"If Mr. Russell will put up with my poor game, I should enjoy playing immensely. But," she added smiling confidently and regarding him with her large, steady brown eyes, "I don"t intend to remain a duffer at it long. I see," she continued after a moment, "from your expression, Mr.
Randall, that you doubt this. I could tell from the corners of your mouth."
"I must grow a mustache to conceal my thoughts, it seems. I was only thinking, Mrs. Spaulding, that golf is a difficult game at which to excel."
"Yes, but they say that care and determination and--and keeping the eye on the ball will work wonders even for a woman. I shall be only a moment in getting ready, Mr. Russell."
"But what is to become of you, George?" asked Morgan as she disappeared.
"I noticed that a sensitive conscience kept you tongue-tied. This is probably one of the most self-sacrificing acts which will be performed the present summer. But you will remember that Mephistopheles on a certain occasion was equally good-natured."
"Don"t be absurd. Is she very trying?"
"Dame Martha had some humor and no understanding; Mrs. Spinney has some understanding and no humor. Here she comes with her catalogue of lectures. There are over fifty of them, and from their scope she must be almost omniscient. How are you getting on with the widow?"
"Mrs. Spaulding seems to me an interesting woman. She has opinions of her own, which she expresses clearly and firmly. I like her,"
responded Morgan with a definiteness of manner which suggested that he was not to be debarred by fear of banter from admitting that he was attracted.
It seems that as they strode over the links that afternoon he was impressed by her fine physical bearing. There were a freedom and an ease in her movements, essentially womanly and graceful, yet independent and self-reliant, which stirred his pulses. He had been a close and absorbed student, and his observation of the other s.e.x had been largely indifferent and formal. He knew, of course, that the modern woman had sloughed off helplessness and docile dependence on man, but like an ostrich with its head in the sand he had chosen to form a mental conception of what she was like, and he had pictured her either as a hoyden or an unsympathetic blue-stocking. This trig, well-developed beauty, with her sensible, alert face and capable manner was an agreeable revelation. If she was a type, he had neglected his opportunities. But the present was his at all events.
Here was companionship worthy of the name, and a stimulating vindication of the success of woman"s revolt from her own weakness and subserviency. When at the conclusion of their game they sat down on a bank overlooking the last hole and connected conversation took the place of desultory dialogue between shots, he was struck by her common sense, her enthusiasm, and her friendliness. He gathered that she was eager to support herself by some form of intellectual occupation, preferably teaching or writing, and that she had come to Rock Ledge with Mrs. Spinney in order to talk over quietly whether she might better take courses of study at Radcliffe or Wellesley, or learn the Kindergarten methods and at the same time apply herself diligently to preparation for creative work. Of one thing she was certain, that she did not wish to rust out in Westford. While her father lived, of course her nominal home would be there, but she felt that she could not be happy with nothing but household employment in a small town out of touch with the movement and breadth of modern life. The substance of this information was confided to me by Morgan before we went to bed that night.
It is easy and natural for two young people vegetating at a summer resort to become exceedingly intimate in three or four days, especially when facility for intercourse is promoted and freedom from interruption guaranteed by a self-sacrificing accessory. My complicity at the outset had been pure off-hand pleasantry, but by the end of thirty-six hours it was obvious to me that Morgan"s interest was that of a man deeply infatuated. Seeing that the two young people were of marriageable age and free, so far as I knew, from disqualifying blemishes which would justify me in putting either on guard against the other, I concluded that it behooved me as a loyal friend to keep Mrs. Spinney occupied and out of the way. Consequently Morgan and Mrs.
Spaulding were constantly together during the ensuing ten days, and so skilfully did I behave that the innocent pair regarded the flirtation which I was carrying on as a superb joke--a case of a banterer caught in the toils, and Mrs. Spinney"s manners suggested that she was agreeably flattered.
Morgan"s statement that he had never contemplated marriage was true, and yet in the background of his dream of the future lurked a female vision whose sympathy and companionship were to be the spur of his ambition and the mainstay of his courage. Had he found her? He did not need to ask himself the question more than once. He knew that he had, and, knowing that he was deeply in love, he turned to face the two questions by which he was confronted. First, would she have him?
Second, in case she would, was he in a position to ask her to marry him, or, more concretely, could he support her? The first could be solved only by direct inquiry. The answer to the second depended on whether the views which he had expressed to me as to the possibilities of matrimonial content in circ.u.mstances like his were correct. Or was I right, and did it all depend upon the woman? But what if it did? Was not this just the woman to sympathize entirely with his ambition and to keep him up to the mark in case the shoe pinched? There was no doubt of her enthusiasm and interest when in the course of one of their walks he had confided to her that he had dedicated his life to close scientific investigation. Well, he would lay the situation squarely before her and she could give him his answer. If she was the kind of woman he believed her to be and she loved him and had faith in him, would the prospect of limited means appall her? He felt sure that it would not.
By the light of subsequent events, being something of a mind reader, I know the rest of their story as well as though I had been present in the flesh.
Before the end of the fortnight he made a clean breast of his love and of his scruples. He chose an occasion when they had strolled far along the sh.o.r.e and were resting among picturesque rocks overlooking the ocean. She listened shyly, as became a woman, but once or twice while he was speaking she looked up at him with unmistakable ardor and joy in her brown eyes which let him know that his feelings were reciprocated before she confessed it by speech. He was so determined to make clear to her what was in store for her if she accepted him that without waiting for an answer to his burning avowal he proceeded to point out and to reiterate that the scantiest kind of living so far as creature comforts were concerned was all which he could promise either for the present or for the future.
When, having satisfied his conscience, he ceased speaking, Edna turned toward him and with a sigh of sentiment swept back the low bands of profuse dark hair from her temples as though by the gesture she were casting all anxieties and hindrances to the winds. "How strange it is!" she murmured. "The last thing which I supposed could happen to me in coming here was that I should marry. But I am in love--in love with you; and to turn one"s back on that blessing would be to squander the happiness of existence." She was silent a moment. Then she continued gravely, "As you know, I was engaged--married once before. How long ago it seems! I thought once, I believed once, that I could never love again. Dear Horace, how wrapped up we were in each other! But I was a child then, and--and it seems as though all I know of the real world has been learned since. I must not distrust--I will not refuse the opportunity to make you happy and to become happier myself by resisting the impulse of my heart. I love you--Morgan."
"Thank G.o.d! But are you sure, Edna, that you have counted the cost of marrying me?"
"Oh, yes! We shall manage very well, I think," she answered, speaking slowly and contracting a little her broad brow in the attempt to argue dispa.s.sionately. "It isn"t as if you had nothing. You have fifteen hundred dollars and your salary, nearly two thousand more. Five years ago that would have seemed to me wealth, and now, of course, I understand that it isn"t; and five years ago I suppose I would have married a man if I loved him no matter how poor he was. But to-day I am wiser--that"s the word, isn"t it? For I recognize that I might not be happy as a mere drudge, and to become one would conflict with what I feel that I owe myself in the way of--shall I call it civilizing and self-respecting comfort? So you see if you hadn"t a cent, I might feel it was more sensible and better for us both to wait or to give each other up. But it isn"t a case of that at all. We"ve plenty to start on--plenty, and more than I"m accustomed to; and by the time we need more, if we do need more, you will be famous."
"But it"s just that, Edna," he interjected quickly. "I may never be famous. I may be obscure, and we may be poor, relatively speaking, all our lives," and he sighed dismally.
"Oh, yes, you will, and oh, no, we shan"t!" she exclaimed buoyantly.
"Surely, you don"t expect me to believe that you are not going to succeed and to make a name for yourself? We must take some chances--if that is a chance. You have told me yourself that you intended to succeed."
"In the end, yes."
"Why, then, shouldn"t I believe it, too? It would be monstrous--disloyal and unromantic not to. I won"t listen to a word more on that score, please. And the rest follows, doesn"t it? We are marrying because we love each other and believe we can help each other, and I am sure one of the reasons why we love each other is that we both have enthusiasm and find life intensely absorbing and admire that in the other. There"s the great difference between me now and what I was at eighteen. The mere zest of existence seems to me so much greater than it used. There are so many interesting things to do, so many interesting things which we would like to do. And now we shall be able to do them together, shan"t we?" she concluded, her eyes lighted with confident happiness, her cheeks mantling partly from love, partly, perhaps, from a sudden consciousness that she was almost playing the wooer.
Morgan was equal to the occasion. "Until death do us part, Edna. This is the joy of which I have dreamed for years and wondered if it could ever be mine," he whispered, as he looked into her face with all the ardor of his soul and kissed her on the lips.
That evening he hooked his arm in mine on the piazza after dinner and said, "You builded better than you knew, George. We are engaged, and she"s the one woman in the world for me. I"ve told her everything--everything, and she isn"t afraid."
"And you give me the credit of it. That"s Christian and handsome. I"ll say one thing for her which any one can see from her face, that she has good looks and intelligence. As to the rest, you monopolized her so that our acquaintance is yet to begin."
"It shall begin at once," said Morgan, with a happy laugh. "But what about you, George?"
"I leave for New York to-night. Now that the young lovers have plighted their troth my presence is no longer necessary. A sudden telegram will arrive."
"But Mrs. Spinney? We have begun to--er--hope--"
"Hope?"
"Begun to think--wondered if--"
"I were going to marry a woman several years my senior who has the effrontery to believe that she can lecture acceptably on the entire range of literary and social knowledge from the Troubadours and the Crusades to Rudyard Kipling and the Referendum? Such is the reward of disinterested self-sacrifice!"
"Forgive me, George. I knew at first that you were trying to do me a good turn, but--but you were so persistent that you deceived us. I"m really glad there"s nothing in it."
"Thanks awfully." Then bending a sardonic glance on my friend, I murmured sententiously:
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is Winged Cupid painted blind."
"Edna, why don"t you take a more active interest in these club gatherings?" asked Morgan Russell one afternoon eight years subsequent to their marriage. He had laid aside his work for the day, and having joined his wife on the piazza was glancing over a printed notice of a meeting which she had left on the table. "I"m inclined to think you would get considerable diversion from them, and the study work at home would be in your line."
Edna was silent a moment. She bent her head over her work--a child"s blouse--that he might not notice that she was biting her lip, and she managed to impart a dispa.s.sionate and almost jaunty tone to the indictment which uttered.
"Every now and then, Morgan, you remind me of Edward Casaubon in "Middlemarch." Not often, but every now and then lately."
"That selfish, fusty, undiscerning bookworm?"
"You"re not selfish and you"re not fusty; but you remind me of him when you make remarks like your first." She brushed a caterpillar from her light summer skirt, and noticing the draggled edge held it up.
"There"s one answer to your question about taking an active interest in clubs. There are twenty others, but this is one."
Her husband appeared puzzled. He looked well, but pale and thin, as though accustomed to close application.
"I mean I can"t afford it," she added.
"I see. Then it was stupid of me--Casaubonish, I dare say, to have spoken. I was only trying to put a little more variety into your life because I realized that you ought to have it."
Edna gave a faint sigh by way of acquiescence. Marriage had changed her but little in appearance. She looked scarcely older, and her steady eyes, broad brow, and ready smile gave the same effect of determination and spirit, though she seemed more sober.
"I"m a little dull myself and that makes me captious," she a.s.serted.
Then dropping her work and clasping her hands she looked up earnestly at him and said, "Don"t you see the impossibility of my being active in my club, Morgan? I go to it, of course, occasionally, so as not to drop out of things altogether, but in order to take a prominent part and get the real benefit of the meetings a woman needs time and money.
Not so very much money, nor so very much time, but more of either than I have at my disposal. Of course, I would like, if we had more income--and what is much more essential--more time, to accept some of the invitations which I receive to express my ideas before the club, but it is out of the question. I have a horror of superficiality just as you have."
"A sad fate; a poor man"s wife," said Morgan with a smile which, though tranquil, was wan.
"And you warned me. Don"t think for a moment I"m complaining or regretting. I was only answering your question. Do you realize, dear, we shall have been married eight years day after to-morrow?"