"That"s precisely the way I feel about it," answered Winfield, "and that"s why I am talking to you. I want you to come in on this, for I think your imagination will be worth something. You can help me lay this thing out right and advertise it right."
They talked on about one detail and another until finally Eugene, in spite of all his caution, saw his dreams maturing in this particular proposition. Fifty thousand dollars invested here would give him two thousand five hundred shares--one thousand preferred, and fifteen hundred common--whose face value, guaranteed by this magnificent piece of property, would be $250,000. Think of it, $250,000--a quarter of a million and that subject to a natural increase which might readily carry him into the millionaire cla.s.s! His own brains would be of some value here, for Winfield was anxious to have him lay this out, and this would bring him in touch with not only one of the best real estate men in the city, but would bring him into contact with a whole host of financiers in business, people who would certainly become interested in this venture. Winfield talked easily of architects, contractors, railroad men, presidents of construction companies, all of whom would take stock for the business opportunities it would bring to them later and also of the many strings to be pulled which later would bring great gains to the company and save it from expenditures which would otherwise mean millions in outlay. Thus this proposed extension by the Long Island which would cost that railroad two hundred thousand dollars would cost the Sea Island Company nothing and would bring thousands of lovers of beauty there the moment conveniences were established to receive them. This was true of hotels to be built. Each would bring business for everything else. The company would lease the ground. The great hotel men would do their own building according to restrictions and plans laid down by the Sea Island Company. The only real expenditure would be for streets, sewers, lights, water, walks, trees, and the great one hundred foot wide boardwalk with concrete ornaments which would be the finest sea stroll in the world. But these could be undertaken by degrees.
Eugene saw it all. It was a vision of empire. "I don"t know about this," he said cautiously. "It"s a great thing, but I may not have the means to dip into it. I want to think it over. Meanwhile, I"ll be glad to go out there and look over the ground with you."
Winfield could see that he had Eugene fascinated. It would be an easy matter to land him once he had his plans perfected. Eugene would be the type of man who would build a house and come and live there in the summer. He would interest many people whom he knew. He went away feeling that he had made a good start, and he was not mistaken.
Eugene talked the matter over with Angela--his one recourse in these matters--and as usual she was doubtful, but not entirely opposed. Angela had considerable caution, but no great business vision. She could not really tell him what he ought to do. Thus far his judgment, or rather his moves, had been obviously successful. He had been going up apparently because he was valuable as an a.s.sistant, not because he was a born leader.
"You"ll have to judge for yourself, Eugene," Angela finally said. "I don"t know. It looks fine. You certainly don"t want to work for Mr. Colfax all your life, and if, as you say, they are beginning to plot against you, you had better prepare to get out sometime. We have enough now, really, to live on, if you want to return to your art."
Eugene smiled. "My art. My poor old art! A lot I"ve done to develop my art."
"I don"t think it needs developing. You have it. I"m sorry sometimes I ever let you leave it. We have lived better, but your work hasn"t counted for as much. What good has it done you outside the money to be a successful publisher? You were as famous as you are now before you ever started in on this line, and more so. More people know you even now as Eugene Witla, the artist, than as Eugene Witla, the magazine man."
Eugene knew this to be so. His art achievements had never forsaken him. They had grown in fame always. Pictures that he had sold for two hundred and four hundred had gone up to as high as three and four thousand in value, and they were still rising. He was occasionally approached by an art dealer to know if he never intended to paint any more. In social circles it was a constant cry among the elect, "Why don"t you paint any longer?" "What a shame you ever left the art world!" "Those pictures of yours, I can never forget them."
"My dear lady," Eugene once said solemnly, "I can"t live by painting pictures as I am living by directing magazines. Art is very lovely. I am satisfied to believe that I am a great painter. Nevertheless, I made little out of it, and since then I have learned to live. It"s sad, but it"s true. If I could see my way to live in half the comfort I am living in now and not run the risk of plodding the streets with a picture under my arm, I would gladly return to art. The trouble is the world is always so delightfully ready to see the other fellow make the sacrifice for art or literature"s sake. Selah! I won"t do it. So there!"
"It"s a pity! It"s a pity!" said this observer, but Eugene was not vastly distressed. Similarly Mrs. Dale had reproached him, for she had seen and heard of his work.
"Some time. Some time," he said grandly; "wait."
Now at length this land proposition seemed to clear the way for everything. If Eugene embarked upon it, he might gradually come to the point at which he could take some official position in connection with it. Anyhow, think of a rising income from $250,000! Think of the independence, the freedom! Surely then he could paint or travel, or do as he pleased.
As a matter of fact, after two automobile rides to the nearest available position on the site of the future resort and a careful study of the islands and the beach, Eugene devised a scheme which included four hotels of varying sizes, one dining and dancing casino, one gambling resort after the pattern of Monte Carlo, a summer theatre, a music pavilion, three lovely piers, motor and yacht club houses, a park with radiating streets, and other streets arranged in concentric rings to cross them. There was a grand plaza about which the four hotels were ranged, a n.o.ble promenade, three miles in length, to begin with, a handsome railway station, plots for five thousand summer homes, ranging from five to fifteen thousand in price. There were islands for residences, islands for clubs, islands for parks. One of the hotels sat close to an inlet over which a dining veranda was to be built--stairs were to be laid down to the water so that one could step into gondolas or launches and be carried quickly to one of the music pavilions on one of the islands. Everything that money wanted was to be eventually available here, and all was to be gone about slowly but beautifully, so that each step would only make more sure each additional step.
Eugene did not enter on this grand scheme until ten men, himself included, had pledged themselves to take stock up to $50,000 each. Included in these were Mr. Wiltsie, President of the Long Island; Mr. Kenyon C. Winfield, and Milton Willebrand, the very wealthy society man at whose home he had originally met Winfield. The Sea Island Company was then incorporated, and on a series of dates agreed upon between them and which were dependent upon a certain amount of work being accomplished by each date, the stock was issued to them in ten-thousand-dollar lots and then cash taken and deposited in the treasury. By the end of two years after Eugene had first been approached by Winfield he had a choice collection of gold-colored certificates in the Sea Island Realty and Construction Company, which was building the now widely heralded seaside resort--"Blue Sea"--which, according to those interested, was to be the most perfect resort of its kind in the world. His certificates stated that they were worth $250,000, and potentially they were. Eugene and Angela looking at them, thinking of the initiative and foresight of Mr. Kenyon C. Winfield and the men he was a.s.sociated with, felt sure that some day, and that not so very far distant, they would yield their face value and much more.
CHAPTER IV.
It had been while he was first perfecting his undertaking with Winfield as to what his relationship to the new Sea Island Construction Company was to be that Eugene had been dwelling more and more fondly upon the impression which Suzanne Dale had originally made upon him. It was six weeks before they met again, and then it was on the occasion of a dance that Mrs. Dale was giving in honor of Suzanne that Eugene and Angela were invited. Mrs. Dale admired Angela"s sterling qualities as a wife, and while there might be temperamental and social differences, she did not think they were sufficient to warrant any discrimination between them, at least not on her part. Angela was a good woman--not a social figure at all--but interesting in her way. Mrs. Dale was much more interested in Eugene, because in the first place they were very much alike temperamentally, and in the next place because Eugene was a successful and brilliant person. She liked to see the easy manner in which he took life, the air with which he a.s.sumed that talent should naturally open all doors to him. He was not conscious apparently of any inferiority in anything but rather of a splendid superiority. She heard it from so many that he was rapidly rising in his publishing world and that he was interested in many things, the latest this project to create a magnificent summer resort. Winfield was a personal friend of hers. He had never attempted to sell her any property, but he had once said that he might some day take her Staten Island holdings and divide them up into town lots. This was one possibility which tended to make her pleasant to him.
The evening in question Eugene and Angela went down to Daleview in their automobile. Eugene always admired this district, for it gave him a sense of height and scope which was not easily attainable elsewhere about New York. It was still late winter and the night was cold but clear. The great house with its verandas encased in gla.s.s was brightly lit. There were a number of people--men and women, whom Eugene had met at various places, and quite a number of young people whom he did not know. Angela had to be introduced to a great many, and Eugene felt that peculiar sensation which he so often experienced of a certain incongruity in his matrimonial state. Angela was nice, but to him she was not like these other women who carried themselves with such an air. There was a statuesqueness and a sufficiency about many of them, to say nothing of their superb beauty and sophistication which made him feel, when the contrast was forced upon him closely, that he had made a terrible mistake. Why had he been so silly as to marry? He could have told Angela frankly that he would not at the time, and all would have been well. He forgot how badly, emotionally, he had entangled himself. But scenes like these made him dreadfully unhappy. Why, his life if he were single would now be but beginning!
As he walked round tonight he was glad to be free socially even for a few minutes. He was glad that first this person and that took the trouble to talk to Angela. It relieved him of the necessity of staying near her, for if he neglected her or she felt neglected by others she was apt to reproach him. If he did not show her attention, she would complain that he was conspicuous in his indifference. If others refused to talk to her, it was his place. He should. Eugene objected to this necessity with all his soul, but he did not see what he was to do about it. As she often said, even if he had made a mistake in marrying her, it was his place to stick by her now that he had. A real man would.
One of the things that interested him was the number of beautiful young women. He was interested to see how full and complete mentally and physically so many girls appeared to be at eighteen. Why, in their taste, shrewdness, completeness, they were fit mates for a man of almost any age up to forty! Some of them looked so wonderful to him--so fresh and ruddy with the fires of ambition and desire burning briskly in their veins. Beautiful girls--real flowers, like roses, light and dark. And to think the love period was all over for him--completely over!
Suzanne came down with others after a while from some room upstairs, and once more Eugene was impressed with her simple, natural, frank, good-natured att.i.tude. Her light chestnut-colored hair was tied with a wide band of light blue ribbon which matched her eyes and contrasted well with her complexion. Again, her dress was some light flimsy thing, the color of peach blossoms, girdled with ribbon and edged with flowers like a wreath. Soft white sandals held her feet.
"Oh, Mr. Witla!" she said gaily, holding out her smooth white arm on a level with her eyes and dropping her hand gracefully. Her red lips were parted, showing even white teeth, arching into a radiant smile. Her eyes were quite wide as he remembered, with an innocent, surprised look in them, which was wholly unconscious with her. If wet roses could outrival a maiden in all her freshness, he thought he would like to see it. Nothing could equal the beauty of a young woman in her eighteenth or nineteenth year.
"Yes, quite, Mr. Witla," he said, beaming. "I thought you had forgotten. My, we look charming this evening! We look like roses and cut flowers and stained-gla.s.s windows and boxes of jewels, and, and, and----"
He pretended to be lost for more words and looked quizzically up at the ceiling.
Suzanne began to laugh. Like Eugene, she had a marked sense of the comic and the ridiculous. She was not in the least vain, and the idea of being like roses and boxes of jewels and stained-gla.s.s windows tickled her fancy.
"Why, that"s quite a collection of things to be, isn"t it?" she laughed, her lips parted. "I wouldn"t mind being all those things if I could, particularly the jewels. Mama won"t give me any. I can"t even get a brooch for my throat."
"Mama is real mean, apparently," said Eugene vigorously. "We"ll have to talk to mama, but she knows, you know, that you don"t need any jewels, see? She knows that you have something which is just as good, or better. But we won"t talk about that, will we?"
Suzanne had been afraid that he was going to begin complimenting her, but seeing how easily he avoided this course she liked him for it. She was a little overawed by his dignity and mental capacity, but attracted by his gaiety and lightness of manner.
"Do you know, Mr. Witla," she said, "I believe you like to tease people."
"Oh, no!" said Eugene. "Oh, never, never! Nothing like that. How could I? Tease people! Far be it from me! That"s the very last thing I ever think of doing. I always approach people in a very solemn manner and tell them the dark sad truth. It"s the only way. They need it. The more truth I tell the better I feel. And then they like me so much better for it."
At the first rush of his quizzical tirade Suzanne"s eyes opened quaintly, inquiringly. Then she began to smile, and in a moment after he ceased she exclaimed: "Oh, ha! ha! Oh, dear! Oh, dear, how you talk!" A ripple of laughter spread outward, and Eugene frowned darkly.
"How dare you laugh?" he said. "Don"t laugh at me. It"s against the rules to laugh, anyhow. Don"t you remember growing girls should never laugh? Solemnity is the first rule of beauty. Never smile. Keep perfectly solemn. Look wise. Hence. Therefore. If. And----"
He lifted a finger solemnly, and Suzanne stared. He had fixed her eye with his and was admiring her pretty chin and nose and lips, while she gazed not knowing what to make of him. He was very different; very much like a boy, and yet very much like a solemn, dark master of some kind.
"You almost frighten me," she said.
"Now, now, listen! It"s all over. Come to. I"m just a silly-billy. Are you going to dance with me this evening?"
"Why, certainly, if you want me to! Oh, that reminds me! We have cards. Did you get one?"
"No."
"Well, they"re over here, I think."
She led the way toward the reception hall, and Eugene took from the footman who was stationed there two of the little books.
"Let"s see," he said, writing, "how greedy dare I be?"
Suzanne made no reply.
"If I take the third and the sixth and the tenth would that be too many?"
"No-o," said Suzanne doubtfully.
He wrote in hers and his and then they went back to the drawing-room where so many were now moving. "Will you be sure and save me these?"
"Why, certainly," she replied. "To be sure, I will!"
"That"s nice of you. And now here comes your mother. Remember, you mustn"t ever, ever, ever laugh. It"s against the rules."
Suzanne went away, thinking. She was pleased at the gaiety of this man who seemed so light-hearted and self-sufficient. He seemed like someone who took her as a little girl, so different from the boys she knew who were solemn in her presence and rather love sick. He was the kind of man one could have lots of fun with without subjecting one"s self to undue attention and having to explain to her mother. Her mother liked him. But she soon forgot him in the chatter of other people.
Eugene was thinking again, though, of the indefinable something in the spirit of this girl which was attracting him so vigorously. What was it? He had seen hundreds of girls in the last few years, all charming, but somehow this one---- She seemed so strong, albeit so new and young. There was a poise there--a substantial quality in her soul which could laugh at life and think no ill of it. That was it or something of it, for of course her beauty was impressive, but a courageous optimism was shining out through her eyes. It was in her laugh, her mood. She would never be afraid.
The dance began after ten, and Eugene danced with first one and then another--Angela, Mrs. Dale, Mrs. Stevens, Miss w.i.l.l.y. When the third set came he went looking for Suzanne and found her talking to another young girl and two society men.
"Mine, you know," he said smilingly.
She came out to him laughing, stretching her arm in a sinuous way, quite unconscious of the charming figure she made. She had a way of throwing back her head which revealed her neck in beautiful lines. She looked into Eugene"s eyes simply and unaffectedly, returning his smile with one of her own. And when they began to dance he felt as though he had never really danced before.
What was it the poet said of the poetry of motion? This was it. This was it. This girl could dance wonderfully, sweetly, as a fine voice sings. She seemed to move like the air with the sound of the two-step coming from an ambush of flowers, and Eugene yielded himself instinctively to the charm--the hypnotism of it. He danced and in dancing forgot everything except this vision leaning upon his arm and the sweetness of it all. Nothing could equal this emotion, he said to himself. It was finer than anything he had ever experienced. There was joy in it, pure delight, an exquisite sense of harmony; and even while he was congratulating himself the music seemed to hurry to a finish. Suzanne had looked up curiously into his eyes.
"You like dancing, don"t you?" she said.
"I do, but I don"t dance well."
"Oh, I think so!" she replied. "You dance so easily."
"It is because of you," he said simply. "You have the soul of the dance in you. Most people dance poorly, like myself."
"I don"t think so," she said, hanging on to his arm as they walked toward a seat. "Oh, there"s Kinroy! He has the next with me."
Eugene looked at her brother almost angrily. Why should circ.u.mstances rob him of her company in this way? Kinroy looked like her--he was very handsome for a boy.
"Well, then, I have to give you up. I wish there were more."
He left her only to wait impatiently for the sixth and the tenth. He knew it was silly to be interested in her in this way, for nothing could come of it. She was a young girl hedged about by all the conventions and safeguards which go to make for the perfect upbringing of girlhood. He was a man past the period of her interest, watched over by conventions and interests also. There could be absolutely nothing between them, and yet he longed for her just the same, for just this little sip of the nectar of make-believe. For a few minutes in her company, married or not, so many years older or not, he could be happy in her company, teasing her. That sense of dancing--that sense of perfect harmony with beauty--when had he ever experienced that before?
The night went by, and at one he and Angela went home. She had been entertained by some young officer in the army stationed at Fort Wadsworth who had known her brother David. That had made the evening pleasant for her. She commented on Mrs. Dale and Suzanne, what a charming hostess the former was and how pretty and gay Suzanne looked, but Eugene manifested little interest. He did not want it to appear that he had been interested in Suzanne above any of the others.
"Yes, she"s very nice," he said. "Rather pretty; but she"s like all girls at that age. I like to tease them."
Angela wondered whether Eugene had really changed for good. He seemed saner in all his talk concerning women. Perhaps large affairs had cured him completely, though she could not help feeling that he must be charmed and delighted by the beauty of some of the women whom he saw.
Five weeks more went by and then he saw Suzanne one day with her mother on Fifth Avenue, coming out of an antique shop. Mrs. Dale explained that she was looking after the repair of a rare piece of furniture. Eugene and Suzanne were enabled to exchange but a few gay words. Four weeks later he met them at the Brentwood Hadleys, in Westchester. Suzanne and her mother were enjoying a season of spring riding. Eugene was there for only a Sat.u.r.day afternoon and Sunday. On this occasion he saw her coming in at half-past four wearing a divided riding skirt and looking flushed and buoyant. Her lovely hair was flowing lightly about her temples.
"Oh, how are you?" she asked, with that same inconsequent air, her hand held out to him at a high angle. "I saw you last in Fifth Avenue, didn"t I? Mama was having her chair fixed. Ha, ha! She"s such a slow rider! I"ve left her miles behind. Are you going to be here long?"
"Just today and tomorrow."
He looked at her, pretending gaiety and indifference.
"Is Mrs. Witla here?"
"No, she couldn"t come. A relative of hers is in the city."
"I need a bath terribly," said the desire of his eyes, and pa.s.sed on, calling back: "I"ll see you again before dinner, very likely."
Eugene sighed.
She came down after an hour, dressed in a flowered organdie, a black silk band about her throat, a low collar showing her pretty neck. She picked up a magazine, pa.s.sing a wicker table, and came down the veranda where Eugene was sitting alone. Her easy manner interested him, and her friendliness. She liked him well enough to be perfectly natural with him and to seek him out where he was sitting once she saw he was there.
"Oh, here you are!" she said, and sat down, taking a chair which was near him.
"Yes, here I am," he said, and began teasing her as usual, for it was the only way in which he knew how to approach her. Suzanne responded vivaciously, for Eugene"s teasing delighted her. It was the one kind of humor she really enjoyed.
"You know, Mr. Witla," she said to him once, "I"m not going to laugh at any of your jokes any more. They"re all at my expense."
"That makes it all the nicer," he said. "You wouldn"t want me to make jokes at my expense, would you? That would be a terrible joke."
She laughed and he smiled. They looked at a golden sunset filtering through a grove of tender maples. The spring was young and the leaves just budding.
"Isn"t it lovely tonight?" he asked.
"Oh, yes!" she exclaimed, in a mellow, meditative voice, the first ring of deep sincerity in it that he ever noticed there.
"Do you like nature?" he asked.
"Do I?" she returned. "I can"t get enough of the woods these days. I feel so queer sometimes, Mr. Witla. As though I were not really alive at all, you know. Just a sound, or a color in the woods."
He stopped and looked at her. The simile caught him quite as any notable characteristic in anyone would have caught him. What was the color and complexity of this girl"s mind? Was she so wise, so artistic and so emotional that nature appealed to her in a deep way? Was this wonderful charm that he felt the shadow or radiance of something finer still?
"So that"s the way it is, is it?" he asked.
"Yes," she said quietly.
He sat and looked at her, and she eyed him as solemnly.
"Why do you look at me so?" she asked.
"Why do you say such curious things?" he answered.
"What did I say?"
"I don"t believe you really know. Well, never mind. Let us walk, will you? Do you mind? It"s still an hour to dinner. I"d like to go over and see what"s beyond those trees."
They went down a little path bordered with gra.s.s and under green budding twigs. It came to a stile finally and looked out upon a stony green field where some cows were pasturing.
"Oh, the spring! The spring!" exclaimed Eugene, and Suzanne answered: "You know, Mr. Witla, I think we must be something alike in some ways. That"s just the way I feel."
"How do you know how I feel?"
"I can tell by your voice," she said.
"Can you, really?"
"Why, yes. Why shouldn"t I?"
"What a strange girl you are!" he said thoughtfully. "I don"t think I understand you quite."