ifornia 
 >nal 
 
 ity 
 
 EDNA KENTON
 
 r
 
 . OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS AflGELES
 
 CLEM
 
 CLEM 
 
 BY EDNA KENTON 
 
 AUTHOR OF "WHAT MANNER OF MAN" 
 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 N EW YORK ... 1907
 
 Copyright, 1907, by 
 THE CENTURY Co. 
 
 Published, A ugust, 7907 
 
 THE DE VINNE PRE88
 
 TO 
 
 MY MOTHER 
 
 21306G2
 
 CLEM
 
 CLEM 
 
 THE little group sitting on a small, re 
 tired veranda bent forward interest 
 edly as the sudden clatter of heavy, plated 
 harness and the click of horses' hoofs broke 
 out on the driveway just below. As the 
 hotel groom released the horses' heads at 
 an imperious order from the trap's single 
 occupant, a blonde and beautiful young 
 woman, and the bright red equipage leaped 
 forward with renewed din, the specially 
 interested onlookers sank back into their 
 chairs with amicable smiles as signs of 
 recognized truce before the interrupted 
 discussion of this same young woman 
 broke out again. 
 
 "Just for instance!" remarked Farda 
 Grantham disdainfully, with a gesture to 
 ward the crowded beach driveway down 
 
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 which the girl was guiding, with almost 
 ostentatious skill, her beautiful horses. 
 
 Mrs. Gresham, leaning back in her low 
 chair, laughed delightedly. "Well, what 
 ever she is or is n't, the girl can drive and 
 ride," she asserted warmly. "Eaton, did 
 you see her tame that ramping thing the 
 other morning?" 
 
 Her husband nodded assent, and Mrs. 
 Gresham swept on : "She was riding that 
 morning, and she had a black devil of a 
 horse his eyes and his ears and his nose 
 were like flames. It was in view of the 
 entire hotel frontage, right out yonder, and 
 it was terrifying and delightful and unut 
 terably loud, of course. But it was a splen 
 did thing to see. Without doubt she 's 
 Wild West, as they all say she learned 
 some of those display tricks of hers no 
 where but from the trickiest of cowboys 
 but truly I felt like cheering her as 
 she fought and won that battle; she might 
 have been killed easily. The picture of 
 her! her dead black habit and her dead 
 black horse, and that gold-yellow hair of
 
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 hers beneath that rigidly correct Derby, 
 and her black gauntleted whip-hand " 
 
 "Look!" interrupted Miss Grantham. 
 She pointed down the beach drive, and 
 their eyes followed her accusing finger. 
 Before the club-house, a quarter of a mile 
 below, the red trap halted, and on its high 
 seat its white-clad,' golden-haired occupant 
 sat, serenely waiting. As a lithe, athletic 
 young fellow ran down the steps of the 
 club-house and swung up into the vacant 
 seat beside the girl, the watching group sat 
 back again, this time without smiles on the 
 women's part. Eaton Gresham exchanged 
 grins with his smoking companion oppo 
 site, and then glanced for sympathy at the 
 third man of the group. But Drake Lori- 
 mer neither looked back nor smiled. 
 Whereupon Gresham gave him a malicious 
 dig in the side. 
 
 "Wake up, Drake, old man!" he urged. 
 "That was Reggie !" 
 
 "Eaton, don't be a fool!" implored his 
 wife. "Drake is worried, as he has a right 
 to be, of course."
 
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 "Oh, hardly worried," Lorimer re 
 sponded pleasantly, smiling slightly now at 
 Gresham. 
 
 "But if it were just a bit more open, eh ?" 
 suggested the affable Mrs. Gresham. 
 "He 's with her all the time, Drake, and of 
 late it 's been after this fashion ever since 
 you and Jack Lowe came down." 
 
 Lorimer tossed a charred cigarette over 
 the railing. "We '11 all be rusticating at 
 The Pines in another fortnight," he re 
 marked. "There '11 be nothing to all this, 
 once out of sight and sound." 
 
 "Nothing to it !" cried Farda Grantham. 
 "It 's high time you were looking into it 
 then, for your own enlightenment as well 
 as Reggie's good. As Dell says, he 's with 
 her all the time; it 's appalling. Not that 
 he 's unlike a great lot of the men here, in 
 that respect ; Jack, for instance, when Reg 
 gie gives him a chance; but he 's such a 
 nice boy, and such a boy only twenty! 
 And she 's how old should you say, Dell? 
 twenty-six seven eight ?"
 
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 "I don't incriminate myself that way," 
 retorted Dell Gresham. "I 've a painfully 
 constructed reputation for good nature. 
 But all of twenty-six, Farda. She 's ma 
 ture." 
 
 "She 's worse than mature," said Farda 
 coldly. "She 's experienced " 
 
 Drake Lorimer, listening intently to all 
 the quick give and take of speech, lost the 
 rest of the girl's words through a whis 
 pered question of Mrs. Gresham's. 
 
 "Does Aunt Frances seem to you to be 
 aware of the state of things at all?" she 
 asked eagerly. "No, I have n't dared say 
 anything definite to her, since the first time 
 I mentioned it. For she went at Reggie 
 with that grande dame air of hers, you 
 know; and Reggie flared up inwardly, 
 though he was as dear to her as he always 
 is, and she missed sight of his hidden re 
 sentment. But take my word for it, Drake, 
 the little boy is badly caught. So badly 
 that I verily believe it all depends on the 
 girl, and I 've wondered if her sense of 
 
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 humor is subtle enough to save the day. 
 She 's half a century older than Reggie, 
 you know." 
 
 She nodded her head sapiently, and 
 edged her chair nearer Lorimer's. She was 
 a rather young woman, modern to a de 
 gree. Naturally fair of skin, she wore a 
 perpetual coat of tan to which she assidu 
 ously added at all seasons of the year in 
 one place or another. Her eyes were her 
 greatest attraction ; they were placed pecu 
 liarly far apart. Of perfect roundness, 
 they seemed like holes burnt in her impu 
 dent little face, all the more like holes 
 because they were mostly deep black pupil, 
 set about with long, dark lashes, thick, yet 
 with each and every lash distinct. The ef 
 fect of Dell Gresham's lashes was that 
 which one gets in a photograph cheap and 
 too much retouched they were so strongly 
 accentuated in a face otherwise insignifi 
 cant. For her nose was badly modeled, 
 and her mouth was crooked, and her teeth 
 none of the straightest. But, given those 
 eyes and lashes, unbeautiful as they were,
 
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 her face was raised instantly from medioc 
 rity to a plane intensely magnetic. 
 
 Drake Lorimer looked at her thought 
 fully, with his deep-set eyes holding 
 scarcely a gleam in their lazy depths. 
 
 "It was your letter, and that alone, which 
 brought me down here, Dell," he said at 
 last, almost impatiently. "I came because 
 you forejudged me a coward if I did 
 not come. But I 'm not believing it 's a 
 matter one hundredth as serious as all 
 you women are trying to make out. Boys 
 have a dozen desperate cases " 
 
 "Reggie Wines has never had one 
 yet," Mrs. Gresham interrupted shrewdly. 
 "That 's what makes so much of it depend 
 on the girl. A first love affair is always 
 serious, especially a boy's affair. A 
 girl usually is safely enough in love with 
 Love to make the man a minor matter, but 
 a boy is in love with Woman, and it de 
 pends on the woman oh, infinitely!" 
 ended Dell, characteristically vague, and 
 yet appallingly definite. 
 
 "In any event, Dell," said Lorimer, "the 
 
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 boy is not eligible. He is too much her 
 junior; he has not great wealth " 
 
 Mrs. Gresham sniffed at the feeble rea 
 soning. "At least once in her life every 
 woman loves a boy\" she admitted. "At 
 least once ! Then there 's enough to Reggie 
 in the way of family to counterbalance any 
 lack of stupendous wealth on his side. 
 She 's got enough of that for ten genera 
 tions, but when it comes to family can 
 she go back one?" 
 
 "What family has she? Father 
 mother?" 
 
 "No mother, thank heaven you can 
 imagine what she would be like. A father, 
 not unpresentable until he begins to talk, 
 and not then unless one is mercilessly con 
 ventional. But he keeps discreetly in the 
 background ; plays poker most of the time. 
 The men say that he is at his best at cards, 
 that he is almost a gentleman then, espe 
 cially when he is losing, and that he is at 
 least a full-blooded man. He worships this 
 girl, it 's easy to see. At the charity fete 
 they gave down here last week, he bought
 
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 her way in with a thousand-dollar check 
 oh, it was this way: I caught a frightful 
 rose cold, and was simply out of it, and he 
 came over to say he 'd heard 'the lady who 
 was to read palms had tuckered out/ and 
 that his daughter, being a stranger, had n't 
 been noticed with a booth or a stall, but 
 that she could read hands as well as any 
 lady there, and offered her services and the 
 check. There was a significant sequence 
 to his phrases which impressed the treas 
 urer, and they took both. She did make 
 something of a sensation, for her make-up 
 was gorgeous. She wore a bushel of uncut 
 turquoises and cloth-of-gold and that sort 
 of thing. But with all that splendor, and 
 the weight of jewels that a less vigorous 
 young animal would have staggered under, 
 she 's too evidently only 'Pick-me-up !' ' 
 
 'You have a vivid tongue, Dell," Lori- 
 mer protested faintly. "Has she no 
 friends here of any sort?" 
 
 "Since the fete, yes; most of the men, 
 but no women, Drake. And it 's been since 
 then that Reggie Wines 'has taken to dog-
 
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 ging her steps. Oh, yes, I 've talked to her 
 some we 've met on the verandas and 
 she 's a good-natured, happy-go-lucky 
 thing. But oh, Drake !" 
 
 "And Mrs. Wines is n't aware of the 
 what you term 'seriousness' of the affair?" 
 
 "Not from me !" said her niece promptly. 
 "I gave her fair warning at first, and she 
 took high-class action, and I daresay she 
 thinks the incident closed." 
 
 Lorimer moved impatiently. "Really," 
 he said, "I don't see what there is to do. 
 Anything, that is, which won't tend to 
 make serious what may be merely fleeting." 
 
 He paused; then added slowly: "I met 
 the girl myself, last week. You remember 
 I ran down for the fete casually she read 
 my hand, gave me a remarkably good read 
 ing; showed herself, in a blunt, unsubtle 
 fashion, a good deal of a physiognomist. 
 She managed to get a lot of intangible 
 atmosphere into that curtained recess. I 
 remember now, she knew me immediately 
 there 's something about the girl that is 
 intensely magnetic attractive "
 
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 He broke off, his attention distracted by 
 an irritated wave of his neighbor's hand, 
 not Gresham's, but that of Gresham's vis-a 
 vis, the third man of the group. Its 
 owner's voice followed swiftly, and ar 
 rested the attention of every one. John 
 Lowe was a noticeably ugly man of some 
 thirty-two or -three years, sandy-haired and 
 dully florid. His nose was long, and sloped 
 at a peculiar angle from his sloping fore 
 head. His jaw was squarely built and 
 massive, and his mouth was large. His 
 lips met each other at right angles rather 
 than with gentle curves. His ugliness was 
 so compelling a thing as to make of him a 
 striking man. He was a successful painter, 
 and bore the appearance of a thrifty busi 
 ness man. Even his hand was not of the 
 artist's type, though the sight of those thick 
 ringers holding masterfully the brush could 
 never be forgotten. 
 
 "You plunge into your subject like a 
 blind diver, my dear Farda," he said 
 coolly. "Denys raves over her ; curses fate 
 that she was n't born a child of the Quar-
 
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 tier. That portrait he did of her the one 
 he made his big hit on is an amazing 
 thing. You must have seen it yourself, if 
 you took in the Salon last year. It had a 
 wall to itself, great big canvas, blonde girl 
 with blue jewels of eyes, blue background 
 all of it was daringly, glaucously 
 blue-" 
 
 "Oh, I saw it, of course," said Miss 
 Grantham impatiently. "And I read in it 
 just what you are eliminating inherent 
 coarseness, mental, physical, and probably 
 moral. It was loud, overbearing, shriek- 
 ingly insistent. The very dress the way 
 she wore it the handling of that left 
 shoulder do you remember it? Yes, 
 Denys is a psychologist, but we differ vi 
 tally in interpreting him." 
 
 Lowe sank more deeply into his comfort 
 able chair, and became leisurely reminis 
 cent. 
 
 "I met her almost two years ago, while 
 that portrait was being done. Met her for 
 the first time one morning in Denys' place. 
 She was giving him a sitting, and I stum-
 
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 bled in, and the two of them together let 
 me in on it. She was a stunning sight that 
 day I tell you, Farda, you Ve read him 
 wrong; because Denys and I talked her 
 over later, deliberately, with the appalling 
 frankness which painters and physicians 
 dare to use it 's not inherent coarseness 
 he 's put there I should n't grant that 
 at all." 
 
 "I saw her one day, down yonder on the 
 bathing beach," Farda interrupted with 
 provocative calm. "Just two or three 
 weeks ago. She happened to wear black 
 and red this time, instead of blue. You 
 mentioned daringly blue. This was auda 
 cious rouge-et-noir. I got down there 
 you were there, too, and staring generously 
 just as she was coming up from the surf. 
 All about her there were other bathing- 
 costumes quite as conspicuous in cut and 
 color. But if she had shrieked she 
 could n't have announced her presence more 
 loudly than she did by the very force of 
 her personality. It literally shouts; she 
 does n't have to."
 
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 Lowe smiled broadly as he listened to the 
 girl's cold recital. 
 
 "Precisely!" he retorted, with a crisp- 
 ness in his voice that went well with the 
 snap in his gray-green eyes. "Because she 
 was a thing apart from every other woman 
 there. Denys was right, and that day I 
 saw he was right. She looked the primitive 
 Woman. She might have been the primeval 
 Woman walking untrodden sands, pressing 
 the springing earth when the world was 
 young. She was so nobly unashamed and 
 so purely human ah yes, she was! The 
 very atoms of her might have been scooped 
 up from virgin earth, from sea-born clay 
 just washed to shore; and a Rodin hand 
 might have modeled her !" 
 
 Mrs. Gresham beat softly with her foot 
 upon the floor. She put her two elbows on 
 her knees and dropped her chin into her 
 hands, and her eyes sparkled wickedly 
 above them. Farda turned coldly to her. 
 
 "Is n't it strange, Dell," she observed 
 disdainfully, "how men stand up for a de 
 classe woman if she 's pretty? Every one
 
 CLEM 
 
 said, all over Paris, whether they knew the 
 girl or not, and it was mostly not, of 
 course, that the Denys portrait was a piti 
 less thing!" 
 
 "Virginia saw it, too," reminded Lowe. 
 "Was it pitiless, Vee?" 
 
 A slender girl of twenty, sitting a little 
 apart from the others, and evidently ab 
 sorbed in a book, looked quickly up at the 
 direct question, and glanced about the 
 group. Then she looked appealingly at her 
 cousin. 
 
 "I did n't hear, Drake," she said to him. 
 
 "Lowe wants your opinion of that blue 
 lady of Denys' which you liked so much a 
 year or so ago, when you saw it," Lorimer 
 answered absently. Stray phrases from 
 Lowe's late rhapsody were beating about in 
 his brain. 
 
 "Wake up, Vee," Miss Grantham be 
 sought her plaintively. "That portrait of 
 Clem Merrit " 
 
 "I know," the girl said. Her eyes, set 
 wide apart and intended by nature for 
 merely ruminative contemplation, were 
 
 C'7]
 
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 drawn together in the pained earnestness of 
 her thought. 
 
 "I don't like to think of that portrait, or 
 that girl," she said at last with startling 
 candor. "They are both of them too 
 happy. As if no sorrow or pain could ever 
 come near her. It is enough to make any 
 one jealous of her!" 
 
 She broke off abruptly, with a slow flush 
 creeping over her face, and then she turned 
 her chair about, and seemed to bury herself 
 in her book. A slight pause followed which 
 was too heavily weighted with common 
 understanding to be endured for long. 
 
 "I still insist " began Miss Grantham 
 blandly. Lowe stopped her. 
 
 "You '11 insist one way or another with 
 Death, my dear girl; and I should n't bet 
 on Death as a sure thing at all." 
 
 Mrs. Gresham got up suddenly. "I can 
 appreciate Jack's bleatings about primitive 
 womanhood and all that," she remarked 
 crisply; "and for myself, I don't mind the 
 girl, the little I 've seen of her ; she 's a type 
 not without interest. But when you take 
 
 [18]
 
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 her out of primitive environment, and put 
 her into Aunt Frances' remote circle, for 
 instance hush, here 's Aunt Frances now. 
 You 're fairly warned, Drake/ and I wash 
 my hands right here of any sort of re 
 sponsibility in Reggie's love affairs. The 
 solution or the catastrophe is entirely up to 
 you. I 'm off. Come, Eaton." 
 
 With the typically unreasoning obedience 
 of the American husband, Gresham rose 
 lazily to his feet, and followed in his wife's 
 rippling wake. Lowe glanced across at 
 Farda and raised his eyebrows intelligently, 
 and at an answering nod from her they 
 both rose and went away, taking Virginia 
 with them. Mrs. Gresham cast one glance 
 back over her very Frenchy shoulder, and, 
 seeing Lorimer still alone, came back to 
 him, her eyes alight with mischief. 
 
 "Do help Aunt Frances out !" she begged 
 softly. "Her dearest, most secret wish is 
 so transparent ! All 's lovely, or would be, 
 if both Virginia and Reggie were n't in 
 love with the wrong people. However, 
 you 've meddled successfully in Vee's little 
 
 C'9]
 
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 affair; it 's time for you to take up Reg- 
 gie's." 
 
 "How does Virginia seem to you, Dell?" 
 Lorimer asked quickly. "She had n't much 
 to say to me one way or another of 
 course, I can't blame her." 
 
 "Mopey and languid, and given to long 
 and solitary walks, only she has to walk so 
 far here to get to the solitary places that 
 she 's been sort of forced into mixing with 
 people, which seems very hard luck to her, 
 but is the best possible thing, of course," 
 said Dell briskly. "She 's taken it rather 
 hard, but she has sense enough to know, 
 from all the evidence you and I presented, 
 that that beast of a Marmaduke Saals- 
 field was as great a bounder as she could 
 ever know. It was outrageous that she 
 ever met him, but in these days one can't 
 keep girls in pink cotton-batting even 
 nunnish creatures like Vee. And then, 
 when she was allowed to go up to those 
 Mortimers for the holidays, what could 
 you or Aunt Frances expect !"
 
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 "They are undoubtedly undesirable peo 
 ple," Lorimer began, but Dell interrupted. 
 
 "Oh, that depends on the point of view, 
 Drake. Of their sort they 're a very good 
 sort. Not squeamish at all, nothing belles- 
 lettres about them or their crowd, but they 
 know how to put up a jolly good time 
 for themselves and their friends, of whom 
 I 'm one. We were n't here then, or 
 we 'd probably have been in the party, 
 in which case I think I would have sent 
 Vee home. It was too raw an initiation 
 into the free-spoken life. How is it that 
 extremes do so attract! One would have 
 thought that Vee would have been the last 
 girl there to catch his eye, but she was the 
 first as I had the tale from Fannie Morti 
 mer, and Vee of course he 's a black, 
 satanic, temple- frosted, interesting-looking 
 man of the world, and to Vee -he seemed 
 the epitome of all wisdom. Well, he knows 
 enough !" 
 
 Lorimer smiled grimly. "And now, at 
 least, Vee knows a small part of the man-
 
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 ner of his wisdom. It was like pulling a 
 flower to pieces, to tell her." 
 
 "Oh, that was n't so hard," said Dell 
 wisely, "as telling her that he 'd put up no 
 fight. At first she 'd have defied us all, if 
 he 'd met her half-way." 
 
 "The man could n't," Lorimer protested, 
 whereat Mrs. Gresham snapped her fingers 
 contemptuously. 
 
 "Of course he could n't, but did that keep 
 Vee's pride from being cut into decimated 
 ribbons! That 's what hurts the child so 
 bitterly; though it 's killed her fascination 
 as nothing else could, not even your shock 
 ing disclosures. Here 's Aunt Frances. To 
 the rescue, Drake !" 
 
 "Don't rush away," said Lorimer calmly. 
 
 "Oh, thanks, but Eaton is glowering," 
 returned Mrs. Gresham, with the most 
 brazen of glances at Gresham's placid face. 
 "Thanks, Aunt Frances, I can't. But you 
 keep Drake company. This corner is the 
 coolest spot about here to-day." 
 
 She pushed forward a chair for Mrs. 
 Wines, quite close to Lorimer's.
 
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 "Cheer him up, Aunt Frances," she said. 
 "His latest hero ought to marry one girl, 
 and naughtily prefers another. And this 
 hero is no puppet." 
 
 She flashed one wickedly amused glance 
 at Lorimer and slipped away.
 
 II 
 
 A 5 Dell disappeared, Mrs. Wines turned 
 with cordial eagerness to Lorimer. 
 
 "It is such a pleasure to see you again so 
 soon," she said. "Last week your trip was 
 so flying, and the confusion of that charity 
 fete so great, that it was anything but sat 
 isfactory." She stopped to look search- 
 ingly at him. "Something is vexing you," 
 she declared. "Something which will not 
 work out, will not come right. I thought 
 the book was altogether and finally done." 
 
 She bent toward him, a charming woman 
 of barely twoscore years, with a beauty 
 which was entirely individual. Her color 
 ing was the peculiar pale-brown color- 
 scheme which tinges the eyes, the hair, and 
 even the skin with a faint, lovely olive. Her 
 face was purely and delicately modeled, and 
 her still slender figure held the lines of her 
 early youth.
 
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 Lorimer smiled. "Merely an inconse 
 quent point," he assured her. "I 've been 
 rushing the novel through, trying to get 
 the manuscript in before the first of the 
 month, and haste and hot weather have 
 played havoc with my nerves and temper." 
 
 "Oh, pray don't speak of nerves and 
 havoc!" Mrs. Wines exclaimed wearily. 
 "All my summer plans have gone magnifi 
 cently awry. We should have been settled 
 at The Pines now, with the first fortnight 
 almost ended. But the workmen have dal 
 lied, and will not be out for another two 
 weeks. You will come to us at the given 
 word?" 
 
 "At the drop of the hat!" Lorimer as 
 sured her. "As it is, though, you all but 
 have the regular group here Dell, Eaton, 
 Farda, Lowe, Virginia " 
 
 "But here!" sighed Mrs. Wines. This 
 stay at a noisy summer resort had not 
 formed any part of her summer plans, for 
 the last week in June always found her in 
 her rambling, beautiful summer home, with 
 a party about her made up of friends so
 
 CLEM 
 
 near and congenial that it might well be 
 called a family affair, and which for the 
 first fortnight of every summer's stay, was 
 practically the same, year after year. A part 
 of its personnel might vary slightly from 
 summer to summer, but its spirit remained 
 constant. This summer, however, during 
 the enforced wait, more to please her im 
 perious young son than from her own 
 choice, she had been staying at this place 
 of his choosing, this somewhat loud sum 
 mer resort, not so thronged, so early in the 
 season, as to make it unbearable, but even 
 now a place where the hotel contingent ar 
 rogantly outshone the cottage cliques in 
 number and display. 
 
 "Yet I am surprised to find you lounging 
 here," she added, after a moment's pause. 
 "I thought I heard you and Reggie plan 
 ning a stupendous tramp for to-day, and 
 when neither of you appeared at luncheon 
 I thought you were taking it." 
 
 "I lunched at the club," Lorimer ex 
 plained. "I was feeling in fine feather for 
 a prolonged stroll, and it met with Reggie's
 
 CLEM 
 
 great favor when I suggested it; but later 
 the old chap ducked, and I could n't hit his 
 trail." 
 
 "That is not right," said Reggie's 
 mother disapprovingly. "His time has 
 been greatly taken up ever since he came 
 down here, but when you are willing to 
 give him as much of your time as you do, 
 he should at least keep his engagements 
 with you " 
 
 Lorimer raised a beseeching hand. 
 "Never dare breathe such a thing to Reg 
 gie! Never! I am absurdly fond of the 
 boy, and in spite of the fifteen years be 
 tween us, he has always condescended to 
 look upon me as one of his immediate gen 
 eration. Don't ever let such a gross insinua 
 tion as respect for the age he so blithely 
 ignores come between him and me !" 
 
 Mrs. Wines looked at him with tender 
 gratitude. 
 
 "How wisely his father planned for 
 him!" she breathed. "When he gave you 
 such charge over him to be his friend. I 
 can never thank you, Drake, for what you
 
 CLEM 
 
 have done for him, been to him; for your 
 help to me with him; for your loyalty to 
 his father's trust in you !" 
 
 She paused a moment, looking with sof 
 tened eyes across the flowering lawns to the 
 sea beyond. Then she turned back to him. 
 
 "It gives me such comfort always to 
 remember his last charge to you, a charge 
 which has never yet weighed heavily on 
 you, for there has never been a moment 
 when imminent anxiety about my boy has 
 assailed me; but it is a comfort always to 
 remember that you have promised us both, 
 his father and me, if the time of trial or 
 need comes, to stand by Reggie." 
 
 "The promise was a feeble return for all 
 Morley Wines did for me meant to me," 
 Lorimer reminded her gently. "I never 
 gain a laurel leaf, you know, however 
 small, that I don't feel like laying it on his 
 tomb. He took me out of his lecture- 
 courses, a half-blind cub, and he opened my 
 eyes and fed me on his knowledge and his 
 supreme culture and, after all, the prom 
 ise has been a perfunctory one. Reggie
 
 CLEM 
 
 is n't the sort of chap to cause one much 
 anxiety about his welfare." 
 
 "Indeed no," assented his mother, with 
 tranquil pride. "And so much of that is 
 due to you ah, I know it, if you will not 
 let me say it. I remember so often, during 
 those last weeks, his father told me that a 
 time was coming, sooner or later in the 
 boy's life, when I could not count, objec 
 tively, at least; when it would take a man 
 to help him, to lift him up, and set him on 
 his feet again; and he chose you for that 
 time, when it should come. And I am 
 wondering, really, if I shall ever need you 
 so; if Reggie will ever, for a time even, 
 thrust me to one side, and make me of no 
 account in his life. It is wisdom to think 
 he will, and to be prepared, but deep in my 
 heart I am at peace." 
 
 "When the time comes, command me," 
 Lorimer said briefly. 
 
 Mrs. Wines laughed lightly. "One must 
 believe, however, in the eternal balance of 
 things. And I must expect, therefore, in 
 the very scheme of nature, that he will
 
 CLEM 
 
 some time, sooner or later, depart from the 
 pleasant paths where we have walked to 
 gether all his happy life long " 
 
 In the tense silence which fell Lorimer 
 glanced up, to look upon a poignant bit of 
 human melodrama. Mrs. Wines was lean 
 ing forward, her wide eyes fastened on the 
 path just below them, a path screened for 
 the most part by position and shrubbery, 
 whereon two people stood; one of them 
 young Reginald Wines, and beside him, 
 almost his peer in height, the girl of the 
 brilliant red trap and the black horses ; the 
 girl of Claude Denys' portraying Clem 
 Merrit. She was tall, strikingly beautiful, 
 molded along superb lines. She was of the 
 pure blonde type. Her hair was like spun 
 gold, without a tinge of cendre in it; it was 
 the liquid honey of the harvest moon. Her 
 eyes were as blue as the sea they looked out 
 upon. Her eyebrows were exquisitely pen 
 ciled, so finely drawn, with such delicate 
 darkness and precision of outline, that one 
 was fain to wonder if such perfection could 
 be nature unassisted. Her coloring was so
 
 CLEM 
 
 splendid that the same provocative thought 
 again intruded itseif. Her figure was per 
 fect, and her clinging dress of lace and 
 linen caressed every lovely line. And in 
 her eyes as she looked upon the boy, and 
 most of all, in his eyes as he looked on 
 her There was little that was tangible 
 in the scene, but the atmosphere was suffo 
 cating, and in that lay all the reason why 
 this mother should sink back in her chair 
 as she did, faint and sick, and white to the 
 lips. Up to this moment she had earnestly 
 believed that she knew every thought of 
 her open-hearted boy. She had even 
 spoken to him of this girl, frankly, dis 
 dainfully before she knew, before she 
 knew ! But this little scene, one upon which 
 a staring universe might have gazed and 
 been none the wiser, told her absolutely 
 that somehow her boy was wholly hers no 
 more, that he was living now a phase of 
 life from whose sharing she was shut out. 
 And the thought was a shock. As a 
 youngster Reggie had loathed dancing- 
 school and its short-skirted little girls. In 
 
 DO
 
 CLEM 
 
 his preparatory school-days he had fol 
 lowed a god instead of any goddess that 
 great god whose symbol is a pigskin ball. 
 So far he had had no time for the worship 
 of girls; and now, without warning, and 
 without choice though when did a mother 
 ever choose ! this thing was thrust nakedly 
 upon her ! 
 
 Now came Drake Lorimer's bad quarter 
 of an hour, to whose full enjoyment Dell 
 Gresham had maliciously left him; during 
 which he spoke with the full courage of his 
 lack of conviction. In these last two days 
 stray bits of gossip had come his way with 
 that fiendish directness which a dominant 
 idea impels. The girl herself had struck 
 his eye at every, turn. He had seen Reggie 
 numbered in her train without undue promi 
 nence, yet wearing a confident calm which 
 was, to his moral guardian, rather discon 
 certing than reassuring, and which argued, 
 in so young a lover, no pangs of uncer 
 tainty. Lorimer had learned, too, that 
 there were many hours in the day when 
 Miss Merrit could not be found; hours
 
 CLEM 
 
 when she vanished with her horses and 
 Reggie, or with her motor car and Reggie, 
 or on foot with Reggie. Through all his 
 specific arguments anent Reggie's good 
 sense and his general arguments that a boy 
 must have an experience or two, there had 
 run, like a glaring thread, a disquieting 
 doubt of the woman herself. For young 
 Reginald Wines, arrived at years of dis 
 cretion, would be very much worth while, 
 and it might easily occur to an adventuress, 
 even to an honest woman struggling hon 
 estly for social advancement, that the com 
 ing years were more easily assured by at 
 taching the present immature ones. 
 
 Given these previous reflections, there 
 fore, Lorimer faced a situation when the 
 pained eyes of the boy's mother met his in 
 mute question; and facing them, he made 
 something of a botch at lying like a gen 
 tleman, and the truths he had to tell were 
 bitter ones. His only counsel, to give the 
 boy his head and time, a bit of counsel 
 based primarily on the eternal pitilessness 
 of man to man in all affairs of -love or 
 
 3 C333
 
 CLEM 
 
 matrimony, was not a counsel to satisfy 
 here, and other than this he had none to 
 offer. 
 
 "The surest way to precipitate all things 
 is to try to put a stop to anything," he re 
 peated several times. "One can't meddle. 
 Both he and the girl would resent it in 
 stantly, and rightly. He has come to the 
 place at last, Frances, where you and I, 
 both of us, are helpless. He must work 
 out of this himself, just as any man's ulti 
 mate salvation lies, finally, in his own 
 hands." 
 
 But if he fell before the situation, Mrs. 
 Wines rose to it gallantly, and after her 
 departure, Lorimer sat frowning over the 
 silken bonds she had wound about him with 
 a feminine finesse. 
 
 On this night there was to be a faint 
 echo of last week's charity fete in the form 
 of a charity dance, and Lorimer, hitherto 
 free to go or to stay away, was pledged 
 now to go. As he sat there, after his mer 
 ciless captor had departed, though in sorry 
 
 D-O
 
 CLEM 
 
 triumph after all, he stared sadly at the 
 spot where, not long before, two young 
 creatures had unwittingly betrayed much 
 to eyes altogether unsympathetic. 
 
 "I act a chivalrous role to-night/' he 
 murmured dismally. "Special watch in 
 murderers' row, and if I succeed in don 
 ning the confessor's hood, so much the bet 
 ter. And the girl after all, the entire 
 question resolves itself into this: is she or 
 is she not " 
 
 But at this point young Reggie Wines, 
 healthy, happy, and buoyantly alive, 
 vaulted lightly over the railing to suggest 
 taking their deferred stroll. 
 
 On their return they passed an open 
 pavilion where Miss Merrit was holding 
 court. She was still in the white linen and 
 lace creation in which she had driven down 
 the beach driveway behind her jet-black 
 horses, and the number of men surround 
 ing her was appalling might be, that is, 
 to so young a lover. Lorimer glanced 
 briefly at Reggie, and felt more discon-
 
 CLEM 
 
 certed than he cared to confess, when he 
 saw the boy's face showed no trace of con 
 cern. He was too evidently sure of his 
 ground. 
 
 As they came directly opposite the 
 pagoda-like structure, within full hearing 
 of the somewhat loud talk and laughter, 
 the girl turned slightly from her group of 
 highly entertained men to smile brightly, 
 sunnily, at Reggie Wines. Lorimer 
 winced slightly at the significance of the 
 glance, fleeting as a breath of the west 
 wind, yet laden with the mystery of com 
 mon memories. There was nothing subtle, 
 however, in the way in which she met 
 Lorimer's eyes in full gaze, with, obvious 
 recognition. Lorimer bowed, in return for 
 that recognition which he felt had nothing 
 whatever to do with their fugitive meeting 
 in her gipsy tent a week before. The girl 
 evidently knew him, and knew him thor 
 oughly. Under other conditions it might 
 have flattered him somewhat, since he was 
 no more than mortal man ; but this evening 
 
 C363
 
 CLEM 
 
 he felt no throb of satisfied vanity. Her 
 recognition of him seemed not flattering so 
 much as ominous. In a silence that was 
 distinctly unrestful, he and Reginald 
 walked the short remaining distance to 
 their hotel. 
 
 C37]
 
 Ill 
 
 T ATER that evening, Lorimer, immo- 
 -L' lated on an altar which he himself had 
 helped to rear, approached Clem Merrit, 
 and took her card from her. 
 
 "You remember me," he asserted 
 humbly. "You told me my fortune a 
 week ago, which was altogether clever. 
 Your recognition of me this afternoon 
 makes me bold enough to dare this throng 
 surging about you, and that without delay. 
 I am taking the ninth." 
 
 "Everything in sight, that is," said Clem 
 Merrit gaily. "No, I was n't saving it up, 
 not for anybody, unless it was Reggie, and 
 he 's got his share, / think." 
 
 Lorimer scribbled his name with a smile. 
 He thought that he would like to try the 
 interesting experiment of putting a book 
 of purest English prose into Miss Merrit's 
 hands, and beseeching her to read there- 
 
 [383
 
 CLEM 
 
 from. He wondered if she might not 
 make Addison and De Quincey, in their 
 most exalted and sonorous moments, read 
 like modern slang. It was not always her 
 words which put the flavor of cant into her 
 phrasings, although her speech was plenti 
 fully besprinkled with the paprika-like zest 
 of colloquialisms. The more he listened to 
 her, the more definite his feeling grew that 
 it was the girl's intonations which made 
 her manner of speech distinctively her own. 
 
 "The boy is fortunate," he said, not 
 without intention, as he returned her card. 
 
 "Yes," agreed the girl. "He 's got just 
 about every other one, and then some. 
 Yes, I remember you. I 've seen you all 
 over the place lately. You 're a great 
 friend of the Wineses, are n't you? I 
 know lots of people here that way, by 
 sight. You forever meet people here that 
 way, till you know them like your grand 
 mother's picture, and then, when you do 
 the decent thing and speak " She drew 
 her bare shoulders together and shivered 
 exaggeratedly. "But you 're not that 
 
 D9]
 
 CLEM 
 
 sort," she added. "Not if you 're Reggie's 
 sort. Reggie 's straight as a string." She 
 nodded her head at him with marked con 
 fidence, and smiled her large-hearted, irre 
 sistible smile. Evidently with him, for 
 some reason not yet explained, she felt 
 thoroughly en rapport. 
 
 More than once, as he listened, Lorimer 
 became convinced that here lay something 
 which it behooved some one to meet and 
 cope with to a finish. One might easily 
 understand how a boy would fall powerless 
 before such friendly beauty. There was 
 no shred of boasting in her speech, and it 
 was the absence of that ultra-feminine 
 thing which stirred Lorimer to quick anx 
 iety. He knew well that Reggie was in 
 deed as straight as a string. It occurred to 
 him just here, with the force of a totally 
 new idea, that this girl might be possessed 
 of the same quality; might mean all of 
 what her assured words seemed to convey ; 
 and then what? 
 
 "Here comes Jack!" the girl added. 
 "Jack Lowe. He 's the one who brought 
 
 C403
 
 CLEM 
 
 you in to have your palm read, you know. 
 He 's a great friend of yours and the 
 Wineses, too, ain't he ? Well, he 's a great 
 friend of mine, too to have met him two 
 years ago, and not have run up against him 
 since! Yes, I remember a great lot, one 
 way and another. How do I know all the 
 truck I read from your hand ? Oh, I don't 
 explain my little system. My book 's my 
 own, and if I give myself heavy odds no 
 body knows it but me. These hotel porches 
 are enough, though, to put any canny body 
 into the fortune-telling business, with their 
 tattle and their gabble. I '11 be round this 
 corner when your turn comes. No, not 
 with anybody special. Just floating 
 round. A great deal nicer way, / think !" 
 
 Lorimer, dismissed, looked dutifully 
 about him for his young cousin, who, in 
 spite of her serious little face, and her 
 serious little views, was as fond of motion 
 as any twenty-year-old girl should be; but 
 neither she nor Mrs. Wines was yet in evi 
 dence. Whereupon Mr. Lorimer heaved a 
 sigh of infinite relief, and retired to an ob- 
 
 r.40
 
 CLEM 
 
 scure corner where he might reflect upon 
 subtleties and values until such time as he 
 should be compelled to hark to duty's call. 
 
 Two hours later he found Clem Merrit, 
 in her designated corner, floating round in 
 the sense that she was not attached in the 
 remotest manner to any woman there, al 
 though she was hemmed in by a double cor 
 don of men. The evening was warm, and 
 many chiffons and flowers hung dejected, 
 but among her dilapidated sisters Clem 
 Merrit shone resplendent. Her gown was 
 still fresh and perfect, though by nature 
 perishable. She was cool and unflushed, 
 and she breathed evenly. And her laugh 
 was gayer and louder, and her eyes more 
 purely blue and gleaming. 
 
 As she saw Lorimer approaching, she 
 reached forward and tapped a man smartly 
 on the shoulder. 
 
 "Down in front, Mr. Prentiss !" she said, 
 with her indescribable intonation which 
 made common things seem fresh, and any 
 thing, old or new, common. "There 's a 
 man behind you I want to see."
 
 CLEM 
 
 She swept the entire circle aside, with 
 flattering indifference and speed, and 
 swayed toward Lorimer, thoroughly at her 
 ease. He had never seen her for an in 
 stant when she was not the embodiment of 
 composure, and with his imagination in 
 full play he could not conjure up the vision 
 of a situation where she would not be 
 mentally comfortable. 
 
 She danced perfectly, and while she 
 danced she talked incessantly of people and 
 things, with an infectious good humor and 
 a frank and beguiling confidence. Sud 
 denly she stopped with a pleased little cry. 
 
 "There 's Mrs. Wines yonder, alone. 
 I 've sort of fallen in love with that woman 
 at a distance, do you know ?" She laughed 
 carelessly at her own folly. "Ordinarily I 
 don't like women much. I 've never met 
 her," she added. 
 
 The inference was unmistakable, and 
 Lorimer made it gratefully, thereby easing 
 his spirit mightily. 
 
 "Shall we go over to her?" he asked. 
 There was a disgusted weariness in his
 
 CLEM 
 
 voice, carefully held under though it was. 
 He was altogether out of humor with his 
 task, and he cursed circumstances vigor 
 ously as he looked down into the girl's 
 frank, lovely eyes. 
 
 "Yes, indeed!" said Clem Merrit em 
 phatically; and the effect was precisely as 
 if she had said, "You bet!" "I actually 
 ought to know Mrs. Wines," she continued 
 easily, as they crossed the room together, 
 "knowing Reggie so awfully well as I do. 
 I 've kept telling him it looked queer, and 
 that she 'd be sure to think so." 
 
 The next moment she was holding out 
 her hand with thorough good-will to the 
 black-gowned woman before her. It was 
 not a small hand, yet for her it was not too 
 large, being simply a part of her fine pro 
 portion. It was hardly a blue-blooded 
 hand, but it was one which not one Ameri 
 can woman in ten thousand possesses, and 
 it had had for some years every advantage 
 which unremitting grooming could give it. 
 
 ' I 've been telling him," she said easily, 
 "that I ought to know you, knowing Reg- 
 
 C44]
 
 CLEM 
 
 gie so well. I Ve told Reggie lots of times 
 you 'd think it was queer, him and me to 
 gether so much, and you and me per 
 fect strangers. I told him I reckoned he 
 did n't intend we should ever meet till we 
 had to." 
 
 Her rich laugh rang out. For the frac 
 tion of a second Mrs. Wines caught her 
 under lip hard ; then she spoke gently : 
 "Since you are a friend of my son's " 
 "Oh, that!" laughed the girl. "Yes, 
 we 're friends all right!" She nodded at 
 Lorimer, neither with special significance 
 nor with awkward consciousness ; rather as 
 if certain signs were understocrd by the 
 initiated, and as if she regarded him as one 
 capable of such frankly certain interpreta 
 tion. She turned back to Mrs. Wines 
 with what Lorimer translated as a certain 
 condescension toward one not yet within 
 the inner circle, and she dropped down on 
 the divan where the older woman was sit 
 ting. Her pale draperies flowed lightly 
 over the tissue of Mrs. Wines' gown, and 
 her white neck and shoulders and her 
 
 C453
 
 CLEM 
 
 golden head rose in exquisite relief against 
 the dark-green velvet background. 
 
 "You run along," she said to Lorimer. 
 "We don't need you any longer, do we. 
 Mrs. Wines? I '11 cut a dance later and 
 make it up." Then, with a dismissing 
 nod and smile, she turned to the woman 
 beside her. 
 
 "I 've been wanting to see you for days," 
 she said frankly. "I don't take to women, 
 as I was just telling him ; most of them are 
 a poor lot; but you took my fancy even 
 before I had any idea you were Reggie's 
 mother, before I knew Reggie even. He 's 
 talked about you some." She paused al 
 most hopefully. "I reckon he has n't 
 talked to you much about me, has he? 
 Has n't told you anything?" 
 
 Mrs. Wines struggled with a sick dis 
 gust and a paralyzing fear. Her world 
 swam before her eyes in a grim chaos. 
 
 "My son has told me nothing," she said 
 at last, almost in a whisper. 
 
 Clem Merrit sank back against the divan, 
 and twisted her fan in her white fingers. 
 
 [463
 
 CLEM 
 
 For the first time she felt and showed a 
 touch of nervousness, and with her strong, 
 beautiful hands she worked almost sav 
 agely at the mother-of-pearl sticks. Sud 
 denly they snapped and she crushed the 
 entire pearl and lace creation together, and 
 flung it to the floor. . > . ; 
 
 "No more good !" she said, an odd thrill 
 running through her voice and softening it 
 strangely. "It matches this dress too 
 beats the fan that goes with it all hollow, 
 and I got it three years ago, in Paris." She 
 laughed without reason or happiness, a 
 laugh whose frank pleasure in life was 
 gone, eaten up in fierce self -consciousness. 
 Then she turned back to the older woman, 
 and faced her almost heroically, with a 
 dumb honesty shining in her eyes. 
 
 "Reggie 's a nice boy," she said, an odd 
 hush in her voice. He 's jast a boy too. 
 . . . I 'm twenty-six." 
 
 She pulled recklessly at one of her 
 mauve orchids. Her head was bent and 
 her eyes were on the flower. Mrs. Wines 
 turned and stared stonily upon her, and for
 
 CLEM 
 
 a second she endured and conquered a 
 primal instinct to sound the scream of mor 
 tal combat. What an awful ordeal this thing 
 was proving to be ! For in spite of her bit 
 ter shrinking from the girl, she felt with 
 terror that a strange, unwelcome sympathy 
 for this creature was creeping over her, 
 and she sat motionless, caught fast in the 
 relentless grasp of a situation she could not 
 master nor control. 
 
 Clem Merrit broke the silence defiantly, 
 with a part of her new, terrible self-con 
 sciousness still upon her. "But where 's 
 the odds," she demanded cogently, "if " 
 
 Mrs. Wines laid a swift hand upon the 
 girl's arm, in desperate impulse to stop any 
 admission, or confession, or confidence ; and 
 with that simple act, which might subtly 
 have invited confidence, there came an in 
 spiration to a deed so bold that she caught 
 her breath hard. Under her touch the girl 
 was sitting still and tense, with her color 
 coming and going. At last Mrs. Wines 
 broke the silence.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Are your engagements definite ones 
 just now?" she asked. 
 
 The girl stared, uncomprehending. 
 Mrs. Wines paused for a scant second, and 
 then went steadily on, ignoring that last 
 chance of safe retreat. 
 
 "Our country place will be opened in a 
 fortnight. Can you arrange to be one of 
 our first group of guests? This is uncon 
 ventional I shall regard rules later, and 
 call but I ask you to-night, because it just 
 occurs to me that you might care to come 
 to us." 
 
 Clem Merrit stared. Suddenly she 
 smiled generously. "That 's no matter 
 about the calling," she said cordially. 
 "Not between us. Run in any time. 
 We 're suite A4. Yes, I '11 come. I 
 have n't got so many summer invitations 
 that I can't arrange it. Of course I 've 
 just met you," she added elaborately; "but 
 I know Reggie, and I reckon it is n't your 
 house any more than it is his." 
 
 All her old sang-froid returned with a 
 
 C49]
 
 CLEM 
 
 rush, and with it her brilliant, happy smile. 
 "There comes Reggie," she added quickly, 
 "looking all ways to see me here, with 
 you." She laughed with a cordial appre 
 ciation of the young man's state of mind. 
 
 "I made sure you 'd given me the slip," 
 she said freely to him, as he joined them. 
 
 It was at a great personal disadvantage 
 that Reggie stood before the two women, 
 a fact which he realized without adding 
 thereby to his ease. That his mother had 
 not looked at him once only added to his 
 inner discomfort, however much it may have 
 saved additional outward embarrassment. 
 He sought for words, and found them not, 
 save the conventional reminder of the pur 
 pose of his seeking. 
 
 As Clem Merrit adjusted her filmy 
 skirts, preparatory to another rhythmic 
 flight, Mrs. Wines responded convention 
 ally. 
 
 "Yes, I am glad to have met you," she 
 murmured. The words were of the flattest, 
 but she was incapable then of attaining any 
 further verbal achievement. She was look-
 
 CLEM 
 
 ing at them both now with her grande 
 dame air, hers so much by nature that it 
 slipped at times over her sincerest cor 
 diality, and under its influence a touch of 
 her new embarrassment came back to 
 Clem. Reggie saw both things, his mother's 
 hauteur and Clem Merrit's confusion; and 
 he threw back his shoulders with a gesture 
 which his mother knew, and turned to the 
 girl. 
 
 "I must hurry you away," he reminded 
 her boyishly, "if you care for any of this 
 two-step." 
 
 "I do care," said the girl. "We '11 
 vamoose then. See you later, Mrs. Wines." 
 
 The mother watched them drift away, 
 her ears smitten with screaming echoes of 
 the girl's parting words, tainted with the 
 verbiage of the streets, wrested from the 
 depths of her resources to cover her un 
 welcome confusion. If she could have 
 been deceived in the girl's manner and 
 words, there was that in Reggie's bearing, 
 a new-found manhood showing through 
 his boyish confusion, which made her feel
 
 CLEM 
 
 the seriousness of the situation as she had 
 never felt it. With a perception new to 
 him, he had felt the unseen stress of the 
 last moment, and there was no mistaking 
 the fact that he had gone to the girl's de 
 fense against his mother. 
 
 And she, his mother, what had she done ? 
 The girl would come, of course. . . . Her 
 heart stood still with fear. What had she 
 done? ... At last she put Virginia in 
 other hands for the remainder of the even 
 ing, and went away to try to reason out 
 what has no reason to it, ever the first 
 serious love experience of one's first and 
 only born. 
 
 AND while his mother faced a sleepless 
 night, her young son was listening with a 
 great and growing wonder to the glad tid 
 ings which his beautiful companion was 
 gleefully imparting to him. 
 
 "It 's fine, Reggie," she concluded heart 
 ily. "With all the fun you say there is 
 there! And your mother 's lovely! I 
 know she thought it was queer we had n't
 
 CLEM 
 
 met before. I told her you were shy, that 
 it was n't my fault ! I 've kept telling you 
 we 'd like each other. Over yonder it 's 
 less crowded. Come on, Reggie. Let 's 
 get out of the push !"
 
 IV 
 
 TWO weeks later Lorimer walked down 
 a country station platform to meet his 
 young host waiting for him in a natty run 
 about. 
 
 "Glad to see you, old man!" he called 
 out, with a fair assumption of the man 
 about town which vastly amused Lorimer. 
 "It 's a jolly fine thing, your getting down 
 here to-night. Nobody 's here yet, and 
 we '11 have things our own way." He 
 reached down a strong arm for Lorimer's 
 suit cases. "Give Matthews your checks. 
 He '11 fetch the rest of your traps. Jump 
 in." 
 
 "So no one 's here," said Lorimer, after 
 he had complied with Reggie's mandate, 
 and while they were swinging across the 
 tracks toward the road which led to The 
 Pines. "I was fearful that everything 
 would be in full swing or settled down."
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Things have n't started yet," replied the 
 young host. "Vee came over here with 
 mother a week ago, and helped straighten 
 things out while the workmen were still here, 
 and I got here just day before yesterday. I 
 waited over wanted to bring Jack Lowe 
 with me, but he got stuck on a shabby piece 
 of rock and some rotting seaweed, and 
 would n't budge. He said he 'd been look 
 ing for that 'tone' for five years, and he 's 
 sitting down there on a bit of beach right 
 now, painting for fair life. What have 
 you been doing since you dropped us all 
 like hot cakes, and pegged back to town ?" 
 
 "I had to do some work over again," re 
 plied Lorirner. "Don't you mention these 
 last two weeks to me again. I rejoice, 
 Reggie, that you 're no incipient genius !" 
 
 "Me!" ejaculated Reggie, with superb 
 disregard of his parts of speech. "Thank 
 God, no! I don't mind the college work, 
 since you 've let me off that hanged math. ; 
 but I 'm going into Wall Street, and corner 
 something, as soon as you let me up on 
 college. Not but what it 's all right for 
 
 C55]
 
 CLEM 
 
 another year, considering I 'm Senior 
 then ; but after that it's high time I was out 
 fishing in a little pond all for myself." 
 
 "I thought you were going to travel for 
 a year or two," Lorimer observed thought 
 lessly. The boy's face flushed. 
 
 "That 's all off," he said hurriedly. 
 "I '11 be of age by then I won't have time 
 to loaf round seeing things. I '11 have to be 
 doing something making my pile." He 
 laughed nervously. 
 
 "Tell you," he added quickly, without 
 waiting for comment upon his sudden 
 change of plans, comment indeed which 
 Lorimer hesitated to offer, "I want you to 
 do a nice little favor for me this week. 
 There 's going to be a crowd here so mixed, 
 it brings tears to my eyes to think of it, and 
 I don't get the hang of the confounded 
 situation, how mother ever came to mix it 
 so; and even if Cora Taylor did get 
 typhoid, there was n't any pressing need of 
 mother 's rushing round to fill her place. 
 Now, you '11 do the square thing, won't 
 you, old man, and make things comfort- 
 
 [56]
 
 CLEM 
 
 able, for she likes you down to the ground ; 
 said you were a good sort, and a fine fel 
 low, and I don't want her to feel left out 
 of it or uncomfortable ; and you never can 
 tell how the other confounded girls are go 
 ing to jump." 
 
 Lorimer so far forgot his great fatigue 
 as to turn fully half about, that he might 
 better survey his incoherent host. 
 
 "You don't mind stopping that patter to 
 do a little easy talking now, do you?" he 
 inquired with much pathos. 
 
 Reggie cut at his well-going animal with 
 reprehensible abstraction. "Yes, I do 
 mind!" he said firmly. "Some things I 
 don't care to talk over, and between men 
 there 's no use. You can understand things 
 without confounded talking. But you keep 
 an eye to the wind, and an ear to the 
 ground, and do what you think ought to be 
 done, when it ought to be done; and even 
 then, even you can't mix oil and water. 
 It 's a hanged unlucky deal !" 
 
 They had entered the gate which marked 
 the beginning of the Wines estate, and 
 
 [57]
 
 CLEM 
 
 were speeding rapidly along the pine-lined 
 avenue which led to the house. Lorimer 
 began to whistle mournfully the latest 
 thing in sentimental song lore, and did not 
 speak until the journey was ended, and 
 Reggie had deposited him unceremoniously 
 at the short branch driveway which led 
 directly to the house. 
 
 "I '11 just get around to the stables," he 
 said easily, "and finish arrangements for 
 meeting that mob to-morrow, and you 
 might take your things, too ; you may need 
 'em before I get back." 
 
 So Lorimer, still whistling dismally, 
 went slowly up the foot-path with a suit 
 case, and was met at the veranda steps by 
 his hostess and his cousin, and Reggie's 
 inhospitality was mourned over, and Lori 
 mer was comforted with flagons of what 
 ever nature he wished. 
 
 That night dinner was a small affair for 
 four, served on a screened veranda over 
 looking the ocean, which was radiant with 
 color and loveliness. The dinner was satis 
 fying and delightful, yet a certain restraint 
 
 C58]
 
 CLEM 
 
 hung over them all. Reggie frowned por 
 tentously to himself more than once. Vir 
 ginia sat through the silences, busy with 
 her own thoughts, the only one entirely un 
 affected by the slight strain of the hour. 
 Mrs. Wines was openly abstracted, and 
 Lorimer followed the example of those 
 about him, and indulged in grateful repose. 
 
 An hour or so after dinner, while they 
 were sitting quietly about the bare table, 
 Virginia slipped away to the music-room, 
 to which place she soon summoned Reggie, 
 and began a laborious task of putting him 
 through a rehearsal of a new effort in 
 topical songs, a proceeding which bade fair 
 to consume the evening, since the song was 
 quite new; and young Mr. Wines's ear was 
 notoriously poor. And then at last Mrs. 
 Wines turned to Lorimer, lying lazily back 
 in his chair. 
 
 "You left us suddenly, Drake," she mur 
 mured. "No special summons?" 
 
 Lorimer explained his recall, and re 
 ceived satisfying sympathy. "In fact," he 
 concluded, "I 've been too busy to do 
 
 C59]
 
 CLEM 
 
 more than wire you to-day that I hoped to 
 get down to-night. I expected to break 
 into things sadly, and I find I am a first 
 arrival." 
 
 "Yes," Mrs. Wines assented absently. 
 After a moment she roused herself. "I, 
 too, changed some plans," she said. "I 
 am intending to ask your cooperation, 
 Drake, in making a delicate experiment 
 more of a success than it can possibly be 
 without it. Two weeks ago I did a thing 
 on pure impulse " 
 
 There fell a lingering pause; Lorimer 
 wriggled further down in his chair. A 
 cooler breeze swept up to them from the 
 sea. He smiled faintly ; this was evidently 
 the bothersome crystal which had disturbed 
 young Reginald's peace, about to be set 
 free from the matrix, if figure might be 
 pressed so far. It was an odd thing to find 
 Mrs. Wines uncertain over any act of hers; 
 to discover that she had acted at last on 
 something other than pure, sweet reason. 
 It was she who broke the stillness. 
 
 "In two days Miss Merrit joins us here."
 
 CLEM 
 
 Life, after all, holds surprises, and Mr. 
 Lorimer sat slowly up ; only to sink deeper 
 into his chair. Was mere man ever to ar 
 rive at the ultimate analysis of the feminine 
 heart, that startling seat of trouble and up 
 rising-, sedition and revolution, which has 
 swayed the world since the world began ! 
 
 As the silence did not lift, Lorimer 
 rightly concluded the next move in the little 
 game to be his. 
 
 "Really!" he murmured. "You '11 find 
 her an addition, no doubt." His lips 
 curved into *a smile which was almost a 
 sneer. How exquisitely cruel the gentlest 
 of women could prove themselves ! From 
 the music-room came the insistent sound 
 of the piano as Virginia's steel-strung 
 fingers thumped emphatic time for Reg 
 gie's new song and pas de seul. Lorimer's 
 eyebrows arched themselves into a line 
 which went harmoniously with his lips.' 
 
 "Reginald, Reginald!" he murmured. 
 "How much, how exceeding much you 
 have to answer for !" Lorimer did not re 
 joice in a fondness for the all-prevailing
 
 CLEM 
 
 ragtime rage; nor, his ear being acute to 
 misery, did he find any pleasure in a seem 
 ingly hopeless rehearsal. 
 
 Mrs. Wines moved at last, emphatically, 
 in her chair. "And you, too, judge me!" 
 she breathed resentfully. "So does my son 
 condemn my tact, my good sense. Does 
 your judgment, being riper, go deeper, to 
 the very springs of human emotion devo 
 tion," she added somberly. Then she spoke 
 with entire change of tone and manner. 
 "Reggie urges that the group will fail to 
 combine." There was in her last words 
 a defiance mild but firm as the eternal. It 
 was evidently as far as possible from her 
 desire that the coming group should fuse 
 into a well-organized whole. 
 
 "Farda Grantham !" Lorimer catalogued 
 slowly. "A Brahms-mad creature! Dell 
 and Eaton Gresham, unashamed globe-trot 
 ters! Jack Lowe, painter of the stream 
 and the sea! One Reggie Wines, a Har 
 vard youth with a nice manner and be 
 witched! One Drake Lorimer! Little 
 Virginia and one Lady Frances! No, it
 
 CLEM 
 
 does n't seem that the new addition will 
 blend to a perfect draw !" He leaned for 
 ward quickly. 
 
 "It will be a little hard on her, don't you 
 think ?" he asked. "Just a little hard ?" 
 
 Mrs. Wines flushed, less under hidden 
 censure in Lorimer's voice than because of 
 her own thoughts. She knew the rush of 
 blood was great enough to be plainly appa 
 rent beneath the almost full moon ; but she 
 drew herself up with her own fine manner. 
 
 "Of all my guests," she said with 
 hauteur, "no one will have the considera 
 tion shown her that will be shown Miss 
 Merrit. So thoroughly am I convinced that 
 I have acted on ill-founded impulse that I 
 was about to ask you to be considerate of 
 impossible things to help me to help her. 
 I am not asking you, either, to interfere in 
 one moment of the time which Reggie will 
 doubtless call his." 
 
 "I could n't do that, you know," said 
 Lorimer. 
 
 "No," assented the mother wearily. "It 
 would n't be best, of course."
 
 CLEM 
 
 Again Lorimer's smile came and went. 
 They agreed on the vital question, but for 
 totally different reasons. He reflected that 
 women's methods, when they found them 
 selves in tight places, were often radically 
 unscrupulous, and he discovered, with a 
 certain disappointment, that this woman's 
 intense absorption in what was to her the 
 greatest phase of the pitiless problem before 
 her, had lost to her temporarily her fine sense 
 of values. But a part of her genuine remorse 
 seemed born, not so much from a sense of 
 her fault in having ignored the finer lines 
 of hospitality, as from secret, hidden sym 
 pathy for the girl, existing side by side 
 with the real repulsion she felt for her. 
 The situation presented a living question 
 for research, as to which quality it argued 
 stronger for: the catholic breadth of sym 
 pathy in one woman, or the power of the 
 crude human soul in the other, which com 
 pelled consideration. 
 
 Half an hour later Lorimer roused him 
 self to find the veranda deserted; so im 
 mersed had he been in seductive analysis
 
 CLEM 
 
 and synthesis, that he had not known when 
 Mrs. Wines slipped away. From the music- 
 room there came still the insistent thump 
 of the piano, as Virginia marked relentless, 
 patient time for Reggie, who was still 
 struggling with the same new song. Lori- 
 mer got slowly up, and stretched his arms 
 above his head. 
 
 "Yes," he said slowly, "it 's a hard situa 
 tion, and an unfair test. She can't come 
 out of it save in one way. And the boy 
 will undoubtedly see, and she will not I 
 trust, yet dare not hope. It 's a clever 
 move, cruelly clever, dear lady of the gentle 
 eyes !" 
 
 He went into the house, avoiding the 
 strongly accentuated music-room with in 
 tention and ease, and went up to his own 
 rooms. Once there, with a satisfying sense 
 of solitude at last enveloping him, he still 
 pondered on his problem with frowning 
 brow.
 
 TWO evenings later, as the sun was 
 sending its last long rays across the 
 tops of the dark pine-trees, gilding them 
 to Christmas gaudiness, Mrs. Wines left 
 her guests in their veranda corner, and 
 went quickly down the steps to meet the 
 latest addition to her group, whom Reggie 
 had just brought from the station. 
 
 Clem Merrit stepped lightly down from 
 the high trap. Her beauty was as flawless 
 as ever, and her gown was Puritan in cut 
 and color, yet, despite its extreme tailored 
 severity, it gave one the instantaneous im 
 pression of barbaric gorgeousness. Vir 
 ginia Garnet, in gold-embroidered silks and 
 ropes of pearls and rubies, would not have 
 borne the air of assertive wealth and osten 
 tation which this man-tailored creature car 
 ried with her as she shook hands delight 
 edly with her hostess, and went up the steps
 
 CLEM 
 
 beside her, turning once to wave cheerfully 
 at Reggie as he went on down the drive 
 way. 
 
 "Not a bit," she said in answer to Mrs. 
 Wines's patent query. "Traveling never 
 tires me, and this little run down was great 
 fun." Her clear voice carried to the further 
 most corner of the breezy veranda, and all 
 conversation stopped, suspended in mid-air. 
 
 "Goodness me!" she exclaimed a second 
 later, in frankest admiration, as she en 
 tered the hall and stared about her. Her 
 voice still reached the group outside. "This 
 is a fine old place. As much space here as 
 in a hotel rotunda. Yes, an hour 's plenty 
 time to dress. Reggie said we might be 
 late, but I wanted to come the bridge drive. 
 He said it beat anything round here to 
 kingdom come, and I wanted to make sure 
 he had n't lied!" Her rich, unfettered 
 laugh rang out. "He had n't. It sure 
 makes other things look like thirty cents 
 in dirty pennies. Yes, Mrs. Wines, I 'd 
 like my trunks right up. I never try to 
 travel in a hand-bag nor li^e in a suit-case. 
 
 [673
 
 CLEM 
 
 No, I did n't bring my maid along. Her 
 sister 's just over, poor soul, and sick, and 
 I did n't have the heart to make her leave 
 the poor strange thing alone, so I left 
 Jeanne behind." She said it as if the maid 
 were pure Scotch instead of the French 
 treasure she was. "But that does n't mat 
 ter. I don't have to depend on another 
 woman to dress me, though I might have 
 to run in and ask you to hook me into any 
 thing princesse, you know " 
 
 As the voice died away in the far dis 
 tance, every one sitting without drew a 
 little breath indicative of various emotions. 
 Mrs. Gresham, sitting alert and thoroughly 
 alive, dropped heavily back into her low 
 basket-chair. 
 
 "What under heaven!" she breathed. 
 She glanced at her husband, and at Vir 
 ginia. The latter looked worried, and the 
 former shook a warning head. But Mrs. 
 Gresham was never bound by conventional 
 reminders of marital authority, and she 
 touched Virginia's arm with emphasis. 
 
 "No wonder Aunt Frances gave us dull 
 
 C68]
 
 CLEM 
 
 generalities about the expected guest and 
 cleverly omitted the name how did she 
 manage that last ! What 's up, Vee ?" 
 
 "Mrs. Wines just asked her," Virginia 
 replied stupidly, "and she came." 
 
 "I think perhaps she might!" observed 
 Mrs. Gresham with decision. "Indeed, if 
 she had refused, it would have beat king 
 dom come !" 
 
 Under cover of the subdued laugh which 
 broke out about her, she edged her chair 
 nearer Lorimer's; both of them reminded 
 by that simple act of the afternoon hardly 
 more than a fortnight before, when this 
 identical group discussed with untram 
 melled freedom this new, bewildering ad 
 dition to their quiet little party. Dell had 
 been on the links ever since luncheon, and 
 she was in more or less disarray, a usual 
 condition with her, and one which never so 
 slightly detracted from the fascination of 
 her personality. Her hair was blown all 
 ways, and her white linen dress was a far 
 call from immaculateness ; but she was a 
 confirmed camper, and much roughing it
 
 CLEM 
 
 in all parts of the world had brought her 
 at last to the point where its conditions be 
 came her, even in civilized spots. 
 
 "One heard all sorts of nonsense down 
 yonder," she said, in an undertone dis 
 tinctly seductive, nodding her head in the 
 direction where she fondly supposed the 
 gossip to which she referred had emanated. 
 "Of course there was heaps of gossip of 
 all sorts, but after all, I never dreamed it 
 could be anything like this looks hm? 
 Boys always are wild over older women 
 I laid it all to that down there!" 
 
 Lorimer sighed and bent toward her 
 small, listening ear. "I read it precisely as 
 you read it, my dear Dell. So pleasant a 
 thing to meet a kindred soul; as you say, 
 boys are always wild over older women. 
 And so, since it is nothing serious, but a 
 merely natural condition which we face, let 
 us, I beg, treat it in that comfortable man 
 ner." 
 
 Dell grimaced. "How did Reggie dare 
 invite her, Drake, and how did Aunt 
 Frances ever bring herself to ratify the 
 invitation ?"
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Mrs. Wines invited her, herself," Vir 
 ginia put in, coolly, across her embroidery- 
 hoop. 
 
 "Do you know that, Vee?" Dell shot the 
 question at her, and, after the girl's nod of 
 assent, her black eyes glowed. 
 
 "Without Reggie's invitation first ! But 
 if Aunt Frances is the only one blamable, 
 then-" 
 
 She stopped short, her eyes widening 
 enormously, and suddenly a sharp "Ah!" 
 sped through her set little teeth. She 
 glanced at Lorimer, who refused to meet 
 her eyes, and then she leaned back and 
 laughed long and softly. 
 
 "It is a pleasure that you find it so amus 
 ing, Dell," Farda Grantham remarked 
 coldly. "I, for one, can't understand it. 
 If the party were larger but we are so 
 small ; no one here but Drake and Jack, and 
 you two. We shall be thrown together 
 constantly, day in and night out there will 
 be no escape." 
 
 "Precisely the point!" ejaculated Mrs. 
 Gresham delightedly. 
 
 "The Carrols were to have come, and
 
 CLEM 
 
 Andy Logan," Farda continued with dis 
 tinct irritation ; "but Mrs. Wines is n't ex 
 pecting them now for another fortnight. 
 It 's a smaller party than we 've ever had 
 and such an addition, to a small party." 
 
 "Precisely!" Dell uttered again. "Jack, 
 would you speak for ten dollars ?" 
 
 Lowe shook his big head. "You are 
 speaking for me, with every elocutionary 
 grace," he remarked, with a slight bow in 
 the lady's direction. Whereat her eyes 
 flashed again in appreciation of his enig 
 matic utterance. 
 
 "Well, I 'm glad you 've known her be 
 fore," she remarked genially. "And if I 
 remember, you think her a rather good sort 
 in a way." 
 
 "We have met," Lowe replied. He 
 lighted another cigarette carefully, and 
 then, through some tiny smoke wreaths, he 
 looked deliberately at Dell. 
 
 "You '11 find her distinctly your sort, 
 Dell, in fundamentals. She 's hardly a 
 woman's woman, but she 's really a curi 
 ously interesting creature. In an abso-
 
 CLEM 
 
 lutely free atmosphere she fits in without 
 much of a jar because there 's not an 
 ounce of pretense about her." 
 
 "Then that should settle the matter of 
 ease here," said Farda, overhearing. "No 
 one of us knows a more delightfully free 
 spot than this roof." 
 
 Lowe smiled a little. "Absorb the atmos 
 phere thereof, Farda," he suggested. "She 
 won't care for Brahms, but she '11 like your 
 syncopated Cuban music and your north 
 ern folk agonies, if I 'm not mistaken, and 
 she herself can sing you a song that will 
 carry you back to the Suwanee River, if 
 you 've ever been fortunate enough to roam 
 thereabouts. So spare her, of your mercy 
 Brahms!" 
 
 "I '11 ask her to sing, personally!" Dell 
 graciously volunteered. "Understand, 
 Farda, Brahms is cut out for some days." 
 
 "And all that Brahms stands for, 
 Farda," Lowe implored. Meantime Dell 
 turned back once more to Lorimer. 
 
 "Don't worry!" she said lightly. "I 
 shall take the entire situation with the ut- 
 
 [73]
 
 CLEM 
 
 most aplomb. We are kindred spirits, you 
 and I as we both say, boys are boys! 
 And I '11 be honey therefore to that funny 
 thing up yonder." 
 
 She looked toward an upper room not 
 far from their right, whose great beauty 
 was a massive oriel window. From it had 
 issued for some time a steady murmur, and 
 now, evidently with a change of place on 
 the speaker's part, there came therefrom a 
 ringing voice : 
 
 "Open that dark leather one, and take 
 out the top tray. Save all the tissue paper ; 
 1 did n't bring any more, and I may pick 
 up any time and get out. Lay that tray on 
 the floor and open that trunk yonder. Get 
 out the petticoats in it, those two yellow 
 silk ones, and the chiffon ones. Find the 
 slippers and stockings to match them. 
 Never mind my hair ; I 'm tending to that. 
 Open that box and hand me the pins in it. 
 Then hand me that powder-box the whole 
 thing." 
 
 Mrs. Gresham leaned slightly forward, 
 her whole childish body tense. She was 
 
 C743
 
 CLEM 
 
 shamelessly listening, and after a slight 
 break, the voice went ringing on : 
 
 "Give a good shake to those skirts and 
 fluff the bottom flounces. You 're Mrs. 
 Wines's maid? I won't need you much; 
 but when I do, I want you on the run. 
 Here, take this here! What? My good 
 ness, she '11 never know unless you peach 
 on yourself I never run about giving 
 folks away. Have you got those things 
 laced yet? I '11 kill Jeanne for putting 
 them in without strings. Now take hold 
 here and draw up the third string first 
 now put your hands on my hips, while I 
 Dull these strings taut " 
 
 Dell looked about her with much satis 
 faction as the corner cleared magically, 
 leaving only her and Lorimer in possession. 
 
 "I always did say she knew how to 
 dress !" put in that lady. 
 
 "I fear the unimpeccable Rachel has 
 fallen," Lorimer murmured sadly, with 
 considerate reverting to an earlier topic. 
 "I did n't hear her refuse what her mis 
 tress hath forbidden." 
 
 U753
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Rachel has that gentle voice which is 
 woman's chiefest charm," Mrs. Gresham 
 replied with great condonement in her eyes. 
 "That 's one of Aunt Frances' feudal fads 
 anyway nobody forbids it now so don't 
 you run about giving folks away, either. 
 There 's one thing I like about that girl," 
 she added, picking up a book preparatory 
 to departure. "If I were her sort, mush 
 room growth, you know, the sight of Aunt 
 Frances' butler would give me heart dis 
 ease. But Forbes will not move this lady, 
 though she may stir him out of his steel 
 riveted calm. If he does quell her, I '11 de 
 part on the next train, if you say, and 
 leave my baby of an Eaton to her clutches, 
 if she wants him. But Forbes won't scare 
 her, a fact which argues something for her 
 what, I don't know. I 'm going in to 
 plot out my course for to-night. It 's 
 time for good resolves we Ve all been 
 nothing but piazza cats for the last half 
 hour." 
 
 She gathered up the last one of her be 
 longings and went away. Lorimer re-
 
 CLEM 
 
 moved his glasses and began to polish them 
 with infinite care. As he adjusted them, 
 the voice above rang out once more : 
 
 "Work me into this like wax, now. No 
 body can fool with this dress. Beautiful? 
 Well, it ought to be ! That 's right, that 's 
 the idea. I don't believe you 've whitened 
 my shoulders far enough down. I told 
 you this was double extra low cut. I know 
 they 're white now, but it 's warm to-night 
 that 's right. Now rub it in, down my 
 back, further down than that. When I 
 lean over, and I 'm liable to lean any way 
 I want to" 
 
 At which late stage Mr. Lorimer fol 
 lowed an example which he might have, 
 with credit, emulated before, that of those 
 Arabs famed in song and story, and silently 
 stole away.
 
 VI 
 
 MISS MERRIT kept dinner waiting for 
 some little time past the dinner-hour, 
 but when she appeared, the sight of her 
 was worth a spoiled entree or two. Her 
 dress was one golden shimmer of palest 
 yellow crepe, with one dash of black, so 
 bold, so ringing, that only an artist's mind 
 could have conceived it, and an artist's 
 hand dared place it. It made whiter 
 her perfect shoulders, bluer her eyes, and 
 her hair and dress more gloriously sunny. 
 
 There was never much formality about 
 dinner at The Pines, but Mrs. Wines raised 
 her eyebrows at Lorimer when the much- 
 tried Forbes at length announced it, and 
 he moved obediently toward Clem Merrit. 
 That young woman recognized him by a 
 slight and significant flicker of her eyelids, 
 and her full free smile. 
 
 "First I see you, and then I don't/' she
 
 CLEM 
 
 remarked, as they traversed the long hall. 
 "I had that dance with you down yonder, 
 and the next I see of you, you 're here. 
 Some of these people I know; him, and 
 her " She nodded toward several with 
 much real indifference, and held out a cor 
 dial left hand to Lowe, who emerged at 
 that moment from the library and joined 
 the procession to the dining-room. 
 
 "We 'd meet up under an African bam 
 boo-tree, would n't we!" she said to him 
 gaily. Then she turned back to Lorimer. 
 
 "I owe you a vote of thanks," she re 
 marked easily. "I never was in a crowd of 
 this kind before, and I doubt if I 'd been 
 here to-night, if it had n't been for that 
 introduction you gave me to her. I like 
 to mix with new people people are the 
 only things worth while, anyway. I think 
 it 's going to be great sport. Two days 
 you 've been here ? It looks like I 'd missed 
 some of the fun. I was just saying to Mr. 
 Lorimer," she added to the entire table, as 
 they were being seated, "that I was down 
 right sorry you 'd all beaten me here by a 
 
 C79]
 
 CLEM 
 
 day. I don't see, Reggie, why you did n't 
 tip me off." 
 
 She smiled gaily down at the boy, and he 
 returned an answer in a manner cool 
 enough to prove himself, for every eye was 
 turned upon him. Then her eyes fell upon 
 the coldly classic features of Miss Gran- 
 tham, and she nodded at her airily. 
 
 "He knows nothing does me so much 
 good as turning myself loose for a ripping 
 good time, and you 're right with me. I 
 take it," she said. 
 
 Farda looked up in shocked amazement. 
 Her lips moved slightly; then a burning 
 wave of color swept over her face. She 
 choked back some equally heated utterance, 
 and turned deliberately toward Lowe, who 
 was sitting beside her with a half smile on 
 his face. Clem Merrit stared in her turn 
 with open and equally great astonishment. 
 Then she, too, turned aside with equal de 
 liberation and far more coolness. 
 
 "Was that a facer?" she demanded 
 under cover of the talk which rose in a 
 swelling surge all about the table. To 
 
 r.80]
 
 CLEM 
 
 Lorimer's fine ear there seemed nothing in 
 her voice but frankly amused curiosity. 
 
 "I fancy," he said deliberately, "that 
 Miss Grantham " 
 
 "You 're excused," said Miss Merrit 
 promptly. "Good-night !" 
 
 And Lorimer took his fall with a laugh. 
 
 Another course was being served. Clem 
 Merrit fingered the array of silver before 
 her with indecision. Then she shot a fur 
 tive glance toward Mrs. Wines, and, as 
 she briskly picked up a fork, she met Lori 
 mer's eyes. Her own flickered for a 
 second, and then she looked back at him 
 boldly. 
 
 "Well, yes," she said coolly. "I did n't 
 know which one, and I don't care for a 
 bluff myself, unless it 's a good one. 
 You 're sharp." 
 
 Lorimer indulged in another rare laugh. 
 "And yet," he added after a pause, "I 
 doubt not that you can put up a bluff when 
 occasion calls. This little trifle it does n't 
 really matter, do you think ?" 
 
 "You read me well," Clem replied 
 
 [Si]
 
 CLEM 
 
 promptly. "Yes, when the pot 's worth 
 while I don't stay out because I don't stand 
 pat on a royal flush." She flickered her 
 eyelids at him again, after a droll fashion 
 which he was beginning to recognize. 
 
 "All the same," she resumed after an 
 other pause, "don't you watch me too close. 
 I 'm out of the running already, outclassed 
 or underrated, and I declare to goodness, 
 I don't know whether your sort is slower 
 or swifter." 
 
 "No doubt we have among us here one 
 or two merely average plugs," returned 
 Lorimer cheerfully. 
 
 "Is that a facer, too?" asked the girl. 
 "Well, I don't care. I can stand a man's 
 come-back any day. Women! And 
 then, you see, I don't call myself fast." 
 
 Lorimer's lips parted in horrified haste, 
 but the girl swept cheerfully on. 
 
 "Oh, shunt all that!" she said with her 
 lovely smile. "I don't hole} grudges. And 
 women do ordinarily call me that. Oh, I 
 know. Men don't, because men know me 
 better. Women are nasty little things, 
 
 r.82]
 
 CLEM 
 
 don't you think, and I can't be judged by 
 the general run of them. But," she smiled 
 charmingly at him, "even a tortoise is 
 faster than some animals." 
 
 Meantime Farda turned to Lowe, who 
 was watching the progress of affairs across 
 the table with interested absorption. 
 
 "This is dreadful!" she murmured. 
 "And I dare say, merely because I say so, 
 you '11 defend everything that 's happened ; 
 defend it to the last ditch, Jack. Well, 
 you '11 soon be there, that 's one comfort. 
 Your battling will be short." 
 
 "Oh, not in the least because you say so, 
 my dear Farda," returned Lowe sooth 
 ingly. "I am never moved by prejudice, 
 as I endeavored to prove to you some hours 
 back." He glanced into her pale face and 
 laughed delightedly. "Brace up, Farda. 
 "You '11 allow this feeling to carry you to 
 lengths before long, and you can make a 
 good guess, can't you, as to which side 
 Mrs. Wines will be on ! So don't give way, 
 my dear girl, in heaven's name ! There '11 
 be enough, without that sort of a fiasco."
 
 CLEM 
 
 He settled back indifferently under 
 Farda's disdainful stare. She was a girl of 
 much cold brilliancy, who was possessed of 
 much intelligence and was unhampered by 
 any emotions, being a pitiless creature, to 
 herself as well as to others. Her likes were 
 few, and her dislikes were deep and lasting. 
 
 A few moments later they all rose, the 
 men with the women, and drifted about 
 the rooms and the verandas. For the time 
 being Lorimer placidly disregarded Reg 
 gie's manifest attempt to corral the latest 
 arrival, and remained in clear possession 
 of his new acquaintance, though Reggie 
 hovered near with an amount of cool intent 
 praiseworthy in one so young. Half an 
 hour later, while Reggie still lingered, he 
 heard Clem Merrit answer a question 
 whose asking had frozen his blood. 
 
 "Yes, I sing," she said calmly, in the 
 full hush of an unaccountable silence which 
 had fallen over the room. "My father al 
 ways said he was going to have me learn 
 to sing, and he paid double rates to get a 
 big Paris teacher to take me. At first de 
 
 C84H
 
 CLEM 
 
 Marronville said he would n't do it under 
 any circumstances, but my father fixed it, 
 and I studied almost a whole year. He 
 said that for pure strength my voice was 
 about the biggest thing he ever " 
 
 Mrs. Gresham came forward quickly, 
 her eyes shining like black agates, skilfully 
 avoiding Lorimer's fixed gaze. 
 
 "Then do sing for us, Miss Merrit !" she 
 cried. "Something anything!" She would 
 not yet meet Lorimer's eyes, but she came 
 dangerously close to him, and across the 
 entire length of the room she called to Mrs. 
 Wines, whose face by now was a white 
 mask. 
 
 "Do ask her, Aunt Frances !" she called, 
 with a daring of which she was gleefully 
 conscious. 
 
 "Oh, I '11 be glad to," the girl said calmly, 
 turning surprised eyes upon the insistent 
 clamorer, and to her intense gratitude Mrs. 
 Wines realized that the situation was 
 ended. Nothing could help or hinder now. 
 Yet she flushed painfully under a look 
 which Reggie flashed at her. It was very
 
 CLEM 
 
 clear that Reggie excused nothing nor any 
 body ; that he was passionately angry. 
 
 And in the midst of byplay and side 
 scene, all unconscious thereof, and all 
 unawed by the silence which still hung 
 heavy over the room, Clem Merrit walked 
 over to the piano. 
 
 "Most of my songs are coon," she said 
 genially, over her wonderful shoulder. 
 "But I '11 give you the Jewel Song from 
 'Faust,' " she added in thoughtful explana 
 tion. 
 
 It was her entire preliminary, and she 
 dashed into the aria blithely. 
 
 Lowe had edged his way carefully 
 around the room, and by the time she 
 ended, had contrived to displace Lorimer at 
 the piano. In the pregnant silence which 
 met her closing notes, he bent down to her. 
 Reggie had given up the chase at last, and 
 was standing, a miserable side-fixture, 
 against the opposite wall. 
 
 "Bully!" said Lowe in the entirely tone 
 less voice with which he was wont to ex 
 press his greatest pleasure. "Now, do me
 
 CLEM 
 
 a favor; sing that Georgia coon song you 
 used to sing while Denys was laying on his 
 layers of paint " 
 
 She laughed in frank pleasure, and broke 
 into a rollicking coon song. By all stand 
 ards of coon song literature she sang the 
 thing rarely well, and when she finished 
 this second effort there was liberal applause 
 from the men. She cast a quick, invol 
 untary glance over her shoulder, and her 
 laughing eyes focused themselves on Mrs. 
 Wines's face. 
 
 Instantly the girl's face changed expres 
 sion and color. What she had seen in the 
 elder woman's eyes had shocked her. She 
 caught her lip hard between her teeth, and 
 then she rose, so abruptly that the piano 
 seat was knocked headlong to the floor. 
 
 "No !" she said curtly, in response to the 
 insistent requests, always from the men, 
 for more songs. 
 
 She took a few steps b?ck across the 
 room, but half way over she hesitated, and 
 finally stopped, for a second isolated, al 
 though a fringe of curious eyes stared at
 
 CLEM 
 
 her, and half a dozen people stood within 
 reach of her clenched hands. Her lip was 
 still caught hard between her teeth, and 
 her mouth was twisted and distorted, as if 
 she were suffering physical pain. For a 
 second which was longer to her than 
 many burning hours no one stirred. 
 Then, from the far end of the room, like 
 a young prince, sweeping his guests to the 
 right and the left of him, Reggie came 
 imperiously, straight to Clem. 
 
 "The moon is just climbing the pines," 
 he said defiantly. "I 'm going to take you 
 out to watch it." 
 
 As he touched her arm a look of pas 
 sionate gratitude shone in her eyes, but she 
 turned to the men about her with all and 
 more of her old, bold gaiety. 
 
 "Not to-night," she reiterated. "This 
 place got into my blood driving over from 
 the station. Come, Reggie, let 's clear." 
 
 They swept past Lorimer, past Mrs. 
 Wines, pale and frozen, past Virginia and 
 Lowe, and stepped through a long window 
 onto the stone-flagged veranda without.
 
 CLEM 
 
 Another moment, and the night swallowed 
 them up. 
 
 A little later, and those left unceremo 
 niously behind made general exodus to the 
 verandas. But one end, the entire east 
 side, was left, by tacit consent, for those 
 two who held it by priority of occupation. 
 The shifting shadows showed now and 
 then the silvery gleaming of a woman's 
 dress; sometimes the woman herself in 
 misty outline against the great pillars. 
 And all through the evening's talk which 
 followed, both Mrs. Wines and Lorimer 
 missed one great thing, the sound of a girl's 
 rich, strident laugh. It did not ring out 
 once.
 
 VII 
 
 IT was not yet six o'clock of the next 
 morning when Lowe, strolling lazily 
 through the dewy grass, saw a great red 
 rose come hurtling through the air toward 
 him. He caught it in his hand, and looked 
 in the direction of its flight, to catch sight 
 of Clem Merrit's bright head poised within 
 the clambering arms of an old rose-tree 
 which covered a summer-house. 
 
 "When did your alarm clock go off?" 
 he asked her, coming close to the railing, 
 and resting his arms upon it. 
 
 "It was Reggie's fist," said Clem. "We 
 thought we 'd go walking, and then found 
 the dew was so heavy that he 's gone off to 
 the stables to get us something to drive 
 before breakfast. Won't you come inside? 
 There 's a bully view of the sea, and a 
 seat, such as it is." 
 
 "I 'm satisfied," said Lowe. "I adore the
 
 CLEM 
 
 curve of your mouth when seen at just this 
 angle, slightly above the level of the eye." 
 
 "That 's all right," returned the girl, 
 unmoved. "You 'd better go back to art 
 and stick there. You may be a fair artist 
 they say so. But as a weather man, 
 you 're on the blink. What 's the good of 
 knocking around if you can't sight dirty 
 weather ahead ?" 
 
 Lowe's light lashes flickered heavily two 
 or three times. 
 
 "'You mean ?" he asked politely. 
 
 "That, as a press agent, Jack, you 're a 
 shine." 
 
 His face held its impassive presentment, 
 but far back in his eyes she beheld the light 
 of understanding, and she leaped at it, to 
 drag it forth. 
 
 "That coon song stunt did n't make a 
 hit last night, did it?" she asked asser 
 tively. "What 's the matter with your 
 friends, Jack? Don't they like a laugh?" 
 
 "Did n't they give you the laugh?" he 
 asked. "Did n't they give you the hand ?" 
 
 "They gave me the laugh all right, I
 
 CLEM 
 
 reckon," Clem admitted calmly. "And the 
 hand for that matter; clap out! What 's 
 the matter with your friends, Jack? 
 There 's nothing wrong with the song. 
 And I 'm not more than three laps behind 
 the right way to sing it, am I ?" 
 
 "You sing it perfectly," Lowe uttered, 
 with the finality of the recognized expert. 
 "And everybody knows it " 
 
 "No, they don't," said Clem, with the 
 utmost impersonality. "There was n't a 
 woman there that knew it. You men, of 
 course " 
 
 "You are doing Dell Gresham a cruel in 
 justice," Lowe interrupted gravely. "Dell 
 is authority on stunts of all sorts, and Dell 
 appreciated every fine point, I give you my 
 word." 
 
 " I 'm not in a position to call you there," 
 Clem returned. "I did n't happen to see 
 Mrs. Gresham " She stopped and her 
 level brows came together in a somber 
 frown. Then she looked squarely into 
 Lowe's eyes. 
 
 "I see myself hitting the trail for town
 
 CLEM 
 
 in about two days, Jack," she said. "This 
 place has got on my nerves already. I 
 don't seem to fancy it." 
 
 "Ah, now, don't," Lowe begged. 
 "When it 's really a delightful place, and 
 considering the fact that it 's been so many 
 months since we 've eaten at the same 
 table-" 
 
 "Were n't they jolly luncheons!" Clem 
 interrupted, with eyes brimming with 
 laughter. "The lovely messes that little 
 coon of Claude Denys' could hand out! 
 And to eat them in that studio of his, where 
 everything had a taste of turpentine and 
 oily rag you had no business there, but 
 you used to run in every morning! And 
 then the places we 'd drop into in the even 
 ing, you and Denys and sometimes dad, 
 and I. And then, always if dad was with 
 us, we 'd go, after dinner, to some of those 
 palaces, and watch dad play baccarat. Ah 
 me, I love to see dad with a deck of cards 
 in his hand, just before the deal. Do you 
 remember him, Jack, red and bulky, with 
 his tie just a little twisted, and his hat on 
 
 C93]
 
 CLEM 
 
 the back of his head, and everybody watch 
 ing him, even the croupier ; and the highest 
 players in all Paris just dropping over, one 
 by one, to take a hand in the game ? Ah ! 
 me, it 's nerve I love." 
 
 "Where 's 'dad' now?" Lowe asked, his 
 eyes fastened with keen interest on the 
 girl's flushing, rippling face. 
 
 "Getting ready to go down into South 
 America and take a hand in some of the 
 revolutions, so that he can get into a few 
 gold-mines he 's bought," she replied care 
 lessly. "Equador 's all tied up, and Colom 
 bia 's worse. He 's got the rover's fever 
 again that 's all that 's the matter. He 's 
 just got home from this trip round the 
 world with me he can't waste any more 
 time sitting still, you know, or just having 
 a good time. He 's got to go work again. 
 This is the biggest gamble he 's gone into 
 yet, for it takes in states and kings." 
 
 "And you?" queried Lowe. There was 
 a certain note in his voice which made the 
 girl turn on him quickly. 
 
 "Don't you go to blaming dad for leav- 
 
 C94]
 
 CLEM 
 
 ing- me behind him," she said emphatically. 
 "You saw him down at the beach for those 
 few days you could- see he was crazy to 
 get out into God's country again. He 'd 
 take me but I won't go. He 's been too 
 good to trek about with me all this time. 
 Anyway, I don't want to go." 
 
 "But my God, girl, you 're too rich 
 to Jive alone !" Lowe protested. 
 
 Clem sunk her chin into her hands and 
 stared down at him. 
 
 "Don't let my money bother you any 
 more than it does me and you won't say 
 that sort of thing again," she said slowly. 
 "Say, Jack, how do you come to be hob 
 nobbing with this high-collared, stiff-cor 
 seted crowd? You would n't have said 
 that to me two years ago, in Paris." 
 
 Lowe laughed a little. "Paris is differ 
 ent," he said lamely. "American girls can 
 do anything they like in Paris and it 's 
 simply laid to Americanism !" 
 
 "Well, I 've always done as I liked, 
 you know," Clem replied simply. "And 
 you can lay it all, always, to me. 
 
 C953
 
 CLEM 
 
 What 's the good of life, if you put chains 
 on yourself? That 's why I think I 'm 
 going to trek out for town day after to 
 morrow." 
 
 "Don't!" Lowe said again. "It would 
 be an injustice to everybody, if you do. 
 You don't understand these people. Stay 
 on, and learn them a little better. And if 
 you are n't interested in that, stay on. to 
 let them know you. They 're all right; an 
 awfully good sort." 
 
 "Usually I can size up a string without 
 being held by the hand," Clem said, after a 
 pause; "but this yard of colts gets past me. 
 That Grantham girl 's got a sweet, fine 
 nature, Jack ! I Ve got her all hung up on 
 the line ! Who 's the other girl, Virginia ?" 
 
 She said it all without malice, and she 
 laughed without malice. 
 
 "Virginia ?" echoed Lowe. "She 's a nice 
 little thing; cousin of Lorimer's and spe 
 cial pet of Mrs. Wines's. Never mind the 
 women. Let's talk about Reggie. You 
 may speak freely to me, Clem. I am a de 
 pendable, grand fatherly person." 
 
 r.963
 
 CLEM 
 
 "I 'm not talking much about Reggie 
 right now," Clem said slowly; "but, so far, 
 he seems to me the pick of this bunch." 
 
 "You put him over Lorimer !" protested 
 Lowe. "And Gresham ! And me !" 
 
 "That Lorimer is what is he, Jack? 
 He don't play ragtime, anyway." 
 
 Lowe laughed. "Why, Lorimer can play 
 ragtime," he said lightly. "My dear Clem, 
 Lorimer likes you immensely. Believe 
 me. You made your distinct hit with him, 
 two weeks ago, when you gave us our 
 palm-reading together remember? That 
 was an inordinately clever stunt you put 
 up that night. I should n't have brought 
 him to you personally, if I had n't felt that 
 I was doing an altruistic thing presenting 
 two distinctly worth-while people to each 
 other thereby cutting ice both ways. You 
 seemed good enough pals down yonder at 
 the shore; and here, last night " 
 
 "Oh, he's smooth," rejoined Clem, 
 somewhat absently. "Smooth as a piece of 
 sash ribbon; the sort that does n't get 
 jolted easy ; that can get into a cab without 
 
 C973
 
 CLEM 
 
 having to go back after his hat; that can 
 talk right along, the same sort of conversa 
 tion, after the supper bill's hit him in the 
 eye ! He 's that sort, all right." 
 
 Lowe threw back his head and roared, 
 but Clem stared down into his face soberly 
 enough. 
 
 "He writes, does n't he?" she added ab 
 ruptly. "I read a book of his that Reggie 
 had. It was all about this lot of people 
 people like them. Somehow oh, it was 
 good stuff, but it did n't seem to me it hit 
 bottom I laid it to the sort of people he 'd 
 taken hold of to write up, the sort that 
 would die if they had to live in deep water; 
 a goldfish crowd it was ! You know, Jack, 
 I love an Indian, just because he 's got to 
 have all outdoors to live in and off of. 
 Reggie and I talked that book of Drake 
 Lorimer's over and upside down, and from 
 left to right and back again, Reggie stand 
 ing up for it Reggie 's only part Indian, 
 you know a great lot of him 's white 
 man ! He kept saying it was all right ; but 
 he banked all his belief on what the critics 
 
 r.98]
 
 CLEM 
 
 said about the Lorimer book. Every time 
 I 'd say, 'But the man has n't got the work 
 ing-man's standpoint !' Reggie would stand 
 right up on both his feet and tell me that 
 New York went wild over it, and old 
 Drake had 'em all skinned ten miles !" She 
 laughed a little. "Reggie's a good friend, 
 and I reckon I did n't do Mr. Lorimer jus 
 tice, after all; for if he has n't got the 
 working-man's jargon right, he certainly 
 has this high-collared set put down in black 
 and white. I can see that, with only six 
 o'clock last night to start from. I 'm an 
 Indian, you know, Jack. I Ve got to have 
 a lot of good, clean air to breathe, or I 
 choke up and want to kill somebody." 
 
 "Well," suggested Lowe, "vindicate the 
 Indian, then, to the white man." 
 
 Clem retorted promptly. "Not for a 
 minute ! After all, the Indian does n't need 
 vindication. He 's got his own code, his 
 own laws of life, and if he lives up to them, 
 he 's a good Indian, and has plenty of buf 
 falo in the hunting-grounds beyond. I 
 suppose it 's the same thing, only rarefied, 
 
 C99]
 
 CLEM 
 
 with the white man. I don't know. I Ve 
 never lived with white men." 
 
 She smiled down at last into his heavy, 
 kindly face. 
 
 "You 're sort of different from the rest 
 of 'em here, Jack. I daresay you don't 
 think that 's a compliment; perhaps not. 
 Is it living in that queer shack of yours, 
 just outside of Paris, with that queer gang 
 you had about you; where anything you 
 did was right, and nothing counted for 
 wrong unless you lied to a woman, or 
 played with a man with an ace up your 
 sleeve ?" 
 
 She bent down to him at last, and tapped 
 his cheek lightly with her hand. 
 
 "Talk!" she said. "Don't moon at six 
 o'clock in the morning!" 
 
 Lowe smiled up at her queerly, his kind 
 eyes fixed steadily on hers. "I 'm not un 
 shod, Clem," he replied briefly. "If I walk 
 here at all, it is of your mercy." 
 
 He paused for a moment, and the girl 
 did not speak, but her questioning eyes 
 were compelling.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "I 've always said you were primitive," 
 he continued cheerfully. "Do you remem 
 ber that 'Eve' I showed you once, of 
 Rodin's, while Denys was painting you 
 the one thing you liked out of a mass of 
 sculpture and you did n't know why? 
 There was kinship between you it always 
 typified you to me. Your Indian code has 
 served you well; you 've lived it uncon 
 sciously; you 've followed instinct, where 
 the rest of us tentatively follow reason; 
 and you 've walked gloriously all your 
 years. But " 
 
 "But " repeated the girl imperiously. 
 Her eyes had never wavered from his. 
 
 "But," Lowe went on, slowly, yet with 
 no manner of hesitation, "it 's not in you 
 to run away from any part of life, Clem. 
 Good or bad, you 've never thrown down a 
 hand yet. Whether you 've liked the cards 
 or not, you 've played them magnifi 
 cently" 
 
 He saw that she was reading all things 
 into his words, and he stopped, wondering 
 that he had dared to say so much. She
 
 CLEM 
 
 sat, with her chin in her hand, looking far 
 away into the blue sky overhead. 
 
 "He was the artist who said Eve's little 
 ringer did n't matter, after he found the 
 workmen had broken the plaster finger off, 
 and cast the bronze without knowing it I 
 remember you told me all about that. It 
 was one of the finest, bravest things I ever 
 heard." She laid both her hands out along 
 the railing and looked at them with a 
 curious smile. 
 
 Lowe followed her eyes and smiled 
 broadly. "Well, did it?" he asked. "Be 
 side the breadth of the whole ; its splendid 
 lines, its great life and greater spirit? 
 Was n't criticism of that insignificant lack 
 puerile and finicky ?" 
 
 "Finicky !" she repeated. Her eyes dark 
 ened slightly, and her lips curved scorn 
 fully, but she looked at him at last with 
 eyes that laughed beneath their flickering 
 lids. 
 
 "It 's a good thing that I still have in 
 stinct to tell me what a glorious liar you 
 are, Jack," she said. "Well, I 'm glad I Ve 
 
 [102]
 
 CLEM 
 
 met you down here, in this gang of your 
 own sort, because you show up almost more 
 of a man in it than you do out of it. Be 
 cause I like courage, and it takes it to be 
 different here !" 
 
 "You 're not going away really?" 
 Lowe asked her quickly, caught by a cer 
 tain final note in her voice. 
 
 "Oh, I don't know," Clem retorted care 
 lessly. "The Wessons do you know the 
 Wessons? racing people? want me 
 down on their Long Island place for this 
 month. They 'd be tickled to death if I 
 wired them that I 'd be there to-morrow 
 night for dinner!" 
 
 She glanced at him from under heavy lids 
 as he stood with folded arms and frowning 
 brow, staring at the ground, and some 
 thing in his face made her add quickly : 
 
 "Don't you ever think I '11 be throwing 
 up the game, if I do ! I Ve got a cold deal, 
 and it 's the best way to play my hand. 
 Take my word for that!" She laughed 
 rather loudly and with a touch of bitter 
 ness. Finally, she tapped his cheek again.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Your conversation this morning moves 
 as easy as a cab horse on ,a sand track," 
 she said. "You 're the champion rapid fire 
 conversationalist !" 
 
 Lowe caught hold of her hand. "I know 
 those Wessons," he said jerkily, "and 
 their crowd. They 're not your level, 
 Clem." 
 
 "I had a good time there two months 
 ago," the girl said lightly. "I met them on 
 the boat, coming over. That 's the way I 
 meet most of the people I know on the 
 boat coming over! I went right down 
 with them, dad and I, and we had a good 
 time. Nothing matters there, either, what 
 ever you do. Nobody cares. They 're a 
 good enough sort." 
 
 "They 're not your level," Lowe repeated 
 stubbornly. The second repetition of the 
 words seemed to goad her into swift 
 speech. 
 
 "I 've got no level have n't had for two 
 years not since I had that picture painted, 
 and sat there morning after morning, hear 
 ing you and Claude Denys talk and smoke
 
 CLEM 
 
 by the hour. I went to him because he was 
 the fashion, because my father wanted a 
 portrait of me, and whenever you said 
 portrait in Paris, somebody at your elbow, 
 did n't matter where you were, said 
 'Denys!' Well, he took me, and painted 
 me, and I sat there and heard him tell you 
 about turning down this Lady So-and-so, 
 and this Duchess of That, and this Mrs. 
 Kerosene Somebody from Toledo, and all 
 his reasons why. And I used to sit there, 
 wondering why he *d taken me since I 
 was n't the duchess, and was n't near the 
 beauty that she was, and since he 'd turned 
 down a woman whose husband was full as 
 rich as my father. I never quite found 
 out, and I stumbled through a lot of col 
 umns of rot that the art critics wrote of 
 The Woman in Blue !' Most of them said 
 the work was superfine what they said of 
 Denys was all right, but I did n't take to 
 what they said of me, the things they said 
 he 'd done with me. They seemed to talk 
 me over considerable. You know what 
 they said, the sort of woman a lot of them
 
 CLEM 
 
 surmised I was. They did n't agree, by a 
 long ways, but none of it was very flatter 
 ing it started me to thinking, and I 've 
 never stopped. Though the thinking 
 did n't bother me a bit till this summer. 
 Since then I 've got no level, Jack. You 
 know it. You know it!" 
 
 She had been speaking almost inaudibly, 
 but with her last words her voice rose. She 
 seemed at last to realize that Lowe still 
 held her hand, and she tried to wrench it 
 from him. But he held it persistently. 
 
 "A big point of view is the rarest thing 
 in the world, Clem," he said serenely. 
 "Don't let motes hide it." 
 
 Her frown grew deeper, and her lips 
 tightened as she looked into his steady, 
 kindly eyes. Suddenly she dragged her 
 hands free. 
 
 "Reggie 's calling," she muttered. "He 
 ought to have been here half an hour ago !" 
 
 She sprang to her feet, without any 
 other word of farewell, and walked swiftly 
 over to where Reggie waited for her in his 
 motor-car. Lowe continued to stare after
 
 CLEM 
 
 her as she placed herself in the driver's 
 seat, displacing her young host without 
 apology, and he gazed after the car until 
 it lost itself in the curving roadway. Then 
 he took up a slow stroll back to the house, 
 with his hands clasped behind him, whist 
 ling a monotonous roundelay whose words 
 relate to an animal fair where birds and 
 beasts congregate, and deal especially with 
 the vissicitudes befalling an elephant and 
 a monkey. This particular melo.dy always 
 denoted a certain state of Lowe's mind to 
 intimate listeners, and he came up the steps 
 of the house to find Dell Gresham waiting 
 for him with hands uplifted. 
 
 "Heaven fend us!" she murmured 
 piously, "that you start this glorious day 
 so! What is the trouble? And may I 
 be permitted to help in any way, however 
 mean and small ?" 
 
 "Good old Dell !" Lowe answered gladly. 
 He broke off his roundelay abruptly, and 
 pulled down the lady's upheld hands. 
 "Dell, I want you to do me a great favor ; 
 something that it not only takes a woman
 
 CLEM 
 
 to do, but a woman of great social expe 
 rience and instinctive tact " 
 
 "My lord!" murmured Mrs. Gresham, 
 with a thankful courtesy. 
 
 "And this is it," Lowe went on, with the 
 imperviousness of a raincoat. "For God's 
 sake, take hold of things ! My word for 
 it, there 's gold lying loose in this merry 
 little group, and Dell, you 've got a touch 
 stone that ought to find it. And a woman's 
 friendship means so cursedly much more 
 than a man's can, sometimes. It can build 
 up, sometimes, where a man's can only 
 destroy. Be a good fellow, old girl." 
 
 "I suppose I could n't have helped last 
 night's break, but I 'm perfectly certain I 
 did n't try," Dell confessed, with a charm 
 ing air of penitence. 
 
 "Make 'em all play up ! You 've got the 
 faculty!" growled Lowe, as he followed 
 her toward the breakfast-room. Mrs. 
 Gresham turned on him quickly. 
 
 "I can ! I have !" she said. Her thought 
 was growing in her brain. "I wonder,"
 
 CLEM 
 
 she emitted at length, "what might be made 
 of that girl, with the proper " 
 
 Lowe ambled quickly to her side with 
 his characteristic gait, a certain give at the 
 ankles like that of a camel in its native 
 sands, but possessed of a natural litheness 
 which gave his awkwardness grace. He 
 raised his hands devoutly. 
 
 "Never!" he said in a tone which ad 
 mitted of no appeal. "This is no part of 
 any uplift movement, Dell. I refuse to be 
 a party to any such trashy game. When 
 mortals condescend to mortals, then truly 
 do the gods weep!" 
 
 He paused as they reached the door, and 
 held her back for a moment. "I shall 
 dare," he said whimsically, "to remind you 
 of this great axiom of the studios: There 
 are certain things which should never be 
 finished; the freshness of first lines, the 
 bloom of the sketch, should be left on 
 them forever!" 
 
 He watched her furtively as Clem and 
 Reggie came in, almost an hour later, wind-
 
 CLEM 
 
 blown and laughing, from their swift 
 morning flight, and his brow cleared as he 
 noted the manner with which she drew the 
 girl into a chair beside her, and began to 
 talk to her with that rattling fluency which 
 was Dell's at all times. Clem rose to it, 
 and, thanks to the ozone of the morning 
 and of Dell Gresham's vitality, her poise 
 was unbroken by Mrs. Wines's appearance, 
 and the almost oppressive cordiality of that 
 lady's morning greetings. Lowe, watching 
 Clem with an interest whose genuineness 
 excused it, was uncertain as to how much, 
 after all, she had really perceived of the 
 situation into which they were all plunged, 
 so thoroughly natural did .she seem, and so 
 thoroughly at her ease.
 
 VIII 
 
 THAT first unfortunate evening struck 
 hardly the correct keynote of the week 
 which followed, and yet it echoed through 
 most of the days which came after; for 
 Clem Merrit, that is to say. 
 
 For she had caught the jangling note, 
 even so early, and neither the assiduous 
 courtesies of her hostess and her fellow- 
 guests, nor the outright, downright devo 
 tion of her young host himself, could dull 
 her ears or shut her clear-seeing eyes. She 
 had taken Mrs. Wines's invitation to The 
 Pines for what it seemed: an honest, im 
 pulsive desire for her company; and she 
 had accepted in that spirit precisely. She 
 admired Reggie's mother tremendously, 
 with a species of infatuated adoration at 
 which she herself laughed ; had so admired 
 her through the first three weeks of her and 
 Reggie Wines's tropical friendship. She
 
 CLEM 
 
 had never, in all her untamed, wandering 
 life, come into personal contact with such 
 a woman, and her delight at Mrs. Wines's 
 seemingly instantaneous response to her 
 adoration was naive and bubbling. But 
 even so early was her warm heart chilled. 
 Mrs. Wines's face, as Clem turned from 
 the piano that night and looked upon it 
 Clem Merrit could not forget it. It held 
 more than Mrs. Wines dreamed of her real 
 feeling, and the girl, interpreting dimly 
 and uncertainly, felt only bewilderment. 
 
 As Farda Grantham had carefully 
 pointed out, the party was small. Conse 
 quently it was impossible for Clem not to 
 see much of them all. She listened in a 
 sort of mental daze to the talk which went 
 on about her, diamond-bright; diamond- 
 hard, it seemed to her sometimes; of peo 
 ple, events, arts and varied crafts, whose 
 terminology was all but Greek to her, and 
 yet whose drift she shrewdly caught. 
 Sometimes she felt all but smothered in the 
 webs of verbal finesse which this sort of 
 people wound skilfully, delightfully, yet so
 
 CLEM 
 
 futilely it seemed to her, about trivial hap 
 penings and worse than trivial emotions. 
 No motive seemed simple any longer; 
 double after double was presented to fleet 
 ing view, and was then buried beneath 
 some light shaft of wit as an inconsequent 
 thing, over which it was absurd to spend 
 further time. In this estimate she did the 
 table and veranda talk at The Pines some 
 injustice. It was not superficial talk, because 
 it touched hidden depths more often than 
 the girl recognized; but it was subtle and 
 polished, filled with brilliant hiatus so ob 
 vious to this little group of friends, that 
 they honestly did not perceive its unintelli- 
 gibility to an outsider. 
 
 From it all, time and again, Reggie res 
 cued her. They rode and drove and 
 walked, spending hours of each day apart 
 from all the others, and no one said them 
 nay. Both Lowe and Lorimer were atten 
 tive and interested, but for a day or two 
 she saw but little of them. After that, in 
 what manner Reggie hardly knew, his 
 hours and hers alone together were swiftly
 
 CLEM 
 
 shortened. She played golf with Lowe, 
 tennis with Lorimer, took advantage of 
 Dell's openly proffered friendship to ex 
 change vivid experiences, and she treated 
 Reggie's confused and growing misery 
 with careless ease. For more and more, as 
 the days went on, did the boy become 
 sorely troubled. Something in their world 
 had shifted; they looked at each other with 
 new eyes which did not seem their own. 
 The deep, dark pine-groves seemed peopled 
 to him, alone with her, as the crowded 
 driveways at that crowded summer resort 
 had not been. And yet she herself was so 
 nearly the same that he could put a decisive 
 finger on nothing definite the point 
 wherein lay the entire secret of his misery. 
 
 This week, for a first week, had been as 
 tonishingly quiet, considering that several 
 congenial neighboring families were es 
 tablished for the summer. Dell Gresham 
 knew excellently well that her aunt had 
 planned it so, but she woke the morning of 
 the fourth day to find herself resenting it. 
 
 "I 'm going to be a promoter," she said
 
 CLEM 
 
 enigmatically to Gresham, as they went 
 down to breakfast ; and she refused to elu 
 cidate save by her actions, which, within 
 the next few hours had contrived to be all 
 but revolutionary. Both Lorimer and 
 Lowe observed with ill-concealed interest 
 Dell's clever baiting of her aunt, which re 
 sulted in telephoned invitations to the 
 Goodwins and the Effingers and the Hous- 
 mans before noon, for an informal gather 
 ing that night. 
 
 It was on the afternoon of that same day 
 that Clem Merrit sat at ease on some side 
 steps, alone, with her white skirts sweeping 
 carelessly about her feet, and her broad- 
 brimmed sailor hat tipped low over her 
 eyes. She had been on the links for an 
 hour, practising in solitude a bit of fine 
 play which Lowe had demonstrated that 
 morning, to her defeat. By and by the 
 Greshams and Farda and Lowe came out, 
 and Clem, seeing them approaching, ended 
 her solitary play. 
 
 "No, thanks," she said to their invitation 
 to go around. "I 've been tramping these
 
 CLEM 
 
 grounds all day. No," she added to Lowe, 
 who lingered by her. 
 
 "Come," he persisted. But she shook 
 her head firmly, and retreated to the steps. 
 
 Therefore was she sitting in solitude 
 here. As she stared before her, the human 
 figures faded from her view, and her eyes 
 grew vacant as their sparkle died. She 
 was thinking, thinking. 
 
 Clem Merrit herself was elemental, 
 singularly free from subtleties and quib- 
 blings and ambiguities, but the taint of 
 suspicion was working in her now, irresist 
 ibly. These people, of what sort were 
 they? The Greshams she honestly liked; 
 in her terminology they were jolly and 
 rode straight. Farda Grantham she smiled 
 over with spontaneous amusement, for the 
 girl's manner struck her as decidedly hu 
 morous. Lowe she pronounced jolly and 
 straight also ; of a piece with the Greshams, 
 and still a worthy member of that Parisian 
 group into which she had stepped for a few 
 brief weeks. Lorimer she shook her head 
 with an involuntary little shiver, and her
 
 CLEM 
 
 eyes darkened with the stab of a memory 
 a memory of that salad course at that first 
 dinner, and her intercepted glance at her 
 hostess. It was hardly mortification that 
 she felt now; it had been a far cry from 
 mortification that she felt then. But that 
 little incident stood out, suddenly alive with 
 meaning, from all the hours crowded full 
 of incidents, many of them similar. And 
 shoulder to shoulder with that memory 
 came the other one: of Mrs. Wines's face 
 later that same evening, after the singing 
 of that topical song! 
 
 Clem's face darkened; for, if she had 
 not yet shown the possession of that swift 
 perceptiveness which is the foundation of 
 culture, she had the instinct of the wild for 
 insincerity; and the sight of Mrs. Wines's 
 proud, pained face had told her, that first 
 night, that she had been deceived; that it 
 was not because of a personal liking for 
 her that Reggie's mother had asked her 
 here. Reggie ah, Reggie was straight 
 and loyal yet! He was born honest and 
 sincere, and, after her own peculiar fash-
 
 CLEM 
 
 ion, that other girl was honest, that little 
 cousin of Drake Lorimer's, who lived with, 
 and was loved by, Reggie's mother 
 
 Clem turned at the sound of footsteps 
 behind her, to see Virginia Garnet coming 
 toward her with a sketching-board under 
 her arm, and a box of water-colors. As 
 she saw Clem, the younger girl hesitated 
 perceptibly. Clem continued to tap her 
 foot in rhythmic time against the step, 
 while she looked reflectively upon this girl, 
 pale and saintish, another type from this 
 new world of types; the sort of girl that 
 Mrs. Wines could love so tenderly 
 
 "Hello!" Clem broke into her own 
 thoughts so. "Going out yonder ?" 
 
 Virginia hesitated still. "No, I played 
 this morning. I was going to do a mono 
 chrome from the Point. The whole day is 
 so heavenly blue." 
 
 There followed a pause, during which 
 Clem continued to gaze reflectively, while 
 Virginia battled with a strong distaste for 
 obedience to the mandates of hospitality; 
 but she spoke sweetly at last :
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Won't you come out with me ? Every 
 body seems asleep, or busy." 
 
 Clem sat silent for a moment; then she 
 swung leisurely to her feet. "Yes, I '11 
 come," she said. "Not because every 
 body 's asleep or busy because I can go to 
 sleep myself, or get busy. I '11 just come." 
 
 Virginia felt somewhat puzzled; her 
 kindliness had seemed to her so sincere 
 that she was not aware of the slight pa 
 tronage lurking in it, and it never occurred 
 to her that Clem's words were a good- 
 natured flinging back of the unasked-for 
 commodity. Silence fell between them as 
 they started down the road, a silence of 
 which Virginia was uncomfortably con 
 scious. Clem was entirely oblivious to it, 
 for little memories were springing up in 
 her mind this afternoon, and distracting it. 
 Yet suddenly she laughed. 
 
 "Oh, nothing," she said lightly, in reply 
 to Virginia's surprised inquiry. "You just 
 have a queer collection back yonder under 
 that roof ; a queer lot, that 's all." 
 
 Virginia's face expressed doubt and dis-
 
 CLEM 
 
 taste. "We all like each other very much," 
 she said, with a bit of dignity, "and we 
 understand each other." 
 
 "All of you?" asked Clem humorously. 
 "Some of you are n't so easy to under 
 stand, you know." 
 
 The younger girl flushed slightly under 
 the mild fling, but she volunteered no an 
 swer, and in silence chose the spot for their 
 lounging and her sketching. Clem flung 
 herself down on the sand, and stretched 
 herself along it as gracefully and lithely as 
 a cat. 
 
 "How old are you?" she asked Virginia 
 abruptly. 
 
 Virginia glanced up in surprise. "I 'm 
 twenty years old," she answered briefly. 
 
 For a few moments Clem watched the 
 swift strokes of the brush in silence. Then 
 she spoke with immense energy : 
 
 "What have you done all your life?" 
 
 Again Virginia looked up in almost cold 
 amazement, but Clem brushed such con 
 ventional emotions ruthlessly aside. 
 
 "I mean it," she said brusquely. "I
 
 CLEM 
 
 was n't brought up with girls I don't 
 know anything about any sort of girls, let 
 alone your sort. I want to know what 
 you 've been doing all your life, all these 
 twenty years ; how you 've lived." 
 
 "That 's a very hard question to answer 
 off-hand," Virginia replied, almost child 
 ishly. "I have n't done anything but what 
 all girls do : go to school, and study music 
 and art, and travel. I studied art in Paris 
 one year last year because it took me 
 that long over there to find out that my 
 drawing is very bad. It 's queer I had to 
 go over to Paris, and stay there that long 
 to learn that one thing." 
 
 Clem commented dryly : "I don't know 
 about that. I daresay a lot of us have to 
 go a long way to learn lots of things. I 'm 
 twenty-six," she added, with a tardy rec 
 ognition of the confidence which had just 
 been granted her. 
 
 "But," she continued energetically, 
 "after all, what have you done? Where 
 have you lived? What " She stopped. 
 
 Virginia raised her eyes to her ques-
 
 CLEM 
 
 tioner. "I don't know what you want to 
 find out about me," she said directly. And 
 that directness, even with its implied re 
 serve, appealed strongly to Clem Merrit. 
 
 "Look here," she said impulsively. "I 
 want to know how a girl of your sort does 
 live; what she does, how she fills in her 
 time I was n't brought up your way, you 
 know. I never have learned much about 
 women, and I 'm free to say that till lately 
 most of them seemed pretty cheap affairs. 
 Perhaps that 's because I 've never met just 
 your lovely, fluffy sort before. And then, 
 of course, women don't care for me, hardly 
 ever; and I don't care for that, either." 
 
 Virginia began to answer slowly, reluc 
 tantly. She did not know this girl, and did 
 not want to know her. Yet Drake had 
 asked her to be cordial, and she cared much 
 for her cousin Drake. And Reggie had 
 commanded her to be decent, in a manner 
 which compelled obedience. Therefore she 
 began to speak earnestly, dutifully, but 
 with some aimlessness. 
 
 "My father is in Japan now," she said.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "He is interested in collecting weapons; 
 that is why he is there. When I did not 
 want to go back to Paris this winter to the 
 school there, which was what my father 
 expected me to do, he was very much wor 
 ried to know what to do with me, and Mrs. 
 Wines asked him to let me stay with her. 
 Reggie is in school, you know, and she is 
 very lonely. It has all been just school and 
 French-conversation classes, and dancing- 
 class, and art school and Paris." She 
 stopped breathlessly. 
 
 "And now here!" uttered Clem elo 
 quently. She leaned further back, and 
 watched the girl as she bent studiously over 
 her work. Suddenly she laid one strong 
 finger on the drawing. 
 
 "What did you call this?" she asked. 
 
 "This is just a sketch," Virginia replied 
 uncertainly. 
 
 "But you called it something," Clem in 
 sisted lazily. "You said you were going to 
 do something from the Point." 
 
 "A monochrome," said Virginia. She 
 glanced up, and what she saw in Clem Mer- 
 
 C I2 3]
 
 CLEM 
 
 rit's face made her add in sweet pedantry, 
 "A sketch in one color." 
 
 Another silence fell. Clem lay far back, 
 watching intently the face near her. She 
 had never hungered after anything in all 
 her life, material or spiritual. She had 
 played without protest whatever hand had 
 been dealt her. What the gods had given 
 she had taken. What they had withheld 
 she had not begged for. What they might 
 snatch away she had let go with a laugh 
 until this week. This new hunger which 
 gnawed within her was indefinite, inchoate, 
 purely rudimentary. But she had caught 
 glimpses of other planes of thought and 
 action, and this afternoon, as she watched 
 and listened, there came upon her the first 
 stir of an embryonic ideal, and it sickened 
 her as it quickened. She could not speak, 
 so great was her mental daze ; she only lay 
 there, staring with wide eyes which she 
 dared not close. 
 
 Virginia began to speak again, restlessly, 
 with determined civility: 
 
 "I am studying art just because I love it.
 
 CLEM 
 
 My mother was a sister of my cousin 
 Drake's father there is where I get my 
 love for it, they say. Drake's father was 
 a man of very great talent. He wanted 
 Drake to be an artist. But Reggie's father 
 saw that Drake would be only merely good 
 at that, and he helped my uncle to give up 
 his particular ambition for Drake. Dr. 
 Wines was a very great man. It seems 
 queer that Reggie is so different from both 
 his mother and his father. He and Drake 
 are great chums. He is going into Wall 
 Street, he says, and Drake laughs at him. 
 Reggie and I are just the same age." 
 
 She paused; to begin again with the 
 same effect of resolute entertaining. 
 
 "Farda Grantham and I went abroad to 
 gether. She studied music. We stayed at 
 Madame Vallormes's school. The girls 
 there used to amuse themselves by teaching 
 the American girls the French V. Some 
 times I can say it by itself now, but never 
 in a word. Dell laughs at me because I 
 say I am going to study art always, and so 
 does Drake, and so does Reggie. Dell and *
 
 CLEM 
 
 her husband are great travelers. They 
 lived in Japan for a year. They came 
 home through India. Dell says they are 
 going back there and be Brahmins." 
 
 "Mrs. Gresham is a jolly little woman," 
 said Clem briefly. Her heart warmed sud 
 denly with memories of long morning 
 hours and lazy afternoons when she and 
 Dell Gresham had talked with common in 
 terest and understanding. 
 
 Virginia replied with civil effort: "She 
 is very nice indeed. She is very unconven 
 tional, though. She does so many things 
 that other women don't do, perhaps 
 would n't dare to do. Yet in her they are 
 perfectly right. Before she was married 
 she was the same way. But no one ever 
 cared." 
 
 "Why?" demanded Clem quickly. She 
 turned slightly, and stared straight at the, 
 simple child before her. 
 
 "Well," hesitated Virginia, "because she 
 is Dell Gresham for one thing, I suppose. 
 And then, whatever she does, does n't mat 
 ter because, no matter how absurd she is, 
 
 126]
 
 CLEM 
 
 all the time every one knows that she knows 
 every convention to the letter, and simply 
 does n't care about it. And nobody else 
 can care, you see." 
 
 Clem bit her under lip cruelly. She 
 raised herself swiftly on one elbow and 
 looked keenly at the girl. Then she laid 
 herself down again, satisfied that nothing 
 personal could have been meant. That 
 salad course was in her mind again. Mrs. 
 Gresham, it appeared, might have eaten 
 hers with a spoon, and it would have mat 
 tered not at all, merely because she hap 
 pened to know and others knew she knew 
 which fork ! She laughed shortly, as she 
 flung her arms above her head. 
 
 "Just school and French classes, and 
 dancing-classes, and art-schools, and 
 travel, and Paris ! ' And people ! This 
 sort ! 
 
 "I Ve had school some. It came a lit 
 tle late I was almost as old as you are 
 now when I really had your sort of school, 
 but I Ve had it. I hate French, but I know 
 German, learned to speak it when I was a
 
 CLEM 
 
 child a pal of my father's used to talk it 
 to me all his spare time. I 've had French 
 as far as that goes and Paris. I 've had 
 dancing-classes, not that I ever needed 
 them much. I never took drawing; but 
 I Ve had music " 
 
 She felt the slow, dark flush creeping 
 over her face. She was thinking again of 
 that long, long room, and the songs she 
 sang, and she was bitterly ashamed. And 
 she did not in the least know why. For 
 even now she told herself angrily that the 
 coon song was merely broadly funny, no 
 more. She was not capable of going be 
 yond broad fun. But everything about it 
 had been wrong. It hurt her terribly to 
 remember Mrs. Wines's face, white and 
 frozen. Even Jack Lowe, with all his 
 comforting attempts to make her forget it, 
 had only succeeded in impressing it on her 
 that only the men appreciated it, cared for 
 it at all. From them alone had come her 
 meed of applause. She had never cared 
 for the applause or approval of women 
 before. But here, she felt the lack sorely.
 
 CLEM 
 
 They seemed of different races, these 
 women here, and she herself. And why? 
 She was trying to get hold of the tangle 
 this afternoon. At last she went on : 
 
 "But people this sort " And there 
 she stopped again. 
 
 Virginia hesitated a moment. Then she 
 spoke clearly: 
 
 "I wonder, sometimes, if I Ve had too 
 much of this sort. I wonder if there are n't 
 other sorts as good better !" 
 
 She dropped her brushes and pushed her 
 drawing-board away, and stared absently 
 out over the water. Her eyes darkened, 
 and her sweet lips curved almost bitterly. 
 Clem looked at her wonderingly; the 
 words seemed like heresy to her who had 
 lived all her life beyond the pale; who had 
 not even dreamed that such people as 
 these were in the world; and who, seeing 
 them now for the first time, was filled with 
 the almost certain conviction that this sort 
 was the sort most to be desired, even 
 though she, by force of what had gone be 
 fore, were forever cut off from it.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "You don't really think that," she as 
 serted at length. 
 
 "Ah, don't I !" Virginia breathed. She 
 caught her breath sharply. "At least," she 
 added, after a bit, "I ought to know other 
 sorts, if only to be able to judge them bet 
 ter." 
 
 Clem glanced furtively at the girl's 
 strained face. She was shrewd enough to 
 perceive that Virginia was thinking of her 
 not at all. 
 
 "Oh, in this world it does n't pay to 
 judge," Clem said, with a rather grim 
 laugh. "The worst ones of us have some 
 good in us, though it may not come out 
 until our last hour. I 've seen some men 
 live like jackals, and die like gentle 
 men." 
 
 She was watching the girl's face rather 
 sharply. It was a revelation to her that 
 Virginia Garnet could be so vitally moved 
 by inner feelings. The younger girl spoke 
 swiftly: 
 
 "I knew it I always knew it you 
 mean that there is always good in men."
 
 CLEM 
 
 Clem answered soberly: "I don't think 
 of any man, living or dead, that I would n't 
 say that of." And something impelled her 
 to add, "It takes death though, to bring the 
 good out of some men. And nobody wants 
 to live with a jackal, even if he is able to 
 die like a gentleman." 
 
 "You 've known a great many men," 
 Virginia asserted. "Do you think a man 
 can love two women?" 
 
 Clem laughed. "Can !" she repeated elo 
 quently. "They do; three four and on 
 up." 
 
 "I mean at one time," Virginia added. 
 
 "Perhaps not four at a time," Clem re 
 turned frivolously, "but two easily they 
 do it constantly love two women." 
 
 "I mean really love," Virginia insisted 
 gently. She was looking far into Clem's 
 eyes, and Clem, rather startled by the in 
 tensity of the gaze, checked herself, with a 
 slight frown. 
 
 "Oh, well, I don't," she said. "That 's 
 too rare to talk about." 
 
 A few moments of silence fell between
 
 CLEM 
 
 them. Clem's hands were clasped lazily 
 behind her head, and she started slightly 
 when Virginia's voice broke the pause. 
 
 "I knew a man once," she said quickly 
 then her face flushed fiercely, and her 
 white throat throbbed. 
 
 "I knew a man once," she repeated in a 
 changed voice, "who told me that he 
 loved a woman with a sort of evil fas 
 cination and loved a girl too, better, far 
 better, than he could love this woman 
 Do you think that that 's true?" 
 
 Clem stared steadily at the girl from 
 under half-closed lids. It was all very 
 transparent, and very young; but for the 
 first time in her memory, Clem Merrit 
 shrank from her knowledge of life. She 
 could not remember the time when she had 
 illusions, but she knew that this girl beside 
 her was arrayed in them, despite this one 
 evident sad rent; and the perception made 
 her hesitate. 
 
 "Why, it could be true enough," she said 
 slowly. "But why did he run around tell 
 ing it to anybody? Why did n't he go
 
 CLEM 
 
 off under the stars and fight it out, face to 
 face with himself ?" 
 
 "He should n't have told?" Virginia 
 queried vaguely. "Not any one? Not 
 even the girl to explain to her why he had 
 to leave her" 
 
 "My God!" murmured Clem Merrit, 
 very slowly. She drew herself to a sitting 
 posture, and fixed a level gaze upon the 
 waters. "I 'd hate to tell you what I think 
 about that," she threw over her shoulder 
 at Virginia. 
 
 "But I wish you would," the girl per 
 sisted. "It 's interesting. I wish you 
 would tell me." 
 
 "How old was that man?" Clem asked 
 curtly. "Thirty-five! And an up-to-date 
 man, eh ! Well, he was n't that big a fool. 
 And if he was n't a fool, a man like that, 
 he 's a rascal." 
 
 Virginia spoke with a sharp catch in her 
 voice. "That is what my cousin Drake 
 said. Exactly what he thought." 
 
 "Well, your cousin Drake 's an experi 
 enced sort," said Clem dryly. "He ought
 
 CLEM 
 
 to know." She hesitated a moment, and 
 then she asked : "That other man he is n't 
 among your sort?" 
 
 "No," said Virginia dully. 
 
 Clem leaned back again against her 
 rock, and watched the girl as she gathered 
 up her drawing-materials restlessly. It had 
 all been an unwitting confession of a girl's 
 first, foolish love, and Clem's heart warmed 
 to this childish thing quite as fervently as 
 if Virginia had voluntarily confided in her. 
 It was a new experience for Clem, to hear 
 a woman's confidence, and she cherished it 
 avidly. This girl, shielded like a flower 
 from life, until she knew nothing of life 
 Clem wondered longingly what a girlhood 
 like this girl's must be. 
 
 "Just school and travel, and classes, and 
 people this sort. I 've had some of the 
 school, and the travel; but people- 
 There she stopped again. 
 
 "You 've had people," Virginia said 
 longingly. "The sort to make you certain 
 of yourself; but my whole life has gone 
 
 C'34]
 
 CLEM 
 
 for nothing but to make me altogether un 
 certain." 
 
 Clem laughed a little grimly. "It 's af 
 fected you that way too," she said mu 
 singly. "And yet your people seem certain 
 enough. They 've got no doubts. And 
 I 've not had many in my life. It 's easy 
 to see clear when you see only one side." 
 
 Then she drew herself up. She knew 
 nothing of the literature of the confes 
 sional, but she had the instinct of that in 
 comparable guider of souls who gave but 
 two minutes to confession on the plea that 
 it is too dangerous a relaxation. Behind 
 them they heard the shrill whistle of an 
 afternoon train. 
 
 "Shall we go back?" Virginia asked, the 
 spell that was on her broken now by Clem's 
 stirring. "Dinner is early to-night, on ac 
 count of the Goodwins, and the Effingers, 
 and the rest, coming over for the evening." 
 
 When they reached the house, after a 
 rather silent walk, they found Reggie 
 there, just arrived from town, whither he
 
 CLEM 
 
 had gone on some pressing call that morn 
 ing. 
 
 "I got all your traps and Dell's, Vee," he 
 said. "I also dropped into that roof gar 
 den, and got the swing of that infernal 
 ragtime you were trying to drill into me a 
 while back. See !" 
 
 On the top step he executed a marvel- 
 ously intricate clog, glancing beyond Vir 
 ginia's smiling eyes to Clem. She was 
 laughing too, but a look lurked within her 
 eyes which he had never seen there before, 
 and he was fairly conversant, too, with 
 those bits of blue. He sprang down 
 immediately and came toward her. Per 
 haps he had never looked so boyish, and so 
 altogether lovable. 
 
 "Dell 's calling you, Vee," he said 
 shamelessly. "I hear her. Anyway, this 
 cart 's not built for three. And Miss Mer- 
 rit needs a bit of fast driving to tone her 
 up." 
 
 He came close to her as she stood on the 
 graveled pathway. Just now Reggie was 
 essentially a young and healthy animal, 
 
 C'36]
 
 CLEM 
 
 with a healthy scorn of mental subtleties 
 and psychological riddles. Yet, from the 
 very facts of his birth and environment, he 
 had within him perceptions and feelings 
 not animal, nor material, and these intangi 
 ble things took hold of him and gripped 
 him as he looked into Clem's pale face. 
 Virginia went up the steps and disappeared 
 within the house; Reggie noted the fact 
 over his broad shoulder. Then he looked 
 at Clem with lovable mastery. 
 
 "Get in," he said briefly. But she did 
 not move, merely looked at him steadily, 
 with dumb contemplation and unworded 
 questioning. He advanced a step nearer. 
 
 "What 's up?" he asked. "Has any 
 one-" 
 
 He stopped because he could not go on. 
 It was a question hard to finish; it con 
 ceded too much of possibility. 
 
 Clem's eyes turned suddenly away, dark 
 ening somberly. For the first time in her 
 life, perhaps, she caught the absolute pitch 
 of a ringing chord, and knew it. In that 
 second all the questionings of all the days
 
 CLEM 
 
 just past found their swift, relentless an 
 swer, and that embryonic thing, formless 
 and nameless, which had stirred first that 
 afternoon, moved fiercely within her soul 
 once again. 
 
 "Clem !" the boy said harshly. 
 
 She faced him deliberately, with her 
 shoulders squared, and her head flung 
 high. Then she let him put her into the 
 cart. In another moment they were off, 
 leaving behind them a small, subsiding 
 whirlwind of dust and pebbles. And the 
 echo, on the summer breeze, of her ringing 
 laugh. 
 
 C'38]
 
 IX 
 
 MRS. WINES sat wearily this night at 
 the foot of her table. The next day 
 would see the departure of her guests, 
 most of them, and she was fiercely glad. 
 This week had been one which she could 
 never forget, and which she would have 
 wiped out of all memory. 
 
 About her silent self the table talk rose 
 to ever increasing crests. It mounted 
 higher and higher, and it seemed that it 
 would never fall; yet it had about it that 
 instability which marks a mounting wave 
 whose sure collapse must come, and she 
 waited wearily for the end, with every 
 nerve tightening under the strain. 
 
 Across from her, on Reggie's right 
 hand, sat Clem Merrit. He had placed her 
 there to-night with some ostentation; had 
 gone to the length of exchanging a place 
 or two to accomplish it. On Clem's other
 
 CLEM 
 
 side sat Lorimer, and on Reggie's left were 
 Dell and Lowe. It was among these five 
 that the talk was surging to such heights 
 of gaiety. 
 
 Mrs. Wines watched the girl to-night 
 with eyes which were filled with fear as 
 well as weariness. The fear was a new 
 one, and had stolen on her unawares, to 
 haunt her like a great shadow, bringing 
 with it a conviction of guilt, a certainty 
 that she had tampered insultingly with 
 hidden things. Her fear was no longer 
 the mother's fierce dread for her boy, but 
 sprang from the shameful knowledge that 
 she had put out a wanton hand and had 
 bruised a soul. 
 
 For the girl had seen there was no 
 doubt of that; she had seen, partially at 
 least, the difference. She was not crushed 
 and broken ; she was bolder and gayer and 
 more bewilderingly assertive to-night than 
 ever; her voice was higher and her laugh 
 more loud. Yet for three days past there 
 had been a certain gleam in her eyes, every 
 sight of which had shocked Reggie's
 
 CLEM 
 
 mother into panic ; which made her feel the 
 cringing craven whenever she looked into 
 Clem Merrit's steady, brilliant eyes. Par 
 tially, at least, the girl had seen. 
 
 To Mrs. Wines the proof of this had 
 been plain, in Clem's suddenly evident 
 comradeship with Lowe and Lorimer; in 
 her resolute pushing of Reggie to one side ; 
 in his restless hoverings on the outer edge 
 of these new groupings, and his patent dis 
 satisfaction thereat. For the three of 
 them the week had proved a bitter one, and 
 to-night she felt more deeply for the girl 
 than for the boy. She remembered grate 
 fully now Lorimer's cold bit of comfort 
 on the day of her discovery; that Reggie 
 would recover; that a boy must have his 
 experiences, his fancied loves. Reggie's 
 welfare troubled her to-night not at all; 
 the love-interest thereof had long since 
 vanished from all phases of the case. In 
 this thing she no longer thought of hearts. 
 It had become a matter of soul, a matter of 
 responsibility for the spirit she had deliber 
 ately and sorely wounded. For the girl
 
 CLEM 
 
 had seen. She was no adventuress. She 
 was without culture or refinement, if one 
 chose so pitilessly to analyze her, but she 
 had perception enough to see the things 
 which Mrs. Wines had determined to make 
 her see. 
 
 Lorimer had helped throughout the 
 week. And Lowe. Mrs. Wines discovered 
 herself at the outset to be glad indeed that 
 Lowe had known the girl before. It made 
 his rescuing of situations less patent than 
 Lorimer's sometimes seemed to her; al 
 though nothing could have been more deli 
 cate than Lorimer's silken manceuvers. 
 After all, Lowe took but little part in any 
 thing connected with the girl's position in 
 the household, and he was not in the confi 
 dence of his hostess by so much as the 
 breath of a whisper. Yet she felt, with the 
 guilty certainty of discovery which a crim 
 inal feels, that Lowe understood perfectly 
 the situation, and resolutely held aloof, 
 definitely refused to be entangled in so 
 questionable a proceeding as this had been. 
 But Lorimer had been openly devoted to 
 
 142 3
 
 CLEM 
 
 the girl, more and more genuinely inter 
 ested as the days passed. 
 
 "She is a most interesting type," he said 
 once to his hostess, and in a certain way 
 Mrs. Wines resented it; it sounded heart 
 lessly scrutinizing, cruelly perceptive. Yet 
 to anything of the sort in Lorimer the girl 
 had been oblivious, unless it might be that 
 in the last few days there had come a subtle 
 change in her manner to him, a certain 
 armed neutrality lying within her eyes as 
 they rested on Lorimer's high-bred face. 
 Yes, within the last few days there had 
 certainly come a change. 
 
 She sighed wearily. The swirl of talk 
 and laughter oppressed her beyond meas-. 
 ure. How she longed for the night to be 
 ended for the morning to dawn. Then 
 Farda was to go to the Effingers for over 
 Sunday; Lowe was to go into town for a 
 few days to meet some London friends just 
 arrived; Clem Merrit was to leave for all 
 time; of that Mrs. Wines was convinced. 
 For Clem Merrit had perceived. By the 
 next evening The Pines would be practi- 
 
 C'433
 
 CLEM 
 
 cally cleared of visitors; Dell and Eaton 
 and Lorimer did not count as visitors. 
 Even Lorimer might be gone, if he decided 
 to accompany Lowe. 
 
 Shreds of talk assailed her ears now and 
 then, and from time to time she listened 
 listlessly, smiling at the proper moments, 
 but silent. When last she listened defi 
 nitely, they had been recounting poker 
 stories the two best ones, by common 
 consent, were Clem Merrit's. Now, as she 
 came out of her painful reverie, horses and 
 racing were the themes. She listened with 
 set lips to the verbal proofs of Clem Mer 
 rit's familiarity with the Derby winners at 
 home and abroad; to the names of her fa 
 vorite bookmakers; to all the argot of the 
 race-tracks. Never had such talk been 
 heard at her table, and she shrank from its 
 sound as from physical blows. She turned 
 indignant eyes on Lorimer once, when he 
 seemed not content to let sleeping dogs lie, 
 but insisted on deeper details. She glanced 
 at Reggie too, and the boy met her eyes 
 
 CM4]
 
 CLEM 
 
 squarely. He, too, was pale, but she saw 
 again that straightening under fire which 
 she had seen that night of her first meeting 
 with the girl, when she had been mad, mad, 
 mad! Unless the girl had truly seen, 
 would come to her help, it had been of no 
 use, none of it! 
 
 It was with animated and vivid detail 
 that Clem was answering Lorimer's ques 
 tions about various times of trial and tri 
 umph on the turf, and Mrs. Gresham's 
 eyes lighted up with her own interest. She 
 herself was desperately fond of horses, 
 and she held to the topic after Lorimer sat 
 back, silent and reflective. He was think 
 ing of the real fineness of these rough 
 men's stories, roughly told as they were. 
 The girl's tale always had its point, no 
 matter how rough-hewn the handle might 
 be. Here was a woman who had attained, 
 through some processes, to a man's stand 
 point of honor and conduct of life, and a 
 man's standpoint on a few other trifles as 
 light as air to the average woman. He
 
 CLEM 
 
 wondered, calmly, how much of that which 
 was really higher and finer had been lost in 
 such attaining. 
 
 "Have you a stable? Really?" Dell 
 asked eagerly. 
 
 "I wish you 'd come down into Virginia 
 and see it some time," Clem answered hos 
 pitably. "It 's the one spot on earth that 's 
 really home to me; the one place I think 
 I 'd want to strike for if I was dying, don't 
 you know ! I have a fine two-year-old 
 who 's going to be good for next year. 
 My jockey? Jimmy Hinch. He can ride 
 at ninety-five pounds when he has to ; has 
 good hands ; rates a horse well in front, or 
 behind a pace-maker. He can ride a wait 
 ing race too, and put up a Garrison finish. 
 He -'s safe and careful, and a quick boy 
 away from the post, and he can have a leg 
 up on Fleet wood 
 
 At last the high-crested wave slipped 
 spinelessly down to dead level. Clem's 
 eyes had focused themselves squarely on 
 Mrs. Wines as she began to speak, and as 
 her voice died in her throat, she turned 
 
 D46 ]
 
 CLEM 
 
 slowly away from her hostess's proud, 
 pained face. Once again, and forever, it 
 seemed to her, she saw herself mirrored in 
 that woman's eyes; herself as she was, held 
 up against this background of a life into 
 which she had never before entered, and of 
 which she had never dreamed. 
 
 As she sat, her hand gripping fiercely 
 the thread-like stem of her wine-glass, 
 Lorimer leaned forward, speaking in 
 stantly, his words seemingly mere inter 
 ruption ; yet the girl's lip curled with pride 
 and anger as she listened : 
 
 "I saw Jimmy Hinch last June, Miss 
 Merrit. During the Saratoga meet he 
 landed two 2O-to-i shots, two io-to-1 
 shots, two 8-to-i shots, beside shorter- 
 priced horses. He 's one of the few good 
 colored boys in the saddle since the days of 
 J. Winkfield. Have you heard that the 
 Derwin stables have all but got him? I 
 understand, however, that he 's a free 
 lance, still." 
 
 The girl picked up her wine-glass and 
 drained it. She contrived to pull her scat- 
 
 E'47]
 
 CLEM 
 
 tered self together, and her voice sounded 
 almost natural as she replied. 
 
 "I know the major domo of the Derwin 
 stables. He 's crazy over Hinch. He 
 won't get him, either. I may not, but he 
 won't. You 're good to hand me what you 
 think is a straight tip, though." 
 
 Her eyes blazed hotly into Lorimer's, 
 and stirred him for a moment from his 
 wonted calm. There is something about 
 a roused woman which few men care to 
 provoke. He was keen enough to perceive 
 that she saw straight through his manifest 
 rescuing of the situation, and was far from 
 grateful for his trouble, and he was doubly 
 annoyed at her perception and at his trans 
 parency. He was not used to failing so 
 signally in finesse. 
 
 But at this moment, they all turned, by 
 common impulse, toward Reggie. 
 
 "Here 's to Fleetwood, topped by 
 Hinch !" the young host said. His words 
 came rapidly, tumbling over each other. 
 "Fleetwood 's worth even a Hinch. If he 
 keeps up his present form, and works out 
 
 CI483
 
 CLEM 
 
 the Derby time, he must go to the post, 
 and we '11 back him there !" 
 
 It was a boyish rally to a dust-trailed 
 flag, and in token of its bravery, the all- 
 concealing talk rose again with a gallant 
 surge. Lowe, who had been sitting silent 
 and half frowning, bent at last toward 
 Farda Grantham with a sunny smile. 
 
 "Brace up, Farda," he urged encourag 
 ingly. "After all, what do you care? Dell 
 bets, you know, bets viciously. And why 
 not, if she wants to. Or anybody wants 
 to!" 
 
 "That sort of thing, its endurability, de 
 pends altogether on breeding," said Miss 
 Grantham icily. "Our ever fruitful con 
 tention, Jack; blood versus ". 
 
 Mrs. Wines's face whitened even more, 
 as she caught the stray words of Farda's 
 unreasoning speech. She gave the rising 
 signal to the women; but Reggie was the 
 first of all on his feet, and his chair was 
 pushed back with a commendable decision. 
 
 "We shan't stay behind, to-night, moth 
 er," he said. He turned openly to Clem
 
 CLEM 
 
 Merrit, and walked with her down the 
 wide hall. At the door of the music-room 
 they held a short, sharp parley, in which 
 the girl won. 
 
 "Everybody 's turning in here. I don't 
 want to go out there to-night," she said 
 repeatedly, as he tried to induce her to 
 leave the house and its people behind them. 
 She cut the discussion short at last by sit 
 ting down within a window recess, and 
 the boy took up a defiant stand near her, 
 with his arms folded, and a heavy frown 
 darkening his brow. Every one was talk 
 ing again, eagerly, with a keen sense of 
 relief. The dinner hour had been rather 
 dreadful. At last there came a unanimous 
 call for Dell. 
 
 "Songs!" that small lady cried. She 
 jumped down from a window where she 
 had been perching, and ran over to the 
 piano, looking quite Mephistophelian in her 
 scarlet crepe. She stood beside the piano, 
 and played standing. She began to sing, 
 a gay, English music-hall mixture of coster 
 and coon. She cake-walked as she played,
 
 CLEM 
 
 after the fashion of many nations. The 
 entire bit of business was indescribably sug 
 gestive and utterly laughable, and for that, 
 as well as because of the dinner and its 
 nerve-racking incidents, every one roared 
 and called imperiously for repetition. 
 
 As Dell reached the last stanza for the 
 second time, Clem, sitting half hidden in 
 her curtained recess, with her blue eyes 
 burning coldly, saw Mrs. Wines enter and 
 stand, unnoticed, in the doorway. Clem 
 watched her with bitterly curious eyes. As 
 Dell cut a last delicious caper, and crashed 
 out one resounding final chord, Mrs. Wines 
 moved quickly across to her, and laid a 
 caressing hand upon her niece's arm, smil 
 ing the while into the sparkling face. 
 
 "Be our monkey to-night, Dell," she 
 said. "Wear the bells for a full hour, and 
 claim what reward you will." 
 
 Clem Merrit hurled herself upward to 
 her feet. Had she followed instinct, "she 
 must have screamed aloud, and torn at 
 something, be it flesh or stone. The call 
 to battle sounded in her ears. Its voice
 
 CLEM 
 
 impelled her. She had held herself under 
 rigid restraint for many days, and because 
 of that had suffered many things. She 
 was leaving the next day thank God! 
 but before she left this house of suffering 
 and humiliation she must cry aloud her 
 defense 
 
 She choked back a strangling gasp of 
 shame and resentment, and then she stepped 
 quickly, silently, through the long window 
 near her, out to the empty veranda. Once 
 there, beneath the cold, pale stars, she flung 
 herself in weak abandon against the chill 
 stone of one of its great pillars, her bare 
 shoulders writhing and twisting in her 
 torment of spirit. She felt like a leaf in 
 the grasp of her Fate. 
 
 But suddenly, with an inward horror, 
 she caught herself up. Some one was 
 coming toward her a man! If it were 
 Reggie now he must hear her out, must 
 know 
 
 But it was not Reggie it was Drake 
 Lorimer. 
 
 She faced him desperately, her body 
 
 152:1
 
 CLEM 
 
 drawn to its full height, her hands clasped 
 behind her, her bare shoulders still resting 
 against the cold stone pillar, her blue dress 
 turned to vivid silver where the high lights 
 fell. She rallied every force within her, 
 and with her first uttered word she gave 
 way without further attempt at resistance. 
 After all, even granted the strength to 
 play it out, where lay the use of such a 
 sorry game! This man knew it all, had 
 known it from the first. She had, at first, 
 all but taken him into her confidence fool, 
 fool! because she knew from Reggie how 
 great a part he bore in Reggie's life. He 
 knew it all ; had been the one to present her 
 to that pitiless mother ; knew why she had 
 been bidden here ; had watched and waited, 
 as Reggie's mother had watched and 
 waited; had taken it upon himself, time 
 and again, to spare her, to save her 
 humiliations her high spirit sickened; the 
 play had played itself badly out; and in 
 this moment even her great pride went 
 down. 
 
 As she fled past him with her brave 
 
 153:1
 
 CLEM 
 
 greeting strangling in her throat, Lorimer 
 looked after her; looked after her till the 
 last thread of shining blue was swallowed 
 up in the bend of the wide staircase. Then 
 he drew a long breath. 
 
 "I am beginning to wonder," he said to 
 himself slowly, "what sort we are, all of 
 us, held up against her ! At all events she 's 
 played a gallant Oh, it 's damnably 
 hard on her, curse it !" 
 
 And Lorimer, too, leaned up against the 
 pillar, and stared into the velvety black 
 ness of the night.
 
 X 
 
 IT was afternoon of the next day. Clem 
 Merrit was to leave, in company with 
 Lowe, on the six o'clock train. The others 
 were to go after dinner. She came down 
 to luncheon after a morning spent in her 
 room, a withdrawal which lost her any 
 farewell speech with Miss Grantham, who 
 was driven over to the Effinger place 
 shortly before noon by Lowe, who did not 
 return for luncheon. After that meal was 
 ended Clem went out to some side steps, 
 where Reggie was awaiting her, evidently 
 by appointment. The young man looked 
 worried and pale and altogether unhappy. 
 They went across the lawn together, and 
 disappeared in the shadow of the dolorous 
 pines. Two hours later she came back 
 alone, and went to her room, sending down 
 brief word that she wished to leave an hour 
 earlier, on the five o'clock train.
 
 CLEM 
 
 At four o'clock she came down-stairs, 
 dressed for her journey to town. She 
 glanced at the great clock; then her eyes 
 met those of her hostess, who for all of 
 the past hour had been pacing the length 
 of the hall. As the two women looked on 
 each other, Mrs. Wines came to a dead 
 stop at the foot of the staircase. As Clem 
 stood on the lower step, she addressed the 
 older woman coolly. 
 
 "If you '11 send an order around, Mrs. 
 Wines, for the station cart to be ready, I' 11 
 go right down to the station, as soon as 
 I 've had a little talk with you ; but I want 
 to see you first. Can we be alone, in here ?" 
 
 Mrs. Wines made as if to offer faint 
 protest of some sort, then she changed her 
 mind, and gave the necessary orders; and 
 then she led the way silently to the library, 
 toward which Clem had turned. When 
 the door closed behind them, the girl mo 
 tioned the older woman to a chair, and 
 then, disdaining one for herself, stood be 
 fore her, straight and tall and beautiful as 
 a young goddess.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "I wanted to see you before I left," she 
 began in a voice wonderfully controlled, 
 "because I want to tell you some things 
 I 've told your son already. I want to 
 tell you what he did n't want you to know 
 at first, that we were engaged when I came 
 here. He said he was too young, and still 
 in college, and that was straight enough, 
 but I know now he was afraid of how 
 you 'd take it. I give you my word of 
 honor I never thought of that of your 
 right to know till I came here; since then 
 I 've not thought of much else. It 's been 
 a hard week, the hardest I 've ever lived 
 through. In one sense it 's not your fault, 
 and then again, in another, it is. 
 
 "I 'd like to tell you the way I Ve been 
 brought up. I wonder if it would make 
 you understand, or if you 'd only turn away 
 the more. My father came from the East 
 here somewhere, but he had to cut the 
 place, and he went out West. My mother" 
 the girl moistened her dry lips "my 
 mother was an actress, and not a very good 
 one. My father really brought me up. 
 
 C'57]
 
 CLEM 
 
 Sometimes she 'd get crazy for the life 
 again, and she 'd go back to the stage, and 
 I 'd be left with him. She did n't care for 
 either of us, except when her shows got 
 stranded, and she needed some place to 
 come to. My father took me everywhere 
 with him. I 've been on the stage, too, 
 when I was a child, in children's parts, a 
 lot of them. When I was fifteen my 
 mother finally ran away. Since then 
 she died. I never saw her after she left 
 my father for good. Six years ago my 
 father struck it rich, and since then I 've 
 had everything I wanted my father 's 
 meant for me to have the best kind of a 
 time, and finally, with all the money, to 
 make a good match. I suppose he 'd rather 
 see me married to some good man than to 
 hit another gold-mine. And I 've met a lot 
 of men, but there 's been a small few of 
 them I 'd ever think of marrying. 
 
 "I told all this, and more, to your son 
 when he proposed to me everything. I 've 
 said no man should ever marry me with 
 out knowing the whole truth about some 
 things. He did n't mind; but I give you
 
 CLEM 
 
 my word of honor I never thought once of 
 how you 'd take it, or of his, or my, duty 
 to you. 
 
 "You see, I 've lived all my life with 
 men, from the time I was born. Bad men, 
 and mad men, with just one law among 
 them might; but it had a whole lot of 
 right after all after you measure the civ 
 ilized sort against them. I don't like women, 
 and they don't like me. I wish they did. I 
 never cared about it till this week, and then, 
 all of a sudden, I got to hating all those men 
 I 'd ever known the way they 'd crowded 
 round me. They 've always done it, but 
 somehow, it all at once did n't seem nice. 
 I 've looked at everything from a man's 
 standpoint all my life. It 's hard for me 
 to get a woman's view. That first eve 
 ning, when I met you, no woman had ever 
 laid her hand on mine in just that way be 
 fore and I honestly thought for a little 
 while that perhaps one woman really liked 
 me. 
 
 "It 's been a hard week, Mrs. Wines, for 
 it 's opened my eyes, and I 've seen what 
 I 've missed and what I '11 have to miss. 
 
 ['593
 
 CLEM 
 
 I know why you did it, and I want to tell 
 you you Ve succeeded. You 've shown me 
 the gulf. I 'm not going to throw myself 
 into it, but no more am I going to try to 
 step across. It 's been hard to stay it out. 
 It 's been full of hard knocks that first 
 night here, when I sang that song, and 
 saw your face and that was n't near as 
 hard a thing as last night, when another 
 woman stood up to the piano and sang a 
 song that went ahead of mine by some de 
 grees. I dare say that little girl is right. 
 When people know the right thing they 
 don't have to do it. Yes, it 's been a hard 
 week. But I don't blame you. If I 'd 
 such a son, and he was so near to ruining 
 his whole life, I 'd have been brave enough 
 to do the same thing. 
 
 "I want to tell you this, too I 've told 
 your son already. It 's my father 's had 
 the ambition, and all because he 's so proud 
 of me. As far as I 'm concerned I 
 would n't marry a crown prince unless I 
 cared for him, and I 'd tell no man my 
 whole story unless I 
 
 1603
 
 CLEM 
 
 "I saw your son this afternoon and had 
 it all out with him. He blames himself 
 terribly for feeling the difference as he 
 has you and me together and he 
 would n't believe me when I told him that 
 his manner toward me has been my one 
 comfort this week and it has. He 's 
 stood out against a good deal for you 
 mean a lot to him and so do I; but it 
 could n't be helped. He could n't help it, 
 and you could, n't, and I could n't. It 's 
 been hard for us all. You 've flicked me 
 on the raw, time and again, but it 's been 
 mostly involuntary; you did n't mean to. 
 
 "I had to throw him over myself. He 's 
 so mad with cut pride that he 'd marry me 
 to-night and he blames you some. He 
 says the test among your sort of people 
 was unfair to me. Well, it was ; but it was 
 fair to him, and to you; and I want you 
 and him to know that I don't blame either 
 one of you. He '11 see it straight in a little 
 while, and be glad you did what was hard 
 and right." 
 
 She stopped at last. Mrs. Wines raised 
 
 161]
 
 CLEM 
 
 her bent head and looked up at the girl. 
 She half rose, but Clem pressed her gently 
 back. 
 
 "Don't!" she said briefly. "I know 
 you 're sorry it all had to happen, but it 
 had to, and words don't help it. If you 
 want to do anything for me at all, you '11 
 sit still, and let me go away without a 
 word." 
 
 She picked up her hand-bag and turned 
 toward the door. Then she paused for a 
 brief moment, and came back. 
 
 "There 's one thing I 'd like to have you 
 say to your son," she added. "It 's not 
 the heart hurt that 's the worst in this for 
 either him or me. I 've never had much 
 of a chance myself, but I know a lady 
 when I see one, and I know a gentleman; 
 and I want you to tell him that he 's one, 
 clear through. That 's what 's cutting 
 him up more than losing me. I want you 
 to tell him that." 
 
 And then she went over to the door and 
 opened it, and closed it gently behind her. 
 
 [162]
 
 XI 
 
 WHEN Mrs. Wines had realized that 
 Clem Merrit was leaving on a train 
 other than the one arranged for, and that 
 Lowe might not be back to attend her, she 
 sent a message to Lorimer at the same time 
 that she sent orders for the station cart to 
 be in readiness ; and it was in obedience to 
 that request that Lorimer was standing, 
 waiting, beside the cart. He was only too 
 keenly aware of the progress of events; he 
 had known when Reggie and Clem disap 
 peared earlier in the afternoon; he had 
 seen her come back alone; he knew by the 
 wording of the servant's message that she 
 had been closeted with Mrs. Wines for 
 half an hour. He drew out his watch, and 
 discovered that her choice of trains left 
 her but little margin. He knew that she 
 had intended to leave on a later, fast train, 
 and he felt certain that this blind choice of 
 an accommodation horror augured Reg-
 
 CLEM 
 
 gie's ignorance of her intended departure 
 on it, augured at least that it was incum 
 bent on him, Lorimer, to see her fairly 
 started on her journey. 
 
 He looked up finally to see her standing 
 before him. She had come quickly from 
 the entrance door, alone. She walked to 
 ward him with her old, free walk; but 
 her eyes were black, and her face was 
 pallid. It was merely an accident that 
 no one of the other guests happened to 
 be near to bid her farewell. No one 
 knew, of course, that she was leaving 
 on the earlier, slower train, except Mrs. 
 Wines and he himself, and Reggie, possi 
 bly. Reginald the Rescued ! Yet Lorimer 
 felt a sudden wrath against them all, be 
 cause of the loneliness, the seeming un 
 friendliness of her departure. 
 
 She came unhesitatingly toward him, 
 and held out a steady hand. 
 
 "Good-by," she said. She looked 
 straight into his eyes, and as she looked at 
 him, a faint shadow of a smile caught her 
 lips and curled them. Lorimer winced in-
 
 CLEM 
 
 wardly; Lowe's almost forgotten words 
 flashed into his mind: "She might have 
 been the primeval Woman, walking un 
 trodden sands, pressing the springing 
 earth when the world was young!" Some 
 how, under the influence of that flickering 
 smile, which seemed to reveal a basic judg 
 ment, he felt ultra-civilized the world- 
 weary offspring of a superficial age he 
 felt veneered. 
 
 He held out his hand to assist her, but 
 she stepped lightly in without noticing it, 
 without touching it, save in that fleeting 
 conventionality of farewell. 
 
 "The station, Matthews," she said. 
 
 "The station, Matthews," Lorimer ut 
 tered, at precisely the same moment, and 
 sprang in beside her. She flung up her 
 head haughtily at the act, and stared at 
 him; then her lips curled again, not pur 
 posely, but involuntarily, and she looked 
 steadily away from him. 
 
 They drove in silence until they reached 
 the high-road, and then Lorimer spoke 
 again to the man. "Take it at good speed,
 
 CLEM 
 
 Matthews," he said. Then he turned to 
 the girl. 
 
 "The five o'clock train is all but due; 
 you would be fortunate to miss it. Some 
 one should have insisted on your waiting 
 for the six o'clock express. You reach 
 town practically as soon, and often sooner. 
 This earlier one is a horrible example of 
 the local accommodation." 
 
 "It does n't matter at all," said the girl 
 briefly. Once again she was facing him 
 steadily, her eyes full on him, with that 
 faint smile still hovering about her mouth. 
 As he uttered once again something con 
 ventional and, as he himself realized, ut 
 terly banal, she flung up her hand scorn 
 fully, in bitter protest. 
 
 "The scenery!" she echoed. The hot 
 anger in her eyes deepened, she paused a 
 second; then she turned away from him 
 once again, and stared straight ahead. 
 
 "You know all about this thing," she 
 began swiftly; "and since you 've taken it 
 on yourself, unasked and unneeded, to see 
 me to the station, fairly off the grounds
 
 CLEM 
 
 I 've poached on, we '11 not ignore it. I 've 
 just settled with Mrs. Wines back yonder, 
 and I 'm ready to settle once for all with 
 you. In the first place, whatever there was 
 between Reggie and me is ended. In the 
 second place, it stays ended, and that 's 
 all." 
 
 "I rejoice that you force speech between 
 us," Lorimer replied. "Because I hardly 
 see how I may have a peaceful hour again, 
 if I may not tell you that every one con 
 cerned in this business, save perhaps Reg 
 gie, owes you abject apology" 
 
 "Save only Reggie!" amended Clem 
 Merrit proudly. 
 
 "Save only Reggie!" repeated Lorimer. 
 "I myself have seemed to you responsible 
 for a good deal" 
 
 "You have made yourself responsible 
 for a good deal," said the girl flatly. 
 "That 's the reason I 'm talking to you 
 right now. A good many people got inter 
 ested in the thing, more than enough to 
 show me that I was a mistake. Between 
 you two, you and Mrs. Wines, you 've
 
 CLEM 
 
 cuddled and coddled Reggie till it 's a 
 wonder he 's what he is. She 's a woman ; 
 but you 're a man you ought to know 
 better. Well, the lid 's off now. He 's 
 cut the strings that tied him to you and his 
 mother, and I cut the strings that tied 
 him to me. He belongs to himself now, 
 and it 's high time." 
 
 "I am thoroughly convinced that an all 
 but unforgivable mistake was made," con 
 fessed Lorimer. "I 'm not talking about 
 Reggie now ; I 'm talking about you. You 
 make me feel Pharasaical when I think 
 of you!" 
 
 "Don't think of me!" she retorted in 
 stantly. "And don't be at all disturbed in 
 your even living if by any chance you do. 
 Because, honestly, I think I 've got a 
 clearer, cleaner conscience than any of you 
 people can have, except Reggie." 
 
 She hesitated a moment, and then she 
 turned full on Lorimer. "He 's dreadfully 
 cut up over this, just now," she said husk 
 ily. "He 's such a beautiful, straight- 
 souled boy. Help him out in it tell him
 
 CLEM 
 
 anything you like about me, that I 'm a 
 wretched flirt, that I 'm an adventuress 
 anything! It does n't matter what you 
 say about me, because you see, he thinks 
 it 's me losing me that he feels so 
 broken up over. It 's not that I know 
 near so much as the fear that he has n't 
 acted straight toward me. Once, when he 
 hesitated, after I 'd made him see the dif 
 ference he would n't own up to, and his lie 
 did n't come quick enough, I snatched at 
 that it was the only thing he 'd left me 
 to snatch at I could n't lie to him myself, 
 tell him I was an adventuress, and so he 's 
 crazy with fury at himself, thinking he 's 
 no gentleman, when he 's the finest, 
 straightest, cleanest I could n't lie about 
 myself to him that way, it seemed too 
 awful. I hope he '11 see it clear and 
 straight, and be sensible. You can lie to 
 him if it will do any good he '11 come out 
 all right. You 'd better get him away 
 from that woman, though his mother. 
 She 's good and high and angelic, but 
 she 's no sort of medicine for him now." 
 
 i:
 
 CLEM 
 
 "What sort do you take me for !" asked 
 Lorimer harshly. "How could I possibly 
 lie about you! After this talk, after all 
 you 've said, I can't trust myself to say a 
 word about you to him, for if I did 
 you 've made me feel as if we are, all of 
 us, snobs!" 
 
 Clem Merrit sat straight. "Well, do 
 you know," she remarked quietly, "I be 
 lieve in my soul that 's what you all are- 
 snobs ! It 's not a pretty word, and you 
 have everything to say for yourselves, 
 from your standpoint ; but from my stand 
 point, just now, you seem like a lot of 
 well-bred, unconscious snobs! Your lit 
 tle world, your little circle, your little lives 
 it 's all that matters to you! And when 
 any outside shock comes like me! you 
 draw up like sensitive plants, touch-me- 
 nots ! It 's been a hellish week, for I began 
 to get your idea the first night I came, and 
 you 've been one of the chief ones to make 
 me see it more and more, ever since with 
 your interruptions and explainings and 
 filling in pauses and all that granny busi- 
 [170]
 
 CLEM 
 
 ness. And after eight days of it, of what 
 that good woman back yonder put on me 
 deliberately and made me carry, I 'm leav 
 ing you, feeling that, if to be your sort I 'd 
 have to be exactly like you, self-compla 
 cent and pitiless to every one outside my 
 little one-two-three crowd, I 'm glad, glad, 
 glad, that I 'm Clem Merrit, what I am : a 
 woman who 's seen enough of life of all 
 sorts, to know for all eternity that no one 
 side of life can afford to sit back in a smug 
 little corner and say, 'I 'm It.' I 'm not 
 blaming her I 've told her that she did 
 it for her boy; and she made me see what 
 I 'd never dreamed before, that I, 'or any 
 woman like me, must n't ever come be 
 tween her and him. But you after all, 
 you don't really believe you are a snob, or 
 that you have a touch of it. You 're sim 
 ply uncomfortable because I 'm a woman 
 in an uncomfortable position where you've 
 helped put me, and it 's made you uncom 
 fortable because you 've seen me writhe 
 once or twice. This is naked talk it 
 does n't matter, because we shan't meet 
 
 ['70
 
 CLEM 
 
 again, ever. We 're just making that 
 train. Thank you. Good-by!" 
 
 In a strangely helpless silence Lorimer 
 stood, watching the dun local creep slowly 
 away. The coaches were dusty and grimy, 
 and the sight of them heaped reproaches 
 on him. No one, not even he, had insisted 
 on that later, more comfortable train. No 
 one had suggested, objected, when she 
 took the matter into her own hands, and * 
 chose the first train, regardless of its sort, 
 which would bear her away from the 
 scene of carnage after the battle was 
 ended. 
 
 He stepped back into the cart with ting 
 ling nerves. The echo of her voice still 
 lashed him. There was something in 
 tensely primitive and direct about the girl's 
 point of view, something which shamed 
 conventions, and made most of them seem 
 nothing but shams. The test had been 
 unfair. Shamefully unfair! They had 
 arrogantly set up their standard that she 
 might be measured thereby, and by it
 
 CLEM 
 
 stand or fall. And then, to-day, she had 
 planted firm her own measuring rod, and 
 had placed them against it, not as indi 
 viduals, by so much had she been kinder 
 than they, but as a circle, and had pro 
 nounced them wanting in things vital. 
 They were hardly snobs Lorimer winced 
 under her use of that word but the es 
 sence of snobbery lay in their manner of 
 judgment of this girl whose white face 
 had just slipped by him from a window 
 of the creeping train, this girl who, in the 
 midst of her shame, and from the rem 
 nants of her cut pride, found pride enough 
 to be glad she was not one of them. 
 
 By and by he remembered her plea for 
 Reggie. That must be attended to imme 
 diately the boy's going away. It should 
 be where he wished, with whomever he 
 wished. Home was not the place for him 
 just now; even his mother must realize 
 that. The whole affair had been a bitter 
 mistake. 
 
 As they turned into the drive leading to 
 
 C'733
 
 CLEM 
 
 the house, Lorimer, buried in unquiet 
 thought, started at the sound of a cry on 
 his left. He looked up quickly to see a 
 man, one of the under-servants, waving 
 his hat wildly, and pointing toward the 
 house, dimly visible through the trees. 
 
 "What does he say, Matthews?" Lori 
 mer asked quickly. 
 
 "That we 're wanted, sir, at the house, 
 as quick as may be," the man replied, and 
 touched up his horses to swifter pace. 
 
 After a bit Lorimer spoke again, an odd 
 premonition thrilling him. 
 
 "He was waiting for us, Matthews?" 
 
 "It looked that way, sir." 
 
 "He said nothing else?" 
 
 "Nothing else, sir." 
 
 Lorimer leaned forward, watching in 
 tently. He did not know what he feared, 
 nor for whom his fear gripped him so 
 heavily. As they dashed up the last hun 
 dred feet of the driveway, rounding the 
 last curve in a hail of pebbles, he saw Dell 
 Gresham standing, bare-headed, on the 
 steps, waiting for him. As he sprang 
 
 [1743
 
 CLEM 
 
 down and hurried to her, he thought invol 
 untarily of a day, six years before, when 
 all the long day through, her first and only 
 child lay dying, and her face wore then 
 this same pallid look of waiting helplessly 
 for some oncoming terror. 
 
 175:1
 
 XII 
 
 sank into one of the hot, plush- 
 v^ covered seats of the local accommoda 
 tion, and closed her eyes. They stung 
 fiercely, and in another second she opened 
 them wide, and bent forward impulsively, 
 to peer through the dusty window for one 
 last glimpse of the station cart, already 
 turning on its trip back to The Pines, to 
 the Greshams, to that still, cool, flower-like 
 girl, to Reggie- 
 Then it was that her color flamed hot. 
 Her brain was clear and keen, and of this 
 fleeting madness of hers she saw the ab 
 surdity as she had never seen it before; 
 saw it with ultimate vividness as her last 
 sight of Lorimer was lost Lorimer, set 
 tling back against the cushioned seat, light 
 ing the cigarette which was to prove no 
 panacea to his strained nerves. 
 
 Against him, too, her color flamed hot.
 
 CLEM 
 
 He had played a large part in her disillu 
 sionment of this past week, a part larger 
 than he knew ; and at the last he had proved 
 himself to be the bitterest disappointment of 
 them all. To Mrs. Wines she had been able 
 to do full justice, and Reggie, in spite of all 
 things, had proved himself to be what she 
 had always known him to be from the be 
 ginning of their brief friendship, a clean, 
 honorable, beautiful lover. That stormy 
 scene of theirs, far away from meddlers, 
 in the sweet-scented, dusky woods she 
 was no novice at handling men, and dur 
 ing the last four or five years, she had 
 worn, for a brief space at a time, more 
 than one engagement ring ; but because this 
 experience had been so vital to her and to 
 him, it had almost slipped her control. She 
 had said, and had said truly, that his deep 
 est grief was the knowledge that in some 
 dark way he did not understand he had 
 failed her; and she honored him more for 
 this deepest grief of his, than for his gen 
 uine madness over his losing of her. Her 
 life of the past few luxurious years had 
 
 [177:1
 
 CLEM 
 
 been spent almost altogether with the mon- 
 ied floating riff-raff of cities and resorts. 
 She had known many men, but she had been 
 thrown with few men who ever pretended 
 to idealize her. Of all her lovers Reggie 
 was the first to place her in a shrine; and 
 because of his worship of the soul which he 
 ascribed to her, and not entirely of the 
 beauty at whose effect on so many she had 
 too often sneered, her deepest instincts had 
 leaped to do him homage. 
 
 Yes, of them all, Reggie had not failed 
 her; and she loved him for it, tenderly, 
 gratefully, after a manner of which a 
 mother, even his mother, need not be re 
 sentful. Jack Lowe, indeed, had been her 
 staunch friend, that she knew ; but he, after 
 all, seemed slightly different from the 
 others in his view of things. Nonsensical 
 things did not matter to Jack, as they mat 
 tered to others 
 
 This man, Drake Lorimer she per 
 ceived now, as she looked on him for the 
 last time, that she had always been waiting 
 for him to do something, be something,
 
 CLEM 
 
 prove himself something, and in this end 
 ing to it all, he had failed, not her, but 
 himself. It was all vague and unwordable, 
 but somehow he had failed. 
 
 From the first he appealed to her, as a 
 perfect type of the gentleman born and 
 bred; from that first night that she had 
 seen him, in that gipsy tent of hers, in 
 which she, or her father for her, had vol 
 unteered to take Dell Gresham's place as 
 palm reader for charity. She did not take 
 books seriously as authentic excerpts from 
 life, and she did not accept as undiluted 
 realism Ouida's descriptions of the Eng 
 lish aristocracy. But it was only through 
 books that she knew his seeming type, and 
 it had somehow appealed to her from the 
 beginning as heroic. 
 
 She knew him before their meeting for 
 Reggie's best friend; she had been pre 
 pared to like him for Reggie's sake, and 
 had liked him instantly for his own. The 
 first evening at The Pines she felt herself 
 drawn to him with open liking. Looking 
 back, she saw now how he had, even then,
 
 CLEM 
 
 begun his shielding of her in many ways, 
 ways which she did not perceive then, be 
 cause of her frightful obtuseness, her sav 
 age ignorance. She had been at loss many 
 times ; she knew it, and admitted it frankly. 
 Hotel life she knew to the last detail of its 
 gilded fripperies. Such home life as this 
 was, she had never lived before, and there 
 was a difference. Yes, Lorimer had 
 shielded her from the first; of late his 
 deliberate care, though it grew no more 
 heavily shaded, had seemed more obtrusive 
 last night for instance, when he took up 
 the race-track patois so glibly! she 
 writhed in misery in the dusty seat. 
 
 And this afternoon surely there had 
 been a chance for him somewhere, during 
 that last half hour; and he had not risen to 
 it ; had seemed to be seeking honestly some 
 way, and had found it not ; had played the 
 conventional gentleman with all that finesse 
 of which he was past master, and had fallen 
 far, far short of the heights he might have 
 reached. She had abased herself before 
 Reggie's mother, but she reared her head
 
 CLEM 
 
 proudly before Reggie's friend, and both 
 attitudes were flawlessly sincere. She had 
 told Reggie's mother, humbly, that she 
 was not of their class, and she had told 
 Lorimer, with hot pride beating in her 
 voice, that, if to be one of them she must 
 sacrifice that breadth of outlook over life 
 which was hers, she would never make the 
 sacrifice. Reggie had that breadth of 
 view ignorance, these people called it 
 he was not spoiled yet. But by and by, and 
 very shortly too, he would begin to see, 
 or rather cease from seeing, as this man 
 Lorimer looked and saw not. 
 
 She pressed her hot cheek to the cooler 
 pane. She was still flushing, in spasms of 
 bitter shame. And her deepest shame 
 seemed to lie, not in her own great lack of 
 that environment into which this boy lover 
 of hers had been born, as in Drake Lori- 
 mer's lack of that great humanity whereby 
 he might have seen more clearly the wrong 
 which had been done her. She had voiced 
 it proudly to Mrs. Wines : "It was n't fair 
 to me, but it was fair to you and to him !"
 
 CLEM 
 
 Lorimer had felt dimly the unfairness to 
 her of this cruel test. If he had but seen it 
 more clearly, as Reggie saw it; if he had 
 but voiced it, as Reggie voiced it, this bit 
 ter pain could not have gripped her so 
 keenly. Somehow he had failed himself, 
 had proved himself incompetent, where he 
 should have been capable, had just missed 
 mastery of that bitter hour. 
 
 A memory of Lowe's half earnest, half 
 laughing advice drifted through her mind; 
 advice which he had thrown lightly at her 
 the morning after her arrival. "It would 
 be an injustice to everybody if you go now. 
 Stay on and learn these people a little bet 
 ter, and stay on to let them know you!" 
 
 A bitter smile twisted her lips. She 
 might have done every one an injustice by 
 going, but in staying she, herself, had suf 
 fered the sorriest injustice at her own 
 hands; she, herself, had digged the pit. 
 
 In this retrospection of hers she did not 
 spare herself in any way, and because of 
 her pitilessness to herself, she lost for a 
 moment the larger view which would have 
 
 [182]
 
 CLEM 
 
 shown her that she had left behind her 
 humiliation and distress, as great in the 
 aggregate, as the burden thereof which she 
 was bearing. She could not realize, how 
 ever, how fundamental had been her de 
 struction of convention and tradition and 
 the various undisturbed cobwebs of social 
 customs and thought. It was as if some 
 cosmic genie had brokenly suddenly in upon 
 a little anthropocentric group, and had 
 shown it precisely its rating in the progress 
 of this planet to ultimate extinction. But 
 this she could not know. 
 
 The trip to town was a continuous suc 
 cession of exasperating delays, and the 
 summer day slowly darkened into twilight. 
 Once, half way in, they were sidetracked 
 half an hour, that some special train might 
 have right of way. In any other state of 
 mind she would have chafed at the delays ; 
 now she did not notice them. She was 
 wondering where she should go for re 
 fuge, after she reached town. There was 
 always their hotel suite, hers and her fa 
 ther's ; if she were sure her father were out
 
 CLEM 
 
 of town, she would go there. But she 
 could not endure the thought of a possible 
 meeting to-night with any one she had 
 ever seen before. She thought of other 
 hotels. She thought vaguely of a last 
 alternative, a swift departure for any point 
 whose distance away made a night's jour 
 ney. She would call up their hotel in any 
 case; but if her father should be there, if 
 she were to be compelled to meet him, to 
 face his interested, eager queries about her 
 country visit she felt a fever which was 
 almost madness seize her. She must have 
 solitude at any price at any price. Her 
 world was in chaos, and its dust was chok 
 ing her. 
 
 When the train, delayed, belated, came 
 to a stop at last under the station shed, she 
 realized that she was weakened and worn 
 with her fierce gusts of shame and anger. 
 There was no porter near her, and she 
 slowly gathered up her belongings. Sta 
 tion after staticfn had added its quota to the 
 mass of people who were traveling city 
 ward to-night, and she waited until most
 
 CLEM 
 
 of her fellow travelers were out of the car 
 before she stepped upon its platform. Al 
 most the last one, she followed the sub 
 urbanites as they scattered along the floor 
 and through the gates. Her eyes were 
 black with weariness, and widened with 
 her mental daze. She went stolidly after 
 the crowd, looking neither to the right nor 
 to the left. Her natural shock, therefore, 
 was very great, when, feeling her arm laid 
 hold of gently, she turned and looked into 
 Lowe's face. 
 
 She stared at him almost stupidly. It 
 was he, definitely, whom she had planned 
 to avoid meeting, by taking that five o'clock 
 train. And here he stood, patiently wait 
 ing for her! She became aware then that 
 it was Lowe who had been leaning against 
 the gate directly ahead of her, busied with 
 scanning closely the faces of the train's 
 passengers. She had seen him without rec 
 ognizing him at all; his heavy head, with 
 its heavy features usually subtly lighted 
 by their own peculiar, jolly gleam of good 
 humor. But to-night there was no jollity, 
 
 [1853
 
 CLEM 
 
 no irradiating gleam. As she continued to 
 look into his eyes, her face paled sicken- 
 ingly, and a great fear gripped her. 
 
 "What is it?" she whispered, "tell me, 
 quick!" 
 
 "I came down on the six o'clock train, 
 to catch you here, if possible," said Lowe 
 swiftly. "I 've been waiting fifteen min 
 utes for you. You must come back, Clem, 
 on that train yonder. Reggie is badly 
 wounded. There must be an operation, 
 and the outcome is doubtful. He sent me 
 for you. It was a pistol shot; a bad ab 
 dominal wound. You will come, Clem 
 Clem, you must ! The doctors are here al 
 ready, and the nurses, on the train. We 
 must get back quickly."
 
 XIII 
 
 SHE could not have been persuaded be 
 fore that he could be so gentle, so con 
 siderate. She found his arm was strung 
 with steel as she, in her great shock, 
 swayed against him. He led her aside 
 from the straggling crowd, and into a re 
 tired corner of the waiting-room. There, 
 as if she were a child, he put her into a 
 seat, and then stood over her, his hand 
 placed firmly on her shoulders, that thick, 
 powerful hand with its thick short fingers, 
 which could grip his brushes so master 
 fully. 
 
 "That 's right," he said after a moment. 
 His voice held a note of courageous cheer. 
 "That 's right. Brace up, for the sake of 
 them all, back yonder, waiting for you, 
 Clem, as you were never waited for and 
 needed yet." 
 
 "Reggie shot!" she whispered, for sole
 
 CLEM 
 
 reply. "You 're not keeping things back 
 he 's not dead yet?" 
 
 "He was living ten minutes ago," Lowe 
 said gently. "I got them by telephone as 
 soon as my train got in. His one cry is for 
 you when he 's conscious." 
 
 "It 's very serious ?" The girl's voice * 
 was shaking. 
 
 "Poor youngster, yes. This is what we 
 know : Virginia heard the cry first, and ran 
 to his room. He seems to have been busy 
 with guns and pistols, cleaning them 
 there were several of his favorites scat 
 tered round he managed to say that he 
 was just starting on a hunting trip " 
 
 "Oh, my God!" she groaned. She closed 
 her eyes, and then opened them wide, star 
 ing dizzily into Lowe's steady, com 
 prehending ones. Before she could speak, 
 he gripped her shoulder harder. 
 
 "Don't call up horrors !" he commanded 
 sternly. "Listen: We got help from the 
 Goodwin's they have a young cub of a 
 doctor staying there this week he was 
 over and hard at work before I left. Reg-
 
 CLEM 
 
 gie was conscious when Vee found him, 
 and at intervals afterward, they told me 
 over the telephone. He says over and 
 over, that it was an accident pure and 
 simple, another case of not knowing the 
 bullet was there." 
 
 He paused again, too long, for the 
 silence suddenly wrecked Clem's nerves, 
 and she began to shiver violently, in the 
 warmth of the summer evening. Her face 
 dropped into her hands. 
 
 "Oh, that mother of his!" she sobbed 
 brokenly. "How she hates me how she 
 hates me hates me!" 
 
 For a moment Lowe stood helpless, look 
 ing down at her bent head. He was re 
 calling Reggie's desperate gaspings as he 
 lay on his bed, still conscious, giving his 
 imperious orders: 
 
 "Every man 's been the Gaderene swine 
 in this business, but she 's got to come back. 
 She 's got to come back. There 's a lot 
 she don't understand. Drake 's no good 
 she sees through him you 're the one, 
 Jack. Bring her back, to-night."
 
 CLEM 
 
 And Lowe had set out on his journey, 
 with an indignation which every moment 
 fanned to deeper flaming. The girl had 
 not met with fair play and would not; 
 there lay the pity of the thing. Before he 
 left he had been forced to listen to the 
 half-frenzied mother's protests against the 
 bringing back into her home of the girl 
 whom she firmly believed had sent her boy 
 to his death. He had left the house in 
 deed, in the face of those protests, and 
 under orders from the young physician, 
 who hushed the mother at last with his 
 hard mandate that no slightest chance for 
 recovery must be let slip. 
 
 He glanced at his watch. The girl 
 might have ten minutes more before the 
 express left, in which to get hold of 
 herself. She was still shivering convul 
 sively. His hand tightened again on her 
 shoulder. 
 
 "The boy is a dead game shot," he said 
 quietly. "And this wound is a hideous 
 abdominal affair. You and I can read from 
 that. If he had gone off his head so far,
 
 CLEM 
 
 he 'd have made better work of it, because 
 he would know how. The thing in itself 
 spells accident. I ought to tell you that his 
 mother reads it otherwise yet. But one 
 can excuse anything in her now he is all 
 she has. When you see her face, you will 
 be as merciful in your judgment as she is 
 merciless. I 've arranged for a compart 
 ment for you the surgeons and nurses 
 are going with us, but you don't have to 
 meet any of them unless you want to. Can 
 you come, now?" 
 
 She roused herself at last, and plied him 
 with eager questions as they crossed over 
 to their train. As they drew near she 
 caught sight of two gray-garbed nurses, 
 and of three professional-looking men 
 standing near the steps. As they looked 
 curiously at her, she dropped her veil 
 quickly, and she shook her head at a query 
 of Lowe's. 
 
 "No, no. I can't be decent to anybody 
 now* Let me hide here alone. When we 
 reach the station, come and get me I '11 
 be braced by then. No, no, I could n't 
 
 C'9'3
 
 CLEM 
 
 swallow anything-. I can get something- 
 there !" Her hesitation was marked. 
 
 He took her to her compartment, lowered 
 a light for her, closed one window, raised 
 another, and left a magazine lying on a 
 chair seat. "I '11 send you in a cup of clam 
 broth, anyway," he told her quietly. "Try 
 to drink it." Then the door closed behind 
 him. 
 
 She sank back into her seat, too dazed 
 and horrified for clear thought. Only one 
 definite concept had been in her mind since 
 Lowe had told his tale; Reggie's face, 
 white and desperate, as she had last looked 
 on it. And ringing in her ears were the 
 words which only she and the sheltering 
 trees had heard : "There 's nothing left in 
 life, Clem, if you deliberately jilt me this 
 way I 'm going to shake hands with the 
 devil and his friends !" They were his last 
 words, all but shouted back at her, as he 
 turned away at last, and strode across the 
 spongy carpet of pine-needles, thickly 
 matted. At the time she had thought 
 the words held merely pain and cut pride;
 
 CLEM 
 
 it might be that she could yet believe 
 that was all they held, but her doubts 
 were terrible. She tried to get the mem 
 ory of Lowe's recital out of her mind 
 it troubled her horribly but the fascina 
 tion of it was more powerful than her 
 shrinking from it, and she lived, one 
 by one, each separate scene which Lowe, 
 in reply to her pressing questions, had 
 briefly sketched. She seemed to see Vir 
 ginia rushing upon the boy as he crouched 
 in his chair, with the smoking revolver still 
 in his hand ; to see Dell and Gresham com 
 ing swiftly at her call ; to see the maddened 
 mother as she rushed up from the library, 
 the room which, in all probability, she had 
 not quitted since she, Clem Merrit, had 
 left the house. She shivered over the 
 hurried diagnosis which the young physi 
 cian had made: an abdominal wound with 
 the bullet's course an unknown quantity; 
 and then, with a swift revulsion of feel 
 ing, she recalled the two practical, gray- 
 garbed women, and the three cool, self- 
 contained surgeons who were her travel- 
 
 C'93]
 
 CLEM 
 
 ing companions, and she shuddered anew 
 at the thought of them, hewers and cutters 
 of men. 
 
 Time and again she tried bravely to rally 
 her courage, but the awful coincidence of 
 things, and the circumstantiality of the 
 tragedy, cowed her. That it should have 
 occurred this evening she could hardly 
 have left the house before the tragedy 
 befell ! She seemed to know perfectly well 
 what was being whispered and surmised in 
 that shadowed home toward which she was 
 speeding. Her consenting to go back into 
 it it was the least thing she could do, of 
 course, and yet the greatest thing ! To face 
 all of them again ; to endure all their curi 
 ous conjecturings : to stand beside that 
 stricken mother through all the critical 
 hours to come; to look on, perhaps, while 
 Death reached out relentless hands and 
 took the only treasure of that widowed 
 mother's life; to know that in such case 
 the mother would go down to her grave, 
 calling her, Clem Merrit, the slayer of her 
 boy
 
 CLEM 
 
 She heard Lowe's voice calling to her, a 
 great way off, and she struggled upward 
 through stratum after stratum of dimmed 
 consciousness, to find him shaking her anx 
 iously. She looked at him at last with 
 clearing vision, and then she leaned back 
 with a sigh, and pressed her hand hard 
 against her aching eyes. 
 
 "Don't go away from me again!" she 
 begged piteously. "I '11 be steadied in a 
 minute; but don't leave me alone any 
 more !" 
 
 "You 've been living through the hor 
 rors, poor girl !" Lowe said. "Here 's your 
 broth. I know it 's strong because I went 
 out to see about it myself, and here 's 
 some fairly decent sherry. Drink them 
 both Clem, you must." 
 
 While she sipped the wine, he stood be 
 side her, looking down at her with a puz 
 zled anger still burning in his eyes. He 
 wished greatly that Mrs. Wines might see 
 the girl now, sore beset and all but fainting. 
 He was very sure that Mrs. Wines would 
 not see her so of Clem's volition ; that, be-
 
 CLEM 
 
 fore that lady, Clem would rally her 
 great courage to play well the new hand 
 which had been dealt her. But he wished 
 that the girl might be seen by those un 
 friendly eyes as he saw her now, weak and 
 dependent and sunk in pathetic sorrow. 
 To one who had never seen her so, and 
 had never imagined her so, it was a reve 
 lation. 
 
 She handed him the wine-glass with a 
 weary shake of her head. 
 
 "You 're disgusted with me, Jack. So 
 am I with myself. Give me that clam 
 stuff. What a weakling I am!" 
 
 Lowe sat down opposite her, balancing 
 the flower-like wine-glass in his heavy 
 hand with a touch as light as a surgeon's. 
 A French dictum ran through his head 
 which he forebore to quote: "Caesar was 
 never so powerful as when he lay a 
 corpse!" He had seen Clem Merrit in 
 many a situation, and had found her inter 
 esting in them all, and mistress of them 
 all, until this lamentable thing v/as forced 
 upon her ; and now, broken as he had never
 
 CLEM 
 
 imagined her, she had never appealed to 
 him so strongly. 
 
 "I must have been faint for want of 
 food," Clem said at last, after she had 
 drained the cup. "No, nothing more, 
 please. But I did n't have much lunch 
 eon to-day, and this news coming on top of 
 everything Jack, it seems a thousand 
 years since I woke this morning!" 
 
 She leaned toward him, her elbow rest 
 ing on the chair arm, and her face sunk in 
 her palm. Her voice was growing steadier 
 under the influence of the stimulants Lowe 
 had urged upon her. 
 
 "You don't believe it was suicide, do 
 you ?" she asked him simply. 
 
 "Good God, no!" Lowe replied irritably. 
 "He 's too sane a brute. It 's all rot, every 
 one knows it. Listen to me : there 's not a 
 soul down there who really thinks that, but 
 his mother, and she 's half mad, poor soul ! 
 Of course, it 's hanging in the atmosphere, 
 because of her fixed belief and the whole 
 cursed set of circumstances. But she 's 
 alone in her delusion. The rest of us "
 
 CLEM 
 
 Clem looked at him with a faintly bitter 
 smile. "The rest of you!" she breathed. 
 "Oh, these surmisings and gossipings 
 they drive one mad !" 
 
 "Well, now," drawled Lowe soothingly, 
 "you must grant, out of your just heart, 
 that appearances have been provocative of 
 conjecture and surmise. But you could n't 
 ever marry that young cub, Clem." 
 
 "No," she assented. "I could n't ever 
 marry him." 
 
 There was something in her voice which 
 made Lowe bend toward her in the half- 
 dim light. He had been in no one's confi 
 dence, and yet he knew, as did all of them 
 at The Pines, the main outlines of the lit 
 tle comedy which had resolved itself into 
 such bitter tragedy. Until now he had 
 hardly been able to believe that the infatu 
 ation had been anything but one-sided. 
 All who loitered might read Reggie's 
 charming story, but, knowing Clem Mer- 
 rit as he knew her, he had not believed that 
 the affair had ever been as serious a thing 
 on either side as Mrs. Wines had made of 
 CI983
 
 CLEM 
 
 it. A swift sentence leaped to his lips, 
 born of his whispered speech with Reggie 
 two hours before it was said before he 
 knew it, and he pondered over that strange 
 prompting to garrulity for many hours in 
 the days succeeding. 
 
 "The boy is mad about you; he may 
 bring you face to face with the question of 
 immediate marriage forgive me! He 
 said as much." 
 
 "Before his mother?" 
 
 Lowe nodded, mute. 
 
 Clem turned her face away until he 
 could see only its pure, fine outline in the 
 shadow. 
 
 "Tell her when she speaks to you 
 about that and she will that I '11 let 
 him die, hers, before I '11 save him that 
 way." Her voice quivered with fine vibra 
 tions. 
 
 Lowe sat back, in silence, conscious that 
 he was treading on dangerously delicate 
 ground. He knew but little of the particu 
 lars of this story, but he knew that in it 
 the boy had played the minor part, that
 
 CLEM 
 
 the two women had all the lines and all 
 the business; and it bore all the earmarks 
 of a woman's handling, of that he was 
 quite cynically aware. 
 
 She turned to him at last, with her pal 
 lid face tremulous with feeling. "Don't 
 talk us over with any of them, Jack," she 
 said. "Let me feel that there 's one per 
 son in that house who is n't playing the 
 waiting cat. Since he 's said so much to 
 you I was engaged to Reggie Wines 
 three weeks ago. His mother asked me 
 down yonder, and I went ! And I broke the 
 engagement this afternoon, and I told her 
 so before I left. And now, in three hours' 
 time, I '11 be back there, facing her again, 
 across Reggie " 
 
 "The only gossiping I 've done of you 
 and Reggie has been done just now," said 
 Lowe with a slight smile. "And, since 
 you and I have disposed of the subject, I 
 can heartily assure you it will be the last. 
 I am the farthest remove possible from a 
 waiting cat. Let me rather, to your mind, 
 play the part of the faithful Fido, Clem, 
 
 [zoo]
 
 CLEM 
 
 and, in addition, your very sincere 
 friend!" 
 
 He glanced out of the window at the 
 dark, fleeing landscape, and reached down 
 for Clem's hand-bag. The girl's face 
 paled, and her heart began to beat with 
 slow, dull throbbings as the train slowed 
 down to let off this group at a station 
 where otherwise it would not have paused. 
 Before their car had ceased its grinding 
 tremors, Lowe hurried her down its steps, 
 after the nurses and surgeons, and then 
 bore her with a quick rush across the sta 
 tion platform toward the touring-car, 
 Reggie's favorite, which pulsed in waiting 
 for them. The fact that their traveling 
 companions were already there, waiting 
 for her, brought home to her more viv 
 idly than the great leaps forward of the 
 car, as it started on its journey for the 
 saving of life, the fact that moments did 
 mean life and death, and that it was really 
 Reggie who was lying all but mortally hurt 
 a brief three miles ahead of them. 
 
 There was no attempt at introduction,
 
 CLEM 
 
 and Clem sank back, with veiled face, an 
 object of furtive interest to the five stran 
 gers who glanced at her many times during 
 the three miles' run. The woman in any 
 case is always interesting, and they guessed 
 enough of the story to make them sure that 
 this beautiful girl was quite as necessary 
 as the nurses to the young man's recovery. 
 
 They came to a swinging stop at last be 
 fore the dusky house. Every night before, 
 the lights had blazed from every window. 
 To-night the lower part of the house was 
 only dimly lighted. Across the upper win 
 dows shadowy figures moved from time to 
 time, hurrying, and eager. A single, soli 
 tary figure awaited them at the entrance. 
 
 Clem was sitting nearest the steps when 
 the car stopped, and it was Lorimer who 
 helped her out. She shrank from him vis 
 ibly as he touched her. He still held her 
 hands as he turned to Lowe and spoke 
 rapidly : 
 
 "They have already arranged the bil 
 liard-room, under Housman's directions, 
 for the operating-room. Will you take
 
 CLEM 
 
 them up there, Jack ? Dell will see to any 
 thing you want. His mother has been 
 kept from him as much as possible, because 
 of her own condition." 
 
 He waited until the ominous group dis 
 appeared within the entrance door, and 
 then he turned back to Clem. She had 
 definitely drawn her hands away from 
 him; he still felt their coldness lingering, 
 like a chill, upon his own. 
 
 "I don't know how to tell you, and I 
 must tell you," he began incoherently, his 
 face somewhat drawn with the strain of 
 the day's events. "You will blame me for 
 ever if I don't. Mrs. Wines" 
 
 Clem moved away from him. With his 
 words, the very sound of his voice, her 
 poise came back, and her quivering nerves 
 grew still. 
 
 "Don't tell it," she said deliberately. 
 "Mr. Lowe has prepared me." 
 
 "On its face it is unpardonable," Lori- 
 mer stammered. "But if you could only 
 realize the frenzy of her grief and her de 
 spair she is hardly sane "
 
 CLEM 
 
 "I can make more excuses for her than 
 you can," Clem interrupted. "I 'm noth 
 ing-, now, but an inexperienced nurse, here 
 for no reason but because I Ve been sent 
 for." 
 
 "I have tried to make her see you to 
 make her spare you " Lorimer continued 
 with an impetuous defense, blundering as 
 he had never blundered in all his faultless 
 life before. He swore at himself, under 
 his breath, for his crassness. 
 
 Clem moved further yet away from 
 him, until she was leaning against a pil 
 lar, the same pillar against which she had 
 crouched not twenty-four hours before, 
 under the eyes of this self-same man. Her 
 blue eyes looked brightly on him. 
 
 "Don't try to spare me ever again," 
 she said distinctly. " I 'm not grateful. 
 No, thanks. I Ve not been sent for yet. 
 Until the doctors want me, there 's no rea 
 son why I should go inside." 
 
 Her eyes were blazing and her lip 
 curled again. Every instinct to haughty 
 pride was alive within her. Her veins 
 
 [2043
 
 CLEM 
 
 were running warm blood now, and with 
 every moment she seemed to grow more 
 dangerously alive. Lorimer looked on her 
 in vain search for the studied calm she had 
 manifested before, for that reasonable 
 good sense which had marked almost every 
 previous act and speech of hers. He was 
 still writhing under the calculated lashes 
 she had dealt him three hours back ; and he 
 writhed vicariously for his class when he 
 saw the contempt which leaped to her eyes 
 as she learned that her hostess refused to 
 yield to what savages would make courte 
 ous necessity. He appreciated keenly her 
 refusal to enter the house until she was 
 summoned for the one purpose for which 
 she had come. 
 
 He walked away a few steps, and then 
 he came quickly back to her. His face 
 was whiter, and his eyes were gleaming 
 with a rather dangerous light. 
 
 "We have passed through a trying or 
 deal, all of us," he said with a touch of bit 
 terness. "Grant me that much. All of 'it 
 has been a mistake, and of the mistake no
 
 CLEM 
 
 one is more keenly aware than the ones 
 who are to blame for it " 
 
 She laughed grimly. "You 're too gen 
 erous !" she said. "It was a woman's trick. 
 No man could have planned that sort of 
 thing, and carried it out to the end. I 
 never accused you of that." 
 
 "Then don't accuse me of trying to 
 spare you anything!" he retorted. "I 
 think that I must have put it very badly. 
 I was beseeching your pity for that boy's 
 mother. Spare her, of your mercy!" 
 
 Clem's head went up swiftly, but in that 
 moment Lowe came quickly through the 
 doors, and up to her. 
 
 "He wants to see you, Clem," he said. 
 "The surgeons will be ready in ten min 
 utes, and that time is to be his and yours. 
 Drake, keep his mother away by any 
 means. Dell says she 's unnerved, and the 
 boy could think of nothing but death if she 
 came to him now, on the eve of the opera 
 tion. Tell her he 's unconscious. Tell her 
 anything you think of. Now, Clem !" 
 
 Clem unpinned her hat, and cast it and
 
 CLEM 
 
 her summer coat on a chair beside her. In 
 her simple linen dress, she looked as if she 
 might have just returned from a twilight 
 stroll. With her head wonderfully poised, 
 she followed Lowe's heavy figure and cat 
 like tread up the shadowy stairs. And 
 after them Lorimer followed, doggedly. 
 He watched with somber eyes Clem's dull 
 blue skirts trail softly through the upper 
 hall as she walked with Lowe toward the 
 door of Reggie's room. Before that 
 closed door she paused a moment, and laid 
 her hand heavily on Lowe's arm. He bent 
 toward her, whispering a few words of 
 cheer, and she nodded silently. Then the 
 boy's door opened, and Dell came out. 
 She uttered a smothered little cry, and 
 caught Clem in a close embrace; then she 
 pushed the girl gently into the room, and 
 shut the door upon her.
 
 XIV 
 
 went swiftly across the room, 
 toward the wide-eyed boy lying on his 
 bed, waiting for her. As she saw the 
 white face, her heart gave one slow, pain 
 ful throb, and Reggie, watching her hun 
 grily, caught sight of the pain reflected in 
 her eyes, and knew the cause thereof. 
 
 "It does n't hurt so beastly bad !" he 
 whispered reassuringly, as he put up one 
 strengthless hand to her face, and tried to 
 draw it down to his. "It 's no fun; but 
 they Ve given me some stuff that 's going 
 to my head already I did n't want that, 
 not till after you 'd come, but they fired it 
 into me, because I 'm down. Clem, it was 
 all my fault I 've been a fool" 
 
 She raised her head from where it lay 
 against his cheek, and her arms tightened 
 about him in a spasm of fear. Her doubts 
 [208]
 
 CLEM 
 
 all but found utterance. But she caught 
 the moan back heroically. 
 
 "What about, dear ?" she whispered, her 
 lips white with dread. 
 
 "You this everything! Clem, you 
 did n't mean it what you said out yonder, 
 under the pines, a thousand years ago 
 Ever since they dragged me here and laid 
 me down, I 've known you could n't have 
 meant it. I was crazy, furious, maddened 
 up to the time the shot went home 
 then, somehow, things cleared I saw then 
 you could n't have meant it it was so 
 beautiful it had to last but you laughed 
 once, under that ghastly tree, a thousand 
 years ago and the sound of your laugh 
 filled me with madness you did n't mean 
 it?" 
 
 "No, no !" Clem whispered. "I did n't 
 mean it ! Not that way, Reggie." 
 
 "So I came back here just in time to 
 see you going away and I came up here, 
 and got out my guns and things to make 
 my choice I was a fool, Clem I ought 
 to have faced you down and out if I ever
 
 CLEM 
 
 get up from this, I know I can. Or if I 'd 
 ever been in love with a girl before 
 you 're such a crazy lot, all of you! but I 
 picked up that automatic pistol there was 
 a trick about the trigger I did n't under 
 stand, and when the thing blew up, it 
 landed in a bad place, darling." 
 
 "Reggie, Reggie!" the girl whispered. 
 She raised her head and looked into his 
 eyes. He had sunk back, deep into his pil 
 lows, his face contracted with a slight 
 spasm of pain. 
 
 "Reggie !" she murmured again, desper 
 ately. "You did n't ' then she drew 
 back, still staring into the boy's fast dim 
 ming eyes ; whether she was wise or ex 
 ceeding unwise she did not know. "Do 
 you know what all of them out yonder 
 think, Reggie that you did it on pur 
 pose 
 
 The boy frowned. "No, they don't," he 
 said shortly. "When I found I was n't 
 dead, I told 'em over and over that it was 
 an accident. They can't think anything 
 else I told Jack to tell you that. But I 
 [210]
 
 CLEM 
 
 wanted to see you alone, to tell you the 
 truth what a damn fool I 've been, dar 
 ling, and to make you marry me now, 
 Clem. They 're going to operate, they say 
 is it very serious?" 
 
 His voice was thick now, and his mut 
 tered words were hardly coherent. "Is it 
 very serious?" he repeated. Again her 
 arms tightened about him. 
 
 "It must n't be, dear," she murmured. 
 "You 're so big and strong and well " 
 
 He interrupted fretfully. "I wish I 
 could stand things without ether. I hate 
 dope. I like to know what 's happening 
 Anyway I want more time, and a clear 
 head, since we 've got things straightened 
 out between us before they dump me in 
 yonder, and begin to work that 's just 
 why I did n't want 'em to give me that first 
 dose-" 
 
 His voice trailed off into incoherency. 
 Clem glanced up from her agonized gaz 
 ing, as a bright shaft of light fell across 
 the foot of the bed through an open door. 
 The white-clad figure of one of the sur-
 
 CLEM 
 
 geons stood in the doorway, and through it 
 one of the nurses, white-clad too, came 
 quickly, bearing the merciful ether cone. 
 Clem bent over the boy and kissed him pas 
 sionately. 
 
 "Shut your eyes, dear," she whispered 
 unsteadily, "for a quiet nap, and when you 
 wake up, everything is going to be all 
 right." 
 
 DURING the hour through which the op 
 eration endured, Clem waited in the upper 
 hall, with Lowe and Lorimer and Gresham. 
 Dell and Virginia were with the mother, 
 whose convulsive moans pierced the tense 
 stillness of the house at irregular and 
 nerve-racking intervals. 
 
 Through it all Clem sat silent, hardly 
 moving, save to shield her face at times 
 with her hand. Those were invariably the 
 moments when Lowe, watching her unob 
 trusively, came over to her, rescuing her 
 from herself with some message from the 
 operating-room, or some word of cheer. 
 Most of the time, however, she sat with her
 
 CLEM 
 
 head thrown back against her chair, sick 
 and faint with suspense. Once, when her 
 eyes had been closed for a space of time 
 whose measuring she did not know, she 
 was roused by a touch on her arm, and 
 looked up dizzily to find Lorimer standing 
 over her with a glass of wine in his hand. 
 She took it gratefully, for she was all but 
 swooning, as she very well knew, but she 
 found no word of thanks for his thought 
 of her. After that she did not dare close 
 her eyes for fear of slipping into uncon 
 sciousness this hour of inaction and im 
 aginings was sapping her strength. She 
 kept her hold of consciousness by watch 
 ing, with wide, bright eyes, Lorimer's rest 
 less tramping up and down the length of 
 the hall, whose monotony he broke with 
 many purposeless exits on to the broad, 
 second-story veranda which lay along the 
 eastern side of the house ; by keeping con 
 scientious record of Lowe's rapidly smoked 
 cigarettes; by making careful note of 
 Gresham's ungraceful contortions. The 
 faint, sickish odor of anesthetics, and the
 
 CLEM 
 
 pungent smell of antiseptics crept into the 
 hall, and stirred her vivid brain to keener, 
 more unendurable imaginings. 
 
 But the long hours dragged themselves 
 out at last, and Clem was called again to 
 Reggie's room. She went, feeling like a 
 guilty thing. If only he would ask for his 
 mother, for Dell, Virginia, for any other 
 woman in the house! Yet, when she en 
 tered the room, and saw his white face, and 
 heard his murmured call for her, she lost 
 sight of everything but him and his wel 
 fare. Reggie's recovery and he had his 
 chance, even though the chances against 
 him were great was all that mattered to 
 her from that moment. Every shred of 
 self-consciousness fell away from her in 
 that moment, and she felt herself revivified 
 with a rush of self-confidence which was 
 old and yet new. Reggie had need of her 
 in his sore stress. Whatever circumstances 
 had led to this state of affairs, she had her 
 vital place in this circle of people at last. 
 And as she realized, instantaneously with 
 the boy's muttered call for her, how in-
 
 CLEM 
 
 dispensable she was, all thought of the 
 others fell away, and she gave herself, 
 with a wonderfully vital concentration, to 
 one solemn purpose the saving of this 
 boy's life. Nothing else mattered; and 
 when she bent over him, in all her glorious 
 strength of mind and body, she seemed, 
 even to the weary little group of surgeons 
 and nurses, nothing less than a giver of 
 life.
 
 XV 
 
 A ND she seemed nothing less than that to 
 -jk- Lorimer, when they met, face to face, 
 early the next morning, in the shadowy up 
 per hall. She had just closed Reggie's 
 door behind her as Lorimer came down 
 from the floor above. 
 
 "How is he, after the night?" he asked. 
 
 "Asleep now. He 's been restless, up to 
 dawn. The doctors don't say much." 
 
 She stood before him, in her white linen 
 dress, superbly strong, superbly alive. The 
 very sight of her this morning made his 
 blood pulse faster. From her night of 
 watching there lingered a slight pallor 
 which only heightened the new charm 
 which enveloped her. 
 
 Her brows met in a slight frown, under 
 his intense gaze, and Lorimer, catching 
 himself up instantly, broke the too oppres 
 sive silence.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "There is nothing at all I can do for 
 you ? Could you be spared now for a short 
 drive or ride? It is n't possible that you 
 have been up all night !" 
 
 "I 've just had a few hours of rest," she 
 said, with a slow shake of her head. "I 'm 
 even going to have my breakfast, sent up 
 here. They want me within call all the time 
 to-day. Whenever Reggie rouses, he wants 
 me, you see," she added simply. 
 
 She moved away from him, had turned 
 quite aside in fact, but she came back, and 
 addressed him brusquely: 
 
 "Look here! You can tell Mrs. Wines 
 better than anybody; she '11 stand it from 
 you. Twice last night she stood at this 
 door, staring into the room, with those 
 wild, fierce eyes it gave me the shivers. 
 Of course Reggie's pretty bad, and she 
 may blame me a lot ; but you tell her this : 
 what I said to her yesterday afternoon, 
 stands! I 'd not marry him not to save 
 his life because she 'd rather see him 
 dead she would n't thank me. I Ve got 
 to be in there with him it 's doctors' or-
 
 CLEM 
 
 ders God knows I wish she could be there 
 instead. But he wants me, and only me, 
 and so he shall have me, all my days and 
 nights, till I can give him back to her 
 well ! I 'm no Indian-giver. All this " 
 she swept her hands out in a wonderful 
 gesture "has been like a scratch across a 
 picture. I 've told him all sorts of things, 
 all last night; but none of it stands except 
 what I told her. You tell her that. Tell 
 her not to get scared. I don't want a thing 
 she 's set her heart on." 
 
 Her voice was perfectly level, and a per 
 son with an untrained ear would have said 
 it was emotionless. Lorimer knew voices 
 better, and knew her better, and he put out 
 his hand toward hers on an impulse of an 
 admiration unbounded. 
 
 "You are wonderful, wonderful!" he 
 said. 
 
 At her quick start he let her hand fall. 
 A faint, fretful cry drifted to them 
 through the closed door. It was Reggie, 
 calling her name. 
 
 For a moment he stood in the doorway,
 
 CLEM 
 
 watching her as she went quickly across 
 the room and bent over the boy, who was 
 still murmuring her name with impatient 
 tenderness. He saw her drop lightly to the 
 floor and slip her arm under the tossing 
 brown head. He saw her lips brush his 
 cheek lightly, and her own cheek laid 
 against the boy's. And then he closed the 
 door decisively, and went across the broad 
 corridor to the long doors which opened on 
 that upper veranda where he sat through 
 most of the night before. It was very 
 early, hardly six o'clock, and the weary 
 household was still sleeping. 
 
 He sat down in the chair which he had 
 occupied for so great a part of the night be 
 fore, with a keen memory of those leaden- 
 winged hours. Here he and Gresham and 
 Lowe had sat, ready for anything, but so 
 patently useless. To them Dell had flitted 
 from time to time, with bits of news, or 
 messages. Reggie was recovering well 
 from the anesthetic; Mrs. Wines was un 
 der the influence of an opiate; Virginia 
 had yielded to entreaty, and had gone to
 
 CLEM 
 
 her room; Clem was still needed; every 
 time she stirred to go away the boy roused 
 and asked for her. And to them all, to 
 Dell sitting curled up beside Gresham in a 
 huge chair, and to Lowe and himself, had 
 come, just before the dawn, Clem Merrit, 
 with her hair and dress in disarray and her 
 face white and weary. 
 
 "I came to tell you all that I am sent 
 away for the rest of the night," she had 
 said directly, "because I 'm not needed 
 any more for a while ; and that everything 
 is as hopeful as it can possibly be now. If 
 Mrs. Wines is awake oh, I 'm glad. 
 But if she had been waiting for word she 
 ought to have even this little bit of good 
 news." 
 
 And then Dell had whirled herself to her 
 feet, and with characteristic rapidity had 
 taken charge of the girl. And here he sat 
 again, after four brief hours of rest, reliv 
 ing it all. 
 
 For Drake Lorimer, since Clem Mer- 
 rit's parting words to him the day before, 
 had not had any consecutive moments in 
 
 [220]
 
 CLEM 
 
 which to consider all they held for him, 
 and all that they might mean to him. He 
 had been writhing- under them for a thou 
 sand years, it seemed to him, so swiftly 
 had event followed on event in these last 
 twelve hours. One sentence of hers had 
 rung in his ears, ever since she had uttered 
 it : "No one side of life can afford to sit 
 back in a smug little corner and say, 'I 'm 
 It!'" 
 
 She had accused them all of being snobs. 
 As she had granted, it was not a pretty 
 word. But she had uttered it firmly, 
 though not until he himself had put it into 
 speech. And after uttering it, she had 
 explained it, definitely; and Lorimer re 
 sented, with an appreciation both of its 
 justness and un justness, her classification 
 of him. 
 
 But he resented far more deeply his clas 
 sification of her. He had taken her at a 
 merely surface value, and even in that sur 
 face valuation of her he had been unfair. 
 He had labeled her nouveau riche, with 
 all that it implies of vulgarity and lack of
 
 CLEM 
 
 breeding. And yesterday, in her departure 
 from the place where she had been put to 
 the torture, she had shown a justness of 
 judgment which had shamed him utterly. 
 She had refused to blame the mother for 
 the cruel trick practised on her, because she 
 remembered, resolutely, that mother's son. 
 She had granted them all their point of 
 view, and in her sane, personal judgment 
 of them, had taken that view-point into 
 consideration. By so much had she shown 
 a fineness which they, in their judgment of 
 her and her motives, had lacked. And if 
 she had shown them justice when she left 
 them, she had shown them the uttermost 
 mercy in the manner of her return. He 
 could never forget that moment when 
 she refused to enter the house until 
 she had her orders from those in 
 authority, the boy's physicians. She 
 had refused even then to blame Mrs. 
 Wines; had ignored all her frenzies of 
 grief; but she had retained her own 
 standards. 
 
 And all this meant that she had reached
 
 CLEM 
 
 to heights where they had not ascended; 
 and that they had sunk to depths on whose 
 brink she stood aloof. 
 
 For one undisturbed hour he gripped 
 with searching self -questioning. He had 
 felt assured for many years that he had 
 a philosopher's natural view of life and 
 men and women. Not for all of ten years, 
 until this last month, has he met any one, 
 man or woman, who had unsettled his cool, 
 tempered judgment, whose personality had 
 not lent itself to general rules and classifi 
 cations. But this girl had been a disquiet 
 ing force in his life, ever since he had seen 
 her. She had uprooted, ruthlessly, his 
 philosophy, had shaken his conventions, 
 his beliefs, most of what he had termed 
 his knowledge of men and women and life. 
 And he knew that he could compass no 
 peace of mind or spirit until in some way 
 he had made atonement for his crass judg 
 ment of her. 
 
 He looked up to see Mrs. Wines coming 
 toward him, her hands held out in piteous 
 appeal.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Will the doctors say anything to you?" 
 she asked him. "I went into his room last 
 night twice! And this morning I have 
 just come from him, from the door where 
 they let me stand, out of his sight, but in 
 hearing of his voice that is calling always 
 for 'Clem !' 'Clem !' 'Clem !' They tried to 
 make me stay in my room, within sound of 
 that unending cry of his " 
 
 Of them all, life was hardest, that day, 
 for Frances Wines, and Lorimer realized 
 it. He understood that she, too, had looked 
 upon the picture he had seen ; had watched 
 Clem Merrit on her knees beside the bed, 
 with her strong young arms about the boy, 
 with her cheek laid against his, soothing 
 him, necessary to him, as she, his mother, 
 was not. 
 
 Lorimer went to meet her, and put her 
 into a low, comfortable chair. "You won't 
 forget that the slightest touch of fever al 
 ways sets Reggie off," he reminded her. 
 "He has raved through all his illnesses. 
 We have everything to help us, the sur 
 geons we most desired, and nurses, and
 
 CLEM 
 
 Clem Merrit. And from her lips, given to 
 me an hour ago, I have a message for you 
 I want you to listen to it now." 
 
 He said it over slowly, almost word for 
 word: "he shall have me, all my days 
 and nights, until I give him back to her 
 well !" "I 'm no Indian-giver" "it 's 
 like a scratch across a picture " All her 
 phrasings and intonations came back to 
 him as he repeated her words to Frances 
 Wines. 
 
 She listened in silence, her mind dis 
 traught with her grief. Only one thought 
 filled her brain ; the conviction that her son 
 was lying, all but self-slain, because of this 
 girl. Lorimer knew her thought, and his 
 face grew sterner. 
 
 "I have kept the morbid promise you 
 demanded," he said. "I have not sug 
 gested the idea of suicide to the surgeons. 
 But neither have they suggested it to me. 
 I will swear that it is nothing but an un 
 fortunate accident. But however that may 
 be-" 
 
 He came closer to her, and spoke with
 
 CLEM 
 
 added emphasis : "It is worse than barbar 
 ous for her to continue with us under pres 
 ent conditions. She will stay oh, yes! 
 But each moment that she stays so only 
 serves to raise her, and to lower us, infi 
 nitely. She did us an infinite favor in 
 coming back she could do no less, you 
 say. Most certainly she could do no more, 
 after the manner of her leaving. And 
 every moment that she stays here, a pariah 
 in your eyes, we are proving ourselves less 
 and less her peers. And I, for one, writhe 
 under it." 
 
 Lorimer was speaking with such earnest 
 ness that he did not notice Dell's approach. 
 As he finished, she spoke quickly. 
 
 "And I, too, dear Aunt Frances. I am 
 Clem Merrit's very good friend. We 
 sealed terms and conditions last night, and 
 I spoke to her very frankly of this 
 wretched business. We must play up to her. 
 She is no more the same girl who swept 
 into your dining-room that first night she 
 came here, in her pale-gold dress and all 
 her crudities, than we are the same people
 
 CLEM 
 
 we were before we met her. Something 
 volcanic has happened to all of us. Every 
 man here is her friend ah!" 
 
 She broke off with a cry of disgust at 
 her own stupidity, as she saw the look 
 which crossed Mrs. Wines's face. 
 
 "Oh, every man, my dear Dell!" she 
 murmured. Then she broke into rapid 
 speech. "It is n't that I don't concede the 
 girl her good points she has them but' 
 she alone is to blame for this awful thing. 
 It is good of her to come back yes ! but 
 she could do no less. And being back oh, 
 my boy, my boy !" 
 
 Dell looked upon the white face help 
 lessly. With a dimness of insight with 
 which she did not have often to struggle, 
 she wondered if this was, after all, mother 
 hood; this blind intensity, this bending of 
 all things else to the ultimate good of the 
 best beloved. Dell's own child had died 
 in its infancy, six years before, and she 
 had never had another. She was hardly 
 made for motherhood, for many of its 
 potent instincts were lacking in her, but a 
 
 [227]
 
 CLEM 
 
 stifled longing after her brief maternality 
 stirred painfully within her at times. It 
 stirred now; it made her pitiful toward 
 the great resentment which lay in this 
 mother's eyes ; but her heart throbbed too, 
 for the victim of this mother's devotion to 
 her son; and, finally, because there was 
 nothing left for her or Lorimer to do or 
 say, they went away together. 
 
 All day long Mrs. Wines wrestled with 
 herself ; she held Clem Merrit's message in 
 her hands, and she looked upon it steadily, 
 from every standpoint. " I 'd not marry 
 him to save his life because she 'd rather 
 see him dead she would n't thank me!" 
 It sounded brutal. But it did not sound 
 more brutal than it was. 
 
 And when the day dragged into evening ; 
 when the boy's fever mounted higher, and 
 Lorimer, with troubled face, held her back 
 from Reggie's doorway, asking her to 
 wait, because the delirium was violent and 
 she could do nothing, she seemed to know 
 by instinct what he was saving her from 
 hearing. A few words floated out to her,
 
 CLEM 
 
 enough to confirm her instant, intuitive 
 knowledge; her boy was raving against 
 her, against her injustice, her cruelty. "He 
 blames you some," Clem Merrit had 
 dared to tell her. Yes, he blamed her. 
 
 It took her solemn watch that night, 
 from midnight to dawn, to break utterly 
 the stiff-necked, bitter anger which had 
 held her for so many hours; that solemn 
 watch which she kept, alone, upon the 
 room where her boy lay, with his nurses 
 and with Clem. From the darkened hall, 
 where she sat unseen, she looked stead 
 fastly upon the girl's face, as it bent 
 above the boy's.* It was sleep that he 
 needed, and that he would not take unless 
 Clem's arm lay beneath his head. So often, 
 at first, the girl seemed to think he was 
 sleeping soundly, only to see him rouse into 
 irritable consciousness at the first motion of 
 her withdrawing arm ; and at last, for two 
 long hours before the dawn, Clem knelt be 
 side him, motionless, racked with a weary 
 pain to which she would not succumb. 
 
 It was just dawn when the nurses lifted
 
 CLEM 
 
 her to her feet, from the spot where she had 
 knelt for two hours. One of the first bad 
 breaks in the boy's case was spanned, and 
 in the reaction her strength slipped momen 
 tarily away. She could not walk at first, 
 and her very life seemed ebbing out of her 
 when she finally stepped into the hall with 
 one of the nurses, bound for, what seemed 
 to her an impossible goal, her own room, 
 across the corridor. 
 
 She seemed to be walking in a painful 
 dream; it was a dream that Reggie's 
 mother came up to her, touched her, spoke 
 to her; spoke to the nurse in a frightened 
 voice about her. The dre*am still enveloped 
 her as she lay upon her bed, her cramped 
 muscles helpless to aid her, and felt Mrs. 
 Wines's hands no less tender, and almost 
 as skilful as the nurse's, loosen her clothes 
 and make her comfortable. It was a dream 
 of dreams when she felt Mrs. Wines push 
 away the sleeve from' the weary arm where 
 Reggie's head had rested for so long, and 
 begin to rub back into life the numbed 
 muscles. Clem flung up her other arm
 
 CLEM 
 
 over her face, and hid it so, for many min 
 utes. It was all a dream she had no de 
 sire to wake. She heard the nurse say 
 something in a low voice; heard Mrs. 
 Wines's assent ; heard the sound of a closing 
 door. The nurse had left them. And still 
 those cool, magnetic hands caressed her 
 
 She thrilled into life at last, when she 
 felt hot tears falling on her arm, and she 
 turned her head and stared into Mrs. 
 Wines's face. As their eyes met Clem put 
 up a protesting hand, but Mrs. Wines laid 
 her own upon it. 
 
 "You stopped me two days ago," she 
 murmured, " in what I would have said 
 to you. It is all something almost too bit 
 ter for words; and yet you were brave 
 enough to speak, and to speak most justly 
 and gently to me ; and everything you said 
 was quite true, and took more courage in 
 the saying than I had or have. Drake 
 gave me your message this morning I am 
 bitterly ashamed I seemed so in need of it 
 I have blamed you bitterly for too many 
 things and if he lives "
 
 CLEM 
 
 Her voice broke utterly. 
 
 Clem turned her face until it lay against 
 Mrs. Wines's. "If he lives," she whispered, 
 "he '11 be yours. Can't you see the thing be 
 tween us is dead, dead ! It can't be helped ; 
 it 's over and done with forever." 
 
 She felt Mrs. Wines's fleeting kiss on 
 her forehead, and she caught the older 
 woman's hand, and held it fast. 
 
 "I could n't bear to have you say this 
 sort of thing to me, ever again,"' she whis 
 pered; "but I '11 never forget your coming 
 here to-night never !" 
 
 And then she sank into a dead, dreamless 
 sleep.
 
 XVI 
 
 ALL through the anxious week that fol- 
 *~* lowed, Mrs. Wines never lost her won 
 der at Clem Merrit's resolute matter-of- 
 factness; at her cool acceptance of sick 
 room conditions. It seemed ever new and 
 strange to her that Clem should bend so in 
 stantly over Reggie when he called her; 
 should kiss his lips and forehead; should 
 press her cool cheek to his; all with no 
 more self -consciousness than when she 
 gave him the medicine or food which he 
 would take from no one else. And mean 
 time he passed from crisis to crisis, until 
 there came at last a night when the gods of 
 life and death fought visibly above his 
 bed for possession of him, in full panoply 
 of war, before the pale, wan mother, and 
 the determined girl who refused to look 
 beyond any present moment of struggle. 
 And in the end, life, was victor, though by
 
 CLEM 
 
 so small a margin that they dared not hope 
 too much until day after day of steady 
 gaining rolled around to make them sure. 
 
 Then it was that the mother's hard hours 
 came again. In his convalescence, slow 
 and wavering, her boy was not hers. He 
 liked to have her near him, when Clem was 
 away; and after those long days and nights 
 of constant care, it was needful that she 
 should be out of the sick-room for many 
 hours, gaining the rest which she sorely 
 needed. During these hours Reggie lay pa 
 tiently enough, with his mother in attend 
 ance, but he talked of Clem incessantly. 
 
 "You like her now, mother!" he would 
 say; and at her assent he would smile 
 proudly. "I always told you she was the 
 finest sort of a girl," he would assert. 
 "Think of a girl like her sticking by a 
 fellow for days and nights, when the house 
 was full of doctors and nurses just be 
 cause he yelled for her she 's the finest 
 sort of a girl !" 
 
 It was all boyish and very simple, and so 
 dear. She loved him all the more for his
 
 CLEM 
 
 loyalty, and she found herself suffering 
 vicariously for him in that moment when 
 he must learn that all the sweet assurances 
 which Clem had murmured to him in those 
 hours of his illness were mere murmurings. 
 For herself, she could not doubt Clem Mer- 
 rit's firm resolve; yet she caught herself 
 rebelling at it once or twice, while she 
 watched her boy lying dreamily, with an 
 odd, tender little smile curving his clean 
 young mouth. Was the girl to go happily 
 on her way, leaving Reggie behind her, 
 suffering and forlorn ! It was monstrous ! 
 When it meant suffering for them both, it 
 was easier for the mother to contemplate it. 
 Now, when it seemed that only her boy was 
 to wince beneath the bludgeoning of fate, 
 the situation took' on a different aspect. 
 
 She did not do Clem Merrit full justice 
 yet; doubt there was if she ever could, so 
 dissimilar were their planes of thought and 
 action. Yet she was forced to this conclu 
 sion at last: Clem did her fuller justice 
 than she did Clem; Clem judged motives 
 more gently, and truly sympathized with
 
 CLEM 
 
 limitations to a more vital degree. And 
 Frances Wines was forced to this better 
 knowledge of the girl, past all her gentle 
 laws of caste and race, and past all her 
 grave reserve. 
 
 Clem Merrit's own straightforwardness 
 helped the situation as nothing else did or 
 could. In her own phrase, she had buried 
 the hatchet deep in the uncomfortable past. 
 After all, there were only two people here 
 against whom she had felt heavy resent 
 ment, and both of these people had done all 
 things to atone. Mrs. Wines's tears had 
 done more than any words; and Drake 
 Lorimer had left nothing undone which an 
 ever-present thoughtfulness could prompt. 
 But with all he had done, he had left much 
 unsaid. This, with some 'sixth sense, Clem 
 knew; and she was warding off any fur 
 ther reparation on his part. She had 
 had enough of it. She was willing to 
 forget. 
 
 Therefore she accepted Lorimer as she 
 accepted Lowe, and Lowe as she accepted
 
 CLEM 
 
 Lorimer, on an easy basis of frank good- 
 fellowship. Both of them were resource 
 ful in their plans for her comfort and rec 
 reation, and more often than not it was 
 with both of them that she departed on 
 her rides and her walks. She swept all the 
 cobwebs of finesse and restraint away from 
 her path, by her resolute ignoring of what 
 had gone before, and matters settled into a 
 state of freedom and comfort as delight 
 ful as it was surprising. 
 
 And she had no more reason to say she 
 had no woman friend. For Dell Gresham 
 was outspokenly that Clem Merrit's 
 friend. Lowe watched the growth of that 
 friendship with humorous interest, feeling 
 a certain proprietary pride in it. He had 
 divined the kinship in their natures long 
 since, and every man is proud of proof that 
 he is intuitive. 
 
 As for his pride in his own conception of 
 Clem Merrit, it waxed with each day. She 
 had not failed herself. She had faced as 
 hard a situation as life would probably
 
 CLEM 
 
 hold for her ; and she had faced it gallantly, 
 with her head held high, and with lips that 
 smiled without bravado, but with a very 
 fine courage. She had won against the 
 heaviest of odds, by sheer force of that 
 splendid spirit which glowed within her. 
 Throughout this most bitter test, she had 
 not been found wanting, in the most essen 
 tial sense. She had rather shown unsus 
 pected strength along lines where one 
 might look for the least resistance. As 
 matters had developed, hers was the advan 
 tage; theirs, the damage. All along the 
 line they had been routed, and, one by one, 
 they were coming back, to sit in her tent's 
 shadow, a Hudibrastic denouement of 
 which she was splendidly unconscious. 
 
 Now and then Lowe permitted himself a 
 mild wonder as to the still hidden truth of 
 Reggie's shooting fray. Since the evening 
 on which he went into town to meet Clem 
 and bring her back, no words relating to it 
 had passed her lips. It was a subject ta 
 booed between them, and Lowe did not 
 know whether the girl's lips were sealed
 
 CLEM 
 
 from uncertainty or distressing knowledge. 
 In a happier contingency he felt sure that 
 he would have been told. He did not fore 
 see in just what way things hidden were to 
 be revealed, nor the far-reaching effects of 
 that revealing.
 
 XVII 
 
 / T A HE revelation came, six weeks to a 
 -L day from the time of Reggie's mis 
 hap, on a morning when Clem was absent, 
 riding hard with Lorimer along the coun 
 try roads. It involved the entire house 
 hold, which accounted for the noticeable 
 tensity of the luncheon hour; a tensity 
 which Clem and Lorimer, entering the 
 dining-room almost at the close of the 
 meal, missed. They were in their riding 
 clothes, and they offered but scant apology 
 therefor. 
 
 "We 're famished," Clem said to Dell, 
 as she dropped into a vacant chair beside 
 her. "I 'm keeping my hat on. My hair 
 would drop to my knees if I did n't." She 
 flung her whip into a corner and drew off 
 her gloves. Then she glanced about the 
 table. 
 
 "Where 's Reggie?" she demanded.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Did n't he feel up to coming down ?" For 
 Reggie had been spending most of the last 
 few days down-stairs. 
 
 "Oh, he is perfectly well," Mrs. Wines 
 answered her hastily. "He " 
 
 Lowe filled in the pause promptly, be 
 fore the wonder in Clem's eyes grew too 
 great. 
 
 "He is sulking, Clem," he remarked con 
 fidentially, at her elbow. "He desires to 
 see you immediately." 
 
 "What rot!" Clem said. "What 's up, 
 Jack?" 
 
 She was glancing carefully about the 
 table, and she felt a definite change. If 
 Jack's aside was true, Reggie's sulking was 
 making his relatives undeniably happy. 
 Mrs. Wines, especially, looked the embodi 
 ment of peace and joy. She made a some 
 what hasty meal, and rose abruptly, while 
 the others were still sitting casually about. 
 
 "This riding habit is too stuffy to en 
 dure," she said. "Do let me go !" 
 
 As she passed Mrs. Wines, that lady 
 reached out a detaining hand. "Reggie has
 
 CLEM 
 
 been asking for you, Clem," she said. 
 There was a note of eager joy in her voice 
 which puzzled the girl. 
 
 "Yes," she said. "I '11 go to him in a lit 
 tle while." 
 
 She stopped at Reggie's door, before she 
 went to her own room, and tapped lightly 
 on it with her whip handle. "I 'm back, 
 Reggie," she called. "As soon as I get out 
 of these riding things I '11 come in." 
 
 "Never mind about the riding togs," said 
 Reggie crossly. "Come in now, Clem. I 
 want to talk to you about something im 
 portant. Can you fix up a deal to keep the 
 whole lot of rotters down-stairs from run 
 ning in and out? I want to talk to you 
 alone. It 's important, I tell you." 
 
 He was wagging his head ominously, 
 and his frown was fierce. Clem stared at 
 him in wonder and some amusement, and 
 then she came farther into the room, and 
 closed the door behind her. 
 
 "It just occurs to me that they 're all pre 
 pared down-stairs, for this little wig- wag of 
 ours," she remarked coolly. "I don't think
 
 CLEM 
 
 we '11 take any big chances if we settle 
 down right now." 
 
 She came freely across the room, her 
 whip still swinging lightly in her hand, and 
 she stood for a moment beside his chair, in 
 her severe habit, with her small Derby still 
 banded tight to her head. As he did not 
 speak at once, she dropped into a chair op 
 posite him, cutting at the intervening air 
 lightly with her whip. 
 
 "It was a gorgeous morning!" she said 
 at length. "Mr. Lorimer and I were out 
 till luncheon. I wonder when those beasts 
 of doctors are going to let you ride again !" 
 
 "That 's what I want to talk to you 
 about, Clem," Reggie interposed. "Have 
 you got any idea of what people are saying 
 about this condemned shooting fray of 
 mine? Do you know what people here 
 think?" 
 
 "Nobody 's told me what anybody 
 thinks," Clem replied cheerfully. "I Ve 
 been too busy to listen, if any one had." 
 
 "That 's what I told 'em," Reggie af 
 firmed. "Mother got in here before I got
 
 CLEM 
 
 through with Vee Vee gave it all away 
 and they both made a great powwow. Vee 
 let out too much, without meaning to, and 
 I jumped on her, and jerked the rest out 
 before she knew it. She 's been thinking, 
 and mother 's been thinking, all along, and 
 all the rest of 'em, for that matter, Dell and 
 Eaton and Drake that it was a blunder at 
 suicide! that I tried to do for myself with 
 a confounded bullet ! that I 'm alive to-day 
 only because I did n't know how to shoot 
 to kill ! Vee owned up that mother was 
 certain of it, and that Drake and Eaton 
 were afraid of it and as many more who 
 knew you 'd tried to throw me down ; 
 owned up that everybody in this shack, 
 down to the stable boy, thinks I 'm a near- 
 suicide, a poor, driveling, sniveling fool ! 
 That I tried to shoot myself because a girl 
 had thrown me over! Well, it hurt that 
 day, but not that way " 
 
 He raised his eyes to Clem's all too ex 
 pressive face, and met her betraying eyes 
 full; and he bent toward her with a dark 
 flush flooding his face. 
 
 C 244;]
 
 CLEM 
 
 "You too!" he said sharply. "Et tu, 
 Brute!" did not come in its first utterance 
 from a heart more deeply charged with 
 woe. 
 
 It was Clem's turn to flush slightly, and 
 to rush to hurried words. 
 
 "Truly, Reggie, no! Not even when 
 Jack told me your mother thought it, the 
 night he came after me, and brought me 
 back. Not till I saw you, before the opera 
 tion, and you yourself said things that 
 made me sure for a while, that is that it 
 was a plain case of " 
 
 Reggie checked her with a hand up 
 raised in awful dignity. 
 
 "Did it enter your head, once, before you 
 saw me all dopey and queer in the head, as 
 a possible thing?" he asked. 
 
 Clem flecked delicately at her riding boot 
 and did not reply. 
 
 "It did !" Reggie groaned, and fell back 
 into his chair, with his eyes closed against 
 the alluring sight of her as she sat there in 
 her riding dress, with her whip flecking the 
 air. 
 
 O45H
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Now look here, Reggie," Clem said at 
 last, with that business-like directness which 
 distinguished her and all her deeds. "Just 
 figure it out a bit, will you. I told you 
 that afternoon that I would n't marry you 
 and I want you to get accustomed, by the 
 way, to the thought that that statement still 
 stands. You 've been desperately sick, and 
 you had to be told all sorts of creamy non 
 sense, as nonsensical as what you said be 
 fore the operation evidently was. Just 
 get used to that, will you? So off you 
 go in a huff perhaps you don't remem 
 ber what you said as you cut out behind 
 those pine-trees, but I do very well, and 
 did, that same evening, when Jack met 
 me with the pleasant news that you were 
 shot. You had said that you were going 
 to the devil well, I thought, if you '11 par 
 don me, that you 'd started. And then I 
 remembered what a cracking shot you are, 
 and when Jack said a second time that it 
 was the sort of wound it was, I was sure 
 the other idea was absurd, and that it 
 was only an accident, doubly unfortunate
 
 CLEM 
 
 because it happened to come at such a very 
 uncomfortable time for all of us. So I 
 come back here, because you said you 
 wanted me, and I 'm sent in here before 
 they operate, and you begin a lot of burble 
 about being a fool, and thoughts of murder 
 when I laughed and, in short, I was pretty 
 thoroughly scared ! Men have done it, you 
 know," she added defensively, as she 
 caught Reggie's look of dire contempt. 
 
 "Fools have!" muttered Reggie. 
 
 "Well, fools, if you like. They 're lots 
 of 'em loose in every woods. Of course 
 you said it was an accident, but you 'd be 
 likely to say that ; anybody would, as soon 
 as he found he could still talk, whether he 
 was telling the truth or not. So that did n't 
 count for or against you. And -the doctors 
 did n't count, in their diagnoses, for or 
 against, and when they did n't say it was 
 self -inflicted, or hint at it, why, nobody 
 took it on himself to start the story." 
 
 Reggie sat in wrathful dignity, and 
 Clem watched him quizzically. She had 
 disappointed him sorely, that was evident;
 
 CLEM 
 
 and she was a bit sorry, but it was funny 
 his fuming impotency. She wondered 
 dumbly how much longer she could pre 
 serve a fitting gravity in the face of it. 
 
 "That 's it," the boy said at last. "All 
 the talk! About you and me! It 's not 
 decent sort of talk for you, and it makes 
 me out a driveling fool, the sort of fool 
 any right-minded girl ought to want to 
 shoot, herself ! The idea of a man's shoot 
 ing himself for a girl !" 
 
 Clem broke into ringing laughter. 
 "What 's the proper thing, Reggie?" she 
 asked, unwisely. 
 
 "You wait and see!" the boy retorted 
 with wrath. 
 
 Clem looked deeply on him; then she 
 rose from her chair, and went over to him, 
 and dropped on her knees beside him. 
 
 "Listen to me, Reggie!" she said. 
 "There 's no waiting about it, for either of 
 us; because the thing 's done for, ended! 
 Don't you see? It was beautiful while it 
 lasted, and no girl would ever want a 
 dearer lover, but it was midsummer mad-
 
 CLEM 
 
 ness, and the summer 's all but gone. It 
 was all my fault I ought to have known 
 better I did know better; but you loved 
 me in a way that no man 's ever loved me 
 you can't understand, and I can't tell you 
 any more about it; but I loved you dearly 
 for that sort of love you gave me. But 
 that sort of love you felt for me could n't 
 last it never lasts; and unless there 's 
 something else to fall back on, better and 
 more solid, it goes like a bubble like this 
 love of ours has gone. Ah, yes, it has 
 gone, Reggie ! You need n't own it to me 
 now, but it 's gone from us." 
 
 She looked mournfully on the tumbled 
 brown head so near her. 
 
 "Listen," she murmured. "I 'm the first 
 girl you Ve loved, Reggie. Let 's ticket 
 you the tenth man for me ! That does n't 
 sound nice, does it? You don't like it! 
 Well, the man I marry must like it, must 
 be glad of it, must thank heaven for every 
 man of them all who 's had any part in 
 making me the sort of woman I am what 
 ever sort I am. And you can't love me that
 
 CLEM 
 
 way, yet. And by the time you can per 
 haps by then I should n't like the work of 
 the ten women who had come between us, to 
 change you from the boy you are now ! Or 
 it may not be ten women, Reggie, but the 
 one girl you '11 love. And I don't think 
 she '11 mind the thought of me, not if she 
 understands the way you love me, dear. 
 Tell her it was Love you loved, and that I 
 stood for it for a brief three months ; and 
 she '11 understand, better than you under 
 stand now. It 's ended, Reggie; it 's 
 ended!" 
 
 She was still kneeling by him, her hands 
 pressed hard on his shoulders, and, as she 
 finished, she drew his face down to hers, 
 and kissed him on the lips. His eyes looked 
 dazed and hurt. 
 
 "It 's not ended," he said stubbornly. 
 "You 've been listening to nonsense if 
 mother has been saying 
 
 Clem put her hand firmly over his 
 mouth. "She 's said nothing nothing 
 nothing! She never would again. She 
 took me to my room and stayed by me one
 
 CLEM 
 
 night till I fell asleep. We watched over 
 you together, she and I she knows me 
 better than she did; and she trusts me. I 
 know she trusts me, now. But it 's ended, 
 Reggie ; it 's over !" 
 
 Reggie groaned dismally. "If only I 
 were on my feet again ! I can't hold you to 
 what you said to a delirious fool; a fool 
 you thought had shot himself, and was too 
 much of a fool to kill himself " 
 
 Clem's eyes brimmed with tearful laugh 
 ter. "Don't you see how absurd it is, 
 dear!" she said; and kneeling by him she 
 laughed and cried together until the boy 
 implored her to desist. 
 
 "It 's so funny that it 's heart-breaking !" 
 she explained inadequately. She looked 
 up at him at last. "I 'd better go, Reggie." 
 
 Reggie caught her full meaning. "No," 
 he said bluntly. "You can't. You said, 
 that day you threw me down, that we could 
 be friends still." 
 
 "Well, you did n't seem to think we 
 could," Clem remarked. 
 
 "You see," she added, "my work here is
 
 CLEM 
 
 done. You 're all but well. You could be 
 down-stairs now, up and down by yourself, 
 if we did n't want to be so careful. Next 
 week you '11 be all over the place. I 
 could n't stay any longer, you see that; so 
 why not go now, in a day or two ?" 
 
 "Don't plan about it yet," Reggie im 
 plored. "I need to get sort of settled. I 've 
 tho.ught that things were the same, and yet 
 all the time I knew they were n't; knew 
 that you were just making a big baby of 
 me. But I want to get on my feet again 
 before I give up the fight ! What can I do, 
 pinned down like a bug in this chair 
 Clem, I wish you had n't thought I was 
 such a damned fool !" 
 
 "I 'm sorry!" Clem said, with an irre 
 pressible smile, and Reggie, looking up and 
 catching her eyes, after a hard struggle 
 with his dignity., laughed ruefully. 
 
 "I 'm going to leave you now," Clem 
 informed him. "I '11 tell your mother " 
 
 "Don't tell anybody," the young man 
 said morosely. "I want to be by myself." 
 
 "Then I '11 tell Virginia that you want
 
 CLEM 
 
 her to come up to-night after dinner, shall 
 I?" Clem wheedled. "I won't come in 
 again to-day, unless you send for me, and 
 you 'd better not. But I '11 bring you your 
 breakfast to-morrow, and see that you eat 
 it. Shall I send you Virginia?" 
 
 "Vee 's a kid!" growled the aged lover. 
 
 For many weeks Clem had pondered 
 over the why of that first talk of hers and 
 Virginia Garnet's during her first week at 
 The Pines ; that talk in which the younger 
 girl, under a transparent question, had out 
 lined her own first experience of love. A 
 random remark of Dell Gresham's had con 
 firmed Clem's conclusion; it was evident 
 that Virginia's small love affair had been 
 eruptive in its nature and process, and that 
 it was therefore no secret. Yet Dell's 
 speaking of it at all was a distinct mark of 
 confidence, since it was the other side which 
 discussed it, to Lorimer's intense annoy 
 ance. Clem had long since perceived, of 
 her own intelligence, the delicate, filmy, 
 motherly planning she had destroyed; the 
 great, and in all ways desirable, good she
 
 CLEM 
 
 had frustrated. She looked at Reggie, a 
 faint conception dawning within her of why 
 she might be holding all these vari-colored 
 threads. Yes, it was an eminently suitable 
 thing : Drake Lorimer's cousin, sweet, ten 
 der, beloved of Reggie's mother Reggie's 
 wife! Could it be? Could it be made to 
 be? 
 
 She spoke quickly, because she would 
 not let herself consider the wisdom of her 
 words; her impulse to say them was so 
 strong that it must be right to follow it. 
 
 "Virginia, a kid ! Reggie, you 're a bat, 
 a mole ! Can't you see that she 's a woman 
 grown; that she 's been hurt?" 
 
 Reggie stared up at her vaguely. "Do 
 you mean that she 's in love too?" he 
 stammered. "Who with? Who 's the 
 man?" 
 
 Already Clem half repented of her 
 words. It was an open secret, and yet, 
 Reggie had not known it ; it was too much 
 like betrayal. 
 
 "Don't ask me, and don't ask her!" she 
 said. "But don't call her a child any longer, 
 a child who knows nothing when there 's 
 
 254:1
 
 CLEM 
 
 such a lot she could teach you! I know 
 you hate to have me tell you any woman 
 even your grandmother is older than you 
 are. Shall I ask her to come up?" 
 
 "As you like !" sighed Reggie. She held 
 out her hand, and after a scant moment of 
 sad gazing, Reggie took it, and then put 
 up a long arm, and caught her about the 
 neck. 
 
 "You don't mind !" he murmured, as he 
 kissed her. 
 
 "Mind!" Clem laughed gently. "Not 
 any more than if you were a kitten, dear." 
 
 And with that barren joy to feast upon, 
 she left him. 
 
 She wore a rather rueful smile when she 
 stepped into the hall, and its peculiar qual 
 ity struck Lowe, who met her face to face. 
 
 "You could n't take a stroll or a drive ?" 
 he asked her insinuatingly. "What is it? 
 You are smiling like a well-behaved child 
 whose stick of candy has just been taken 
 from her! Who has seized it?" 
 
 "I 've given it away," Clem answered so 
 berly. "No, Jack, I want to rest." And 
 she turned abruptly from him. 
 
 [ass]
 
 XVIII 
 
 looked up from her letters the 
 next morning, with relief and regret 
 mingled in her heart. Here, in this letter, 
 lay her way of escape, as well as her path 
 of love and duty. And yet, as she read the 
 lines which were her summons away, she 
 felt an odd sinking of her heart. 
 
 She sat in silence for a few moments, 
 dropping lump after lump of sugar into 
 her coffee, until she discovered it to be a 
 thick and nauseous syrup. She pushed it 
 away with a grimace, and spoke, after a 
 manner to the entire board, and yet directly 
 to Mrs. Wines. 
 
 "My father 's on the verge of going 
 abroad at last. He gets into town day 
 after to-morrow, and he wants me back 
 there with him, for his last week. I ought 
 to go, to-morrow night, I think." 
 
 The spontaneous regret which met her
 
 CLEM 
 
 words all but embarrassed her. She was 
 glad that her call to the city was of so 
 demanding a nature. A silly, transparent 
 excuse could not have withstood their 
 assaults. She was glad when Reggie's 
 breakfast-tray was brought in, because she 
 always went up-stairs with it and its 
 bearer. She carried her letters with her, 
 and went into his room with this new ulti 
 matum to follow so close upon the heels of 
 yesterday. Reggie greeted her with sulky 
 delight. 
 
 "I 've been waiting for an hour," he 
 said. "I should have sent for you if you 
 had n't come. There 's no reason why you 
 should keep away from me, if I 'm willing 
 to have you round and I am !" 
 
 "You 've got a fine Italian nature!" she 
 said with a rapid little brushing of her 
 fingers against his cheek. "Cheer up, old 
 man; you 're always snappish till you 're 
 fed. I did n't have an idea of not coming 
 in this morning, and I '11 stay with you all 
 day if you like; for I 've got to go to-mor 
 row, Reggie. Yes, I have, straight! My
 
 CLEM 
 
 father 's going to sail next week, and he 
 reaches New York day after to-morrow. I 
 can't let my old dad go off for God knows 
 how long, without a farewell bat with 
 him." 
 
 "And then you '11 come back here ?" Reg 
 gie said, with a certainty of inflection which 
 did not correspond with his voice, which 
 was wistful in the extreme. His morose 
 expression deepened as Clem shook her 
 head. 
 
 "I can't, Reggie. Yes, your mother 
 asked me to. But I can't." 
 
 "You can, but you won't," he growled. 
 "And if I thought you were faking that 
 excuse too " 
 
 Clem held her father's letter before his 
 eyes, and Reggie impenitently read. 
 
 "Oh, you play straight enough," he con 
 ceded in half apology. "And, of course, 
 with all this, you 've got to go. It seems 
 cursed coincidental, though. But you 
 might come back." 
 
 "I can't, Reggie," she told him. 
 
 All morning long she sat beside him,
 
 CLEM 
 
 both of them deeply conscious that some 
 spell was broken. Her departure had come 
 about pertinently and naturally and inev 
 itably, as she had desired. Without doubt, 
 her work here was done. Reggie was all 
 but well in body, and was not broken in 
 heart, however uncontrite he might be; 
 nor more than passing sad in mind, thanks 
 to the clear absurdity of that misapprehen 
 sion which had rained ridicule and light 
 laughter upon young love. And now and 
 then, because talk of themselves was probed 
 to the ultimate depths, they spoke of Vir 
 ginia, Reggie with a deep and growing 
 curiosity which Clem refused to gratify. 
 And it was to Virginia that Clem gave up 
 her place that she might begin her prep 
 arations for leaving. 
 
 It was to that same gentle nurse that he 
 turned the next morning, after he had 
 waved an invalided hand to the Greshams 
 and Lorimer and Clem as they went off to 
 gether for a last ride. That was Clem's 
 own manipulation, and she smiled in 
 triumph that was all her own at the sight
 
 CLEM 
 
 of those two young faces bending from 
 Reggie's window. What she could do she 
 had done. The rest lay in their own hands 
 and in the future. 
 
 Through some other subtle machination 
 of which she had been supremely uncon 
 scious, she looked ahead down a long, level 
 road, later in the morning, and saw no one 
 of their party, save only Lorimer, riding 
 beside her. They had been talking and 
 racing by turns, for how long she did not 
 know. At all events, they were completely 
 separated from their quondam companions. 
 
 "What does it matter?" Lorimer said. 
 "Dell and Eaton are still honeymooning. 
 They started across the country half an 
 hour ago. Come; ahead of us is a spot 
 made by God for the rest of the weary. We 
 can let the beasts graze, and you can put up 
 your hair in supreme peace." 
 
 A little further on, Lorimer led the way, 
 a few paces aside from the road, and dis 
 mounted; and while he attempted to limit 
 the radius of grazing-ground, Clem stood, 
 fastening up some of the heavy braids of
 
 CLEM 
 
 her hair which had become loosened in 
 their last race. Posed so, she looked, even 
 in her tailored habit, more a goddess than a 
 mortal woman. She was flawlessly lovely ; 
 and Lorimer, looking, was lost. 
 
 Clem, her braids secured beneath her 
 riding-hat, glanced casually up into his 
 eyes, and, being no unskilled seeress in the 
 ways of men, perceived that an unexpected 
 and yet a strangely unsurprising crisis was 
 impending heavily. Her brain traveled a 
 lightning path back over the weeks, and she 
 saw precisely the steps which had led them 
 both to this precipitate moment. She had 
 not foreseen it ; she had never thought of it 
 as possible; but she realized now that the 
 only reason for her lack of taking thought 
 for the morrow in this instance was her 
 unvoiced conviction that Drake Lorimer 
 was triple-guarded against all her powers. 
 Otherwise she must have interpreted many 
 of his words and deeds just as the present 
 moment was interpreting them. 
 
 "I wish you 'd look at Soubrette's left 
 forefoot," she remarked coolly, as she 
 
 18
 
 CLEM 
 
 thrust one of her two remaining hairpins 
 into place. "I think she picked up a stone 
 back yonder." 
 
 Lorimer smiled slightly, whereby Clem 
 perceived that he had perceived her percep 
 tion of a moment back. She knew then 
 that the situation was not to be saved by 
 palpable evasions, and yet she tried to 
 break the spell once again. 
 
 "Hurry, please," she said, pushing the 
 last pin emphatically into place. "I 've got 
 to get back to Reggie." 
 
 "Reggie is eliminated from this," Lor 
 imer said. "Oh, you wonderful woman! 
 Am I blind that I have not seen ; deaf that 
 I have not heard, from his own lips, his 
 ignorant tale of what you have done for 
 him! If it were possible for me to love 
 you more, he gave me the cause, last night, 
 in his rambling, hurt talk." 
 
 The girl frowned a little. "All this is 
 past history/' she said. "It 's been talked 
 over too much, anyway. It 's been played 
 out under arc-lights. At least we can keep 
 
 [afa]
 
 CLEM 
 
 our tongues still about it. What sort do 
 you take me for" 
 
 "For the sort of woman, and that sort 
 only, who could say to her boy-lover what 
 you said to yours !" Lorimer retorted vehe 
 mently. "He said it all over to me last 
 night, poor chap; said it dully; he did not 
 know a tenth of what you meant. But let 
 me tell you, for your glory, that you ac 
 complished the work you set yourself to 
 do ; you left him his Ideal unsmirched; you 
 left him his belief in his Perfect Woman 
 still alive all that with the wisdom of a 
 first experience. He does n't know, and 
 may not, for another score of years, what 
 you have done for him in this crucial time 
 of his life; and his mother only faintly 
 knows. But I know, Clem." 
 
 She flushed a little, and her eyes met his 
 for a second. 
 
 "You get under my guard when you 
 talk that way of Reggie," she murmured. 
 "You put it a little different I hope I have 
 done all that; all I wanted to do was to 
 
 [263]
 
 CLEM 
 
 leave him for some other girl the right 
 girl just as sweet and clean and whole 
 some " 
 
 She broke off abruptly, and Lorimer 
 stooped and mechanically picked up her 
 horse's forefoot. As he raised his head, 
 she flung him one of her old, brilliant 
 smiles. 
 
 "So, if you feel satisfied about Reggie, 
 it 's all right. I reckon that stone was a 
 mistake, my mentioning it. Come, let 's 
 go back. Oh, why need it go any fur 
 ther" 
 
 Lorimer interrupted her sternly. "What 
 do you mean ? That I have not said it all, 
 in saying that I love you ? Don't you know 
 that means all things ; that I have no wish 
 on earth but to make you my wife " 
 
 Clem sat down against the grassy 
 mound against which she had been half 
 kneeling. She dropped her chin into her 
 hand, and she motioned him freely to the 
 place beside her. 
 
 "There 's no helping it now," she said. 
 "We might as well have it out, here and
 
 CLEM 
 
 forever. Sit down and let 's be as com 
 fortable as we can, because " 
 
 But Lorimer stood before her, speaking 
 with rigid self-control. 
 
 "Don't say w*hat you were going to say 
 now yet. Because you are going to dis 
 miss it all with a word. This thing means 
 too much it deserves more than a dis 
 missing word. It began the first night I 
 looked into your face. I know that now. 
 It grew to gigantic height that night you 
 went away only to come back, three hours 
 later." 
 
 Clem flushed again. "Ever since I Ve 
 been back, I 've wanted to say something to 
 you about that talk of ours, and I could 
 never find the words. I could n't take it 
 back, because I believe in my soul that 
 everything I said is true. But I 've been 
 mighty sorry lots of times since that I said 
 all I did. It was n't generous; there was 
 no sense in it, no use in it, no good done by 
 it. I wish I had n't." 
 
 "I 've never wanted you to take back one 
 word," Lorimer replied steadily. "Nor
 
 CLEM 
 
 have I wished that you had left anything 
 unsaid. You made the petty things of 
 life shrink into nothingness; you made 
 only the big things in it seem worth while. 
 You have shamed us all there have been 
 many times when I could have kissed your 
 garment's hem for the outgiving virtue 
 of it. I think we have all thanked the 
 gods for this accidental chance which 
 brought you back here, to give us our 
 chance " 
 
 Clem put out her hand in mute protest. 
 
 "That 's all buried and done for," she 
 said. "No good ever came of raking up 
 old scores." 
 
 "As for this other thing," she added, 
 after a pause. "I 'm sorry, but it 's not 
 possible. Oh, it 's not possible! You 've 
 got sense enough to see straight; why do 
 you try to ride through a mountain ; to beat 
 your head against a wall that won't be bat 
 tered down?" 
 
 "I must know all this beyond all doubt," 
 Lorimer insisted. His face had paled 
 slightly, but his eyes were gleaming. "You
 
 CLEM 
 
 must tell me why Ah, let us talk face to 
 face in this. You are too big to turn away, 
 and refuse to face any truth; and this is 
 Truth, Clem." 
 
 Clem struck with her whip the long, dry 
 grass at her feet. 
 
 "Both of us are going to get hurt if we 
 don't call it all off now! and shake 
 hands. Come !" 
 
 She held out her hand with a glance 
 which was brightly beseeching. Lorimer 
 shook his head. 
 
 "I promise you that I will shake hands 
 with you at last, if it must be only that," he 
 said. "But not now " 
 
 "It must all come to the same thing," she 
 interrupted. "This way we both accept it. 
 The other way we handle live coals and 
 burn our hands, and perhaps can't shake 
 hands because of the sting and smart " 
 
 "Let us pick up the burning coals," Lor 
 imer pressed. "You can't expect me to 
 take my dismissal with merely a friendly 
 hand-clasp, after this." 
 
 "After all, it 's soon said," Clem re-
 
 CLEM 
 
 marked. "Sit down, do ; let 's be comfort 
 able. You 're keen enough to know that 
 the thing which drew you toward me for 
 awhile back yonder was n't congeniality, 
 but our awful unlikeness. I 've been 
 brought up with men, you know that 's 
 enough to account for my unlikeness to 
 most of the women you 've known ; and by 
 the same token it accounts for your being 
 a new sort to me. I 've lived with men, 
 you know " 
 
 Lorimer's lips parted, even as they whit 
 ened slightly. But Clem forestalled him. 
 
 "Here 's my idea !" she said quickly. She 
 picked up his hand and laid it, palm down, 
 along her own. She followed its fine out 
 line with her finger while she talked : 
 
 "Here 's my idea! It fascinated me, 
 this hand of yours, the first night I met 
 you, when I read your hand and Jack's to 
 gether. The difference there is in them ! 
 Jack 's a gentleman I 've known a lot of 
 men who were gentlemen of sorts but I 
 never in my life met any man but you who 
 would n't be capable of forgetting, some-
 
 CLEM 
 
 times, that he was a gentleman, in remem 
 bering that he was a man! You 'd never 
 forget it; you could n't! If you were ever 
 face to face with Life, with only these hands 
 of yours between you and it and Death, 
 you 'd die like a gentleman, but you 'd die. 
 
 "I 've been reading a lot of your books 
 this last month. I 've been reading up on 
 your women, your men; and I 've learned 
 more about you, there, than you 'd believe 
 was there. I know now, the sort of men 
 and women you stand for ; the sort of life 
 and living you admire. It 's hard to say 
 any of this without saying things that I 
 don't mean. But the fact is, that both you 
 and I are limited, in some ways, forever; 
 and what each of us has lacked, we Ve liked 
 in the other. But for us to try to get past 
 those limitations it would be hell; you 
 take my word for that. You know it, with 
 out words !" 
 
 She glanced at him quickly, but he was 
 looking straight ahead of him, with a face 
 so set that a weary shadow crept into her 
 eyes.
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Well, that 's the whole of it," she added 
 again, in the pause which Lorimer did not 
 break, although she waited for him hope 
 fully. "All of us have slumbering traits 
 that reach out after, the same ones, devel 
 oped in others" She broke off abruptly. 
 "It 's hard to talk sometimes, is n't it? 
 Words are nothing but thick veils that you 
 draw down over what you are really think 
 ing. I 'm afraid I 've made a bad botch of 
 it all-" 
 
 "You 've made yourself painstakingly 
 clear," Lorimer said, between dry lips. 
 "Yes, I insisted; you had to make your 
 stand. No, I don't blame you for anything 
 you have said, now or at any time. Know 
 that always. You are not to blame because 
 my blood is not red enough to call to you, 
 and my hands are not brawny enough to 
 conquer you. You are quite right ; I should 
 not grapple frantically with life and death; 
 I should realize too keenly the weary futil 
 ity of fighting against impossible odds." 
 
 He sprang to his feet and held out his 
 hand to her. 
 
 [270]
 
 CLEM 
 
 "Well, after all this carrying of coals, 
 let us shake hands; the smart of the burn 
 does not preclude the keeping of that 
 promise." 
 
 She put out her hand with averted eyes, 
 and he held it for a moment without speak 
 ing. 
 
 "I am going to say good-by, here, now," 
 he said at last. "You are leaving us to 
 night ! I shall take you back to the house, 
 and if you don't see me again, you will 
 know by new proof that I am not a man 
 who thinks it worth while to fight shadows 
 or stone walls." 
 
 He paused, but he did not release her 
 hand, and he stood looking down upon her 
 fair head and her averted face. 
 
 "In those first days," he said abruptly, 
 "some one we both know pictured you in 
 phrases that I would give most things to 
 call mine, phrases that I could not have 
 made then of you, and yet they have stood 
 always for you in my heart. And if it is 
 worth while to have made them, it is worth 
 much to be the subject of them : 'She looked
 
 CLEM 
 
 the primitive Woman. . . . She might 
 have been the primeval Woman, walking 
 untrodden sands, pressing the springing 
 earth when the world was young. . . . She 
 was so nobly unashamed and so purely 
 human. . . . The very atoms of her might 
 have been scooped up from virgin earth, 
 from sea-born clay just washed to shore. 
 . . . And a Rodin hand might have mod 
 eled her!'" 
 
 He said it reverently, slowly. 
 
 He bent low at last to look into her face. 
 "Clem !" he said. 
 
 She looked up at him blindly. He could 
 not read her face the strange light on it. 
 
 "Did Jack say that? Then? That far 
 back?" she stammered. 
 
 Lorimer drew back a little. "Jack? 
 Yes, it was Jack ; though I did n't say so." 
 
 He was surveying her with unflinching 
 keenness. Suddenly he caught up both her 
 hands and drew her to her feet, and for a 
 moment they looked on each other, in be 
 wildered silence. Then Lorimer released 
 her, and stepped back with a little smile 
 [272]
 
 CLEM 
 
 about his lips that was like a groan re 
 pressed. 
 
 "I think," he said slowly, "that we have 
 both been reasoning from false premises, 
 in this talk of ours. And, on each side, 
 most innocently." 
 
 For another moment he stared down into 
 her face, and then he lifted her hands, and 
 held them close against his breast, looking 
 at her with all of the longing and none of 
 the joy of love. 
 
 "You will be very happy," he said in a 
 strained, keen voice. "Very happy. You 
 are made for joy, and you will live it ; and 
 if I may be able ever to further it in any 
 way " 
 
 He raised his eyes, and looked straight 
 above Clem's head, into Lowe's face ; Lowe, 
 who, in the course of a solitary stroll, had 
 chanced upon this woodland scene. For a 
 moment the eyes of the two men met in a 
 look which was unmistakable to each of 
 them, and Lorimer, if he had never felt it 
 before, knew then the primal call to battle. 
 
 And then heredity and environment and,
 
 CLEM 
 
 perhaps, the sense of the weary futility of 
 struggle fell upon that primal call and 
 crushed it. He laid her hands gently down, 
 and spoke over her shoulder to Lowe, in a 
 voice that almost achieved his customary 
 level tone. 
 
 "You 're walking, Jack ? Then take my 
 horse, will you, when Miss Merrit is ready 
 to go back, and see her safely home?" 
 
 Clem, turning quickly, protesting fiercely, 
 was hushed into dumbness by the vivid fire 
 in Lowe's eyes as he came toward her. 
 They stood in silence until all sound of 
 footsteps had died away, and then, at a 
 quick move of Lowe toward her, Clem 
 shrank back against a tree trunk, holding 
 him off with a raised hand. She broke into 
 hurried words. 
 
 "I Ve just heard of the bully thing you 
 did for me, Jack, down at the beach, weeks 
 ago that stunt of yours in words, Jack !" 
 She was laughing a little, trying, so, to 
 hide the great emotion which surged 
 through her. "I have n't the nerve to 
 quote it all that virgin earth and sea-born
 
 CLEM 
 
 clay business but you could n't have added 
 another word to what you said !" 
 
 Lowe's fixed gaze and impassive face 
 were relieved only by the flicker of his light 
 lashes, and, at last, by a shadowy smile. 
 
 "I could have added nothing there !" he 
 conceded. "But all was not said in that 
 long past moment, Clem." 
 
 He was standing before her, his hands 
 clasped behind him, yet as close to her as if 
 he held her in his arms. 
 
 "All these two years of meetings and of 
 absences have been bringing us both to this 
 relentless moment. You know that. We 
 belong to each other, and this is our hour. 
 Nothing, nobody, counts in it, save only 
 you and me. You know that." 
 
 Her face had paled, but in her eyes no 
 doubts lingered. He saw there the answer 
 to the cry, and he did not need to hear her 
 solemnly uttered words. 
 
 "Yes, I know that," she said. 
 
 THE END
 
 University of California Library 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 
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