"She described a wonderful experience she had climbing the Alps. Shall I tell you about it?"
"Good G.o.d, no! I beg pardon, but the American girl in Europe is interesting to no one but herself."
"She is interesting to me."
"Because you love her. Her letters really bore you, only you won"t admit it even to yourself."
"But Helena is really more brilliant than most people."
"Possibly; but I did not come out here to talk about Helena."
Magdalena"s fan was hanging at the end of a chain. She clutched at it, missed it, and pressed her hand against her heart, which was hammering.
He saw the motion, and took her hand in his. She glanced about wildly.
She was in a whirl of terror of everything under heaven. Too dignified to wrest herself away and run, she gave him a swift glance of appeal, then bent her head. He dropped her hand.
"I would not frighten nor bother you for the world, but you know what I have wanted to say for days past. That, at least, can be no shock: you have known for a long while."
"I"d rather you didn"t say it," she gasped.
"I intend to say it, nevertheless, and you will soon get used to it.
Will you marry me?"
"Oh--I--suppose so--that is, if you want me to. Let us go back to the house."
"I have no intention of going back to the house for fully half an hour.
Do you love me?"
She hated him at the moment.
"Answer me."
"I--I--thought I did--I don"t know."
"Well, we will drop the subject for a moment. There are some other things I want to talk to you about. Shall we walk on?"
She drew a long breath at the respite. He resumed in a moment.
"Of course I am double your age, but I do not think we shall be any less happy on that account. My life, I am going to tell you, has not been an ideal one. After the wildness of youth came the deliberate transgressions of maturity, then the more flagrant, because purposeless sins which followed satiety. I know nothing of the middle cla.s.ses of the United States,--I have lived little in this country,--but the young men of the upper cla.s.s are not educated to add to the glory of the American race: they are educated to spend their fathers" millions. It is true that in spite of a rather wild career at college I left it with a half-defined idea of being a scientific explorer, and had taken a special course to that end. But my ambitions crumbled somewhere between the campus and New York. I am not seeking to exculpate myself, to throw the responsibility on my adolescent country: I had something more than the average intelligence, and I pursued my subsequent life deliberately.
Not pursuing an ideal, I had no care to reserve the best that was in me for the woman who should one day be my wife. I entered diplomacy because I liked the life, and because I believed that the day would come when women would mean little more than paper dolls to me, and power would mean everything. I did not reckon on wearying to desperation of the world in general. That time came; with it a desire to live an outdoor existence for the rest of my life. That at least never palled. I determined to come to California. It was an impulse; I hardly speculated upon whether I should remain or not. As the train slid down the Sierras, I knew that I should. Memories jumbled, and I made no effort to pull them apart. For the first time in my life I wanted a home and a wife.
The night we met I felt more attracted to you than to the other charming Californians I had met because you seemed more a part of the country. It is singular that a man should love the country first, and the woman as a logical result, but I did. I think that you know I love you; but not how much, nor what it means to me. I am not good enough for you. My soul is old. I see life exactly as it is. I have not an illusion. I am as prosaic as are all men who have made a business of the pleasures of life. I could not make you a perfervid or romantic speech to save my life, and as the selfishness of a lifetime has made me moody and fitful, there will be intervals when I shall be the reverse of lover-like; but on the whole I think you will find me a rather ardent lover. It seems very little to offer a girl who has everything to give. But I love you; never doubt that. What little good was left in me you have coaxed up and trained to something like its original proportions. I want you to understand what my past has been; but I also want you to understand that I am not the same man I was six months ago, and that you have worked the change. When I crossed the continent, it is no exaggeration to say that I had h.e.l.l in me,--that ferment of spirit which means mental nausea and the desperate dodging of one"s accusing soul. I suppose such a time comes to most men who have persistently violated the original instinct for good. With the lower orders it means crime; with the higher civilisation a legion of imps shrieking in a man"s soul. I will not say that my particular band have been silent since I came here, for that would mean moral obtuseness; but they are placated, and have consented to fix a generous eye on the future. I believe, firmly believe, that my future will atone for my past,--morally, I mean; I want you to understand that I have wronged no man but myself, that I have been guilty of no act unbecoming a gentleman. Now look at me and tell me that you do not hate me."
Magdalena lifted her face. Her lips were dry and parted, her eyes expanded, but not with horror.
"I love you," she said; "I am glad that I can help you."
They were near a huge oak whose limbs shut out the stars. Trennahan drew her into its shadows and took her in his arms and kissed her many times.
He lifted her arms about him, and she clasped her hands tightly. He might be business-like, without illusions, but he knew how to make love with energy and grace. Magdalena from brain to sole was on fire with adoration of him. The words of it surged toward speech, but reserve held her even then. She only clung to him and breathed the pa.s.sion which his touch had startled. His own pulses were full, and he held her close, glad that the spiritual desires had caught and embraced the human, and that their chances for happiness were all that he could wish and a good deal more than he deserved.
x.x.x
"Look!" whispered Magdalena.
They had reached the steps of the verandah, and were about to mount when she laid her hand on his arm. Mr. Polk stood by one of the windows. His head was thrust forward. He was staring into the room with hungry eyes and twitching jaw. The light was full on his white face. In the room Tiny was standing on a chair fanning Alan Rush. Fort was commanding Ila to pick up his handkerchief. The others were laughing and applauding.
Lee and Coralie in their obscure corner were wide-eyed with excitement, and happy. Mr. Polk"s chest heaved spasmodically. He screwed up his eyes. His face grinned. He looked like a man on the rack. He opened his eyes and glared about; but he saw nothing, for they were blind with tears. He turned and fled.
Magdalena clung to Trennahan, shaking. "Take me home," she said. "I cannot stand any more to-night."
BOOK II
I
Helena was back.
Magdalena sat amidst iridescent billows of ballgowns, dinner-gowns, tea-gowns, negliges, demi-toilettes, calling-frocks, street-frocks, yachting-frocks, summer-frocks. She had never seen so many clothes outside of a dry-goods shop, and marvelled that any one woman should want so many. They were on the bed, the chairs, the tables, the divan.
Two mammoth trunks were but half unpacked. Others, empty, made the hall impa.s.sable.
"I love dress," said Helena, superfluously. "And women forgive your beauty and brains so much more willingly if you divert their attention by the one thing their soul can admire without bitterness."
"You have not grown cynical, Helena?" asked Magdalena, anxiously.
"A little. It"s a phase of extreme youth which must run its course with the down on the peach. I fought against it because I want to be original, but you might as well fight against a desire to sing at the top of your voice when you are happy. But, you darling! I"m so glad to see you again."
She flung herself on her knees beside Magdalena and demanded to be kissed. Magdalena, who could hardly realise that she was back, and whose loves were as fixed as the roots of the redwoods, gave her a great hug.
"Tell me, "Lena, am I improved? Am I beautiful? Am I a great beauty?"
"You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen. Of course I have not seen the great beauties of Europe--"
"They are not a patch to ours. When I was presented, there were eight professionals standing round, and I walked away from the lot of them. Am I more beautiful than Tiny, or Ila, or Caro, or Mrs. Washington?"
"Oh, yes! yes!"
"How? They are really very beautiful."
"I know; but you are--you know I never could express myself."