She stopped with her hand on the banister, like Louise of Prussia
.LADIES MUST LIVE
BY
ALICE DUER MILLER
Author of "Come Out of the Kitchen," etc.
ILLUSTRATED BY
PAUL MEYLAN
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO,
1917
Copyright, 1917, by
THE CENTURY Co.
Copyright, 1917, by
INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE Co
Published, October, 1917
LIST OE ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
She stopped with her hand on the banister, like
Louise of Prussia Frontispiece
And then, with a clean towel, he deliberately dried
her hands, finger by finger 69
11 Isn't that rather a reckless way for a man in your
situation to talk ?" 91
" Well, heaven itself can't save a fool," said Mrs.
Almar 119
It was arranged that he was to bring Dorothy to
dine with them that evening 147
He stood like a rock under her caress . . . . 173
" May I ask, Mr. Riatt, what rights in the matter
you consider that you have? " Linburne pursued 199
" Max," she said, " I love you "...... 241
LADIES MUST LIVE
LADIES MUST LIVE
CHAPTER I
MRS. USSHER was having a small house
party in the country over New Year's Day.
This is equivalent to saying that the half dozen
most fashionable people in New York were out of
town.
Certain human beings are admitted to have a
genius for discrimination in such matters as objects
of art, pigs or stocks. Mrs. Ussher had this same
instinct in regard to fashion, especially where
fashions in people were concerned. She turned
toward hidden social availability very much as the
douser's hazel wand turns toward the hidden
spring. When she crossed the room to speak to
some woman after dinner, whatever that woman's
social position might formerly have been, you could
be sure that at present she was on the upward
wing. When Mrs. Ussher discovered extraordi-
nary qualities of mind and sympathy in some
* 3
LADIES MUST LIVE
hitherto impossible man, you might be certain it
was time to begin to book him in advance.
Not that Mrs. Ussher was a kingmaker; she
herself had no more power over the situation than
the barometer has over the weather. She merely
was able to foretell; she had the sense of approach-
ing social success.
She was unaware of her own powers, and really
supposed that her sudden and usually ephemeral
friendships were based on mutual attraction. The
fact that for years her friends had been the small
group of the momentarily fashionable required,
in her eyes, no explanation. So simple was her
creed that she believed people were fashionable
for the same reason that they were her friends,
because " they were so nice."
During the short period of their existence, Mrs.
Ussher gave to these friendships the utmost loyalty
and devotion. She agonized over the financial,
domestic and romantic troubles of her friends; she
sat up till the small hours, talking to them like a
schoolgirl; during the height of their careers she
organized plots for their assistance ; and even when
their stars were plainly on the decline, she would
4
LADIES MUST LIVE
often ask them to lunch, if she happened to be
alone.
Many people, we know, are prone to make
friends with the rich and great. Mrs. Ussher's
genius consisted in having made friends with them
before they were either. When you hurried to her
with some account of a newly discovered treasure
-. a beauty or a conversable young man she
would always say: " Oh, yes, I crossed with her
two years ago," or " Isn't he a dear? he was
once in Jack's office." The strange thing was
these statements were always true; the subjects
of them confessed with tears that " dear Mrs.
Ussher " or " darling Laura " was the kindest
friend they had ever had.
Her house party was therefore likely to be
notable.
First, there was of course Mrs. Almar of
course without her husband. There is only one
thing, or perhaps two, to be said for Nancy Almar
that she was very handsome and that she was
not a hypocrite, no more than a pirate is a hypo-
crite who comes aboard with his cutlass in his
teeth. Mrs. Almar's cutlass was always in her
5
LADIES MUST LIVE
teeth, when it was not in somebody's vitals.
She had smooth, jet-black hair, done close to her
pretty head, a clear white-and-vermilion com-
plexion, and a good figure, not too tall. She said
little, but everything she did say, she most poign-
antly meant. If, while you were talking to her,
she suddenly cried out: " Ah, that's really
good! " there was no doubt you had had the good
fortune to amuse her; while if she yawned and left
you in the midst of a sentence there was no ques-
tion that she was bored.
She hated her husband not for the conven-
tional reason that she had married him. She
hated him because he was a hypocrite, because he
was always placating and temporizing.
For instance, he had said to her as she was about
to start for the Usshers' :
" I hope you '11 explain to them why I could
not come."
There had never been the least question of Mr.
Almar's coming, and she turned slowly and looked
at him as she asked:
" You mean that I would not have gone if you
had?"
6
LADIES MUST LIVE
He did not seem annoyed.
" No," he said, " that I 'm called South on busi-
ness."
"I shan't tell them that," she said, slowly
wrapping her furs about her throat; and then fore-
seeing a comic moment, she added, " but I '11 tell
them you say so, if you like."
She was as good as her word she usually
was.
When the party was at tea about the drawing-
room fire, she asked without the slightest change
of expression:
" Would any one like to hear Roland's expla-
nation of why he is not with us? "
" Had it anything to do with his not being
asked? " said a pale young man; and as soon as
he had spoken, he glanced hastily round the circle
to ascertain how his remark had succeeded.
So far as Mrs. Almar was concerned it had not
succeeded at all, in fact, though he did not know
it, nothing he said would ever succeed with her
again, although a week before she had hung upon
his every word. He had been a new discovery,
something unknown and Bohemian, but alas, a day
7
LADIES MUST LIVE
or two before, she had observed that underlying
his socialistic theories was an aching desire for
social recognition. He liked to tell his bejeweled
hostesses about his friends the car-drivers ; but, oh,
twenty times more, he would have liked to tell the
car-drivers about his friends the bejeweled host-
esses. For this reason Mrs. Almar despised him,
and where she despised she made no secret of the
fact.
"Not asked, Mr. Wickham!" she said. "I
assume my husband is asked wherever I am," and
then turning to Laura Ussher she added with a
faint smile : " One's husband is always asked,
isn't he? "
" Certainly, as long as you never allow him to
come," said another speaker.
This was the other great beauty of the hour
or, since she was blond and some years younger
than Mrs. Almar, perhaps it would be right to
say that she was the beauty of the hour.
She was very tall, golden, fresh, smooth, yet
with faint hollows in her cheeks that kept her fresh-
ness from being insipid. Christine Fenimer had
another advantage she was unmarried. In
8
LADIES MUST LIVE
spite of the truth of the observation that a married
woman's greatest charm is her husband, he is also
in the most practical sense a disadvantage ; he does
sometimes stand across the road of advancement,
even in a land of easy divorce. Mrs. Almar, for
instance, was regretfully aware that she might have
done much better than Roland Almar. The great
stakes were really open to the unmarried.
She was particularly aware of this fact at the
moment, for the party was understood to be await-
ing a great stake. Mrs. Ussher had discovered
a cousin, a young man who, soon after graduating
from a technical college, had invented a process
in the manufacture of rubber that had brought him
a fortune before he was thirty. He was now en-
gaged in spending it on aviation experiments. He
was reckless and successful. Besides which he was
understood to be personally attractive his pic-
ture in a silver frame stood on a neighboring table.
He was of the lean- type that Mrs. Almar ad-
mired.
Now it was perfectly clear to her why he was
asked. Mrs. Ussher adored Christine Fenimer.
Of all girls in the world it was essential that
9
LADIES MUST LIVE
Christine should marry money. This man, Max
Riatt, new to the fashionable world, ought to be
comparatively easy game. The thing ought to go
on wheels. But Mrs. Almar herself was not in-
different to six feet of splendid masculinity; nor
without her own uses at the moment for a good-
looking young man.
In other words, there was going to be a contest;
in the full sight of the little public that really mat-
tered, the lists were set. Nobody present, except
perhaps Wickham, who was dangerously ignorant
of the world in which he was moving, doubted
for one moment that Miss Fenimer had resolved
to marry Max Riatt, if, that is, he turned out to
be actually as per the recommendations of Mrs.
Ussher; nor was it less certain that Mrs. Almar
intended that he should be hers.
Of course if Mrs. Ussher had been absolutely
single-minded, she would not have invited Mrs.
Almar to this party; but though a warm friend to
Christine Fenimer, Laura was not a fanatic, and
the piratical Nancy was her friend, too.
Mrs. Almar could have pleaded an additional
reason for her wish to interfere with this match,
10
LADIES MUST LIVE
besides the natural one of not wishing Miss Feni-
mer to attain any success; and that was the fact
that Edward Hickson, her brother, had wanted
for several years to marry Christine. Hickson
was a dull, kindly, fairly well-to-do young man
exactly the type you would like to see your rival
marry. Hickson had motored out with his sister,
and had received some excellent counsel on thef
way.
" Now, Ned," she had said, " don't cut your own
throat by being an adoring foil. Don't let Chris-
tine grind your face in the dust, just to show this
new man that she can do it."
" You don't do Christine justice," he had
answered, " if you think she would do that."
His sister did not reply. She thought it would
have been doing the girl injustice to suppose' that
she would do anything else.
They were still sitting about the tea-table at a
quarter to seven, when Christine and Mrs. Almar
rose simultaneously. It was almost time for the
arrival of Riatt, and neither had any fancy for
meeting him save at her best in all the panoply
of evening dress.
ii
LADIES MUST LIVE
" We 're not dining till a quarter past eight, my
dears," said Mrs. Ussher.
Both ladies thought they would lie down before
dinner. And here chance took a hand. Riatt's
train was late, whereas Christine's clock was fast.
And so it happened that she came downstairs just
as he was coming up.
There had been no one to greet him. He was
told by the butler that Mrs. Ussher was dressing,
that dinner would be in fifteen minutes; he
started to bound up the stairs, following the foot-
man with his bags, when suddenly looking up the
broad flight he saw a blond vision in white and
pearls coming slowly down. He hoped that his
lower jaw had n't fallen, but she really was ex-
traordinarily beautiful; and he could not help
slowing down a little. She stopped, with her
hand on the banisters, like Louise of Prussia.
" Oh, you 're Mr. Riatt," she said, very gently.
" You know you 're most awfully late."
u I wish," he said, " that I were wise enough to
be able to say: * Oh, you 're Miss ' "
" I might be a Mrs."
" .Oh, I hope not," he answered. " Are you? "
12
LADIES MUST LIVE
She smiled.
" You '11 know as soon as you come down to
dinner."
" I shall be quick about dressing."
He went on up, and she pursued her slow prog-
ress down. She felt that her future had been
settled by those few seconds on the stairs.
" He will do admirably," she said to herself,
and a smile like that of a sleeping infant curved
her lips. She felt calmly triumphant. She had
always said there was no reason why even a rich
man should be absolutely impossible. She re-
called certain great fortunes with repulsive own-
ers, which some of her friends had accepted. For
herself she had always intended to have every-
thing love and money, too. And here it was,
almost in her hands. There had been moments
when she had been so discouraged that she had
actually made up her mind to marry Ned Hick-
son. How wise she had been to hold off !
She leant her arm on the mantelpiece and
studied herself in the mirror. It was a Chinese
painted mirror, and the tint of the glass was
green and unbecoming, yet even this could not
13
LADIES MUST LIVE
mar the dazzling reflection. The only object on
which she looked with dissatisfaction was her
string of pearls; they were imitation. She
thought she would have emeralds; and she heard
clearly in her own inner ear this sentence:
"Yes, that is young Mrs. Max Riatt; is she not
very beautiful in her emeralds ! "
Fortunately she did not say it aloud, for Mrs.
Ussher came down at this moment, and soon Hick-
son, and then in an incredibly short space of time
Riatt himself.
Undoubtedly he would do magnificently. He
stood the test even of evening clothes, though
Christine fancied as she studied him that she
would alter his style of collars. They would be
better higher. Mrs. Ussher brought him over at
once and introduced him.
"This is my cousin Max, Christine, about
whom I Ve talked so much. Max, this is Miss
Fenimer."
They smiled at each other with a common im-
pulse not to confess that earlier meeting on the
stairs ; and he was just about to settle down beside
her, when the door opened and, last of all, Mrs.
14
LADIES MUST LIVE
Almar came in. She was wearing her flame-
color and lilac dress. Christine knew she would
have it on; knew that she saved it for the greatest
moments. She did not advance very far into the
room, but stood looking around her.
" Well," she said, " where is Cousin Max? "
It must not be supposed from this question that
she had not seen him almost through the crack
of the door as the butler opened it for her; but
by speaking just when and where she did, she
forced him to get up from Christine's side, and
come to where she was to be introduced to her.
Then as dinner was at the same instant an-
nounced, she put her hand on his arm.
" Take me in to dinner, Cousin Max," she said.
" I did not know he was your cousin," said
Wickham, who suffered from the fatal tendency
in moments of doubt to say something.
Mrs. Almar looked at Riatt.
"Will you be a cousin to me?" she asked.
" It commits you to nothing."
" I don't consider that an advantage," he re-
turned, drawing his elbow slightly inward, so that
her hand, if not actually pressed, was made to
LADIES MUST LIVE
feel secure upon his arm. '* There are some
things I would n't a bit mind being committed to."
Mrs. Almar moved her black head from side
to side.
" You must be more specific," she said, u or I
sha'n't understand you."
" More specific in words? " he inquired gently.
They were crossing the hall, and had a sort of
privacy for an instant.
" Dear me," she returned, " you do move rather
rapidly, don't you?"
" I 'm an aviator, you see," he answered.
Across the table Christine was trying to be
gracious and graceful while she put up with Hick-
son, but she was feeling as any honest captain feels
at having a prize cut out from under his very
nose.
Mrs. Ussher seeing this, decided that such
methods as Nancy's ought not to prevail; she
seated herself on Max's other side, and instantly
engaged in conversation.
" Don't you think my dear little Christine is an
angel?" she said, without any encumbering sub-
tility.
16
LADIES MUST LIVE
" She certainly looks like one."
"Who looks like what?" asked Mrs. Almar,
from his other side. She had had this sort
of thing tried too often not to be on her
guard.
Mrs. Ussher leant forward.
" Max was just saying that Christine looks like
an angel."
Nancy looked at him and made a very slight
grimace.
u Are you so awfully strong for angels?" she
said. He laughed.
" I never met one before."
" You have n't met one to-night."
" You mean that you 're not an angel, Mrs.
Almar?"
"I? Oh, I'm well and favorably known as
the wickedest woman in New York. I meant that
Miss Fenimer is not an angel."
" You don't like her?"
" How you jump at conclusions ! To say she
is n't an angel, does n't mean dislike. As a mat-
ter of fact, I am eager to secure her as my sister- ,
in-law."
17
LADIES MUST LIVE
Riatt glanced at Hickson and was aware of
the faintest possible pang. What qualities, he
wondered, had a man like that.
" Oh," he said, " is she engaged to your
brother ?"
" Certainly not," answered Mrs. Almar.
" But it is fairly well understood by every one
except my brother, that if she does n't find any-
thing better within the next few years she will
put up with him."
At this a slight feeling of disgust for both' ladies
took possession of Riatt.
" I see," he said rather coldly, and turned to
Mrs. Ussher, but Nancy was not so easily disposed
of.
" You mean," she went on, " that you see it is
my duty as a sister to prevent anything else turn-
ing up. Suppose, for example, that a handsome,
rich, attractive young man should suddenly appear
upon the scene and show an interest in the angelic
Christine." (By this time Riatt had turned again
to her, and she looked straight into his eyes as
she ran through her list of adjectives.) " Don't
you think it would be my duty to distract his atten-
18;
LADIES MUST LIVE
tion to go almost any length to distract his.
attention?"
" However personally disagreeable to you the
process might be?"
" Probably if he were as I described him, the
process would not be so disagreeable."
He smiled. There was no denying he found
her amusing.
In the meantime, the couple across the table
had reached a somewhat similar point.
Hickson had said as they sat down:
"Well, and what do you think of this new
fellow?"
Christine's natural irritation appeared in her
answer.
" I have hardly had an opportunity of judging,"
she answered, " but, watching your sister's atten-
tions to him, I would say he must be extremely
attractive."
Hickson looked a little dashed.
" Oh," he said, " Nancy does not mean any-
thing when she goes on like that."
The only effect of this speech was to depress
further Miss Fenimer's estimate of her compan-
19
LADIES MUST LIVE
ion's intelligence, for in her opinion Nancy's whole
life was one long black intention. Feeling this,
Ned went on:
" As a matter of fact, one reason why she 's so
nice to him is to keep him away from you and give
me a chance."
" Not very flattering to you, is it? "
" What do you mean? "
" The assumption that the only way to make
a woman take an interest in you is to prevent her
speaking to any other man."
"Oh, I didn't mean that " Hickson began,
but she interrupted him.
" That, if anything, Ned." And she turned to
Wickham, who sat on her other side.
Wickham was waiting for a little notice and
began instantly.
" I have been taking the liberty of looking at
your pearls, Miss Fenimer, and indulging in such
an interesting speculation. Here on the one hand,
you are wearing round your throat the equivalent
of life, health and virtue for half a hundred work-
ing girls, as young, as human, as yourself. Are
20
LADIES MUST LIVE
we to say this is wrong? Are we to say that
beautiful jewels worn by beautiful women are a
crime against society "
" One moment, Mr. Wickham," she said.
" My pearls are imitation and cost eight dollars
and fifty cents without the clasp. But," she
added cruelly, seeing his face fall, " you can say
that same thing to your friend Mrs. Almar, be-
cause hers are not artificial, though I have heard
her assert sometimes that they are," and turning
back to Hickson, who was laboriously trying to
carry on a conversation with his host, she inter-
rupted ruthlessly to say, hardly lowering her
voice :
; ' Why in the world, Ned, did Nancy bring this
Wickham man here ? He 's perfectly impossi-
ble."
" Nancy did n't bring him," answered her
brother innocently. " I motored out with her
myself."
" She said she would n't come unless he were
asked. Still I know the answer. Nancy has al-
ways had a weakness for blond boys, and last
21
LADIES MUST LIVE
week she was crazy about this one. Now she
has turned against him, she wants to foist him
off on us, but I for one don't intend to help her
out"
By this time Wickham, aware that he had been
rebuffed, had found an explanation for it. The
girl was annoyed at having been forced to admit
her pearls were imitation. He decided to put
everything right.
" Miss Fenimer," he said, and she turned her
head perhaps half an inch in his direction, " I
think you misunderstood me just now. My stand-
ards are probably different from those of the
men you are accustomed to. To me the fact that
your pearls are not real is an added beauty. I 'm
glad they're not "
" Thank you," said Christine, " but I 'm not."
And this time he understood that he had lost her
for good.
After dinner, Mrs. Almar, knowing that her
innings were over, very effectively prevented
Christine having hers, by insisting on playing
bridge. She had an excellent head for cards, and
always needed money. Christine allowed herself
22
LADIES MUST LIVE
to be drawn in, supposing that Riatt would be one
of the players, and found herself seated opposite
to Hickson and next to Jack Ussher.
Wickham, feeling very much left out and de-
sirous of showing how well accustomed he was to
the casual manners of polite society, consoled him-
self with an evening paper. Laura Ussher led
Riatt to a comfortable corner out of earshot of
the bridge-table.
" Now do tell me, Max," she said, " what
you think of them all."
" I think, my dear Laura," he answered, " that
they are a very playful band of cut-throats, and
next time you ask me to stay, I hope you and
Jack will be entirely alone."
The servants in a household like the Usshe
were subjected to almost every strain, except th
of early rising. No one dreamed of coming do
stairs before eleven, and most people not ur.t
lunch time.
The next morning Riatt was among the first
' ?j T-
that is to say he was up earty enough not to be
able to escape a tour of inspection of the place
LADIES MUST LIVE
under the guidance of his host. He had seen the
stables and the new garage, and the sheet of snow
beneath which lay the garden, and the other totally
different sheet of snow beneath which was the soil
in which Ussher intended next summer to plant
a rose garden. He had gone over, tree by tree,
the plantation of firs, and had noted how the tips
of some were injured, and had given his opinion
as to whether or not it were likely that deer had
stolen down from the wild country near at hand
and nibbled the young firs in the night.
" It 's perfectly possible," said Ussher. " I
have five hundred acres myself, and then the Club
owns a huge tract, and then there 's some state
land. You see we have hardly any neighbors
except the Fenimers and they 're eight or nine
miles away.'*
"They live here?"
" In summer and then only when Fred Feni-
mer is in funds, and that 's not often. A precari-
ous sort of existence, his gambling in mining
stocks, almost always in wrong. Hard on the
daughter wish some nice fellow would come
along and marry her."
24
LADIES MUST LIVE
" He probably will," answered Riatt rather
coldly. " It 's beginning to snow again."
Ussher had just had his pond swept so that his
guests could skate, and now could n't imagine what
he should provide for them for the afternoon, so
that his thoughts were instantly and completely
turned from Christine's problems to his own.
At the house they found every one waiting for
lunch; Mrs. Almar and Christine chattering to-
gether on a window-seat as if they were the most
intimate allies; Hickson reading his fourth morn-
ing paper, and Mrs. Ussher paying the profound-
est attention to something Wickham was saying.
She had suddenly wakened to the fact that he
was having a wretched time and that he was after
all her guest. But he interpreted her actions dif-
ferently, and supposing that he was at last being
appreciated, he had launched fearlessly forth upon
the conversational sea. It was this spectacle that
had drawn Christine and Nancy together, in their
whisperings and giggles in the window.
' This perhaps will illustrate my meaning," he
was saying rather loudly: "this is the difference
in our outlook on life. If you say ' she dresses
*
LADIES MUST LIVE
well,' you intend a compliment, but to me it is
just the reverse. The idea is repellent to me that
a woman wastes time, thought, money on her
vanity, on decking her body "
" One on you, my dear," whispered Chris-
tine.
"Isn't he tiresome?" answered Nancy, shut-
ting her eyes.
" I thought he was your selection."
" Nobody 's infallible, my dear. Besides, I
telegraphed him not to accept the invitation, but
he says he never got my message."
" Why does he think you sent it? "
" Because I could n't trust myself "
They grinned at each other.
With the entrance of Riatt and Ussher they
went in to lunch, and there maneuvering for
places for the afternoon immediately began.
Hickson supposed that by starting early he could
secure Christine's company. So he at once asked
her what she was going to do, and before she had
time to answer he had suggested that she skate,
take a walk, or go sleighing with him. Ussher
explained that the skating was spoiled, and Chris-
26
LADIES MUST LIVE
tine under cover of this diversion managed to
avoid committing herself.
As a matter of fact her afternoon was arranged.
She had told Laura Ussher a pathetic story of
having to go over to her father's house, and look
up an old fur coat of his which had been left
behind when the house was shut for the winter.
Mr. Fenimer was known to be rather an irritable
parent where questions of his own comfort were
concerned; it was not impossible that he would
make himself disagreeable if his orders were not
carried out. Laura did not inquire very closely,
but she agreed that the best way for Christine
to traverse the distance would be for Riatt to
drive her over in the cutter. Riatt sat next to
Laura at luncheon, and she put it to him, when
the general conversation was loudest.
" Would you mind awfully driving poor little
Christine over to her own place to get something
or other for that horrid father of hers? "
Of course Riatt didn't say he did mind; as a
matter of fact he did n't. He might even have
enjoyed the prospect, if it had n't been for the
slight hint of compulsion about it.
27
LADIES MUST LIVE
" It *s snowing, you know," he said.
" It does n't amount to anything," answered his
cousin. " But surely, Max, you 're not afraid of
a little snow, if she is n'tl "
" Anything to oblige you, Laura," he said.
She did not quite like his tone, but felt she might
safely leave the rest to Christine.
Mrs. Almar, unaware of these plots, settled
down as soon as the meal was over, on a com-
fortable sofa large enough for two, with a box
of cigarettes at her side and a current magazine
that contained a new article on flying. The bird-
like objects in the huge page of cloudy sky at once
caught Max's eye. He came and bent over it
and her, with his hands in his pockets. Still ab-
sorbed in it, she half-unconsciously swept aside
her skirts, and he sat down beside her. She mur-
mured a question it was only about planes, and
he answered it. Their heads were close together
when Christine came down in her dark furs ready
to go. The bells of Jack Ussher's fastest trotter
were already to be heard tinkling at the door.
"Are you ready, Max?" said Laura, rather
sharply.
28
LADIES MUST LIVE
"Laura expects every man to do his duty,"
murmured Nancy, without looking up.
Riatt expressed himself as entirely ready.
Ussher lent him a fur cap and heavy gloves,
warned him about the charmingly uncertain char-
acter of the horse; he and Christine were tucked
into the sleigh, and they were off.
The snow, as Laura had said, did not seem to
amount to much, the wind was behind them, the
horse fast, the roads well packed. Riatt glanced
down at his lovely companion, and felt his spirits
rising. He smiled at her and she smiled back.
" I do hope you really feel like that," she said,
" not sorry, I mean, to go on this expedition. Be-
cause it was extremely wicked of me to forget my
father's coat, and this was obviously the occasion
to make amends, but there was no one to take
me"
" No one to take you? "
" Oh, I suppose one of the grooms might have
driven me over, but I should have hated that.
There was no one else. Jack is much too selfish,
and I wouldn't have gone with that Wickham
person for anything in the world, even if he had
29
LADIES MUST LIVE
ever driven a sleigh, which I am sure he has n't."
" And how about Mr. Hickson? " Riatt asked.
" Was n't he a possibility? "
" What has Nancy Almar told you about her
brother and me? "
" Nothing but what he told me himself in every
look and word that he loves you."
Christine sighed.
He smiled at her.
" And you 're glad of it," he said.
" You mean I care for him? "
" I don't know anything about that, but you 're
glad he cares for you."
" You 're utterly mistaken."
" How would you feel if another woman came
and took him away from you to-morrow? "
"Took him away from me?" cried Christine,
in a tone of surprise that made Riatt laugh aloud.
" That 's the wonderful thing about the so-called
weaker sex," he said. " Saying * no ' seems to
have no terrors to them at all. The timidest girl
will refuse a man with no more trouble and anxiety
than she would expend on refusing a dinner invita-
tion; whereas men, with all their vaunted courage,
30
LADIES MUST LIVE
are absolutely at the mercy of a determined
woman. I have a friend who has just married
a girl whom he three times explicitly refused
only because she asked him to."
Miss Fenimer looked at him thoughtfully.
" Surely you exaggerate," she said.
He shook his head sadly.
" I wish I did," he returned, " but I assure you
that is the great secret that any man would
rather marry any woman than refuse her to her
face. You see, no graceful way for a man to
say * no ' has ever been discovered."
" Why, you poor defenseless creatures 1 " said
Christine. " I '11 teach you some ways immedi-
ately. I couldn't bear to think of your going
about a prey to the first woman who proposed
to you. Let us begin our lessons immediately.
Have I your attention?"
" Completely."
" Let me see. In the first place there are sev-
eral general types of proposal. There is the
calmly rational, the passionate whirlwind, the
dangerously controlled, or volcano under a sheet
of ice " she broke off. " I don't know how
LADIES MUST LIVE
women do it," she said. " I only know about
men."
He smiled, " But you admit to knowing all
about them, I gather ? "
It would have been folly to deny it.
" And then there 's the meltingly pathetic," she
went on. " I imagine that 's what women attempt
oftenest. Let us begin with that. Now you are
to suppose that I, with tears streaming down
my face, have just confessed that I have always
looked up to you as a sort of god, that I hardly
dare"
" Wait, wait! " cried Riatt. " This is by far
the most interesting part of the lesson, and you
go so fast. I have no imagination. I don't know
how it would be, you must say all those things."
" Do I have to cry? " said Christine.
Riatt debated the point.
" No," he answered at length, " I can imagine
the tears, but everything else you must act out.
Particularly that part about my seeming like a
god to you."
" But how in the world can I teach you what
to do, if I have to act a part myself? "
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Well, before we begin, just give me a sketch
of what I ought to do."
" You must be very cold and firm, and explain
to me that though my mistake is natural, you are
really not a god at all; and then that gives you
an excuse to talk a great deal about yourself, and
tell how wicked and human and splendid you are,
and that you are not worthy of a simple, good girl
like myself, and how you don't love me anyhow.
And then the essential thing is to go away quickly,
and end the interview before I have a chance to
begin all over again."
He looked doubtfully at the snow.
" Must I get out and walk home? " he asked.
" No," she said. " I think that 's too compli-
cated. We might try an easier one to begin.
Suppose we do the calmly rational first. I explain
to you that I have watched you from boyhood, and
have come to the conclusion that our tastes, our
intellects, our "
" Oh, no," said Riatt, " there 's really no use
in going on with that. Even I should have no
difficulty with any lady who approached me in that
way. But there was one of the others that
33
LADIES MUST LIVE
sounded rather promising and difficult. How
about the passionate whirlwind? I say to try that
next."
To her surprise, Christine found herself color-
ing a little.
"Ah," she said, laying her hand on her lips
and shaking her head, " that 's very difficult, be-
cause you see, it really can't be imitated "
"Can't be imitated!" cried Max. "Why,
what sort of a teacher are you? I believe you
don't know your job. You are the sort of teacher
who would tell an arithmetic class that long divi-
sion could not be imitated. I believe the trouble
with you is that you don't understand the passion-
ate whirlwind yourself. I believe you 're a fraud,
and I shall have your license to teach taken away
from you. Can't be imitated 1 Well, let me sec
you try, at least."
Christine felt that he had the better of her, but
she said firmly:
" Are you teaching this subject, or am I? "
" Certainly you can't think you are. But if
you say so, I '11 have a try."
Not sorry to create a diversion, Christine
34
LADIES MUST LIVE
looked about her, and was more diverted from the
subject in hand than she had expected to be.
They were on the wrong road. What with the
snow and the fact that she had been so busy talk-
ing that she really had no idea how far they had
been, it took her a moment to orient herself anew.
Sfrfc ftold him with a conscience-struck look.
r ' And you," said Riatt, " who do not even
know the road to your own house, were volunteer-
ing to pilot me through an emotional crisis."
Even a suggestion of adverse criticism was un-
pleasant to Miss Fenimer. She was not accus-
tomed to it; and she answered with some sharp-
ness:
" Yes, but the road is real, whereas I under-
stand your embarrassment through the attentions
of ladies is purely fictitious."
Riatt wondered how fictitious, but he turned the
cutter about in obedience to her commands. The
horse started forward even more gaily, under the
impression that he was going home. But for the
drivers, the change was not so agreeable. A high
wind had come up, the snow was falling faster,
and the light of the winter afternoon, already be-
35
LADIES MUST LIVE
ginning to fade, was obscured by high, dark, silver-
edged banks of clouds.
" Upon my word," said Riatt, " I think we had
better go back."
" It 's only a little way from here," Christine
answered, trying hard to think how far it really
was. She did want to get her father's coat, but
she was not indifferent to the triumph of making
Riatt late for dinner, and leaving Nancy Almar
throughout the afternoon with no companion but
Wickham or Jack Ussher.
The wind cut their faces, the horse pulled and
pranced, the gaiety had gone out of their little
expedition. They drove on a mile or so, and
then Riatt stopped the horse.
" We Ve got to go back, Miss Fenimer," he
said firmly.
"Oh, please not, Mr. Riatt; we are almost
there, and," she added with a fine sense of filial
obligation, " I really feel I must do as my father
asked me."
Riatt felt inclined to point out that she, with
her muff held up to her face, was not making the
greatest sacrifice to the ideal of duty.
36
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Have you any very clear idea where your
house is ? " he asked. His tone was not flattering,
and Christine was quick to feel it.
" Do I know where I live five months of the
year?" she returned. "Of course I do. It's
just over this next hill."
The afternoon was turning out so perversely
that she would hardly have been surprised to find
that the house had disappeared from its accus-
tomed place. But as they came over the crest,
there it was, in a hollow between two hills, looking
as summer houses do in winter, like a forlorn toy
left out in the snow.
" But it 's shut up," said Riatt. " There 's no
one in it."
" I have the keys to the back door."
He touched the horse for the first time with
the whip, and they went jingling down the slope,
in between the almost completely buried gate-
posts, and drew up before the kitchen door.
Miss Fenimer kicked her feet free from the
rugs, jumped out, and from the recesses of her
muff produced a key which she inserted in the
lock.
37
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Now you won't be long, will you? " said Riatt,
with more of command than persuasion in his
tone.
It was a principle of life on the part of Chris-
tine that she never allowed any man to bully her;
or perhaps, it would be more nearly just to say
that she never intended to allow any man to do
so until she herself became persuaded that he
could, and with this object she always made the
process look as difficult and dangerous as possible
at the very beginning.
She looked back at him and smiled with irri-
tating calm.
u I shall be just as long as is necessary," she
replied, and so saying, she turned, or rather at-
tempted to turn, the key.
But disuse, or cold, or her own lack of strength
prevented and she was presently reduced to asking
Riatt to help her. He did not volunteer
his assistance. She had definitely and directly
to ask for it. Then he was friendliness
itself.
"Just stand by the horse's head, will you?"
he said, and when he saw her stationed there, he
38
LADIES MUST LIVE
sprang out, and with an almost insulting ease
opened the door.
Just as he did so, however, a gust of wind,
fiercer than any other, swept round the corner
of the house and carried away Christine's hat.
She made a quick gesture to catch it, and as she
did so, struck the horse under the chin. The ani-
mal reared, and Christine jumped aside to avoid
being struck by its hoofs ; the next instant, it had
thrown its head in the air, and started at full
speed down the road, dragging the empty sleigh
after it. Riatt, who had his back turned, did not
see the beginning of the incident, but a cry from
Christine soon roused his attention, and he started
in pursuit, calling to the animal to stop, in the
hope that the human voice might succeed when
all other methods were quite obviously useless.
But the horse, now thoroughly excited by the hang-
ing reins, the bells, and the sense of its own power,
went only faster and faster, and finally disap-
peared at full speed.
Riatt came slowly back; he was sinking in the
snow to his waist at every step. Christine was
watching him with some anxiety.
39
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Is there a telephone in the house ? " he asked.
She shook her head.
" No, it 's disconnected when we leave in the
autumn."
There was a moment's silence, then she said
questioningly : " What shall we do? "
" There 's only one thing we can do," he re-
turned; " go into the house and light a fire."
But Christine hesitated.
" I don't think it will be wise to waste time
doing that," she said, " if you have to go back on
foot to the Usshers' "
" Go back on foot! " Riatt interrupted. " My
dear Miss Fenimer, that is quite impossible. It
must be every inch of ten miles, it 's dark, a bliz-
zard is blowing, I don't know the way, and we
have n't passed a house."
" But, but," said she, " suppose they don't res-
cue us to-night? "
" They probably will to-morrow," answered
Riatt, and he walked past her into the house.
40
CHAPTER II
/CHRISTINE was glad to get out of the wind,
V^ but the damp chill of the deserted house
was not much of an improvement. Ahead of her
in the darkness, she could hear Riatt snapping
electric switches which produced nothing.
" Isn't the light connected? " he called.
" I don't know."
" Are n't there lamps in the house? "
" I don't know."
" Where could I find some candles? "
"What a tiresome man!" she thought; and
for the third time she answered : " I don't know."
A rather unappreciative grunt was his only re-
ply, and then he called back: " You 'd better stay
where you are, till I find something to make a
light."
She asked nothing better. She was oppressed
with a sense of crisis. An inner voice seemed to
be saying, in parody of Charles Francis Adams's
41
LADIES MUST LIVE
historic words : " I need hardly point out to your
ladyship that this means marriage."
She had thought, lightly enough, that everything
was settled the evening before on the stairs when
she had made up her mind that he would do. But
with all her belief in herself, she was not unaware
even then that unforeseen obstacles might arise.
He might be secretly engaged for all she knew
to the contrary. But now she felt quite sure of
him. With Fate playing into her hands like
this with romance and adventure and the
possibilities of an uninterrupted tete-a-tete, she
knew she could have him if she wanted him. And
the point was that she did. At least she supposed
she did. She felt as many a young man feels
when he lands his first job < triumphant, but con-
scious of lost freedoms.
Marriage, she knew, was the only possible solu-
tion of her problems. Her life with her father
was barely possible. As a matter of fact they
were but rarely together. The tiny apartment in
New York did not attract Fred Fenimer as a win-
ter residence, when he had an opportunity of going
to Aiken or Florida or California at the expense
42
LADIES MUST LIVE
of some more fortunate friend. In summer it
was much the same. " My dear," he would say
to his daughter, " I really can't afford to open the
house this summer." And Christine would coldly
asquiesce, knowing that this statement only meant
that he had received an invitation that he pre-
ferred to a quiet summer with her.
Sometimes throughout the whole season father
and daughter would only meet by chance on some
unexpected visit, or coming into a harbor on dif-
ferent yachts.
" Isn't that the Sea-Mew's flag? " Christine
would say languidly. " I rather think my father
is on board."
And then, perhaps, some amiable hostess in need
of an extra man would send the launch to the
Sea-Mew to bring Mr. Fenimer back to dine;
and he would come on board, very civil, very neat,
very punctilious on matters of yachting etiquette ;
and he and Christine having exchanged greeting,
would find that they had really nothing whatsoever
to say to each other.
Their only vital topic of conversation was
money, and as this was always disagreeable, both
43
LADIES MUST LIVE
of them instinctively tried to avoid it. Whenever
Fenimer had money, he either speculated with it,
or immediately spent it on himself. So that he
was always able to say with perfect truth, when-
ever his daughter asked for it, that he had none.
The result of this was that she had easily drifted
into the simple custom of running up bills for what-
ever she needed, and allowing the tradesmen to
fight it out with her father.
Such a system does not tend to economy.
Christine's idea of what was necessary, derived
from the extravagant friends who offered her the
most opportunity for amusing herself, enlarged
year by year. Besides, she asked herself, why
should she deny herself, in order that her father
might lose more money in copper stocks?
Sometimes during one of their casual meetings,
he would say to her under his breath : " Good
Heavens, girl, do you know, I Ve just had a bill of
almost three thousand dollars from your infernal
dressmaker? How can I stop your running up
such bills?" And she would answer coolly:
" By paying them every year or so."
She knew she had always known since she
44
LADIES MUST LIVE
was a little girl that from this situation, only
marriage could rescue her, and from the worse
situation that would follow her father's death; for
she suspected that he was deeply in debt. Not
having been brought up in a sentimental school she
was prepared to do her share in arranging such
a marriage. In the world in which she lived, com-
petition was severe. Already she had seen a pos-
sible husband carried off under her nose by a little
school-room mouse who had had the aid of an ef-
ficient mother.
But now for the first time in her life, she saw
that the game was in her own hands. She had
only to do the right thing only perhaps to avoid
doing the wrong one and her future was safe.
She heard Riatt calling and she followed him
into the laundry, where he had collected some
candles: he was much engaged in lighting a fire
in the stove.
" But would n't the kitchen range be better? "
she asked.
" No water turned on," he answered.
To her this answer was utterly unintelligible.
What, she wondered, was the connection between
45
LADIES MUST LIVE
fire and water. But, rather characteristically, she
was disinclined to ask. She walked to the sink,
however, and turned the tap ; a long husky cough
came from it, but no water.
After this burst of energy she sank into a chair,
amused to watch his arrangements. Thoroughly
idle people and there is not much question that
Miss Fenimer was idle learn a variety of meth-
ods for keeping other people at work, and prob-
ably the most effective of these is flattery. Chris-
tine may have been ignorant of the feminine arts
of cooking and fire-making; but of the super-fem-
inine art of flattery she was a thorough mis-
tress.
Now as Riatt finished building his fire, and be-
gan to bring in buckets of snow to supply their
need of water, the gentle flow of her flattery
soothed him as the sound of a hidden brook
in the leafy month of June. Nor, strangely
enough, did the fact that he dimly apprehended
its purpose in the least interfere with his en-
joyment.
" If ever I 'm thrown away on a desert island,
I speak to be thrown away with you," she said.
" There is n't another man of my acquaintance
LADIES MUST LIVE
who could bring order out of these primitive con-
ditions."
He laughed. " Well, you know," he said,
" this is n't really what you 'd call primitive. I
was snowed up in Alaska once."
" Alaska ! You Ve been snowed up in
Alaska? " she echoed in the tone of a child who
says: was it a black bear?
Oh, yes, it lightened his toil. Nevertheless, he
asked for her assistance in trying to find some-
thing to eat. She knew no more about the kitchen
than he did, but she advanced toward a door and
opened it gingerly between her thumb and fore-
finger. It was the kitchen closet. She opened a
tin box.
" There is something here that looks like
gravel," she called. He rushed to her side. It
was cereal. He found other supplies, too, a little
salt, sugar, coffee, and a jar of bacon.
" How clever of you to know what they all are,"
she murmured, and he felt as if he had invented
them out of thin air, like an Eastern magician.
He carried them back to the kitchen. " I won-
der if you 'd get the coffee grinder," he said.
47
LADIES MUST LIVE
She had n't the faintest idea what a coffee
grinder looked like, but she went away 'to find it,
and came back presently with an object strange
enough to serve any purpose.
"Is this it?" she asked.
" That 's a meat chopper," he answered, and
then laughed. " You 're not a very good house-
keeper, are you?"
" Of course not," she said. " Did you ever
know an agreeable woman who was? Good
housekeepers are always bores, because they can
never for an instant get their minds off the most
tiresome things in the world like bills, and how the
servants are behaving. All clever women are bad
housekeepers, and so they always find some one
like you to take care of them."
He was putting the cereal to boil, and answered
only after a second. " Perhaps you '11 think me
old-fashioned, but I cannot help respecting the art
of housekeeping."
" Oh, so do I in its place," replied Miss Feni-
mer. " My maid does the whole thing capitally.
But let me give you a test. Think of the very
best housekeeper you ever met. Would you like
LADIES MUST LIVE
to have her here instead of me? You may be
quite candid."
Riatt stopped and considered an instant with
his head on one side. " She 'd make me awfully
comfortable," he said.
Miss Fenimer nodded, as much as to say: yes,
but even so
" No," he said at length, as if the decision had
been close. " No, after all I would rather do
the work and have you. But it is n't because you
are a poor housekeeper that I prefer you. It 's
because "
Compliments upon her charms were platitudes
to Christine, and she cut him short. u Yes, it is.
It's because I'm so detached, and don't interfere,
and let you do things your own way, and think
you so wonderful to be able to do them at all.
Now if I knew how to do them, too, I should be
criticizing and suggesting all the time, and you 'd
have no peace. You like me for being a poor
housekeeper! 9
He smiled. " On that ground I ought to like
you very much then," he answered.
" Perhaps you do," she said cheerfully. " Any-
49
LADIES MUST LIVE
how I 'm sure you like me better than that other
girl you were thinking of that good house-
keeper. Who is she?"
" I like her quite a lot."
" I see you think she 'd make a good wife."
" I think she 'd make a good wife to any man
who was fortunate enough "
" Oh, what a dreadful way to talk of the poor
girl!"
" On the contrary, I admire her extremely."
" I believe you are engaged to her."
" Not as much as you are to Hickson."
Christine laughed. " From the way you de-
scribe her," she said, " I believe she 'd make a
perfect wife for Ned."
" Oh, she J s much too good for him."
" Thank you. You seem to think I '11 do nicely
for him."
" Ah, but she 's much better than you are."
" And yet you said you 'd rather have me here
than her."
He smiled. " I think," he said, and Christine
rather waited for his next words, " I think I shall
go down and see if I can't get the furnace going."
5
LADIES MUST LIVE
Nevertheless, she said to herself when he was
gone, " I should not feel at all easy about him,
if I were the other girl."
She knew there was no prospect of their being
rescued that night. When the sleigh arrived at
the Usshers', if it ever did arrive, its empty shat-
tered condition would suggest an accident. The
Usshers were at that moment probably searching
for them in ditches, and hedges. The marks
of the sleigh would be quickly obliterated by the
storm. No, she thought comfortably, there was
no escape from the fact that their situation was
compromising. The only question was how could
the matter be most tactfully called to his attention.
At the moment he seemed happily unaware that
such things as the proprieties existed.
At this his head appeared at the head of the
cellar stairs.
" Watch the cereal, please," he said, " and see
that it does n't burn."
"Like King Alfred?"
" Not too much like him, please, for that piti-
ful little dab of food is about all we have to
eat."
LADIES MUST LIVE
When he was gone Christine advanced toward
the stove and looked at the cereal looked at it
closely, but it seemed to her to be but little bene-
fited by her attention. Presently she discovered
on a shelf beside the laundry clock a pinkish purple
paper novel, called: " The Crime of the Season.' 7
Its cover depicted a man in a check suit and side-
whiskers looking on in astonishment at the removal
of a drowned lady in full evening dress from a
very minute pond. Christine opened it, and was
so fortunate as to come full upon the crime. She
became as completely absorbed in it as the laun-
dress had been before her.
She was recalled to the more sordid but less
criminal surroundings of real life by a strong
pungent smell. She sniffed, and then her heart
suddenly sank as she realized that the cereal was
burning. She recognized a peculiarly disagreeable
flavor about which she had often scolded the cook,
thinking such carelessness on the part of one of
her employees to be absolutely inexcusable.
She ran to the head of the cellar stairs. " Mr.
Riatt!" she called.
He was now shaking down the furnace, and
5.2
LADIES MUST LIVE
the noise completely drowned her voice. "Oh,
dear, what a noisy man he is," she thought and
when he had finished, she called again : " Mr.
Riatt!"
This time he heard. "What is it?" he an-
swered.
"Mr. Riatt, what shall I do? The cereal is
burning terribly."
" I should think it was," he said. " I can smell
it down here." He sprang up the stairs and
snatched the pot from the stove. " You must
have stopped stirring it," he said.
"Oh, I did n't stir it!"
"What did you do?"
" You did n't tell me to stir it."
" I certainly did."
" No, you said just to watch it."
Riatt looked at her. " Well," he said, " I Ve
heard of glances cutting like a knife, but never
stirring like a spoon. If I were a really just
man," he went on, " I 'd make you eat that burnt
mess for your supper, but I 'm so absurdly in-
dulgent that I '11 share some of my bacon and
biscuits with you."
53
LADIES MUST LIVE
His tone as well as his words were irritating
to one not used to criticism in any form.
" I don't care for that sort of joke," she said.
" I was n't aware of having made a joke."
" I mean your attitude as if I were a child that
had been naughty."
" It would n't be so bad if you were a child."
" You consider me to blame because that
wretched cereal chose to burn?"
" Emphatically I do."
" How perfectly preposterous," said Christine,
and a sense of bitter injustice seethed within her.
" Why in the world should / be expected to know
how to cook? "
" I 'm a little too busy at the moment to explain
it to you," Riatt answered, " but I promise to take
it up with you at a later date."
There was something that sounded almost like
a threat in this. She turned away, and walking
to the window stood staring out into the darkness.
He was really quite a disagreeable young man,
she thought. How true it was, that you could n't
tell what people were like when everything was
going smoothly. She wondered if he would al-
54
LADIES MUST LIVE
ways be like that trying to keep one up to one's
duty and making one feel stupid and ignorant
about the merest trifles.
" Well, this rich meal is ready," he said pres-
ently.
She turned around. The table was set she
could n't help wondering where he had found the
kitchen knives and forks the bacon was siz-
zling, the tin of biscuits open, and the coffee bub-
bling and gurgling in its glass retort.
She sat down and began to eat in silence, but
as she did so, she studied him furtively. She was
used to many different kinds of masculine bad
temper; her father's irritability whenever any-
thing affected his personal comfort: and from
other men all forms of jealousy and hurt feel-
ings. But this stern indifference to her as a human
being was something a little different. She de-
cided on her method.
" Oh, dear," she said, " this meal could n't be
much drearier if we were married, could it?"
" Except," he returned, unsmilingly, " that then
it would be one of a long series."
" Not as far as I 'm concerned," she answered.
55
LADIES MUST LIVE
" I should leave you on account of your bad
temper."
" If I had n't first left you on account of "
"Of burning the cereal?"
" Of being so infernally irresponsible about
it."
"Oh, that's the trouble, is it?" she said.
"That I did not seem to care? Well, I assure
you that I don't like burnt food any better than
you do, but I have some self-control. I would n't
spoil a whole evening just because " A sud-
den inspiration came to her. Her voice failed
her, and she hid her face in her pocket handker-
chief.
Riatt leant back in his chair and looked at her,
looked at least at the back of her long neck, and
the twist of her golden hair and the occasional
heave of her shoulders.
The strange and the humiliating thing was that
she had just as much effect upon him when he
quite obviously knew that she was insincere.
" Why," he said gently, " are you crying? Or
perhaps I ought to say, why are you pretending
to cry?"
56
LADIES MUST LIVE
She paid no attention to the latter part of his
question.
" You 're so unkind," she said, careful not to
overdo a sob. " You don't seem to understand
what a terrible situation this is for me."
" In what way is it terrible? "
" Don't you know that a story like this clings
to a girl as long as she lives? That among the
people I know there will always be gossip "
" You 're not serious? "
She nodded, still behind her handkerchief,
" Yes, I am. This will be something I shall have
to live down, as much as you would if you had
robbed a bank."
She now raised her head, and wiping her eyes
hard enough to make them a little red, she glanced
at him.
Really she thought it would save a great deal
of time and trouble, if he could just see the thing
clearly and ask her to marry him now.
But apparently his mind did not work so
quickly.
"Who will repeat it?" he said. "Not the
Usshers "
57
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Nancy Almar won't let it pass. She '11 have
found the evening dull without you, and she '11
feel she has a right to compensation. And that
worm, Wickham; it will be his favorite anecdote
for the rest of his life. I was horrible to him
last night at dinner."
" Sorry you were? "
" Not a bit. I 'd do it again, but I may as
well face the fact that he won't be eager to con-
ceal his own social triumphs for the sake of my
good name. Can't you hear him, ' Curious thing
happened the other day at my friends the
Usshers'. Know them? A lovely country
place _'_"
"I'm awfully sorry," he said. "What a
bore ! Is there anything I could do "
" Well, there is one thing."
He looked up quickly. If ever terror flashed
in a man's eyes, she saw it then in his. Her heart
sank, but her mind worked none the less well.
" It 's this," she went on smoothly. " There 's
a lodge, a sort of tool-house, only about half a
mile down the road. Couldn't you take a Ian-
58
LADIES MUST LIVE
tern, couldn't you possibly spend the night
there?"
" It is n't by any chance," he said, " that you 're
afraid of having me here? "
" Oh, no, not you," she answered. " No, I
should feel much safer with you here than there."
(If he went her case was ruined, and she was
now actually afraid perhaps he would go.) " I
should be terrified in this great place all by myself.
Still, I think you ought to go. It 's not so very
far. You go down the road a little way and
then turn to the right through the woods. I think
you '11 find it. The roof used to leak a little, but
I dare say you won't mind that. There is n't any
fireplace, but you could take lots of blankets < "
" I tell you what I '11 do," he said. " No one
will come to rescue us to-night. I '11 sleep here
to-night, and to-morrow as soon as it 's light, I '11
go to this cottage, and when they come, you can
tell them any story you please. Will that do? "
It did perfectly. " Oh, thank you," she said.
" How kind you are ! And you do forgive me,
don't you? "
59
LADIES MUST LIVE
"About the cereal? Oh, yes, on one condi-
tion."
"What is that?" She was still meltingly
sweet.
" That you wash these dishes."
She felt inclined to box his ears. Had he seen
through her all the time?
" I never washed a dish in my life," she ob-
served thoughtfully.
" Have you ever done anything useful? "
She reflected, and after some thought she re-
plied, not boastfully, but as one who states an
indisputable fact: "Never."
He folded his arms, leant against the wall and
looked down upon her. " I wish," he said, " if
it is n't too much trouble that you would give me
a detailed account of one of your average
days."
* You talk," said she, " as if you were study-
ing the manners and customs of savages."
" Let us say of an unknown tribe."
She leant back in her chair and stretched her
arms over her head. " Well, let me see," she
said. " I wake up about nine or a little after if
60
LADIES MUST LIVE
I have n't been up all night, and I ring for my
maid. And about eleven "
" Don't skip, please. You ring for your maid.
What does she do for you? "
Imagine any one's not knowing! Miss Feni-
mer marveled. " Why, she draws my bath and
puts out my things, and while I 'm taking my bath,
she straightens the room and lights the fire, if
it 's cold, and brings in my breakfast-tray and my
letters. And by half-past ten, I 'm finally dressed
if no one has come in to delay me, only some one
always has. Last winter my time was immensely
occupied by two friends of mine who had both
fallen in love with the same man one of them
was married to him and they used to come
every day and confide in me. You have no idea
how amusing it was. He behaved shockingly,
but I could n't help feeling a little sorry Tor him.
They were both such determined women. Fi-
nally I went to him, and told him how it was I
knew so much about his affairs, and said I thought
he ought to try and make up his mind which of
them he really did care for. And what do you
think he said? That he had always been in love
61
LADIES MUST LIVE
with me." She laughed. " How absurdly things
happen, don't they? "
" Good Heavens! " said Riatt.
" But even at the worst, I 'm generally out by
noon, and get a walk. I 'm rather dependent on
exercise, and then I lunch with some one or
other"
" Men or women? "
" Either or both. And then after lunch I drive
with some one, or go to see pictures or hear music,
and then I like to be at home by tea time, because
that 's, of course, the hour every one counts on
finding you ; and then there 's dressing and going
out to dinner, and very often something after-
wards."
" Good Lord," said Riatt again, and after a
moment he added: " And does that life amuse
you?"
" No, but it does n't bore me as much as doing
things that are more trouble."
"What sort of things?"
" Oh, being on committees that you don't really
take any interest in." She rather enjoyed his
amazement.
62
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Now tell me one thing more," he said.
" What would you do if you had to earn your
living?"
The true answer was that she would marry
Edward Hickson, but, though heretofore she had
been fairly candid, she thought on this point a
little dissembling was permissible. " I should
starve, I suppose," she returned gaily.
" And suppose you fell in love with a poor
man?"
She grew grave at once. " Oh, that 's a dread-
ful thing to happen to one," she said. " I Ve
had two friends who did that." She almost
shuddered. " One actually married him."
" And what happened to her? "
Miss Fenimer shook her head. " I don't
know. She 's living in the suburbs somewhere.
I have n't seen her for ages."
u And the other?"
" She was more practical. She married him
to a rich widow ten years older than he was.
That provided for him, you see, at least. But
it turned out worse than the other case."
"How?"
63
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Why, he fell in love with this other
woman "
" His wife, you mean? "
1 Yes. Imagine it! Men are so fickle."
" Do you know that you really shock me? "
" It 's better to appreciate the way things are."
" It is n't the way things are among decent
normal human beings."
She shrugged her shoulders. " Oh, I imagine
it is," she said, " only they 're not honest enough
to admit it."
He continued to stare at her and, strangely
enough, she had never seemed to him more beauti-
ful.
" And do you mean to tell me," he said, " that
people who have the standards that you describe
will attach the slightest importance to an innocent
little adventure like this of ours?"
" Of course. They are the very people who
will."
" Nonsense."
" Yes, because they make a point of always
believing the worst, or at least of pretending to."
"Why pretend?"
64
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Because it makes conversation so much more
amusing. Sometimes,'' she added thoughtfully,
" I have a terrible suspicion that there really is n't
an atom of harm in any of them that they all
behave perfectly well, and just excite themselves
by talking as if they did n't."
" And you call that suspicion terrible?"
" Well, it makes it all seem a little flat. But
then sometimes," she went on brightly, " one does
find out something absolutely hideous."
" See here," he said, " it 's a crime for a girl of
your age to talk like this. It 's a silly habit. I
don't believe you 're like that at heart."
" You talk," said she, " like Edward Hickson."
" In some communities that would be thought
a fighting word," he returned. " But you
have n't yet answered my question. You 've told
.me what your friends have done; but what would
you do yourself, if you fell in love with a poor
man?"
" In the first place, I never should. What
makes a man attractive to me is power, preemi-
nence, being bowed down to. If I lived in a mili-
tary country, I 'd love the greatest soldier ; and
65
LADIES MUST LIVE
if I lived in a savage country, I 'd love the strong-
est warrior; but here to-day, the only form of
power I see is money. It 's what makes you able
to have everything you want, and that 's a man's
greatest charm."
" And it seems to me that the most tied-down
creatures I ever saw are the rich men I 've met
in the East."
She was honestly surprised. " Why, what is
there they can't do ? " she asked.
He smiled. " They can't do anything that
might endanger their property rights," he an-
swered, " and that seems to me to cut them off
from most forms of human endeavor. But no
matter about that. You say you would not be
likely to fall in love with a poor man, but suppose
you did. Perhaps it has happened already? "
Miss Fenimer looked thoughtful. " I was
trying to think," she said. " Yes, there was a
young artist two years ago that I was rather in-
terested in. He was very nice looking, and
Nancy Almar kept telling me how much he was
in love with her."
"And that stimulated your interest?"
66
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Of course."
" Just for the sake of information," he said,
" do you always want to take away any man who
is safely devoted to another woman? "
Christine seemed resolved to be accurate. " It
depends, " she answered, " whether or not I have
anything else to do, but of course the idea always
pops into one's head: I wonder if I couldn't
make him like me best."
" And do you always find you can? "
" Oh, there 's no rule about it; only as a new-
comer one has the advantage of novelty, iand
that 's something."
" And what happened about this artist? "
Christine smiled reminiscently: " I found he
wasn't really in love with Nancy at all: he just
wanted to paint her portrait."
" I should think he would have wanted to paint
yours."
" He did and gave it to me as a present, and
then he behaved very badly." She sighed.
"What did he do?"
" Well," she hesitated. " He did not really
want to give me the picture. He thought he
LADIES MUST LIVE
wanted to keep it himself. It was much the best
thing he ever did. I had to persuade him a good
deal, and in persuading him, I may have given
him the impression that I cared about him more
than I really did. Anyhow, after I actually had
the portrait hanging in my sitting-room, I told
him I thought it was better for us not to meet
any more. Some men would have been flattered
to think I took them so seriously. But he was
furious, and one day when I was out he sent for
the portrait and cut it all to pieces. Was n't that
horrible? My pretty portrait ! "
" Horrible ! " said Riatt. " It seems to me the
one spark of spirit the poor young man showed."
She glanced at him under her lashes. " What
would iyou have done?"
. " I'd take you but to the plains for a year or
so, and let you find out a little about what life
is like."
" I don't think it would be a success," she re-
turned. " I don't profit by discipline, I 'm afraid.
But," she stood up, " I 'm perfectly open minded.
I '11 make a beginning. I '11 wash the dishes
just to please you."
68
nd then, with a clean towel, he deliberately dried her hands, finger
by finger
LADIES MUST LIVE .
He watched her go to the kitchen sink, and
pour water from the steaming kettle into a dish
pan, saw her turn up her lace-frilled cuffs, and
begin with her long, slim, inefficient hands to
take up the dirty plates. Suddenly, much to his
surprise, he found he could n't bear it, could n't
bear to see the lace fall down again and again, and
her obvious shrinking from the task.
He crossed the room and took the plates from
her, and then with a clean towel, he deliberately
dried her hands, finger by finger, while she stood
by like a docile child, looking up at liim in wonder.
" Don't you want to reform me?'* she asked
plaintively.
" No," he answered shortly.
"Why not?"-
" Because you would be too dangerous," he
returned. " Now you have every charm except
goodness. If you turned good and gentle you 'd
be supreme."
" I never thought goodness was a charm" she
objected.
" And that 's just what I hope you will never
find out."
LADIES MUST LIVE
She laughed. " I don't believe there 's much
danger," she said. " I think I shall go on being
wicked and mercenary and selfish to the day of
my death, and probably getting everything I
want."
" I hope not. I mean I hope you won't get
what you want."
" Oh, why are you so unkind? "
" Because I shall want to use you as a terrible
example to my grandchildren."
" Do you think you will remember me as long
as that?"
" I feel no doubt about it."
She smiled. " It seems rather hard that I have
to come to a bad end just to oblige your horrid
little grandchildren," she said. " As a matter of
fact, I shall probably run them down in my motor
as they go to work with their little dinner-pails.
And as I take their mangled forms to the hospital,
I '11 murmur : * Riatt, Riatt, I think I once knew
a half-hearted reformer of that name/ '
" You think you, too, will remember as long as
that?"
" I have an excellent memory for trifles," she
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LADIES MUST LIVE
returned, and rose yawning. " And now I think
I '11 go to bed unless there 's anything more you
want to know about our tribal customs. Are you
going to write a nature book about us : 4 Head-
hunting Among the Idle Rich '? "
" ' The Cannibals of the Atlantic Coast ' is the
title," he answered as he gave her a candle.
" I '11 leave your breakfast for you in the morning
before I go. And by the way, if some one comes
to rescue you, don't go off and leave me in the
tool-house, will you? "
" Oh, I 'm not really as bad as that."
He shook his head as if he did n't feel sure.
' She went away well satisfied with her evening's
work. There had been something extremely flat-
tering in his mingled horror and amusement at
her candid revelations. Holding up the candle
she looked at her own image in her mirror.
" I wonder," she thought, " if that young man
knows what a dangerous frame of mind he 's
in?"
He had some suspicion, for as he dragged a
mattress downstairs and laid it before the kitchen
fire, he kept repeating to himself, as if in a last
73
LADIES MUST LIVE
effort to rouse some moral enthusiasm : " What
a band of cut-throats they are ! "
Christine woke the next morning to find the
sun shining on an unbroken sheet of snow. The
storm had passed in the night. She dressed
quickly and went down to find the kitchen empty,
and the track of footsteps in the snow leading
away in the direction of the tool-house. Her
coffee was bubbling and slices of bacon neatly laid
in the frying pan were ready for cooking. She
thought he might have stayed and cooked it for
her.
" No one will come as early as this," she
thought, plaintively.
But hardly had she finished her simple meal,
when the sound of sleigh bells reached her ears,
and running to the window she .saw that Ussher
and Hickson in a two horse sleigh were driving
down the slope.
A moment later they were in the kitchen. And
after the minimum time had elapsed during which
all three talked at once recounting their own indi-
vidual anxieties, Ussher asked:
"Where's Max?"
74
LADIES MUST LIVE
Christine cast down her eyes with a sort of
Paul-and-Virginia expression, as she answered:
" Oh, he is sleeping in the tool-house! "
; ' Well, I call that damned nonsense," said
Ussher. " Let a man freeze to death ! Upon
my word, Christine, I thought you had more
sense." And he strode away to the back door.
" Yes, here are his tracks, poor fellow." Ussher
went out after him, and Hickson turned back.
" But you think I was right, don't you, Ed-
ward?" said Christine, for she had never failed
to elicit commendation from Edward.
But now his brow was dark. " But, I say,
Christine," he said, " there 's one thing I don't
understand. These tracks of his footsteps in the
snow."
u He did n't fly, Ned, even if he is an aviator."
' Yes, but it did n't stop snowing until four
o'clock this morning."
How irritating the weather always is, Christine
thought. For though she was willing to use scan-
dal as a weapon over Riatt, she was not sure that
she wished to put it into Hickson's hands.
She thought hard, and then said brightly:
75
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Oh, perhaps he came back for his breakfast be-
fore I was up."
Hickson shook his head: " They only lead
one way," he said.
In the face of the tactlessness of hard facts,
Christine decided to create a diversion.
" I can't stand here gossiping about the con-
duct of an aviator," she said, " when there 's so
much to be done. Look at all these dirty plates.
What ought to be done with them, Edward,
dear? " she appealed to him as to a fountain of
wisdom, and he did not fail her.
" They ought to be washed," he said. " Give
me a towel. I '11 do it." And he felt more than
rewarded when, as she handed him a towel, her
hand touched his.
The many duties of which she had just spoken
seemed suddenly to have melted away, for she sat
down quite idly and watched him.
" How well you do it, Edward," she said, not
quite honestly, for she compared his slow gestures
very unfavorably with Riatt's deft hands. " It 's
quite as if you had washed dishes all your life."
" Ah, Christine," he answered, looking at her
LADIES MUST LIVE
sentimentally over a coffee-cup, " I should n't ask
anything better than to wash your dishes for the
rest of my life."
" Thank you, Edward, but I think I should ask
something a good deal better," she answered.
It was on this scene that Ussher and Riatt en-
tered, and the eyes of the latter twinkled.
" Engaged a kitchen-maid, I see," he said in a
low tone to Christine.
" I think it 's so good for people to do some-
thing useful now and then, don't you ? "
" A form of education that you offer almost
every one who comes near you."
Hickson did not hear everything, but he caught
the idea, and said severely:
" I don't suppose any one would ask Miss
Fenimer to wash dirty dishes."
Riatt laughed : " No one who had ever seen
her try."
J
Ussher, who had been fuming in the back-
ground, now broke out:
" Upon my word, Christine, that tool-house was
like a vault. It was madness to ask any one to
spend the night in such a place."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" Did you spend the night in the tool-house? "
said Hickson with unusual directness.
" There are worse places than the tool-house,"
said Riatt, as he and Ussher hurried down to the
cellar to put out the furnace fire.
Hickson turned to Christine. " The fellow
did n't answer me," he said.
" Perhaps he thought it was none of your busi-
ness, Edward, my dear," she answered.
" Everything connected with you is my busi-
ness," he returned.
" Oh, Edward, what a dreary outlook for
me!"
" Christine, answer me. Did or did not this
man make advances to you? "
" Edward, he did."
"What happened?"
" He gave me a long, tiresome, moral lecture
and, judging by you, my dear, that is proof of
affection."
1 You 're simply amusing yourself with me ! "
" I 'm not amusing myself very much, Edward,
if that 's any comfort."
" You drive me mad," he said and stamped
LADIES MUST LIVE
away from her so hard, that Ussher came up from
the cellar.
"What's Edward doing?" he said.
" He says he 's going mad," returned Christine,
" but I thought he was washing the dishes."
" There 's no pleasing Edward," said Ussher.
" He was in my room at six o'clock this morning
trying to get me to start a rescuing party (and
I need n't tell you, Christine, we none of us had
much sleep last night), and now that he is here
and finds you safe, he seems to be just as restless
as ever." And Ussher returned to the cellar still
grumbling.
' You know why I 'm restless, Christine," Hick-
son said when they were again alone.
Christine seemed to wonder. " The artistic
temperament is usually given as the explanation,
but somehow, in your case, Edward "
He came and stood directly in front of her.
" Christine, what did happen last night? "
Although not a muscle of Miss Fenimer's face
moved, she knew very well that this was a turning-
point. She had the choice between killing the
scandal, or giving it such life and strength that
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LADIES MUST LIVE
nothing but her marriage with Riatt would ever
allay it. She knew that a few sensible words
would put Hickson straight, and Hickson would
be a powerful ally. On the other hand, if he
came back plainly weighted with a terrible doubt,
no one would ask any further evidence. The
question was, how much would Riatt feel the re-
sponsibility of such a situation. It was a fighting
chance. Themistocles when he burnt his ships
must have argued in very much the same way,
but probably not so rapidly.
" There are some things, Edward," Christine
said in a low shaken voice, " that I cannot discuss
even with you."
Hickson turned away with a groan.
80
CHAPTER III
/CHRISTINE had been right when she told
V^4 Riatt that Nancy Almar would be resentful
after a dull evening at the Usshers'.
The evening, as far as Nancy was concerned,
had been very dull indeed. To be bored, in her
creed, was a confession of complete failure; it
indicated the most contemptible inefficiency, since
she designed the whole fabric of her life with the
unique object of keeping herself amused. Noth-
ing bored her more than to have the general atten-
tion centered on some one else, as all that eve-
ning it had been focussed on the absent ones.
Not only did she miss the excitement of her con-
test with Christine over the possession of Riatt,
but she was positively wearied by the Usshers 1
anxiety, by her brother's agony of jealousy and
fear, and by Wickham's continual effort to strike
an original thought from the dramatic quality of
the situation.
She was finally reduced to playing piquet with
81
LADIES MUST LIVE
Wickham, and though she won a good deal of
money from him more, that is, than he could
comfortably afford to lose she still counted the
evening a failure, bad in the present, and ex-
tremely menacing to the future. For with her
habitual mental candor, she admitted that by this
time Christine, if not actually frozen to death
which after all one could not exactly hope had
probably won the game. The chances were that
Riatt was captured.
"What is the matter, Ned?" she said to her
brother, as he fidgeted about the card-table, after
a last futile expedition to the telephone. " Can't
you decide whether you 'd rather the lady of your
love were dead or subjected for twenty-four hours
to the fascinations of an irresistible young man? "
" What an interesting question that raises," ob-
served Wickham, examining rather ruefully the
three meager cards he had drawn. " A modern
Lady-or-the-Tiger idea. I am not of a jealous
temperament and should always prefer to see a
woman happy with another man."
" And often do, I dare say," said Nancy. " I
have a point of seven, and fourteen aces."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" I must own I can't see Riatt's irresistible qual-
ity," said Hickson irritably.
" Rich, nice-looking and has his wits about
him," replied Mrs. Almar succinctly.
" About as good-looking as a fence-rail."
" And they say women are envious ! " exclaimed
his sister.
"Are you a feminist, Mrs. Almar?" inquired
the irrepressible Wickham.
" No, just a female, Mr. Wickham."
" I never thought a big bony nose made a man
a beauty," grumbled Hickson.
" Ah, how much wisdom there is in that reply
of yours, Mrs. Almar," said Wickham. " Just
a female. Your meaning is, if I interpret you
rightly, that you are content with the duties and
charms which Nature has bestowed upon your
sex"
"Until I can get something better," replied
Nancy briskly, drawing the score toward her and
beginning to add it up. " My idea is to let the
other women do the fighting; if they win, I shall
profit; if they lose, I 'm no worse off. I believe
I Ve rubiconed you again, Mr. Wickham."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" Well, I don't understand women's taste, any-
how," said Hickson.
" You never spoke a truer word than that, my
dear," said Nancy. " Seventy-four fifty, I think
that makes it, Mr. Wickham, subtracting the dol-
lar and a half you made on the first game. Oh,
yes, a check will do perfectly. I 'm less likely to
lose it."
" I never had a worse run of luck," observed
Wickham with an attempt at indifference.
Mrs. Almar stood up yawning. " Doubtless
you are on the brink of a great amorous tri-
umph," she said languidly, and went off to bed.
Hickson did not attempt to sleep. He sat up
for the remainder of the night, in the hope that
some sudden call might come, and at six o'clock
as Ussher had told Christine, he was ready for
new efforts.
Rescued and rescuers reached the Usshers'
house about half past ten the following morning.
Nancy was not yet downstairs. Wickham had
not been able to judge what was the correct note
to strike in connection with the whole incident,
and so did not dare to sound any. The arrival
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LADIES MUST LIVE
was comparatively simple. Mrs. Ussher re-
ceived her beloved Christine with open arms;
Riatt went noncommittally upstairs to take a bath;
Hickson had decided, in spite of his depression of
spirits, to try to make up a little of last night's
lost sleep, when he received a summons from his
sister. Her maid, a clever, sallow little French-
woman, came down with her hands in her apron
pockets to say that Madame should like to speak
to Monsieur at once.
He found Nancy still in bed; her little black
head looking blacker than usual against the lace
of the pillows and the coverlet and of her own
bed-jacket. The only color about her was the
yellow covered French novel she laid down as he
entered, and the one enormous ruby on her fourth
finger.
" And now, Ned, my dear," she said quite af-
fectionately for her, " I hear you have brought
the wanderers safely home. Tell me all about
it."
Hickson, to whom this summons had not come
as a surprise, had resolved that he would confide
none of his anxieties to his sister but, alas, as
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LADIES MUST LIVE
well might a pane of glass resolve to be opaque
to a ray of sunlight. Within ten minutes, Nancy
knew not only all that he knew, but such addi-
tional deductions as her sharper wits enabled her
to draw.
" I see," she murmured, as he finished. " The
only positive fact that we have is that he did not
leave the house until after five. How very inter-
esting! "
" Very terrible," said Hickson.
" Terrible," exclaimed Nancy, with the most
genuine surprise. " Not at all. From your
point of view most encouraging. It can mean
only one thing. The young man very prudently
ran away."
Edward was really stirred to anger. " Nancy,"
he said, " how do you dare, even in fun "
" Oh, my dear," answered his sister, as one
wearied by all the folly in the world, " how can
I be of any use to you if you will not open your
eyes? He ran away. We don't know of course
just from what; but we do know this: Max
Riatt is the best match that has yet presented him-
self, and that Christine is the last girl in the world
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to ignore that simple fact. Come, Ned, even if
you do love her, you may as well admit the girl
is not a perfect fool. Fate, accident, or possibly
her own clever maneuvering put the game into
her hands. The question is, how did she play
it? I know what I 'd have done, but I don't
believe she would. I think she probably tried to
make him believe that she was hopelessly com-
promised in the eyes of the world, and that there
was no course open to an honorable man but to
ask her to marry him."
" I can't imagine Christine playing such a
part."
" I tell you, you never do the poor girl justice.
If she did that and the chances are she did
then his running away is most encouraging. It
means, in your own delightful language, that he
did not fall for it did not want to run any risk
of compromising her, if marriage was the con-
sequence."
" But, Nancy, Christine almost admitted that
that he tried to make love to her."
" I can't see what that has to do with it, or
what difference it makes," replied Mrs. Almar.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" However, too much importance should not be
attached to such admissions. I have sometimes
made them myself when the facts did not bear me
out. No woman likes to confess, especially to
an old adorer like you, that she has spent so
many hours alone with a man and he has not
made love to her."
Hickson shook his head. " I 'm not clever
enough to be able to explain it," he said, " but
I received the clearest impression from her that
she had been through some painful experience."
" Good," said Nancy. " Do you know the
most painful experience she could have been
through?"
"No, what?"
" If he had n't paid the slightest attention to
her; and that, my dear brother, is what I am in-
clined to think took place. No, the game is still
on ; only now she '11 have the Usshers to help her.
This is no time for me to lie in bed."
Ned looked at her doubtfully. " I thought
I 'd try and sleep a little," he said.
"The best thing you can do," she returned.
" Lucie ! Lucie 1 Where are the bells in this
LADIES MUST LIVE
house! What privations one suffers for staying
away from home! Oh, yes, here it is," and she
caught the atom of enamel and gold dangling at
the head of her bed, and rang it without ceasing
until the maid, who regarded her mistress with
an admiration quite untinctured by affection, ap-
peared silently at the doorway.
In an astonishingly short space of time, she
was dressed and downstairs, presenting her usual
sleek and polished appearance. Wickham was
alone in the drawing-room, and a suggestion that
they should have another game of piquet quickly
drove him to the writing of some purely imagi-
nary business letters.
The coast was thus clear, but Riatt was still
absent.
Nancy's methods were nothing if not direct.
She rang the bell and when the butler appeared
she said:
"Where is Mr. Riatt?"
" In his room, madam."
" Dressing? "
" No, madam, he is dressed. Resting, I should
say."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
Nancy nodded her head once. " One mo-
ment," she said; and going to the writing table
she sat down and wrote quickly:
" I should like five minutes' conversation with
you. Strange to say my motive is altruistic
so altruistic that I feel I should sign myself * Pro
Bono Publico,' instead of Nancy Almar. There
is no one down here in the drawing-room at the
moment."
She put this in an envelope, sealed it with seal-
ing wax (to the disgust of the butler who found
it hard enough, as it was, to keep up with all
that went on in the house) and told the man to
send it at once to Mr. Riatt's room.
She did not have long to wait. Riatt, with all
the satisfaction in his bearing of one who has
just bathed, shaved and eaten, came down to her
at once.
" Good morning, Pro Bono Publico," he said,
just glancing about to be sure he was not over-
heard. " It was not necessary to put this inter-
view on an altruistic basis. I should have been
90
Isn't that rather a reckless way for a man in your situation to talk ? "
LADIES MUST LIVE
glad to come to it, even if it had been as a favor
to you."
She looked at him with her hard, dark eyes.
" Is n't that rather a reckless way for a man in
your situation to talk? "
" I was not aware that I was in a situation."
This was exactly the expression that she had
wanted from him. It seemed to come spontane-
ously, and could only mean that at least he was
not newly engaged.
She relaxed the tension of her attitude. " Are
you really under the impression that you 're
not?"
" I feel quite sure of it."
" You poor, dear, innocent creature."
" However," he went on, sitting down beside
her on the wide, low sofa, " something tells me
that I shall enjoy extremely having you tell me
all about it."
Tucking one foot under her, as every girl is
taught in the school-room it is most unladylike to
do, she turned and faced him. " Mr. Riatt," she
said, " when I was a child I used to let the mice
out of the traps not so much, I 'm afraid, from
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LADIES MUST LIVE
tenderness for the mice, as from dislike of my
natural enemy, the cook. Since then I have never
been able to see a mouse in anybody's trap but my
own, without a desire to release it."
" And I am the mouse? "
She nodded. " And in rather a dangerous sort
of trap, too."
He smiled at the seriousness of her tone.
" Ah," said she, " the self-confidence which
your smile betrays is one of the weaknesses by
which nature has delivered your sex into the hands
of mine. I would explain it to you at length, but
the time is too short. The great offensive may
begin at any moment. The Usshers have made
up their minds that you are to marry Christine
Fenimer. That was why you were asked here."
" Innocent Westerner as I am," he answered,
" that idea "
She interrupted him. " Yes, but don't you see
it 's entirely different now. Now they really have
a sort of hold on you. I don't know what Chris-
tine's own attitude may be, but I can tell you
this: her position was so difficult that she was on
the point of engaging herself to Ned."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" Oh, come," said Riatt politely, " your brother
is not so bad as you seem to think."
" He 's not bad at all, poor dear. He 's very
good; but women do not fall in love with him.
You, on the contrary, are rich and attractive.
You '11 just have to take my word for that," she
added without a trace of coquetry. " And so
and so and so, if I were you, my dear Cousin
Max, I should give orders to have my bag packed
at once, and take a very slow, tiresome train that
leaves here at twelve-forty-something, and not
even wait for the afternoon express."
There was that in her tone that would have
made the blood of any man run cold with terror,
but he managed a smile. " In my place you
would run away? " he said.
She shook her head. " No, I would n't run
away myself, but I advise you to. I shouldn't
be in any danger. Being a mere woman, I can
be cruel, cold and selfish when the occasion de-
mands. But this is a situation that requires all
the qualities a man does n't possess."
"What do you mean?"
" Does your heart become harder when a
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LADIES MUST LIVE
pretty woman cries ? Is your conscience unmoved
by the responsibility of some one else's unhappi-
ness? Can you be made love to without a haunt-
ing suspicion that you brought it on your-
self?"
" Good heavens, no ! " cried Riatt from the
heart.
" Then, run while there 's time."
As the ox fears the gad-fly and the elephant the
mouse, so does the bravest of men fear the emo-
tional entanglement of any making but his own.
For an instant Riatt felt himself swept by the
frankest, wildest panic. Misadventures among
the clouds he had had many times, and had looked
a clean straight death in the face. He had never
felt anything like the terror that for an instant
possessed him. Then it passed and he said with
conviction :
" Well, after all, there are certain things you
can't be made to do against your will."
" Certainly. But you are not referring to mar-
riage, are you? "
" Yes, I was."
"My poor, dear man! As if half the mar-
LADIES MUST LIVE
riages in the world were not made against the
wish of one party or the other."
His heart sank. " It J s perfectly true," he
said. " And yet one does rather hate to run
away."
" Not so much as one hates afterward to think
one might have."
He laughed and she went on : " The moment
is critical. Laura Ussher and Christine have
been closeted together for the better part of two
hours. Something is going to happen immedi-
ately. At any moment Laura may appear and
say with that wonderfully casual manner of hers,
* May I have a word with you, Max?' And
then you '11 be lost."
" Oh, not quite as bad as that, I hope," said
Riatt.
" Lost," she repeated, and leaning over she
laid one polished finger tip on the bell. " When,
the man comes, tell him to get you ready for that
early train."
There was complete silence between them until
the footman appeared and Riatt had given the
necessary orders.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
u I wonder/* he said when they were again
alone, " whether I shall be angry at you for this
advice, or grateful. It 's a dangerous thing, you
know, to advise a man to run away."
" Dine with me in town on Wednesday, and you
can tell me which it is."
" You don't seem to be much afraid of my
anger."
" I think perhaps your gratitude might be the
more dangerous of the two;"
While he was struggling between a new-found
prudence, and a natural desire to inquire further
into her meaning, a door upstairs was heard to
shut, and presently Laura Ussher came sauntering
into the room.
" You 're up early, Nancy," she said pleas-
antly.
" I thought I ought to recognize the return of
the wanderers in some way particularly, as I
hear we are to lose one of them so soon."
Mrs. Ussher glanced quickly at her cousin.
" Are you leaving us, Max? "
" I 'm sorry to say I Ve just had word that I
must, and I told the man to make arrangements
LADIES MUST LIVE
for me to get that twelve-something-or-other
train."
Mrs. Ussher did not change a muscle. " I 'm
sorry you have to go," she said. " We shall all
miss you. By the way, you won't be able to get
anything before the four-eighteen. That midday
train is taken off in winter. Did n't the footman
tell you ? Stupid young man ; but he 's new and
has not learnt the trains yet, I suppose. Do you
want to send a telegram? They have to be tele-
phoned here, but if you write it out I '11 have it
sent for you."
" How wonderful you are, Laura," murmured
Mrs. Almar.
Mrs. Ussher looked vague. " In what way,
dear?"
" In all ways, but I think it 's as a friend that
I admire you most."
Mrs. Ussher smiled. " Yes," she said, " I 'm
very devoted to my friends even when they don't
behave quite fairly to me. But I love my rela-
tions, too," she added. " Max, since I 'm to lose
you so soon, I 'd like to have a talk with you
before lunch. Shall we go to my little study? "
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LADIES MUST LIVE
Nancy's eyes danced. " No, Laura," she said,
" he will not. He has just promised to teach
me a new solitaire, and I won't yield him to any
one."
Riatt, terrified at this proof that Nancy's proph-
ecy was coming true, resolved to cling to her.
" Sit down and learn the game, too, Laura,"
he said. " It 's a very good one."
" I want to speak to you about a business mat-
ter, Max."
" I never attend to business during church
hours, Laura," he answered. " We '11 talk about
it after lunch, if you like."
Laura had learnt the art of yielding gracefully.
" That will do just as well," she said, and sat
down to watch the game.
Presently Wickham, seeing that Mrs. Almar
seemed to be safely engaged, ventured back. And
they were all thus innocently occupied when lunch-
eon was announced.
Christine came down looking particularly
lovely. It is a precaution which a good-looking
woman rarely fails to take in a crisis. She was
wearing a deep blue dress trimmed with fur, and
IOO
LADIES MUST LIVE
only needed a solid gold halo behind her head
to make her look like a Byzantine saint.
" Well, Miss Fenimer," said Wickham, as they
sat down. " You look very blooming after your
terrible experiences."
Christine had come prepared for battle.
" Oh, they were n't so very terrible, Mr. Wick-
ham, thank you," she said, and she leant her
elbow on the table and played with those imita-
tion pearls which she now hoped so soon to give
to her maid. " Mr. Riatt is the most wonderful
provider expert as a cook as well as a furnace-
man."
" It may n't have been terrible for you," put
in Ussher, who had a habit of conversational
reversion, " but I bet it was no joke in the tool-
house 1 How an intelligent woman like you,
Christine, could dream of making a man spend
the night in that hole, just for the sake
of"
" But I thought it was Mr. Riatt's own choice,"
said Nancy gently.
" You would n't think so if you could have felt
the place," Ussher continued. " And what dif-
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LADIES MUST LIVE
ference did it make? Who was there to talk?
Every one knows that their being there was just
an unavoidable accident "
" Oh, if it had been an accident ! " said Nancy,
and it was as if a little venomous snake had
suddenly wriggled itself into the conversation.
Every one turned toward her, and her brother
asked sternly:
"If, it had been an accident, Nancy? What
the deuce do you mean by if?"
Nancy shook her small head. " I express my-
self badly," she said. " English rhetoric was left
out of my education."
" You manage to convey your ideas, dear,"
said Laura.
" I was trying to say that if poor, dear Chris-
tine had not been so unfortunately the one to hit
the horse in the head, and start him off "
Wickham pricked up his ears. " Oh, I say,
Miss Fenimer," he exclaimed, " did you really
hit the horse?"
" Certainly, I did, Mr. Wickham."
" But what did you do that for? "
Christine did not trouble to answer this ques-
102
LADIES MUST LIVE
tion. Hickson, who had been suffering far more
than any one, rushed to the rescue.
" Miss Fenimer did not do it on purpose,
Wickham. She happened to be standing "
"Oh, is that what your sister meant?" said
Christine, as if a sudden light dawned on her.
" Tell me, Nancy darling, do you really think I
hit the horse on purpose, so as to have an uninter-
rupted evening with Mr. Riatt? How you do
flatter men ! It 's a great art. I 'm afraid I
shall never learn it."
For the first time, Riatt found himself looking
at her with a certain amount of genuine admira-
tion. This was very straight fighting. " They
have the piratical virtues," he thought, " courage,
and the ability to give and take hard blows."
Mrs. Almar was not to be outdone. " Well,"
she said, " I may as well be honest. I can
imagine myself doing it, for the right man. And
we should have had an amusing evening of it,
which was more than we had here, I can tell you.
We were very dreary. Mr. Wickham tried to
relieve the monotony by a game of piquet, but
I 'm afraid he did not really enjoy it, for he has
103
LADIES MUST LIVE
not asked me to play since." And she cast a quick,
stimulating glance at Wickham, whose usual in-
ability to say nothing again betrayed him.
" Oh," he said, " I enjoyed our game im-
mensely."
" Good," answered Nancy. " We '11 have an-
other this afternoon then."
u Indeed, yes," said Wickham, looking rather
wan.
" After Mr. Riatt has gone," said Nancy dis-
tinctly. She knew that Laura had had no oppor-
tunity to convey this intelligence to Christine, and
it amused her to see how she would support the
blow. Christine's expression did not change, but
her blue eyes grew suddenly a little darker. She
turned slowly toward Riatt.
" And are you leaving us? " she asked.
" Sorry to say I am."
"What a bore," said Miss Fenimer politely.
Hickson's simple heart bounded for joy. " She 's
refused him," he thought, " and that 's why he 's
rushing off like this."
" Yes," said Ussher, " I should think he would
want to go home and take some care of himself.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
It 's a wonder if he does n't develop pneu-
monia."
Christine smiled at Riatt across the table.
" They make me feel as if I had been very cruel,
Mr. Riatt," she said.
" Cruel, my dear," cried Nancy. " Oh, I 'm
sure you were n't that" and then intoxicated by
her own success, she made her first tactical error.
She turned to Riatt and said: "Don't forget
that you are dining with me on Wednesday eve-
ning." She enjoyed this exhibition of power.
She saw Laura and Christine glance at each other.
But they were not dismayed; they saw at once that
Max had not been playing his hand alone; he was
going not entirely on his own initiative, and that
was encouraging.
Riatt, who perfectly understood the public pro-
tectorate that was thus established over him, re-
sented it; in fact by the time they rose from the
table, he was thoroughly disgusted with all of
them weary, as he said to himself of their
hideous little games. He hardened his heart even
as Pharaoh did, and he felt not the least hesita-
tion in according Laura the promised interview,
LADIES MUST LIVE
for the reason that he felt no doubt of his own
powers of resistance.
He permitted himself to be ostentatiously led
away, upstairs to her little private sitting-room,
with its books, and fireplace, and signed photo-
graphs, and he pretended not to see Nancy
Almar's glance, which was almost a wink, and
might have been occasioned by the fact that she
herself was at the same moment gently guiding
Wickham in the direction of a card-table.
Laura made her cousin very comfortable, in a
long chair by the fire, with his cigarettes and his
coffee beside him on a little table, and then she
began murmuring:
" Is n't it a pity Nancy Almar is so poisonous
at times ! She is n't really bad hearted, but any-
thing connected with Christine has always roused
her jealousy the old beauty and the new one,
I suppose."
" I wonder," said Riatt, " what is the differ-
ence, if any, between a pirate and a bucaneer?
Miss Fenimer and Mrs. Almar seem to me to
have many qualities in common."
" Oh, Max, how can you say that? Christine
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LADIES MUST LIVE
is so much more gentle and womanly, so much "
" My dear Laura, we have n't very much time,
and I think you said you wanted to talk to me on
a business matter."
Laura Ussher had the grace to hesitate, just
an instant, before she answered: " Oh, yes, but
it 's your business I want to talk about. I want
to speak to you about this terrible situation in
which Christine finds herself. Do you realize
that Nancy and Wickham between them will
spread this story everywhere, with all the embel-
lishments their fancy may dictate, particularly em-
phasizing the fact that it was Christine who made
the horse run away. It will be in the papers
within a week. You know, Max, just as well as
I do, that it was n't her fault. Is she to be so
cruelly punished for it? Can you permit that? "
" It 's not my fault either, Laura."
" You can so easily save the situation."
"How?"
" By asking her to marry you."
" That I will not do."
" Are you involved with some one else? "
" I might make you understand better if I said
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LADIES MUST LIVE
yes, but it would not be true. I 'm not in love
with any individual, but I know clearly the type
of woman I could fall in love with, and it most
emphatically is not Miss Fenimer's."
" Yet so many men have fallen in love with
her."
" Oh, I see her beauty; I even feel her charm;
but to marry her, no."
"Think of the prestige her beauty and posi-
tion"
" My dear Laura, what position? Social posi-
tion as represented by the hectic triviality of the
last few days? Thank you, no, again."
" Dear Max," said his cousin more seriously
than she had hitherto spoken, " you know I would
not want you to do anything that I thought would
make you unhappy. But this would n't. I know
Christine better than you do. I know that under
all her worldliness and hardness there is a vein
of devotion and sweetness "
" Very likely there is. But it would not be
brought out by a mercenary marriage with a man
who cared nothing for her. If that is all you
have to say, Laura, let 's end an interview which
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LADIES MUST LIVE
has n't been very pleasant for either of us."
" Oh, Max, how can you abandon that lovely
creature to some tragic future? "
" You know quite well she is going to do noth-
ing more tragic than to marry Hickson."
" And you are willing to sacrifice her to Hick-
son?"
" My dear Laura, I cannot prevent all the
beautiful, dissatisfied women in the world from
marrying dull, kind-hearted young men who adore
them."
Mrs. Ussher stared at him in baffled, unhappy
silence, and in the pause, the door quickly and
silently opened and Christine herself entered.
She looked calm, almost Olympian, as she laid her
hand on Laura's arm.
" Let me have just a word alone with Mr.
Riatt," she said; and as Laura precipitately left
the room, Christine turned to Riatt with a reas-
suring smile. " Don't be alarmed," she said.
" Your most dangerous antagonist has just gone.
I Ve really come to rescue you." She sank into
a chair. " How exhausting scenes are. Let me
have a cigarette, will you?"
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LADIES MUST LIVE
She smoked a moment in silence, while he stood
erect and alert by the mantel-piece. At last,
glancing up at him, she said:
" I suppose Laura was suggesting that you
marry me? "
He nodded.
" Laura J s a dear, but not always very wise.
You see, she thinks we are both so wonderful, she
can't believe we would n't make each other happy.
And from her point of view, it is rather an obvi-
ous solution. You see, she does not know about
that paragon in the Middle West."
" She existed only in my imagination."
" Oh, a dream-lady," said Christine, and her
eyes' brightened a little. " No wonder you
thought her too good for Ned. Well, that brings
me to what I came to tell you. I have decided
to marry Edward Hickson."
There was a blank and rather flat pause, during
which Riatt took his cigarette from his mouth and
very carefully studied the ash, but could think of
nothing to say. The thought in his mind was that
Hickson was a dull dog.
no
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Have you told Hickson? " he asked after a
moment.
She shook her head. " No, and I sha'n't till
I get more accustomed to the idea myself. It
isn't exactly an easy idea to get accustomed to.
The prospect is not lively."
" I dare say you will contrive to make it as
lively as possible."
She smiled drearily. " How very poorly you
do think of me ! I sha'n't make Ned a bad wife.
He will be very happy, and Nancy and I will
be like sisters. By the way, you 're not in love
with Nancy, are you? "
" Certainly not."
" Good. They all say it 's a dog's life." She
yawned. " Oh, is n't everything tiresome ! If
I had had any idea my filial deed in going to find *
my father's coat would have resulted in my hav-
ing to marry Ned, I never would have gone."
Riatt struggled in silence. He wanted any
man would have wanted to ask her whether
there wasn't some other way out; but knowing
that he himself was the only other way, he re-
iii
LADIES MUST LIVE
frained and asked instead: "Is there anything
I can do to help you?"
" There is," she responded promptly.
" Rather a disagreeable thing, too. But it will be
all over in an instant, and you can take your after-
noon train and forget all about us. Will you do
it?"
He hesitated, and she went on:
" Ah, cautious to the last ! It 's just a demon-
stration, a beau geste. It J s this : J[ou see, the
situation, as I have discovered from a little talk
with Ned, is more ugly than has yet appeared.
They are holding one thing up their sleeve. Ned,
it seems, noticed the track of your feet leaving
the house, and it did not stop snowing until the
morning. That was rather careless of you,
was n't it? Nancy can make a good deal of that
one little fact."
" What people you are ! "
" Rather horrid, are n't we? Did Laura keep
telling you what a wonderful advantage it would
be for you to be one of us? I wish I could have
seen your face."
" Yes, she did say something of the advantages
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LADIES MUST LIVE
of belonging to a group like this. Do you know
what any man who married you ought to do with
you," he added with sudden vigor. " He ought
to take you to the smallest, ugliest, deadest
town he could find and keep you there five
years."
" Thank you," she said. " You have achieved
the impossible. You have made Ned seem quite
exciting. Hitherto I have taken New York for
granted, but now I shall add it to his positive
advantages. But you have n't heard yet what it
is I want you to do."
"What is it?"
" I want you to make me a well authenticated
offer of marriage before you go for good."
" Miss Fenimer, I have the honor to ask you
to marry me."
" I regret so much, Mr. Riatt, that a previous
attachment prevents my accepting but, my dear
man, thaft is n't at all what I mean. Do you sup-
pose Wickham and Nancy will believe me just
because I walk out of this room and say you asked
me to marry you ? No, we must have some proof
to offer."
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Something in writing? "
She hesitated.
" No," she said, " one really can't go about
with a framed proposal like a college degree. I
want a public demonstration."
" Something with a band or a phonograph? "
She was evidently thinking it out or wished
to appear to be. " Not quite that either. This
would be more like it. Suppose I send for Nancy
to come here now and consult with me as to
whether I shall accept your offer or not. If I
told her before you, she could hardly refuse to
believe it. And you would be safe, for there
is n't the least doubt what advice she will give
me."
u You think she will advise you against me? "
Christine nodded. " She will try to save you
from the awful fate she is reserving for her
brother." She touched the bell. " Do you feel
nervous? "
" A trifle," he answered, and indeed he did,
for he knew better than Christine could, how
strange this coming interview would appear to
Mrs. Almar after the conversation before lunch.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
He consoled himself, however, by the thought that
train-time was drawing near, " and then, please
heaven," he said to himself, " I need never see
any of them again."
"Isn't it strange," began Miss Fenimer, and
then as a servant appeared in the doorway:
" Oh, will you please ask Mrs. Almar to come
here for a few minutes and speak to me. Tell
her it is very important. Is n't it strange," she
went on, when the man had gone, " that I 'm not
a bit nervous, and yet I have so much more at
stake than you have."
* You have a good deal clearer notion of your
role than I."
" Your role is easy. You confirm everything
I say, and contrive to look a little depressed at
the end. Nothing could be simpler."
He hesitated. " Simpler than to look de-
pressed when you refuse me? "
" No one really likes to be refused," she said.
" Even I, hardened as I am, felt a certain distaste
for the idea that Laura had been urging me on
your reluctant acceptance. By the way, you did
seem able to say no, after all your talk on our
"5
LADIES MUST LIVE
unfortunate drive about no man's being able to
refuse a woman."
" Oh, a third party," he answered. " That 's
a very different thing. Had it been you yourself,
with streaming eyes " He looked at her sit-
ting very cool and straight at a safe distance.
" I don't think I could cry to save my life," she
observed. " Certainly not to save my reputa-
tion."
He did not answer. The situation had begun
to seem like a game to him, or some absurd farce
in which he was only reading some regular actor's
part; and when presently the door opened to
admit Mrs. Almar, he felt as if she had been
waiting all the time in the wings.
Nancy stopped with a gesture of surprise, on
finding that she was interrupting a tete-a-tete.
Christine ignored her astonishment.
" Nancy dear," she said. " How nice of you
to come, when I know how busy you were teaching
Wickham piquet. Sit down. This is the reason
I sent for you. As one of my best friends, I want
your candid advice about this horrid situa-
tion."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" But Laura is one of your best friends, too,"
said Mrs. Almar.
" You '11 see why I did not send for Laura.
She is so ridiculously prejudiced in favor of Mr.
Riatt. There 's no question as to what her ad-
vice would be. In fact," said Christine with the
frankest laugh, " she 's advised it long ago
even before he asked me."
At these sinister words, Mrs. Almar gave a
glance like the jab of a knife at Riatt.
" See here, Christine," she said, " every min-
ute I spend here is a direct pecuniary loss to me.
Let 's get to the point."
" Of course. How selfish I am," answered
Miss Fenimer. " The point is this. In view of
the gossip and talk, and your own dear little sug-
gestion, darling, that I had frightened the horse
on purpose, Mr. Riatt has thought it neces-
sary to ask me to marry him. I say he has
thought it necessary, because in spite of all his
flattering protestations, I can't help feeling that
he 's done it from a sense of duty. But whatever
his sentiments may be, I Ve been quite open about
mine. I 'm not in love with him. In view of all
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LADIES MUST LIVE
this, Nancy, do you think it advisable that I accept
his offer? "
Mrs. Almar had never been considered partic-
ularly good-tempered. Now she jumped to her
feet with her eyes positively blazing. " Have I
been called away from the care of my depleted
bank account to take part in a farce like this? "
she cried. " You ought to be ashamed of your-
self, Christine. You know just as well as I do
that that young man never even thought of asking
you to marry him."
Christine was quite unruffled. " Oh, Nancy
dear," she said, " how helpful you always are. I
see what you mean. You think no one will be-
lieve that he ever did propose unless I accept him.
I think you 're perfectly right."
" They won't and I don't," said Nancy, and
moved rapidly to the door.
" One moment, Mrs. Almar," said Riatt, firmly.
" You happen to be mistaken. I did very defi-
nitely ask Miss Fenimer to marry me not ten
minutes ago."
" And do you renew that request? " said Chris-
tine.
118
Well, heaven itself can't save a fool," said Mrs. Almar
LADIES MUST LIVE
" I do."
Christine held out her hand with the gesture
of a queen. " And I very gratefully accept your
generous offer," she said.
" Well, heaven itself can't save a fool," said
Mrs. Almar, and she went out of the room, and
slammed the door after her.
As she went, Riatt actually flung the hand of
his newly affianced wife from him. " May I
ask," he said, " what you think you are doing? "
Christine had covered her face with her hands,
and had sunk into a chair. For an instant Riatt
really thought that the strain of the situation had
been too much for her; but on closer inspection
he found that she was shaking with laughter.
" I can't be sure which was funnier," she
gasped, " your face or Nancy's."
Riatt did not seem to feel mirthful. " Do you
take in," he asked her sternly, " that you have
just broken your word."
" I Ve just plighted it, have n't I? "
" You promised to refuse me."
She sprang up. " I did not. I never said a
word like it. If a stenographer had been here,
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LADIES MUST LIVE
the record would bear me out. You inferred it,
I dare say. Besides, what could I do? Even
Nancy herself told us no one would believe us
unless I accepted you at least for a time."
"For what time?"
" Oh, don't let us cross bridges until we get
to them. We are hardly engaged yet Max!
I must practise calling you Max, mustn't I?"
In attempting to repress an irrepressible smile she
developed an unknown dimple in her left cheek.
The sight of it made his tone particularly relent-
less as he answered :
" If by the fifteenth of this month you have
not broken this engagement, 1 11 announce its
termination myself."
" And you," she went on, as if he had not
spoken, " must get into the habit of calling me
Christine."
" Listen to me," he said, and he took her by
the shoulders with a gesture that no one could
have mistaken for a caress. " I do not intend to
marry you."
" I see you feel no doubt of my wishes in the
matter."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" I wonder where I got the idea."
" Be reassured," she said, finding herself
released. " My intentions are honorable. I
would not marry any really nice man absolutely
against his will. Although I did say to myself
the very first time I saw you, coming downstairs
in that well-cut coat of yours or is it the shoul-
ders ? I did say : * I could be happy with that
man, happier, that is, than with Ned.' You may
think it is n't much of a compliment, but Ned has
a very nice disposition, nicer than yours."
" And I should say it was the first requisite
for your husband."
She became suddenly plaintive. " Of course I
can see," she said, " why any one should n't want
to be married, but I can't see why you object to
being engaged to me for a few weeks."
" How can I be sure you will keep your
word?"
" I '11 give it to you in writing," she returned.
"Write: This is to certify that I, Christine
Fenimer, have enveigled the innocent and unsus-
pecting youth "
" I won't," said Riatt.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" I will then," she answered, and sitting down
she wrote :
; ' This is to certify that I, Christine Fenimer,
have speciously, feloniously and dishonorably in-
duced Mr. Max Riatt to make me an offer of
marriage, which I knew at the time he had no
wish to fulfil, and I hereby solemnly vow and
swear to release him from same on or before the
first day of March of this year of grace.
(Signed) CHRISTINE FENIMER."
" There," she said, " put that in your pocket-
book, and for goodness' sake don't let your pocket
be picked between now and the first of March."
He took it and put it very carefully away, ob-
serving as he did so : " It 's a long time to the
first of March."
" It may n't seem as long as you think."
" Are you by any chance supposing," he asked
with a directness he had learnt from her own
methods, " that by that time I may have fallen
in love with you? "
She did not hesitate at all. " Well, I think it
is a possibility."
" Oh, anything 's possible, but I can tell you
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LADIES MUST LIVE
this: Even if I were in love with you, you are
not the type of woman I should ever dream of
marrying."
" What would you do?"
" If I saw the slightest chance of falling in love
with you which I don't I should try all the
harder to free myself."
" I don't see how you could try any harder than
you have. You begin to make me suspicious."
" Miss Fenimer "
" Christine, please."
" Christine, I am not the least bit in love with
you."
" Quite sure that you 're not whistling to keep
your courage up? "
" Quite sure."
" Well," she said, " just to show my fair spirit,
I '11 tell you that I entirely believe you. Shall I
add it to the contract: And I credit his repeated
assertion that he is not and never will be in the
least in love with me? No, I think I '11 omit the
* and never will be ' clause."
" And may I ask one other question," he con-
tinued, ignoring her last suggestion. " What did
125
LADIES MUST LIVE
you mean when you told me that you had decided
to marry Hickson? "
"So I have. Don't you see? He and I are
really engaged, but he does n't know it. You and
I are not really engaged, and you do know it."
" I wish I did," he returned gloomily.
" Oh, yes," she said, " you know it and I know
it, but the dog that's Nancy she doesn't
know it."
He seemed unimpressed by the humor of the
situation. He walked away and put his hand on
the knob.
" One thing more," he said. " I would like
to be sure that you understand this. The weap-
ons are all in my hands. The only strength of
your position lies in my good nature and willing-
ness to keep up appearances. Neither one is a
rock of defense. I 'm not, as you said yourself,
good-tempered, and I care very little for appear-
ances. The risk you run, if you don't play abso-
lutely fair, is of being publicly jilted."
" And I should hate that," she answered can-
didly.
" I 'm sure you would," he answered. " And
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LADIES MUST LIVE
I don't particularly enjoy threatening you with
such a possibility."
" Really," said she. " Now I rather like you
when you talk like that."
" Fortunate that you do," he returned, " for
you will probably hear a good deal of it."
She nodded with perfect acquiescence. " And
now," she said, " if you have no more hateful
things to say, let 's go and tell our friends of the
great happiness that has come into our lives."
127
CHAPTER IV
AS they went down the stairs those same
stairs on which only two evenings before
they had first met toward the drawing-room
where their great announcement was to be made,
Riatt stopped Christine in her triumphal progress.
'You're not going to have the supreme cru-
elty," he said, " to let poor Hickson think that
our engagement is a genuine one? "
Christine paused. " I wonder," she answered
thoughtfully, " which in the end would deceive
him most to make him think it was real or
fake?"
" You blood-curdling woman," said Riatt. " I
am not engaged to you."
" Oh, yes, you are until March first."
" I am pretending to be until March first."
She leant against the banisters, and regarded
him critically. " Is n't it strange," she remarked,
" that you dislike so much the idea of my trying
128
LADIES MUST LIVE
to make you care for me ? Some men would be
crazy about the process."
" Oh, if I enjoyed the process, I should regard
myself as lost."
She shook her head. " I 'm not sure that this
terror is n't a more significant confession of weak-
ness. Who is it is most afraid of high places?
Those who feel a desire to jump off."
" I 'm not afraid," he returned crossly. " I
just don't like it. I don't want to be made love
to. That 's one of the mistakes women are al-
ways making. They think all men want to be
made love to by any woman. We don't."
Christine sighed gently. " You 're getting dis-
agreeable again," she said with the softest re-
proach in her tone. " Let 's go on."
" You have n't answered my question," he said.
" Are you going to tell Hickson the truth? "
" How can I? If I told him, Nancy would
know at once, and the whole aim of this plot
is to deceive Nancy. However," she added
brightly, " I shall do what I can to alleviate his
sufferings. I shall tell him that I am not in the
least in love with you, that you have never s<?
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LADIES MUST LIVE
much as kissed me, and that my present intention
is that you never shall.'*
" And you may add that my intention is the
same," replied Riatt with some sternness.
Christine smiled. * There 's no use in telling
him that," she answered, " for he would n't be-
lieve it."
" Upon my word," said he, " I think you 're
the vainest woman I ever met."
" Candid, merely," she returned, as she opened
the door of the drawing-room. The scene that
greeted them was eminently suited to their pur-
pose. Laura and Ussher were standing at the
table watching the last bitter moments of the
game between Nancy and the unfortunate Wick-
ham. Hickson was not there.
" Oh, Laura," said Christine, " could I have
just a word with you?"
Mrs. Ussher looked up startled. She had been
deeply depressed by her unsuccessful conversation
with her cousin. He had seemed to her abso-
lutely immovable, but there was no mistaking the
significant bride-like modulations of Christine's
voice.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" With me?" she said, and in her eagerness
she was already at the door, before Christine
stopped her.
" Really," she said, " I don't know why only
with you. I know you are all enough my friends
to be interested even Mr. Wickham. Max
and I wanted to tell you that we are engaged.
Only, of course, it 's a secret"
Riatt had resolved that he would not look at
Mrs. Almar, and he did n't. She was adding up
the score, and her arithmetic did not fail her.
" And that makes 387, Mr. Wickham," she said,
and then she looked up with her bright, piercing
eyes, in time to see Laura fling herself enthusi-
astically into Riatt's arms. She got up with a
shrewd smile. " Let me congratulate you, too,
Mr. Riatt," she said. " I always like to see peo-
ple get what they deserve."
" Oh, Nancy, I 'm sure you think I 'm getting
far more than I deserve," said Christine.
" You have n't actually got it yet, darling," re-
turned Mrs. Almar.
" That sounds almost like a threat, my dear."
" More in the line of a prophecy."
LADIES MUST LIVE
At this moment the footman created a diver-
sion by announcing that the sleigh was waiting to
take Mr. Riatt to the train, and Riatt explained
that he had decided not to take the train that
day. Then Christine, on inquiring, found that
Hickson was writing letters in the library, and
went away to talk to him. She had no fear of
leaving Max; she knew he was in safe hands;
Laura would not allow Nancy an instant alone
with him. Nor, as a matter of fact, was Riatt
himself eager to subject himself to the cross-ex-
amination of that keen and contemptuous intel-
ligence. Indeed Nancy soon drifted out of the
room, and Riatt found himself committed to a
long tete-a-tete with Laura on the subject of Chris-
tine's perfections, and his supposed deceitfulness
in pretending indifference. " Oh, you protested
too much, my dear Max," Laura insisted with the
most irritating exuberance. " I knew when you
began to say that she was the last woman in the
world you would fall in love with, that your hour
had come. No man ever lived who could resist
Christine when she chooses to make herself
agreeable."
132
LADIES MUST LIVE
Riatt felt he was looking rather grim for an
accepted lover, as he answered that it was a great
comfort to feel one had succumbed only to the
irresistible. Before very long Christine came
back, and taking in what had been going on, man-
aged to get rid of her friend. Laura made it
plain that she was only too glad to accord the
lovers a few blissful moments alone.
" I can't describe to you," he said crossly,
" how intensely disagreeable I find the situation."
Christine laughed. " And did you look like
that while Laura was detailing my perfections?
A judge about to pronounce the death sentence is
gay in comparison. Cheer up. I have n't had a
pleasant fifteen minutes myself. I never thought
myself kind-hearted, but I assure you I really
longed to tell Ned the truth. He is the nicest
person."
" I believe he will make you an excellent hus-
band."
" Oh, dear, I 'm afraid he will." She sighed.
" Safety first will be a dull motto to go through
life with. Do you want to know what I told
him? No? Well, I'm going to tell you any-
133
LADIES MUST LIVE
how. I said that you had made me this magnifi-
cent offer, prompted, I felt sure, by the purest
chivalry; and that I felt I owed it to my family,
my friends and my reputation to accept it, but that
you had left my heart untouched, and that if he
and you were both penniless, I should prefer him
to you. That was n't all perfectly true."
Suddenly Riatt found himself smiling. " My
innocent child," he said, " let me make one thing
clear to you. Any effort on your part to create
an impression that you have fallen in love with
me will not be crowned with success."
Christine was quite unabashed by his direct-
ness.
" I 'm not a bit in love with you," she said -
" not any more than you are with me, only I
realize that there is a possibility for either of us,
and of the two," she added maliciously, " I really
think I 'm the more hard-hearted."
" Perhaps you will think I am running away
from danger," he answered, " when I tell you
that as soon as I have seen your father, got your
ring, and fulfilled the immediate necessities of the
occasion, I shall go home."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
"Oh, you can't do that!" cried Christine, in
genuine alarm.
" You surely don't expect me to neglect my
legitimate business on account of this ridiculous
farce."
For the first time a certain amount of real hos-
tility crept in their relation. They looked at each
other steadily. Then Christine said politely:
" Well, we '11 see how things go." He knew,
however, that she was as determined that he
should stay as he was to leave, and the knowledge
made him all the firmer.
The evening was a stupid one, devoted largely
to toasts, jokes, congratulations and a few stabs
from Nancy. Through it all poor Hickson's
gloom was obvious.
The next day the party broke up. Wickham
and Hickson taking an early express; the others,
even Nancy who abandoned her motor on account
of the snow, going in by a noonday train. Al-
ready, it seemed to Riatt that the bonds of matri-
mony were closing about him as he found himself
delegated to look up Christine's trunks, maid and
dressing-case.
135
LADIES MUST LIVE
Soon after the arrival of the train he had an
appointment, made by telephone, with Mr. Feni-
mer. The interview was to take place at Mr.
Fenimer's club, a most discreet and elegant organ-
ization of fashionable virility. Riatt was not
kept waiting. Fenimer came promptly to meet
him.
He was a man of fifty, well made, and su-
premely well dressed. He was tanned as befits
a sportsman; on his face the absence of furrows
created by the absence of thought was made up
for by the fine wrinkles induced by poignant and
continued anxiety about his material comforts.
In his figure the vigor of the athlete contended
with the comfortable stoutness of the epicure.
He had left a discussion in which all his highest
faculties had been roused, a discussion on the re-
plenishing of the club's cellar, and had come to
speak to his future son-in-law, with satisfaction
but without vital interest. His manner was a per-
fect blending of reserve and cordiality.
" You will hardly expect a definite answer from
me to-day, Mr. Riatt," he said. " You under-
stand, I am sure, that knowing so little of you
136
LADIES MUST LIVE
an only child, my daughter" He waved his
hand, not manicured but most beautifully cared
for. Riatt noticed that in spite of these chilling
sentences, Fenimer was soon composing a para-
graph for the press, and advocating the setting
of the date for the wedding early in April, as he
himself was booked for a fishing-trip later. He
did this under the assumption that he was yield-
ing to Riatt' s irresistible eagerness. " You have
an excellent advocate in Christine. My daughter
has always ruled me. And now in my old age
I am to lose her. I had a long letter from her
by the early mail, speaking of you in the highest
terms." He smiled. Riatt rose, and allowed
him to return to the question of the club's wines.
Something about this interview was more shock-
ing to him than the cynicism of Nancy and Chris-
tine; Fenimer's suave eagerness to hand his daugh-
ter over to a total stranger, did not amuse him as
the women's light talk had done. He felt sorry
for Christine and a little disgusted. He wondered
what that letter had really said. Was Fenimer a
conspirator, too, or only a willing dupe ?
From the club he went to the jeweler's and
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LADIES MUST LIVE
selected the most conspicuous diamond he could
find. Her friends should not miss the fact that
she was engaged if a solitaire could prove it to
them. He ordered it sent to her, much to the
surprise of the clerk, who pointed out that it was
usual to present such things in person.
After this he went to his hotel and found a pile
of letters had accumulated in his absence.
The first he opened was in a round childish
hand with uncertain margins, and a final " e " on
the word Hotel.
" Dear Cousin Max," it said, " I do not know
you, but Mamma says that you are going to marry
Christine. I think you are very lucky, and am
glad you are bringing her into our family. Victor
and I love her. She comes to the nursery some-
times, but never stays long.
" Your loving cousin,
" MURIEL USSHER."
Riatt laughed as he laid it down. " I bet she
does n't stay long," he said. " How she does skim
the cream! " And then with an exclamation of
surprise he tore open another envelope which had
been left by hand. It said:
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LADIES MUST LIVE
"Dear Max:
" I hope you will be pleasantly surprised to find
that Mother and I are staying in this hotel. I find
New York more wonderful but more unfriendly
than I had been told, and I want terribly to see a
familiar face. Won't you look us up as soon as
you can?
" Yours as ever,
" DOROTHY."
He went to the telephone, found that she was
in and immediately arranged that she should go
out to lunch with him.
All the morning and some of the night, he had
been engaged in the composition of a letter to
Dorothy Lane. Theirs was an old and senti-
mental friendship, which adverse circumstances
might have ended, or favoring circumstances have
changed into love. As things were, it seemed to
be tending toward their marriage without any
whirlwind rapidity.
There was no doubt he was very glad to see
her, as he hurried her into a taxicab, and told the
man to drive to the restaurant of the hour. She
was very neatly and nicely dressed in a tailor-made
139
LADIES MUST LIVE
costume for which she had just paid twice as much
as a native New York woman would have paid.
In fact she was an essentially neat and nice little
person. They talked both at once like two chil-
dren about all the people at home, until they were
actually seated at table, and lunch was ordered.
Then Riatt made up his mind he must take the
plunge.
" Dolly," he said, " do I look as if something
tremendous had just happened? "
" Don't tell me you Ve invented a submarine, or
something? "
" No, this is something of a more personal na-
ture."
" Oh, Max, you Ve fallen in love? "
A waiter rushing up with rolls and butter sug-
gested that Madame probably preferred fresh but-
ter to salted, before Riatt answered: " No, that
is just what I have n't done and that 's the
secret, Dolly. I 'm not a bit in love, but I am
engaged to be married."
"Max! But why if"
" I '11 tell you on the second of March. It 's
a good story. You '11 enjoy it, but for the present,
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LADIES MUST LIVE
my dear, you must just accept the fact that I am
engaged, that I am neither wildly elated nor un-
duly depressed."
Miss Lane had grown extremely serious.
"Who is she?" she asked.
" Her name is Christine Fenimer."
" I Ve seen her name in the papers."
" Who has not? " he returned bitterly.
" What is she like?"
Riatt felt some temptation to answer truthfully
and say: " She is designing, mercenary, hard-
hearted and as beautiful as a goddess." But he
did not, and, as he paused he saw the head waiter
spring forward from the doorway, smiling and
holding up a pencil to attract the attention of some
underling, and then he saw that Christine, Hick-
son and Mr. and Mrs. Linburne were being ush-
ered in. Christine approached, tall, beautiful,
conspicuous, and as divinely unconscious of it as
Adam and Eve of their nakedness; she moved
between the tables, bowing here and there to peo-
ple she knew, not purposely ignoring all others,
but seeming to find them invisible as thin air.
Riatt watched as if she were some great spectacle,
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LADIES MUST LIVE
and was recalled only by hearing Dorothy's voice
saying :
" What a lovely creature ! "
" That is Miss Fenimer."
A sudden and deep flush spread over Miss
Lane's face.
" And you have been telling me of your indif-
ference to her?" she asked bitterly. " How
could any man be indifferent! "
" Good Heavens," cried Riatt fiercely. " All
you women are alike ! Beauty is n't the only
thing in the world for a man to love. There
are such things as truth and honor "
" Yes, and old friendship, too," said Miss Lane,
u but they don't always amount to much."
c That is an unnecessary, unkind thing to say,"
he answered. " My friendship for you means a
good deal more to me than my engagement to
her."
" Max, I don't need to be consoled or soothed
about your engagement," said Miss Lane with
a good deal of spirit. " As far as I am concerned
you are quite free not only to become engaged,
but to have any feeling you like for the lady you
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LADIES MUST LIVE
have chosen. I 'm sure I congratulate you very
heartily."
" You mean you don't believe a word of what
I have been trying to tell you."
" Oh, yes, I do. I believe you are en-
gaged."
Perhaps it was as well that at this instant, Chris-
tine's eyes fell upon her; she stared, then laughed,
and pointed him out to Hickson, who glanced at
him coldly; he was evidently thinking that he
would not have taken another girl out to lunch
the very day his engagement was announced.
" I suppose I had better go and speak to them,"
Max said.
" I should think so," replied Dorothy tonelessly.
"Who are the others?"
Riatt, not sorry for a moment's respite, entered
into a detailed account of Lee Linburne. He was
the third generation of a great fortune, augment-
ing rather than decreasing with years. He was
but little over thirty and had taken the whole field
of amusement and sports as his own. He played
polo, had a racing stable and a racing yacht, had
gone in recently for flying (hence Riatt's connec-
LADIES MUST LIVE
tion with him), occasionally financed a theatrical
show, and now and then attended a directors'
meeting of some of his grandfather's companies.
The result was that his name was as widely known
through the country as Abraham Lincoln's. Dor-
othy knew as soon as she heard his name, that he
had married a girl from Pittsburg, and had gone
through her native city in a private car on his
honeymoon three years before, and had stopped,
she rather thought, and had lunch with the Gov-
ernor of the State.
On Hickson, Max touched more briefly.
When at last he did cross the room, Christine
received him with the utmost cordiality.
;i What luck to run across you, though of course
this is the only place in New York where one can
get food that does n't actually poison one. Last
week do you remember, Lee ? We dined
somewhere or other with the Petermans and noth-
ing from the beginning of dinner to the end was
fit to eat. But, bless them, they did not know.
Have you met Mrs. Linburne? Oh, she knows
all about us. In fact every one does, for I can't
resist wearing this." She moved her left hand
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on which his diamond shone like a swollen star.
" How did you find my father? "
" Most amiable," answered Riatt rather poison-
ously, and regretted the poison when he saw the
Linburnes exchange an amused glance. Of course
every one knew that Mr. Fenimer would present
no obstacles.
"Who are you lunching with, Max? Is that
your little secretary?"
The tone, very civil and friendly, made Max
furious, as if any one that Christine did not know
was hardly worth inquiring about.
u No, it 's Miss Lane an old friend of mine.
I think I must have spoken to you about her."
" Oh, the perfect provider? Is that really
she ? " Christine craned her neck openly to stare
at her. " Why, she 's rather nice looking for
a good housekeeper, that is. You 're dining with
me to-night, are n't you? "
" No," answered Riatt, with a sudden inspi-
ration of ill-humor. " I 'm dining with Miss
Lane."
" Bring her, too I Won't she come? "
" I really can't say."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" You can ask her.'*
" To your house? "
Christine always knew when she was really
beaten. She got up with a sigh. " Take me
over," she said to him, " and I '11 ask her myself."
And she added to the Linburnes : " Out-of-town
people are always so fussy about little things."
Riatt did not know if this slightly contemptuous
observation were meant to apply to him or to
Miss Lane; he hoped in his heart that Dorothy
would refuse the invitation. But he under-esti-
mated Christine's powers. No one could have
been more persuasive, more meltingly sweet, and
compellingly cordial than she was, and it was soon
arranged that he was to bring Dorothy to dine
that evening.
When it was over, and he was back again in
his own seat, he could see, by glancing at Chris-
tine that she was engaged in a long humorous ac-
count of the incident, for her own table; and he
could tell, even from that distance, when he was
supposed to be speaking, when Dorothy, and when
Christine was repeating her own words. Mean-
while Dorothy was saying:
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It was arranged that he was to bring Dorothy to dine that evening
LADIES MUST LIVE
" How charming and simple she is, Max. You
always hear of these people as being so artificial
and elaborate."
" Oh, they 're direct enough," returned Riatt
bitterly.
The bitterness was so apparent that Dorothy
could not ignore it. She looked up at him for
an instant and then she said seriously : " I be-
lieve I know what the trouble with you is, Max.
You can't believe that she loves you for yourself.
You 're haunted by the dread that what you have
has something to do with it. Is n't that it? "
Max now made use of the well-known counter
question as an escape from a tight place.
" And what is your judgment on that point,
Dolly?"
" She loves you," said Miss Lane, with con-
viction, and a moment afterward she sighed,
"Without disputing your opinion," returned
Riatt, " I should very much like to know on what
you base it."
" Oh, on a hundred things on her look, her
manner, her being so nice to me on woman's
intuition in fact."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
Riatt thought to himself that he had never had
much confidence in the intuition theory and now
he had none.
They did not part at the termination of lunch.
It was almost a duty, Riatt considered, to show
a stranger a few of the sights. Miss Lane, who
was extremely well-informed on all questions of
art, suggested the Metropolitan Museum; and
after that they took a taxicab and drove along the
river and watched the winter sunset above the
palisades; and then they went and had tea at the
Plaza, and by the time they returned to Mrs.
Lane it was almost the hour for dressing for
dinner; and then Max sat gossiping with Mrs.
Lane, for whom he had always had the deepest
affection, until he knew he was going to be late.
They were late . a difficult thing to be in the
Fenimer household. The party, a small one, was
waiting when Miss Lane and Mr. Riatt were
ushered in. Nancy was there, and Hickson, and
Mr. Linburne without his wife this time; and
Mr. Fenimer himself, doing honor to his future
son-in-law by taking a meal at home.
Christine in a wonderful pink chiffon and lace
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tea-gown came forward to greet Dorothy, rather
than Max, to whom she gave merely an under-
standing smile, while she held the girl's hand an
instant.
" Max says this is your first visit to New
York," she said, after she had introduced her
father and Nancy. " It is good of you to give
us an evening, when there are so many more amus-
ing things to do, but Max says we are as inter-
esting as Bushmen or Hottentots. I hope you '11
find us so."
The hope seemed unlikely to be fulfilled, for
while the presence of Mr. Fenimer, who was
rather a stickler for etiquette, prevented the per-
fect freedom that had reigned at the Usshers',
the talk turned on people whom Dorothy did not
know, and it was so quick and allusive that no out-
sider could have followed it. Hickson, soon ap-
preciating something in Miss Lane's situation not
utterly unlike his own, was touched by her obvious
isolation, and tried to make up for the neglect of
the others. Riatt, sitting between Nancy and
Christine, had little time left to him for observa-
tion of any one else.
LADIES MUST LIVE
When dinner was over Christine instantly drew
him away to her own little sitting-room, on pre-
tense of showing him some letter of congratula-
tion that she had received. But once there, she
shut the door, and standing before it, she said,
with an air of the deepest feeling:
" You 're in love with this girl."
Riatt, who had sunk comfortably down on a
sofa by the fire, looked up in surprise.
"And if I am?" he answered.
" You need not humiliate me by making it so
evident," she retorted, and almost stamped her
foot. " Lunching with her in public, and taking
her to tea, as I was told, getting here so late for
dinner- -I wish you could have heard the way
Nancy and Lee Linburne were goading me before
dinner about it."
" My dear Christine," said Max, and he was
amused to hear a tone of real conjugal remon-
strance in his voice, " you have lunched and dined
in one day with Hickson, and yet I don't feel I
have any grounds of complaint."
" Every one knows how little I care for Ned,"
she answered, " but people say you do care for
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LADIES MUST LIVE
this little Western mouse. I hate her. She 's
good and nice, and the kind of a girl men think
it wise to marry, and just as different from me
as she can be. I do hate her and I hate myself
too." And she covered her face with her hands.
" Come here, Christine," said Riatt, without
moving, and was rather surprised when she
obeyed. He made her sit down beside him, and
taking her hands from her face, was astonished
to find that she was really crying.
" Why, my dear child," he said, in the most
paternal manner he could manage. " What is
this all about?" And it was quite in the same
note that Christine wept a moment on his shoul-
der. Then she raised her head, with a return
of her old brisk manner.
" I 'm jealous," she said. " Oh, don't suppose
one can't be jealous of people one does n't care
for. I could be jealous of any one when Nancy
begins teasing me and making fun of me. And
I 'm jealous too, because I 'm sure she 's a nice
girl and I Ve made such a mess of my life, and
I deserve it all; but when you came in to-
gether, as if you had just been happily married,
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LADIES MUST LIVE
and I looked at Ned and thought how wretched
I 'm always going to be with him, and what silly
things I shall undoubtedly do before I die "
" I hate to hear you talk like that."
" Why should you care ? She 'II never do silly
things that 's clear. Is that why you love
her?"
" As a matter of fact I am not in love with
Miss Lane."
" My dear Max, there 's really no reason why
you should deceive me about it."
" That 's just what she said about you."
" You mean " Christine sprang to her feet
and gazed at him like an outraged empress
" You mean that you told her that you did n't
love me? "
" I most assuredly did."
" Max, how could you be so low, so despicable,
so false?"
Riatt laughed. " Well, it certainly was not
false, Christine," he said. " It happens to be
true, you know; and I felt I owed a measure of
truth to a very old and very real friendship. I
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told her nothing more than that I was engaged
and not madly in love."
Christine threw up her hands. " The game is
up," she said. " She '11 tell everybody, of
course."
" She '11 tell absolutely no one."
" Because she 's perfect, I suppose? "
" Because she did n't for one moment believe
me."
"Didn't believe we were engaged?"
" Did n't believe that any one could be engaged
to so beautiful and charming a person as you are
and not be in love with her."
Christine's manner softened slightly. " She
thinks me charming?"
" She thinks you irresistible, almost as irresisti-
ble as Laura thinks you ; and she is trying to find
out why I am so eager to deceive her in the
matter."
Christine clapped her hands, and executed a
few steps. " She 's jealous, too," she cried.
" The perfect woman is jealous. I never thought
of her suffering, too."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" She is not jealous, but I suppose it may hurt
her feelings a little that I shouldn't "
" Oh, nonsense, Max, she loves you. Do you
think I could be deceived on such a subject? She
watches you all the time. She loves you. And
I think it would be very impertinent of her not
to. I should think very poorly of her if she
didn't. Imagine what she must be undergoing
at this moment, by our prolonged absence."
" Perhaps, we 'd better be going back," said
Riatt calmly.
Christine barred the door, spreading out both
her arms.
" She thinks you 're making love to me, Max."
" And yet, Christine, I 'm not."
" But she does n't know that; she does n't know*
what an immovable iceberg you are."
" No, indeed she does n't"
Christine's manner again changed utterly. All
the playfulness disappeared. " You mean," she
said, " that you 're not cold and immovable with
her?"
" What 's the use of my telling you anything,
if you don't believe me?" The idea of teasing
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LADIES MUST LIVE
Christine had never occurred to him before, but
he thought highly of it. She came toward him at
once.
" Oh, Max, my dear," she said, " don't be
horrid, when I 'm having such a wretched time
anyhow. Don't you think you might pretend to
care for me just a little? "
Riatt rose. " Yes, I do," he said, " and so I
shall, in public."
Christine was all the gentle, wistful child im-
mediately.
" Never when we 're alone? " she asked.
Max lit a cigarette briskly. " I don't suppose
we shall very often be alone," he returned.
"After all, why should we?"
She looked at him like a wounded bird: " No
reason if you don't want to."
At this moment the door opened and her father
came in.
" Come, come, my dear, this is no way to treat
your guests," he said. " I must really insist that
you go back to the drawing-room. Upon my
word, Riatt, you ought not to keep her like
this."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" It was a great temptation to have her a few
minutes to myself, Mr. Fenimer," said Max, and
Christine grinned gratefully at him behind her
father's back.
" Very likely, very likely," said Mr. Fenimer
crossly, " but I want to go to the club, and how
can I, unless she goes back? You can't think
only of yourself, my dear fellow."
Riatt admitted that this was true and he and
Christine went back to the drawing-room.
Very soon afterwards, he gave Dorothy a keen
prolonged look, which she did not misunderstand.
She got up at once and said good night. In the
taxicab, he questioned her at once as to her im-
pressions.
" I did n't like Mr. Linburne or Mrs. Almar
at all, Max. She kept asking me the greatest
number of questions about you and the story of
your life. What interest has she in you, I won-
der? "
" None,' 1 answered Riatt, but added rather
quickly, " And what did you think of Lin-
burne?"
" I could n't bear him, though I own he 's nice
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LADIES MUST LIVE
looking. But he told Mrs. Almar a story I
could not help hearing I never heard such a
story in my life."
" I gather it did not shock Mrs. Almar."
" She knew it already. * Lee,' she said, * that
story is so old that even my husband knows it,'
and every one laughed."
" I 'm afraid you did not enjoy yourself."
" I like Mr. Hickson very much. And I
thought Miss Fenimer more beautiful than before.
He was telling me what a wonderful nature she
has. He said he had never seen her out of
temper."
" Yes, Hickson 's crazy about her," said Riatt
casually.
" Dear Max, why do you try to deceive your-
self about your own feeling for her?"
" Deceive myself," he said angrily. " If you
knew the truth, my dear Dolly!" His heart
stood still. Deceive himself! What an insult-
ing phrase. He repressed a strong impulse to
propose on the instant to Dolly. That would
show her how indifferent he was to Christine.
It would assure him, too.
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Instead he formed a plan to go home with her
and her mother, when they went.
"When are you going back, Dolly?"
" The day after to-morrow."
"Any objections to my going, too?"
"Objections! Max, dear!"
He engaged his ticket at once at the hotel office.
Having done so, he felt tranquil and relieved, and
perhaps the least little bit dull. The clerk as-
sured him he was fortunate to be able to get a
berth at such short notice. " Very fortunate,"
he agreed and was annoyed at a certain cold ring
in his voice.
The next day, true to his promise to show
Christine all attentions that the public could ex-
pect, he sent her a box of flowers, and at four
he stopped for her and they went and took a long
walk together, hoping to meet as many people
whom they knew as possible.
" We won't walk in the Park," said Christine.
" No one sees you there, though of course if they
do, it makes an impression. But, no ; we '11 stick
to Fifth Avenue, and study all the windows that
have clothes or furniture in them, as if our minds
1 60
LADIES MUST LIVE
were entirely taken up with trousseaux and house-
furnishing."
She was true to her word, and not squeamish.
Riatt found it rather amusing to wander at her
side, dressing her in imagination in every garment
that the windows so frankly displayed, and an-
swering with real interest her constant inquiry:
" Do you think that would become me? Would
you like me in that? Do you prefer silk to
batiste?"
They were standing in front of a stocking shop
in which on a row of composition legs which might
have made a chorus envious, " new ideas in
hosiery " were romantically displayed, when Riatt
decided to tell her of his approaching departure.
He chose the street, because he was well aware
that she would not approve of his plan, and he
wished to avoid a repetition of last evening's
scene.
" I shall have to go away the day after to-mor-
row," he said, and glanced quickly down on her
to see how she would take it.
She was studying the stockings, and she drew
away with her head at a critical angle.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" It 's a queer thing," she said, " that certain
stripes do make the ankle look large. Theoreti-
cally they ought to make it look slim, but you
take my word for it, Max, they don't."
" Nothing could make your ankles look any-
thing but slim, Christine," he replied politely.
" No, my ankles are rather good, are n't they? "
she replied, and then as if she had now disposed
of the more serious topic, she added : " And so
you are going home ? Well, you may n't believe
it, but I shall really miss you a great deal. Oh,
look at these jade flowers! They're really
good."
Riatt looked at the pale lilac and pink blossoms
starting from their icy green leaves, but he hardly
saw them. He was disgusted at the discovery
of an unexpected perversity in his nature. He
found himself hardly pleased at the absence of
protest with which his announcement was greeted.
All her attention was absorbed by the jade.
" Would n't it look well on our drawing-room
mantel-piece? " she said.
" I '11 give it to you as a wedding present," he
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answered. " That is, if you think Hickson would
like it."
" I don't think he '11 like anything you ever
give me. He did not even like my ring. He
thinks the stone too large. By the way, I never
properly thanked you for the ring. It has been
most splendidly persuasive. Even Nancy grew
pale when she saw the proof of your sin-
cerity."
" Will it be sufficient even in the face of my
continued absence?" he asked, for it occurred to
him that perhaps she had not understood that he
meant to remain in the West indefinitely.
" Oh, I think so," she answered, pleasantly.
" You might write to me now and then, and I '11
show just a suitable paragraph here and there to
an intimate friend."
A new idea suddenly occurred to him. Had
she any motive for desiring his absence? Had
some unexpected possibility cropped up? Did
she want to get rid of him? Not, he added, that
he minded if she did, but it would be rather inter-
esting to know.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" I 'm going a little earlier than I expected,"
he went on, " because the Lanes are going, and
I hate to make that long journey alone."
She nodded understandingly. " It will be much
nicer for you to have them."
He looked at her coldly. It seemed to him
he had never known a more callous nature. And
to think that the evening before she had actually
shed tears, simply because he took another girl
to lunch! It caught his attention, he said to him-
self, just as a study in human nature.
He did not see her the next day until evening.
They were both to dine at Nancy's (thus had
the proposed dinner with Mrs. Almar deterio-
rated) and go afterward to the opera. Nancy
of course would not have dreamed of crowding
three women into her box, so the party consisted
of herself and Christine, Riatt, Roland Almar
a pale, eager, little man, trying to placate the
world with smiles, and once again Linburne, whose
handsome dark head, and curved mouth, half
cynical, half sensuous, began to weary Riatt inex-
pressibly.
After dinner he found that he and Mrs. Almar
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were to go in her tiny coupe, and the four others
in Linburne's large car.
" And so," she observed as soon as they started,
" the mouse preferred the trap after all? " And
he could feel that she was laughing at him in the
shadow.
" But feels none the less grateful for the kind
intention to rescue him."
" Oh, I don't care much for the gratitude of a
man in love with another woman."
" You judge me to be very much in love? "
This general conviction on the part of the ladies
of his acquaintance was growing monotonous.
Nancy continued:
" But come back in two years, and we '11 talk
of gratitude then. In the meantime let us stick
to the impersonal. What do you think of Lin-
burne?"
" I Ve had many opportunities of judging.
I Ve been nowhere for two days without meeting
him."
Mrs. Almar laughed with meaning.
" I wonder why that should be," she said.
"What do you mean?" Riatt asked, but at
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that moment they drew up before the Thirty-
ninth Street entrance, and the doorman, opening
the motor's door, shouted " Ten Forty-five "
a cheerful lie he has been telling four times
a week for many years.
In the opera box, Riatt at once seated himself
behind Christine. There is no place like the
opera for public devotion. Christine was re-
splendent in black and gold with a huge black and
gold fan that made the fans of the temple dancers
the opera was " Ai'da " look commonplace
and ineffective.
Behind it she now murmured to Max:
" And what poisonous thing did dear Nancy
tell you coming down? "
" Nothing except what everyone has been
telling me for the last few days that I seemed
very much in love."
" And that annoyed you, I suppose. "
" On the contrary. I was delighted to find I
was such a good actor."
" People who pretend to be asleep sometimes
end by actually doing it. Pretending is rather
dangerous sometimes.'*
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" Yes, but you see I sha'n't have to pretend
after to-morrow."
" Are you all packed and ready? "
" Mentally I am."
In the entr'acte which followed quickly after
their entrance, Christine dismissed him very po-
litely. " There," she said, " you don't have to
stay on duty all the time. You can go and stretch
your legs, if you want."
He rose at once, and as he did so, Linburne
slipped into his place.
Riatt had caught sight of Laura Ussher across
the house, and knew his duty demanded that he
should go and say a word to his exuberant cousin
who, he supposed, regarded herself as the artificer
of his happiness.
" Oh, my dear Max," she began, hastily bun-
dling out an old friend who had been reminiscing
about the days of the de Rezskes, and waving
Riatt into place, " every one is so delighted at the
engagement, and thinks you both so fortunate.
How happy she is, Max! She looks like a dif-
ferent perstfn,"
" I thought she looked rather tired this eve-
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ning," answered Riatt, who always found himself
perverse in face of Laura's enthusiasm.
Mrs. Ussher raised her opera glass and studied
Christine's profile, bent slightly toward Linburne,
who was talking with the immobility of feature
which many people use when saying things in pub-
lic which they don't wish overheard. " Oh, well,
she does n't look as brilliant as she did when you
were with her. But isn't that natural? I won-
der why Nancy asked Lee Linburne and where is
that silly little wife of his. Oh, don't go, Max.
It 's only the St. Anna attache ; we met him on the
coast last summer."
But Riatt insisted on making way for the South
American diplomat, who was standing courteously
in the back of the box.
He wandered out into the corridors, not enough
interested in any of his recent acquaintances to
go and speak to them. Two men coming up
behind him were talking; he could not help hear-
ing their dialogue:
" Who 's this fellow she 's engaged to? "
" No one knows a Western chap with a lot
of money."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
"Suppose she cares anything about him?"
" Oh, no, she 's telling every one she does n't.
They say he 's mad about her."
" Ought to be, by Jove. I always thought the
only man she ever cared for "
Riatt found himself straining his ears vainly
to catch the name, but it was drowned in other
conversations that rose about him. He under-
stood now why Christine had been angry at his
telling Dorothy that he was not in love, for he
found himself annoyed at the idea of her having
told everybody that she was n't. But, it 's a dif-
ferent thing, he thought, to tell one intimate friend
in confidence, or to give the news to every Tom,
Dick and Harry. Then the juster side of his
nature reasserted itself, and he saw that she was
only laying the trail for the breaking of her en-
gagement. Yet this evidence of her good faith
did not entirely allay the irritation of his spirit.
When he went back to the box, Linburne was
gone, and the man who had replaced him, yielded
to Riatt with the most submissive promptness.
But this time no easy interchange occurred be-
tween them.
LADIES MUST LIVE
About half past ten, Christine leaned over to
her hostess, and said: 'Would you care at all
if I deserted you, dear? I 'm tired."
" Mind when I have my Roland to keep me
company?" said Nancy. "One seems to take
one's husband to the opera this year."
At this point Linburne, who had been standing
in the back of the box, came forward and said:
"Won't you take my car, Miss Fenimer? I'll
go down and find it for you."
A look that passed between them, a twinkle in
Nancy's eyes, suddenly convinced Riatt that the
scheme was for Linburne to take Christine home.
He did not stop to ask why this idea was repug-
nant to him, but he said firmly:
" I have a car of my own downstairs, and I '11
take Miss Fenimer home." It was of course a
lie, as the simple taxicab was his only means of
vehicular locomotion, but a taxi, thank heaven, can
always be obtained quickly at the Metropolitan.
Christine consented. Linburne stepped back.
They drove the few blocks in silence. He went
up the steps of her house, and when the door was
opened he said: " May I come in for a few min-
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utes? I sha'n't have time to-morrow probably."
" Do," said Christine. She went into the draw-
ing-room and sank into a chair. " Who ever
heard of not saying good-by to one's fiancee? "
He saw that she was in her most teasing mood,
and somehow this made him more serious.
" Perhaps," he said rather stiffly, " you think
I carry out your instructions too exactly. Per-
haps I show a more scrupulous devotion in public
than you meant."
" Oh, no. It looked so well."
" It would not have looked so well for Lin-
burne to take you home."
She clapped her hands. " Excellent," she said,
" but you know it is not necessary to take that
proprietary tone when we are alone."
" Even as a mere acquaintance I might offer
you some advice," he said.
" I 'm rather sleepy as it is," she returned,
yawning slightly.
For the first time Riatt had a sense of crisis.
He knew he must either save her, or leave her.
He could not give her a little sage advice and
abandon her. It would be like advising a starv-
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ing man not to steal and going away with your
pockets full. He could not say, " Have nothing
to do with a selfish materialist like Linburne,"
when he knew better perhaps than any one how
empty of any ideality or hope her relation to
Hickson was bound to be. Yet on the other hand,
he could not say, " Come to me, instead." He
despised her method of life, distrusted her charac-
ter, disliked her ideas, and was under no illusion
as to her feeling for himself. If he had come to
her without money she would have laughed in
his face. What chance would either of them
have under such circumstances? It was simple
madness to consider it. And why was he consid-
ering it? Just because she looked lovely and wan,
sunk in a deep chair in all her black and gold
finery, just because her face had the lines of an
Italian saint and her voice had strange and mov-
ing tones in it.
" Good-by," he said briefly.
She sprang up. " Good gracious," she said,
" and are you going just like that? You know it
is customary to extract a promise to write. At
least to beg for a lock of the hair." (She drew
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He stood like a rock under her caress
LADIES MUST LIVE
out a golden lock, and let it crinkle back into place
again.) " Or do you think you will remember
me without it? "
" I 'm not so sure I want to remember you."
" I hope you don't. It 's the things you don't
want to remember that you never can get out of
your head."
" Good-by," he said again.
" Have n't you one nice thing to say to me
before you go?"
"Not one."
" Would n't you at least admit that I had en-
larged your point of view? "
" Are n't you going to shake hands with me? "
he said.
She shook her head, and began to approach
him. He felt afterward as if he had known ex-
actly what she meant to do, and yet he seemed to
lack all power to prevent her or perhaps it
was will that was lacking. She came up to him,
very deliberately put her arms about his neck, and,
almost as tall as he, laid her head on his shoulder;
and then murmured under his chin: " But you
must never, never come back."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
He stood like a rock under her caress; he did
ngt make any answer ; he did not attempt to undo
the clasp of her arms. He was as impassive as
a hunted animal who, in some terrible danger,
pretends to be already dead.
It was a matter of only a few seconds. Then
she dropped her arms, and he went away.
CHAPTER V
RUNNING away is seldom a becoming ges-
ture, yet it is one that should at least bring
relief; but as Riatt went westward, he was con-
scious of no relief whatsoever. The day was bit-
ter and gray, and, looking out of the window,
he felt that he was about as flat and dreary as
the country through which he was passing.
He sat a little while with the Lanes in their
compartment.
" I suppose you '11 be glad to get home and see
George and Louise and the children," said Mrs.
Lane, referring to some cousins of Riatt's about
whom, it is to be feared, he had not thought for
weeks.
Dorothy laughed. " What does he care for
home-staying cousins when he is leaving a lovely
creature languishing for him in New York? " she
said.
" I doubt if Christine does much languishing,"
he returned, though the idea was not at all disa-
greeable to him.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" You two are the strangest lovers I ever
knew," said Miss Lane.
Riatt wondered if that were an accurate de-
scription of them lovers, though strange ones.
He left his old friends presently and went and
sat in the observation-car. What, he wondered,
had Christine meant by her last words, about
never coming back? Never come back to annoy
with his critical attitude? Never come back to
watch her deterioration as Hickson's wife? Or
never come back to disturb her peace of mind and
heart by his mere presence? He debated all in-
terpretations but the last pleased him most.
A bride and groom were in the car. The girl
was not in the least like Christine. She was small
and wore a pair of the most fantastic gray and
black boots that Riatt had ever seen; but she was
very blond and very much in love. Riatt hated
both her and her husband. " People ought not to
be allowed to show their feelings like that," he
said to himself, as he kicked open the door leading
to the back platform, with a violence that was
utterly unnecessary.
Nor did things mend on his arrival at his home.
LADIES MUST LIVE
His native town was naturally interested in his
engagement; it showed this interest by keeping the
idea continually before him. It assumed, of
course, that he was going to bring his bride home.
The rising architect of the community came to
him with the assumption that he would wish to
build her a more suitable house than that of his
father, which, large and comfortable, had been
constructed in the very worst taste of the early
" eighties." No, Riatt found himself saying
with determination, his father's house would be
good enough for his wife. He thought the senti-
ment sounded rather well, as he pronounced it.
But this did not solve his difficulties, for now it
was but too evident that he must at least redeco-
rate the old house ; and he found himself, he never
knew exactly how, actually in process of doing
over a bedroom, bathroom and boudoir for Chris-
tine, just exactly as if he had expected her ever
to lay eyes on them.
Mrs. Lane came to him with the suggestion that
he would wish Christine to be one of the patron-
esses of the next winter's dances. The list was
about to be printed. Max hesitated. " It would
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LADIES MUST LIVE
be a little premature to put her down as Mrs.
Riatt, wouldn't it?" he objected. Mrs. Lane
thought this was merely superstitious, and ordered
the cards so printed without consulting him fur-
ther.
Every one asked him what he heard from her,
so that he actually stooped once or twice to invent
sentences from imaginary letters of hers. He
even went so far as to read the society columns
of the New York newspapers, so that he might
not be caught in any absurd error about her where-
abouts. Such at least is the reason by which he
explained his conduct to himself.
He was shocked to find that he was restless and
dissatisfied. The only occupation that seemed to
give any relief was gambling; or, as a mine-owning
friend of his expressed it, in making " a less con-
servative and more remunerative investment of
his capital." He spent hours every day hanging
over the ticker in the office of Burney, Manders
and Company and this young and eager firm
of brokers made more money in commissions dur-
ing the first two weeks of his return than they had
during the whole year that preceded it.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
On the whole he lost, and Welsley, his mining
friend, seeing this began to urge on him more
and more the advisability of buying out the ma-
jority of stock in a certain Spanish-American gold
mine. At first he always made the same answer:
" You know as well as I do, Welsley, I would
never put a penny into any property I had not
inspected."
But gradually a desire to inspect it grew up in
his mind. What would suit his plans better than
a long trip, as soon as the breaking of his engage-
ment was announced? A week at sea, two or
three days on a river, and then sixty miles on mule-
back over the mountains there at least he would
not be troubled by accounts of Christine's wed-
ding, or assertions that she had looked brilliant
at the opera.
He had been at home about two weeks, when
her first letter came. So far the only scrap of her
handwriting that he possessed was the formal re-
lease that she had. given him the afternoon they
became engaged, and which, for safe keeping
doubtless, he always carried in his pocketbook,
and which he sometimes found himself reading
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LADIES MUST LIVE
over * not as a proof that he could get out of
his engagement, but rather in an attempt to verify
the fact that he had ever got into it.
However unfamiliar with her writing, he had
not the least doubt about the letter from the first
instant that he saw it. No one else could use such
absurd faint blue and white paper and such large
square envelopes. As he took it up, he said to
himself that it had never occurred to him that
she would write, and yet he saw without any sense
of inconsistency that he had looked for this letter
in every mail. And yet, so perverse is the nature
of mankind, that he opened it, not with pleasure,
but with a sudden return of all his old terror of
being trapped.
" Dear Max," it said. " I have been pretend-
ing so often to write to you for the benefit of my
inquiring friends, that I think I may as well do
it as a tribute to truth.
"How foolish that was the night you went
away! One gets carried awa^y sometimes by the
drama of a situation, without any relation to the
facts, and the idea of parting forever from one's
fiance is rather dramatic, isn't it? I cried all
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LADIES MUST LIVE
night, and rather enjoyed it. Then in the morn-
ing when I woke up, everything seemed to have
returned to the normal, and I could not under-
stand what had made me so silly.
" Don't suppose that because you have gone,
I am therefore freed from the disagreeable criti-
cism of which you made such a speciality. Ned
comes in almost every day to tell me that he does
not approve of my conduct. I am not behaving,
it appears, as an affianced bride should. Don't
you like to think of Ned so loyally protecting your
interests in your absence? His criticisms are, I
suppose, based on the attentions of a nice little
boy just out of college, who calls me ' Helen,' and
writes sonnets to me which are to appear in the
most literary of weeklies. Look out for them.
They are good, and may raise your low estimate
of my charms. The best one begins :
"When the blond wonder first on Paris dawned
"Isn't that pretty?
" Write to me. At least send me a blank en-
velope that I may leave ostentatiously on my desk.
" Yours at the moment,
" CHRISTINE/'
Riatt's first thought on laying down the letter
was; "Hickson never in the world objected to
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LADIES MUST LIVE
any little poet just out of college, and she knows
it very well. It 's Linburne he is worried about
-. Linburne, whose name she does not even men-
tion." And how absurd to attempt to make him
believe she had cried all night. That was simply
an untruth. Yet oddly enough, it came before his
eyes in a more vivid picture than many a scene
he had actually witnessed.
A few minutes later he went to the club and
looked up the literary weekly of which she had
spoken. There was no sonnet in it, but the issue
of the next week contained it. Riatt read it with
an emotion he could not mistake. It brought
Christine like a visible presence before him. Also
it made him angry, to have to see her like this,
through another man's eyes. " Little whelp," he
said, " to detail a woman's beauty in print like
that! What does he know about it anyhow? I
don't believe for one second she looked at him
like that."
The sonnet ended :
She turned, a white embodiment of joy,
And looking on him, sealed the doom of Troy.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
He was roused by a friendly shout in his ear.
" Ho, ho, Max, reading poetry, are you? What
love does for the worst of us ! " It was Welsley,
who snatched the paper out of his hand, running
over the lines rapidly to himself: " Hem, hem,
* carnation, alabaster, gold and fire.' Some queen,
that, eh? Have you had your dinner? Well,
don't be cross. There 's no reason why you
should n't read verse if you like. And this young
man is the latest thing. My wife says they are
going to import him here to speak to the Greek
Study Club."
" I shall be curious to hear him, if the Greek
Club will ask me," said Max.
" Oh, you '11 be in the East getting married,"
answered Welsley.
Strangely enough, it was with something like a
pang that Max said to himself that he would n't
be.
" Carnation, alabaster, gold and fire."
It was not a bad line, he thought.
After dinner, he felt a little more amiable, and
so he sat down and wrote his first real letter to
his fiancee".
185
LADIES MUST LIVE
" If we were really engaged, my dear Chris-
tine," he wrote, " you would have had a night let-
ter long before this, asking you to explain to me
just how it was that you did look on that amorous
young poet. His verse is pretty enough, though
I can't say I exactly enjoyed it. However, my
native town thinks very highly of him, and intends
to ask him to come and address one of our local
organizations. If so, I shall have an opportunity
of questioning him on the subject of the sources
of his inspiration. 'Is Helen a real person?'
I shall ask. ' Not so very,' I can imagine his
replying. Ah, what would we both give to
know?
" My friends here, stimulated by Dorothy
Lane's ravishing description of you, have asked
many times to see your picture. I am ashamed of
my own carelessness in having gone away without
obtaining one for exhibition purposes. Will you
send me one at once ? One not already in circula-
tion among poets and painters. I will set it on
my writing table, and allow my eyes to stray senti-
mentally toward it whenever I have people to
dinner.
" By the way, the day I left New York I told
a florist to send you flowers every day. We
186
LADIES MUST LIVE
worked out quite an elaborate scheme for every
day in the week. Did he ever do it?
" Yours, at least in the sight of this company,
" MAX RIATT."
In answer to this, he was surprised by a tele-
gram:
" So sorry for absurd mistake. Entirely mis-
understood source of the flowers. Enjoy them a
great deal more now. Yes, they come regularly.
A thousand thanks. Am sending photograph by
mail."
Riatt did not need to ask himself from whom
she had imagined they came. Not the poet, un-
less magazine rates were rising unduly. Nor
Hickson, who failed a little in such attentions,
No, it was Linburne and evidently Linburne's
attentions were taken so much as a matter of
course, that she had not even thanked him, nor
had he noticed her omission.
He did not answer the telegram, nor did he
acknowledge the photograph but, true to his word,
he established it at once on his desk in a frame
which he spent a long time in selecting. The pic-
LADIES MUST LIVE
ture represented Christine at her most queenly and
unapproachable. She wore the black and gold
dress, and the huge feather fan was folded across
her bare arms. Every time he looked at it, he
remembered how those same arms had been
clasped round his own stiff and unbending neck.
And sometimes he found the thought distracted
his attention from important matters.
It was about the middle of February when he
received one morning a letter from Nancy Almar.
He knew her handwriting. She was always send-
ing him little notes of one kind or another. This
one was very brief.
" Clever mouse ! So it knew a way to get out
all the time ! "
All day he speculated on the meaning of this
strange message. Had Nancy discovered some
proof of the nature of his engagement? Had
Christine been moved by pity to tell Hickson the
truth? On the whole he inclined to think that
this was the explanation.
The next day he knew he had been mistaken.
He had a letter from Laura Ussher not the first
in the series urging him to come back at once.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" Max," she wrote, with a haste that made her
almost indecipherable, u you must come. What
are you dreaming of- to leave a proud, beauti-
ful, impressionable creature like Christine the prey
to so finished a villian as Linburne ? You are not
so ignorant of the ways of the world as not to
know his intentions. Most people are saying you
deserve everything that is happening to you. I
try to explain, but I know you saw enough while
you were here to be put upon your guard. Why
don't you come? I must warn you that if you
do not come at once you need not come at all."
Riatt had just come in; it was late in the after-
noon. The letters were lying on his writing table ;
and as he finished this one, he raised his eyes and
looked at Christine's picture.
He did not believe Laura's over-wrought pic-
ture. Christine was no fool, Linburne no villain.
There was probably a little flirtation, and a good
deal of gossip. But that would all be put a stop
to by the announcement of Christine's engagement
to Hickson. He did not even feel annoyed at his
cousin's suggestion that he did not know his way
about the world. He knew it rather better than
she did, he fancied.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
And having so disposed of his mail, he took
up the evening paper which lay beneath it, and
read the first headline :
Mrs. Lee Linburne to seek divorce: Wife of well-
known multimillionaire now at Reno
As he read this a blind rage swept over Riatt.
He did not stop to inquire why if he were willing
to give Christine up to Hickson he was infuriated
at the idea of Linburne's marrying her; nor why,
as he had allowed himself to be made use of, he
was angry to find that he had been far more useful
than he had supposed. He only knew that he was
angry, and with an anger that demanded instant
action.
He looked at his watch. He had time to catch
a train to Chicago. He went upstairs and packed.
He knew that what he was doing was foolish, that
he would poignantly regret it, but he never wav-
ered an instant in his intention.
He reached New York early in the afternoon.
He had notified no one of his departure, and he
did not announce his arrival. He went straight
to the Fenimers* house not indeed expecting to
190
LADIES MUST LIVE
find Christine at home at that hour, but resolved
to await her return.
The young man at the door, who had known
Riatt before, appeared confused, but was- decided.
Miss Fenimer, he insisted, was out.
Glancing past him Riatt saw a hat and stick on
the hall table. He had no doubt as to their owner.
" I '11 wait then," he said, coming in, and hand-
ing his own things to the footman, who seemed
more embarrassed still.
Taking pity on him, Riatt said :
" You mean Miss Fenimer is at home, but has
given orders that she won't see any one ? "
Such, the man admitted, was the case.
" She '11 see me," Riatt answered, " take my
name up."
The footman, looking still more wretched,
obeyed. Riatt heard him go into the little draw-
ing-room overhead, and then there was a long
pause. Once he thought he heard a voice raised
in anger. As may be imagined his own anger was
not appeased by this reception.
While he was waiting, the door of a room next
the front-door opened and Mr. Fenimer came out.
191
LADIES MUST LIVE
His astonishment at seeing Riatt was so great
that with all his tact he could not repress an ex-
clamation, which somehow did not express pleas-
ure.
" You here, my dear Riatt I " he. said, grasping
him cordially by the hand. " Christine, I 'm
afraid"
" I Ve sent up to see," said Max, curtly.
" Ah, well, my dear fellow," Mr. Fenimer went
on easily, " come, you know, a man really can't
go off in the casual way you did and expect to find
everything just as he likes when he comes back.
I have a word to say to you myself. Shall we
walk as far as the corner together? "
To receive his dismissal from Mr. Fenimer was
something that Riatt had never contemplated.
" I should prefer to wait until the footman
comes down," he answered.
" No use, no use," said Mr. Fenimer, suddenly
becoming jovial, " I happen to know that Chris-
tine is out. Come back a little later "
" And whose hat is that, then? " asked Max.
It had been carelessly left on its crown and the
initials " L.L." were plainly visible.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
Mr. Fenimer could not on the instant think of
an answer, and Riatt decided to go upstairs un-
announced.
As he opened the drawing-room door he heard
Christine's voice saying: " Thank you, I shall
please myself, Lee, even without your kind per-
mission."
The doors in the Fenimer house opened silently,
so that though Christine, who was facing the
door, saw him at once, Linburne, whose back was
turned to it, was unaware of his presence, and
answered:
" You ought to have more pride than to want
to see a fellow who has made it so clear he does n't
care sixpence about seeing you."
Christine openly smiled at Max, as she an-
swered: "Well, I do want to see him," and
Linburne turning to see at what her smile
was directed found himself face to face with
Riatt.
Max made a gesture to the footman, and shut
the door behind his hasty retreat, then he came
slowly into the room.
"In one thing you are mistaken, Mr. Lin-
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LADIES MUST LIVE
burne," he said. " I do care whether or not I
see Miss Fenimer."
Linburne was angry at Christine, not only for
insisting on seeing Riatt, but for the lovely smile
with which she had greeted him. He was glad
of an outlet for his feelings.
He almost shrugged his shoulders. " An out-
sider can only judge by your conduct, Mr. Riatt,"
he answered. " And I may tell you that you have
subjected Miss Fenimer to a good deal of disa-
greeable gossip by your apparently caring so lit-
tle."
"And others by apparently caring so much,"
said Max.
Christine was the only one who recognized at
once the fact that both men were angry; and she
did not pour oil on the waters by laughing gaily.
" You can't find any subject for argument there,"
she observed, " for you are both perfectly right.
You have both made me the subject of gossip;
but don't let it worry you, for my best friends
have long ago accustomed me to that."
" I hope you won't think I 'm asking too much,
- Riatt," said Linburne, with a politeness that
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LADIES MUST LIVE
only accentuated his irritation, " in suggesting that
as your visit is, I believe, unexpected, and as mine
is an appointment of some standing, that you will
go away and let me finish my conversation with
Miss Fenimer."
Max smiled. " Oddly enough," he said, " I
was about to make the same request to you. But
I suppose we must let Miss Fenimer settle the
question."
Christine smiled like an angel. " Can't we have
a nice time as we are?" she asked.
This frivolous reply was properly ignored by
both men, and Riatt went on : " Don't you think
you ought to consider the fact that Miss Fenimer
and I are engaged? "
" Miss Fenimer assures me she does not intend
to marry you."
" And may I ask if you consider that she does
intend to marry you that is if you should hap-
pen to become marriageable? "
" That is a question between her and me," re-
turned Linburne.
Riatt laughed. " I see," he said. " The mat-
rimonial plans of my future wife are no affair of
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LADIES MUST LIVE
mine? " And for an instant he felt his most pro-
prietary rights were being invaded.
" Miss Fenimer is not your future wife."
" Well, Mr. Linburne, I hear you say so."
" You shall hear her say so," answered Lin-
burne. " Christine," he added peremptorily,
" tell Riatt what you have just been telling me."
There was a long painful silence. Both men
stood looking intently at Christine, who sat with
her head erect, staring ahead of her like a sphinx,
but saying nothing. After a moment she glanced
up at Max's face, as if she expected to find there
an answer to her problem. She did not look at
Linburne.
" Christine," said Max very gently, " what have
you told Mr. Linburne? "
" She has told me everything," answered Lin-
burne impetuously, and then seeing by the glance
that the two others exchanged that such was not
the case, his temper got the best of him.
" Do you mean you Ve been lying to me? " he
asked.
" Just what did you tell him, Christine? " said
Riatt, finding it easier and easier to be calm and
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LADIES MUST LIVE
protecting as his adversary grew more violent.
Christine looked up at him with the innocence
of a child. " I told him that we did not love
each other, and that our engagement was really
broken, but that no one was to know until March."
" Why did you tell him that? "
"It's the truth, Max almost the truth."
"Almost the truth!" cried Linburne. "Do
you want me to think you care something for this
man after all?"
" In the simple section of the country from
which I come," observed Riatt, "we often care
a good deal for the people we marry."
Linburne turned on him. " Really, Mr. Riatt,"
he said, " you don't take an idea very quickly.
You have just heard Miss Fenimer say that she
did not love you and that she considered your
engagement at an end."
(" I heard her say she had told you that."
" You mean to imply that she said what was
untrue?"
" I could answer your question better," said
Riatt, " if I understood a little more clearly what
your connection with this whole situation is."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" The connection of any old friend who does
not care to see Miss Fenimer neglected and humili-
ated," answered Linburne, all the more hotly be-
cause he knew it was an awkward question.
Perhaps the young poet had not been so wrong
in attaching the name of Helen to Miss Fenimer,
for she sat now as calmly interested in the con-
flict developing before her, as Helen when she
sat on the walls of Troy and designated the Greek
heroes for the amusement of her newer friends.
" May I ask, Mr. Riatt, what rights in the
matter you consider that you have?" Linburne
pursued.
For Riatt, too, the question was an awkward
one, but he had his answer ready. " The rights,"
he said, " of a man who certainly was once engaged
to Miss Fenimer, and who came East ignorant
that the engagement was already at an end."
Christine laughed. " Very neatly put," she
said.
" Neatly put," exclaimed Linburne. " You talk
as if we were playing a game."
4 You have the reputation of playing all games
well, my dear Lee," she returned. The obvious
198
May I ask, Mr. Riatt, what rights in the matter you consider that
you have ? " Linburne pursued
LADIES MUST LIVE
fact that she was enjoying the interview, made
both men eager to end it but, unfortunately,
they wished to end it in diametrically opposite
ways.
" Christine," said Linburne, " will you ask Mr.
Riatt to be so kind as to let me have ten minutes
alone with you ? "
Riatt spoke to her also. " I will do exactly as
you say," he said, " but you understand that if I
go now, I shall not come back."
Christine smiled. " Is that a threat or a prom-
ise? " she asked, the sweetness of her smile almost
taking away the sting of her words.
Seeing that she hesitated, Riatt went on:
" Since I have come more than a thousand miles
to see you, don't you think you might suggest to
Mr. Linburne that he let me have my yisit undis-
turbed?"
There was a long and rather terrible pause,
terrible that is to the two men. Christine prob-
ably enjoyed every second of it There was noth-
ing in Linburne's experience of life to make him
think that any woman whom he had honored with
his preference was likely to prefer another man
20 1
LADIES MUST LIVE
to himself. So the pause was terrible to him,
not because he doubted what the climax would
be, but because he felt his dignity insulted by even
an appearance of hesitation. Max, on the other
hand, was still a good deal in doubt as to her
ultimate intentions.
It was to him, finally, that she spoke.
" Max," she said, " do you remember that
while we were staying at the Usshers' we com-
posed a certain document together?"
He nodded, and then as she did not continue,
he opened his pocketbook and took out the re-
lease.
She made no motion to take it ; on the contrary,
she leaned back and crossed her hands in her
lap.
" jYes," she said, " that 's it. Well, you may
stay, if you care to burn that scrap of paper."
It was now Max's turn to hesitate, for the deci-
sion of freedom or captivity was in his own hands;
the crisis he had so recklessly rushed to meet was
now upon him.
" What is in that paper? " asked Linburne, as
one who has a right to question.
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LADIES MUST LIVE
Christine was perfectly good-tempered as she
answered : " Well, Lee, it still belongs to Mr.
Riatt; but if he decides not to burn it, I promise
to tell you all about it as we drink our tea. n
" Do you promise me that, Christine?"
" Most solemnly, Lee." She looked up at Lin-
burne, and before Max knew what he was doing
he found he had dropped the paper into the
fire.
Strangely enough, though the fire was hot, the
paper did not catch at once, but curled and rocked
an instant in the heat, before it disappeared in
flame and smoke. Not until it was a black crisp
did Christine turn to Linburne, and hold out her
hand.
" Good-by, Lee," she said pleasantly. But he
did not answer or take her hand. He left the
room in silence.
When the door had shut behind him, Christine
glanced at her remaining visitor. " And now,"
she said, " I suppose you are wishing you had
not."
" What sort of a woman are you ? " Riatt ex-
claimed. "Will you take any man that offers,
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LADIES MUST LIVE
me or Hickson, or Linburne or me again, just as
luck will have it?"
" I take the best that offers, Max and that 's
no lie."
The implied compliment did not soften Riatt.
He went on: "If you and I are really to be
married "
" If, my dear Max! What could be more cer-
tain?"
" Since, then, we are to be married, you must
tell me exactly what has taken place between you
and Linburne."
"With pleasure. Won't you sit down?"
She pointed to a chair near her own, but Riatt
remained standing. "Shall we have tea first?"
" We '11 have the story."
" Oh, it 's not much of a story. Lee and I
have known each other since we were children.
I suppose I always had it in mind that I might
marry him "
"You loved him?"
" Certainly not. He always had too high an
opinion of himself, and I used to enjoy taking it
out of him and making it up to him afterwards,
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LADIES MUST LIVE
too. I used to enjoy that as well. Sometimes,
of course, he found the process too unbearable;
and in one of his fits of anger at me, just after
he left college, he went and blundered into this
marriage with Pauline. She, you see, took him
at his own valuation. His marriage seemed to
put an end to everything between us "
" You surprise me."
Christine laughed. " Ah, I was younger
then."
" You kept on seeing him? "
" Naturally we met now and then. Sometimes
he used to tell me how I was the only woman "
" That is your idea of putting an end to every-
thing? "
" Oh, if one took seriously all the men who
say that I did not think much about Lee's
feelings for me, until my engagement was an-
nounced. Then it appeared that the notion of
my marrying some one else was intolerable to
him."
" A high order of affection," exclaimed Riatt.
" He was content enough until there seemed some
chance of your being happy."
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" Perhaps he did not consider that life with
you would promise absolute happiness, Max."
" I don't call that love. I call it jealousy."
At this Christine laughed outright. " And
what emotion, may I ask, has just brought you
here in such haste ? "
The thrust went home. Riatt changed coun-
tenance.
" But I," he said, " never pretended to love
you."
" Why then are you marrying me? "
" Heaven knows."
" I know, too," she answered, unperturbed by
his rudeness, " and some day if you 're good I '11
tell you."
Her calm assumption that everything was well
seemed to him unbearable. " I don't know that
I feel very much inclined to chat," he said, turning
toward the door. " I '11 see you sometime to-
morrow."
She said nothing to oppose him, and he left the
room. Downstairs the same footman was wait-
ing to let him out. To him, at least, Riatt seemed
a triumphant lover, only as Linburne had long
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since heavily subsidized him, even his admiration
was tinctured with regret.
As for Max, himself, he left the house even
more restless and dissatisfied than he had entered
it.
To be honest, he had, he knew, sometimes
imagined a moment when he would take Christine
in his arms and say: "Marry me anyhow."
'Such an action he knew would be reckless, but
he had supposed it would be pleasant. But now
there was nothing but bitterness and jealousy in
his mood. What did he know or care for such
people ? he said to himself. What did he know of
their standards and their histories? How much
of Christine's story about Linburne was to be
believed ? What more natural than that they had
always loved each other? Some one knew the
truth every one, very likely, except himself.
But whom could he ask? He could have be-
lieved Nancy on one side as little as Laura on
the other.
And as he thought this, he saw coming down the
street, Hickson a witness prejudiced, perhaps,
but strictly honest.
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For the first time in their short acquaintance,
Hickson's face brightened at the sight of Riatt,
and he called out with evident sincerity: " I am
glad to see you."
" I came on rather unexpectedly."
" I 'm glad you did. Quite right." Hickson
stopped at this, and looked at his companion with
such wistful uncertainty, that it seemed perfectly
natural for Riatt, answering that look, to say:
" You may speak frankly to me, you know."
Ned took a long breath. " I believe that I
may," he said. " I hope so, anyhow. I have n't
had any one I could be frank with. Between our-
selves, Fenimer is no good at all."
"What, my future father-in-law?"
" Is that what he is? " Hickson asked with, for
him, unusual directness.
Riatt's affirmative was not very decided, and
Ned went on:
" I can't even talk to Nancy about it. She 's
keen, but she does not understand Christine. She
attributes the most shocking motives to her, and
when I object, she says every one is like that,
only I have n't sense enough to see it. Well, I
208
I
LADIES MUST LIVE
never pretended to have as much sense as Nancy,
but I see some things that she does n't. I see, for
instance, that there 's something noble in Chris-
tine, in spite of I beg your pardon for talking
to you like this, but you must remember that I
have known her a good deal longer than you have,
and that in a different way perhaps I care for
her almost as much as you do."
" I told you to speak frankly," answered Riatt.
" What is it that Mrs. Almar says of Christine? "
At first Hickson refused to answer, but the
suffering and anxiety he had been undergoing
pushed him toward self-expression, and Riatt did
not have to be very skilful to extract the whole
story. Nancy had asserted that Christine had
never intended for a minute to marry Riatt -
that she had just used him to excite Linburne's
jealousy to such a point that he would arrange
matters so that he could marry her himself. For
once Riatt found himself in accord with Nancy.
" Do more people than your sister think that? "
Hickson was not without his reserves. " Oh,
I dare say, but I don't care about that sort of
gossip. It 's absurd to say she and Lmburne are
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engaged. How can a girl be engaged to a mar-
ried man? "
" We must move with the times, my dear Hick-
son," said Riatt bitterly.
" Linburne 's no good," Ned went on, " not
where women are concerned. He would n't treat
her well if he did marry her. Why, Riatt," he
added solemnly, " I 'd far rather see her married
to you than to him."
If Max felt disposed to smile at this innocent
endorsement, he suppressed the inclination, and
merely answered:
1 You may have your wish."
" I hope so," said Ned. " But you must n't go
off to kingdom-come, and leave Linburne a clear
field. He 's a man who knows how to talk to
women, and what with the infatuation she has al-
ways had for him "
" You think she has always cared for him? "
asked Max. He tried to smooth his tone down
to one of calm interest, but it alarmed Hickson.
" I don't know," he returned hastily. " I used
to think so, but I may be wrong. I thought the
same thing about you at the Usshgrs'. She kept
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LADIES MUST LIVE
saying she was n't a bit in love with you, but it
seemed to me she was different with you from
what she had ever been with any one else. I
suppose I oughtn't to have said that either.
Upon my word, Riatt, it is awfully good of you
to let me talk like this I I can assure you it is a
great relief to me."
His companion could hardly have echoed this
sentiment. As he walked back alone to his hotel,
he found that Hickson's words had put the last
touches to his mental discomfort,
At first his own conduct had seemed inexplicable
to him. Everything had been going well, he had
been just about to be free from the whole entangle-
ment, when an impulse of primitive jealousy and
fierce masculine egotism had suddenly brought him
to New York and bound him hand and foot. It
had not been an agreeable prospect to live
among people whose standards he did not under-
stand, with a woman whom he did not love. But,
since his conversation with Hickson, his eyes were
opened, and he saw the situation in far more
tragic colors.
He did love her. He did not believe in her
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or trust her; he had no illusions as to her feeling
for him, but his for her was clear he loved
her, loved her with that strange mingling of pas-
sion and hatred so often found and so rarely ad-
mitted.
He could imagine a man's learning, even under
the most suspicious circumstances, to conquer jeal-
ousy of a woman who loved him. Or he could
imagine having confidence in a woman who did
not pretend love. But to be married to a woman
whom you love, without a shed of belief either in
her principles or her affection, seemed to Riatt
about as terrible a prospect as could be offered to
a human being.
There was just one chance for him that
Christine might be willing to release him. If she
really loved Linburne, if there had been some sort
of understanding between them in the past, if his
coming had only precipitated a lovers 1 quarrel,
then certainly Christine had too much intelligence
to let such a chance slip through her fingers just
on the eve of Linburne's divorce. Nor was she,
he thought bitterly, too proud to stoop to ask a
man to reconsider ; nor did it seem likely, however
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deeply Linburne's vanity had been wounded, that
he would refuse to listen.
With this in mind, as soon as he reached his
hotel, he sat down and wrote her a letter :
"My dear Christine:
" What was it, according to your idea, that
happened this afternoon? I believed that for the
first time I asked you to marry me, and that you,
for the first time definitely accepted me. But as
I think over your manner, I am led to think you
supposed it was just a continuation of our old
joke.
"Did you accept me, Christine? And if so,
why? Why commit yourself to a marriage with-
out affection, at the psychological moment when
a man for whom you have always cared is about
to be free?
" If you still need me in the game, I am ready
enough to be of use, but I will not be bound to a
relation unless you, too, consider it irrevocably
binding.
" Yours,
" M. R."
He told the messenger to wait for an answer,
but he thought that Christine would hardly be
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willing to commit herself on such short notice,
or without an interview with Linburne.
But, within a surprisingly short interval, her
letter was in his impatient hands.
"Dear Max:
" I will not be so cruel as to leave you one
moment longer in the false hope that your little
break for freedom may be successful. Face the
fact, bravely, my dear. I am going to marry
you. We are both irrevocably bound at least
as irrevocably as the marriage tie can bind nowa-
days. If this afternoon my manner seemed less
portentous than you expected, that must have been
because I have always counted on just this termi-
nation to our little adventure. You must do me
the justice to confess that I have always told you
so. As for Lee, in spite of Nancy (I suppose it
was Nancy to whom you rushed for information
from my very doorstep) I have never cared six-
pence for him.
" Yours till death us do part,
" CHRISTINE."
Max read the letter which was brought to him
while he was at dinner. He put it into his pocket,
finished an excellent salad, went to the theater,
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LADIES MUST LIVE
came back to the hotel and went to bed and to
sleep rather congratulating himself on the fact
that he had become callous to the whole situation,
and that, so far as he was concerned, the crisis was
past.
But of course it was n't. With the rattle of the
first milkcart, which in a modern city has taken
the place of the half-awakened bird, he woke up,
and if he had been in jail he could not have felt
a more choking sense of imprisonment. There
was no escape for him, no hope.
He got up and looked out at the city far below,
all outlined like a great electric sign that said
nothing. There must be some way of being free,
besides jumping from the twelfth story window.
He lit a cigarette, and stood thinking. Men dis-
appeared every day; it could be done. What
were the chances, he wondered, of being identified
if he shipped as steward, or engineer for that
matter, on a South American freighter?
It was full daylight before he found himself
in possession of a possible scheme. He remem-
bered the legend of a certain Saint, told him by
his nurse in his early days. She had been beauti-
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LADIES MUST LIVE
ful, too beautiful for her religious ideals ; the num-
ber of her suitors was distracting; so to one of
them who had extravagantly admired her eyes she
sent them on a salver.
Riatt did not intend sending Christine his
worldly goods, but recognizing that they were the
source of the whole trouble, he decided to get rid
of the major part. The problem was simply to
lose his money before the date set for the wedding.
And that was not so difficult, after all. There
were a number of people in the metropolis he
thought who would give him every assistance.
The problem of getting it back again at some
future time was more complicated, but even that
he thought he could accomplish. He had made
one fortune and he supposed he could some day
make another.
The practical question was : What sum would
make him impossible to Christine as a husband?
Twenty thousand a year would be out of the ques-
tion. But to be perfectly safe he decided to leave
himself only fifteen thousand. He would begin
operation as soon as the exchange opened in the
morning. In the meantime what about that mine
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LADIES MUST LIVE
of Welsley's? There was an easy means of sink-
ing almost any sum.
He took up the telephone and sent a telegram
at once.
" Plans for my wedding prevent trip to mine.
Have, however, decided after minute investigation
here to invest $500,000 in it. Believe we shall
make our fortunes."
He stood an instant with the instrument still in
his hand. " Suppose the damned thing succeeds,"
he thought, " I shall be worse off than ever."
Then his faith returned to him. " Nothing of
Welsley's ever did succeed," he thought; and with
this conclusion he went back to bed and slept like
a child.
217
CHAPTER VI
WITH his definite decision and unalterable
plan of action, wonderful peace of mind
has come to Riatt. He said to himself that he
was now to have a few weeks whatever time
it should take him to lose his fortune decently
of being engaged to a woman whom, he now
acknowledged, he passionately loved. He in-
tended to make the best of it.
The next day as he walked up Fifth Avenue on
his way to lunch with her, another inspiration
came to him; it was not necessary to lose his
money; spending it would be quite as effective.
Acting on this idea, he went into a celebrated
jeweler's shop, and with astonishing celerity chose,
paid for and pocketed a string of brilliant pearls.
It was a present that might have made any man
welcome and Christine had never be" " accused
of not being able to express herself vvhen she
wanted to but Christine had already welcomed
him for his changed demeanor; his brilliant smile
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LADIES MUST LIVE
and unruffled brow told her as soon as she saw
him that he was a very different person from the
tortured and irritable creature who had left her
the preceding afternoon.
Never were two people more disposed to find
each other and themselves agreeable, and Riatt
was in process of clasping the pearls about Chris-
tine's neck (for she had had some unaccountable
difficulty in doing it for herself) when the draw-
ing-room door opened and Nancy Almar strolled
in.
Her jaw did not actually drop at the scene that
met her eyes, for that did not happen to be her
method of expressing surprise, but her manner con-
veyed none the less an astonishment not very
agreeable.
" Was I mistaken," she said, " in thinking I
was to stop and take you to the Bentons' ? "
"Quite right, my dear. Only Max's return
has put everything else out of my head."
" What, you did n't ever expect him to come
back?"
" You talk, Nancy, as if you had never heard
that we were engaged."
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" If you really are, Christine, why are the Lin-
burnes being divorced? "
" Because they loathe each other, I imagine."
u What a changeable creature you are, Chris-
tine ! It seems only the other day that you were
crying your eyes out because Lee was engaged."
Without glancing at Max, Christine became
aware that some of the gaiety had gone from his
expression.
"Have you seen my pearls, dear?" she said.
It was a complete answer, so far as Nancy was
concerned, for she was one of the women who can
never harden herself to the sight of another
woman's jewels.
" How beautiful, love," she answered. " If
they were only a trifle larger they might be mis-
taken for your old imitation string." Then feel-
ing that she could never better this, she took her
departure.
" Oh, dear," sighed Christine, " do you think
I shall ever get so superior that Nancy can't tease
me when she says things like that? "
" Did you really cry, Christine? "
" The night you went away? "
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LADIES MUST LIVE
" When you first heard of Linburne's engage-
ment ?"
She nodded at him, like a child who would like
to lie its way out of a scrape.
" But then I often cry over trifles," she added.
u Like my going away? "
" Really, Max, you ought to be able to under-
stand why I cried over Lee's engagement. It was
Nancy who brought me the news, and she was so
triumphant over it. She said every one would
think he had been making a fool of me. You
know she has the power of teasing me more than
any one in the world except, perhaps, you."
" I have a piece of news for you, Christine."
"Good or bad?"
" Indifferent, I think you would say. It 's a
scientific discovery."
"An invention, Max? Could I understand
it?"
" I think you can if you make an effort."
"What is it?"
He put his arms suddenly about her. " I find
I 'm in love with you," he said, and added a
moment later: " And just think that I Ve been
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engaged to you so long and that 's the first time
I Ve kissed you."
Christine with her head still buried on his shoul-
ders murmured, " But it won't be the last."
Riatt's expression changed. " Not absolutely
the last, perhaps," he answered with something
that just was n't a sigh.
She looked up at him. " That piece of indif-
ferent news of yours " she began.
" Didn't I describe it correctly?"
" It was n't news to me."
" You mean you had already guessed that I
loved you? "
" I Ve always known it."
"Always?"
" You can't think I would ever have let you
go away at all, if I had not felt sure. And if
you had n't loved me, I could n't have brought
you back."
" I came back because "
" Because the Linburnes were getting a divorce,
and because Laura wrote you a letter. Do you
fancy I had nothing to do with either of those
events?"
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And Riatt found himself answering almost in
the word of Cyrano:
" Non, non, mon cher amour, je ne vous aimais pas"
The days that followed were the happiest that
Riatt had ever known. Only those who have
lived in a brief and agreeable present can under-
stand the fullness of joy that he was able to extract
from it. If he had been under sentence of death
he could not have given less thought to the future.
He gave himself up wholly to the two excitements
of making love and losing money.
At first he prospered more at the former than
the latter. For at first, for some time after he
had acquired the stock of the mine, the reports
from it grew more and more favorable and old
friends came to him and begged him to allow them
to take up a little of it. His curt refusal to all
such propositions increased the impression that he
knew he had a very good thing and meant to keep
it all for himself.
But he did not have very long to wait for the
turn of the tide. Within a few weeks he received
a letter from Welsley, alarming only because its
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LADIES MUST LIVE
intention was so obviously to allay alarm. It
appeared that a liberal revolution was threatened;
the concession from the government then in power
would not bear the scrutiny of an impartial wit-
ness such as our own State Department. If, in
other words, the present government fell, the con-
cession would fall, too.
" However," Welsley wrote cheerfully,
" though the revolution has the support of the
uneducated element of the population, which com-
prises most of the people, as they have neither
arms, ammunition nor money, they can't do much,
unless some fool in the north is induced to finance
them. You could help us a lot by looking about
and seeing if there is any danger of such a thing."
On receipt of this, Riatt instantly telegraphed to
Welsley as follows:
" Count upon me. What is the name and ad-
dress of the revolutionary agent here?"
The next day in a back bedroom of a down-
town hotel, $10,000 changed hands between a
slight, dark, very finished gentleman who spoke
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LADIES MUST LIVE
English with the slightest possible accent, and a
tall, fine-looking young American whose name
never appeared in the transaction. Within a
month a shipment of arms had been smuggled into
a certain South American country, with the result
that the revolution was completely successful
as indeed it deserved to be. One of the first acts
of the new government was to revoke the iniqui-
tous concession of the San Pedro gold mine, made
to " a group of greedy North American capital-
ists by the former corrupt and evil administra-
tion."
Riatt's bearing during this unhappy experience
was universally praised. As he went in and out
of his broker's office, not a trace of anxiety visible
upon his countenance, men would nudge each other
and whisper, " Did you ever see such nerve? He
stands to lose a million."
The only moment of regret that he suffered was
when one day, when things first began to look
badly, he met Linburne and another man in Wall
Street, and there was something subtly insulting
and triumphant in the former's manner of con-
doling with him about the situation.
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Rumors of it reached Christine. She liked the
picture of Riatt's courage and calm, and hated
the danger of his losing money.
" You 're not risking too much, are you, Max? "
she asked.
" Would n't you enjoy love in a cottage, Chris-
tine? " he answered.
She tried to make it clear to him how little such
a prospect would tempt her, and gathered from
the fact that he hardly listened to her reply that
he felt confident there was no real danger.
With the success of the revolution, Riatt re-
alized that his holiday was over, that he must
tell Christine the truth and then retire to his old
home and begin a new method of life on his de-
creased income.
It was now early April a warm advanced
spring when he decided that the next day should
see the end of his little drama. But, as we all
know, it sometimes happens that those who set
a mine are the most startled by the explosion; and
Riatt, at an early breakfast (for he and Christine
were going into the country for the day), with
a mind occupied with the phrases in which he
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should bid her good-by and eyes lazily reading
the newspaper, was suddenly startled beyond
words by a short paragraph on the financial page.
This stated in the baldest terms the failure of his
brokers at home.
There was no country expedition for Riatt that
day. He rushed down-town, leaving a short mes-
sage for Christine, and by night he knew the
worst, knew that the liabilities of the firm far ex-
ceeded any possible assets, knew positively that
the comfortable sum he had intended to preserve
for himself had been swept away, knew that he
now really had to begin life over.
That night when he came back to his hotel, he
understood for the first time that he had through-
out been cherishing an unrecognized hope; that
he had not been honest with himself, and that all
the time beneath his great scheme had lain the
belief that when the truth was known Christine
would prefer him and his moderate income to
Linburne and his wealth; that, in short, the great
scheme had been all the time not a method of
freeing himself, but a test of her affection.
Now any such possibility was over. Now he
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himself was facing the problem of mere existence
at least he would be as soon as he had collected
his wits enough to face anything.
The next day, which was Sunday, he spent en-
tirely with his lawyer. When he came back to his
hotel, between the entrance and the elevator a
figure rose in his path. It was Hickson.
" Riatt, I 'm awfully sorry about this," he said.
" Thank you, Hickson. It 's very decent of
you to be," Max answered as cordially as he
could, but he was tired and wanted to be let alone,
and there was not as much real gratitude in his
heart as there should have been. He did not ask
Ned to sit down until he had explained with his
accustomed simplicity that he had something of
importance to say. Then Riatt let him lead the
way to one of those remote and stuffy sitting-
rooms in which all hotels abound. He saw at
once that Hickson found it difficult to say what
he had come to say, but Riatt was in no humor
this time to help him out.
" I 'm awfully sorry this has happened," Hick-
son went on, " not only on your account, but on
Christine's. I mean that I did begin to hope that
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life with you meant peace and happiness for
her"
To cut him short, Riatt said quickly: " Now,
of course, the marriage is out of the question."
Hickson's face brightened, as if the difficult
words had been said for him. " You do feel
that? " he said, nodding a little as if to encourage
his friend.
Max did not answer at first in words; he
laughed rather bitterly, and then after a pause he
said, " Yes, Hickson, I do."
Ned was clearly relieved. " Of course," he
said, " I did not know how that would be. But
I own it did occur to me. The world is very cen-
sorious of poor Christine. Every one will say
that she is the kind of woman who can't stick to
a man in adversity. Yes, I assure you, Riatt, lots
of these women who can't put down one of their
motors without having nervous prostration will
pillory Christine for breaking her engagement,
unless " he paused.
" I don't follow your idea, Ned."
Hickson sighed. " Why, as long as you recog-
nize the impossibility of the marriage, couldn't
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you in some way make it appear that the breaking
of the engagement came from you as
if "
" I see," said Riatt. There was a short silence,
and then he asked in a tone that sounded perfectly
calm to Hickson : " Is this a message from Chris-
tine?"
" Oh, no. Not a message from Christine,
though she has been trying to communicate with
you for two days. She can't see why you won't
even answer her letters. I told her I would find
you"
" In fact, it is a message, or at least you are
her messenger? "
" No, Riatt, at least not from her. I have a
message for you, but not from her."
" From whom ? "
" From Linburne. He has the greatest ad-
miration for your power, abilities, in spite of
any differences you may have had. He wants
to offer you a position, only he felt awkward about
doing it himself after what has taken place. He
asked me to speak to you. It 's a good salary,
only it means going to Manchuria, no "
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" One moment," said Riatt. " These two mes-
sages, are they in any way connected? "
" I don't understand. 1 '
" Linburne's offer is not by any chance the re-
ward for my giving Christine a suitable release? "
Hickson was really shocked. " How can you
think such a thing, Riatt? "
"Where did you see Linburne?"
Hickson hesitated, but confessed after some
protest that it had been at Christine's house.
" But you don't understand, you really don't,"
he said. " She has been distracted by your re-
verses, and not hearing from you she has turned
to me, to Jack Ussher, to any one who could
give her news and help you, as she imagined "
" I understand quite enough," answered Riatt.
" Thank Mr. Linburne for his kind offer and say
I have other plans ; and tell Christine she can have
her absolution for nothing. I '11 give her a letter
that will put her right with every one." And
walking to a desk:
" My dear Christine," he wrote. " As you
are aware, I have lost everything I have in the
world, and though I know, that to a spirit like
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your own poverty could not alter love, I must
own that I, more experienced in privation, find
that the situation has had a somewhat chilling
effect upon my emotions. In short, my dear, I
cannot begin life over again hampered by a wife.
Thanking you for the loyalty with which you have
stood by me in this crisis, and wishing you every
happiness in the future, believe me
" Sincerely yours,
" R. M. RIATT."
He handed the note to Hickson. " I think
that, taken externally, will effect a cure," he said.
" Good night, Hickson. I 'm dead tired, so you
won't mind my going to bed. Oh, and I 'm off
to-morrow, so I sha'n't see you again. Good-by."
" Are you going home? " Hickson asked. But
Max maintained a certain vagueness as to his
plans, which Hickson, having accomplished his
purpose, did not notice. He was very much
pleased with the results of his diplomacy. No
one could say a word against Christine now. It
was n't her fault if the engagement was broken.
Riatt was a noble fellow only, the noblest some-
times forgot these simple, practical details.
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The next day Riatt paid his bill at the hotel and
went away without leaving an address.
Few of us have driven past rows of suburban
cottages, or through streets lined by city flats, with-
out considering how easy it would be to sink one's
identity and become part of a new unknown life.
Riatt certainly had often thought of such a pos-
sibility and now he put his plans into operation.
He took no great precautions against discovery,
for he had no notion that any one would be par-
ticularly interested in knowing his whereabouts.
But he allowed those at home to suppose he was
working in New York, as he suggested to those
in New York that he had very naturally gone
home.
As a matter of fact, he had taken a position
i i ' i
with a new company which was constructing aero-
planes for the market, into which in past times
he had put a little money. He hired a small flat
in Brooklyn, on the top floor, so that he had a
glimpse of the harbor from his sitting-room win-
dows. He spent the last of his ready money in
buying out the dilapidated furniture of his pred-
ecessor; and then with the assistance of the jani-
233
LADIES MUST LIVE
tor's wife, who gave him his breakfast and did
what she called " redding up the place," he began
to live on the slim salary that his new job gave
him.
Every afternoon he would take the new ma-
chines out and fly at sunset over the sandy plains
of Long Island, would dine cheaply at some
neighboring restaurant, and would return to his
flat about ten, go to bed early and be ready for
work the next morning.
The only relaxation he allowed himself was the
excitement of hating Christine, to which he now
devoted a great deal of time and thought. It
was the only thing that gave life any interest.
What was loss of money, after all, he said to
himself, for an able-bodied man? He could bear
that well enough, if his life had not been poisoned,
if hope had n't been taken from him. She had
spoilt him for everything else. His success, if
ever he should succeed, would not bring him what
most men wanted of success a companion and
a home. He had nothing to work for, and yet
nothing to do except work. It was all his own
fault, he said; and blamed her all the more bit-
234
LADIES MUST LIVE
terly. He was glad, he thought, that he had
made it impossible for her to have a final inter-
view with him ; and in his heart he could not for-
give her for not having overcome the obstacles
to a meeting which he had set up in the last
frenzied days in New York.
" If I were of a revengeful disposition," he
said to himself, " I should ask nothing better than
that she should marry Linburne " ; and he con-
cluded that he was not revengeful because he
found he did not want it. He made up his mind
after the most prolonged consideration that a
woman such as Christine exercised the maximum
influence for evil; a thoroughly wicked woman
could not help inspiring distrust, but a nature like
hers had enough good to attach you and yet left
you nothing to depend upon.
He read the papers, awaiting the announcement
of her marriage, but found no mention of her
name except once, toward the end of May, a
short paragraph announcing that she had gone out
of town for the season.
It was soon after he had read this that he came
home earlier than usual and let himself into his
235
LADIES MUST LIVE
little flat. The day had been successful, a new
device in the engine was working well and the
company had had a large order from abroad.
And as usual, with the prospect of success had
come to him a bitter sense of the emptiness of
the future. He was thinking of Christine, and
when he turned the switch of the electric light,
there she was. She was sitting in a large shabby
armchair, drawn close to the window, so that she
could look out at the river. She had taken ->ff
her hat, and her hair shown particularly golden
and her eyes looked brightly blue in the sudden
glare of light.
" You 're dreadfully late," she said, quite as if
she had charge of his comings and goings. " I Ve
been here hours and hours and hours."
Now that he actually saw her before him, it
was neither love nor hate that he felt, but an un-
definable and overmastering emotion that seemed
to petrify him, so that he stood there quite silent
with his hand on the switch.
" Well," she went on, " are n't you surprised to
see me? "
He bent his head.
236 .
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Can you guess why I have come? "
He shook his head.
She looked a little distressed at this. " Then
perhaps I Ve made a mistake in coming."
At this he spoke for the first time. " I should
say that the chances were that you had," he said,
and his tone was not agreeable.
The edge of his words seemed to give her back
all her confidence. " Now, how strange that you
should not know why I 'm here ! I Ve come, of
course, to return your pearls." He saw now, be-
tween the laces of her summer dress that she was
wearing them. " In common honesty I could
hardly keep them." She put up her hands to the
clasp, but it did not yield at once to her touch,
and she looked up at him. " I think you '11 have
to undo it for me," she murmured, with bent head.
" I don't want them," he answered, with tem-
per. " I never want to see them again."
" Nor me, either, perhaps? "
" Nor you either perhaps."
She rose and approached him. " I '11 keep
them on one condition, Max that you take
permanent charge of both of us." Then seeing
237
LADIES MUST LIVE
that she had produced no change in his expression,
she came very close indeed. " There 's no use in
looking like a stone image, Max. It won't save
you."
" Save me! And what is my danger? "
" I 'm your danger, my dear."
" Not any longer, Christine."
" You mean you don't love me any more? "
" Not a bit."
At this she shifted her ground with admirable
ease.
" In that case," she said cheerfully, " we can
talk the whole subject over quite dispassionately."
" Quite, if there were anything to talk over."
" Only first," she said, " are n't you going to
ask me to stay to dinner? It 's very late, you
know"
" I don't dine here," he answered, " and I
doubt if you would eat very much at the restau-
rant where I take my meals."
" Well, would you mind my going into the
kitchen and making myself a cup of tea ? "
He gave his consent, but evinced no intention
of accompanying her. To see her like this, in
238
LADIES MUST LIVE
his own home, where he had so often imagined her
being and where she would never be again, was
torture to him.
After an interval that seemed to him an eternity,
she came back flushed and triumphant, carrying
a tray on which were tea, toast and scrambled
eggs.
" There," she said, " don't you think I Ve im-
proved? Don't you think I 'm rather a good
housewife? "
The element of pathos in her self-satisfaction
was too much for him. " I 'm afraid I 'm not in
the mood either for comedy or for supper," he
said.
Her face fell. " I thought you 'd be so hun-
gry," she observed gently. " But no matter.
Sit down and we '11 talk."
" I know of nothing to talk about," he returned,
but he dropped reluctantly into a hard, stiff chair
opposite her.
" I '11 tell you what there is to talk about,"
said Christine. " Something that has never been
mentioned in all the discussions that have been
taking place. And that is my feelings."
239
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Your feelings," Riatt began, rather contemp-
tuously, but she stopped him.
" No," she said, " you sha'n't say what you
were going to. My feelings, my feelings for you.
You Ve told me that you did not love me, that you
despised me, that you did love me, but you 've
never asked how I felt to you."
" But you Ve made it so clear. You felt that,
in default of anything else, I would do."
She leaned across the table and looked at him
gravely. " Max," she said, u I love you."
He made no motion, not even one of contempt,
and so she got up, and coming round the table,
she knelt down beside him and put her arms tightly
about him. Still he did not move, except that his
hands, which had been hanging at his sides, now
gripped the edges of the chair with the rigidity
of iron, and he said in a voice which sounded
even in his own ears like that of a total stranger:
" What folly this is, Christine 1 "
"Why is it folly?"
" If you had said this six weeks ago, while I
still had enough money to "
240
" Max," she said, " I love you "
LADIES MUST LIVE
" If I had said it then you would n't have be-
lieved me." He looked at her; it was true.
" But now," she went on rapidly, " you must
believe me. If I come now to live with you and
work for you, no one can accuse me of mercenary
motives - not even you, Max. I sha'n't get any-
thing from the bargain but you, and that is all I
want"
" This is madness," said Riatt, trying not very
sincerely to free himself.
" Yes, of course it 's mad, like all really logical
things," she answered. " But that 's the way it 's
going to be. I love you, and I am going to stay
with you."
u I could n't let you," he said. " I could n't
accept such a sacrifice."
" A sacrifice, Max. That 's the first really
stupid thing I ever heard you say. It is n't a
sacrifice ; it 's a result, a consequence of the fact
that I love you. It is n't a question of my doing
it, or your letting me. It simply can't be other-
wise. The other things I used to value parties
and pretty clothes and luxuries they were a sort
243
LADIES MUST LIVE
of game I played because I did not know any
other. But only part of me was alive then. I
was like a blind person; and they were my stick;
but now that I can see, the stick is just in my way.
It is n't silly and romantic to believe in love, Max.
The hardest-headed, most practical people believe
in it every one who has any sense really believes
in it, when they find it. To be poor, to be uncom-
fortable it 's a price, but a small one to pay
for love. Is n't that true true, at least, as far
as you 're concerned? "
" Oh, yes, as far as I 'm concerned "
" Then what right have you to think it 's not
true to me? Don't be such a moral snob, Max.
If love 's the best thing in the world for you, it 's
ever so much more so for me I need it more."
" Nobody could need it more than I do," he
answered, suddenly clasping her to him.
" It 's the way it 's going to be, anyhow," she
murmured.
" I can't let you go," he said, as if arguing with
an unseen auditor.
She nodded in a somewhat contracted space.
" That 's it," she announced. " It has to be."
244
LADIES MUST LIVE
It was only a few days later that Nancy Almar,
driving past a well-known house-furnishing shop
on her way home to tea, was surprised to observe
her brother standing, with a salesman at his elbow,
in trancelike contemplation of a small white enam-
eled ice-box. With her customary decision, Nancy
ordered her chauffeur to stop, and entering the
shop by another door she stood close beside Hick-
son during his purchase of the following articles:
the ice-box, an improved coffee percolator and a
complete set of kitchen china of an extremely
decorative pattern.
" Bless me, Ned," she said suddenly in his ear,
" might one ask when you are going to housekeep-
ing, and with whom? "
There was no denying that Ned's start was
guilty, and his manner confused as he answered,
" Oh, they 're not for me "
The salesman who, perhaps, lacked tact, or pos-
sibly only wanted to get away to wait on another
customer, said at this point:
"And the address, sir? I have the name
Mrs. Max Riatt."
" Riatt married ! " cried Nancy. " But to
245
LADIES MUST LIVE
whom? I thought he had nothing left in the
world."
" He has n't," answered Ned, hastily scribbling
the address on a card and handing it to the man.
" Oh, then he 's married some one who loves
him for himself alone, I know. That faithful
sleek-headed girl from his home town. Won't
Christine be angry when she hears it ! She always
likes her old loves to pine a long time before they
console themselves. Let us go and tell her. Or
is she away still? "
A rather sad smile lit up Hickson's countenance
as he followed his sister to her motor. " I think
she knows it," he said.
Nancy put her hand on his arm. " Oh, dear,
darling Ned," she said. " Get in and drive home
with me and tell me all about it. I knew he really
never cared for Christine. She dazzled and dis-
tressed him in about equal proportions. And yet
I doubt if Miss Whatever-Her-Name-Was
will be very exciting "
" It is not Miss Lane, who, by the way, I like
and admire very much," said Ned, firmly.
" Who is it? Some one I know? "
246
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Yes, you know her."
Something in his extreme solemnity transferred
the idea to her.
" You don't mean that Christine "
He nodded. " I was at their wedding yester-
day."
" And where are they? "
" That 's it, Nancy. They 're living in a flat
and they have no servant "
His sister leaned back and laughed heartily, and
then composing her countenance with an effort,
she said: " My poor dear! But it's really all
for the best. She won't stay with him six
months."
" Nancy! She '11 stay with him forever."
"Where is this flat?"
" I Ve promised not to tell. They don't want
to be bothered by all of us."
" They want to conceal their deplorable situa-
tion, of course. Well, my dear, I can wait. Six
months from now I '11 ask them to dine to meet
Linburne. Christine's dresses will be a little out
of fashion, and they '11 come in a trolley car, and
she '11 have a veil over her head "
247
LADIES MUST LIVE
" Six months from now Riatt may be on the way
to making a nice little sum. He has a very good
thing, he thinks."
" He 'd better be quick about it. A flat in sum-
mer ! Oh, the cinders on the window-sill, and the
sun on the roof, and the knowledge that all of us
are going out of town to lawns and lakes*
He 'd better be quick, Ned."
The motor had stopped before the door of
Nancy's little house which was arrayed in its sum-
mer dress of red and white awnings, and red and
white window boxes. The footman had rung the
bell, and was waiting with his eye on the front
door, so as to catch the right second for opening
the door of the motor.
" Nancy," said her brother, with real horror in
his tone, " you talk as if you wanted her to fail."
" I do. I do, of course."
"Why? Do you hate her?"
Nancy nodded. " Yes, I hate her now. I
did n't used to."
" It seems to me this is just the moment to ad-
mire her. It may be foolish, but surely what she
has done is noble, Nancy."
248
LADIES MUST LIVE
The hall door opened and simultaneously the
door of the motor, and Nancy, putting out one
foot, said over her shoulder:
" Oh, Ned, what a goose you are ! Don't you
know any woman would have done what she 's
done, if she had the chance the real chance? "
She ran up the steps and into her house, leaving
her brother staring after her in amazement.
THE END
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