure I shouldn't have done just as I did. I like 
 gameness. Frightened stiff, she yet never batted an 
 eye. Not knowing where the real Orcutt was and 
 having nothing but my bare word against hers, I 
 decided on playing a waiting game, feeling that she 
 would soon find you too much to handle and would 
 voluntarily confess, making what terms she could. 
 You, of course, will think it strange, but I didn't 
 apprehend your losing your heart to her. I over- 
 looked the obvious; I forgot that it was youth and 
 youth, and the danger of such propinquity to a 
 boy's inflammable mind. And you were so close- 
 lipped I didn't know of your passion till it was 
 beyond my power to save you if it ever was within 
 it. When a man wants to be damned he usually is." 
 
 Orcutt's lips set doggedly. 
 
 "If you call it being damned to love a woman, 
 all right. An hour ago I believed that Gail Orcutt 
 was my wife. I shall defend her as truly now as I 
 should have defended her then had you or anyone 
 else attempted to harm her." 
 
 The men measured glances. The physician smiled 
 pityingly even while his eyes remained cold. 
 
 "Mrs. Orcutt must tell what she knows," he 
 asseverated. "The consequences of her confession 
 depend on herself. I shall not go out of my way 
 to harm her nor to help her. As I told you once 
 before, I do not care about Mrs. Orcutt. I am inter-
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 175 
 
 ested now in but one thing to get her to confess 
 the truth and the whole truth." 
 
 Orcutt rose, preparatory to departure, and stood 
 with clenched hands, beads of moisture breaking 
 from his forehead. "Do you understand, Under- 
 wood, that I have lost my wife my wife!" 
 
 The alienist sat with head bent in deep thought 
 long after the door closed. 
 
 "If he only has lost her," he muttered. "If he 
 only has!"
 
 XXIII 
 
 T^ASTENING George Orcutt's big mink-lined 
 overcoat about him, the man who had learned 
 he was not George Orcutt stopped before entering 
 the waiting limousine and gazed at it in a curious, 
 retrospective way. Bryan, the chauffeur, richly fur- 
 clad, revealing the wealth of the owner as fully as 
 the sumptuous car, ran quickly from the nearby 
 spot where he had been chatting with an attendant. 
 
 "Anything wrong with the machine, Mr. Orcutt?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Home, sir?" 
 
 "Home?" repeated the other, with peculiar inflec- 
 tion. "Yes, home, Bryan," said he, entering the 
 limousine, shivering strangely as the man tucked the 
 fur robe about him. 
 
 Home wife child ? 
 
 Something came to his throat, so unusual a some- 
 thing that it was a few moments before he recog- 
 nized it for a sob. He ached with misery. It was 
 unbelievable that Gail was not his wife, unbelievable 
 that she had borne the boy, his boy, for another! 
 He felt himself shrivel with the scorching agony of 
 
 176
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 177 
 
 that thought. His misery before had been but a 
 zephyr. His wife would be his wife again, inev- 
 itably. 
 
 A forgotten past and a future that loomed for- 
 biddingly dark with the bitterness of unsatisfied 
 desires that was now his whole fortune. No wife, 
 no child, no children of his and hers to be called 
 into bloom from the flower garden of awaiting souls. 
 Renunciation, the dreary dole of trying to forget, 
 the going on with part of himself shriven away 
 purgatory, with the door of his paradise closed fast 
 against him. 
 
 It came to him, but came dully, lying tasteless in 
 his mouth, that his body and his soul were free of 
 the sins of George Orcutt. He had never been 
 faithless to her no ! but neither had she lain in 
 his arms ! There was no joy over losing George 
 Orcutt's disgraceful past when alongside was lost 
 the lawful right to George Orcutt's wife and George 
 Orcutt's child. 
 
 Yet she had not loathed him, this unwitting 
 Orcutt who did not know his own name. The 
 thought came as a gleam of gold to his leaden mis- 
 ery. She liked him, she had said. A weak senti- 
 ment in answer to his passionate love, but he clung 
 to it as to something wonderfully precious. It had 
 rung true. If all else had been acting, that one 
 moment had been real. She had looked into his 
 eyes with honest liking in her heart for the man 
 she saw before her. Nor had her terror been caused
 
 178 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 by him simply as himself; in truth, she could not see 
 him as himself his false position made him per- 
 force a fearsome person to her. Even so, she had 
 viewed him with friendly regard, fearlessly enjoying 
 his society, filled with a frank gladness. 
 
 She, like himself, was a victim of that arch vil- 
 lain, the "other" George Orcutt a reality now. 
 And it was for him, the unwitting George Orcutt, to 
 protect her from the consequences of the villainy 
 of her lawful husband. To protect her? he could 
 do that, and would do it, though the heavens and 
 a thousand Underwoods were against him. She was 
 his to protect, ay, to that extent she was his own 
 his to protect! 
 
 He found her in the library, a book in her hand 
 that he divined she had snatched up as she recog- 
 nized his step approaching; he had heard her rest- 
 lessly pacing the floor as he had gone to his room. 
 She was dressed in black, a color she seldom wore; 
 her face was pale, a translucent pallor that, com- 
 bined with the black of her long lashes and the 
 bronze mass of her hair, gave to her loveliness the 
 charm of mystical poetry. Her eyes wistfully ques- 
 tioned, sending a quick look into his, and as quickly 
 turning away again. 
 
 As he beheld her he could think of nothing but a 
 frightened child, prepared to be brave, pathetically 
 wishful that she could escape the encounter, yet 
 meeting it with lip-smiling composure. He knew 
 now the reason for the constant inspection of his
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 179 
 
 countenance about which he had so often wondered: 
 she was watching for the first danger signal of the 
 discovery that she was found out. He felt its piti- 
 ableness, and his lips trembled with his stress of 
 emotion. 
 
 "How is Doctor Underwood?" 
 
 "Gail," said he, huskily, "you say there is some- 
 thing between us that you cannot tell me. Listen! 
 There is nothing that you cannot tell me. Not 
 George Orcutt, your husband, but the man before 
 you your friend. You are in grave trouble. I 
 see it. I know it. This cannot go on. Give me 
 your confidence now; perhaps later I may not have 
 the same power to help you. Whatever it is I shall 
 understand. If you have injured me in some way, 
 in any way; if it were a crime as black as hell I 
 shall forgive you." 
 
 He waited for a little, then leaned forward and 
 reached out his hands, his face intensely eager. 
 
 "Soul to soul, Gail," he pleaded. "You may trust 
 me, on my honor." 
 
 Her eyes looked into his, then turned to the sput- 
 tering flame of the gas logs. She drew nearer to 
 the fire. She felt cold. Her body was numb with 
 emptiness. To cry out her trouble to him it was 
 a temptation almost beyond her resistance. In this 
 moment she felt that she could empty her tired 
 brain of its utmost content. Only there was no 
 content there for him. She was barren of his 
 name; of his home; of his past. She should only
 
 i8o THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 take away from him what he had. Unworthy as 
 it was, the name George Orcutt was now his, and 
 George Orcutt's home and income. He had Vance, 
 who was now as truly his own son as though he had 
 helped create him. And he had a wife. And little 
 as he had her now, that little would seem satisfac- 
 tion against his desolation without her. 
 
 Her lips could not open over the recital. She 
 was sorry for herself; she was sorrier yet for the 
 man beside her. In spirit she gathered him to her 
 breast and cried over him. But her own suffering 
 and her sympathy for him had no power to change 
 the course she had taken. She felt herself in a 
 closed chute hurtling forward to success or black 
 disaster? She could not know which. She could 
 only go on. The same necessity drove her now as 
 had driven her the day of the murder to save 
 Vance from knowing that his father was a mur- 
 derer. 
 
 The man spoke again. 
 
 "Tell me, Gail!" 
 
 She mistook the breaking tenderness of his voice. 
 He was her husband, seeking to beat down the bar- 
 rier that kept her from his embrace. This offer to 
 forgive her was a plea for forgiveness for himself, 
 for the wrongs that he believed he had committed 
 against her. She was afraid, as always, of the 
 future, but she had not the faintest inkling of the 
 truth that he was trying to convey. She had been 
 planning all the morning. Mrs. Lorme had tele-
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 181 
 
 phoned her that he had agreed to go South with 
 Vance and leave her behind. Her spirits had risen. 
 She should have a breathing space. And somehow 
 she would devise new ways and means to protect 
 her secret and herself from him. 
 
 But there were several weeks yet before he 
 left weeks that must hold no recurrence of last 
 night, or the blood surged her cheeks of the 
 morning that preceded it. She raised her eyes calmly 
 to his. 
 
 "I was hysterical. The 'something' was just a 
 chimera of my fevered brain." 
 
 "You mean that you will not tell me." 
 
 "There is nothing to tell." 
 
 Their eyes held, questioned. 
 
 U I am asking you for your own sake," he urged. 
 "I have nothing to ask for myself now or ever 
 again, Gail. Please, my beloved, give me your con- 
 fidence. No one can serve you as I can." 
 
 But to her it was still the husband speaking. And 
 he was very near her. She looked down at his out- 
 stretched hands and felt herself trembling. She 
 wanted to put her own within them. 
 
 "I do not want you to serve me!" Her voice 
 was high-keyed with fear. She drew away. "I 
 have nothing to tell you. You must believe me." 
 
 He leaned back in his chair. She refused to give 
 him her secret. His lips closed. He was through. 
 Whatever she had to tell must come to him of her 
 own accord.
 
 1 82 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 She saw his grieved eyes, and dropped her lashes 
 quickly over her own to hide their tenderness. 
 "Ohl" 
 It was Vance.
 
 XXIV 
 
 T TE ran forward and kissed his mother, then 
 * * sidled over to his father, edging between his 
 knees. Orcutt caught him close in his arms. 
 
 "That's a bear hug, Papa." 
 
 "Pretty like," was the response. 
 
 The child threw his arms around the man's neck. 
 
 "And this is a bear hug, a little bear's big big 
 big hug. Oh, I love you a million tons' times." 
 
 "Sure, partner? Now, tell me what love Ss, 
 and what makes you love your daddy." 
 
 The boy looked up quizzically, expecting his 
 papa's eyes to be merry, too. Finding them serious, 
 he quickly sobered; whatever his papa did was his 
 cue to do likewise. He took up the matter with a 
 meditative gravity, natural to him, charming despite 
 its unchildishness. 
 
 "Love is a nice feeling inside us a nice warm 
 feeling that that makes us feel good like like 
 getting near a radiator when we're cold. It buzzes 
 
 inside us, too, just like the steam sometimes " 
 
 His voice quickened with the delight of discovery. 
 "Oh, and it shakes us, too, Papa, and bubbles over, 
 
 183
 
 1 84 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 then" he was a-quiver with excitement "we do 
 bear hugs." 
 
 "Let off steam so we won't burst," laughed the 
 man. "Good! Now the next question why do 
 you love your daddy?" 
 
 "That!" Vance was scornful. "I just love you, 
 that's all." He glanced up shyly from under the 
 heavily veiled lids. "I asked you the other day 
 why the birds love each other, Papa, and you said 
 'cause they're mates. Well," throwing out his chest 
 unconsciously, "we're mates, aren't we?" He gig- 
 gled softly. "What makes you love me, Papa? You 
 tell me then I'll tell you." 
 
 "Mates. That's it, partner," the man whispered, 
 drawing the child again close in his arms. 
 
 "Why why, you're crying!" cried the boy, 
 awed. "Oh ! you're sorry 'cause I'm going to be 
 sick. You aren't afraid I'll die, are you? I won't. 
 It's only a little operation," he soothed, feeling very 
 big and manly in his own indifference to the her- 
 alded illness. 
 
 "The operation will be day after to-morrow," 
 interposed Gail. "I saw Dr. Beatson this afternoon 
 while you were away. He thinks it is unnecessary 
 to wait; that Vance is strong enough now. The sus- 
 pense will be over then " 
 
 "And I will go the sooner to Florida," said Orcutt 
 significantly. "Do you ever pity your poor husband, 
 my wife?" 
 
 "I am giving you Vance," cried she, her voice
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 185 
 
 choking over the words. "You will have him while 
 
 I Oh ! I mustn't think of it I must be strong 
 
 till afterwards! But I can't help but think of it 
 every hour I see you and Vance on the train and I 
 alone watching you speed away." 
 
 "Mama!" Vance slid from the man's knees and 
 ran quickly to her. "Do you mean you aren't going 
 with us?" 
 
 With a heroic effort the mother repressed her 
 feeling and bent an almost cheerful face over the 
 anxious upturned one. 
 
 "Papa and I can't both go, dear. One of us must 
 stay at home because of something you would not 
 understand even if I could tell you. Miss Lauder 
 will take care of you, and you will have Papa for 
 company, and Aunt Kate and Uncle Dick." 
 
 "I want you," he stated quietly. "I want you and 
 Papa." 
 
 "You can have only one of us," she returned, as 
 quiet as he. "It had better be Papa, I think." 
 
 The child looked from one to the other, deliber- 
 ating. He had learned long ago to know when to 
 protest was useless. That this was one of the times 
 he realized at once. 
 
 "I want you both," he repeated. "Oh!" clapping 
 his hands. "I won't go away. I'll stay right here. 
 Ah!" sighing his relief. Then: "Why didn't you 
 think of that, Mama? That's easy as anything." 
 
 "Too easy, dear. The doctor says you must go 
 South; that you must be out of doors all day long
 
 1 86 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 in the warm sunshine and air till you're fully recov- 
 ered. Does Mother's boy think I should send him 
 away from me unless I had to?" 
 
 The little face was strangely troubled. 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 He stared dazedly as his mother rose and fled 
 the room. 
 
 "I wish I could understand things." 
 
 "One thing you must understand, partner: that 
 a man must protect a woman, always, always," came 
 in choked voice. "We must take care of Mama, you 
 and I, without ever questioning what Mama does; 
 see, partner?" 
 
 "Because we're gentlemen?" queried the boy, 
 wanting, as usual, to understand things. 
 
 "Because we're gentlemen, partner," was the 
 grave answer.
 
 XXV 
 
 / "T" V HE breakfast the next morning was a silent 
 one, the woman's place seeming more vacant 
 than usual to both child and man, although it was 
 never her custom to have breakfast with them. As 
 they left the breakfast room they encountered 
 Doctor Underwood in the hall. Their greetings 
 over, the child looked wistfully from face, to face, 
 his own unchildishly sober. There was pain in his 
 papa's eyes and his mama was crying, and the air 
 was somehow charged more heavily than ever with 
 the mystery that he did not like. He stood at the 
 foot of the broad stairway as the men reached the 
 upper landing, still sober, still wistful, still curiously 
 pathetic. Both looked down, drawn by the child's 
 aching sigh. 
 
 "Poor little beggar!" murmured the doctor. 
 
 Orcutt ran lightly down the steps, caught the 
 drooping figure with a single move to his breast, 
 whispered something in the little ear. 
 
 "Oh, oh, oh," shrieked the boy in a transport of 
 joy. "Oh, Papa! Sure? Sure?" 
 
 "Sure, partner." 
 
 Setting him on his feet, Orcutt moved swiftly up 
 187
 
 1 88 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 the two imposing flights of stairs to his study. The 
 doctor was already seated. 
 
 "Well, what have you learned?" interrogated the 
 alienist crisply. 
 
 Orcutt flung himself into a chair. 
 
 "Um nothing," grunted the other. "I expected 
 as much. Now what?" 
 
 "Hell, and then more hell! Damn you! If I 
 had not been made aware of other possible duties 
 previous claims " 
 
 "But now?" 
 
 "I must know, of course." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 "To-day. Vance is to be operated on to-morrow. 
 I must be here with him till he goes South, then 
 both his mother and I must take him. I just gave 
 him that assurance. Gail will not consent to the 
 plan unless this matter is cleared up, and she knows 
 I can no longer lay claims as a husband." 
 
 "The woman has you hand and foot," seethed the 
 doctor. "To serve her you'll play the whelp for- 
 sake another woman " 
 
 "Another woman?" repeated Orcutt drearily. "I 
 wonder. But it's Vance I'm thinking of now. He 
 must have his father for a few weeks longer. His 
 heart is weak, as you know. Underwood ! they're 
 my wife and my boy. Later, I'll do my whole duty 
 by whoever is waiting." He smiled grimly. "I'll 
 do my duty, never fear. I'm cursed with principle 
 diseased with it. A blighting malady for a lover."
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 189 
 
 Blinking eyes behind thick glasses scrutinized the 
 haggard face. 
 
 "Introspection a battle disgruntled because 
 principle's won," was the jerky diagnosis. "It saves 
 a fight with me, however. I telephoned Mrs. Orcutt 
 before I came and made an engagement for eleven 
 o'clock. The which it is now. Come, we'll go 
 together and interview her." 
 
 "A moment, Underwood." 
 
 The doctor waited patiently. 
 
 "Yes?" he at length encouraged. 
 
 "Mercy for her," cried Orcutt. 
 
 "If she deserves it." 
 
 "That would be justice. I ask for mercy." 
 
 "Urn mercy? I'll wait till I see how culpable 
 she is." 
 
 Orcutt strode by him and flung open the door. 
 
 "Come, we'll turn on the screws and laugh while 
 her heart-strings snap. A tender, suffering woman! 
 culpable? not culpable? My God!"
 
 XXVI 
 
 received them in the library. It was a 
 large, sumptuously furnished room, three 
 sides lined with books so exquisitely bound that 
 it looked more like a show than a working library. 
 Which it was. George Orcutt's father had been an 
 amateur collector of expensive special editions, 
 books with illustrations painted by the hands of 
 recognized artists, autobiographies containing orig- 
 inal letters, verse whose whole text was done by 
 hand in wonderful illuminated lettering. It was a 
 collection to look at and exclaim over, not primarily 
 to read. But it presented a handsome appearance, 
 and, together with the fine pictures, marbles and 
 bronzes, massive carved furniture, priceless rugs 
 and draperies, made the room richly aesthetic. The 
 gas-lighted logs in the fire-place gave added color 
 and warmth. Gail's gown of white broadcloth em- 
 broidered in gold with deft touches of crimson made 
 the bizarre beauty a whole. 
 
 "Just a word first," she pronounced in trembling 
 voice. "I thought this interview was to be with 
 you alone, doctor. No matter. Please proceed to 
 
 190
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 191 
 
 it; only understand that the relations between Mr. 
 Orcutt and myself are purely personal and private. 
 Either as friend or physician, you must not speak 
 for him. He and I " 
 
 "Ah!" The doctor's prominent jaw shot for- 
 ward. "How was Mr. Orcutt when you last heard 
 from him? Your husband is lucky to have Doctor 
 Manton for a physician wonderful man! tran- 
 scendent genius! He spent a day with me while 
 he was here four years ago, a banner day for me. 
 We lesser .men can only sit at his feet in wonder." 
 
 The man who loved Gail Orcutt watched her 
 face. He leapt forward and pushed a chair under 
 her sinking frame. 
 
 "Don't be afraid, dear. In the end he'll be your 
 friend, as I am as I am, remember." 
 
 The alienist seated himself by the table. 
 
 "You see, Mrs. Orcutt, he loves you. I shall 
 have to fight a combination, I fear." 
 
 Gail's lips were ashen, the brilliant eyes stupid 
 with sheer fright ; a greenish gray replaced the beau- 
 tiful pallor. Always before her fears had been 
 threaded with hope, her animation sustained by 
 the vivifying need of action to thwart, to mislead, 
 to convince and to conquer her opponent. Now, 
 found out, and at the mercy of an enemy, she was 
 stricken like a flower scorched by the wind. Limp 
 and terrified and wholly helpless, she crouched 
 rather than sat waited numbly for the crucifying 
 end.
 
 i 9 2 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 Truly pitiable as she looked, the doctor's eyes 
 rested on her coldly; but a sudden warm light rushed 
 forth as they raised to the belligerent face of the 
 man standing protectingly beside her, with lips 
 obstinately set and eyes that were full of fight. 
 
 "Mrs. Orcutt, your defender has asked me, nay, 
 pleaded with me and threatened me, to show you 
 mercy. His reason has been that he loves you. But 
 if I seem harsh, cruel you and he may say it is 
 because he does love you, because you have enslaved 
 him for your own selfish purpose. In other ways, 
 where you, yourself, have been a victim, I shall try 
 to remember your need and be fair. Will you please 
 tell us your story?" 
 
 Gail stared at him with glazed eyes. 
 
 He broke the long silence that followed with a 
 short laugh. 
 
 "You want first to learn how much I know, in 
 truly diplomatic fashion. Listen, Mrs. Orcutt: 
 George Orcutt was a passenger on the steamer 
 San Giorgio to Italy on the seventh of last April, 
 the day after he killed Lucas Emmet. He sailed 
 under the name of George Ormond, and he still 
 goes by that name. He is now in Paris on the Rue 
 de Rivoli, with a valet and a physician as compan- 
 ions, acting under the instruction of Doctor Manton. 
 Your husband has incipient paresis; he is incurable, 
 and will grow steadily worse, but may live for years, 
 a burden to himself and to every one connected with 
 him. I have learned about him as a 'case,' and
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 193 
 
 your secret is not outside this room. I knew from 
 the beginning that my patient was not George Orcutt, 
 and I have worked steadily since his recovery to 
 learn his identity. It is only this week that I have 
 all the facts that I have related concerning your 
 husband. If you will glance at these two pictures, 
 you will see that no matter what else is in doubt, 
 there is no question that two separate individuals 
 sat for them. Who is the man beside you? That 
 is what I want to learn from you, Mrs. Orcutt." 
 
 As the narrative proceeded, a faint excitement 
 trickled through Gail's leaden brain. Mind and 
 body and soul paralyzed by his opening fire, she 
 dully awaited his sentence on herself. Her enemy 
 could tell her nothing about her defeat that she 
 had not anticipated exposure, the arrest of her 
 husband, scandal, a blighting heritage of duplicity 
 and demoralizing shame laid on her baby this was 
 to be the end, despite her wild and feverish fencing 
 with fate. She was a specter, apart, distant, sen- 
 sible of but one emotion curiosity to learn the his- 
 tory of her victim. This desire had always been 
 with her, haunting, insistent, at times overshadowing 
 her fears of discovery and consequent penalty. Her 
 one real interest now was the unfolding of this mys- 
 tery, this disturbing, perplexing, weirdly fascinating 
 mystery. 
 
 At the doctor's terse, "Who is the man beside 
 you?" she started up as though electrically shocked. 
 It was a moment before she comprehended the ques-
 
 i 9 4 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 tion in its full significance. Dazedly, she glanced 
 up at the face of the man who loved her. He was 
 her friend because he was still in ignorance. She 
 must tell them tell them 
 
 Wildly, like a creature hunted by bloodhounds, 
 she fled to the furthermost corner of the room. 
 
 Puzzled by so strange a move, the alienist arose, 
 his eyes and brain alert to learn what such conduct 
 meant. 
 
 "My God, Underwood, call it off ! I don't care 
 a rap who I am," cried Orcutt. He reached out his 
 hands to her. "Gail, look at me. I'm not going 
 to let any one injure you, dear." He started, fell 
 back a step before her shrinking terror. "You are 
 afraid of me of me!" He turned in bewilder- 
 ment to the alienist. "Underwood!" 
 
 "You are the one she has injured. She holds a 
 vision of the other woman waiting." 
 
 Gail's eyes, ablaze with a species of madness, 
 sought the doctor's. 
 
 "Tell me, in pity! Is there some one?" 
 
 Very gently, Underwood, all physician now that 
 he read illness in her fevered eyes, guided her to a 
 chair and bent her unresisting body to its depth. 
 
 "Come, now; come," he soothed. "There is no 
 one going to injure you ; no one. Get a small glass 
 of water, Orcutt." Smiling, his voice running on in 
 cheerful, friendly tone, the doctor stirred a white 
 powder in the water. "Drink this. Ah, that's 
 good. Now, rest a little."
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 195 
 
 "Underwood," cried the younger man. "Isn't 
 this enough for to-day, anyhow? You're driving 
 her mad and me. You hold the whip hand be 
 merciful." 
 
 "The most merciful thing to her just now is to 
 go to the end with this. Do you think she will rest 
 a moment till she has cleared her mind fully and 
 knows exactly where she stands? Ah, you agree 
 with me, Mrs. Orcutt. Come, then," gently; "speak 
 out the whole story from the beginning. You 
 have a lenient judge in him, and he, not I, will be 
 your judge in the final summing-up. Mine is the 
 whip hand only till the evidence is in." 
 
 Slowly her somber eyes raised to the man's she 
 had injured. 
 
 "It's acquittal, dear," he said softly. "Come, 
 let's clear the whole matter up. Now that it rests 
 wholly between you and me I am ready to hear 
 anything." 
 
 He bent over her, his voice troubled. 
 
 "Keep back nothing. I am not sure that even / 
 should judge you leniently if you deceive me. Play 
 fair, play fair, Gail." 
 
 It was the inner man who spoke, the man deep 
 imbedded to whom truth, Truth Impersonal, was- 
 greater than Love. Though he did not yet know 
 this. She sensed it, but only as an unseen danger, 
 dimly felt and apprehended. The alienist looked 
 on curiously. He wondered if she had discovered 
 the unbending Puritanism deeply intrenched beneath
 
 196 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 the pseudo Orcutt's flow of worldly toleration and 
 gay fellowship. He could conceive of counts upon 
 which he, her open enemy, would be a more lenient 
 judge than her lover and, in part, because he was 
 her lover. 
 
 Shivering visibly under the impelling gaze, she 
 answered humbly: 
 
 "I will." 
 
 She proceeded to her story's unfoldment, the sen- 
 tences sometimes fast upon one another, and clearly 
 enunciated, again haltingly, the tone so low it was 
 a strain on her hearers to catch all the words. Her 
 voice was colorless and flat, possessed of a dead 
 quality that made her seem not a pulsing human 
 being, but an automatic instrument. Accompanying 
 the dulled tones was a monotonous drop drop 
 drop of a steadily falling rain on the window- 
 sills, and a low buzzing blowing from the gas logs. 
 She related the plain facts without apology or exten- 
 uation, argument or glossary. It was primarily a 
 tale of what happened, not of the why and the 
 wherefore. She laid bare her acts, and kept herself 
 veiled and shrouded in a shadowed background. 
 
 Her voice ceased. She sat very still, her eyes 
 bent on the floor. 
 
 A sound broke upon the poignant stillness, an ex- 
 clamation of resistless humor from Orcutt. The 
 alienist grinned in quick response. The cupboard 
 was bare and lo ! the poor dog had none. The end 
 of her tale found them where they were at the be-
 
 '' 'You do not forgive ' she mumbled. 'I I did not expect 
 
 Only ' " Page 197
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 197 
 
 ginning even farther away: for their final resort 
 was now explored and found vacant of the expected 
 treasure. She was as unpossessed of her victim's 
 identity as himself. Its ludicrous element struck 
 the waiting men first, keyed as they were to a fever 
 pitch of expectancy. 
 
 He was laughing! Gail's blood began to glow 
 warm with the hope that thrilled it. She felt the 
 awful pall lifting from her, almost as though it 
 were a visible thing removed. Her face turned to 
 him like- a happily surprised child's. 
 
 "You forgive me?" she quavered. 
 
 There was a taut silence. The alienist held his 
 breath and the questioner felt the pall drop back 
 upon her. 
 
 "You do not forgive " she mumbled. "I I 
 
 did not expect Only " 
 
 "Forgive? Forgive?" The lover's eyes swept 
 the pitifully crouching figure, rested on the pallid 
 face, surpassingly lovely even in its veil of anguish. 
 "I do not know yet whether there is anything to 
 forgive or whether there is an injury so deep that 
 it passes the line of forgiveness to condonement, 
 guilty condonement, because I love you so irrevo- 
 cably. You say my pockets were empty; that there 
 were no letters or papers about me; none?" 
 
 She gave answer in the negative by a slow shake 
 of the head. 
 
 "But the label of my tailor, surely that told you 
 the name of my town?"
 
 198 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Label? Yes, there would be a tailor's name on 
 the coat. I didn't think of that. He said there 
 was nothing not the slightest clue to your iden- 
 tity." 
 
 "He? your husband? Do you mean that you, 
 yourself, did not search?" 
 
 "You were a strange man and And he 
 
 promised " 
 
 "A strange man that was to bear the brand of 
 murderer to serve you, that was to be brought into 
 your house, pass for your husband, your child's 
 
 father And you did not trouble to save a clue 
 
 that might lead him to his own identification when 
 you were through with him!" 
 
 "Don't! Don't!" she cried out feebly against 
 his stern eyes. "I was oh! " 
 
 "You were in great need. I know. But that 
 strange man was helpless." 
 
 Throughout the man spoke quietly, an even, 
 deadly quiet that congealed Gail's blood. She had 
 felt the indomitability of his will when he demanded 
 the prerogatives of a husband, the impelling force 
 that lay always back of his words. She had been 
 afraid of the veiled strength that could be seen even 
 through his lightest and most boyish moods. She 
 had known from their first meeting after his recov- 
 ery that he would be a dangerous opponent one 
 that no wiles could swerve from the end his con- 
 victions demanded. She was frightened anew. 
 "Helpless?" Yes; he had been helpless. She was a
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 199 
 
 kidnapper. Her crime was as great as would be 
 that of a desperado who picked Vance up from the 
 street and hid him securely away. And perhaps as 
 heinous, for some one mayhap was suffering even 
 as she might suffer over losing her baby. 
 
 "You must have realized your responsibility 
 toward him and his," he continued. 
 
 "No," she protested. Then: "Yes yes I 
 knew I always knew, only " 
 
 "Only " 
 
 "He. came first my baby! I had to save him." 
 
 It was a simple statement. The physician nodded 
 his head in understanding. But to the other, man 
 only, her passion of motherhood carried no illu- 
 minating message. He continued to look at her in 
 an appalled belief that he could not understand. 
 
 She slid to her knees, caught his hands and laid 
 them to her burning cheeks. Her eyes held his 
 imploringly. 
 
 "I saved your things. He he nailed them in a 
 box It's in the attic " 
 
 "In the attic," he repeated, struggling with the 
 portent of her words. "You could have perhaps 
 learned who I am at any moment. And you have 
 allowed me to love you not knowing what other 
 ties I might have. You you, my Gail." 
 
 "Please don't be unfair," she sobbed. "My cal- 
 endar is black enough. You know I haven't wanted 
 you to love me. I did want your friendship, but 
 not to trade on."
 
 200 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 They gazed at each other steadily. They forgot 
 they were not alone. She was on her knees before 
 him, his hands still held against her cheeks. 
 
 "I can't make you out," he groaned. "You are an 
 
 enigma. And the woman, good or evil 
 
 The box that holds my belongings just where 
 is it?" 
 
 She staggered to her feet. 
 
 "I'll have Jackson get it," cried she. "He put it 
 away and will know just where it is." 
 
 She was all eagerness, like a child trying to make 
 amends. But her eyes were unchildishly anguished, 
 holding the sickness of death in them. 
 
 Her lover watched her with eyes soft, again 
 bitter; then with a helpless shake of the head he 
 waited.
 
 XXVII 
 
 JACKSON set the box on the floor and laid the 
 hammer and chisel beside it, as directed by 
 his employer, a little disturbed that he had not 
 been allowed to draw the nails and remove the 
 cover. He was not desirous to learn what the box 
 held, it having no particular significance to him, 
 but only to perform his duty. He left the room with 
 the uncomfortable feeling that his work was not 
 completed. 
 
 Nor was the box immediately opened. It was 
 as though a receptacle of the dead had been dragged 
 from the earth and stood gruesomely before them. 
 Actually, it was a common soap-box of pine and 
 much black lettering; but not one of them saw it 
 in its actuality. All the horror and desperation of 
 that day when it had been surreptitiously brought 
 into use rushed over Gail. She closed her eyes 
 against it, shuddering. Doctor Underwood's pulse 
 quickened; contained therein might be material for 
 the necessary shock to loosen his friend's jammed 
 stream of consciousness, already on the verge of dis- 
 solution. The man whom it most vitally concerned 
 trembled before its possibilities and held back. 
 
 201
 
 202 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 At the long stillness Gail's eyes unclosed. 
 
 ''Open it!" she screamed. 
 
 "Yes; let's get the agony over," said the alienist 
 in ragged tones. 
 
 Orcutt knelt and picked up the tools, sweat beads 
 of pure nervousness starting from his forehead. He 
 removed the boards deliberately, loosening each 
 board before removing any portion of the cover. 
 When open, he stared for a few moments at the 
 uppermost contents a coat of mixed gray and black 
 in almost invisible stripes and a self-colored bro- 
 cade navy blue necktie. His hands stumbled toward 
 the coat. Then suddenly the groping stopped and 
 his hands leaped forward with the precision of an 
 automaton. Into the depths of the right-hand 
 pocket his fingers went unerringly. It was a crum- 
 pled yellow paper they drew forth. 
 
 To the dull splash of the rain against the win- 
 dows and the irksome blowing of the gas logs was 
 added Gail's sharp breathing. She leaned forward, 
 her eyes resting in fascinated horror upon the yellow 
 paper he was reading. 
 
 "I didn't know," she panted. "I didn't know." 
 
 No one heard her. The other onlooker, now 
 wholly alienist, sat with tense nerves and muscles 
 awaiting the outcome. 
 
 The yellow paper was crushed in the man's con- 
 vulsive hand. His body swayed as though to fall, 
 righted itself, and he continued to stare ahead in a 
 stupor of agony. The rain, the blowing of the gas
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 203 
 
 logs, the woman's sharp breathing, all, in the deathly 
 atmosphere of suspense, was an intrusion that 
 seemed to clang and bellow and blatantly echo 
 and re-echo through the room. Both watchers 
 shivered visibly. It was like watching a ghastly 
 game between the forces of life and death. And 
 neither could help him by so much as a thought's 
 weight. He had found his past, the past that was 
 his before they knew him. He was now agonizing 
 over the tragedy that had shocked his brain into 
 a state of dissociation a year before. Would the 
 cut-off sensations of a year ago continue now on 
 their paths as though no time had elapsed between 
 then and now? Or would he have the memories 
 of both past and present, the separate streams of 
 consciousness synthesized? The mystery held them 
 taut. Neither the friend who loved him nor the 
 woman who had wronged him took cognizance of 
 his suffering. 
 
 Would he know them? 
 
 Deaf and dumb and blind to everything else, they 
 waited the answer to that question: Would he 
 know them? Awaited it hours as measured by their 
 straining nerves, minutes measured by the clock. 
 
 He staggered to his feet, opened his hand, and 
 held out the yellow slip to the doctor in silence; 
 then walked to the window, pressing his forehead 
 against the cold pane. 
 
 The telegram read:
 
 204 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "LOMNAY, CALIFORNIA, April 7, 1904. 
 "MR. KEITH EDGERTON, 
 Hotel Imperial, 
 
 New York City. 
 
 "Your father's new horse, Gorilla, backed him 
 and Harold over San Luis Arroya an hour ago. 
 Your father killed outright, Harold died on the 
 way home. Victoria prostrated. Please wire full 
 instructions about your desires as to funeral, etc. 
 Whole town ready to serve in any way and over- 
 come with grief. This message will seem heartless, 
 but I have no other recourse. We decided after 
 consultation that you must be told the truth at once. 
 May God help you, my boy, to bear this. Some 
 one of us will meet you with automobile at any 
 hour you may arrive. 
 
 "Your friend, 
 
 "DANIEL MANNERS." 
 
 The doctor read the message carefully, then 
 placed it in Gail's outstretched hands, and walked 
 to the window. He put an arm about the trembling 
 shoulders. 
 
 "Keith," said he, the name coming naturally, "I 
 want you to go home with me at once, dear boy. 
 This is a crisis. I speak plainly, you see. I want 
 you to put yourself in my charge absolutely for the 
 next twenty-four hours." 
 
 "Underwood, she has waited a year. I must 
 go to her now. God in Heaven how could you ! 
 Ah, my little Victoria, my poor darling! and I 
 wasn't there to comfort you " 
 
 Gail had crept near. She stood now very still, a
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 205 
 
 shaking wraith with the dumb suffering eyes of a 
 doe wounded unto death. 
 
 "Who is Victoria?" she breathed. 
 
 He did not look at her. 
 
 "My sister, a delicate girl of seventeen," he 
 answered, his voice ominously quiet. 
 
 "You owe it to her to put yourself in my care 
 for a day," urged the physician. "You must go to 
 her as a protector, not a possible charge." 
 
 "My mind? It's all right, Underwood. But I'll 
 give you the day you want I owe that much to you, 
 surely. A' day more will not seem long to Victoria 
 after waiting a year." 
 
 Gail reached out her hands in pleading. "I 
 I " came jerkily, "would die to undo " 
 
 "The moving finger writes and moves on," was 
 the answer. "No please don't explain I can't 
 bear anything more, and that don't you see how 
 inadequate anything is that you may say!" 
 
 "Yes I see " she quavered, and lay, a gold 
 
 and white bundle at his feet, unconscious. 
 
 "Unconsciousness is the very best condition for 
 her at present," pronounced the physician. "She's 
 fit subject for a hospital. I'll carry her to her room." 
 
 But the other man had raised her in his arms 
 and was gazing at her death-like face with eyes not 
 easy to fathom. 
 
 "Look at her, Underwood. She's like a flower, 
 a pure white lily. Would you believe she could 
 murder a young girl would you?"
 
 2o6 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 The alienist glanced at him sharply, his gaze pro- 
 fessional. 
 
 "No; I'm not delirious. Victoria hadn't the 
 strength to endure the corroding suspense of my 
 absence on top of the rest. She is dead mur- 
 dered by this woman. Strange, that God should 
 make a creature so beautiful and not give her a 
 soul." 
 
 He carried her up the broad stairs and into her 
 room. As he laid her down her eyelids fluttered 
 open. 
 
 The physician approached with a hypodermic 
 needle and a glass of water. Seating himself calmly, 
 he raised the short, wide-cuffed sleeve above her 
 elbow and proceeded to inject the morphia. 
 
 "There, that didn't hurt much," soothed he, smil- 
 ing professionally. "Your maid has orders to 
 undress you and get you into bed. I will send a 
 nurse, and you must do just as she says. Rest and 
 rest and more rest is what you need now. You've 
 been keyed up for so long that now you want to 
 cuddle down and be lazy like a kitten after a hard 
 frolic to catch a shadow." 
 
 Her gaze, pitiably pleading, sped by him to the 
 other. She pushed the doctor's detaining hand 
 away, staggered to her feet, and clutched at Keith 
 Edgerton's folded arms. 
 
 "Try to understand " she implored. "To try 
 
 to save my baby from shame wasn't cruel when I 
 didn't know I thought you were friend-
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 207 
 
 less, truly I did. I don't think I could have done it 
 if I had known." 
 
 "You don't think ! Don't you know?" 
 
 "Dear, he's my baby. I'd go to hell and burn 
 everlastingly if it would insure his happiness." 
 
 The little caressing word had power to thrill him, 
 even through his grief and horror and bitterness. 
 Hot resentment and anger swiftly followed. His 
 eyes blazed. 
 
 "Don't don't!" she moaned. "I can't live if 
 
 you despise me You know, you have always 
 
 known, that I love you Ah! you do know it 
 
 you must ' ' 
 
 Yes, he knew. Underneath all his doubts and tor- 
 ments and unbelief he had yet known that she loved 
 him almost from the first. 
 
 "Knowing makes it all the harder to understand," 
 he cried, a great weariness in his voice. 
 
 "I think you will never understand 
 
 That will be part of the price I must pay 
 She reeled from the morphia's influence. 
 "Ah lay me down " 
 
 No conversation passed between the two friends 
 on their way to the sanatorium. Edgerton sat with 
 chin dropped to his breast, a hand covering his eyes, 
 emotion surging now to deep groans, again to poig- 
 nant exclamations. Morris Underwood's eyes were 
 blurred with sympathy, his thoughts curiously ques- 
 tioning. The end of it all what was that to be?
 
 XXVIII 
 
 T^OCTOR UNDERWOOD turned the telegram 
 ^"^ over and over in his hand unconsciously. He 
 sat in glum meditation, critically considering its con- 
 tents. They were deeply disturbing. And every- 
 thing had been going so well from the viewpoint 
 of the physician. The lost memory had been fully 
 recovered and completely synthesized with later 
 memories; the mind of his friend was now a whole 
 and working normally the one truly satisfactory 
 condition by the alienistic standard. Moreover, he 
 had willingly obeyed the physician's instructions and 
 accepted his treatment without protest precau- 
 tionary treatment rather than remedial; for Edger- 
 ton's reception of the disastrous revelations of the 
 day before had shown him to be now possessed of 
 that poise and strength of mind that should, by all 
 alienistic tests, belong to him naturally. The mental 
 breakdown that occasioned his loss of memory had 
 always been a mysterious thing to the alienist, ac- 
 countable only on the hypothesis of an unusual com- 
 bination of havocing causes, a large factor being 
 prolonged nervous strain simultaneous with strong 
 emotional excitement and continuous worry. 
 
 208
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 209 
 
 He was now in normal physical and mental con- 
 dition, and should be able to endure the forthcoming 
 shock with only the normal results. Should. But 
 things did not always work out as they should, and 
 the dread fact contained in the telegraphic message 
 how would Keith bear this on top of his recent 
 sorrow? and how best to impart it? A simulta- 
 neous succession of harmless eruptions could be so 
 easily affected in the earth instead of one terrific 
 and devastating explosion. He had seen a ditch 
 beautifully made in this way. But the brain was 
 not a clod in which a specific amount of explosive 
 could be carefully placed just so far apart and go 
 off per arrangement at the igniting of the fuse. No 
 matter how gently flaming news was dropped on a 
 sensitive mind, the effect was as instantaneous as 
 that of a lighted match to nitro-glycerin that the 
 resultant shock might or might not prove injurious 
 was purely accidental. 
 
 His head shot forward in listening attitude. Yes; 
 it was Edgerton's step at the door. He thrust the 
 telegram in his pocket and rose with smiling non- 
 chalance. 
 
 "You sent the message we agreed on?" was Keith 
 Edgerton's greeting. 
 
 "Yes; at four yesterday afternoon." 
 
 "The answer 1 You have it I saw the boy 
 
 bring it as I was dressing." 
 
 "Keith "
 
 210 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "It is true, then. She is dead! Little Victoria 
 murdered." 
 
 He sat down in the chair he usually chose, a deep 
 leather chair, grown slouchy and comfortable with 
 many years' service. 
 
 "When did she die?" 
 
 The alienist hesitated. 
 
 "When did she die?" 
 
 "Does it make any difference when, Keith?" 
 asked the doctor softly. 
 
 "No; it makes no difference. She was murdered, 
 whether she died a month or eight months ago. 
 Had I been taken in charge by an officer, as I should 
 have been had I not been ruthlessly carried off, the 
 telegram telling of father's and Harold's deaths 
 would have been found and answered. I should 
 have been free to go home to comfort her or to 
 be tended by her either way she would have lived." 
 
 His friend's little eyes blinked at him inquiringly 
 behind the disguising glasses; his first impression 
 being that the lover was trying to steel his heart 
 against a dreaded weakness by convincing himself 
 of his beloved's unpardonable guilt. But no; he 
 saw that he was simply stating the case as it ap- 
 peared to him, summing up the evidence as might 
 a judge. 
 
 "The message, please," came incisively. 
 
 The doctor handed it over, his apprehensions 
 fully allayed by the stern quality of Edgerton's 
 grief. It was worded:
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 211 
 
 "LOMNAY, CALIFORNIA, Feb. 18. 
 "MORRIS UNDERWOOD, M. D., 
 "Underwood Sanatorium, 
 
 "Valhalla, New York. 
 
 "Keith Edgerton left home for New York City 
 April 2, 1904, registered at Hotel Imperial April 
 8. Disappeared same day after receiving telegram 
 telling of death of father and brother. His bag- 
 gage left at hotel. Man of his description sailed 
 on Str. St. Paul bound for Liverpool, same after- 
 noon, jumped overboard next morning. No bag- 
 gage, and no one aboard knew this man and no 
 claims made later. Name on ship's sailing list 
 Ralph Stone. Believe foul play, as Keith was very 
 high-principled and considerate. Victoria, his sis- 
 ter, died October 20 of heart complications. Last 
 of Edgerton family here. All communications 
 gladly answered that may lead to clearing mystery. 
 Large estate in waiting. 
 
 "JOHN L. MANNERS, M. D." 
 
 "Foul play! About as foul as has ever been done, 
 Underwood," said Edgerton grimly. 
 
 The alienist said nothing. He had not hesitated 
 to speak plainly, even brutally, against Mrs. Orcutt 
 to accomplish his purpose to make whole his pa- 
 tient, to give his friend the name that was his birth- 
 right. This done, he was personally satisfied. And 
 wisdom, the wisdom that is greater than knowledge, 
 bade him now hold his peace. His friend loved 
 her, and the end was not reached. It would be 
 easier for Keith Edgerton to forget what he him-
 
 212 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 self had said against the woman he loved than to 
 forgive the arraignment of another. 
 
 Too, the doctor had reverted to the revelation 
 of the telegram; another phase than the death of 
 Victoria the Ralph Stone incident. He had run 
 upon an account of the St. Paul suicide while inves- 
 tigating the George Orcutt affair. He had thought 
 for a short while that this man might have been 
 Orcutt, as he had sailed on the same day of the 
 murder, without baggage, and no one save the 
 authorities had then made inquiries into Stone's 
 death. This was ten days after Emmet was killed 
 and evidently before Keith's friends began their 
 inquiries. Stone was said to have been clean shaven, 
 a state that Orcutt would naturally resort to as a 
 disguise, had been the doctor's inference, and con- 
 sidered by him as evidence till fuller description of 
 features convinced him that he must search further 
 to find Orcutt. 
 
 "Had you worn a Vandyke beard previous to 
 your leaving home long enough for there to have 
 been a photograph or kodak taken that way?" ques- 
 tioned Underwood abruptly. 
 
 Edgerton awoke from his absorbed thoughts. 
 
 "No; I didn't take time to shave while There 
 
 had been illness I came away without much 
 
 preparation The porter on the Pullman took 
 
 my shagginess in hand with evident delight, and 
 seemed so proud of his work that I hadn't the heart 
 to have a shave till out of his presence, nor did I
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 213 
 
 care If I had been shaved If I had only 
 
 been shaved!" 
 
 "Humph!" grunted the doctor. "You were 
 searched for then, but without the identifying Van- 
 dyke beard that figured so prominently in the news- 
 paper accounts of Orcutt. Naturally, you were con- 
 flicted with the suicide, Stone. And even if your 
 picture appeared in the papers, they would repre- 
 sent you as clean shaven, telling nothing to me nor 
 even to Mrs. Orcutt," he admitted. "To your 
 friends it was as though the earth had opened and 
 swallowed you up to us you appeared as though 
 dropped from a clear sky; I see more clearly than 
 I have before how men are lost and never accounted 
 for descriptions are perilous things to go by 
 and with so many scents, it is wonderfully easy to 
 follow away from instead of to the quarry. Yet, 
 if it had been one of your own blood hunting for 
 you I am inclined to think the search would not 
 have stopped with the Stone explanation." 
 
 "Last of Edgerton family here," Edgerton re- 
 peated, in low, awed tones, his mind on the tele- 
 graphic communication from his home, not heeding 
 the doctor's musings. "Underwood, two years ago 
 there were six of us. Mother's death, that came 
 first, was unbelievable. That one of us should ever 
 be separated from the others was a thing none of 
 us could grasp. And she had always been so well; 
 the very day before her death she was glorious with 
 health and joy. She had been bothered a little at
 
 2i 4 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 times with a curious pain in her right side that she 
 always laughed over and diagnosed as ice cream or 
 too much fresh fruit or any other conceivably dis- 
 turbing food. Then " 
 
 "Appendicitis." 
 
 "Appendicitis," he echoed, shuddering. "And 
 we could not believe it even when we saw her put 
 in her grave. We were like lost spirits for weeks 
 after the home was not our home without her. 
 Agnes gathered up the reins of the household the 
 best she could, and somehow we went on. We found 
 we could live and even smile and laugh. But the 
 scar was there; she had rooted so deep in us all 
 that a vital part of ourselves had been torn away 
 with her going Then Agnes ! typhoid " 
 
 He rose and paced the floor, his hands clenched. 
 
 "Agnes! part of myself in more than just flesh 
 and blood. Twins, we had played and dreamt and 
 thought together from babyhood. There was a 
 bond between us more than that of mere brother 
 and sister. We more than sympathized with each 
 other's joys and pains ; we felt them, literally. For 
 six weeks I didn't leave her for an hour perhaps 
 
 I slept some sitting I don't know She died 
 
 with her head on my shoulder."
 
 XXIX 
 
 ' I V HE physician sat in silence and waited patiently 
 * for Keith to continue his story. It was 
 something he had felt he could not ask for. Any 
 confidence, of a personal matter must be given vol- 
 untarily or be forever withheld, had been his de- 
 cision. Only, he was immeasurably glad that he 
 had told him, glad in a fond, fatherly way that had 
 nothing to do with his professional interest, albeit 
 he was possessed of a certain satisfaction in that 
 he had so correctly diagnosed the experiences that 
 led up to Keith's breakdown. It was upward of a 
 half-hour before the narrative continued, then Ed- 
 gerton resumed his story, speaking as quietly as 
 before. 
 
 "It was like a dream then, and now. The world 
 was a strange spectral thing without Agnes. The 
 doctor ordered a change for me, and Father, grand, 
 unselfish, old Dad, arranged for me to go East. 
 There was some talk of Harold's coming with me 
 but there was Victoria to think of, our baby Vic- 
 toria, delicate from birth. Harold was very com- 
 panionable to her, and it was decided that he must 
 
 215
 
 216 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 stay to keep her company. The nurse remained to 
 look after her health, and a housekeeper came from 
 somewhere to run the house. The irony of it! 
 
 Harold stayed to comfort Victoria If he had 
 
 come " 
 
 "Stop! There is never any 'if,' Keith. Because 
 many roads open to one view doesn't mean that 
 we have any choice in the one we must tread. We 
 take the road which we, by reason of our being 
 and training and circumstances, must take. The 
 others are only what might have been chosen if 
 our antecedents had been other than they are. Half 
 the misery in the world comes from not seeing this. 
 'If she had only not taken her child to the party 
 he would not have contracted diphtheria and died' 
 'If he had only not sent his boy to college he 
 wouldn't have been on the rowing team and been 
 
 drowned' // */ if And all the while the 
 
 step we take is inevitable, not ordained as an en- 
 tity from the beginning of time, but led up to as 
 inexorably as though it had been bodily conceived 
 in the foundations of the universe. Curse and groan 
 all you will over the things that are, but do not, in 
 the name of science and logic, bemoan the non-exis- 
 tence of conditions that in the very nature of things 
 could never have existed at all." 
 
 It was a sore point with Morris Underwood 
 the futile repinings of a world of people. And 
 doubly exasperating coming from a man of Keith 
 Edgerton's intelligence and trained mind. Yet his
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 217 
 
 subject had carried him farther than he realized 
 till he had finished. 
 
 "The old sorehead got going and couldn't stop," 
 he apologized quickly. 
 
 "Father and brother and sister buried, and I not 
 there," groaned the other, his mind wholly barren 
 of the doctor's words. "Victoria lived six months 
 after the horror and shock of Father's and Har- 
 old's deaths, and all the grief that had gone before ! 
 It was waiting that killed her corroding suspense 
 over me." 
 
 "Come, Keith," said the physician gently, "no 
 more of that. The past is the past. To accept it 
 is all you can do. You are blameless of it all." 
 
 "I ? yes." Edgerton's eyes, transfixed with dull 
 agony, raised to the solicitous face. "She mur- 
 dered Victoria as truly as we both sit here." 
 
 "And that is what you can't be resigned to?" 
 The words were more a statement than a question. 
 
 The dull voice went on, unheeding. 
 
 "That she could do it! the whole miserable 
 affair. If it had been one impulsive act quickly 
 repented of and righted as far as lay in her power 
 But this long lie, this carefully conceived fraud, this 
 damnable treachery! I can't understand her. She's 
 so considerate of others, so fair in her judgments, 
 so adorably tender and wise with Vance." 
 
 "That's the solution of it all. She's a mother 
 and one of the mysteries of the world," answered 
 the physician. "She will not only endure hell for
 
 2i 8 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 the child she has borne, but will ruthlessly drag any 
 one else with her to serve him. You, any one, is 
 but a pawn to be sacrificed. Civilization has given 
 a mother nothing: she still tears and rends for the 
 child of her womb and doesn't know that the whole 
 world of humanity is her Babe, waiting in swad- 
 dling clothes for Her to save it. But what will 
 you! She's a woman. Treachery, lying, deceit! 
 to slay a man's faith ! to deaden his soul ! this is 
 nothing if a woman has a point to gain." 
 
 Keith Edgerton's face twisted to a shadowy 
 smile. "A woman has struck you and your eyes 
 are still out of focus. My mother and Agnes and 
 little Victoria there was nothing but goodness in 
 them. They wouldn't have known how to play a 
 part. We all lived in the open body, mind, and 
 soul." 
 
 He clenched his hands again, and looked past 
 his friend in dumb inquiry. It hung over him 
 a blank amazement. He had said truly that he 
 could not understand. Candor, frankness, an al- 
 most naked baring of their mental life had char- 
 acterized the Edgertons from whom he sprang. 
 No meant "no" without qualification; "yes" held no 
 equivocations. "To thine own self be true," was a 
 fundamental maxim. There must be integrity of 
 soul, whatever else there was not. The unforgiv- 
 able sin was falsehood falsehood by word or act 
 or manner. To learn at first hand of the deception 
 of friend, neighbor, tradesman, any one whosoever,
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 219 
 
 always brought from Samuel Edgerton, Keith's 
 father, the terse verdict, "rotten at the core." 
 
 It may have been an exemplification of the theory 
 that folk will generally do as done by that caused 
 the Edgertons to be more honestly dealt with than 
 the mankind about them. But more likely it was 
 fear of the scorn that shone from Edgerton's eyes 
 a righteous scorn that caused the one on whom 
 it fell to writhe in unfamiliar shame. The culprit 
 always knew it was not a case of the pot and the 
 kettle ; his own murky color, ordinarily unnoticed by 
 himself, became infamously black under the white 
 light of truth beating unpretentiously upon it. 
 
 Both the Edgertons and the Kings, Keith's 
 mother's family, had descended from the Quakers. 
 The gentle austerity, the simple mode of living, the 
 unpretending virtues of the Quakers, were theirs. 
 Samuel Edgerton and Rowena King had graduated 
 from the University of Pennsylvania the same year; 
 the man had taken history and philosophy for his 
 major subjects; the woman, a classical course. Then 
 they had married and gone to California, the one 
 to fruit farming, the other to the duties of house- 
 keeping and motherhood. When asked by a prac- 
 tical friend why they had not specialized in horti- 
 culture and domestic science, they had only smiled 
 at each other and evaded the question. Their ob- 
 ject had not primarily been to prepare themselves 
 to make a living, but to make living worth while 
 to themselves.
 
 220 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 And because of virgin soil and the sun that al- 
 ways shone and irrigation that never failed and 
 good brain-stuff, they made a living and more. It 
 was not a lonely land to them, this ranch ten miles 
 from their nearest neighbor. When their work was 
 over they had their books and the intellectual en- 
 joyment of each other and the rare ability to think. 
 Then, dearest of all joys, the chance to impart 
 knowledge to their children, those beings that had 
 sprung from out their own loins, and, in that miracu- 
 lous fact, different from all other beings that the 
 universe had ever known or could know. 
 
 The teachers had not been the less exacting and 
 thorough because they were parents, nor the par- 
 ents less loving and playfully companionable because 
 they superadded the necessary discipline and rigor 
 that the teaching of lessons somehow requires. It 
 had been a wonderful home life, more wonderful 
 than parents or children knew. It bore in upon 
 Keith Edgerton in a flood what an elysium his home 
 had been. A vision of the material house and set- 
 ting rose before him. He saw the big plaster house 
 with its red tile roof built in picturesque Spanish 
 style, the climbing roses that reached to roof and 
 chimney, the palms, the heliotrope bushes big as 
 trees, the flaming poinsettias, the riotous geraniums. 
 He felt himself again amidst orange groves and 
 orchards of plum and apricot and peach and lus- 
 cious figs. No wonder he had longed for the open 
 and for work that would tire his muscles; for such
 
 221 
 
 had been his life. Indoors and idleness were alien 
 to him; as were deceit and lying and chicanery. 
 
 "I can't understand!" he cried again, his voice 
 hoarse and thick. 
 
 "No; for woman is woman and man is man," 
 said Morris Underwood acridly. He was fond of 
 paraphrasing and almost always apt and bitter. 
 "Give up the riddle. Go to your home and forget 
 her or hold her memory as an antidote against 
 her breed. I should like a trip to California. Doc- 
 tor Unwin can take care of things here for a few 
 months. I'll go West with you." 
 
 Just then the telephone rang. 
 
 "You," said the doctor, handing over the receiver. 
 
 "Papa," came the child's voice, high-pitched and 
 tearful, and sounding throughout the room as clearly 
 as at the receiver, "I want you. Mama's sick and 
 I Oh, Papa, you are coming home Mama says 
 you won't, ever. She's de-lir-us, isn't she? You 
 are coming home and you are going South with 
 Mama and me you are, aren't you? aren't you, 
 Papa?" 
 
 Keith Edgerton's answering voice was deliberate. 
 
 "Sure, partner, I'm going South with you and 
 Mama. I promised you, remember. I'll go home 
 as soon as you and Bryan can come for me. Tell 
 Bryan the open car. Be sure that he wraps you up 
 well." 
 
 "Oh! oh! And may I tell Mama?" 
 
 "Yes tell Mama."
 
 XXX 
 
 'T^HE doctor looked at Edgerton in the grieved, 
 * helpless way a father might look on a way- 
 ward son bent on destruction. 
 
 "A fool there is," said he bitterly. "You're not 
 a dupe now, but a blind, passion befogged idiot. 
 Knowingly you elect to be a pawn. You, a man 
 of How old are you?" 
 
 "Thirty-two last month." 
 
 "Thirty-two ! a boy!" 
 
 Edgerton's shadowy smile reappeared. 
 
 "I was a man by Father's reckoning at eighteen. 
 Both his boys and. girls were considered mature 
 enough at that age to govern their own actions and 
 the actions of others; I was given a hundred and 
 fifty acres of fruit land and put in charge of forty 
 men the day I was eighteen, and the responsibility 
 of success or failure was left wholly to me a re- 
 sponsibility that I had been carefully prepared for 
 by long training. No, I'm not a boy, if a man of 
 thirty-two ever is. Will you tell me what else I 
 could do? Dr. Beatson says and you corroborate 
 him, that Vance should be operated on this week 
 
 222
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 223 
 
 and have rest and quiet and happy surroundings for 
 a month at least after. Should you, the physician, 
 advise me to go now and leave Vance? let him 
 now know that I am not his father?" 
 
 "No; not the physician." 
 
 "Nor the man." 
 
 "But " 
 
 "Underwood, I love the boy. He's mine in a 
 sense you can't realize." 
 
 "I think I can." The doctor's tone was heavy 
 
 with significance. "I you " He stopped. 
 
 Sentiment was not easy for the caustic, jeering scien- 
 tist to express. 
 
 The tender lighting of the younger man's eyes 
 bespoke understanding of the big heart mourning 
 parentally over him. 
 
 "I'm the last of the Edgertons, but even so, not 
 without some one of my own," said he in low voice. 
 "No; I have you and the boy." 
 
 "Forgive me, Keith, but we count not a jot be- 
 side the woman." 
 
 Edgerton gazed into the flickering fire. 
 
 "Underwood, five of my own flesh and blood, that 
 I loved in truth better than myself I would have 
 willingly died for any one of them are gone, deso- 
 lation upon desolation! Yet the hurt that she has 
 
 given ! Death ! We are somehow made to 
 
 bear honorable death. If I had ever thought about 
 it I should have said I could not live without Agnes 
 And to lose father and mother such a
 
 224 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 father! such a mother, Underwood! And Har- 
 old, you would have loved him at the first sight of 
 his happy face. And little gentle Victoria ! Oh, 
 God! they're not all gone they can't be!" 
 
 He flung his arms across the table and bowed 
 his head to its hard surface; the sobs came then, 
 hoarse, unrestricted, racking his body with their out- 
 pouring vehemence. The physician looked on with 
 eyes very moist and very wondering. The boy loved 
 them passionately his dead; for here was a heart 
 stricken sore with grief, a heart that would never 
 wholly heal even though the mind learned to ac- 
 cept his loss with philosophical fortitude. Yet a 
 woman, a being that the lover himself called soul- 
 less, could bring him a grief deeper, more unbear- 
 able and more destructive! The mystery, the 
 everlasting mystery of sex! 
 
 The sobs ceased abruptly, the bloodshot eyes fo- 
 cused upon him. 
 
 "Why should I blubber like this? God gave life 
 and has taken it again in His inscrutable way. I 
 must bear it somehow as man has from the be- 
 ginning." 
 
 "Yes," said his friend, "and alone! I might be 
 willing to lay down my life to save you pain; but 
 what of it? I can't overstep the thing I call Myself 
 and penetrate the forever to be unknown You. 
 Alone! The soul is always alone. Emerson, if I 
 remember rightly, wrote that the only thing grief 
 taught him was to know how shallow it is. You
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 225 
 
 would find that even if the woman died, you could 
 somehow live on very much as you are now." 
 
 Edgerton shot upright to his feet and wheeled 
 upon him. 
 
 "Yes; if she had died! Underwood, don't you 
 know it is easier to lose the beloved woman herself 
 than to lose faith in her? Would the death of your 
 beloved have made you a cynic? Death is the kind- 
 est thing that comes sometimes. But to lose faith ! 
 To lose faith!" 
 
 Morris Underwood looked curiously upon the 
 grief-sodden boyish face, appraising him anew. 
 
 "Ah !" The tone proclaimed that he had pounced 
 upon a satisfying answer. "You were brought up 
 to believe that truth and honesty and unselfishness 
 are the natural attributes of humanity. Not to pos- 
 sess these cardinal virtues damns even your Gail for 
 you." He laughed shortly. "I never had faith to 
 lose. I only asked that the woman love me. She 
 could have had a soul as lurid as hell if she had 
 given me her heart aflame. Your divinity loves you 
 and you stop aghast before a lie. Oh, yes; you 
 yet want her. I'm not questioning your emotions. 
 But to reason ! To stipulate for the virtues !" 
 
 Something of his unfailing humor lighted Edger- 
 ton's face. 
 
 "Reason can't be said to be in evidence when 
 you discuss woman. In the same breath you tell 
 me both to flee temptation and to embrace it. Oh, 
 I know the latter is merely talk; you've got the
 
 226 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 habit of scoffing at virtue and you spout against it 
 like a park agitator against the Government." 
 
 The doctor's face reddened from hanging jowls 
 to the hair line of his projecting forehead. Could 
 he tell the boy that he, Morris Underwood, would 
 embrace temptation loving and being loved as 
 Keith Edgerton was but that, parent fashion, he 
 wished the child of his heart to flee from it for the 
 sake of his untarnished soul? 
 
 "No matter," said Keith, interpreting in part his 
 confusion. "I shall follow my own path anyhow, 
 so don't worry over what you have said or left 
 unsaid." 
 
 The massive head nodded slowly in acquiescence. 
 Yes; the boy would go his own way. He could 
 sputter and growl and look on and that was all. 
 
 "Ah," said Edgerton, his eyes gazing out the 
 window, "I think I see Bryan and Vance. Under- 
 wood, I want you to write Dr. Manners and tell 
 him that Keith Edgerton is alive, and explain about 
 my loss of memory. Say you have treated him pro- 
 fessionally and that you will disclose his where- 
 abouts when it is safe for Keith's future health and 
 happiness to do so. Say that he is no longer with 
 you but that you are in touch with him, and that 
 you have just now learned the identity of your ex- 
 patient by chance. Impress it upon Dr. Manners 
 that the case must be left in your hands entirely, that 
 you will communicate with them as necessity occa- 
 sions. Your reputation will sufficiently awe him into
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 227 
 
 acquiescence and make him feel that he can trust 
 me to you unhampered. Ask him to arrange in 
 some way that the estate is not left in disuse. If the 
 ranch is not already let and my affairs looked after, 
 Judge Landlow will give him the authority to act 
 for me and to keep you informed as to anything 
 that might react to Keith's benefit." 
 
 The doctor shook himself joyously as a dog might. 
 
 "Good! And when do you expect to start West? 
 I'll arrange for my absence while you're in Florida. 
 I should rather leave Doctor Hall in charge Un- 
 win is something of a fool occasionally." 
 
 "I didn't say I was going West," said Edgerton 
 tersely. 
 
 They stared at each other glared, more prop- 
 erly speaking. 
 
 "You mean " 
 
 "Perhaps I don't know just what I do mean," 
 Edgerton smiled faintly. 
 
 "You have a vision. What is it?" 
 
 "You would sneer at it. To have visions one 
 needs faith in humanity." 
 
 "Humph!" grunted the doctor. "You're going 
 to try to give a woman a soul. Don't. This soul 
 business is bad. Love her if you must, for the pagan 
 she is, and let it go at that." 
 
 A knock sounded at the door. Vance, enveloped 
 in furs, entered. 
 
 "We've come for you. Why why you've been 
 crying, too ! Mama's in bed, de-lir-us."
 
 228 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "You talk to Doctor Underwood while I get my 
 cap and coat on." 
 
 The child stood in silence after the man left the 
 room. 
 
 "It's a strange world, eh?" queried the doctor in 
 friendly banter. 
 
 "Yes," returned the boy. "It is now, but when 
 I'm grown it'll be " 
 
 "Not a bit different from now, Vance." 
 
 "But men know, don't they?" 
 
 "Not enough to brag about. You see, we have 
 our mysteries, horrid, troublesome things, that baffle 
 us the same as you." 
 
 "Was Papa crying over a mystery?" 
 
 "Not a mystery, Vance; the mystery, the world- 
 old mystery, that men try to fathom and never, 
 never do. Male and female created He them ! 
 and laughed^ It doesn't say He laughed, but He 
 did, Vance, for it is the supreme joke of the uni- 
 verse. To make two creatures who by no possibility 
 could ever understand each other, and then pair 
 them off through eternity." 
 
 "I don't understand." 
 
 "Nor do we not a beggarly one of us. Keith," 
 turning to the furry object that entered the room, 
 "this young man wants to grow up so that he will 
 understand the simple rule of two man and 
 
 woman." 
 
 "You called Papa 'Keith,' " giggled the child. 
 The men's eyes met blankly.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 229 
 
 "That's a new name I have for him. It means 
 idiot and visionary and hero and well-beloved. I 
 shall call him Keith all the while hereafter." 
 
 "But he's not an idiot," the boy protested hotly. 
 "And what does that other thing mean? a a 
 visiary?" 
 
 "An idiot plus," guffawed the doctor. 
 
 "Doctor Beatson operates Thursday at eleven 
 you'll be there?" said Edgerton, moving towards 
 the doqr. 
 
 "There's not the slightest need of my being 
 there." 
 
 "But you will?" 
 
 "Yes," said the physician. It was a growl. But 
 his eyes were whimsically tender. He had joined 
 the great army of worshippers and nothing was so 
 heart satisfying as service for his idol.
 
 XXXI 
 
 A S Edgerton passed Gail's room the door opened. 
 *^ "Mrs. Orcutt wishes to see you," announced 
 the nurse briefly, retiring as he entered. 
 
 Gail was standing, her hands pressed against the 
 back of an upholstered chair. Her eyes searched 
 his face with frantic eagerness. She waited for 
 him to speak. Her own lips moved futilely several 
 times before they broke the constrained silence. 
 
 "Vance says that you are going South with him 
 and me." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Why?" she whispered. 
 
 "I promised him before I knew. And, any- 
 how, I couldn't leave Vance till he's better." 
 
 "Then?" 
 
 "Then what?" 
 
 "Tell me what you will do after he is 
 better." 
 
 He smiled, a smile that held no friendliness or 
 mirth. 
 
 "Isn't there a biblical phrase about not knowing 
 what an hour or a day may bring forth?" 
 
 She twisted her hands together feverishly. 
 230
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 231 
 
 "You must tell me. I can't stand the suspense. 
 Don't you see I can't." 
 
 "Just what is it you want me to do, or not to do?" 
 
 "I want you to be kind, not cruel," she breathed. 
 
 "Ah! to turn the other cheek! Gail, my sister 
 is dead. She waited eight months, every day watch- 
 ing for me, expecting me, crying and moaning be- 
 cause I did not come. She was all I had left of my 
 own You killed her." 
 
 "No no no !" 
 
 "Gail, I don't feel chivalrous. Do you feel 
 equal to having Vance's operation on Thursday as 
 planned?" 
 
 "Yes, I want it over. I must have peace of mind 
 
 soon or go mad Tell me what you intend to 
 
 do Tell me now, now! I can't wait. I 
 
 can't!" 
 
 "Victoria waited." 
 
 "And died," she cried in tense voice. She clasped 
 his arms, her white face upraised. "Will it help her 
 to hurt me? You can't undo what is done! You 
 can torture me, but will it help?" 
 
 "It may," he returned, with grim significance. 
 
 "Dear " 
 
 "Stop!" he commanded. "Endearments do not 
 belong between you and me. Because I love Vance, 
 I shall see him safely through his illness. Little 
 partner ! he's square and honest and true." 
 
 He smiled in bitter humor as he saw her face 
 lighten.
 
 2 3 2 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Don't count on my love for the boy, Gail, to 
 help you. I may not agree with you as to what is 
 best for him." 
 
 "Kill me outright," she pleaded. "I can't endure 
 your scorn and the awful waiting." 
 
 "It is not necessary for me to kill you to end my 
 scorn and your suspense." 
 
 "You mean " 
 
 "That you can tell the truth to-day that should 
 have been told the 8th of last April. George Orcutt 
 is a murderer and should be given into the hands of 
 the law. Your course is clear." 
 
 "No," she pronounced deliberately. "I shall 
 never do it. I could not invite the shame for my 
 baby." 
 
 "Gail, the shame is the same. He is the father of 
 Vance, free or in prison. And it would be better 
 for Vance to know about his father's guilty life than 
 that you, his mother, should live a lie. That lie has 
 already led you to indirect murder." 
 
 "No! No! You must not say I murdered your 
 sister. Murder means the premeditated taking of 
 a life, wilful killing. I believed that you were with- 
 out relatives or friends. I did not dream that there 
 was any one hurt by your absence. If I had 
 known " 
 
 "You took the line of least resistance. That line 
 another time may lead you into heaven knows 
 what. Gail, for the boy's sake." 
 
 "I can't. I can't! Ever."
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 233 
 
 "You leave it to me to betray you or to share in 
 your lie!" 
 
 Her hands fell from his arm under the shrivelling 
 scorn of his gaze. 
 
 "On with the play!" said he grimly. "All right! 
 My hands are tied. Put on your mask and ring up 
 the curtain on another act." 
 
 "You you will not " 
 
 He stopped, swung on his heel. 
 
 "You know I will not. You have known it from 
 the beginning. A man can't tell on a woman !" 
 
 She swayed to and fro, laughing hysterically. 
 Darkness had lifted from the face of her earth. Her 
 son was not to bear the devastating disgrace of his 
 father's crime! She could only laugh ancj sob in a 
 hysteria of joyful relief. 
 
 He continued looking at her in puzzled inquiry. 
 He could not believe that she had anticipated be- 
 trayal through him. 
 
 "Did you think I should denounce you, give up 
 your secret to the law?" he interrogated. 
 
 She stumbled to his side, and laid a timid hand 
 on his arm. 
 
 "I don't know what I believed," she cried bro- 
 kenly. "I have been stark mad with fear. . . . Do 
 you hate me?" 
 
 She was so wan and trembling that his harshness 
 left him. 
 
 "It makes no difference what I think." 
 
 "You know how I love you," returned she, with
 
 234 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 a sort of childish defiance. "I love you! I love 
 you!" 
 
 "And because you love me you are going to drag 
 me at the wheels of your chariot." 
 
 "My chariot? Do you think I am asking this 
 for myself? I gave Vance one father, and now, 
 now, if it is at the price of my soul, I shall give him 
 another. I have no pride where he is concerned. 
 He shall know you for his father forever if I can 
 encompass it. Yes! He shall have your example 
 and your presence and clean life before him ! He 
 shall! He shall!" 
 
 Her eyes blazed defiance. She stood there, a 
 quivering bundle of maternal fibers. The man did 
 not comprehend the furious instinct that drove her. 
 He tried to reason. 
 
 "Gail, the open course now will be the best in 
 the end for the boy. This lie can't go on forever. 
 It will only mean more for you to explain to Vance 
 finally. Your child isn't a weakling. He can bear 
 this. Doctor Underwood says he is wholly free 
 from physical or mental disability through his 
 father. Your husband's breakdown came since the 
 child was born, too late for Vance to suffer it 
 through inheritance. And there is a long line of 
 sound ancestors back of him, sound physically and 
 morally. And there would be no murder trial now 
 of George Orcutt. He would simply be transferred 
 to an alienist appointed by the State." His hand
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 235 
 
 closed over hers, resting on his arm. "Gail, free 
 me from this position ! Let me go now before " 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "Before we have anything more to regret," he 
 said gravely. "Send for the district attorney 
 to-day." 
 
 "I can't ever!" It was almost a scream. "I 
 can't!'' 
 
 He gazed into her sick eyes. There was purpose 
 there, a fanatical persistence. 
 
 "Be calm," he soothed. "You have what you 
 desire my silence. I promise not to betray you. 
 But I merely submit. I am not in any agreement. I 
 shall wait till you release me voluntarily." 
 
 "But I never shall!" 
 
 "You do not know what you will do. Now is not 
 a year from now. We will drop this matter here 
 to-day. Vance is disturbed over our gloom and 
 tears; be at dinner, if possible." 
 
 "Do do you hate me?" 
 
 Her face was childishly upheld. His, eyes dwelt 
 upon it. 
 
 "It might be better if I did," he answered, and 
 left the room.
 
 XXXII 
 
 TN one of Jackson's absences from the dining- 
 room Vance turned his eyes full on his mother 
 in close scrutiny and asked anxiously: 
 
 "Are you well now, Mama; really, truly, surely 
 well?" 
 
 "Don't I seem well?" she asked, laughing. 
 
 "Yes; but you've been acting so funny lately. 
 
 You were crying this morning and were de-lir-us 
 
 Now you're laughing and laughing and laughing. 
 You you aren't de-lir-us now, are you? The nurse 
 says delirus people cry and laugh over just nothing." 
 
 "I was crying this morning because I thought 
 Papa was cross with me; and I'm laughing because 
 he's been kind. I'm very happy; really, truly, surely 
 happy." 
 
 "Because we're going South together, you and 
 Papa and me?" 
 
 "Partly; but for other reasons, too." 
 
 "And you'll stay happy?" 
 
 "As long as Papa is kind." 
 
 The child turned to the man, his little face beset 
 with gravity. 
 
 236
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 237 
 
 Edgerton smiled. 
 
 "Now, partner, never ask a man a leading ques- 
 tion while he's eating duck. There's something 
 about game that makes a man resent even such an 
 innocent little question as to whether or not he's 
 going to beat his wife. Ordinarily he takes such a 
 question as a matter of course, but when he's eating 
 duck " 
 
 The child giggled softly. There was nothing that 
 he enjoyed so much as his papa's gay banter. It 
 was a sort of barometer that indicated serene skies 
 over the household. Himself a barometer of the 
 joys and woes about him, he was soon excitedly 
 happy, he and his mama outdoing each other in 
 gaiety, his childish squeals of mirth mingling with 
 the woman's clear bubbling laughter, honest laugh- 
 ter that sprang from a spirit riotously exuberant. 
 Her child was safe ! She was so filled with nervous 
 happiness that she had to give vent to it as does a 
 lark. 
 
 Keith Edgerton looked on stupidly, unable to un- 
 derstand. 
 
 In the drawing-room she clapped her hands and 
 cried eagerly: 
 
 "The theater ! Let us all go and see Peter Pan ! 
 Yes, we shall go !" 
 
 And they went, Edgerton protesting that Vance 
 should be in bed, Vance's eyes dancing like stars, 
 Gail laughing and chattering as though unhappiness 
 had never been hers nor could ever be. She sat in
 
 238 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 the box so that her face came naturally on a line 
 with the man's eyes. He could only gaze at it in 
 wonder. The wanness, the hollows, the straining 
 muscles, the hunted look, were gone. Only the 
 haunting wistfulness that was always there hung 
 over it, baffling him as to its meaning, as it always 
 did. It was like the shadow of an oversoul a veil 
 always seemingly ready to be lifted, yet always mys- 
 teriously drawn. It was as though another being, 
 richer, rarer, penetrated dimly through the Gail 
 that the world knew, and herself knew. 
 
 She smiled softly in sympathy with the dainty 
 humor of the play. Her eyes glistening with tears, 
 she turned to him and whispered: 
 
 "Vance would think me 'delirus' indeed if I should 
 cry now. But I want to from sheer happiness. I 
 surely shall if I stay through the play there are 
 tears in its laughter for me to-night. Let us go 
 after this act; Vance won't know but that it is 
 
 over." 
 
 Vance, sitting between them on the wide seat of 
 the limousine, did the talking on the way home. It 
 was his first play in the evening, and of magnified 
 importance thereby. Suddenly he snuggled against 
 the soft cushioned back and sighed happily. But 
 when he spoke, it was not of the play. 
 
 "You love Papa now, don't you, Mama?" 
 
 The man and the woman started. 
 
 "Yes," came quickly. "I love Papa now only I
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 239 
 
 have always loved Kim, dear, ever since he came 
 back home after his illness." 
 
 The child uttered a surprised "Oh!" Then: 
 "Did you know it, Papa?" 
 
 "Partner, did you know that the Peter Pan you 
 saw on the stage to-night was a girl?" 
 
 Vance did not know, and the play again became 
 the immediate topic of interest. But the child's 
 prattle fell on unheeding ears. The love note had 
 been sounded and did not still. That they heard 
 clear and loud and sweet. They loved each other 
 they loved each other! It persisted in their ears 
 like a lilting melody that sings itself. 
 
 Vance was operated on the second day following, 
 a simple throat operation that would have caused 
 no uneasiness nor occasioned any previous prepara- 
 tion but for the fact that the child's heart was weak. 
 Without being at all sickly, the little fellow was deli- 
 cately organized, his freedom from sickness the nat- 
 ural result of care and right environment. He re- 
 covered surprisingly, both from the anesthesia and 
 the wound. Nor did he have the usual invalidic 
 irritability of convalescents. He made no demands 
 other than that his papa and mama should be within 
 reach of his languidly eager eyes. He could not 
 have enough of them. But as he grew stronger he 
 began to sense that something was still wrong some- 
 where. He did not voice his trouble; only gazed at 
 them in wistful questioning, searching vainly for the 
 truth.
 
 240 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 The mother, her heart contracted with maternal 
 fears, sought Edgerton in the library one morning 
 while the child was asleep. This was about a week 
 after his operation. 
 
 "Have you noticed that Vance has not been so 
 well for the past two days?" she asked. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And do you know why?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Then ?" 
 
 "What?" he returned. 
 
 "Must I tell you?" she faltered. 
 
 His eyes crinkled with tender humor. 
 
 "I sometimes think I've fallen heir to two children 
 a little boy and a very little girl." 
 
 "The little girl is a very anxious mother just 
 now," said she, with a break in her voice. 
 
 "And a woman that I'm mad with love for 
 don't forget that!" 
 
 "I'm asking it for Vance." 
 
 "I know. Vance will grow used to the situation. 
 It will make it easier for him when we part." 
 
 "Part? Part? No no!" 
 
 He folded his arms and leaned against a book- 
 case. 
 
 "The very little girl is speaking now. The grown- 
 up woman would know that we must part. These 
 months that I thought you my wife let down the 
 barriers between us till " He stopped. 
 
 "They'll not go up again? is that it?" Her eyes
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 241 
 
 were partly closed as she questioned, a grave con- 
 templation in them. Suddenly they were swimming 
 with tears. She held out her hands, beseechingly. 
 
 "No matter what we are to each other, to Vance 
 we're his father and mother. Our coldness is break- 
 ing his heart And I can't bear it for him to 
 
 be unhappy now I don't care about anything 
 
 else I just want him to get well and strong 
 
 Oh, you don't know !" 
 
 "I know that for us to caress each other daily 
 is to play with edged tools, my wife that can't be," 
 said he gently. 
 
 A knock sounded at the door, the discreet rap of 
 a servant. 
 
 "Vance wants us," cried she. With swift motion 
 she drew his face to hers. Then she kissed him on 
 the lips, speeding from the room to Vance's bedside. 
 
 The invalid was propped against the pillows, a 
 faint color beginning to show in his pale cheeks. The 
 long lashes lifted and the eyes opened wide and 
 gleaming as they fell on the radiantly girlish face 
 that bent over him. 
 
 "Something's happened; something good," he 
 piped joyously. "Tell me, Mama, tell me." 
 
 "Greedy!" she answered gayly. "Can't Mama 
 and Papa have any secrets at all!" 
 
 "Secrets?" His voice fell wearily. "I wish there 
 weren't any secrets ever. I hate secrets; I hate 'em 
 hate 'em hate 'em !" He addressed Edgerton 
 as he crossed the threshold. "Please tell me what
 
 242 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 beautiful thing's happened. Tell me, please, dear 
 Papa." 
 
 The mother answered: 
 
 "Insatiable boy! Must Mama and Papa tell you 
 every time they kiss each other?" 
 
 "Oh!" The child sat upright, his eyes like dia- 
 monds in brightness. "You and Papa kissed each 
 other! Sure? Sure?" 
 
 The mother's laugh rang out blithely, a gladsome 
 lilt that told nothing of restrained tears. 
 
 "Listen to that! Our son thinks he is the only 
 one that is ever kissed. What a state of affairs !" 
 
 The child's gaze traveled to and fro from the 
 woman's face to the man's. 
 
 "Partner," came quietly; "what you really want 
 to know is whether or not your father and mother 
 love each other, isn't it? Listen, little mate, and 
 don't ever forget: I love your mother better than 
 all the world, even my boy; and your mother loves 
 me next best to you, I think." 
 
 "But," protested the boy excitedly; "she must love 
 you best. Wives do, you know." 
 
 "You see what it means to him," said Gail. 
 
 "All right, partner," said Edgerton, seating him- 
 self on the bed and taking the boy's hand in his. 
 "We'll put you down a close second. But you must 
 let Mama and me love each other in our own way. 
 You mustn't worry because we don't act just as you 
 think husbands and wives should." There was 
 gentle raillery in the voice, whimsicality in the eyes.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 243 
 
 The child flushed a little in embarrassment over 
 his ignorance of adult ways, then giggled softly his 
 excuses : 
 
 "But you do act funny, don't you?" 
 
 "Not for us, partner. I don't believe there were 
 ever another papa and mama just like us. So you 
 see, you mustn't measure us by ordinary standards." 
 
 "I won't again," avowed the child, delighted over 
 this confidence between man and man.
 
 XXXIII 
 
 T"\OCTOR UNDERWOOD stood unobserved in 
 **~^ the doorway of the Orcutt sun-parlor, a large, 
 almost circular room with a view of the Hudson and 
 the Palisades. It was the one room Edgerton had 
 always liked, its wealth of sunshine and compara- 
 tively simple furnishings giving the nearest approach 
 to the "home" feeling he had so ardently desired. 
 He sat now, his gaze bent on the panorama of the 
 river; the always busy, boat-laden river, with its in- 
 cessantly changing scenes had a curious fascination 
 for this man of the inland. Vance, dressed fully 
 to-day for the first time since his illness, sat on his 
 knees, watching the shifting boats in dreamy silence. 
 Beside them, in a low rocker, was Gail, engaged in 
 embroidery work. 
 
 The doctor's eyes narrowed with displeasure at 
 this domestic scene, and a grunt of disapproval an- 
 nounced his presence. 
 
 "Sit still, sit still," said he, advancing and seating 
 himself. "I don't want to break up such a pretty 
 family picture." 
 
 Exactly like a frightened child Gail turned her 
 244
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 245, 
 
 face to Edgerton's and shrank nearer to him. 
 Smiling, he reached for the embroidery hoops in her 
 hand, his own hand, warm and protecting, closing 
 over the shaking fingers. 
 
 "Look at that for an orchid, will you?" said 
 he, and tossed the hoops to his friend. "The whole 
 orchid family should bring action for slander against 
 the designer of that atrocity." 
 
 Morris Underwood let the hoops bound from his 
 knee to the floor. 
 
 "Not being a family man, I don't presume to pass 
 judgment on tatting and the like," he retorted testily. 
 
 "I knitted an Irish lace collar once," was Edger- 
 ton's rejoinder. "Pretty good work, too, so my fam- 
 ily all assured me. I was twelve years old and re- 
 covering from the measles." 
 
 "Who did you make it for, Papa?" was Vance's 
 eager inquiry. 
 
 Gail rose, and picked up the embroidery that had 
 fallen at her feet. 
 
 "Come, dear." 
 
 "I want to stay and visit with the Doctor," the 
 boy answered, not moving. 
 
 Edgerton lifted him to the floor, where the child 
 stood very erectly and proudly in his blue velvet 
 suit. He smiled up at the man he believed to be 
 his father. 
 
 " 'Nuff said, I guess." 
 
 Edgerton pinched his cheek softly. 
 
 "It looks that way, partner," returned he, his
 
 246 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 eyes following child and mother till the door closed 
 after them. 
 
 "So I'm to look on helpless and see another good 
 birthright sold for a mess of pottage!" growled the 
 alienist, after a constrained silence. u 'The woman 
 tempted me and I did eat.' How many more men 
 will cry that before man learns sense?" 
 
 "So you have become a convert to circumstantial 
 evidence." 
 
 "I believe what I see with my own eyes. She's 
 got you body and soul. Confound her beauty and 
 feline attractions. Yes, feline; a woman has no 
 more soul than that Angora cat there on the window- 
 sill. What a woman wants she takes, and the robbed 
 can starve or die, for all of her. But Mrs. Orcutt 
 shan't sacrifice you, I warn you now." 
 
 Keith Edgerton shifted uneasily. 
 
 "What do you intend to do?" 
 
 "That depends on you," returned the alienist 
 acridly. "How much longer shall you masquerade 
 as a blackguard and murderer?" 
 
 Edgerton leaned forward and looked the other 
 squarely in the eye, his attitude wholly belligerent. 
 
 "This is my business, and I won't stand any inter- 
 ference in it." 
 
 "So Delilah wins!" 
 
 "Call it that if you prefer. I have put my faith 
 in the woman I love the outcome is between her 
 and me." 
 
 Slowly the bitterness faded from the alienist's
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 247 
 
 face, and pity filled it the pity of one who sees 
 for one who is wholly and incurably blind. 
 
 "Boy! Boy!" he groaned. "So that is it. You 
 believe that she will grow a soul and a conscience. 
 The woman who kidnapped you with ruthless dis- 
 regard of all consequences to you and yours is now 
 voluntarily to sacrifice herself for your welfare? 
 Why? Woman's inconsistency always rests on a 
 very tangible reason that brings benefit to herself. 
 And confession would give Mrs. Orcutt nothing. 
 She might do it to gain you for her husband legally 
 and openly; you, the man; not your gratitude and 
 
 reverence. But Do you know what would 
 
 happen if she gave George Orcutt up to the law?" 
 
 Edgerton answered deliberately, the ready answer 
 of one who has turned the subject many times in his 
 mind. 
 
 "He would be declared insane, an insanity that 
 antedated the murder, and would be committed to 
 an insane hospital for the balance of his life." 
 
 "A matter of thirty or forty years," completed 
 the alienist triumphantly. "And by the law of the 
 land Mrs. Orcutt must remain tied to her imbecile 
 husband till death releases her. Nor could she keep 
 you at her heels without losing her reputation. No; 
 she will never bare her secret till she is forced to it. 
 On one plea or another she will compel your silence 
 
 and keep you beside her till But there is no 
 
 use going into detail. You and I both know the
 
 24 8 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 inevitable outcome of this affair if left to you and 
 her." 
 
 "Have you decided where you are going on your 
 hunting trip?" asked Edgerton evenly, but the angry 
 cords whipped out on his forehead. 
 
 "Paris," was the laconic and startling reply. 
 
 The two measured glances, as they had so many 
 times recently. Edgerton had no need to ask what 
 was the physician's errand in Paris. 
 
 "You mean to bring George Orcutt here," he 
 cried hoarsely. 
 
 "I do," was the calm answer. 
 
 "Our ways part here, Underwood," came in tone 
 deadly quiet. 
 
 The alienist partly rose. 
 
 "I expected as much. A friend " 
 
 "A friend " interrupted Edgerton in scathing 
 
 voice, "would have left me to deal with my own 
 affair in my own way and my own good time. A 
 friend doesn't interfere with a man and his woman. 
 He is left to condone or scourge, pity or kill." 
 
 The elder man dropped to his chair again. A 
 
 man and his woman. The old eternal twain 
 
 "Male and female created He them." For count- 
 less eons man and his woman had stood shoulder to 
 shoulder against the world or with the world, but 
 together, always together. Even in the brute state 
 the male was left to deal with his mate whether 
 weakly or strongly was never the question to his 
 fellows. The two were indivisibly together and
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 249 
 
 apart from all others not because of rites and 
 ceremonies or written laws, but by their own free 
 choosing, the primeval law of the wild. Nature 
 was no less nature when clothes replaced fur and 
 houses superseded tree-tops and caves. Eye still 
 spoke to eye, and heart to heart, and the world- 
 old call of sex was still the clarion note. A man 
 and his woman! 
 
 And, strangely, the pretty domestic scene that 
 had so stirred his resentment a few minutes before 
 now caused Morris Underwood's heart to soften 
 as he reviewed it in his mind. The trustful gaze 
 of the child as he nestled in the arms of the man he 
 believed to be his father, the woman's dependent 
 attitude and love-laden eyes, the man's protective 
 air. It mattered not that they were not his by the 
 stern code of a brick and mortar world, for the 
 horizon and circumference of Keith Edgerton's 
 world was now a woman's eyes and his law was 
 love. The casuists might wrangle over their ethics, 
 and the moralist denounce, and Fate eventually 
 break them on her wheel it mattered not to these 
 two bare souls, blind and deaf and dumb to all save 
 the magic splendor of each other. A man and his 
 woman ! 
 
 He reached out his hand and laid it gently on the 
 other's knee. 
 
 "Boy." 
 
 The eyes that rose to his were bitterly accusative. 
 
 "A man and his woman," uttered the doctor
 
 250 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 softly. "You are right, boy; it is not for me to 
 interfere. Go your own way. If you drag each 
 other into hell you may neither ever know it. Any- 
 how, it is too big for me." 
 
 Hand closed over hand, and the friends' eyes met, 
 at first grave, freighted with the magnitude of the 
 moment. Then both smiled the rare smile of mu- 
 tual understanding, like no other smile of human 
 lips. 
 
 "Thank you, Underwood," came unevenly. "And 
 thank you doubly because you are trusting me, not 
 understanding." 
 
 "Oh, yes; I understand," said the physician, the 
 sardonic note sounding again. "You believe that 
 love will re-create her. Madness, pure madness! 
 But no matter. She is your problem, your destiny, 
 your woman. I leave you to each other. It is all I 
 can do. Only the end will be the inevitable end 
 you are doomed for the sacrifice." He smiled, half- 
 bitterly. "You'll stop with me if you return 
 
 alone You may have to come on an errand," 
 
 he added hastily. Then he chuckled. "Boy, I'm 
 going to let you go your own way; but it's blamed 
 hard, you see. Even as I let go the line with one 
 hand I want to pull it back with the other. No, 
 my word's given; you needn't fear." 
 
 "It isn't that," Edgerton explained his frown. 
 "I'm disturbed that I can't tell you definitely what 
 my plans are. I've promised Vance to go South with 
 him, I've assured Gail that I shall never betray her
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 251 
 
 secret. Those things I shall do, but what else God 
 knows !" 
 
 "It all depends on the woman." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Then if God knows He'd be ashamed to tell 
 just what you will do," pronounced his friend 
 harshly, and left on the words, walking so rapidly 
 that he was gone before Edgerton could answer.
 
 XXXIV 
 
 T IKE a big brown hen with a dozen little chicks 
 *-' squatting near, was Everglade Villa, the 
 Lormes' southern home. It comprised a big bunga- 
 low and a group of smaller buildings devoted to 
 servants' quarters and commissariat, much in the 
 manner of an old plantation. Gail, on the floor of 
 the piazza, knees held loosely between clasped 
 hands, upraised a laughing face to Mrs. Lorme's. 
 
 "Why don't you relieve your inner consciousness, 
 Kate dear? Why not ask me outright the questions 
 that are furrowing your brow?" she teased. 
 
 Mrs. Lorme's shrewd eyes fastened on the radiant 
 face, the almost too radiant face, she could not help 
 but feel. The unrestrained happiness that Gail had 
 evinced during the past two weeks aroused her sus- 
 picions. The whole thing was puzzling. She had 
 left her in New York five weeks before in open 
 revolt against her husband, alleging that it was im- 
 possible that he and she could make the trip South 
 together and tragically unhappy. And lo ! they 
 had come virtually hand in hand, Gail as riotously 
 gay as she had before been miserable. And she 
 
 252
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 253 
 
 was unashamedly in love with George, who and 
 this was the heart of the puzzle was now as nig- 
 gardly about showing his affection as Gail was lav- 
 ish. Yet Gail's light-heartedness seemed too real 
 for acting. And Vance was blissful a sure barom- 
 eter that he believed all was well between his idol- 
 ized parents; and Vance was not easy to deceive 
 as to that. 
 
 "What is it, Kate? Come, let's have it now and 
 be through." 
 
 Mrs. Lorme hesitated, then asked bluntly: 
 
 "Why is George so cold now that you are 
 uh " 
 
 "Idiotically in love with him? The why I can't 
 tell. But it's all right. He loves me, and I 
 oh, Kate! I'm mad with my love for him; quite, 
 quite mad." 
 
 Again Mrs. Lorme looked at her closely, trying 
 to penetrate through the mystery that she could not 
 but feel hovered near, an indefinable, intangible, 
 but very real menace. Why should a wife talk about 
 her love for her husband as madness, and in the 
 tone Gail used? 
 
 "There's something wrong," she pronounced. 
 "Why does George look so anxious if all is as it 
 should be? There's a look in his eyes at times 
 when they rest on you as though his heart is almost 
 too heavy for him to carry." 
 
 Gail laughed gayly, but the keen eyes watching 
 saw a slight shiver shake her.
 
 254 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Kate, it's all right. It is; it is! He loves me 
 and I love him, and nothing else counts. Nothing! 
 Nothing!" 
 
 "That's crazy talk," said Mrs. Lorme, not be- 
 cause she particularly believed what she said, but 
 to give vent to her perturbed feelings. 
 
 "Well, I'm crazy, crazy with joy. He loves me 
 and he's with me. I can see him each day and look 
 into his eyes and read his love there. Words? 
 Words make no difference to him and me ! He is 
 mine, all mine ! A miracle gave him to me, and 
 no one, no one ever, shall take him away." 
 
 The elder woman's face softened, grew very 
 tender. She remembered the years of neglect and 
 loneliness through which the young wife had passed, 
 torturing years when her husband had been any 
 one's but hers. George had been a tremendous vil- 
 lain notwithstanding his present manliness and 
 charm. She leaned over and kissed the girl's cheek. 
 
 "I keep forgetting what a wastrel George was 
 and how strange it must seem to you to have him 
 decent. You deserve your happiness in your own 
 way." 
 
 "My happiness in my own way," repeated Gail. 
 "It is my due for all that I have suffered, surely, 
 surely it is, Kate ! But he has never been anything 
 but good and honorable. I can't let you say it even 
 even " 
 
 Mrs. Lorme laughed indulgently. 
 
 "Two George Orcutts in one make it rather puz-
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 255 
 
 zling, Gail. But I'm glad you can feel that way 
 about it He Ah!" 
 
 The man under discussion had suddenly appeared. 
 Mrs. Lorme saw their glances meet a youth's and 
 a maid's, or so it seemed, so shy, so adoring, so vir- 
 ginally glad ! Swiftly she moved away, embarrassed 
 strangely by what she had witnessed. Yet she did 
 not go so quickly but that she saw the man's love 
 go under cover, a calmly courteous gaze replace the 
 eyes' impassioned tenderness. She smiled mater- 
 nally. They were but two children, making a mys- 
 tery of their passion to add to its glamour. She 
 laughed to think that she had taken them so 
 seriously. 
 
 Edgerton had neither been aware of Mrs. 
 Lorme's presence, nor its kindly removal; all his 
 attention was fixed on the girlish face smiling so 
 delightedly upon him. 
 
 "Will you walk down to the beach?" he asked. 
 "You had better take a wrap; the air is cold near 
 the water." 
 
 "I like the cold air." 
 
 "I shall get you a wrap. Your dress is thin; 
 we may be some time I want to talk to you at 
 length." 
 
 She flashed a mirthful glance at him as he re- 
 turned with a big automobile coat. 
 
 "Why not a buffalo robe and foot-warmers?" she 
 cried, springing lightly to her feet and giving a 
 quick shake to her lingerie frock.
 
 256 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Perhaps you'll wish I had," returned he, with 
 forced humor. 
 
 Her answering laugh was wholly carefree. Had 
 she not seen the revelation of his eyes? What was 
 there to fear while he could not come upon her un- 
 expectedly without his eyes betraying him to the 
 world? There was a song in her heart. She walked 
 lightly beside him, chattering in blithe indifference 
 to his constrained demeanor. There was a rosy 
 glow over her of happiness and sheer joy in living. 
 
 From the villa a slight natural rise of earth and 
 stubby vegetation ran horizontally to the edge of 
 the sea, ending in a declivity with cosy back-rests 
 along the shore. To the household "the beach" 
 meant this sheltered spot. Thither Edgerton bent 
 his steps, almost in silence till they were seated. 
 Even then he gazed a little while at the foam- 
 crested breakers. Abruptly he turned. 
 
 "I am leaving to-morrow, Gail. And for good." 
 
 There was a short pause while she gazed at him 
 in a dazed questioning. 
 
 "You are leaving Everglades the South?" 
 
 "You," he said simply. 
 
 She caught her breath. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "You know why." 
 
 "But I don't. You and I " 
 
 "O, we love each other," said he roughly. 
 
 "Where are you going?" 
 
 "To Underwood's for a few weeks ; then abroad,
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 257 
 
 I think. The Doctor has been planning a vacation 
 for some time, and he'll go with me, there or some- 
 where." 
 
 "You think you'll forget me?" 
 
 "No; I don't think anything so idiotic. I shall 
 think of you and love you till time without end. But 
 with a thousand miles between us I shan't be con- 
 stantly beset to take you in my arms. Here the 
 temptation is beyond my resistance, now " 
 
 "That you know I want to be there," she whis- 
 pered qurckly. Then: "Have you thought about me 
 about my loneliness?" 
 
 "Yes; but there's no way round it." 
 
 "There is a way " 
 
 He gripped his hands till the muscles stood out. 
 
 "That's the hellish part of it." 
 
 "But Keith " 
 
 "There is no 'but,' Gail. None!" He flung out 
 the words with the savagery of despair. "To serve 
 you I can take George Orcutt's name and child 
 but I can't take his wife." 
 
 She caught his arm with both hands. 
 
 "But you must if she insists on coming to you. . . . 
 And I do insist," she sobbed. "You do not belong 
 to any one else. You are Vance's and mine. I 
 have been preparing myself for this. ... It is not 
 easy. . . . Even though it is you. . . . But but 
 to be separated half the time from Vance " 
 
 "Rob you of the boy! I? What are you talking 
 about? Vance is not my son now."
 
 258 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "But you're his father. Don't you see ! And he 
 would go to you of himself. . . . He wants his 
 
 father and mother united He talks it till I 
 
 feel I shall scream out in madness some time. . . . 
 You are his father in all that means a father. . . . 
 We would not wrong any one in doing this for him 
 .... George wanted me to have my liberty that day 
 he spoke of this. And and even if it's wrong, 
 I am willing to pay Can't you be?" 
 
 She was openly pleading. She felt that she had 
 put him in a position where he could not ask for 
 her favor. And in a position where she owed him 
 herself. She had reasoned it out during the days 
 by Vance's bedside after the operation and in the 
 weeks since coming here. Wholly outside of her 
 desire for his presence was his claim upon her own. 
 She had forced George Orcutt's name and respon- 
 sibilities upon him. He was not free to marry. He 
 would never be. The only wife he could hope for 
 was herself. And she must not only give him a 
 satisfying home and family life, but give it readily. 
 
 Doctor Underwood was the only one who knew 
 their secret. And he would keep it always, for 
 Keith's sake. George Orcutt was now a hopeless 
 paretic. He could not betray himself nor her. 
 Keith had no near relatives; nor had she. There 
 was only Vance and this would mean his happi- 
 ness now and for all his life. She should have no 
 fear of his future with Keith Edgerton to bring 
 him up.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 259 
 
 Edgerton looked full at her. 
 
 "You say you are willing to pay. But just how 
 much are you willing to pay? Are you willing that 
 our children should be " 
 
 His arm shook under the spasmodic trembling of 
 her hands. 
 
 "Our children!" 
 
 "Yes; our children, yours and mine. . . . Have 
 you thought of our children, Gail?" 
 
 "Yes," she answered in a dead voice. "I thought 
 of them, 'but " 
 
 "Joyfully," he completed. "I know. And you 
 have seen nothing but holiness in our union. You 
 have started on the premise that Vance must be 
 saved from knowing his father's full guilt. I wish 
 that Vance might be kept in ignorance of his father's 
 life always. And I want you, till / am willing to em- 
 brace damnation to get you. If it were just myself, 
 there would be no question of what I should pay. 
 Honor and right are meaningless, except relatively. 
 But our children would unlawfully share Vance's 
 material inheritance. And while thinking themselves 
 of honest parentage, would be legal bastards." 
 
 "Keith!" 
 
 "The truth isn't always pretty," returned he. 
 
 "We're so young And to be separated till 
 
 death takes him And it never will!" she 
 
 sobbed wildly. 
 
 "No; there's little hope there." 
 
 "Where is there hope, Keith?" she sobbed.
 
 26o THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Nowhere for us, dear," said he gently. 
 
 She shook the tears from her lashes and looked 
 at him in a wondering way. Deliberately he was 
 going to leave her and with no hope of their 
 reunion ! She might accept this. But to invite their 
 separation! To consummate it upon his own ini- 
 tiative! How could he if 
 
 She voiced her thought : 
 
 "Do you love me?" 
 
 Edgerton turned bloodshot eyes upon her. 
 
 "Love you ! Love you ! Am I not leaving you !" 
 
 His voice was harsh, the harshness of a man in 
 dire pain. He caught her by the shoulders. 
 
 "You are going to try to beat down my re- 
 sistance. And you will do this in all purity. You 
 think you have a reason that can deify sin. You 
 haven't used the word sin. You've called it 'com- 
 pensation,' 'reparation,' 'justice,' 'our right.' I 
 don't question your goodness and moral rectitude. 
 No ! But your logic's wrong. It's not by chance 
 that we say 'up to heaven' and 'down to hell.' It's 
 ascent or descent. We don't stand still. We go! 1 
 
 His hands left her shoulders and came to her 
 cheeks. He held them and gazed earnestly at the 
 tearful face. 
 
 "I want you so much that I'm almost willing to 
 love you in the way that's open to us. If you 
 weren't deceived as to where we should be going I 
 fear I might." 
 
 "How am I deceived?"
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 261 
 
 "You think we should be ascendiivg. You want 
 to keep me so as to give Vance a worthy father. 
 But a man who lives under another man's name 
 with another man's wife passing off both to the 
 world as his own! his illegitimate children parad- 
 ing under the name of the rnan he feloniously suc- 
 ceeded Is this the sort of man you want to 
 
 bring up your son?" 
 
 "Don't! Don't! You you are not " 
 
 "Not as vile as that No! Not in cold 
 
 blood. Not while I can think and reason. . . . But 
 with you near me every day and some day my 
 arms holding you despite myself ! My God! Don't 
 you see!" 
 
 His voice grew desperate. 
 
 "Gail, give me my freedom! Let me have my 
 own name and go away where I shan't be on this 
 dangerous footing with you. For your own sake ! 
 For the boy's! before we all go under together." 
 
 She gazed at him in a stupor of pain. And she 
 saw but one thing the utter bareness of the future 
 without him. To Gail, at this moment, it was not 
 a choice between this good and that good: it was a 
 choice between life and annihilation. It was no use 
 to talk about what might be some day and to pre- 
 sage disaster for to-morrow when the alternative 
 was death to-day ! Nothing could be as havocing as 
 to lose him. Morality and immorality held no mean- 
 ing. Till his coming she had not realized the pov- 
 erty of her life. She had not known that she was
 
 262 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 almost blind to the richness of the universe. She 
 had been starving in a land of exquisite plenty. And 
 just now life had begun to open to her its ravish- 
 ments. 
 
 And the door was to close ! It was not only the 
 woman who wanted a man's arms to shield her; it 
 was a stunted spirit demanding growth. To the 
 drowning there is no question of whether or not the 
 rescuer will be sucked under: there is only a grim 
 holding on. 
 
 To give Keith Edgerton his name did not mean to 
 her now the reopening of the Orcutt-Emmet murder 
 case; nor scandal; nor shame; nor branding Vance 
 with his father's guilt. It meant that Keith Edger- 
 ton would go out of her life. It meant emptiness. 
 It meant desolation forever. 
 
 "I can't do it," she uttered in a tone of deadly 
 calm. "I never can. You are mine and Vance's. 
 You belong to us. ... I shall not give you up 
 ever. ... If you should go " 
 
 "I am going," said he. "I shall remain George 
 Orcutt till you release me. I shall never ask you 
 again for my name. When you are ready " 
 
 " 1 never shall be " 
 
 " You can give it to me. I shall visit with 
 
 Vance to-night and go early in the morning. . . . 
 This is our good-by." 
 
 He looked at her steadily, his face wet with un- 
 ashamed tears. 
 
 "No I" He caught her outstretched hands and
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 263 
 
 put them from him. "I haven't the strength to kiss 
 you." He rose. "Wait here; I'll send Vance to 
 you." 
 
 She watched him walk up the path. Her eyes 
 held a frozen look. He had had the strength not to 
 kiss her
 
 XXXV 
 
 T WANT Papa." 
 
 Vance said it stubbornly. He lay in bed, a 
 tray of untasted food beside him. It was five days 
 after Edgerton left. 
 
 "I think I heard Papa tell you to be good to 
 Mama," said his mother. "To make yourself ill 
 and cause me so much worry this isn't obeying 
 Papa." 
 
 "I don't care. I didn't know he was going when 
 I promised that. You knew. And you let him go." 
 
 The child was bitter. He felt deceived, outraged. 
 He had had a wonderful evening with his father, 
 and had been allowed to sit up an hour past his 
 usual bedtime. He had gone to bed feeling very 
 big and manly. And the next morning he found 
 that his father had gone away without letting him 
 know. It was another mystery, and he was tired of 
 mysteries. He cried himself into a fever. The fol- 
 lowing morning he did not get up. His mother 
 found him with hot tear-stained face hid against his 
 pillow. He refused to be coaxed or shamed into 
 
 submission. 
 
 264
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 265 
 
 W I want Papa," was his cry. 
 
 A doctor had been called. Vance shut his lips 
 against the medicine prescribed, and spat out the 
 dose forced between his teeth. Nor would he eat. 
 He did not know the strategic value of a hunger 
 strike; he refused food because they wanted him to 
 eat, and he was not going to do anything that any 
 one wanted him to. It was complete rebellion. 
 
 In the doctor's opinion it was a case of a "spoilt 
 child." He smiled skeptically at the mother's ex- 
 planation that Vance had never been so disobedient 
 before. But Mrs. Lorme, whom he knew well, con- 
 vinced him that the boy's behavior was really un- 
 usual. The doctor began to look serious. The 
 child's heart was weak, and he had not wholly recov- 
 ered the strength spent in his recent illness. He told 
 the mother to send for the father. 
 
 "I cannot," she answered. 
 
 Vance had heard. He looked at her now with 
 defiant eyes. 
 
 "I want Papa." His voice rose shrilly. "You 
 won't tell me why you do things. You just do 'em. 
 Why won't you send for Papa?" 
 
 "Because Papa wouldn't want to come," she ut- 
 tered, her face very white. "I asked him to stay 
 with us. I want him, too. But I'm not cry- 
 ing, dear. See? And you must be brave. You're 
 my man now." 
 
 "I'm not a man," he sobbed angrily. "I'm a little
 
 266 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 boy. I don't want to be brave. Why did Papa go 
 without saying good-by to me?" 
 
 "He wanted to carry away a picture of a happy, 
 smiling boy," his mother answered truthfully. "The 
 story he told you about Captain Intrepid that was 
 you, dear. He explained that 'intrepid' means " 
 
 Vance put his fingers to his ears and screamed. 
 Intrepid meant all the things that Vance had no in- 
 tention of being just then. He was a young sav- 
 age. He wanted his father and was using his only 
 known method of attack to get him. 
 
 The doctor came again, and felt the child's pulse, 
 and frowned, and took the mother outside the room 
 for consultation. 
 
 "Doctor Unwin will telegraph for Papa," she 
 announced. 
 
 "Oh! oh! oh!" 
 
 "Perhaps Papa and Doctor Underwood would 
 take you with them A sea trip would be bene- 
 ficial " Her voice broke over a sob. "How 
 
 how would this do?" 
 
 The boy's head pressed a little closer to the soft 
 shoulder. He drew in a long breath, luxuriating in 
 the beautiful fragrance that pervaded his mama. 
 
 "But then I should want you." 
 
 "My baby! My ba " She stopped. She 
 
 had promised not to call him baby again. "Forgive 
 Mama." 
 
 His lashes lowered. 
 
 "I don't mind now. I I like it when you and
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 267 
 
 I are alone. Please, Mama," he whispered, "I 
 want Papa and you. Oughtn't oughtn't a father 
 to stay with his boy?" 
 
 She walked to the piazza that opened off Vance's 
 chamber. She thought of George Orcutt, now 
 senseless, now paying the penalty of his sins, but 
 never from the first day a true father. He had 
 celebrated the child's advent with a crowd of rois- 
 tering companions and had been carried past her 
 door at daybreak in a drunken sleep. Vance was 
 worse than fatherless, then and now, as far as 
 George Orcutt was concerned. 
 
 And the other man 
 
 She beat her knuckles together and uttered a poig- 
 nant "Oh!" She had been doing this for five days. 
 It hung over her a black, harrowing memory, cor- 
 roding, consuming. 
 
 She had offered him herself! and the offering 
 had been refused! 
 
 Herself! the which she had valued beyond 
 everything but the child she had borne, and which 
 she had guarded against all the years' besiegements. 
 A neglected wife, young and incomparably lovely, 
 with an infinitude of charm there had always been 
 some one ready to console her. Every other man 
 she met seemed to be of a mind that she was nec- 
 essary to his happiness and worth every cost she 
 might bring him. In her first bitterness against her 
 husband there had been moments of recklessness 
 when she was almost ready to fill his place with
 
 268 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 another. Her baby had saved her. She had fled 
 to him and nestled him to her, knowing that she 
 must keep faith with him. 
 
 Her aloofness had given her prestige. Even 
 George Orcutt's perfidy could not bemean a wife 
 who bore it so nobly. Society had placed her in 
 a case and looked upon her as a rare curio. A 
 peculiar adulation was given her. Fine good 
 she had been called these so often that she had ac- 
 cepted them without questioning. 
 
 Only was she good? Was she fine? she asked 
 herself now. And she could not find an answer 
 that satisfied her. Surely it was her duty to save 
 Vance from shame and disgrace. It was a man- 
 date that her maternity placed upon her. Yes; but 
 1 he did not seem to think so. 
 
 "Mama," called Vance, fearfully, "please come 
 in and tell me why you say 'oh !' all the time. Do 
 you hurt anywhere? Or are you afraid of some- 
 thing?" 
 
 She came and sat beside him, as childishly in need 
 of sympathy as himself. 
 
 "I am trying to find out something about my- 
 self," she explained, patiently. "I have been in the 
 shadows so long that the high light of noon blinds 
 me." 
 
 "The high light of noon ? When it strikes twelve, 
 Mama?" 
 
 She did not answer. She was looking past him 
 with discovery in her eyes. The high light of noon
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 269 
 
 it was this light that beat from Keith Edgerton 
 penetrative, insistent, clear, purging! And piti- 
 less. But pitiless because its rays were direct: gla- 
 mour fell away and only the bald outlines of a thing 
 lay revealed. 
 
 And when she herself should be stripped before 
 
 her own eyes What should she find? It was 
 
 a question only as yet. She was uncertain; fum- 
 blingly trying to penetrate beyond her actions to her 
 motives. She looked at her boy and a queer shiv- 
 ering came upon her. Was she serving him the 
 best that she could? 
 
 She put her hands out gropingly. 
 
 "What's the matter, Mama? Can't you see? 
 You act so funny. Please, darling Mama, don't look 
 like that!" 
 
 She lay down beside him, a wet cheek to his. 
 
 "Mama is trying to see into your future," she 
 sobbed, and it was the uncertain cry of a girl a 
 very lonely girl. "She wants to give you the best 
 future she can .... And she doesn't know what 
 
 that should be Supposing that you and 
 
 Mama should not have Papa again ever " 
 
 "But we will we will!" Vance's voice was fran- 
 tic. "We've got to have Papa ! You can make him 
 stay with us this spirit of Papa." 
 
 "I'm not sure I can make him, dear," she whis- 
 pered. "And I'm not sure that I should even 
 for you. But oh! my baby! It is so black with- 
 out him!"
 
 XXXVI 
 
 pAPA!" 
 
 The boy sat upright in bed, a quivering 
 bundle of ecstasy, his body hiding the figure seated 
 on the other side. But Keith Edgerton's eyes went 
 past the boy. For one brief instant his and Gail's 
 glances met. And each knew that this was what 
 the other had been living for. Everything was 
 blotted out but the splendor of their love. 
 
 "Papa!" 
 
 Edgerton lifted the boy from his bed and kissed 
 him, then seated himself with the excited child on 
 his knee. 
 
 "So this is Captain Intrepid! Instead of taking 
 care of Mama you've brought your Daddy a thou- 
 sand miles on a jolting train, doubled up like a 
 jack-knife in an upper berth, and with a peck of cin- 
 ders in each ear. And all because of a spell of tem- 
 per! What do you think I ought to do to you?" 
 
 Vance's face fell. There was a serious cadence 
 in his father's tone. And the humorous twist to 
 his lips was missing. The boy was silent for a little 
 while. Then : 
 
 270
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 271 
 
 "You went away and didn't bid me good-by," he 
 reproached. 
 
 "So that's the count. All right, Vance. I stand 
 convicted. I tried to shirk my responsibility, and 
 here is the penalty! It's Socratic justice. Well, 
 little mate, here I am. You are going to have your 
 Daddy for two hours. So think quick the very best 
 use you can make of him." 
 
 "But you must stay." Vance clutched him about 
 the neck. "Mama and I want you here. You're 
 ours, you 'know, Papa." 
 
 "I wonder." Edgerton's voice held a singular 
 note. He put a hand under the child's chin. "Part- 
 ner, if you're mine, you're going to obey me. I have 
 something to tell you. But first, I want to know 
 if you are going to do as I say hereafter. This 
 means that when I tell you not to worry Mama ? 
 you're not to worry her. It means when I go away 
 I am not to be called back because I have failed to 
 say something that you think I should. It means 
 a good boy instead of a bad one. Think carefully, 
 a promise is a thing to be kept. Now, are you 
 going to obey me?" 
 
 Vance's babyish face took on a manly look. 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "That rings true. Now, your Daddy's through 
 scolding. Do you remember the rambling old red 
 house that was at the turn of the road right below 
 Doctor Underwood's? Sure. Well, that's my 
 house now. Or will be when I go back. I was to
 
 272 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 have signed the deed yesterday. And that house 
 is going to hold boys ! Yes, partner, a whole 
 round dozen of boys f And a new batch of boys 
 every month. Do you remember the time you went 
 with me on the East Side and saw " 
 
 "The boys with the nice ragged pants," shrilled 
 Vance. 
 
 "Those are the ones." 
 
 "They called my white trousers 'ice cream 
 pants,' " the boy added. 
 
 "And you've been skeptical of the propriety of 
 white trousers ever since," laughed the man. "The 
 boys'll knock holes in some other of your beliefs 
 to your mother's horror, I fear. You were 
 searched for germs for a week after that visit, I 
 remember." 
 
 "Boys ! Oh ! And we're to be there, Mama and 
 I! Oh! Oh! Oh!" 
 
 "You're to be there, as often as Mama is willing 
 to spare you. But this is to be bachelors' quarters, 
 partner. We will have a man cook and helpers, 
 and a young man to assist me, and the boys and you 
 and I. This is to be a training school for character. 
 Do you know what character is?" 
 
 "The spirit inside of us," returned Vance 
 promptly. "And we build it every day, a teeny bit 
 at a time. You told me." He bounded up and 
 down. "When will the boys be there? Can't Mama 
 and I go back with you now? I'm well." 
 
 "Now, partner, here's the time for obedience.
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 273 
 
 You're to stop here till May," was the answer. 
 "First, because it's the doctor's orders. And, again, 
 the first batch of boys '11 be there the middle of 
 April. And I want to get their measure " 
 
 "For new pants?" 
 
 "No; for the size of their present character. I 
 guess by May they'll understand that when I say 
 my boy is to be treated decently, they'll understand 
 that he is. That's one reason I'm exacting obe- 
 dience now I can't have my own boy set a bad 
 example." 
 
 "I won't. I'll obey. I will, Papa. How many 
 days is it till May? How old are the boys? Will 
 I eat with 'em? Will " 
 
 Gail half rose. The child was trembling with 
 excitement. Edgerton pinched his lips together. 
 
 "No more," he commanded. "Now, I'm going 
 to wrap you in a big fur coat and take you on the 
 shore for a ride. The sea is what you and I need." 
 He looked across at Gail. "And you. Get on your 
 wraps. We have an hour." 
 
 It was a soft gray day. The sky and the sea 
 were in a contented mood. The clouds moved lei- 
 surely, and the sea touched the shore in a long, quiet 
 roll. The air was refreshingly clear. The auto- 
 mobile sped noiselessly along the hard, smooth 
 beach, now in low tide. 
 
 Vance, between the two on the wide back seat, 
 held his mother's hand and leaned against the man's
 
 274 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 shoulder. His world was all rosy again. His eyes 
 rose to his father's a remorseful look. 
 
 "You can tie your ears up, can't you, Papa?" 
 
 "What?" Edgerton started from a reverie. 
 
 "To keep out the cinders," explained Vance, in 
 shamed voice. 
 
 "Oh!" There was a quick laugh from Edgerton, 
 an excited boyish laugh. "I don't believe I shall 
 mind the cinders, Vance. I'll carry a memory of 
 the sea with me. It's been ten years since I left 
 it." His eyes came to Gail's. "It is ten years?" 
 
 U A hundred," she whispered. 
 
 Vance sighed happily. He did not object to a 
 nice mystery, a mystery where his mama and papa 
 looked at each other this way. 
 
 "Why didn't you tell me about the house and 
 the boys before you left me, Papa?" Which was 
 another way of stating that Vance was sorry for 
 bringing his father on the long, hard journey. 
 
 "Why?" Edgerton's voice was whimsical. "I 
 didn't know about them myself, partner. I'm pretty 
 fond of you, you see. And when I was on the train 
 speeding north I found that there was an awful pull 
 on my heart-strings with the other end reaching 
 back here. And the farther away I got the harder 
 it pulled. Even a makeshift father couldn't go 
 away and leave the boy and the woman he loves 
 to flounder along helplessly. I had to anchor you 
 first. I've always been interested in boys and I've 
 had a lot of ideas buzzing in my head about helping
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 275 
 
 some of the handicapped to a better way of living. 
 If I can get a boy to liking outdoor life, the out- 
 doors of the country, I think I can find a permanent 
 home for him; and for as many as want it and are 
 willing to work. And a month of clean outdoor 
 living won't hurt those who don't. There'll be boys 
 from eight years old to about fourteen, and among 
 them all we'll try to find a playmate for you one 
 to live with you all the time. I'll adopt him and 
 leave him with you, my other boy, while I'm away. 
 And we'll find an active young man who can teach 
 you boys and coach you in games and make good 
 citizens out of you. If Mama agrees." 
 
 Vance turned his face to hers, his eyes like stars. 
 A boy to live with him! A boy! 
 
 "Mama!" he piped. 
 
 "I'll do anything I can that Papa wants me to," 
 she returned, smiling through a film of blissful 
 tears. Everything he did only made it more im- 
 possible for her to renounce him. And he did not 
 realize this. Her eyes rested on him in the indul- 
 gent way they did on Vance. There had been a 
 
 pull at his heart-strings that drew him to her 
 
 Would there not always be? Her gaze became in- 
 quiring. Did he not know? 
 
 There was a crowd at the little station. It looked 
 curiously at George Orcutt, then at Mrs. Orcutt 
 and the child. The New York press had duly 
 chronicled Orcutt's presence North without his wife 
 and son. It had faithfully recorded his hurried
 
 276 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 journey South. And to-morrow it would give a 
 detailed account of his return to the metropolis. 
 The reporters, like the servants, were waiting for 
 the "old Orcutt to break out." Gail and Edgerton, 
 unconscious of the other's thoughts, viewed the cu- 
 rious with a strange humor of their own. If the 
 world but knew the inside of the Orcutt case what 
 a content then for leaded headlines and gossip ! 
 
 And this it would know some day, was Edger- 
 ton's thought. The thought came to Gail as a 
 question: Would it ever know? Her arms went 
 about Vance, a fierce, protective embrace. She held 
 him thus as the train pulled out.
 
 XXXVII 
 
 SCENT descent ascent descent- 
 
 For six months Gail had heard this. In 
 Florida the waves boomed it at her. As she came 
 North the wheels of the train ground it out. 
 
 Her eyes took on a hunted look. 
 
 Edgerton met her at the train. 
 
 "What have you been doing to yourself?" he 
 questioned. "You've been sick and haven't let me 
 know!" 
 
 With her hands in his and the warm protected 
 feeling that his presence always brought, she had 
 believed that there was nothing wrong with her or 
 the world. She laughed blithely. 
 
 "I'm only tired." 
 
 And for the moment she believed this. She was 
 so glad to see him again that she could only look 
 at him and listen to him and adore him. They 
 gazed at each other like blissful children. 
 
 Renounce him! Deliberately separate their 
 lives! The thought was ludicrous with him beside 
 her. She had been harrowing herself over bubbles. 
 Why had he bought a house and planned a perma- 
 
 277
 
 278 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 nent home here if not to be near her? They could 
 live separate lives without closing the door forever 
 upon each other. 
 
 She had grown slightly hysterical with relief. 
 
 He had accompanied her to the Riverside Drive 
 house and had sat for several hours in the sun- 
 parlor and told her and Vance about the "boys." 
 Vance had been on his knee and she beside him, 
 with much of the while a hand in his. His delight 
 in having them again was too great for him to try 
 to hide it. 
 
 She had slept peacefully that night. And for a 
 week she had been excitedly happy. She and Vance 
 had gone to see the "boys," and she had left Vance 
 there. She had laughed gayly over the child's in- 
 dignation at her solicitude about his dressing and 
 undressing. 
 
 "Please don't say such things, Mama; the boys 
 might hear," he pleaded. "They can dress them- 
 selves." He threw back his head proudly and de- 
 fiantly. "And /'// dress myself." 
 
 Edgerton grinned. 
 
 "If the boys get ahead of our son they'll have to 
 get up early, all right." 
 
 The "our son" came out so naturally that the man 
 did not notice it. He was smiling at the boy, and 
 very paternally. 
 
 Gail's heart leapt with ecstasy. He not only 
 accepted the role of George Orcutt, but was happy 
 in it. Her life could go on now in peace, with
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 279 
 
 Vance's future safe, and always a beautiful friend- 
 ship between Keith and her. Yet 
 
 Ascent descent. . . .ascent descent 
 
 The little ivory clock on Gail's dressing-table be- 
 gan to tick it. In June, the sea at Mamaroneck 
 boomed it forth. 
 
 June passed, and July. 
 
 The training school for character had become of 
 public interest. The fact that George Orcutt was 
 conducting it made it of deep moment to the New 
 York press. Had the school been unworthy it would 
 have still been featured sensationally. But Morris 
 Underwood's connection with it the alienist was 
 as boyishly enthusiastic over it as Edgerton had 
 brought it to the attention of educators and essay- 
 ists. Articles on Boy Psychology and Character 
 The Orcutt Experiment Conservation of Boys 
 and others of the same sort appeared in the serious 
 magazines. Yet it was not Underwood, the 
 psychologist, but Edgerton, the man, who was re- 
 sponsible for the success attained. 
 
 And Underwood, who had grown very social and 
 friendly with Gail, confided this to her with a little 
 chortle of amusement. 
 
 "The personal equation that's the Davidian 
 sling and pebble. The magazines tell about the sys- 
 tem that the Orcutt Boy Farm is run on. System?" 
 He chuckled. "It's all summed up in two words 
 Keith Edgerton. He gives the boys something that's 
 outside my power, or that of any psychologist, to
 
 2 8o THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 name. I might tell those boys for a year how to 
 live rightly, and plan out just how, by their reflex 
 actions, they should go about the job, and not incite 
 one of them to live rightly. Keith doesn't tell them 
 anything, so to speak, and inside of a week their 
 grimy little souls begin to reach toward the light." 
 
 "But why?" Gail questioned. "You surely have 
 an idea why." 
 
 Underwood looked at her brooding eyes. It was 
 the haunting question they seemed to be asking these 
 days that had changed his gruffness toward her to 
 a friendly confidence. 
 
 "Why?" He mused a moment. "Perhaps the 
 truest reason is that Keith has faith in them. A 
 somewhat doubting hope is the nearest I could come 
 to it. And he's not promulgating a theory; he's 
 living a fact, a fact they can all see himself. Man- 
 liness every boy wants that; it's his unconscious 
 ideal. In Edgerton a boy sees himself as he should 
 like to be; his virility and force and humor fas- 
 cinate the boyish mind. I suppose the last thing 
 they would call Keith is good. I'm sure it's the 
 last thing Keith would call himself. And I shouldn't 
 like to face his grin if I called him that. And not 
 being good is helpful. No one follows a preacher. 
 That's where / fall down. I talk" He chuckled 
 again. "I'd tell the brats what to do and not ex- 
 pect them to do it. Keith doesn't tell them to re- 
 form, but he expects it and somehow he gets it 
 across the line and into their muscles."
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 281 
 
 "Muscles?" 
 
 "Exactly. The mind has a nasty habit of tucking 
 things away. The preacher's Sunday sermon goes 
 into a little compartment of his parishioner's mind 
 to stay. But when the muscles begin to twitch! 
 then there's something doing." 
 
 Gail's hand came up to her throat, herself uncon- 
 scious of the act. Her fingers touched her articula- 
 tory muscles in a singularly questioning way. The 
 alienist's eyes, seemingly directed upon Edgerton 
 and a clutter of boys in the distance, were upon her. 
 He saw her lips quiver, very piteously, and her eyes 
 grow somber. 
 
 This was the end of July, three months after her 
 return from the South. Hardly a day of these 
 three months but had found her at the "boy farm." 
 She came to bring Vance or to take him away, or 
 to see how he was. Bryan, the chauffeur, no longer 
 felt it necessary to ask where she wanted to go. 
 And in the three months Edgerton had said nothing 
 about wanting his name and his freedom nor about 
 not wanting it. 
 
 Theirs seemed a tranquil relationship. She had 
 not talked with him alone since the day she came 
 from the South. He had not once been to Mamar- 
 oneck. They shook hands placidly when they met, 
 and parted. But it was the tranquillity of fire cov- 
 ered up, not snuffed out. Their eyes said all that 
 their lips did not. And in the light pressure of their 
 hands was the thrill of a thousand kisses. They
 
 282 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 were so deeply in love that merely to be together 
 was rapture. 
 
 Morris Underwood looked on curiously. He 
 talked with Gail a great deal these days. Soon he 
 admitted her fascinations. She was so natural and 
 girlish and had such a nimble wit! And there was 
 an adorable grace in her excessive motherliness. 
 The physician liked to affect a headache to watch 
 her eyes widen with sympathy. When with her he 
 accepted Edgerton's peculiar status with matter-of- 
 fact acceptance. He had been rewarded by seeing 
 her grow fearless in his society. But it was not 
 for this he did it. "A man and his woman" this 
 was a battle in which he had no part. 
 
 Edgerton had once taken the ground that, given 
 a man strong enough and a woman who loved 
 enough, he could take her anywhere he would to 
 the blackest depths or to heights touching the sky. 
 Underwood had cheerfully admitted the blackest 
 depths; only reversing the order that it was the 
 woman who took the man there. But now he was 
 wondering if Edgerton may not have been right 
 was not right, to-day. 
 
 He watched the two. And the silent battle was 
 the most thrilling conflict he had ever witnessed. He 
 forgot that it was a man and a woman who loved 
 each other and who wanted each other more than 
 -anything else in the world. He looked at it broadly, 
 viewed it from the eternal standpoint. And he knew 
 that in the mysterious depths of things it was not
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 283 
 
 the union of the two that counted, nor their separa- 
 tion^ but only that their love should lift them higher 
 than they could have gone without it. It came to 
 him that this was what love was for that its ulti- 
 mate purpose was to furnish wings for humanity to 
 rise on. A year before he would have scoffed and 
 sneered at such an opinion. But to-day he was a 
 man who held a deep affection for another Keith 
 Edgerton was to him a son and the idol of his heart. 
 And this love had crowded out much of the bitter- 
 ness and 'cynicism that had accrued there through 
 disappointment and loneliness. His fatherliness 
 extended to the woman that Keith loved. He wanted 
 mightily that Keith should have her; and, despairing 
 that, he wished that she should rise to meet her 
 lover's faith in her. 
 
 Her fingers now moving over her white throat 
 and the piteous query of her eyes ! He watched her 
 intently. And his scrutiny took in the exquisite love- 
 liness of her the soft curves and the delicate anat- 
 omy and the childish sweetness of the red mouth. 
 There was something curiously appealing in the 
 slim young figure with its indefinable fragrance and 
 pretty apparel. He wanted to lift her up and carry 
 her to Edgerton's strong arms and leave her there. 
 
 He growled behind his teeth. 
 
 To tell the public all the pitiful tragedy of her 
 blighted wifehood! To drag the gibbering idiot 
 known as George Ormond forth with his flabby 
 hands red with murder ! George Orcutt, in
 
 284 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 the person of Edgerton, had become a respected man 
 among those who knew him; and this respect was 
 gradually percolating through to the public. Here 
 was a reformed man, with a serious purpose in life 
 and all the more praiseworthy because he was 
 still possessed of the millions that had helped to his 
 ruin. In Edgerton she had an honorable father for 
 her son. . . . And for herself a lover ! For a woman 
 could always implicate a man irremediably if she 
 chose. 
 
 He looked at her piercingly. She held the key 
 and upon its turning depended her future and the 
 man's. And what turn would she give it? 
 
 He growled again. It was sentimental, irra- 
 tional, yet he found himself wishing for her hap- 
 piness. He was very tender to her that day and 
 for several days thereafter.
 
 XXXVIII 
 
 "DUT suddenly Morris Underwood's manner 
 *~^ changed. He grew cold toward Mrs. Orcutt, 
 treated her.with a sneering demeanor. 
 
 "What is it?" she asked Edgerton wistfully. 
 "Have I done anything to anger him?" 
 
 "You've done nothing," he answered. "It's a 
 grouch against things in general." 
 
 But Gail saw Edgerton send reprimanding glances 
 at his friend. This defense by her lover seemed 
 only to add to Underwood's belligerence. Gail 
 tried to ignore his unfriendly attitude. But there 
 was a biting scorn in his eyes that caused her own 
 to fall; and the jeering tone of his voice was like 
 a slap on her face. 
 
 He was applying the lash. He wanted to drive 
 her into releasing Edgerton. It was thus she di- 
 vined it. 
 
 For four weeks she slept but a few hours each 
 night a troubled dreaming in the early morning; 
 and this through sheer exhaustion after hours of 
 wakefulness and anguished arguments with herself. 
 She had been pale before. She was ashen now. 
 
 285
 
 286 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 Then one morning an employee of the sanatorium 
 brought her a note : 
 
 "Mv DEAR MRS. ORCUTT: 
 
 "Please be at the sanatorium this afternoon at 
 three o'clock, and promptly. This is important. 
 "Yours truly, 
 
 "MORRIS UNDERWOOD." 
 
 Gail read it with a new contraction of the heart. 
 
 This imperative summons Did it have to do 
 
 with her husband? At Edgerton's solicitation 
 Doctor Underwood had taken charge of the corre- 
 spondence and financial affairs of "George Ormond." 
 This was at the time Gail went South. 
 
 Was he now going to give them back into her 
 hands; place this burden again upon her? Pre- 
 viously, over the signature "Mary Ormond" she 
 had sent drafts and letters to Doctor Manton, the 
 Paris physician under whose care her husband was. 
 But it was a graver risk for her to do this than for 
 Doctor Underwood. She might be too guarded or 
 not enough so. She had always been fearful that 
 Doctor Manton or some one of his associates might 
 visit New York, and, out of courtesy, seek to find 
 "Mrs. Ormond" and tell her personally about her 
 husband. She had had the answers to her letters 
 sent to the general delivery window at the Post 
 Office. To get them had necessitated considerable 
 contriving. She had to take Vance with her as a 
 valid excuse for going herself. The child's whims
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 287 
 
 were numerous: to say that "Vance wants to buy 
 some stamps for himself," was a sufficiently good 
 explanation. But she had first to incite Vance to 
 want to buy stamps for himself; then she had to 
 leave him beyond hearing distance while she called 
 for her mail. It was a nerve-racking hour, leaving 
 her faint from the strain. 
 
 And it was a relief not to know about the details 
 of her husband's case. Doctor Underwood's crisp 
 "Same as usual" was all that was now told her. He 
 had said nothing for a month. Had he been waiting 
 to perpetrate some cruelty? Three o'clock found 
 her at the sanatorium, sick with dread. 
 
 She shrank before the saturnine glance with which 
 he greeted her. She could not keep the hurt tears 
 from her eyes, nor her lips from trembling. He led 
 her into his study and behind a screen. 
 
 "I want you to sit here quietly for the next ten 
 minutes or so. This mirror gives a view of the 
 room. I want you to hear and see without being 
 seen." 
 
 "Wait! Does Keith know about this?" 
 
 "No," he growled. 
 
 "Then it's something unkind, and I won't " 
 
 "You'll sit right here, just as I tell you," he com- 
 manded. 
 
 There was a jingling of the doorbell. The physi- 
 cian walked away and left her. She sat down facing 
 the mirror, looking into it with eyes almost too
 
 288 THE WOMAN'S LAW. 
 
 terrified to see, eyes waiting to behold George 
 Orcutt. 
 
 The alienist returned to the room. With him was 
 a girl. The long mirror revealed her entire figure. 
 She was tall and girlishly plump, with athletic shoul- 
 ders and hips. She wore a blue suit and hat, a red 
 wing and necktie giving a saucy touch. Her hair 
 was brown and crinkly, her eyes brown with a laugh 
 in them, and there was a deep dimple in her right 
 cheek. She seated herself in the chair the host indi- 
 cated. 
 
 "Yes, I'm Janet Manners," said she. "And I've 
 come to see Keith Edgerton." She looked at him 
 daringly. "And I'm going to stay here till I do see 
 him, or you tell me where I can find him. It's no 
 use to say Keith won't see folks. He'll see me" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 The dimple worked mischievously. She pouted 
 the pout of a girl used to having her way with mas- 
 culinity. 
 
 "Blind blind blind!" she uttered commiser- 
 atingly, and watched to see the effect of her audacity. 
 
 Morris Underwood laughed, a big, hearty out- 
 burst. 
 
 "Old and in my dotage," he added. "But never- 
 theless I believe I have a glimmering of 
 why." 
 
 "Now that I have drawn your attention to it," 
 said Miss Manners, dimpling some more, "you may
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 289 
 
 even be convinced that it is a deprivation for Keith 
 not to see me." 
 
 He inclined his head, in merry acquiescence. 
 
 "I am, Miss Manners. I am ! And if I could, I 
 should take you to Keith this minute. But " 
 
 "Doctor Underwood, I will not be put off with 
 excuses," she interrupted, raising a finger in warn- 
 ing. And though she dimpled, she was very serious. 
 "Dad's easy. 'We must abide by Doctor Under- 
 wood's decision,' he says. And he may. But I 
 shan't. " I'm more to Keith than he is or anybody 
 else. Edgerton was to have been my name 
 
 hadn't " She pressed her lips till they whitened 
 
 under the compression. Her hands reached toward 
 him, imploringly. "If Keith is sick, I should take 
 care of him. We live on the next ranch; and my 
 two brothers and I played with the Edgertons from 
 babyhood. They're all gone, but Keith. And I 
 want Keith. I don't care how wrong his head is, 
 or how terribly afflicted he may be. He would never 
 be a burden to me nor to Dad." 
 
 "You love him?" 
 
 "I adore him! We all do!" 
 
 Doctor Underwood was silent for a while. 
 
 "How long do you expect to be in New York?" 
 he questioned. 
 
 "Four days. Then I sail for England with some 
 neighbors of ours. I want to see Keith before I sail. 
 I want him to go home with me when I come back, 
 or go abroad with us now if he's well enough. Or I
 
 2 9 o THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 shall stay here. I don't care which it is. All I want 
 is to have Keith again." 
 
 Morris Underwood rose. 
 
 "You will hear from me in two days. I make 
 no promises. I think I may arrange for you to 
 see Keith before you sail. But if not, you as well 
 as your father must submit to my decision. You 
 will defeat your own ends otherwise. I'm acting 
 as Mr. Edgerton's physician. Everything I do is 
 for his best good. My first duty is to him. Be 
 patient now. It will all come out right." 
 
 She stood up and looked at him, searchingly, then 
 held out her hand. 
 
 "I'm not a patient person. I was sick in bed for 
 the first four months, or I should have come on 
 then and searched for Keith myself. It's only within 
 the past month that I've been able to travel." Her 
 other hand covered his. "Won't you tell me some- 
 thing more than this?" she pleaded. 
 
 "In two days," was the answer. 
 
 There was finality in his tone, but his voice was 
 very friendly. He went outside and put her into 
 the waiting taxicab, presented her with a handful of 
 roses gathered from a trellised rambler beside the 
 steps. 
 
 The smile left his face as he returned to the 
 study. 
 
 Gail stood in the center of the room, head high 
 poised. 
 
 "It's not true. Keith has never given her any
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 291 
 
 cause to make her think he would marry her ! And 
 
 you know this You know this! And yet you 
 
 bring me here to try to kill my faith in his honesty. 
 You have planned this scene thinking to make me 
 remorseful. Remorseful? Why should I be re- 
 morseful over hurting a man who would break faith 
 with a woman? It's because he's not dead to shame 
 and dishonor that has awakened me to " 
 
 "The holiness of truth," completed Morris Un- 
 derwood softly. 
 
 "Stop!" she commanded passionately. "It's 
 profanation for you to talk about holiness. You 
 claim to love Keith and then you try to blacken 
 my mind against him when you know that " 
 
 "He cares more for your little finger than all the 
 rest of the world together," again interrupted the 
 man. "Just a minute. I did not plan this scene. 
 I've been in desultory correspondence with Doctor 
 Manners ever since learning who Edgerton is. I 
 had a letter from him last week stating that his 
 daughter was coming to New York and would want 
 to see me. I had no way of knowing what she 
 would say. I've not mentioned the subject to Edger- 
 ton and know nothing of his side of it. My only 
 premeditated move was to bring you here to " 
 
 "Try to take away all the sweetness out of my 
 life ! to leave me not only alone, but without faith 
 and trust in humanity!" Her clenched hands 
 pressed against her bosom to quell the tumult that 
 shook her. "But you shall not! You shall not! I
 
 292 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 can't go on unless I believe in him! My life has 
 been given over to expediency I thought I was 
 good, and all the while. . . . Then I began to see 
 and I've been trying to get the courage." 
 Her hands came to her twitching lips, trying vainly 
 to beat back the wild sobs. "To me abstract truth 
 
 has no meaning It had to be embodied for 
 
 me to see it Keith means truth ! and light ! and 
 
 my salvation I And you know this and yet 
 you " 
 
 "I? What have I to do with it? You haven't 
 lost your faith in your lover." It was a statement, 
 but there was a flicker of questioning in the under- 
 tone. 
 
 She stepped toward him, and her burning eyes 
 held his. 
 
 "No! And he is my lover! He is not hers and 
 never was! Never!" 
 
 "And never shall be if you can help it so?" said 
 Morris Underwood. "And you can, Mrs. Orcutt. 
 What Miss Manners and I want has no bearing on 
 the case. Whether Keith continues in slavery to a 
 married woman or goes free to live the independent 
 life a man should, is wholly up to you. All this 
 light and truth and wonderfulness is in the hollow 
 of your hand. No one can lose it for you but your- 
 self." 
 
 She continued to look at him, her eyes searching 
 his. 
 
 "This is what you call applying the 'surgeon's
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 293 
 
 knife'," said she, in low voice, her excitement gone 
 from her. "I see." 
 
 Her hands came together on her breast again, 
 she stood for a fraction of a second longer gazing 
 at him, then with a wild flinging out of her arms, 
 she turned and left the room.
 
 XXXIX 
 
 "VT^OU telephoned for me to come to Mamaroneck 
 
 at once to see you Which means that you 
 
 have something unusual to tell me. And you don't 
 tell it!" 
 
 In Edgerton's manner was restrained excitement. 
 To see her was always an event that sent his blood 
 quickening. But he had been looking rather tired 
 of late; and even her presence had brought little of 
 the exuberance that seemed to belong to him. To-day 
 his excessive buoyancy was in marked contrast to 
 his recent depression. It was as though his spirit 
 was rioting to shout forth a hosanna, and was held 
 in check by a mighty effort. 
 
 Gail was blind to his inward commotion. 
 
 "Let's go to the summer house," she said in 
 answer. "Here the servants are constantly going 
 and coming." 
 
 "Ah ! a secret ! One of those hideous secrets that 
 Vance detests." 
 
 He delivered a message from Vance and told her 
 some trifling news of the "boys" as they walked 
 across the lawn. She made no response. She let 
 
 294
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 295 
 
 him fix a cushion at her back and place a hassock 
 under her feet. Still she remained silent. He sat 
 down in a chair facing her and folded his arms. 
 
 "Your brother who was killed was going to 
 marry Miss Janet Manners." 
 
 The man started. 
 
 "So you figured it out for yourself ! Underwood 
 told me about it this morning. He didn't mean it 
 the way you thought, dear." 
 
 She looked at him directly now, noting his flush 
 of excitement. He hadn't called her "dear" since 
 that day in Florida. Nor looked at her in this pos- 
 sessive way since he had known she was not his wife. 
 
 "What is it?" she cried out. 
 
 "Let's hear what you have to say first," he re- 
 turned. 
 
 She twisted her hands together, then one rose 
 and travelled over the muscles of her throat. There 
 was no contraction now. 
 
 "Doctor Underwood meant to drive me into 
 giving you up, and he didn't care how he did it! 
 He knew it was your brother who was engaged to 
 Miss Manners?" 
 
 "Yes; he told me just now that Doctor Manners 
 had written him not to mention Harold's name to 
 Janet; so he inferred from that that she wouldn't 
 speak of it herself. Everything turned out as he had 
 deduced except you ! He says he'll never tackle a 
 'love case' again. I hope not, the old blunderer!" 
 
 "Perhaps not a blunderer altogether," said she
 
 296 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 faintly. "For he has gained you your freedom now, 
 and I think it would have been months yet before 
 I could have risen to it but for the way he talked and 
 
 and looked at me as though I were But 
 
 I've been trying so hard And I should have, 
 
 even if And you know it, don't you!" 
 
 "Yes; and so does he. But he had a reason for 
 wanting you to do it now." 
 
 "He wants you to go abroad with Miss Man- 
 ners He thinks you will And I want 
 
 you to If not her then some one " 
 
 "You don't want anything of the kind," said he, 
 smiling. "You have an idea that you ought to want 
 it, that's all. Do you think I could ever marry any 
 one else knowing that your heart still holds me ! 
 Aside from constancy for love's sake, do you think 
 I could hurt you that way?" 
 
 Yet He was hurting her now! His buoy- 
 ancy, the exultant ring in his voice It could 
 
 only mean joy in the thought of his freedom. And 
 this, knowing that he was not to see her after they 
 parted!. . . . 
 
 But she was suffering so much in this hour that a 
 little more suffering rather than less hardly counted 
 .... She had nerved herself to go through with 
 it. ... And she should bravely. 
 
 "I want you to get Doctor Underwood to tell 
 the reporters. He says that they always report 
 him accurately if he demands it. I want that people 
 should not misunderstand about you and me
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 297 
 
 I shall take Vance and go away till the sensation of 
 the news is over. Then " 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "I haven't planned anything definite .... Every- 
 thing's so black that I can't see anything clearly. . . . 
 Yet I know " 
 
 "That you will!" His voice rang out triumph- 
 antly. "You brave girl ! And not 'brigand' bravery 
 now, as Underwood called your carrying me off and 
 foisting me on the law as George Orcutt. To have 
 
 had the " courage for that ! And the grit to 
 
 bring me into your home! And" his lips 
 
 curved humorously "the strength to fight me after 
 you got me there!" His hands caught hers. "Be- 
 loved, do you know what a wonderful woman you 
 are going to be!" 
 
 She withdrew her hands and shrank back to her 
 chair. Morris Underwood's avowed cruelty had not 
 hurt her as did this praise. Already, she had a 
 feeling of separation from him, as though she, as 
 a woman, had been put outside his life. He was in- 
 terested in her now as a phenomenon ! 
 
 She felt deathly sick. She wanted to end it now, 
 quickly, and crawl off somewhere alone. She raised 
 her eyes there was one thing more to do. 
 
 "Will you try to make Vance understand? He 
 will ask for you a thousand times a day. That will 
 be the crucifying agony to hear him plead and to 
 know that I can do nothing ! . . . . And now good- 
 by. . . . I can't bear anything more. ..."
 
 298 THE WOMAN'S LAW 
 
 "Good-by?" He laughed boyishly. "Dear, there 
 isn't going to be any good-by, ever! That's why 
 I'm sitting here grinning so heartlessly. Underwood 
 seemed to know what you wanted, and he made me 
 promise to let you go through with it. He said 
 it would make you happier. And to make my blessed 
 girl happy is the most important thing in life for 
 me now." He regained possession of her hands 
 and his eyes held hers. She was staring at him in 
 a strange way. "Yes!" he laughed blissfully. 
 "You're mine! Do you understand? Mine! You 
 and I and the boy are going away together. I've 
 engaged passage on the St. Louis for Mr. and Mrs. 
 Keith Edgerton ! We're going to sail to-day ! And 
 I don't think it'll matter to us what news the papers 
 serve to the public to-morrow. Will it?" 
 
 He sprang up and drew her to her feet. 
 
 "Underwood, the old bat! kept you from me till 
 you had offered me my freedom. He thought I 
 wanted that you should do this. I did yes! But 
 I knew that you would do it yourself sometime. 
 And what I wanted was you! I can't forgive him 
 for this month that I haven't had you. I damned 
 him to the antipodes and back this morning. But " 
 his lips came to hers "it doesn't matter now, be- 
 loved." 
 
 She pushed his lips away. Her voice was ter- 
 rified. 
 
 "You don't mean it! Say you don't mean it!
 
 THE WOMAN'S LAW 299 
 
 You are doing this to make sure that I'm strong 
 now. Yes! Yes!" 
 
 "Gail, don't you understand that " 
 
 Her hand shut off the words on his lips. 
 
 "I understand that you love me well enough to 
 leave me, enough to want me to keep faith with 
 myself." She clutched his arm wildly. "I've got 
 to to reach toward the stars now. And I can't 
 without my faith in you. You don't mean what 
 you say! No! No!" 
 
 "I mean that George Orcutt is dead," said he 
 gently. "He died a month ago. Doctor Under- 
 wood kept this knowledge from you and me, wanting 
 that you 'shouldn't be cheated out of your victory.' ' 
 His arms closed about her. "And, dear, I believe 
 he was right" 
 
 THE END