The story itself was built craftily; she had been coached by a clever instructor who was a successful writer of short stories himself; and it worked up to a climax of genuine drama. But this was merely the framework, the flexible technique for the real Gora. The story had not only an original point of view but it pulsed with the insurgent resentful pa.s.sionate spirit of the writer.
Alexina gave a little gasp as Gora finished.
"Many people won"t like that story," she said. "It shocks and jars and gives one"s smugness a pain in the middle. But those that do like it will give you a great reputation, and after all there are a few thousand intelligent readers in the United States. How on earth did that magazine come to accept it?"
Gora was staring at Alexina with an uncommonly soft expression in her opaque light eyes. She felt, indeed, as if her ego would leap through them and make a fool of her.
"The editor wrote me something of what you have just said. He wanted something new--to give his conservative old subscribers a shock.
Thought it would be good for them and for the magazine. You--you--have said what I should have wanted you to say if I could have thought it out.... I think I should have hated you if you had said, "How charming!" or "How frantically interesting!""
"Well, it"s the last if not the first. Aileen will say that and mean it. I"ll telephone to the bookstore the first thing Monday morning and get a copy. Now I must go. It"s late."
IV
"Let me telephone for a taxi."
Alexina laughed merrily. "You"ll never believe it, but I"ve just thirty cents in my purse. I forgot to ask Morty for something before he left.... You see, I happened to find quite a bit in mother"s desk and so I"ve never thought to ask him for an allowance. But I shall at once."
"An allowance? But you have your own money? Or is it because the estate isn"t settled? What has Morty to do with that?"
"I believe we get the income from the estate until it is settled. But I gave my power of attorney to Morty."
"Oh! But if there is money on deposit in the bank you can draw on it."
"Could I? Well! I"ll just draw a round hundred on Monday at ten A.M."
"Why did you give your power of attorney to Morty?"
"Oh ... why ... he asked me to ... I know nothing about business, and he naturally would attend to my affairs."
"But you are not going away. No one needs your power of attorney. And the executors are Judge Lawton and Mr. Abbott. You are here to sign such papers as they advise.... Don"t be angry, please. I am not insinuating anything against Morty. He"s never bad a dishonest thought in his life ... has always been, the squarest ... but..."
"Well?"
Alexina"s head was very high. It was quite bad enough for Tom Abbott and Judge Lawton ... but for his sister ...
"It"s this way, Alexina. People in this world, more particularly men, are just about as honest as circ.u.mstances will permit them to be. Some are stronger than Life in one way or another, no doubt of it; but they make up for it by being weaker in others.... I am talking particularly of the money question, the struggle for existence, which the vast majority of men are forced to make....
"Men fight Life from the hour they leave their homes, when they have any, to force success--in one way or another--out of her until the hour they are able to lay down the burden.... Some are too strong and too firm in their ideals ever to do wrong; they would prefer failure, and generally they are strong enough to avoid it, even to succeed in their way against the most overwhelming odds.... Many are too clever not to find some way of compromising and circ.u.mventing.... Others just peg along and barely make both ends meet.... Others go under and down and out.
"Morty, like millions of other young Americans, had good principles and high ideals inculcated from his earliest boyhood and took to them as a duck takes to water. Nor is he weak. But although he is a hard and steady worker he is also visionary. He speculated on the stock market before he was married. Probably not now as the market is moribund. He is frantic to get rich ... for more reasons than one."
"But he never would do anything dishonorable."
"No. Nothing he couldn"t square with his conscience if it turned out all right. But the most honest man, when in a hole, finds little difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that what is, illogically, the possession of the women of his family, is his if he needs it.
"Moreover, no doubt you have discovered that Morty is the sort of man who looks upon women as man"s natural inferiors, that if there is any question of sacrifice the woman is not to be considered for a moment ... especially where no public risk is involved. That sort of man only thinks he is too honest to refrain from taking some unrelated woman"s money, but as a matter of fact it is because she would send him to State"s Prison as readily as a man would. One"s own women are safe.
"I lent Morty my small inheritance with my eyes open. But he knows a good deal of that particular business, and I did not dream the times were going to be so bad.... I doubt if I ever see it again.... But you must not run the risk of losing yours. I want you to promise me that on Monday morning you will go down to the City Hall and revoke your power of attorney. And as much for Morty"s sake as for your own. He will lose your money if he keeps it in his hands, and then he will suffer agonies of remorse. He will be infinitely more miserable than if he merely failed in business. That is honorable. It would only hurt his pride.
Then he could get a position again, and you would have your own income."
"But do you mean to say that if I did revoke my power of attorney and he asked me later for money to save his business that I should not give it to him?"
"Yes, I mean just that. Morty will never take any of the prizes in the business world. He may hold on and make a living, that is all. He has plenty to start with, and tells me he is doing fairly well, in spite of the times. But he would do better in the long run as a clerk. In time he might get a large salary as a sort of general director of all the routine business of some large house--"
Alexina curled her lip. "I do not want him to be a clerk."
"No, of course you don"t! But you"d like it still less if he cleaned you out. You--would have to sell or rent your old home and live on a hundred and fifty dollars a month in a flat in some out-of-the-way quarter. You might have to go to work yourself."
"I shouldn"t mind that so much, except that I"m afraid I"d not be good for much. Perhaps it was sn.o.bbish of me to object lo Morty"s being a clerk. But ... well, I"m not so sure that it is sn.o.bbish to prefer what you have always been accustomed to--I mean if it is a higher standard.
And after all I married him when he was only a clerk."
"You are surprisingly little of a sn.o.b, all things considered; but you are a hopeless aristocrat."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I think the line between the aristocratic and the sn.o.bbish att.i.tude of mind is almost too fine to be put into words. But they are often confused by the undiscriminating. Will you revoke that power of attorney on Monday?"
"Shouldn"t I wait until Morty is home? ... tell him first? It seems rather taking an advantage ... and he will be very angry."
"That doesn"t matter."
"What excuse shall I give him?"
"Any one of a dozen. You are bored and want to take care of your money ... intend to learn something of business, as all women should, and will in time.... Ring in the feminist stuff ... wife"s economic independence ... woman"s new position in the world.... That will make Morty so raving angry that he will forget about the other. Will you do it?"
"Yes, I will. I believe you are right. So were the others ... there must be something in it."
She told Gora of the advice of Tom Abbott and Judge Lawton. Gora nodded.
"They meant more than they said. And merely because they are men of the world, not because they like and trust Morty any the less."
Alexina did not hear her. She was staring hard at the floor.... A year ago ... three months ago ... she couldn"t have done this thing. She had been still under the illusion that she loved her husband, that her marriage was a complete success. She would have sacrificed her last penny rather than hurt his feelings. Now she only cared that she didn"t care.... She had admitted to herself that she did not love her husband but that was different from committing an overt act that proved it....
She felt something crumbling within her.... It was the last of the fairy edifice of her romance ... of her first, her real, youth.... What was to take its place? The future smugly secure on six thousand a year and an inviolate social position ... a good dull husband ... not even the prospect of travel....
V
She sprang to her feet and turned away her head.
"Why don"t you come and live with us?" she asked abruptly. "Why should you keep this on? There are so many vacant bedrooms up there. You could have one for your study. I"d love to have you. You"d have the most complete independence. Do."
Gora shook her head. "I"ve always this to fall back on."