THE 
 
 LITTLE GODS 
 LAUGH
 
 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH
 
 " Don't touch me! " she gasped. FRONTISPIECE. See page 79.
 
 THE 
 LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 A NOVEL 
 
 BY 
 
 LOUISE MAUNSELL FIELD 
 
 WITH FRONTISPIECE BY 
 
 JOHN NEWTON HOWITT 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY 
 1917
 
 Copyright, 1917, 
 BY LOUISE MAUNSELL FIELD. 
 
 rights reserved 
 
 Published, September, 191? 
 
 8. J. 1'AKKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I INTRODUCING Miss WYNNE . ... 1 
 
 II THE PERFECT KNIGHT 25 
 
 III ONE MAN AND Two MAIDS 44 
 
 IV Miss CORNELIA'S CODE . . . . . .56 
 
 V HER HOUR 71 
 
 VI HOOPS OF STEEL 81 
 
 VII ON UNFAMILIAR PATHS 97 
 
 VIII NITA SHUTS THE DOOR Ill 
 
 IX AFTER MANY DAYS 123 
 
 X THESE TWAIN 140 
 
 XI THE ACQUIRED VIRTUE 155 
 
 XII MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS . . . .171 
 
 XIII OUT OF THE DARK 192 
 
 XIV ELSIE DECLARES WAR . 206 
 
 XV THE TURN OF THE BALANCE .... 229 
 
 XVI "NOTHING MATTERS ANY MORE" . . . 239 
 
 XVII REVELATION ... ^ .... 252 
 
 XVIII LOVE AND LOYALTY * i . . . 262 
 
 XIX THE MOMENT OF TRIAL . ... . . .272 
 
 XX THE LITTLE GODS ENJOY THEMSELVES . 288 
 
 XXI AN END AND A BEGINNING 310
 
 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 
 
 IT was after six o'clock, and the throng of 
 arriving and departing guests, which for 
 two hours had crowded Mrs. Carton's rather 
 small drawing-room almost to suffocation, was 
 thinning a little. The welcoming smile on the 
 hostess' lips had become a fixed, mechanical 
 grin: her debutante daughter Florence, in 
 whose honor all these people had assembled, 
 had lost the excited flush which earlier in the 
 afternoon had done much to redeem her de- 
 cidedly plain features, and now looked en- 
 viously down through the open doors to the 
 dining room where some of the girls of the re- 
 ceiving party, wise through experience, had 
 found seats for themselves and Were chatting 
 gayly with the few young men who had re- 
 sponded to Mrs. Carton's invitation. All this
 
 2 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 Mrs. Haight noticed as she greeted that lady 
 and exchanged conventional pleasantries with 
 the tired debutante. She could have passed a 
 rigid examination as to the looks and clothes 
 of mother and daughter, the cost and number 
 of the bouquets massed on piano and mantel- 
 shelf, the personnel of the guests and passed 
 it triumphantly. Long practice had taught 
 her how to gather considerable information 
 with a few quick glances. 
 
 Still talking to the hostess, she looked about 
 the rooms, searching for the three persons who 
 together comprised the principal reason for 
 her own presence at this coming-out tea. One 
 of the three was her eldest daughter, who was 
 to meet her here at a quarter past six. She 
 was a little early, however, and there was still 
 no sign of Geraldine ; but this was of small im- 
 portance, since Rudolph Drake had not yet 
 come. 
 
 Suddenly a group at the farther end of the 
 dining room parted, and a young girl, emerg- 
 ing thence, sped across the intervening space 
 with a kind of soft rush, as if on wings. With 
 her came an instantaneous impression of light 
 and joy, of swift, sure, graceful movement, of 
 a flash and sparkle like that of sunlight on
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 3 
 
 leaping waters. It was as though a fresh, in- 
 vigoraiing breeze straight from the sea had 
 blown into the dull, overheated room. And 
 now she was speaking with an enunciation so 
 beautifully clear that her words were not in 
 the least jumbled or indistinct, quickly as they 
 were uttered uttered with a certain dainty im- 
 patience which suggested that she found 
 speech too slow a means for conveying thought. 
 
 "Oh, Cousin Caroline, Mr. Matthews says 
 he'll give us a New Year's Eve supper and 
 dance if you'll chaperon it! Will you?" she 
 demanded eagerly. 
 
 Mrs. Carton's mechanical smile softened un- 
 til it became quite human. In theory she dis- 
 approved of Nita Wynne's impetuousness ; for 
 her own daughter's sake she was often a trifle 
 jealous, not so much of her good looks as of 
 that gift of personality which made her always 
 a notable, frequently the central figure in a 
 room; but somehow she invariably found her- 
 self unable to resist the charm of the girl's 
 actual presence. The tired debutante bright- 
 ened as if she had caught a little of the other's 
 overflowing vitality. 
 
 "Why yes; I I suppose so." Mrs. Car- 
 ton hesitated, not because she disliked the plan,
 
 4 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 but because hesitation was her ingrained habit 
 of mind. "Only I want to know " 
 
 She paused, and Mr. Atkinson Matthews, 
 the wealthy, elderly widower, who was both 
 financially and socially a model of solid con- 
 servatism, now spoke. He had followed Nita, 
 though at a pace commensurate with his age 
 and avoirdupois : 
 
 "My grandnephew, Donald For sy the, will 
 be back in New York by then, I hope, and I 
 want him to know you all. So I thought this 
 little supper Ah, Mrs. Haight, how do you 
 do?" 
 
 He shook hands with Mrs. Haight, who 
 greeted him most cordially. In spite of his 
 sixty years he was still eligible, and Geraldine's 
 continued spinsterhood was becoming a matter 
 of grave concern to her mother. Turning now 
 to the young girl, he added with a little smile : 
 
 "You and I will arrange the details later, 
 Mrs. Carton. Nita couldn't wait to settle any- 
 thing!" 
 
 "Now that's not fair, Mr. Matthews!" she 
 laughed with an infectious gayety which made 
 those about her smile in involuntary response. 
 "You know you said 
 
 "My dear Nita, how are you? I've been
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 5 
 
 just dying for a chance to tell you how sweet 
 you look!" 
 
 Nita stiffened instantly; and ice could not 
 have been colder than was her formal "Good 
 afternoon, Mrs. Ashurst." 
 
 But Mrs. Violet Ashurst, Dakota divorcee 
 and soldier of fortune, was not easily rebuffed. 
 She was perfectly aware that she had no actual 
 right to use the Christian name, and wished 
 now that she had not done so. For purposes 
 of her own she was resolved to be on friendly 
 terms with Anita Wynne ostensibly, at 
 least. 
 
 "My dear, that gown of yours is a perfect 
 dream!" she gushed, surveying the confection 
 of snow-white tulle and silver tissue that fluffed 
 crisply about Nita's straight, slim young body. 
 "The way you manage to choose exactly the 
 right things to wear is wonderful simply won- 
 derful! I really believe you do better alone 
 than if your dear mother was here to advise 
 you!" 
 
 She meant to flatter, but although a fairly 
 shrewd woman, she was not clever enough to 
 allow for feelings of which she was herself en- 
 tirely incapable. Mrs. Wynne had been dead 
 five years or more; how could Nita possibly
 
 6 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 be hurt or displeased by any allusion to the 
 fact? 
 
 A dozen replies had leaped to the young 
 girl's lips and been stopped there, partly by 
 social training, partly by innate good breed- 
 ing. But she believed Mrs. Ashurst intended 
 to wound her, and so neither of these could 
 control the wave of color under the transparent 
 skin, or the angry glint in the gray-green eyes. 
 
 Mr. Matthews saw she was annoyed, and 
 though he did not understand the cause, he at 
 once intervened. 
 
 "Come back and tell the others," he said. 
 "They mustn't" 
 
 But before he began to speak, Nita had 
 darted away from him, and now stood hold- 
 ing a hand of each of the two dainty, rather 
 old-fashioned little ladies who had just arrived. 
 The Misses Cornelia and Sophia Van Vechten, 
 distant connections by marriage of Atkinson 
 Matthews, had been born and brought up in 
 New York, like their parents and grandpar- 
 ents and great-grandparents before them ; they 
 were living encyclopaedias of information re- 
 garding that social life of which their ances- 
 tors had for generations been a part. Inclined 
 though they were to be extremely critical of
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 7 
 
 the young people of the day, they held Nita 
 Wynne very dear, partly because some of their 
 own beliefs and prejudices were hers by tra- 
 dition and inheritance. Now she quickly took 
 them to seats, saw to it that they were served 
 with just what they preferred of the elaborate 
 collation of bouillon and oysters, salad and cro- 
 quettes and pates, biscuit and ices and fancy 
 cakes which in those days when the twentieth 
 centuiy had not yet emerged from babyhood 
 it was customary to provide at afternoon re- 
 ceptions, and herself hovered about, pouring 
 forth a stream of gayest chatter touched with 
 a certain pretty deference. Mrs. Carton and 
 Florence, Mr. Matthews, Mrs. Haight, Violet 
 Ashurst the eyes of each and every one of 
 them followed her, but with quite different 
 feelings. 
 
 Mrs. Haight's gaze directed that of Ger- 
 aldine, who had arrived during the brief dia- 
 logue between Nita and Mrs. Ashurst. The 
 mother's eyes moved and paused with a signifi- 
 cance the daughter understood perfectly. 
 This was Geraldine's eighth season, and the two 
 had long since tacitly arranged a code of 
 glances. If not entirely harmonious, they 
 were at least working toward the same end.
 
 8 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 And now, in accordance with that wordless ad- 
 vice, Geraldine strolled forward and joined 
 Mrs. Dane. The companion thus chosen was 
 a rich woman and entertained lavishly; but it 
 was merely an added bit of good luck that it 
 was she who chanced to be standing just there, 
 midway between the entrance door and the 
 dining room. No matter who might come to 
 share it with her, Geraldine did not intend to 
 move from that strategically advantageous 
 position until the event occurred for which she 
 was waiting. 
 
 She was none too soon. Nita, imploringly 
 summoned, had left the Misses Van Vechten 
 and returned to the joyous group in the dining 
 room when Rudolph Drake at last appeared. 
 In the mirror Geraldine could see him, speak- 
 ing to Mrs. Carton ; now he was looking about, 
 evidently searching for some one. Was it for 
 herself? A month ago she would have smiled 
 in happy security, but now In the flower- 
 banked mirror she watched his gaze travel 
 about the rooms ; watched it, and saw it rest on 
 Nita Wynne, satisfied. But in order to reach 
 that slender, white-robed figure he must pass 
 close by her as she had arranged. She 
 waited, forcing herself to listen and reply to
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 9 
 
 Mrs. Dane's gentle commonplaces. He was 
 approaching her, he was about to go on 
 
 She wheeled around quickly, with proffered 
 hand. "Why, Mr. Drake! I thought you 
 never went to debutante teas!" 
 
 It was perhaps not quite safe to say that, 
 when only yesterday his sister, Violet Ashurst, 
 had told her of his promise to join her at this 
 one. But the remark might tempt him to 
 speech, to defense and an explanation might 
 deter him from going straight to Nita 
 Wynne. 
 
 And half unconsciously, half against her 
 will, Geraldine glanced toward her rival and 
 met the clear, gray-green eyes. 
 
 An instant those two measured each other: 
 in the glance of the one was defiance, in that 
 of the other scorn. And both were deaf to the 
 laughter of those little gods who revel in the 
 ironies and inconsistencies of human life. 
 
 Anita Wynne, barely twenty though she 
 was, had gone too much into society not to 
 know something about the silent, merciless 
 competition from which she proudly held her- 
 self aloof; if men admired her and sought her 
 out, as Rudolph Drake had been doing ever 
 since their first meeting in Mrs. Bartlett's box
 
 10 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 at the Horse Show, why, well and good; she 
 enjoyed their attention, but she would not 
 move out of her path by so much as a hair's 
 breadth in order to obtain it. And she had 
 only contempt for girls who made themselves 
 cheap, which in her opinion Geraldine unques- 
 tionably did when she haunted the places 
 where she was likely to encounter Mr. Drake, 
 or, as in the present instance, frustrated his 
 obvious intention of passing her by with merely 
 a bow. Nita turned so that her back was to- 
 wards the drawing-room, but some sixth sense 
 told her that Geraldine was doing her utmost to 
 hold Drake. Well, let her keep him if she 
 could! Miss Wynne had not the slightest in- 
 tention of stooping to a contest with her. 
 
 But she was nevertheless acutely aware of 
 his presence, waiting with taut nerves for his 
 decision. He must come to her; come all the 
 way: but she could not help hoping 
 
 "And how is the Snow Queen this after- 
 noon?" 
 
 Drake's voice at her side gave Nita a de- 
 licious little thrill, half of triumph, half of 
 something not altogether unlike fear. For 
 beneath the light tone in which he uttered the 
 rather trite nickname he had given her because
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 11 
 
 of the white gowns she usually wore there was 
 a hint of earnestness, an anxiety and im- 
 patience almost tender? She was not sure; 
 she was conscious principally of the thrill, 
 of the quick color that again, though for a 
 very different reason, was flushing her soft 
 cheeks. 
 
 She smiled, and the heavily fringed eyelids 
 drooped, hiding her happy eyes. No words, 
 indeed, were required of her, for several of the 
 group, all talking at once, were enthusias- 
 tically claiming Drake's cooperation in the 
 New Year's Eve project. He was exceed- 
 ingly popular, and not one of them all was so 
 unsophisticated as not to know that he had been 
 more or less attentive to Geraldine Haight 
 before meeting Nita; they felt and enjoyed the 
 dramatic quality of the situation. 
 
 In the other room, among the older and more 
 experienced, its possibilities were even better 
 appreciated, if less enjoyed. Mrs. Ashurst 
 alone was entirely pleased, since a match be- 
 tween her brother and Nita Wynne, frustrat- 
 ing as it surely must Nita's probable and per- 
 haps powerful opposition to certain plans of 
 her own, would suit her very well. And she 
 was not without pleasure in Mrs. Haight's dis-
 
 12 JHE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 comfiture ; they were both to some extent social 
 buccaneers, and therefore antipathetic. 
 
 "What a handsome pair they make, don't 
 they?" she said, with a little nod toward Drake 
 and Nita, standing together in the midst of a 
 laughing group. She knew her remark was 
 banal, but that did not trouble her. 
 
 "Do you think it's going to er to amount 
 to anything?" Mrs. Carton asked a trifle 
 anxiously. 
 
 She was a conservative woman, descended, 
 like Nita herself, from a family which had 
 settled in New York during Colonial days. 
 She distrusted the type of go-ahead young 
 Wall Street man which Drake represented, 
 and still more the divorcee of questionable 
 record, like his sister's. She would have pre- 
 ferred not to admit either of them to her house, 
 but they went and always had gone "every- 
 where," and her conservatism was of the kind 
 which cannot be independent even in its own 
 defense. 
 
 Violet Ashurst shrugged her shoulders- 
 shrugged them a little too much. Her words 
 and gestures, her clothes and her manners, were 
 like her complexion over-emphasized. 
 
 "I'm sure I don't know," she answered.
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 13 
 
 "Rudolph never tells me anything about his 
 affaires de coeur; perhaps because a good many 
 of them haven't been the kind a man does tell 
 his sister about. They're so extraordinarily 
 careful of their sisters 1 But it certainly 
 looks" 
 
 She broke off with a suggestive little laugh. 
 
 Not many guests remained now, and the 
 group they had been watching had shifted, 
 altered, re-formed, and presently melted away. 
 As Mrs. Ashurst spoke, the two little Misses 
 Van Vechten came timidly toward Drake and 
 Nita, The man was barely able to conceal his 
 annoyance at their approach, but the girl wel- 
 comed them with a shade of relief. He was 
 trying to go just a trifle too fast; she was not 
 yet ready, not yet quite sure either of him or 
 of herself. 
 
 "It has been so pleasant to see you, dear 
 child," said Miss Cornelia Van Vechten affec- 
 tionately. "How do you do, Mr. Drake?" 
 She paused an instant, and added in a tone 
 whose soft wistfulness was like the scent of 
 rosemary: "You will not object, I trust, if I 
 tell you how greatly you resemble your father ; 
 I knew him," she continued with gentle dig- 
 nity, "very well indeed."
 
 At any other time Drake might have been 
 amused or even touched by the quaint little 
 gentlewoman, but now his "Thank you, Miss 
 Van Vechten. I'm very glad to resemble 
 him" was purely perfunctory. Fortunately 
 two of his hearers were not analytical, and the 
 third too young and inexperienced to distin- 
 guish nuances of tone with any certainty. 
 
 Miss Cornelia babbled gently on: "It is 
 really astonishing to me that you young men 
 in Wall Street should so successfully preserve 
 your health. One would fancy you would suc- 
 cumb to the strain." 
 
 "Some of us do." Drake curbed his im- 
 patience with difficulty, fearing to show ill- 
 temper before Nita. 
 
 Miss Cornelia sighed. "The responsibility 
 must indeed be exhausting! Mr. Trent spoke 
 of it so often! Probably you knew Mr. 
 Trent? He advised us about our investments 
 for many years. We have felt quite lost since 
 his decease." 
 
 "I thought his partner was carrying on the 
 business," Drake said. 
 
 "Yes; Mr. Hobbs. A very worthy man, no 
 doubt, but one does not feel quite the same con- 
 fidence We really know nothing either
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 15 
 
 about him or about his family." Miss Cor- 
 nelia lowered her voice. "It is far more agree- 
 able to consult with a person who belongs 
 among one's own friends! And especially 
 now, when there is so much talk about rail- 
 roads, particularly the North Eastern. We 
 are most doubtful whether it would be wise to 
 sell our er holdings, or keep them. What 
 do you think, Mr. Drake? I know you are 
 fully cognizant regarding such matters. Is 
 the North Eastern in your opinion entirely ?" 
 
 Drake hesitated an instant. Nita, who al- 
 ready knew more about business than the 
 Misses Van Vechten ever would or could learn, 
 thought he disliked being so questioned in such 
 a place, and grew convinced of it as the pause 
 lengthened. At last he said, rather delib- 
 erately : 
 
 "Oh, the newspapers are always trying to 
 get up some sort of a sensation. There's noth- 
 ing the matter with the North Eastern. It's 
 perfectly sound. A gilt-edged investment." 
 
 Miss Cornelia brightened and said grate- 
 fully: "We are so rejoiced to hear you say 
 that! Mr. Hobbs has been urging us to sell, 
 but now we shall feel quite confident. And the 
 North Eastern has paid regularly for years."
 
 16 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Father always laughs about the North 
 Eastern and says it's as sure as taxes," re- 
 marked Nita gayly. "He put most of moth- 
 er's money into it." 
 
 Drake turned to her, opened his lips, and 
 closed them almost with a snap. A thoughtful 
 little frown gathered on his forehead. 
 
 "I'm going to tell Mrs. Van Tighe what you 
 say, Mr. Drake," the gently garrulous Miss 
 Cornelia tinkled on. "She owns some North 
 Eastern too, and so does Miss Pauristaine. 
 They will be very greatly relieved." 
 
 A shadow passed over Drake's handsome 
 face. 
 
 "Of course, we're none of us infallible. 
 And my opinion " He stopped abruptly. 
 
 "You are like your dear father in more than 
 looks. He was always so careful and so con- 
 scientious in his judgments! One might be 
 sure his son Yes, Sophia, I'm coming. 
 We are dining out, Mr. Drake, so you must 
 excuse us for hurrying away. I assure you, 
 you have taken a weight off our minds. It is 
 such a comfort to have a gentleman's opinion, 
 and although Mr. Hobbs is no doubt an excel- 
 lent man, one does not feel quite the same con- 
 fidence in his integrity one does in that of a
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 17 
 
 person one really knows. Good-by, Nita dear. 
 You must come to tea with us soon." And 
 Miss Cornelia at last fluttered away, followed 
 by her silent sister. 
 
 Drake drew a long breath. "Good heavens, 
 what a chatterbox!" 
 
 "But she's such a dear!" Nita protested. 
 "I'm very fond of Miss Cornelia." 
 
 "Oh, I suppose she's all right, and she looks 
 like a piece of Dresden china, but I well, I 
 hate anybody who comes around when I'm 
 talking to you! I don't get many chances to 
 be with you, and I want to make the most of 
 every minute. It's something to think about 
 and live on all the rest of the time, when you're 
 with other people. Do you ever think of me 
 then? Won't you try to give me just a 
 thought sometimes Snow Queen?" 
 
 "I've been waiting for a chance to thank you 
 for your flowers." The maiden instinct to 
 evade and fence was strong, those days, in Nita 
 Wynne. "They're lovely." 
 
 "Then they're not altogether unworthy of 
 you. Only they're not half lovely enough. 
 Nothing is or could be !" 
 
 She was seated now in a big armchair with a 
 high carved back, while he stood at her side,
 
 18 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 bending over her a little. As he spoke she 
 touched her corsage bouquet of lilies-of-the- 
 valley almost caressingly, looking up at him a 
 trifle shyly, but with smiling lips and eyes 
 
 And this was the picture which was in the 
 minds of Geraldine and Mrs. Haight when 
 they left the Cartons' house and turned to walk 
 homewards. Cab-hire is expensive, and the 
 cars uncomfortably crowded. Besides, walk- 
 ing can always be explained as the result of a 
 desire for exercise. 
 
 For a time neither spoke. They trudged 
 wearily along down Madison Avenue, both 
 busy with unpleasant thoughts. At last Mrs. 
 Haight said bitterly: 
 
 "Well, Geraldine, you've managed to lose 
 Drake too, it seems !" 
 
 Her daughter did not reply, and after a 
 while she went on, seeking in words some out- 
 let, however unsatisfactory, for the venom 
 which had been accumulating within her during 
 the past hour: 
 
 "I can't understand what's the matter with 
 you; you've let one man after another slip 
 through your fingers, and heaven knows you 
 haven't any time to waste! If you don't get 
 some one this season, I tell you frankly you'll
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 19 
 
 have to have nervous prostration or go to your 
 aunt in Sagwanack. I've kept Phoebe back 
 for two years on your account, and Elsie'll be 
 sixteen in a couple of months." 
 
 Geraldine made answer quietly : "I'll go to 
 Aunt Jenny's to-morrow if you want me to." 
 
 "Don't be a fool! You know perfectly well 
 I've spent every penny I could rake and scrape 
 together on your clothes. I can't go now and 
 buy others for Phoebe I haven't even paid for 
 all yours. I did think you'd be settled de- 
 cently long before this, and able to help me 
 with Phoebe and Elsie. I don't know what's 
 going to become of you all when your father 
 dies!" 
 
 It was not the first time by very many that 
 Mrs. Haight had talked in this strain. Al- 
 most from the day of Geraldine's birth her 
 mother had planned and schemed "to marry 
 her off well"; now, after numerous disappoint- 
 ments, the qualifying adverb had been dropped. 
 It was Mrs. Haight's firm belief that "any 
 marriage was better than no marriage" for a 
 penniless girl of good social position. And 
 according to the standard set by their acquaint- 
 ances, the Haights were very poor. Every 
 dollar they had they spent, and they did not
 
 20 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 know what it was to be out of debt. It was a 
 desire to use every penny where it would do the 
 most good i.e., make the most show that 
 caused Mrs. Haight to sponge on the people 
 she knew, whenever and however she could. 
 And now Geraldine, at twenty-six, was classed 
 among "the old girls," and Phoebe was clamor- 
 ing for her chance. She had hoped that Ru- 
 dolph Drake would solve a part of the prob- 
 lem, and now he too had turned his back and 
 walked away. In a more equable mood, she 
 would have admitted that Geraldine had done 
 her best to prevent his defection, but at the 
 moment she felt she must upbraid some one, 
 and it was safe to let loose her anger and 
 disappointment on her daughter. 
 
 "May I inquire what you propose to do?" 
 she went on, her tone querulous beneath its sar- 
 castic surface. "You must live somehow, you 
 know." 
 
 "I don't think it's necessary," Geraldine's 
 lips and brow were sullen. The reply had 
 been instinctive, not consciously borrowed. 
 "Anyway " 
 
 "You could earn your own living. Of 
 course. I was sure you'd say that! And 
 what kind of a living would it be, I'd like to
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 21 
 
 know? As I've told you over and over again, 
 Geraldine, the one profitable business for a 
 woman is marriage. And when you look 
 around and see the girls who've been able to get 
 husbands of some kind or other, you ought to 
 be ashamed of yourself. You've got a stun- 
 ning figure, you've had every opportunity, and 
 here you are, an old maid on my hands!" 
 
 Mrs. Haight had switched back from gener- 
 alities to the main theme, and on this she con- 
 tinued with scarcely a pause until they reached 
 the house, and Geraldine was able to take 
 refuge in her own room, behind a locked door, 
 there to yield at last to the tears she had long 
 repressed. For she had been deeply hurt that 
 afternoon, and hurt in a way no one suspected, 
 the girl who stifled her sobs among the pil- 
 lows being a somewhat different person from 
 the Geraldine inexperienced Nita despised and 
 self-seeking Mrs. Haight fancied she could 
 perfectly control. We do not always under- 
 stand people quite so thoroughly as we are 
 prone to suppose. 
 
 It was not only in the thoughts of this 
 mother and daughter that Rudolph Drake oc- 
 cupied a prominent place. Nita Wynne, re-
 
 22 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 turning home from the dinner to the receiving 
 party which had followed the reception, dis- 
 missed her maid and sat down before the 
 pretty ivory- and crystal-strewn toilette table 
 in her own pink and white, chintz-hung bed- 
 room, that she might think of him and of the 
 questions he suggested. He had made definite 
 love to her that afternoon and in the brief hour 
 after dinner, but had he meant it? Was he 
 serious, or only trying to pass the time pleas- 
 antly? When he told her he thought of her 
 by day and dreamed of her by night, that his 
 one and only desire was to please her, was it 
 more than a pretty speech, such as he had per- 
 haps spoken to many other girls to Geraldine 
 Haight, for instance? The ingenuous scorn 
 which always filled her at sight of Geraldine's 
 maneuvers rose again. No nice girl would act 
 in that way, she felt sure; nice girls didn't do 
 such things. Neither did they wear extremely 
 low-cut gowns, like Geraldine's, nor smoke 
 cigarettes, as she very probably did and Mrs. 
 Ashurst certainly! She wondered why the 
 right kind of people by which she meant the 
 well born and well bred received that horrid 
 woman, with her gushing talk, her rouge, and 
 her farcical divorce? She must be a great
 
 INTRODUCING MISS WYNNE 23 
 
 trial to Mr. Drake ! Naturally it wouldn't do 
 for him even to hint at such a thing, but no 
 doubt he disapproved of her suffered per- 
 haps under his lively exterior. Her own fas- 
 tidiousness made her shrink from the thought 
 of there ever being any link between herself 
 and Mrs. Ashurst, as it made her resent the 
 idea that she might be regarded as Geraldine 
 Haight's rival : that extenuating circumstances 
 might exist in the case of either woman never 
 entered her mind. But Mr. Drake it wasn't 
 his fault 
 
 She would have been honestly indignant had 
 any one ventured to suggest to her that 
 Drake's popularity, the fact that other girls 
 wanted and tried to get him, had anything to 
 do with the delight she felt when he turned 
 from those others to her; even more indignant 
 at any hint that his physical charm his height 
 and broad shoulders, his merry blue eyes, hand- 
 some face, and debonair manner had any con- 
 siderable share in the attraction he undoubt- 
 edly possessed for her, an attraction she was 
 just beginning to admit to herself. Quite un- 
 consciously she at once exalted love and de- 
 based it; holding high her ideal of its mental 
 and spiritual aspects, turning from all else with
 
 24 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 distaste as from an evil, necessary perhaps, but 
 an evil nevertheless. Hers was that ardent, 
 exacting idealism of high-principled youth 
 which looks for perfection a perfection 
 shaped in accordance with its own untutored 
 beliefs and will tolerate nothing that falls 
 short of it, nor ever question its own ability to 
 pronounce judgment.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 
 
 ON the following evening Nita Wynne and 
 her father were alone at dinner in their 
 home in East Sixty-fourth Street. The house 
 was a high-stooped brownstone, ugly and 
 gloomy on the outside, like the majority of 
 New York residences built during the Eighties. 
 Within, however, it was charming, for Nita's 
 mother had been one of those exceptional 
 women who possess an innate sense of line and 
 color a sense her daughter had inherited 
 and she had made her house at once comfort- 
 able and harmonious, artistic and homelike. 
 Since her death Nita had kept everything ex- 
 actly as she had left it, and although the 
 Wynnes, according to New York ideas, were 
 not rich, and their establishment was but a 
 modest one, few people who entered their house 
 failed to like it or to be swayed, even if un- 
 consciously, by its cheerful, pleasant at- 
 mosphere. 
 
 Over the rim of the coffee cup whose excel-
 
 26 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 lent contents he was sipping with due apprecia- 
 tion, Mr. Wynne regarded his daughter 
 thoughtfully. He was contemplating the do- 
 ing of something that would affect her very 
 nearly, and he was not at all sure what her re- 
 sponse to it might be. If she chose, she could 
 make matters decidedly unpleasant. In the 
 light of his half-determination, he seemed to 
 see her with a new clearness, realizing with a 
 sort of mental shock that he could not even 
 conjecture how she would act in the given, or 
 indeed in almost any situation. He was not in 
 the least analytical, and heretofore he had taken 
 his daughter very much for granted. Now, 
 partly because of this new light, partly because 
 of certain gossip which had been repeated to 
 him, he had become somewhat abruptly aware 
 that she was no longer a child to be petted and 
 easily controlled, but a girl on the brink of 
 womanhood ; and one endowed, moreover, with 
 a strongly marked, exceptionally vigorous per- 
 sonality. Looking at her from his altered 
 point of view almost as he might have looked 
 at an interesting stranger, he saw much that 
 pleased and much that disquieted him. He 
 considered her, feature by feature : the mass of 
 wavy, light-brown hair piled high on the small
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 27 
 
 head and falling over the low white brow in a 
 soft cloud and a significant defiance of the cur- 
 rent fashions hair full of golden glints, each 
 tiny thread of it seeming to have an independ- 
 ent vitality of its own ; the clearly marked eye- 
 brows, many shades darker than the hair, 
 whose pronounced arch gave a certain alert 
 look to the whole face; the rather deeply set, 
 gray-green eyes with their black-penciled 
 irises and clear, fearlessly direct gaze. The 
 short, straight nose had sensitive nostrils; the 
 rounded chin, in which there was just a sus- 
 picion of a cleft, exquisitely completed the deli- 
 cate oval of the face ; only the mouth was ques- 
 tionable, not yet definitely shaped in the lines 
 which would one day indicate its owner's char- 
 acter: it was flexible, vividly red, deliciously 
 fresh and young. Significant details, many of 
 them; yet in contemplating them thus sep- 
 arately the essential thing, he felt, was lost, that 
 essential which was not an affair of tint or 
 curve, indefinable yet somehow making one 
 think of a fountain springing upwards toward 
 the sunshine sparkling, crystal-clear, rain- 
 bow-hued. Eager, swift of thought and of 
 movement, intensely, dynamically alive. . . . 
 Nita had finished planning the dinner cards
 
 she meant to make for their next party; she 
 liked to do them and often relied on her quaint 
 or comic designs to start conversation and 
 break any possible ice. Now she suddenly 
 grew conscious of the long silence and her 
 father's intent scrutiny. 
 
 "Well, Dadsy, what's the matter? You've 
 been staring at me for the last five minutes!" 
 she exclaimed merrily. 
 
 His brows relaxed, and he smiled. "I'm 
 just beginning to realize that I have a grown- 
 up daughter. It's a terrifying idea!" 
 
 Her answering smile was a trifle uncertain, 
 and the quick color rushed into her cheeks. 
 With characteristic impetuosity she had leaped 
 to the conclusion that he must have heard some 
 of the talk about herself and Rudolph Drake 
 which she knew was flying around. That he 
 might have any private reasons or intentions 
 never occurred to her; she had the usual un- 
 questioning belief of youth that old or even 
 middle age implies a state which will alter only 
 as it is inevitably changed by the advancing 
 years. And the fact was that her father and 
 herself were neither so fond of each other nor 
 so companionable as she rather naively sup- 
 posed.
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 29 
 
 But although she had, as her custom was, 
 leaped to a conclusion, it was not an entirely 
 mistaken one. Mr. Wynne was in truth think- 
 ing that if this affair with Rudolph Drake 
 should result in marriage, it would greatly sim- 
 plify his own position. And he felt a little 
 guilty, for though Drake, as a rising and astute 
 young man, well regarded by the older mem- 
 bers of the firm with which he was connected, 
 was by no means an undesirable match from 
 one standpoint, there were incidents in his per- 
 sonal life, certain of those "affaires de cceur" 
 mentioned by Mrs. Ashurst, that were really 
 not at all 
 
 Mr. Wynne freed his mind from these un- 
 pleasant thoughts with a mental shake of an- 
 noyance. He always declined to harbor un- 
 pleasant thoughts, and he considered the sow- 
 ing of wild oats a proper and necessary exer- 
 cise. Why refuse to apply the theories in 
 which he believed to one especial young man, 
 merely because there was a possibility of that 
 young man's becoming his own daughter's hus- 
 band? 
 
 Yet he was disagreeably conscious that it 
 was only because it would suit his private 
 plans so well to have Nita announce her en-
 
 30 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 gagement that he was ready to welcome Ru- 
 dolph Drake. 
 
 While these ideas darted through his brain, 
 Nita was speaking: 
 
 "To tell the truth, Dadsy dear, it's just a 
 wee bit terrifying to me too," she admitted a 
 little shyly. Her recognition of her own 
 womanhood had become closely connected in 
 her thoughts with those iridescent fancies 
 which had gathered around Rudolph Drake, 
 and the addition made it seem a trebly delicate, 
 perilous, and fascinating subject. 
 
 It was the father who plunged. "I met 
 Mrs. Ashurst yesterday on the Avenue and 
 she was warning me to look out, that I had a 
 most attractive and charming daughter. . . ." 
 
 His smile became nervous as he saw the 
 slight stiffening of Nita's delicate features. 
 She hesitated an instant and then said with that 
 incisive utterance which often gave an edge to 
 her words, making them sound far more em- 
 phatic than they really were : 
 
 "I wish Mrs. Ashurst would let me and my 
 affairs alone!" 
 
 To her own ears that phrase held many im- 
 plications, the thought of Rudolph Drake's re- 
 lationship to Mrs. Ashurst being a veritable
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 31 
 
 thorn in her flesh. She had all the usual intol- 
 erance of youth and of sheltered feminine 
 youth at that. For the idealistic, high-minded 
 young girl is far more exacting in her demands 
 that other people conform to her own exalted 
 standards, far less likely to make allowances, 
 than is the lad of similar age and type ; and this 
 because of the simple reason that, among the 
 well-to-do at least, he comes into contact with 
 realities a good deal sooner than does she. 
 
 "Don't you like her?" Mr. Wynne asked 
 hurriedly. 
 
 Nita had been absent-mindedly playing with 
 her coffee spoon. Now she laid it down and 
 looked across at him with frank, clear eyes, as 
 unwavering as her speech. 
 
 "No, Dadsy dear, I don't ! She smokes and 
 makes up and drinks cocktails and and every 
 one knows that she and Mr. Ashurst arranged 
 their divorce. Nice women don't do such 
 things." 
 
 At that moment Mr. Wynne came to a de- 
 cision. Thus there was good reason why it 
 should make an impression on him : but was it 
 an echo from the laughter of those little gods 
 who delight in irony which fixed the incident 
 and her own words in Nita's subconsciousness,
 
 32 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 whence they were one day to arise to her con- 
 scious mind, unaltered and unblurred? 
 
 Certain it is that neither had any place in 
 her thoughts on that crisp, sunny afternoon a 
 little later in the month when she stopped her 
 hansom the day of the all-conquering taxi 
 had not yet arrived before an old-fashioned 
 house in East Seventeenth Street, fronting 
 Stuyvesant Square. She was going to tea 
 with the Misses Van Vechten, and doing it at 
 some small sacrifice of time and convenience, 
 since the winter season was then in full swing, 
 and her days and nights crowded. The house, 
 formerly a dignified private mansion, retained 
 much of its aristocratic air, though it was now 
 divided into four apartments. The two little 
 ladies, first and only tenants of the third floor, 
 had lived there so long that to Nita the place 
 seemed to have become a part of them the 
 shell without which they would cease to be quite 
 themselves. 
 
 She was welcomed affectionately, and the 
 violets she had brought accepted with gracious, 
 though restrained thanks. For according to 
 Miss Cornelia's code, "a lady" was always quiet 
 and never made a fuss about anything; pleas- 
 ures and pains should alike be met with dignity
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 33 
 
 and calm self-control. Yet to the sisters, 
 vivid, impetuous Nita represented embodied 
 youth, while the harmless gossip she retailed to 
 them was, save for a wedding or an occasional 
 reception, the most exciting thing in their quiet 
 lives. They were members of a tiny circle of 
 widows and spinsters, all poor, all well born, 
 and all fond of discussing and lamenting over 
 the decadence of the society to which they had 
 once belonged. Nita's anecdotes thus pro- 
 vided themes for many a mildly animated dis- 
 cussion over tea tables rich in Colonial silver 
 and eggshell china. 
 
 But this afternoon she had surprisingly little 
 to tell, and her gay chatter faltered and 
 stopped every now and then. For her daily 
 life was becoming more and more a mere back- 
 ground to her meetings with Rudolph Drake, 
 and of these she could not speak. The two lit- 
 tle ladies, watching her with adoring and undis- 
 cerning eyes, wondered if she were quite well, 
 although the appreciation she showed for the 
 delicately browned muffins and luscious plum 
 cake plum cake such as our great-grand- 
 mothers used to make should have com- 
 pletely reassured them. It was during one of 
 these pauses that Miss Cornelia remarked, in
 
 34 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 the casual tone she regarded as appropriate to 
 the topic, any mention of money being a thing 
 approaching dangerously near to vulgarity: 
 
 "Nita dear, I sent a note to Mr. Drake the 
 other day. It occurred to both of us upon 
 reflection that it had been far from proper to 
 speak to him about the North Eastern that 
 Saturday afternoon at Mrs. Carton's tea. I 
 trust he did not appear vexed, following our 
 departure?" 
 
 "Oh, no, not a bit." The fib was a very little 
 one, Nita thought, and besides, it had been the 
 interruption to their tete-a-tete which had an- 
 noyed him, not the asking of his advice 1 
 
 "He seems to be a most amiable young man, 
 just as his father was," Miss Cornelia com- 
 mented gently, a far-away look in her soft 
 brown eyes. She paused an instant with an 
 unconscious, tiny sigh, and then added: "Sis- 
 ter reminded me that it is his profession to ad- 
 vise people, a thing for which he is accustomed 
 to receive er pecuniary remuneration. Sis- 
 ter has such a keen intellect ! Sol wrote and 
 asked him to be so good as to pardon my 
 ignorance and to tell er to tell me " 
 
 Nita's sunshiny smile was very tender. "To 
 tell you how much you owed him?"
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 35 
 
 She knew Miss Cornelia to be quite in- 
 capable of completing such a sentence unaided. 
 Moreover, a new idea had darted into her mind. 
 Was it possible that once, long ago, there had 
 been something between Miss Cornelia and 
 Rudolph Drake's father? Poor, dear, weak 
 Miss Cornelia, so timid and nervous, terrified 
 by spiders and thunderstorms, was just the sort 
 of person to let happiness slip away from her 
 through want of courage to take it. 
 
 The little lady carefully adjusted the fine 
 thread-lace ruffles over her delicate wrists and 
 thin, blue-veined hands before she spoke. 
 "He wrote a very kind note in reply a trifle 
 brusque in its expressions, perhaps, but I un- 
 derstand that it is no longer regarded as un- 
 civil to be brusque in affairs of business. He 
 said it would always be a pleasure to him to be 
 of assistance to us, although he was far from 
 certain of the value of his advice. So admir- 
 ably modest !" 
 
 "Do you think, Sister," queried Miss Sophia, 
 speaking for the first time in at least half an 
 hour, "do you think Mr. Drake at all re- 
 sembles our Donald?" 
 
 Miss Cornelia gravely considered this prob- 
 lem during several seconds. "Not resembles,
 
 36 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 perhaps ; not exactly resembles. Mr. Drake is 
 fair, you know, and our Donald very dark. 
 Yet there is a something, a certain aristocratic 
 My dear Nita," Miss Cornelia spoke al- 
 most abruptly, and with a nearer approach to 
 something like excitement than Nita had 
 ever before known her to show "my dear 
 Nita, we haven't told you our great news. 
 Our nephew Donald poor Serena's only child, 
 you know is coming back to New York ! He 
 intends to make it his home." 
 
 "How delighted you must be!" Nita's re- 
 sponse was sympathetic, but her thoughts were 
 very far away from the unknown Donald. 
 Mr. Drake must have written very nicely; he 
 was an extremely busy person, but not too busy 
 to be considerate. She was glad he had ad- 
 vised dear Miss Cornelia and it was kind of 
 him, for he didn't like to give advice, especially 
 to women 
 
 She suddenly realized that Miss Cornelia 
 was just finishing an explanation, not one word 
 of which had she heard. 
 
 "And so then Donald accepted this position 
 as assistant editor of the Colonial Magazine" 
 she was saying. 
 
 "Isn't that splendid!" Nita could only hope
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 37 
 
 she wasn't blundering. Though she had not 
 heard Miss Cornelia's explanation, she knew 
 the Colonial Magazine to be one of traditions 
 and dignity, which prided itself on its literary 
 standards and standing. For a young man 
 who couldn't possibly be over twenty-six or 
 seven for Serena Van Vechten had been 
 much the youngest of the three sisters to have 
 obtained the post of assistant editor on such a 
 periodical was no doubt matter for congratula- 
 tion. But she had a vague impression that 
 editors in general were a rather stuffy, priggish 
 set of men very like schoolmasters. 
 
 "Mr. Matthews is rather vexed about it," 
 Miss Cornelia continued. "He wished Don- 
 ald to enter upon a business career. Indeed, I 
 understand he offered to procure him a po- 
 sition with the Trans-Continental Trust Com- 
 pany. Mr. Matthews is intimately acquainted 
 with Mr. Carstairs, the President of the Com- 
 pany." 
 
 "Mr. Matthews said something to me about 
 expecting a great-nephew, and of course I've 
 always known you were related by marriage, 
 but I didn't think of his nephew being yours 
 too." Nita was doing her best not only to 
 seem but to be interested.
 
 38 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "He is Donald's great-uncle on his father's 
 side. He is inclined to like Donald and to 
 further his fortunes, but I fear that his is a 
 somewhat er dictatorial nature, and our 
 dear boy has an independent spirit," Miss Cor- 
 nelia answered proudly. 
 
 This statement contained an hiatus or two 
 which Nita easily filled: she knew Mr. Atkin- 
 son Matthews to be an elderly, rich, and child- 
 less, almost kinless widower. A grandnephew 
 whose "fortunes he was inclined to further" 
 might reasonably regard himself as a young 
 man with most satisfactory prospects so long 
 as he did not clash with the old gentleman's 
 habit of considering his will the one altogether 
 righteous law. 
 
 The doorbell tinkled electricity was a 
 parvenu the ladies refused to recognize and 
 Miss Cornelia blinked nervously, conscious of 
 the little conspiracy wordlessly concocted be- 
 tween her sister and herself. Nita heard 
 colored Betsy speaking in her most dulcet com- 
 pany tones, and expected to see old Mrs. Van 
 Tighe or Miss Pauristaine; but it was neither 
 of these who entered. 
 
 A quick, yet oddly dragging step sounded in 
 the hall, and Betsy threw open the heavy ma-
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 39 
 
 hogany door with a flourish. "It's Mr. Don- 
 ald, ma'am," she announced breathlessly. 
 
 Donald Forsythe was half way across the 
 dimly lighted room before he became aware 
 that his aunts had a guest. And if Nita was 
 surprised to see a vigorous young man appear 
 instead of fat Miss Pauristaine or fragile Mrs. 
 Van Tighe, her surprise was mild compared 
 with his. For she was a rather astonishing 
 figure to find in that quaint room, with its 
 ancient portraits and ancient furniture, this 
 young and vivid girl. 
 
 Miss Cornelia introduced them with tremu- 
 lous formality. Her heart was fluttering, and 
 she was nearly speechless, now that the impor- 
 tant moment had actually come; the moment 
 for the beginning of the romance she had 
 long planned in her innocently sentimental 
 thoughts. But alas for her hopes ! After the 
 first surprised scrutiny was over, her hero and 
 heroine paid but little attention to each other. 
 Forsythe decided that Miss Wynne was much 
 too excitable and disturbing. Very pretty, 
 certainly; but a girl who in all probability 
 would presently develop into one of those rest- 
 less modern women who want to know and 
 to do, instead of remaining, madonna-like and
 
 40 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 serene, above the battle. She only thought it 
 a pity he was so ugly and had that slight limp. 
 
 Her brain and fancy were occupied by an- 
 other man one gallant, athletic, debonair. 
 And she did not suspect how much that at- 
 tractive exterior had to do with the knightly 
 character she attributed to him, a character 
 principally constructed out of the tiny inci- 
 dents of his advice and note to Miss Cornelia. 
 She knew the Misses Van Vechten would re- 
 gard as "a trifle brusque" any communica- 
 tion which ended "Yours truly" and not "Per- 
 mit me, dear madam, with the deepest re- 
 spect," and so on for at least a couple of lines. 
 It was only a very tiny seed of faith which had 
 been planted by these apparently trivial inci- 
 dents, but it had fallen on prepared soil, where 
 it sprouted and flourished with amazing rap- 
 idity. Poor, affectionate, sentimental Miss 
 Cornelia! In the imagination of a romantic, 
 beauty-loving young girl, what chance could 
 Donald Forsythe, plain of face and lame, pos- 
 sibly have had against gay and gallant Ru- 
 dolph Drake? Little, at best; and she herself 
 had practically destroyed that little. 
 
 But it was Donald Forsythe who gave the 
 finishing touch to the knightly figure of Nita's
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 41 
 
 fancy, adding courage to chivalry. Miss Cor- 
 nelia was speaking of the North Eastern and 
 "Mr. Drake's great kindness in advising 
 them," when Forsythe asked: 
 
 "Is that Rudolph Drake, Mrs. Ashurst's 
 brother?" 
 
 To impatient Nita, Miss Cornelia seemed 
 extraordinarily slow in answering. What did 
 this nephew of hers know about him? 
 
 "Yes, Rudolph Drake: his father was 
 Thomas Drake, you know, who married Edith 
 Martin. Is he a friend of yours, Donald?" 
 
 "No ; it was Ashurst who told me about him. 
 I used to know Ashurst." 
 
 "Ah! How interesting! And what did 
 Mr. Ashurst say?" queried Miss Cornelia. 
 
 Forsythe hesitated. He had spoken 
 thoughtlessly, and now found himself in some- 
 thing of a quandary. For the repetition of 
 even a tithe of what Ashurst had told him 
 would have shocked Miss Cornelia unspeak- 
 ably, had he on his own part been willing to 
 betray a confidence, which he certainly was 
 not. Then came another memory, bringing 
 relief. Quite ignorant of the effect of his 
 words on one of his hearers, he said cheer- 
 fully:
 
 42 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Why, it seems that Drake saved Ashurst's 
 life once, when they were out sailing together. 
 Something went wrong, the boom hit Ashurst, 
 and overboard he went. He can't swim, and 
 he might have departed from this world with 
 rather unpleasant promptness if Drake hadn't 
 jumped in after him and hauled him out." 
 
 "How dreadfully Mr. Ashurst must feel 
 now!" Nit a exclaimed and flushed a deep, 
 embarrassed pink. For the phrase was a di- 
 rect reference to the Ashurst divorce ; any men- 
 tion of such a thing, and especially before a 
 man, the Misses Van Vechten would consider 
 most improper ; and indeed in her own opinion 
 it was "not quite nice." 
 
 "You mean since the divorce?" remarked 
 Forsythe calmly. "Oh, well, the Ashursts 
 never got along together, and they're much 
 happier apart." 
 
 He had been away from New York for 
 many years, first at Harvard, then abroad, 
 and he did not as yet quite know his aunts. 
 
 "My dear Donald!" Miss Cornelia ex- 
 claimed in a tone and with a look which con- 
 veyed a rebuke for such heretical ideas and 
 also a warning that a young girl was present. 
 
 Forsythe gave Nita a quick, half smiling,
 
 THE PERFECT KNIGHT 43 
 
 half apologetic glance and turned his atten- 
 tion to the plum cake, reminding himself that 
 the freedom of speech to which he was accus- 
 tomed in his own world of artists and writers 
 "wouldn't go here." She met his look 
 proudly, a certain wistful courage in her eyes 
 that made him wonder rather hazily whether 
 she would not after all be justified in chafing 
 a bit against the conventions which walled her 
 round. But it was in truth only a reflection 
 of the picture in her mind the picture of Ru- 
 dolph Drake, straight and strong and daunt- 
 less, leaping overboard to save a drowning 
 man. The girl's own brave spirit thrilled in 
 response to the dramatic scene thus reenacted 
 in her thoughts. "Without fear and with- 
 out reproach." The splendid old phrase sang 
 in her brain. A modern Bayard . . . her 
 Bayard!
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ONE MAN AND TWO MAIDS 
 
 DURING the next few days Nita thought 
 much and often about that episode of 
 Ashurst's rescue. Her active imagination 
 quickly expanded and elaborated Forsythe's 
 somewhat meager narrative; insensibly the 
 danger and the courage alike increased until 
 their proportions became heroic, and Rudolph 
 Drake "a very parfit gentil knight." Almost 
 every evening she met him at some festivity or 
 other, and this, he gave her plainly to under- 
 stand, was the result of design, not accident. 
 However, chance so ordered it that they were 
 never alone together for more than a minute 
 or two at a time, giving him scant opportunity 
 for verbal wooing. But there are other ways 
 than that of words, and when, on returning 
 home late one afternoon from the usual round 
 of teas, Nita found a florist's box awaiting her, 
 a box which contained a delicately fragrant 
 bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley, she did not need 
 even a glance at the accompanying card to tell
 
 ONE MAN AND TWO MAIDS 45 
 
 her the name of the donor. So it was with his 
 flowers at her breast and his transfigured 
 image in her thoughts that she went forth to 
 the dance given by Mrs. Bartlett, then the 
 acknowledged leader of New York society, a 
 woman who had many predecessors, but no 
 successor. 
 
 She was a little late, and Jimmie Dane, her 
 partner, was watching for her near the en- 
 trance to the ballroom, although the cotillion, 
 which was to be danced before supper, had not 
 yet been called. The sight of him reminded 
 her that she had been guilty of a breach of 
 etiquette in not wearing the flowers he had sent 
 her. But those heavy American Beauty roses 
 and Jimmie was an old friend, as well as one 
 of the best-natured of mortals. 
 
 "Hello, Nital" he exclaimed. "Gee, but 
 you're a peach, all right!" 
 
 Nita laughed happily, well pleased. The 
 mirror had already told her that excitement 
 had made her eyes and her complexion un- 
 usually brilliant, but Jimmie's assurance was 
 none the less welcome. She very much wanted 
 to look her best just then. 
 
 "Thanks, Jimmie. What an inordinate 
 flatterer you are! And you're not angry with
 
 46 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 me for being late and putting your flowers in 
 water instead of wearing them? They were 
 so superb I wanted to keep them." 
 
 Which was quite true, if not the whole 
 truth. 
 
 Jimmie grinned. "Oh, that's all right! 
 You're not late, but Caroline Lacy had her 
 hooks out for me, and I wasn't going to be 
 grabbed." 
 
 As the only son of a multimillionaire, Jim- 
 mie Dane had troubles of his own. 
 
 Nita, who knew that Caroline Lacy be- 
 longed to the huntress tribe of which she con- 
 sidered Geraldine a member, met his glance 
 gayly, her eyes dancing with fun. She was 
 glad he was not provoked, both on her own ac- 
 count and because she wanted to coax him into 
 dancing at least once with Florence Carton 
 a dance with Jimmie Dane meant, in those 
 days, a good deal to a debutante. And she did 
 not realize how very difficult it would have been 
 for any man to be provoked with her that 
 night, so sweet and radiant was she, so ex- 
 quisitely touched with a new, ineffable gentle- 
 ness which made that swift eagerness of hers 
 seem like something bright sparkling through 
 pearly tinted gossamer.
 
 ONE MAN AND TWO MAIDS 47 
 
 Drake, dancing now with Geraldine Haight, 
 saw her enter, saw the lilies, and exulted. He 
 had always been easily successful with women 
 women of many a different kind and class 
 but Nita was unlike those others, fastidious, 
 proud, with an indefinable, elusive forbiddance 
 behind her quick interest and ready sympathy 
 which made her seem doubly desirable. It 
 would be something to break down the de- 
 fenses of this dainty, tantalizing maiden, 
 this most perplexing blend of fire and 
 snow! 
 
 Fire and snow; unsullied in thought and 
 word and deed. It would be no small achieve- 
 ment to win her trust and to hold it. She 
 would expect a great deal of the man she mar- 
 ried, and he well, he had done a number of 
 those things he ought not to have done; there 
 was no denying that fact! But it was a fact 
 about which, since it belonged to the past, she 
 need never know anything, and with her be- 
 lief in him as a stimulus he felt he could, and 
 inwardly swore that he would, come up to the 
 scratch. His muscles stiffening with resolve, 
 he unconsciously tightened his hold on the 
 partner he had forgotten, and Geraldine at 
 once yielded to his arm. It was this too pro-
 
 48 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 nounced yielding of hers which made him sud- 
 denly aware that he held her more closely em- 
 braced than was the custom at that time, when 
 the "bunny hug" was still unknown to fame 
 and fashion. With her rather voluptuous type 
 of good looks she was decidedly alluring, and 
 he not at all averse to accepting all she would 
 give until it occurred to him that Nita 
 Wynne's eyes might be upon them. A vague 
 discomfort, not altogether unrelated to shame, 
 assailed him ; dimly he felt, rather than under- 
 stood, that he was even now falling below her 
 standard, the standard he had promised him- 
 self to live up to. His arm relaxed, and Ger- 
 aldine paled a little ; no words could have hurt 
 and humiliated her as did this implied rejec- 
 tion a rejection which wounded something 
 far deeper than pride. 
 
 Nita, gliding past with Dwight Brainerd, 
 noticed Geraldine's pallor and Drake's ab- 
 stracted air. They were among the many 
 apparently unimportant things destined 
 to return to her mind in the years to 
 come. 
 
 Soon the cotillion was called, and ribbon, 
 tissue paper, and tinsel trophies balls and 
 banners, racquets and scarfs and parasols, pink
 
 and blue and many-tinted fluttered on the 
 arms and over the heads of the dancers, adding 
 more color to the gay scene reflected in the 
 smilax-wreathed mirrors at which more than 
 one girl, anxious or triumphant, glanced in 
 passing. 
 
 Blithe and buoyant Nita was too good a 
 dancer, as well as too pretty, ever to lack 
 partners, though the general fondness for 
 dancing, as every one agreed and most women 
 deplored, was waning fast, and the struggle to 
 obtain enough men to go around was giving 
 gray hairs to many an anxious hostess. Drake 
 sought her out more than once with tribute of 
 be-ribboned favors, but save for her pretty, 
 demure thanks for the flowers, they scarcely 
 spoke while they danced together through the 
 various ingenious figures commanded by 
 Monty West, most popular of cotillion lead- 
 ers. Nita felt as though she were moving 
 through an enchanted dream-world where one 
 must go softly, lest the spell be broken. It 
 was all rainbow-hued to her, shimmering, im- 
 palpable as mist: and this rainbow-tinted mist 
 suffused and transformed all things, within 
 and without. Her every thought and sense 
 was caressed, bewildered by it. The people
 
 about her, she herself, were no longer flesh- 
 and-blood creatures dwelling on the matter- 
 of-fact old earth, but the transformed inhabi- 
 tants of a wondrous realm where all was light 
 and color, music and joy and smooth rhythmic 
 motion. 
 
 When after supper she found herself alone 
 with Drake in the conservatory, it all seemed 
 part of the dream. The perfume of moist 
 earth and flowers, the tinkle of water falling 
 from a spray into a little marble basin, the cool 
 dusk of this place where shaded lights were 
 cunningly concealed amid the embowering 
 foliage all these were appropriate as the sigh 
 of the summer breeze over a daisy-pied 
 meadow. And it was only an intensification 
 of the enchantment that Drake was beside her 
 on the marble seat, his hands clenched together 
 on his crossed knees until the knuckles showed 
 white, speaking passionate, beseeching words 
 which seemed to penetrate her whole being, 
 filling it with a delicious joy. She rather felt 
 than heard what he was saying; his voice, his 
 words were like music to which all her senses 
 responded. . . . 
 
 He was calling her his Snow Queen, his 
 dearest, the only woman on earth he ever had
 
 ONE MAN AND TWO MAIDS 51 
 
 or ever could really love ; declaring his willing- 
 ness to die at her bidding, to give the world for 
 her smile, to do anything and everything. 
 
 "You're my Snow Queen, my saint I adore 
 you! Marry me, and I'll do everything you 
 say. I'll make you happy, I'll love you al- 
 ways, always oh, my darling " His voice 
 died away in a hoarse whisper. 
 
 It was the knight of her dreams who was 
 pleading, the Prince Charming every normal 
 girl waits and hopes for until life teaches her 
 to prefer a man. Impulsive, undisciplined, in 
 love with romance and with the glamour of 
 debonair look and presence, tingling too with 
 triumph that this man whom so many had 
 striven in vain to win should declare himself 
 her lover, she seemed to float in joy, soaring 
 aloft in the rose-colored mist. 
 
 And this dream sensation of hers showed 
 itself upon her face in an ethereal expression 
 which made Rudolph Drake feel that the gates 
 of Heaven had indeed swung open and a white- 
 robed angel of the Lord come down. He lit- 
 erally trembled before her, this man who knew 
 the seamy side of passion so well, this man with 
 the blotted record and the reputation for busi- 
 ness "astuteness." He did not venture to
 
 52 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 touch her; the very thought of kisses seemed 
 almost sacrilegious. 
 
 But the wonder lasted only a moment, and 
 Drake at least came back to earth with a shock 
 as voices sounded near by, and Monty West 
 appeared, searching for Nita. Drake could 
 have annihilated him with pleasure, and 
 Monty, perfectly aware of the fact, sympa- 
 thized heartily. To take himself off, however, 
 would have been altogether too obvious, and he 
 could not think up a plausible excuse on the 
 instant. He actually stammered out his con- 
 ventional : 
 
 "I think this is my dance?" 
 
 Nita, sojourner in Fairyland, could not re- 
 ply in words, but only rise assentingly. Be- 
 sides, her inherited code demanded that each 
 step forward be taken by the male. 
 
 It was already so late that Drake knew he 
 would not have another opportunity of being 
 alone with her that evening. Either twenty- 
 four hours' suspense, or a quick forcing of the 
 issue 
 
 He spoke hurriedly, and just a little breath- 
 lessly. 
 
 "May I come to-morrow, then?" 
 
 She stooped to pick up her fluffy train; vol-
 
 ONE MAN AND TWO MAIDS 53 
 
 uminous skirts were the fashion, and hers 
 spread far out over the floor in billowy waves 
 of white chiffon. Looking down at it so that 
 the long lashes hid her eyes, she answered 
 quietly, albeit a trifle tremulously: 
 
 "Yes; to-morrow at five." 
 
 It was a promise ; he felt sure she would not 
 have permitted him to come had she intended 
 to refuse him. This was virtually then 1 be- 
 trothal with Monty West, noted cotillion 
 leader and already entered upon the career 
 which was one day to be accurately described 
 as "lurid," looking on and wishing himself a 
 thousand miles away. 
 
 He presently confided the story of his dis- 
 comfort to Phil Lacy. 
 
 "There I stood, feeling like an ass, and 
 Drake glaring at me for all he was worth. 
 But I tell you what, Phil, that little girl's got 
 pluck! Didn't she up and make a date with 
 him right under my very nose, and her eyes 
 so bright afterwards you didn't dare look at 
 'em! It's wedding presents and rice, all 
 right, all right!" 
 
 Monty, a kindly soul at heart, meant no 
 harm and had only indulged a natural loquac- 
 ity; but Phil Lacy was made of very different
 
 54 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 stuff. Wherefore he immediately asked Ger- 
 aldine to dance and proceeded to tell her with 
 additions what Monty had just related to 
 him. According to his version, Nita was ac- 
 tually in Drake's arms at the moment of 
 Monty's entrance. 
 
 While he talked he watched Geraldine 
 closely, but if he hoped to see her flinch he was 
 disappointed. She was prepared; for she had 
 not been blind to Drake's joyous, exultant look 
 as he came out of the conservatory, and she 
 had herself well in hand. If there was a sha- 
 dow in her blue eyes, and if her indifference 
 was a trifle overdone, these were signs Phil 
 Lacy was not clever enough to see. So he de- 
 cided that Geraldine was "hard as they make 
 'em," and took care to impart his opinion and 
 the reason for it to as many people as he could 
 induce to listen to him. Within an hour, Nita 
 Wynne's engagement to Rudolph Drake was 
 an acknowledged fact to a large section of 
 New York society. And no one paused to re- 
 flect that had the girl thus discovered with 
 Drake, for of course Phil Lacy's version had 
 been accepted as the correct one, chanced to 
 be Geraldine Haight, or almost any other, in- 
 deed, than Nita Wynne, the whole affair would
 
 ONE MAN AND TWO MAIDS 55 
 
 have been regarded simply as an excellent 
 joke, not as any assurance of an approaching 
 marriage. 
 
 Drake himself, slowly recovering from the 
 intoxication of Nita's promise, began to guess 
 the reason for the smiles and glances, the whis- 
 perings and general aspect of "We know, but 
 of course we're not going to say anything," 
 and his triumphant air became a little more 
 pronounced. A chance phrase or two gave 
 him a clew to the story which was going the 
 rounds ; but the thought of kisses, though still 
 breath-taking, was no longer quite so over- 
 whelming as it had once been. Nita had lost 
 something, become less an object of wonder 
 and of reverence to him, the instant he felt 
 sure of her. 
 
 But he was very happy; even more happy 
 than exultant.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 MISS CORNELIA'S CODE 
 
 ACCORDING to her own theory of what 
 was right and proper in a situation such 
 as hers, Nita should have lain awake all night. 
 Instead of which she fell asleep almost as soon 
 as her pretty head touched the pillow, and 
 awoke only when the breeze, blowing the shade 
 forward, let a long shaft of sunlight into the 
 room. She was glad to see the sunshine, glad 
 that this day of days should be bright and clear 
 and beautiful. For on this day she would 
 give Rudolph Drake her promise, would 
 pledge herself to him for life. In her eyes an 
 engagement was only one degree less binding 
 than an actual marriage, and that, she thought, 
 must be to a "nice woman" by which she 
 meant a pure and honorable one nearly if 
 not quite indissoluble. Of course, under cer- 
 tain terrible conditions, a woman might be 
 forced to live apart from her husband, but di- 
 vorce and especially remarriage were, in her
 
 MISS CORNELIA'S CODE 57 
 
 girlish opinion, disgraceful and disgusting. 
 There was nothing lax or even moderately 
 flexible, about her ideas of right and wrong. 
 Like most young people, she saw all things as 
 black or white; good and evil seemed easy to 
 distinguish and choose between then, when for 
 her intervening grays did not yet exist. 
 
 Instinctively, inarticulately, she prayed as 
 she lay there wrapped in happy waking dreams 
 dreams vibrant with a sense of adventure. 
 She felt that she was about to start off on a 
 wonderful journey through a mysterious, un- 
 explored country. She was not at all fright- 
 ened, but she was curious, intensely excited, 
 thrilled with expectation of marvels and ro- 
 mance. The familiar land of girlhood was 
 very dear to her, but it had afforded no such 
 consciousness of splendid daring as did the 
 thought of this setting forth into the unknown. 
 Always she had wanted to feel and to experi- 
 ence, to fill her cup of life full, full to the very 
 brim, refusing neither joy nor sorrow. That 
 alert look, that radiant eagerness of hers, were 
 not delusive. 
 
 And with every tick of the clock it was com- 
 ing nearer, nearer, that hour which was to be 
 the richest she had ever known. On the stroke
 
 58 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 of five he would be with her, and then and 
 then A delicious shyness swept over her. 
 Last night he had not even ventured to touch 
 her hand, but now. . . . 
 
 She buried her burning face in the pillow, 
 quivering with emotions and sensations she did 
 not understand. 
 
 An intense restlessness possessed her. She 
 left her bed, bathed and dressed, planning to 
 take a long, solitary walk in the Park. But 
 she had forgotten to ring for her breakfast, so 
 there was a few minutes' delay while the tray 
 was being prepared. And that tiny incident 
 altered her whole life. 
 
 For it caused her to pick up the morning 
 paper and glance over it while she waited. 
 And the first information it gave her was that 
 the North Eastern had passed its dividend, 
 was not likely to pay any for some time, and 
 was in danger of being declared bankrupt. 
 
 She was not a good enough business woman 
 to comprehend more than a fraction of what 
 was implied in the article she rushed through 
 at a breakneck speed which would scarcely per- 
 mit her to take in the words. But one thing 
 she thoroughly understood : that the money the 
 Misses Van Vechten had invested in the North
 
 MISS CORNELIA'S CODE 59 
 
 Eastern was almost certainly lost. And what 
 this would mean to them her vivid imagination 
 flung before her as in a succession of pictures 
 cast upon a screen. Oh, it was too bad! 
 Their little bit of an income 
 
 And her father! He too had invested in 
 North Eastern swiftly she dismissed that 
 trouble. It was the salary he received as head 
 of a flourishing real estate business which pro- 
 vided their principal source of income. The 
 loss of what he had in the North Eastern would 
 be inconvenient, worse than inconvenient; but 
 not ruinous. 
 
 Oh, poor Rudolph! How dreadfully he 
 must feel to think that his advice had brought 
 such distress it must be worse than losing 
 the money! And he had probably done that 
 too. . . . She must and would speak to him 
 at once 
 
 She caught up the telephone which stood on 
 a small table beside her bed, snatched the re- 
 ceiver oflUthe hook and replaced it before 
 Central could answer. No, not that way! 
 She would wait until he came to her. 
 
 Meanwhile she must do something! Her 
 father, of course, had gone down-town, but she 
 would hurry over at once to East Seventeenth
 
 60 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 Street and see Miss Cornelia. The two little 
 ladies were the worst sufferers, for while . . . 
 Rudolph her thoughts paused shyly before 
 the name was no doubt blaming himself bit- 
 terly, he must of course realize that he couldn't 
 expect or be expected never to make a mis- 
 take. 
 
 The breakfast tray now appeared. Nita 
 had a healthy young appetite and was hungry, 
 but she couldn't bear to take the time to eat 
 much. She hurried into her trig tailored suit 
 and adjusted the small velvet hat, perched on 
 its fashionable bandeau high above the waves 
 of light-brown hair. Feeling pleasantly ad- 
 venturous, even in her distress, at doing an un- 
 accustomed thing however insignificant, she 
 hastened across to Third Avenue and took an 
 elevated train. It was the quickest way, and 
 the crowd and discomfort only added to her 
 sense of daring. But when she reached the 
 house in East Seventeenth Street all this dis- 
 appeared under a flooding sympathy. 
 
 Yes, Miss Cornelia and Miss Sophia were 
 at home and would see her, so Betsy presently 
 informed her in a hushed tone. For although 
 it would never have occurred to the Misses Van 
 Vechten to tell her any of their affairs, the
 
 MISS CORNELIA'S CODE 61 
 
 faithful old soul knew very well that some- 
 thing was seriously wrong. 
 
 There were no indications of disturbance in 
 the prim little parlor. Each chair occupied 
 its appointed place, not a speck of dust marred 
 the polished surfaces of the mahogany tables 
 and quaint old secretaire. And yet the at- 
 mosphere was changed: peace and security 
 were gone; apprehension had come. 
 
 Nita moved about restlessly, in direct viola- 
 tion of every tacit rule of the place. She 
 ached "to do something," but what it might 
 be possible to do she hadn't the least idea. It 
 seemed to her a good half hour, but it was 
 really only a few minutes, before Miss Cor- 
 nelia entered the room. 
 
 The little gentlewoman was dressed as 
 daintily as usual; her tiny lace cap was as ex- 
 actly placed, her fine lawn collar and cuffs as 
 immaculate. Her manner had lost nothing of 
 its quaint precision but her delicate eyelids 
 were swollen and faintly pink. And when 
 Nita came to her with a half suppressed, in- 
 coherently tender exclamation, she kissed her 
 fondly something which did not often hap- 
 pen. 
 
 It was the elder woman who spoke first.
 
 62 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Don't look so distressed, dear child," she 
 said gently. 
 
 "Oh, Miss Cornelia, I'm so sorry, so dread- 
 fully sorry! I just couldn't stay away; is it 
 very bad?" 
 
 Miss Van Vechten hesitated an instant. 
 Then she said, with a simple dignity that en- 
 forced respect, "We have lost about two thirds 
 of our income, Sister and I." 
 
 "But what will you do?" exclaimed Nita, her 
 young impetuosity seeming greater than ever 
 by contrast with the other's calm. 
 
 "We have made our plans," Miss Cornelia 
 answered quietly. "For the past few days we 
 have known that there was trouble. Mr. 
 Hobbs so informed us, and the newspapers cor- 
 roborated his statement." 
 
 She paused, and Nita broke in quickly: 
 
 "I haven't looked at a paper for weeks 
 not until this morning. Then I read " 
 
 "Mr. Hobbs, a truly excellent man against 
 whom I fear we were formerly somewhat 
 prejudiced, tried to save something for us," 
 Miss Cornelia went on, "but he was able to ac- 
 complish only a very little. We will have to 
 retrench, of course." For the first time her 
 sweet low voice faltered. "We are going to
 
 MISS CORNELIA'S CODE 63 
 
 to leave this apartment, and move far up- 
 town." 
 
 Nita caught her breath. The Misses Van 
 Vechten had seemed so much a part of this 
 home of theirs that it was difficult to think of 
 them away from it. And they loved it so! 
 
 "Dear Miss Cornelia, how brave you are!" 
 she cried with mingled surprise and admira- 
 tion. She had considered weak and timorous, 
 almost nerveless, these two who were afraid of 
 spiders and thunderstorms. 
 
 The little lady drew herself up proudly. 
 "When one has been born a Van Vechten, my 
 dear, one cannot make a useless fuss or be a 
 coward. It does not do to shame one's fore- 
 fathers." 
 
 It was an old-fashioned code, perhaps, this 
 of noblesse oblige, but it was the one Cornelia 
 Van Vechten held and practiced. 
 
 "Certainly not!" Nita replied promptly. 
 "But but can't something be done?" 
 
 Miss Cornelia patted the girl's hand and 
 smiled; the saddest, wintriest little smile 
 
 "That is exactly what our Donald asked last 
 night," she said; and added, with a tiny quiver 
 in her calm voice: "The dear boy wanted to 
 give us er pecuniary assistance" how dif-
 
 64 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 ficult it was for Miss Cornelia to speak di- 
 rectly of money! "but of course" her frail 
 body straightened and stiffened just percepti- 
 bly "but of course we would not dream of 
 accepting help, even if he could afford to give 
 it." 
 
 Had it not been for that last clause, Nita 
 might have ventured a protest; Donald For- 
 sythe's implied poverty silenced her. There 
 was only one thing. 
 
 "Perhaps my father ?" 
 
 "Thank you, dear child, I fear there is noth- 
 ing that can be done." Again the little lady 
 paused ; then continued, very gently : "I wrote 
 to Mr. Drake, so soon as we were definitely in- 
 formed of of what had happened. I was 
 afraid he might reproach himself for counsel- 
 ling us to retain our investments in the North 
 Eastern, and be distressed." 
 
 Nita appreciated the delicate feeling which 
 had prompted both the act and the telling her 
 of it. She had always been fond of Miss Cor- 
 nelia and her silent sister, and now the self- 
 possession, the quiet dignity, displayed by 
 these two old-fashioned gentlewomen com- 
 manded her admiration. They were holding 
 their heads high, obeying their code when such
 
 MISS CORNELIA'S CODE 65 
 
 obedience was most difficult. She had come to 
 the house on East Seventeenth Street prepared 
 to wipe away tears and soothe lamentations; 
 she remained to do reverence to a courage 
 which seemed to her little less than heroic. 
 
 In her own silent way, Miss Sophia reflected 
 her sister's fortitude. Donald Forsythe, who 
 presently dropped in for a flying visit, ap- 
 peared more angry and perturbed than either 
 of them, although he controlled his wrath until 
 Nita and he were out of the house and walking 
 slowly westward towards Fifth Avenue. 
 Then he broke forth indignantly: 
 
 "Of all the damnable outrages! I beg your 
 pardon, Miss Wynne but that's exactly what 
 it is." 
 
 Nita could not help liking the outburst, al- 
 though she thought it rather unjust, and an- 
 swered : 
 
 "Well, I don't suppose the North Eastern 
 people want the road to be bankrupt!" 
 
 "I'm afraid that's precisely what they do 
 want. Some newspaper men I know have 
 been talking to me, and they say " 
 
 He paused, and Nita demanded quickly: 
 
 "What do they say?" 
 
 "They say it's all a put-up job. That the
 
 66 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 North Eastern will be reorganized, and the 
 shareholders told that if they'll come in that 
 is, hand over more money they'll have some 
 sort of a chance to get back what they've lost. 
 Otherwise, they'll be wiped out. There were 
 a lot of small investors like my aunts, people 
 who can't afford to give out another cent. 
 You see?" 
 
 "But that's stealing!" Nita cried. Some- 
 how it never entered her head to doubt his 
 statement. 
 
 "Of course it is morally. Only it isn't il- 
 legal. There's a difference, you know! 
 They've probably stayed well within the let- 
 ter of the law. Though I can't but believe 
 that if some one with money and influence 
 would go into the thing, he might make it hot 
 for a few of those estimable gentlemen who 
 are shedding crocodile tears over the misfor- 
 tunes of the poor investors !" 
 
 "Why isn't it done, then?" exclaimed Nita 
 indignantly. "I never heard of anything so 
 infamous! They ought to be sent to jail, 
 every one of them!" Her quick, sweeping 
 gesture was a wholesale condemnation. 
 
 He was as frankly if not quite as naively 
 wrathful as she.
 
 MISS CORNELIA'S CODE 67 
 
 "The trouble is that the people who've been 
 hit are the kind that can't afford to make a 
 row women like my aunts and men of about 
 the same kind superannuated clergymen and 
 professors and so forth. That's what the lit- 
 tle ring they say has engineered the whole busi- 
 ness is banking on, unless I'm very much mis- 
 taken. I'd fight them myself, if I had a little 
 more coin nothing I'd like better!" The 
 lowering of his heavy brows, the flash of his 
 dark eyes as he turned to her, emphasized his 
 words ; the vigor and energy of the born fighter 
 were in his look and tone. For the moment 
 his head, with its high cheek bones, hollow tem- 
 ples, and sharply cut features, seemed almost 
 hawklike. An instant the memory of certain 
 bas-reliefs of the young Horus flitted across 
 Nita's thoughts. "That's what I'd enjoy do- 
 ing! As a matter of fact, I suppose I'll sub- 
 mit, same as all the rest." His left shoulder 
 jerked abruptly. 
 
 Nita suddenly remembered what Miss Cor- 
 nelia had told her about Donald Forsythe's re- 
 fusal to enter the employ of the Trans-Con- 
 tinental Trust, at the bidding of Atkinson 
 Matthews. She had picked up a good many 
 stray bits of information from the talk of her
 
 68 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 father and his friends; she knew that several 
 of the officers of the Trans- Continental were 
 connected with the North Eastern. It was all 
 more or less hazy to her, but it prevented her 
 from even hinting at the possibility of an ap- 
 peal to Donald Forsythe's great-uncle. 
 
 "Oh, I wish I could do something!" she cried 
 suddenly, throwing back her spirited little head 
 as though delivering a challenge. 
 
 He was so sore over his own powerlessness 
 that the futile wish rather exasperated him. 
 His thin, clever face was too expressive not to 
 betray his annoyance, but Nit a was not suffi- 
 ciently interested in him to notice it, although 
 she had a half conscious feeling that she had 
 known him for a very long time. 
 
 When they reached Fifth Avenue, Donald 
 excused himself, pleading a business engage- 
 ment, and Nita went on alone, thinking so in- 
 tently that she was surprised to find herself, 
 in what seemed an astonishingly short space 
 of time, at the corner of her own street. 
 
 She ate her lunch in solitude and presently, 
 as the time appointed for Drake's coming 
 drew near, the impressions of the morning be- 
 gan, not to fade, but to recede into the back- 
 ground of her mind. She had entered so
 
 MISS CORNELIA'S CODE 69 
 
 thoroughly into the sorrow of those other lives 
 that for a while her own affairs had been su- 
 perseded. Now they came forward once more ; 
 her own happiness once more possessed her 
 wholly. Her lover was coming; she must 
 make ready for him, make her gift altogether 
 worthy his acceptance. That glimpse of 
 baseness which her talk with Donald Forsythe 
 had given her caused her to turn with in- 
 creased admiration towards him, her own gal- 
 lant, chivalrous knight. By contrast with that 
 briefly visioned black, his immaculate white- 
 ness shone yet more resplendent. 
 
 She sent away her maid; no hands save her 
 own should attire her for this, her hour of 
 hours. She clothed herself afresh, selecting 
 the daintiest from her abundant store of hand- 
 made, delicately embroidered lingerie; to her 
 there was something symbolic in the act. She 
 held her breath with anxiety as she arranged 
 the heavy coils of light brown hair; never be- 
 fore, she thought, had the gold in it seemed so 
 plentiful. She tried on half a dozen gowns, 
 weighing their merits with an indecision 
 strange to her, whose habit it was to jump at 
 conclusions. At last she chose a white mous- 
 seline de soie and spent ten minutes or more
 
 70 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 adjusting the newly arrived lilies-of-the- 
 valley at her slender waist: this adornment of 
 herself for her lover was to her like part of a 
 beautiful, solemn ritual. 
 
 Flushed, radiant, tinglingly alive in every 
 nerve and fiber of her being, she paused to look 
 once again in the long mirror, surveying her- 
 self with delight, laughing softly through 
 sheer surcharge of joy. For her fearless, in- 
 experienced eyes saw only the glory of her 
 youth and nothing of its pathos; saw only the 
 glad trustfulness with which she welcomed the 
 future and nothing of the dangers of such 
 overconfidence. 
 
 The electric bell rang sharply, and the par- 
 lor maid came in with Drake's card, exactly as 
 though this were merely an ordinary call! 
 Nita did not run down the stairs, she floated; 
 treading not on wood and carpet, but upon 
 rose-tinted, sun-flecked clouds.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 HER HOUR 
 
 SHE had directed the maid to show Mr. 
 Drake into the library, where she knew 
 they would be safe from casual callers. And 
 as she reached the second-story hall, she was 
 surprised to hear voices her father's first, then 
 Rudolph Drake's. She had not expected to 
 meet him in the presence of a third person, and 
 she was disappointed and at the same time just 
 a wee bit relieved. 
 
 When she entered the library, the two men 
 were standing together in the bay window, 
 talking busily. She could not see either of 
 them clearly, for the luminous golden haze that 
 hung before her eyes. The first few words of 
 greeting were an indistinguishable jumble to 
 her; she was conscious only of Drake's pres- 
 ence. 
 
 Then she became aware that her father was 
 speaking: 
 
 " So I came up-town early. But I didn't
 
 72 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 expect any such good luck as finding you here 
 though I wasn't altogether surprised, 
 either!" He laughed as he clapped the young 
 man lightly on the shoulder. A second's 
 pause, and he added, with a change of tone: 
 "I'll take your advice and call Nilor up right 
 away." 
 
 "You'd better not mention " 
 
 "That it was you who warned me to get out 
 of the North Eastern? Not much I won't! 
 That was a mighty good turn you did me, my 
 boy. I'd have lost a tidy little sum if you 
 hadn't told me about it all last month." He 
 chuckled gleefully. "Stay and dine with us 
 no need to dress. We're only too glad to 
 have you just as you are, eh, Nita? You 
 might have had to economize a bit, young lady, 
 if he hadn't given me the tip to stand from 
 under in time !" 
 
 They were alone now, he and she. There 
 was an instant's pause, and in the silence the 
 clock struck five. Her hour had come her 
 hour! 
 
 He took a quick step towards her; and she 
 recoiled a little, warding him off with out- 
 stretched hands. 
 
 He stopped, amazed. He did not in the
 
 HER HOUR 73 
 
 least understand. He only knew that she de- 
 nied him : and that she was very lovely and 
 very pale. 
 
 "Nita Snow Queen!" he exclaimed en- 
 treatingly. "I hoped last night when you 
 told me I might come " 
 
 Last night! Centuries had passed since 
 then. The feeling of unreality which had held 
 her then possessed her still; but the glorious 
 dream was now a nightmare. And the man 
 before her, her hero, her Bayard what was 
 he? One phrase repeated itself, as though 
 whispered to her over and over again: "He 
 knew. Last month he knew." 
 
 She spoke slowly, in a curious, muffled tone. 
 "You warned my father to get rid of his 
 North Eastern . . . ?" 
 
 Neither her attitude nor the reason for her 
 question was comprehensible to him. He had 
 come for love-making, not financial discus- 
 sion. 
 
 "Yes, I did," he exclaimed impatiently. 
 "Of course, I wasn't going to let your father 
 Oh, Nita darling, don't keep me waiting 
 any longer! I thought the day would never 
 end How can you make me suffer like this, 
 when I love you so!"
 
 74 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 Again he came towards her; and again she 
 recoiled. 
 
 It was no longer only the world around her 
 which was unreal, but she herself as well. 
 This thing which seemed to have happened 
 could not be an actuality ! It was only an ugly 
 nightmare, from which she would awaken pres- 
 ently. 
 
 "It isn't that " Her phrases were broken, 
 importunate as her thoughts. "But I don't 
 quite understand and I must. You knew the 
 North Eastern " 
 
 He was becoming irritable. That such 
 treatment should be meted out to him, who had 
 felt so secure a conqueror! 
 
 "I knew it had a mighty good chance of go- 
 ing to smash, if that's what you're after. But 
 I don't see what possible difference my know- 
 ing or not knowing it can make to you." 
 
 He spoke the truth ; he did not see. 
 
 "You knew and you told Miss Cornelia it 
 was all right perfectly safe " 
 
 "So, that's it! Why, you little white angel 
 you, what else could I do? I'd been let into 
 a good thing and it might have spoiled it all 
 for me and my friends if I'd given that chat- 
 tering old woman a hint. She'd have gone and
 
 HER HOUR 75 
 
 talked to every one she knew. But you're so 
 sweet and dear " 
 
 Something in his eyes made her so change 
 her position that the broad library table sep- 
 arated them. 
 
 "I don't expect you to betray your friends. 
 You could have refused to answer her ques- 
 tions." 
 
 Drake hesitated. How could he explain 
 that he had been using every possible oppor- 
 tunity to strengthen confidence in the North 
 Eastern, and that to him Miss Van Vechten 
 had merely represented one such opportun- 
 ity? 
 
 "It wouldn't have done," he said at last in a 
 tone of dismissal. "I'm sorry they were stuck, 
 but I can't take care of every fool investor. 
 If I can help them, I will, I promise you." 
 He felt that he was being exceedingly gen- 
 erous. "Now let's forget all about them! 
 Last night you made me so happy " 
 
 She interrupted him swiftly. Her eyes 
 were bright, her color high, her slender form 
 tense with revulsion. 
 
 "Last night I believed in you," she said. 
 
 "What on earth do you mean?" he de- 
 manded. Disappointment, irritation, were
 
 76 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 fast turning into anger. Suddenly a thought 
 struck him, seeming to throw a flood of light 
 on the situation. "You don't you cant sup- 
 pose I warned your father because I thought 
 the money 'd be yours some day?" 
 
 "No, no!" she cried sharply. Characteristi- 
 cally enough, such an idea had never entered 
 her head. 
 
 "Then what do you mean?" he repeated. 
 
 To answer would have been to reveal all the 
 dreams, all the iridescent hopes she had cher- 
 ished. She could not have done this if she 
 would. And so she replied brokenly, inad- 
 equately: 
 
 "I thought you very different. I did not 
 know you would speak falsely and betray 
 confidence." 
 
 "You're out of your mind!" he exclaimed in 
 amazement. 
 
 "There's no use talking about it." Her 
 voice shook a little. Around that gallant 
 presence of his she had spun the exquisitely 
 delicate web of her girlish fancies ; he had been 
 the hero of her romance; but she would not, 
 could not remember these things now. And 
 she added quietly : "I think you had better 
 
 go-"
 
 HER HOUR 77 
 
 He had been trying hard to hold himself in 
 check. Anger, bewilderment, balked pas- 
 sion, rising to flood tide, had their way at last. 
 
 "You you cheat!" he cried, incoherent in 
 his wrath. "So you've changed your mind, 
 have you, and want an excuse Thought it 
 would be fun, did you, to get me here and then 
 I warn you I'm not safe to play with 1" 
 
 The debonair lover was gone; in his place 
 raged a vain, sensual man denied the thing he 
 most wanted, the thing he had believed he held 
 securely in his grasp. 
 
 She was not in the least frightened, but she 
 was very angry. It was intolerable that he 
 should fall so far short of her ideal of him as 
 to be unable to understand or even to take his 
 dismissal quietly! She had not the faintest 
 comprehension of his very real suffering, of the 
 strength of the force she had unleashed and 
 now expected to go to heel at a word, like a 
 well-trained dog. Only she felt that she 
 loathed this man who had been the prince of 
 her enchanted kingdom and wantonly, ruth- 
 lessly destroyed it. As he had once seemed to 
 her compact of knightly virtues, so did he now 
 appear devoid of any shred of honor or even 
 decency. The rose-colored dream in which she
 
 78 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 had been living was wrecked and worse than 
 wrecked; it was defiled. And now his look, 
 even more than his speech, insulted her. 
 
 "Go!" she commanded, lifting her head with 
 a defiant gesture, unconsciously dramatic. 
 
 Never had she seemed to him so completely 
 desirable as at this moment when she ordered 
 him out of her presence as she might have or- 
 dered something unclean. He too had had 
 visions, visions of the time when she would be 
 his. And though his dreams had been very 
 different from those she cherished, they were 
 destroyed no less than hers, and perhaps still 
 more painfully. His reaction from an earlier 
 mood was extreme as her own. He saw her 
 only as the woman he wanted, the woman who 
 had first tacitly promised and then denied him. 
 
 The blood ran hot and swift in his veins, his 
 pulses hammered, his throat was dry and burn- 
 ing. His feeling indeed was near akin to that 
 which has led more than one man to kill the 
 woman who refused his love. He would take 
 and hold and kiss her into submission, this ex- 
 quisite, vivid creature who must who must 1 
 be his, no matter how, no matter what the cost. 
 
 No shrinking, no outstretched forbidding 
 hands would control him now.
 
 HER HOUR 79 
 
 She had caught up the heavy bronze ink- 
 stand from off the writing table. 
 
 "Don't touch me!" she gasped. 
 
 And this time it was he who recoiled. 
 
 They stood facing each other, both breathing 
 heavily. A great blot of ink stained the front 
 of the silvery gown she had chosen for this, her 
 hour of consecration. 
 
 It was she who broke the long, horrible si- 
 lence. 
 
 "Now will you go?" she demanded with all 
 the haughtiness, all the white fury of offended 
 Artemis. 
 
 There were voices in the hall; the sound 
 jerked him sharply back from the world of 
 primitive passions into that of restraints and 
 conventions. He moistened his dry lips, 
 striving to speak. He could have cursed her 
 in his rage and disappointment, there where 
 she stood so white and fearless, with the 
 great black stain on the front of her dress. 
 And he could have fallen at her feet in 
 a mad passion of penitence and supplica- 
 tion. 
 
 But the world of conventions had regained 
 its hold; the fateful moment was gone, never 
 to return. An instant only he waited, while
 
 the voices of Mr. Wynne and the clerk he had 
 summoned died away. 
 
 Nita heard the front door slam behind him. 
 For a little while she stood motionless. Then 
 she went to the writing table, methodically 
 arranged paper and pens and replaced the ink- 
 stand. Very slowly she unfastened the flow- 
 ers she had adjusted with such tenderness and 
 care, and laid them upon the table. She had 
 worn lilies-of-the-valley for the last time. 
 
 Presently she rang the bell for the maid. 
 
 "I upset the ink," she said quietly, listening 
 half wonderingly to her own calm voice. 
 "Please get a cloth and wipe it up." 
 
 "Oh, Miss Nita, your dress!" the girl ex- 
 claimed in dismay. 
 
 Nita gave a queer little laugh, glancing 
 down at the white gown. 
 
 "It's quite spoiled, isn't it?" she said.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 HOOPS OF STEEL 
 
 IT was easy enough to explain Drake's 
 failure to appear at dinner that evening, 
 but Nita knew that the breach between them 
 would soon be discovered and commented 
 upon. And thought of comment was like a 
 rude touch on an exposed nerve. What 
 might not people say? She remembered 
 thankfully her often repented promise to pay 
 a visit to the Danes, at Elmstead; it would be 
 a relief to get away from New York for a time. 
 She rebelled against this thing which had hap- 
 pened; that such pain and disappointment 
 should have come to her filled her with youth- 
 ful amazement. She was too young not to feel 
 tragic, and she did not realize that her eager 
 interest in living was quite unimpaired any 
 more than she realized that she had been in 
 love with romance and glamour, with an im- 
 possible ideal made of dreams and moonshine, 
 never with the man Rudolph Drake. He had
 
 82 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 but served as a suitable lay figure on which 
 to hang the gorgeous trappings of her 
 fancy. 
 
 - All of this did not render her disappoint- 
 ment and wounded pride any less genuine and 
 painful, but only less enduring. Drake had 
 outraged her maiden dignity in a way she felt 
 she never could forgive, and she attributed the 
 rapidity with which she was able to dismiss his 
 image from her thoughts to this indignation of 
 hers, and plumed herself a trifle on her strength 
 of character. It was all very young, some- 
 what pathetic, and more than a little comic. 
 
 But this successful dismissal was yet to 
 come; she still mourned for her lost castle in 
 the air, only she kept her mourning hidden. 
 Resolutely she took her usual part in the 
 various gayeties of the house party, to all ap- 
 pearances as blithe as ever. And here per- 
 haps she really did show something of the 
 strength with which she credited herself. For 
 whatever else might be imaginary, the hurt of 
 disillusionment was genuine. Moreover, she 
 had been ready to give; and the thwarting of 
 the natural human impulse seemed to paralyze 
 something within her. 
 
 Thus she found it rather difficult to cope
 
 HOOPS OF STEEL 83 
 
 with a new adorer. This was Elsie Haight, 
 that youngest sister for whose social future 
 Mrs. Haight had once expected Geraldine to 
 do so much. She was a remarkably pretty 
 little person, guest and chum of the hostess' 
 schoolgirl daughter Pauline. From the mo- 
 ment of Miss Wynne's arrival, Elsie avowed 
 herself "perfectly crazy about her," and im- 
 mediately proceeded to impart all her joys and 
 woes to the object of her admiration. At first 
 Nita tried to discourage her, but Elsie was not 
 at all thin-skinned, and required a far more 
 pronounced snubbing than sensitive Nita was 
 inclined to bestow. Before she was quite 
 aware of it, she found herself installed as 
 Elsie's chosen friend and confidante. 
 
 "I do so envy Pauline!" Elsie sighed one 
 rainy day, curling herself up among the 
 cushions on the lounge in Nita's room, whither 
 she had come ostensibly for advice as to the 
 matching of hair and sash ribbons. "I do so 
 envy Pauline ! She hasn't any sisters." 
 
 "Why, Elsie, what a horrid thing to say!" 
 exclaimed Nita somewhat conventionally. 
 But then, as she reminded herself, she did not 
 know Phoebe, the second Haight girl, who 
 might be quite unlike Geraldine.
 
 84 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "You'd feel the same way if you were in my 
 place! It's beastly enough having to wear 
 Phoebe's old duds made over and sometimes 
 they've been Geraldine's too but the worst of 
 it is that here I am, sixteen years old, and 
 they've both got to be married off before I can 
 come out," pouted Elsie, looking injured and 
 almost tearful. 
 
 Nita found the point of view interesting. 
 She had never before been on intimate terms 
 with any one who frankly admitted looking at 
 things exactly in the way Elsie had been taught 
 to regard them, and that curiosity about people 
 in general, which was part of the thirst for ex- 
 perience her recent indulgence in romance had 
 temporarily appeased, was again becoming 
 active. 
 
 Openly desirous of hearing more, she said, 
 "But Elsie, you wouldn't be able to leave school 
 for two years at least, even if you were an only 
 child." ' 
 
 Elsie tossed her pretty nut-brown curls. 
 
 "Oh, of course not. Only it will be lots 
 more than two years; you just see if it isn't! 
 Here's Phoebe, twenty and over. She's been 
 waiting and waiting and waiting for Geraldine 
 to marry somebody, so she could have her turn,
 
 HOOPS OF STEEL 85 
 
 and Geraldine's heaps better looking than she 
 is. It's going to be awfully hard on me two 
 old-maid sisters, and the family getting poorer 
 and poorer every minute!" Her big brown 
 eyes filled with the easy tears of self-pity. 
 
 "Perhaps it won't be so bad as all that," an- 
 swered Nita consolingly. "And think what a 
 splendid time you may have, with two popular 
 young married women to chaperon you and en- 
 tertain for you!" 
 
 Elsie's smile revealed a bewitching dimple. 
 "I'll have a good time, all right, if I only get 
 half a chance! You see, I'm so awfully 
 pretty, and the way I can manage men 
 Every one says I'm a born flirt. Why, our 
 English master at school he's 'most forty, 
 but he's terribly good looking, and he's dread- 
 fully in love with me!" 
 
 Which statement would have been truly 
 amazing news to that overworked individual, 
 could he have heard it. 
 
 Elsie went on with a complacent little laugh : 
 "I'll probably marry a millionaire some day. 
 Mother says a girl can get more with less 
 trouble by marrying a rich man than in any 
 other known way." 
 
 "But suppose you shouldn't happen to to
 
 86 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 care for any rich man? What then?" Nita 
 could not use the word "love" as lightly as 
 Elsie did. 
 
 "Mother says it's just as easy to fall in love 
 with a rich man as with a poor one, but that 
 it's really better not to care too much, anyway. 
 After the honeymoon's over, you needn't see 
 much of your husband, and you can just go 
 ahead and have a good time." 
 
 It was not a gracious nor a graceful task to 
 combat a daughter's repetition of her mother's 
 teachings. Nita spoke with a touch of diffi- 
 dence and a deepening of the wild-rose color 
 in her cheeks: 
 
 "You must remember though, Elsie, that 
 marriage isn't all white satin and orange blos- 
 soms and motors and an establishment. 
 You've got to to go on living with the man 
 you marry." 
 
 "Oh, you mean the sex business," Elsie re- 
 marked with, to Nita, breath-taking coolness. 
 "Well, that's the price you've got to pay. 
 Mother says that in this world you can't get 
 anything for nothing, only if you're clever, you 
 needn't pay much. And if a man's crazy 
 about you, you can manage him lots more 
 easily."
 
 HOOPS OF STEEL 87 
 
 "Why, Elsie, I thought you were so ro- 
 mantic!" 
 
 "Oh, I am awfully romantic! Now if I 
 eloped with Max, there'd be lots of excitement, 
 and the papers would all have columns about 
 it, and it would be too terribly thrilling! But 
 there isn't any fun or any romance to a mere 
 ordinary marriage. If I run away with Max, 
 I'll make a sensation; and if I marry a million- 
 aire well, I'll make a sensation, and men can 
 keep on falling in love with me just the same. 
 Of course," she added, dimpling, "I'm count- 
 ing on getting any man I want." Suddenly 
 returning to her grievance, she went on: 
 "Only I do think it'll be just too awfully mean 
 if I'm kept back for Phoebe until there isn't 
 any money left! Goodness only knows what 
 I might have to take then! But of course, she 
 wouldn't have the ghost of a show if I was 
 anywhere around," she ended with a little 
 giggle. 
 
 Well, she certainly was very pretty! Snug- 
 gling there among the many-hued down pil- 
 lows, she reminded one of a luxurious, fluffy 
 Persian kitten. And for all her worldly talk, 
 she was very young, very irresponsible. Nita, 
 though less than five years Elsie's senior, often
 
 88 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 found herself treating her as if she were an 
 innocently mischievous baby whom it was more 
 or less her own duty to keep out of trouble. 
 
 She had quickly discovered that Elsie was 
 given to "crushes," as she called them, brief 
 amourettes to which she yielded entirely and 
 with no attempt at resistance. Just now she 
 was in the very midst of one, its object a popu- 
 lar baritone the Max to whom she had al- 
 luded, and whose picture she wore in a locket 
 hung around her neck. She had confided to 
 Nita her intention of writing and asking for an 
 appointment with this "perfectly divine" per- 
 son, already five times divorced, and been dis- 
 suaded therefrom with difficulty and an 
 ingenious playing upon her dread of ridicule. 
 It was this success which first awakened in 
 Nita a sense of being, in some undefined, un- 
 reasoned way, responsible for Elsie. 
 
 At the time this sense of responsibility was 
 good for her, giving her an immediate interest 
 apart from her own shattered romance. She 
 was too active mentally, too intensely alive to 
 have brooded long over the ruin under any cir- 
 cumstances, but it certainly helped her to 
 shake herself free from the debris more quickly 
 than she might otherwise have done.
 
 HOOPS OF STEEL 89 
 
 And then came a surprise which destroyed 
 all her plans and threatened permanently to 
 disturb that smoothly running daily existence 
 she had accepted as a matter of course. The 
 day she left Elmstead she received a letter 
 from her father announcing his marriage to 
 Rudolph Drake's sister, Mrs. Ashurst. 
 
 That letter was a veritable bombshell to 
 Nita. The idea that her father might marry 
 again had never crossed her mind. Regarding 
 a second marriage, when the first had been a 
 happy one, as nothing short of an indecent 
 breach of loyalty, the event would have hurt 
 her, even had the second wife been a woman 
 she respected and liked. And this second wife 
 was Mrs. Ashurst Mrs. Ashurst, of all peo- 
 ple! As a woman who smoked and rouged 
 and had obtained a divorce with Mr. Ashurst's 
 full consent some said, with his thanks and 
 benediction she was one whom Nita's youth- 
 ful ideas of right and wrong placed irrevo- 
 cably among the goats. A rearranged family 
 was something for which she had neither 
 patience nor tolerance. And now a woman of 
 the class she most despised was to enter her 
 own home. It was worse than unpleasant; it 
 was, as Nita said emphatically, "Absolutely
 
 90 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 disgusting!" But only to herself, be it under- 
 stood. For with all her frankness she had cer- 
 tain reserves ; and she was very proud. 
 
 This pride enabled her to greet the new Mrs. 
 Wynne when the pair returned from their 
 honeymoon, a few weeks later, with a courtesy 
 quite irreproachable, if absolutely glacial. 
 Between them an armed truce was speedily 
 and tacitly established. They met at meals 
 when guests were present, but otherwise led 
 entirely separate lives. This constant state 
 of preparedness was not good for Nita; the 
 former Mrs. Ashurst chafed under it, and it 
 reduced Mr. Wynne to a perpetual condition 
 of apologetic sheepishness. He was uxorious 
 as only an elderly man in the grasp of a late- 
 coming infatuation can be; yet he knew he had 
 dishonored himself in his daughter's eyes, knew 
 she judged him with that ruthlessness of youth 
 which is quite honestly blind to any save the 
 most obvious of extenuating circumstances. 
 There was a gulf between them, and although 
 each occasionally stretched out affectionate 
 hands to the other across it, it remained im- 
 passable. Had Nita been older, more versed 
 in the intricacies of human nature, and conse- 
 quently more lenient in her judgments, had
 
 HOOPS OF STEEL 91 
 
 Mr. Wynne possessed a stronger character, or 
 had they ever indulged in a downright quarrel, 
 it might have been crossed. But there it lay 
 between them, all day and every day, prohibit- 
 ing that ease and freedom of speech which is 
 the joy of human intercourse. 
 
 Therefore was it impossible for him to ques- 
 tion her regarding the break with Rudolph 
 which had quite evidently occurred. He spoke 
 to his wife about it, and she, who had looked 
 forward to getting rid of Nita by speedy and 
 due process of marriage, endeavored to cross- 
 examine her brother, only to be met by a 
 reticence and a sullen anger which surprised 
 and dismayed her. Knowing as she did a good 
 deal about his various liaisons, she naturally 
 assumed that reports of them had somehow 
 reached Nita's ears. This would account, not 
 only for the young girl's attitude, but also for 
 Drake's anger, his ill-concealed anxiety and 
 discomfort when they met, as under the circum- 
 stances it was unavoidable that they should 
 meet, sooner or later. Of course, it was ab- 
 surd of Nita to make a fuss about such things, 
 but quite characteristic, thought Mrs. Wynne, 
 with one of her exaggerated shrugs. 
 
 The truth was that Drake had nourished
 
 92 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 many hopes regarding the inevitable en- 
 counter. It seemed to him unthinkable that 
 because of what he considered as, at worst, a 
 slight defection from the strict code of honor, 
 he should forever lose the girl who was once 
 ready to give herself to him. He called down 
 innumerable anathemas on his own head for 
 the collapse of his self-control, his display of a 
 passion which he knew must have shocked and 
 repelled fastidious Nita, whose purity he had 
 so often compared to snow. But this was the 
 kind of thing any woman, he believed, always 
 forgave after a time. Was it not, when all 
 was said, a tribute to her power? No; his loss 
 of control could only have caused a temporary, 
 frightened shrinking, easily atoned for by hu- 
 mility and penitence. And surely the charge 
 she had brought against him could not long 
 separate them! Now that her ardent sympa- 
 thy for those two little ladies why, if she 
 took him back he would feel sorry for them 
 himself! had had chance to abate, she 
 would see that she had expected too much, 
 expected conduct absolutely quixotic. More- 
 over, though this he formulated to himself less 
 clearly, he relied on his personal charm, on the 
 good looks and gallant presence he had so
 
 HOOPS OF STEEL 93 
 
 often been told were irresistible. Let them 
 but be given an opportunity 
 
 But the good looks and gallant presence and 
 debonair gayety had become distasteful to 
 Nita, things fair and false, hiding corruption. 
 She met him with the distant civility one might 
 accord a stranger of doubtful reputation, and 
 became every moment more annoyed with her- 
 self for being fascinated, like any silly school- 
 girl thoughts of Elsie's rhapsodies over her 
 baritone played their part here by a mere 
 handsome animal. And she never distrusted 
 her ability to judge him; not because of vanity, 
 but because the difference between right and 
 wrong seemed to her so simple and obvious. 
 This opinion is the prerogative of idealistic 
 youth. 
 
 From that first meeting, Drake came away 
 sore, humiliated, and disappointed, though not 
 disheartened. But as week succeeded week, 
 month passed into month, and Nita's attitude 
 remained unchanged, thwarting his every en- 
 deavor at reconciliation, he became piqued and 
 angry, as well as discouraged. The spoken 
 and unspoken questions of his friends were a 
 constant irritation to his festering vanity. He 
 felt that he had lost caste, he exaggerated each
 
 94 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 hint of ridicule or waning popularity. Ger- 
 aldine alone seemed to him quite unaltered. 
 
 He began to find balm in her society ; more- 
 over, her heavy-lidded eyes, her voluptuous 
 form, her slow, languid movements and long 
 silences made her the very antithesis of Nita 
 Wynne. He who had pleaded in vain, who 
 had haunted the girl's presence, so he told him- 
 self angrily, as abjectly as a whipped and 
 starving cur, was here master and lord. No 
 exactions, no setting up of impossible stan- 
 dards ! And yet in the bottom of his heart he 
 knew all the while that it was just because 'he 
 was conscious of having fallen short of her ex- 
 pectations that Nita had regained and now 
 held all the wonder and reverence and adora- 
 tion of which he was capable, all the wonder 
 and reverence she had lost when he had be- 
 lieved her willing to be his. Geraldine he 
 regarded neither with wonder nor with rever- 
 ence: he had actually trembled at the thought 
 of touching Nita's hand; he felt condescend- 
 ingly certain that he could kiss that full red 
 mouth of Geraldine's whenever he pleased. 
 Yet he was beginning to find it tempting. . . . 
 
 How many of his fluctuating emotions Ger- 
 aldine understood he did not know, neither did
 
 HOOPS OF STEEL 95 
 
 he greatly care. And never for one moment 
 did he question the accuracy of his estimate of 
 her. His vanity plainly hinted to him that to 
 marry her would be to strike Nita in the face, 
 to emphasize the significance of his outbreak 
 that memorable afternoon. Because Ger- 
 aldine had only one kind of lure for him, he 
 took it for granted she was not merely inca- 
 pable of exercising any other, but that the fact 
 must be so obvious as to be generally compre- 
 hended comprehended even by one like Nita 
 Wynne. 
 
 And so it came about that on a certain April 
 evening, after dancing until they were tired 
 and breathless, they sought the shadows of 
 Mrs. Dane's big library. A broad, high- 
 backed sofa was the seat they chose. Geral- 
 dine sank down upon the thick cushions, her 
 beautiful, scantily veiled bosom rising and fall- 
 ing quickly with the panting breath which was 
 not due solely to the exertions of the two-step. 
 Drake was close beside her, and the sweet 
 heavy perfume she affected rose in fragrant 
 waves to his nostrils. Neither spoke ; they had 
 little or nothing to say to each other, then or at 
 any other time. He took her hand; and pres- 
 ently his fingers went stealing softly upward
 
 96 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 over the bare white arm to where a narrow vel- 
 vet shoulder strap held the extremely low-cut 
 bodice in place. She moved a little not away 
 from him and smiled, lifting her eyes lazily 
 to his while her head tilted backward toward 
 his shoulder, showing the splendidly modeled 
 lines of her throat to the best possible advan- 
 tage. The warm crimson mouth was very 
 near his own. . . . 
 
 He caught her in his arms, kissing her lips, 
 her cheeks, her throat, repeatedly, gloatingly. 
 In that intoxication of the senses which she had 
 at last produced he found oblivion from sore- 
 ness and suffering, as well as another, very dif- 
 ferent satisfaction. And he was blind to the 
 pain which blended with and dimmed the tri- 
 umph in her eyes. 
 
 When Geraldine, next day, announced their 
 engagement, he was quite ready and willing to 
 be congratulated.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ON UNFAMILIAR PATHS 
 
 NITA received the news of the engagement 
 with an outward polite interest and an 
 inward shrug, entirely failing to see the con- 
 nection between it and the events of that mo- 
 mentous winter afternoon which Drake had 
 hoped would be plain to her. Since Geral- 
 dine's object was, as Elsie had said, to marry 
 somebody who would and could pay her bills 
 for the rest of her natural life, Mr. Drake 
 would no doubt serve her purpose. She her- 
 self would rather scrub floors for a living! 
 ( Her acquaintance with that occupation being 
 entirely theoretical.) As for him well, one 
 could scarcely expect fidelity in love, or what 
 he ventured to call love, from a trickster and a 
 cheat! They were an excellently matched 
 pair, she thought. 
 
 The wedding took place early in the follow- 
 ing autumn, with the usual accompaniments 
 of flowers, tulle, satin, bridesmaids and "The 
 Voice That Breathed O'er Eden." A large
 
 98 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 portion of social New York witnessed the cere- 
 mony, among others the Misses Van Vechten 
 from their retreat above Harlem. They did 
 not often leave the tiny flat on the fourth floor 
 of an elevatorless building, but this was a 
 special occasion; they wanted to show Mr. 
 Drake that they did not blame him, as he 
 doubtless blamed himself, for being the inno- 
 cent cause of their misfortune. How much 
 the loss of the money had meant to them, de- 
 priving them as it did of most of the comforts 
 and practically all the pleasures of their lives, 
 even Nita did not know, but could only guess. 
 Betsy was long since gone and her place re- 
 mained unfilled. Some of the cherished silver 
 and eggshell china had disappeared, but Nita 
 understood how deeply any reference to their 
 absence or any offer of assistance, were it ever 
 so delicately worded, would wound the two 
 ladies' sensitive pride. She did what she 
 could; since they firmly though gently refused 
 to take help even from Donald Forsythe, she 
 did not dare try to do much. Him she met 
 frequently, his relationship to Atkinson Mat- 
 thews sufficing to render him persona grata 
 in a society always ready to take any pre- 
 sentable young man to its somewhat chilly
 
 bosom, but after that one vigorous denuncia- 
 tion of those he considered responsible for the 
 ruin of the many small investors who believed 
 in the North Eastern, he never again men- 
 tioned the subject. Had she understood him 
 better, Nita would have recognized this as a 
 sign that his desire to "make it hot" for the 
 manipulators of the scheme had not dimin- 
 ished; but neither she nor any one else sus- 
 pected that he had a settled selfless purpose 
 behind his apparently commonplace life. 
 They occasionally had a pleasant little talk at 
 some dinner or theater party, but it was always 
 their social and never their real selves that thus 
 encountered each other. 
 
 Nita never forgot to mention these meetings 
 when she went to see the Misses Van Vechten, 
 which she did as often as she could, trying to 
 talk as gayly as of old, despite the troublesome 
 lump in her throat. They did not "make a 
 fuss," and they would have been much annoyed 
 had she made the tiniest kind of one. Now, as 
 always, the sight of them, so frail and shabby 
 and gracious, renewed her contempt for Ru- 
 dolph Drake. Did Geraldine know what he 
 was, she wondered; and knowing, would she 
 care?
 
 100 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 She went after the little ladies and insisted 
 on driving them from the church to the recep- 
 tion, where she was absorbed in them and in 
 Elsie's delight over the removal of one of the 
 inconvenient sisters and her own appearance 
 as flower girl. Her thoughts thus preoccu- 
 pied, she failed to notice the slight stiffening of 
 Drake's face when it came her turn to congrat- 
 ulate him, or the quick, sidelong look the bride 
 gave her new-made husband, a look very dif- 
 ferent from her usual slow glance. 
 
 It was of Elsie and her problematical future 
 that she was thinking as she drove home beside 
 the stepmother with whom she appeared on 
 formal occasions ; their relations might perhaps 
 have become more cordial had they been less 
 meticulously polite. Could she not do some- 
 thing to help the pretty child who so often ran 
 to her with her troubles counteract, to some 
 small extent at least, the injurious atmosphere 
 in which she was being brought up ? She half 
 suspected that what Elsie valued in her was 
 rather the patient listener than the adviser ; yet 
 she knew she had exerted a restraining influ- 
 ence, had prevented her from doing various 
 things not only foolish, but actually dangerous. 
 The rhapsodies about the baritone had given
 
 ON UNFAMILIAR PATHS 101 
 
 place to even more fervent ones over a young 
 riding master with "the loveliest eyes!" who 
 called himself a baron and subsequently eloped 
 with one of his pupils somewhat, it must be 
 confessed, to Nita's relief. Elsie might easily 
 compromise herself beyond hope of social re- 
 demption under the sway of 'that rashness so 
 curiously contrasting with her acquired world- 
 liness. She herself had been taught by experi- 
 ence, and now she was forever done with ro- 
 mance. She was thankful for her escape ; sup- 
 pose she had not discovered what Rudolph 
 Drake really was until after she was married 
 to him what then? 
 
 "Are you going on with me to the Cartons', 
 Nita?" asked Mrs. Wynne. "Or shall I drop 
 you at the house?" 
 
 "At the house, please. I'm dining with 
 Mrs. Bartlett to-night, and I've only just time 
 to dress." 
 
 But when she arrived home Nita did not im- 
 mediately go to her room, although it was long 
 after six; Mrs. Bartlett lived on Washington 
 Square, and the dinner was to be at half -past 
 seven, so that they could get to the Metropol- 
 itan by the end of the first act. At the foot of 
 the stairway she paused, wondering if her
 
 102 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 father were in his room, wondering if they two 
 were once more alone together as they had been 
 for so many years. One of those loving im- 
 pulses which had so often led her to reach 
 vainly out to him across the gulf his marriage 
 had opened between them, drew her on now. 
 She would go and ask him how he liked her new 
 gown. Up the stairs she ran and tapped 
 lightly on his door. 
 
 There was no answer, and she tapped again. 
 Perhaps he had fallen asleep in his chair, as he 
 had occasionally done of late. Or perhaps he 
 had been detained down-town; the important 
 meeting which had prevented him from going 
 to the wedding might have lasted longer than 
 was usual. She would just slip in and leave 
 the violets she was wearing on his desk; that 
 would please him. 
 
 Once more she knocked; then opened the 
 door. He was there, sitting in his big sleepy- 
 hollow chair by the reading lamp, an unfolded 
 newspaper on his knee, his head sunk forward 
 on his breast. At first she thought he was 
 asleep : she tiptoed forward, trying to make no 
 noise, yet wishing he would awake and speak 
 to her. 
 
 A sudden fear seized her ; she ran to him and
 
 ON UNFAMILIAR PATHS 103 
 
 put her arms about him, drawing the heavy 
 head down on her warm young shoulder. 
 And as that inert head fell against her, she saw 
 the hideously twisted face. . . . 
 
 "My dear Miss Wynne," James Hamilton 
 Carton, Mr. Wynne's lawyer and Mrs. Car- 
 ton's husband, spoke gently and rather com- 
 passionately, in the hesitating way which was 
 habitual to him, and always fretted impetuous 
 Nita "my dear Miss Wynne, please don't 
 talk of troubling me. I shall be glad to ex- 
 plain anything you er don't quite under- 
 stand." 
 
 Nita threw back her heavy crape veil with a 
 quick, impatient gesture. 
 
 "I wasn't altogether myself when you read 
 me his will." She paused an instant to con- 
 trol her voice. 
 
 Mr. Carton, who had long since been told 
 how she had found her father sitting in his 
 chair just after the paralytic stroke which a 
 fortnight later had been followed by the one 
 that killed him, nodded gravely. 
 
 "I would like to know exactly how much 
 I have, please. I believe the house ?" 
 
 "The house and its contents go to your er
 
 104 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 to Mrs. Wynne," said the lawyer briefly, 
 looking away from her. In the light of the 
 knowledge which was his and which he must 
 now pass on to her, her youth, her black 
 clothes, her luxurious furs and daintily expen- 
 sive air, made her seem doubly pathetic. He 
 did not enjoy his task. 
 
 Nita winced. The house and its contents: 
 all her mother's purchases, all the furnishings 
 of her home, the objects which had been famil- 
 iar to her so far back as she could remember, 
 now belonged to Mrs. Ashurst. She would 
 not give her that other name ! She caught her 
 lower lip in her little white teeth, striving to 
 check its trembling. But although she had 
 not as yet fully recovered from the nervous 
 shock occasioned by her discovery on that 
 bright autumn afternoon, she forced herself to 
 ask steadily: "And what else?" 
 
 "His personal property everything he had 
 except the house and its contents Mr. 
 Wynne divided between his er wife and 
 you." 
 
 "That means his bonds and and things of 
 that kind?" 
 
 "Yes. Quite right." 
 
 Nita drew a long breath. Then she was not,
 
 ON UNFAMILIAR PATHS 105 
 
 as she had feared from her confused memory 
 of the will as Mr. Carton had read it aloud to 
 her, absolutely penniless. But she wanted 
 thoroughly to understand her position. "In 
 that case, I have an income of my own?" 
 
 "Yes," Mr. Carton said again, and paused. 
 The moment so unpleasant to him had come. 
 "Yes; you have an income of your own er 
 such as it is." 
 
 "Such as it is?" Nita echoed quickly. How 
 cruelly long-winded he was ! 
 
 "Your father," Mr. Carton said slowly, his 
 eyes on the pencil with which he was tapping 
 the open desk before him, "your father, as you 
 of course know, was not a rich man. He re- 
 ceived er a large salary, but he spent all of 
 it, and during er recent years, more than all 
 of it. Most of what he er had left was in 
 the house, which isn't mortgaged." 
 
 Nita's nervous impatience was becom- 
 ing almost uncontrollable. She spoke imperi- 
 ously. "Please tell me exactly how much I 
 have." 
 
 "I can't tell you exactly until the estate has 
 been settled up and the debts paid. But in 
 round numbers" his manner was more delib- 
 erate than ever "in er round numbers "
 
 106 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Well, how much?" 
 
 "About twelve thousand dollars. Which if 
 er wisely invested, means an income of 
 er say six hundred dollars a year." 
 
 Six hundred dollars a year! Her personal 
 allowance had been nearly thrice that amount. 
 
 She was silent a moment, trying to realize 
 just what it meant, just what it was going to 
 mean to her. 
 
 "It seems on the face of it an unjust will," 
 Mr. Carton explained apologetically. "But 
 when Mr. Wynne executed it, shortly after his 
 marriage, he er anticipated living until you 
 should er yourself ' ' 
 
 "I am not criticizing my father, Mr. Carton. 
 I only want to know what I have to live 
 on." 
 
 "Oh, but of course, my dear young lady, you 
 couldn't possibly live on your income!" Mr. 
 Carton was so appalled at the thought that he 
 actually omitted his customary hesitations and 
 "ers." 
 
 Nita rose. "Thank you very much, Mr. 
 Carton. I won't take up any more of your 
 time. Perhaps you could tell me, though, how 
 soon I can expect to get my money?" 
 
 "The principal is left in trust. Until you
 
 ON UNFAMILIAR PATHS 107 
 
 are thirty you only receive the er the in- 
 come." 
 
 Here was another disagreeable surprise. 
 But this time she did not wince. 
 
 "And that I will get at once, I hope?" 
 
 Again Mr. Carton paused. He could not 
 bear to tell her of the months which must elapse 
 before even that would be hers. He was her 
 trustee, and rich; not often generous, he sud- 
 denly decided to advance the money out of his 
 own pocket, mentally excusing himself for 
 such unprecedented rashness on the ground 
 that there was very little danger of his losing 
 it and it would be only a few dollars, any- 
 way. 
 
 "Yes; on the first of December a week 
 from to-morrow." 
 
 Then she bade him good-by and left the 
 office, very erect in her black clothes, holding 
 her little head very high under the heavy crape 
 veil, but feeling as though she had been flung 
 overboard and was not at all sure of her ability 
 to keep herself afloat. Six hundred a year! 
 Six hundred a year ! 
 
 The words kept time to the throbbing of the 
 pulses in her aching temples. What was she 
 to do? What could she do? One thing only
 
 108 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 was certain: she would not live on the charity 
 of the former Mrs. Ashurst. 
 
 Returning from the lawyer's office, she went 
 straight to her own room, locked the door, di- 
 vested herself of her heavy outdoor garments, 
 and sat down to consider the situation. What 
 could she do to earn money? What faculty, 
 what knowledge had she that was marketable? 
 Like most girls of her class, even in these more 
 enlightened days, she had been trained to 
 financial dependence. Such a thing as earn- 
 ing her own living had never even occurred to 
 her, and here she was, face to face with the 
 urgent necessity for doing just that very un- 
 thought-of thing. Her income would pur- 
 chase shelter of a kind, she supposed, and per- 
 haps a little bread. But the rest? Where 
 was that to come from? 
 
 She danced well; but the craze which was to 
 make that accomplishment valuable was still 
 to come. She played and sang nicely; her 
 French was Parisian, her Italian more than 
 fair; but she knew how difficult it was for even 
 an expert teacher to find pupils. People 
 might take lessons from her in order to help 
 her; she would be "one of my charities"; she 
 had heard the phrase more times than a few.
 
 ON UNFAMILIAR PATHS 109 
 
 Her painting? She gave a little shrug; she 
 had no illusions on the score of her talent. It 
 sufficed for amusing dinner cards 
 
 Dinner cards! Well, why not? Some of 
 the shops kept them, but they were neither well 
 done nor especially clever. People had al- 
 ways spoken enthusiastically about hers; she 
 would go to Bertrand's to-morrow and take 
 some to show. If they liked and bought them, 
 why then her problem was solved! 
 
 Her pale cheeks flushed, and the old glori- 
 ous sense of adventure tingled in her veins. 
 With her usual optimism, her usual leaping at 
 conclusions, she saw herself receiving large 
 sums of money for pleasant and easy work 
 which she could do at home 
 
 At home ! She had no home now. 
 
 This house and all its contents, except the 
 furnishings of her own room, belonged to Mrs. 
 Ashurst. Every moment she remained in it 
 she was doing exactly what she had sworn she 
 would not do living on that woman's bounty. 
 She would go to-morrow, not to Bertrand's, 
 but in search of some place, some corner, no 
 matter what or where, which she could call her 
 own. 
 
 She wished she knew some one as young and
 
 110 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 as poor as herself who could give her a little 
 advice. Among all her numerous acquaint- 
 ances there was not one self-supporting 
 woman. And then she thought of Donald 
 Forsythe. She didn't know him very well, 
 and she needn't tell him how little money she 
 had, but she could question him about rooms, 
 and how and where girls like herself lived; he 
 probably knew quantities of them. He would 
 do his best for her, as he would for any one, 
 whether man, woman, or child, who asked his 
 help ; she was so sure of this that she took it as 
 a matter of course. In a week the first install- 
 ment of her income would be paid her, and 
 come what might, on that day she would leave 
 this house where she only lived on sufferance. 
 And she would tell Mrs. Ashurst what she 
 meant to do, now this very evening.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 NITA SHUTS THE DOOR 
 
 AFTER dinner, a dinner whose long 
 silences were broken only by an occa- 
 sional perfunctory remark, Nita said: 
 
 "I'd like to talk to you for a few minutes, 
 if you are not too busy?" 
 
 "Suppose we go to the library? We might 
 have our coffee there." 
 
 The former Mrs. Ashurst spoke even more 
 sweetly than usual. She had quickly decided 
 that this would be an excellent opportunity to 
 tell her stepdaughter that much as she re- 
 gretted her inability, et cetera, it would be quite 
 impossible for her to support two people on 
 so small an income as hers, et cetera, et cetera. 
 It pleased her to shape the phrases in her mind 
 as she went up the short flight of stairs to the 
 library, for this period of mourning was so 
 deadly dull that it made any incident more 
 than welcome. She meant to shorten it as 
 much as was compatible with a due observance
 
 112 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 of the conventionalities, but she had long since 
 resolved not to give people any chance to say 
 disagreeable things about her and had tempo- 
 rarily abandoned rouge, pale cheeks being ap- 
 propriate to a new-made widow. 
 
 However, she did not intend to broach the 
 matter at once, regarding this as one of the 
 occasions when it is best to let the other person 
 have the floor for a while. She settled herself 
 in a corner of the sofa, dropped a cream pep- 
 permint in her coffee, and meditatively 
 watched it dissolve. 
 
 Nita had slipped into one of the big up- 
 holstered armchairs. Physically she was very 
 tired and this room, so full of associations for 
 her, seemed to sap her nervous energy. In 
 this very chair had she often curled herself up, 
 a big-eyed, wondering child, to pore over the 
 marvels of The Arabian Nights; almost op- 
 posite was the sofa whose tasselled fringe she 
 had spent a happy and industrious afternoon 
 hacking off with her mother's largest scissors 
 in one of her innumerable games of make- 
 believe 
 
 Mrs. Wynne's inquiring glance gave the 
 needed spur to Nita's pride. With a con- 
 scious, determined effort she spoke firmly.
 
 NITA SHUTS THE DOOR 113 
 
 "I went down to Mr. Carton's office this 
 afternoon," she began, and stopped. 
 
 "Yes?" said Mrs. Wynne with polite inter- 
 est, after allowing the pause to last just long 
 enough. 
 
 "He told me about the arrangements my 
 father had made. I had not realized before 
 what my position here was." 
 
 "Yes?" said Mrs. Wynne again. Then she 
 wondered whether the girl could possibly be 
 going to ask for permission to stay where she 
 was. Such a request would certainly give 
 the situation a perplexing turn! "Of course 
 I quite understand," she murmured sympa- 
 thetically. "The shock and your illness " 
 
 These were topics Nita did not intend to 
 discuss. And she had no desire for the former 
 Mrs. Ashurst's sympathy. 
 
 "I'm afraid I'll have to spend a few days 
 looking for a place to live." She wished she 
 could announce that she had made arrange- 
 ments to depart next morning. "And my in- 
 come isn't to begin until the first of December. 
 I'm going then." 
 
 Mrs. Wynne decided that on the whole mat- 
 ters were working themselves out very satis- 
 factorily. She did not want to quarrel with
 
 114 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 the stepdaughter who was socially so much 
 more influential than herself, and though she 
 must of course be able to tell people she "had 
 offered the poor child a home," it would have 
 been extremely embarrassing to have her ac- 
 cept it. 
 
 So she considered the situation a moment, 
 and then remarked quietly, her eyes fixed on 
 the very high-heeled black suede slippers 
 crossed on the footstool in front of her: "I 
 may as well tell you at once that I've put this 
 house on the market. It ought to bring a 
 fairly good price, and I can't afford to live in 
 it unfortunately. ' ' 
 
 She was surprised to hear an apologetic note 
 in her voice. 
 
 "All that," said Nita, very low, "is your af- 
 fair, not mine." 
 
 But she had a swift vision of the dear old 
 house torn down or altered beyond recognition, 
 its contents scattered to the four corners of 
 the earth. 
 
 "Yes, of course!" and again the apologetic 
 note was in Mrs. Wynne's voice. "I only 
 wanted you to know why I couldn't invite you 
 to stay on here. I expect to get most of my 
 income from the sale of the house."
 
 NITA SHUTS THE DOOR 115 
 
 Nita's clear eyes challenged her stepmother's 
 reluctant ones, still busy contemplating the 
 black suede slippers. Suddenly her frayed 
 nerves snapped, and she exclaimed ; "I thought 
 you were getting plenty of money from your 
 former " 
 
 She broke off, blushing hotly. She would 
 have given much to be able to recall her 
 words. 
 
 Mrs. Wynne flinched. She dM not under- 
 stand Nita's point of view, did not understand 
 how degrading the girl thought it was to ac- 
 cept money under such conditions. Only she 
 realized more plainly than ever that it was not 
 jealousy which had prompted Nita's attitude 
 towards herself. She would have been more 
 than human had she not met intolerance with 
 intolerance, not longed to return scorn for 
 scorn. 
 
 "You're entirely mistaken," she replied in- 
 dignantly. "I have practically nothing of my 
 
 own." 
 
 It was not necessary to explain that she had 
 taken a sum down in lieu of alimony, intend- 
 ing to live on this capital until she could find 
 a second husband, and that it was nearly all 
 gone when she at last succeeded.
 
 116 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "That was the reason my husband disposed 
 of his property as he did," she went on. "He 
 wanted to protect me. Besides, at that time 
 he thought indeed, we both thought you 
 were engaged to my brother." 
 
 This was a two-edged thrust, very gratify- 
 ing to Mrs. Wynne. 
 
 "We were both," she added gently, "greatly 
 surprised and er grieved, when he told us 
 he was to marry Miss Haight." 
 
 The implication that it was for Nita they 
 had grieved was grossly obvious. 
 
 Nita gave a slight, indifferent little shrug. 
 The former Mrs. Ashurst saw with disappoint- 
 ment the failure of her thrust, and yet the 
 girl seemed so white, so fragile, sitting there 
 in her lusterless black ; the hands lying clasped 
 on her lap were so slender, so helpless-look- 
 ing! And she was so pathetically young, ap- 
 parently so utterly unfitted to make her own 
 way in the great outer world of which she 
 was ignorant as any child! 
 
 Oh, well, she had six hundred a year! She 
 needn't starve, and it would do her good to 
 learn something of her own lack of importance. 
 Besides, she'd probably come and ask help long 
 before she was in actual want an idea which
 
 NITA SHUTS THE DOOR 117 
 
 showed how little Mrs. Wynne knew her step- 
 daughter. 
 
 "I really do not think," Nita remarked with 
 that chiseled enunciation which gave such 
 peculiar emphasis to her words, "I really do 
 not think we need discuss the whys and where- 
 fores of the present situation. It exists ; surely 
 that is quite enough." 
 
 Something of irritation, something of com- 
 punction, prompted Mrs. Wynne's next 
 speech. The brief vision of Nita on her knees 
 had vanished forever at sound of the clear, 
 unhesitating voice. The personality behind 
 those tones was more than dynamic, a force 
 difficult to control, impossible to subdue. 
 Broken the girl might be, but bent never. 
 
 "Yes, you're right," she said slowly. 
 "Still What are you going to do, Nita? 
 We've never been friends, you and I " 
 
 "That too," Nita interposed quickly, "is a 
 matter we need not discuss." Her refusal to 
 answer her stepmother's question was none the 
 less pointed for being indirect. She had no 
 belief in "that woman's" kindliness or good in- 
 tentions. 
 
 Mrs. Wynne made a slightly extravagant 
 gesture of acquiescence.
 
 118 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Again I agree," she replied. "But up to 
 now we've avoided taking tout le monde into 
 our confidence, and I don't see why we 
 shouldn't continue to do so. It seems to me 
 it would be better in every way for us to meet 
 now and then." 
 
 An instant Nita considered the proposal. 
 Her stepmother had made a direct, apparently 
 straightforward appeal to her pride, to her 
 instinctive desire to keep her personal affairs 
 to herself. It did not occur to her that the 
 former Mrs. Ashurst hoped thus to guard her- 
 self from possible accusations and from the 
 snubbing Nita's friends might give her should 
 the facts of their relation become known. 
 
 It was very quiet in this big, comfortable 
 room which had once been the center of a 
 house that was a real home, a house over which 
 a solemn hush now brooded, as though it held 
 its breath in anticipation of its fast approach- 
 ing destruction. Through the curtained win- 
 dows, closed to keep out the chill of the Novem- 
 ber air, came only a distant murmur, punctu- 
 ated occasionally by the insolent cry of a motor 
 horn. It was as if that spirit of Death, which 
 had entered so recently, now enveloped it all. 
 
 And at the very heart of this foreboding
 
 NITA SHUTS THE DOOR 119 
 
 stillness, like a spark of flame amid a heap 
 of ashes, sat Nita, intensely, gloriously alive, 
 for all her mourning and fatigue and pallor. 
 
 At last she spoke, slowly for her. Pride 
 and common sense and loyalty to the dead 
 alike advised a course other than the one in- 
 clination would have chosen. Unless she 
 meant to cut herself off from most of her 
 friends, she could not avoid meeting her step- 
 mother quite frequently and to be ostensibly 
 on pleasant terms with the woman he had mar- 
 ried was to do something towards shielding her 
 father from criticism. Young as she was, she 
 had had too much social experience not to know 
 what would be said of him, once the provisions 
 of his will became public property. 
 
 "Yes, you're right. It will be best for us 
 to see each other now and then." 
 
 "C'est convenu, alors" Mrs. Wynne had 
 been trying to stop using her once beloved 
 French phrases, but the affectation had be- 
 come a habit, and now they occasionally slipped 
 out before she was aware of it. Somehow, 
 of late these, like her exaggerated dressing and 
 make-up, had been rendering her vaguely un- 
 comfortable, though to the latter she had clung 
 with a certain sense of defiance. She went
 
 120 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 on hurriedly, still refusing to meet Nita's clear, 
 steady eyes : 
 
 "I'll probably stay here until I go out of 
 town in the spring there's no sense in moving 
 twice. Next winter I'll rent a small apart- 
 ment in some hotel the Devonport, I guess. 
 Anyway, I'll let you know, and you must be 
 sure to give me your address." 
 
 "Very well," Nita rose and stood, straight 
 and slim in her flowing black robes, beside the 
 big chair wherein a golden-haired child had 
 once nestled, an enthusiastic, wide-eyed elf ab- 
 sorbed in dreams and fancies. Now she hesi- 
 tated ; habitual consideration for another's feel- 
 ings, even when that other was this woman she 
 despised, rendered it difficult for her to 
 pronounce the words she was determined to 
 speak. For she would accept nothing from 
 the former Mrs. Ashurst. "Very well," she 
 repeated; and then added, resolutely yet al- 
 most shyly: "If you will be so kind as to let 
 me know what my share of the household ex- 
 penses during these past weeks amounts to, 
 I will send you a check at once." 
 
 Fervently she hoped that that part of her 
 annual allowance still remaining in the bank 
 would be enough to cover her indebtedness.
 
 NITA SHUTS THE DOOR 121 
 
 But should it fall short she had a few jewels. 
 Not many, but they would probably suffice. 
 
 Once more, Mrs. Wynne flinched. 
 
 She too had risen now, and they stood fac- 
 ing each other across the hushed room. Both 
 were clad in unrelieved black, and this similar- 
 ity of hue made more noticeable the austere 
 simplicity of the one costume, the extravagance 
 of the other. Girl and woman, bearing the 
 same name, grieving or supposedly grieving 
 for the same man, they strove to measure each 
 other. And it was the elder whose eyes pres- 
 ently wavered and fell. 
 
 "Good night," Nita said, speaking, to her 
 own surprise, in a tone which was almost one 
 of compassion. "Good night." And walked 
 quietly, unhurriedly out of the room. 
 
 A week later, Nita Wynne left the home 
 once hers, left it for the last time. And as 
 she closed the heavy door, she felt that she was 
 leaving behind her all her joyous, carefree 
 youth. She was going out into the unknown 
 going out entirely, fearlessly, adventur- 
 ously alone. In spite of her grief, in spite 
 of the homesickness which gripped her throat 
 as the door shut, in spite of her vague sense 
 that disappointments, perils even, were lying
 
 122 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 in wait to confront her, her whole being thrilled 
 with the old familiar consciousness of drama, 
 the old eager desire to know and to experience. 
 She expected trials and tests, and nerved her- 
 self to meet them. For if she was stern, un- 
 compromising in her judgment of others of 
 Drake and Geraldine and the former Mrs. 
 Ashurst she was not one whit less stern or 
 less exacting in the demands she made upon 
 her own soul: she was still young enough to 
 believe with Portia that it is easy "to know 
 what were good to do." 
 
 And so, holding her life lightly in her hands, 
 she set forth bravely on her voyage of discov- 
 ery.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 AFTER MANY DAYS 
 
 ALIGHT November fog hung like a veil 
 of thinnest gray chiffon over Gramercy 
 Park. The faint breeze could not tear it, had 
 indeed scarcely strength enough to rustle the 
 few dry leaves that still clung despairingly to 
 the trees, or to stir the many that had given 
 up the struggle and slipped resignedly to the 
 ground. The hands of the great clock on the 
 Metropolitan Tower, shining through the mist, 
 pointed to five, as Nita Wynne, her day's 
 work done, came to her sitting-room window. 
 She had meant only to draw down the shade, 
 but she lingered there by the window, looking 
 out. She was fond of the big clock which had 
 kept her company in many lonely moments, 
 fonder still of the little park which had such 
 numerous and diversified moods of its own. 
 Yet now, after glancing at her friend the 
 clock, she looked away over the bare trees to 
 Twenty-third Street where cross-town cars 
 bumped along moving bunches of lights
 
 124 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 and the homeward bound crowd was beginning 
 to blacken the sidewalks. She liked the con- 
 trast of the quiet park with the lights of Lex- 
 ington Avenue stretching out beyond in two 
 long lines which seemed to draw together until 
 they converged in a point, and the bustle of the 
 cross-town thoroughfare. But sometimes the 
 sight of that hurrying, turbulent life had a 
 curiously saddening effect upon her, and she 
 felt near akin to the woman of the poem: 
 
 "The world meanwhile, its noise and stir, 
 Through a certain window facing the East, 
 She could watch like a convent's chronicler." 
 
 Her own window faced north, not east, and 
 her life was very far from conventual, yet she 
 felt that behind the exterior differences the 
 analogy was strong. 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders with the old 
 impatient movement. What more did she 
 want; what was the cause of this restless de- 
 sire to crowd her days full of experience which 
 had grown with her growth and never left 
 her even in her darkest hours ? During all the 
 years ten, save for a week or two which 
 had elapsed since she closed the door of the 
 house in East Sixty-fourth Street behind her
 
 AFTER MANY DAYS 125 
 
 for the last time, her life had surely been full 
 enough, varied enough, to satisfy the most 
 exigent! She sank down on the broad, cush- 
 ioned window seat, and clasping her hands 
 about her drawn-up knees, let her thoughts 
 drift back over the events and places of those 
 busy years: 
 
 That ugly, tiny room in West Twenty-ninth 
 Street whither she had gone ten years ago in 
 the full adventurous glow of youth and inex- 
 perience! How well she remembered every 
 detail of its shabby, fly-specked gentility, and 
 that basement dining room where for the first 
 time in her life she saw a cruet stand and tasted 
 boarding-house fare! Her delight when the 
 head of Bertrand's stationery department 
 praised her dinner cards and gave her an order 
 was still fresh in her memory; and would she 
 ever forget that check, the first money she 
 ever earned, her feeling of independence and 
 of being a quite exceptional person? It had 
 more than made up to her for all the discom- 
 forts of the boarding house! A taste of the 
 sweets of self-reliance, and then then that 
 long, terrible summer, when she who had al- 
 ways gone to the country by the end of May 
 was obliged to stay in the heat-wilted city,
 
 126 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 when there was no demand for dinner cards, 
 and the little income she had not yet learned 
 how to manage seemed to melt away like snow 
 in her hands. . . . 
 
 She could smile now as she remembered what 
 an appalling, above all, what an astonishing 
 tragedy it had seemed to the girl of hardly 
 twenty-one, who was and who was not her very 
 self! In her more abundant knowledge she 
 realized that hers had been exceptionally good 
 fortune. For what was it in truth but sheer 
 blind good luck which had first set her feet 
 upon the path she had since trodden so suc- 
 cessfully? If she had not chanced to be pass- 
 ing that old-fashioned, almost empty apart- 
 ment house exactly at the moment when Dick 
 Knowlton of the real estate firm of Knowlton, 
 Mowbray, and Knowlton emerged from its 
 shabby entrance! Or if he had not been re- 
 duced to such a state of despondency as to be 
 unable to refrain from exclaiming: 
 
 "I wish to goodness I knew what was the 
 matter with that miserable place! Here it is 
 September, and I haven't rented a single soli- 
 tary one of the vacant apartments. The build- 
 ing's eating its head off, and I don't know what 
 on earth to do. The rooms are large "
 
 AFTER MANY DAYS 127 
 
 He had stopped there with a disconsolate 
 shake of the head, and some good angel had 
 prompted her to say, conventionally enough: 
 
 "It's too bad. I do wish I could help you." 
 
 "I wonder if you could?" he had cried, catch- 
 ing at a straw. "You know what women 
 want, and it's the women we've got to please. 
 Come in and look the place over, won't you?" 
 
 Well, he was an old friend and she had 
 gone with him into the building, feeling de- 
 lightfully adventurous. 
 
 She smiled again as she remembered her 
 tour through the dusty, dingy apartments, her 
 sense of importance, as though the fate of a 
 nation hung upon her words ! But her femin- 
 ine eyes saw much to which masculine ones had 
 been blind, and her imagination, her inherited 
 instincts for beauty and for home-making, had 
 come to her aid. Soon she had begun to talk 
 in her quick, eager way. 
 
 And ready as they were to clutch at any 
 feasible ideas which might help to render suc- 
 cessful a building whose owner, Cuthbert 
 Frayne, was one of their most valuable clients, 
 the real estate firm had taken her advice, to 
 the unspeakable disgust of a lazy janitor. In 
 a little while the apartment was rented and
 
 128 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 Nita fairly started on the work she had since 
 continued with pleasure and profit. 
 
 First Knowlton, Mowbray, and Knowlton, 
 then other firms employed her. And pres- 
 ently, thanks in great measure, as she later 
 discovered, to the diplomatic and entirely un- 
 expected endeavors of the former Mrs. Ash- 
 urst, the owner of a certain huge caravansary 
 on upper Broadway invited her to decorate 
 and furnish an apartment as a sort of cross 
 between a sample and an object lesson. This 
 she did, making the diminutive rooms so at- 
 tractive that she was asked to arrange others, 
 and managers and agents sent her many of 
 their tenants who wanted advice and help. 
 The thing developed slowly, of course, but she 
 had a rare knack for creating a homelike at- 
 mojsphere, and her quick sympathy, interest, 
 and enthusiasm, her way of taking everything 
 as an adventure, proved important assets. As 
 the years passed, her business grew until she 
 now had about as much as she could attend to, 
 and earned a very comfortable income. Yet 
 sometimes she could not help being aware how 
 fit a subject it was for the laughter of the little 
 gods that she who had none of her own should 
 spend her days arranging homes for other peo-
 
 AFTER MANY DAYS 129 
 
 pie. For the solitary dwelling, be it one 
 room or twenty, is not and never can be a 
 home. 
 
 She jerked down the shade and turned from 
 the window, at the same time dragging her 
 thoughts away from her own loneliness. She 
 had a healthy contempt for that very popular 
 form of indulgence known as feeling sorry for 
 one's self. There is always darkness enough 
 in the world; to add one unnecessary shadow 
 seemed to her inexcusable cowardice, and the 
 "luxury of woe" of all luxuries the most selfish 
 and unprofitable. Only by the resolute cul- 
 tivation of happiness and that it could be cul- 
 tivated experience had taught her did one 
 prove one's possession of that good breeding 
 w r hich always considers the feelings of other 
 people. 
 
 Now, while she moved about the room a 
 charmingly comfortable, cheery room it was, 
 with its soft warm golden browns on walls and 
 curtains and cushions, its low, crowded book- 
 cases, its etchings and Braun photographs, its 
 inviting chairs, convenient tables and open 
 fireplace giving a touch here and a push 
 there, shaking up the cushions and readjusting 
 the half dozen shaggy chrysanthemums in their
 
 130 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 Japanese holders, she was thinking of a new 
 problem, or rather, an old problem in fresh 
 guise. It was not, she believed, one which af- 
 fected her own private existence, save 
 through that sense of personal responsibility 
 she had long ago begun to feel towards Elsie 
 Haight, now for six years the wife of Donald 
 Forsythe. 
 
 To Nita, as to the rest of their acquaintances, 
 that marriage had been more than a nine days' 
 wonder. Elsie's motives she had presently 
 fancied she understood in part at least. For 
 when Mr. Haight failed, disastrously and more 
 than a little disgracefully, Elsie had found her- 
 self confronted with the necessity of choosing 
 between the drab life which was all her par- 
 ents could give her, Geraldine's charity, or 
 speedy marriage. Donald Forsythe was At- 
 kinson Matthews' nephew, certain, so "every- 
 body said," to be the old man's heir; and panic- 
 stricken, fearing to delay lest worse befall, 
 Elsie had grasped at the possibilities he of- 
 fered her. His share in the business was far 
 less easy to understand; Elsie's prettiness and 
 distress had no doubt appealed to his sympa- 
 thies, but surely there must have been some- 
 thing more than this! Nita always dismissed
 
 AFTER MANY DAYS 131 
 
 the question by shrugging her shoulders at the 
 extraordinary vagaries of which masculine pas- 
 sion seemed capable. 
 
 Her clearly marked, slightly arched eye- 
 brows drew together in a perplexed little frown 
 as she arranged her tea table and lit the al- 
 cohol lamp under the burnished copper kettle. 
 Her maid had gone out, and it was more than 
 probable that some one would drop in for tea. 
 Ah, there was the telephone! It might and 
 often did ring fifty times a day, but to Nita 
 the sound would never cease to suggest en- 
 trancing possibilities. 
 
 "Mr. Forsythe calling" was the message 
 which surprised and a little alarmed her. Too 
 imaginative not to cross bridges long before 
 they were even in sight, she wondered whether 
 Elsie could have the electric bell whirred, and 
 she sped to open the door. 
 
 Since Donald Forsythe married Elsie, Nita 
 had come to know him very well. So now one 
 look at his face had reassured her before he 
 said: 
 
 "I've come to talk business. I know it's 
 out of hours, but now that Delvain's running 
 the Colonial, the office is about as peaceful as 
 Broadway on election night."
 
 132 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 She smiled, replying somewhat tentatively: 
 "He never could do the least thing without 
 making a tremendous fuss about it." 
 
 Her words she had partly learned to con- 
 trol, but it was only by a conscious effort that 
 she could keep her impatience out of her voice. 
 It was many weeks since Carter Delvain had 
 bought the Colonial Magazine, declaring he 
 meant to make it popular and increase its cir- 
 culation. If he carried out his plans, what 
 would become of Donald Forsythe? Editor- 
 ships are not to be picked up every day, and 
 Atkinson Matthews had apparently no faint- 
 est intention of dying for many years to come. 
 But the Colonial Magazine as it had been and 
 as it would be under the management of Del- 
 vain 
 
 "Yes; one has to get used to his fondness 
 for the exclamatory and inflammatory," Don- 
 ald said slowly. Then, after a brief pause, he 
 added bluntly and almost harshly: "I'm stay- 
 ing on." 
 
 Was it matter for congratulation, or for 
 condolence? When one considered. . . . 
 
 An instant she stared at the little French 
 coffee urn with which at his coming she had 
 replaced the tea things. Presently she looked
 
 AFTER MANY DAYS 133 
 
 up, and their eyes met. He read the question 
 in hers, and promptly answered it: 
 
 "You see, he thinks I have talents which 
 weren't allowed a fair scope on the old Colon- 
 ial; so he's raised my salary to stimulate them 
 and squelch any lingering inclinations I may 
 have towards what he calls 'high-brow stuff.' 
 Inclination versus income, inclination depart- 
 eth forthwith, via the window; that's his theory. 
 What he wants is 'cheerful, wholesome fiction, 
 with strong heart-interest and plenty of 
 punch.' ' Forsythe paused ; his left shoulder 
 jerked, and he added laughingly: "Behold 
 in me the future purveyor limping but de- 
 termined of literary sugar-and-water for the 
 quarter-educated I" 
 
 "As bad as all that?" 
 
 "As bad? Worse and more of it! All fic- 
 tion suspected of the faintest literary taint is 
 to be thrown overboard immediately if not 
 sooner. But we're to have a high standard 
 oh, a tr-remendously high standard! So 
 high people of your kind won't even be able to 
 see it." 
 
 He stopped suddenly. They both knew 
 why he felt constrained to accept this task he 
 so disliked; but the reason was one they could
 
 134 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 not discuss. He would not, indeed, have 
 spoken so plainly had he not suppressed his 
 irritation until an outlet of some sort had be- 
 come an imperative necessity, frankness be- 
 ing a luxury he was often obliged to deny him- 
 self. For his marriage had been but a few 
 weeks old when he realized that he had made 
 the worst possible mistake realized, too, some- 
 thing of the obligation he had taken upon him- 
 self. And that sovereign ideal of loyalty 
 which he held as the very source and fount, not 
 only of honor but of what he would have called 
 "just ordinary decency," commanded him to 
 pay the full price of his mistake, every farth- 
 ing of the obligation he had of his own free will 
 bound upon his life. Men who loved and were 
 happy with their wives did not need to be so 
 careful in speaking of all that concerned them ; 
 for him, eternal vigilance was necessary, if he 
 would preserve his self-respect. Not by word 
 or look of his must Elsie ever be appraised or 
 criticized. But he was perfectly aware that 
 she babbled about her grievances to whomso- 
 ever would listen to her. 
 
 Half consciously, he had noticed the disap- 
 pearance of the tea he detested. It was one of 
 Nita's many lovable traits that for all her busy
 
 135 
 
 life and the eager interest in everything and 
 every passing moment which still made ex- 
 istence to her a series of adventures, 
 she never forgot other people's prefer- 
 ences. 
 
 While they ate and drank in silence silence 
 resulting not from the lack of things to say, but 
 from the restrictions circumstances laid on 
 speech he watched her with friendly, medita- 
 tive eyes, remembering the girl who had flashed 
 out upon him from the somber setting of the 
 Misses Van Vechten's parlor. She had 
 changed, he thought, both much and little. 
 There were a few tiny lines about the corners 
 of the luminous gray-green eyes, and the eyes 
 were even steadier in their clear gaze ; the fear- 
 lessness of ignorance had given place to the 
 fearlessness of knowledge. The mouth had 
 lost something, perhaps, of its richness of tint, 
 but it had gained in strength and firmness. 
 The old eagerness was there, the old swift 
 ardor, but they were under better control. As 
 she leaned back in the big chair, her attitude, 
 relaxed though it was, conveyed no hint of 
 limpness. She wore a gown of orchid-tinted 
 Liberty silk made in mediaeval fashion with 
 a curious old girdle of hand-wrought silver
 
 136 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 about the hips a garment of the softest, most 
 feminine description; and yet it was easy to 
 imagine her as springing to her feet and riding 
 forth on a crusade or as the leader of some for- 
 lorn hope. 
 
 "You know," he exclaimed suddenly, his 
 thoughts returning to his own affairs, "you 
 know, if you take it from the correct and 
 humorous angle, this whole business is a mighty 
 good joke! Think of the Colonial Magazine 
 the Colonial! being run by Delvain; and 
 with me, of all people in the world, as his 
 managing editor! If any one had told me a 
 few years ago that I'd ever work under Del- 
 vain, I'd have laughed in his face or knocked 
 him down. Made a vigorous and well inten- 
 tioned attempt to knock him down, at least," 
 he added with a slight grimace and that little 
 upward jerk of the left shoulder which was 
 habitual and entirely unconscious. "He'd 
 probably have had to take the will for the 
 deed!" ' 
 
 Nita winced. His trick of lightly gibing 
 at his own lameness was something to which 
 she had never grown accustomed; it always 
 gave her a queer little pang. 
 
 "Perhaps you'll have more time to yourself
 
 AFTER MANY DAYS 137 
 
 now and be able to get along faster with your 
 Trusts book," she remarked rather inconse- 
 quently. 
 
 There was an unusual, diffident note in her 
 voice. Much as they had seen of each other 
 during the past few years, thanks to Elsie's in- 
 sistent maintenance of the intimacy, she had 
 rarely been so conscious of the invisible, steel- 
 strong web of restrictions which social custom 
 as well as the canons of good taste and loyalty 
 wove around them as at this moment, when 
 she knew that he, the man she so liked and re- 
 spected and whose loneliness she divined, real- 
 izing it to be even greater than her own, longed 
 to speak freely. How indeed was it possible 
 for him to be frank without at least tacit re- 
 proaches, tacit disloyalty? 
 
 For it was not the magazine's changed policy 
 which was of import, but his submission, and 
 all that his submission implied. 
 
 He welcomed the opening she had made for 
 him. This long-contemplated book of his, 
 The History of the Trust in America, was 
 something they had often discussed. It in- 
 terested them both, it meant a good deal to him, 
 and yet it was in a way an impersonal, and 
 therefore safe topic. It did not approach
 
 138 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 those raw, quivering nerve-centers whose very 
 existence he strove so bravely, and in general 
 so successfully, to conceal. 
 
 "Yes, it's going to give me a good deal more 
 time. My business will be to buy names and 
 give all due and proper assistance to the ad- 
 vertising manager. No worrying about new 
 writers! My gray matter will be spared that 
 strain I'll keep it all for the mighty work no 
 one will ever read. What fools we are to 
 care so much, to fret and struggle and worry 
 Oh, damn!" as the telephone rang "I'll 
 bet my hat that's Elsie! I promised to go to 
 dinner at the Drakes with her to-night I 
 ought to be home now, getting ready. And 
 I've never said a word about the business I 
 came" 
 
 "It's not late. Wait a minute while I find 
 out Hello! Yes, this is Miss Wynne. 
 This afternoon? Oh-h!" Her voice quiv- 
 ered. An instant, and she spoke steadily. 
 "I'll come up at once. Mr. Forsythe? Yes. 
 Yes. Very well. I'll bring him with me. 
 Good-by." 
 
 The receiver clicked on the hook. She re- 
 turned to Donald, pale now, and with trem- 
 bling lips.
 
 AFTER MANY DAYS 139 
 
 "It was Dr. Macneven. Miss Cornelia " 
 She choked, and could not go on. 
 
 "What's happened?" Donald demanded. 
 He had risen to his feet and stood waiting. 
 
 "Miss Cornelia died an hour ago."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THESE TWAIN 
 
 THEY were in a taxicab, hastening up- 
 town. Elsie had been notified that her 
 husband would be unable to go out to dinner 
 with her, and Nita's own evening engagements 
 had been canceled. Neither spoke as the cab 
 bumped along, and if each divined many of the 
 other's thoughts, more remained unknown. 
 Nita understood Donald's sorrow, something 
 of his rancor against those who had taken most 
 of its scanty joys out of the pitiful gray life 
 just ended. But he was entirely ignorant of 
 that past which Miss Cornelia's death had 
 brought back to her with a vividness no longer 
 created by Rudolph Drake's actual presence; 
 their relations with Elsie and with Mrs. 
 Wynne enforced meetings which to Nita had 
 speedily become commonplace if still slightly 
 unpleasant. Now her contempt and disgust 
 were revivified. Miss Cornelia was dead ; and 
 he he was successful and happy! She
 
 THESE TWAIN 141 
 
 clenched her hands; at that moment she felt 
 she would have been glad to hurt the man who 
 was once her Sir Galahad. 
 
 Donald spoke presently, as if to himself 
 rather than to Nita: 
 
 "They'd let me do so little for them! And 
 they never complained. She was always 
 proud " 
 
 Nita's voice shook just perceptibly. "It's 
 poor Miss Sophia I'm thinking of. She's al- 
 ways depended on What will she do now 
 . . . alone?" 
 
 The experience gained in her own solitary 
 years lent poignancy to her tone. 
 
 He turned to her quickly. "You're right. 
 It's easier for Aunt Cornelia. She's out of it 
 all safe. But poor Aunt Sophia If she 
 could come to me for a while " 
 
 Neither the significance of the pronoun nor 
 his hesitancy escaped Nita, though at the mo- 
 ment her brain was busy with other things. 
 What could be done for the helpless little old 
 lady who all her life long had leaned upon her 
 sister? 
 
 At last they reached the flat and hurried up 
 the four flights of stairs. At the door Dr. 
 Macneven met them, and in the fewest possi-
 
 142 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 ble words told them of the heart attack so 
 quickly followed by death. He had arrived 
 before the end, but she never recovered con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 "Miss Sophia is in there with her now. We 
 can't get her away and I don't want to use 
 force. See if you can persuade her." 
 
 Nita went with him into the tiny bedroom, 
 where a single low-turned tremulous gas jet 
 gave just enough light to reveal the delicate, 
 waxlike face, so peaceful and so still upon the 
 pillow. All the care, all the anxiety were 
 gone; on the sweet thin lips the shadow of a 
 white smile hovered. Whatever the years had 
 brought her of grief and worry and disappoint- 
 ment, whatever trouble, whatever heartbreak 
 had been hers, Cornelia Van Vechten was at 
 rest now. 
 
 But in a low chair beside the bed whereon 
 that quiet figure lay crouched her sister. 
 Bending forward, her little body, so frail and 
 shrunken, seeming all drawn together, she sat 
 with her eyes fixed on the placid face. It was 
 as though all the flickering vitality within her 
 were concentrated in that gaze. 
 
 Nita could not speak. They had loved her 
 very dearly, these two exquisite gentlewomen.
 
 THESE TWAIN 143 
 
 And now one seemed scarcely farther out of 
 her reach than did the other. 
 
 She went up to the little, withered, crouch- 
 ing form, and knelt down and put her strong 
 warm arms about the tiny waist which had once 
 been its owner's pride. Her throat ached with 
 unshed tears. 
 
 "Hush!" whispered Miss Sophia softly. 
 "Hush! She's asleep. They say she's dead, 
 but I don't believe them. She wouldn't die 
 and leave me all alone." 
 
 "Dear, dear Miss Sophia!" Nita's voice 
 was a caress. "Come, dear. Come with me, 
 and let her sleep." 
 
 For the first time in all the years Nita had 
 known her, quiet Miss Sophia spoke with a 
 touch of impatience: 
 
 "No, Nita, no. I must wait here until 
 she wakes . . ." 
 
 Nita understood then that any efforts at 
 persuasion would be worse than useless. And 
 she mourned for the living more than for the 
 dead who was "out of it all" now, and safe. A 
 long time she knelt there, while her rare tears 
 fell. Then she remembered Donald and the 
 doctor, and rose. But as she moved, Miss 
 Sophia's clawlike little hand clutched at the
 
 144 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 delicate folds of the orchid-tinted gown she had 
 not stopped to change. 
 
 "Don't go. Stay with me. I think when 
 she wakes she may want you, too." 
 
 Nita pressed her warm lips to the thin, cling- 
 ing hand: 
 
 "I'll come back in just a minute, dear. I 
 won't leave you," she promised. 
 
 In the little parlor, with its pathetic shab- 
 biness and still more pathetic tokens of by- 
 gone ease and dignity eloquent of the grind- 
 ing penury which had slowly crushed out two 
 women's lives she told the men of Miss 
 Sophia, and of her own decision to remain with 
 her through the night. Dr. Macneven had 
 already sent for a trained nurse, but he ac- 
 quiesced at once in Nita's belief that she her- 
 self might be of use. He was obliged to go 
 on immediately to another patient, but he 
 would come back later, and in the meanwhile 
 Donald would remain. He entrusted Nita 
 with a quieting draught to give Miss Sophia 
 something he hoped would soothe her and make 
 her sleep, when they could easily carry her to 
 her bed. She was very light, he said, and the 
 words brought Nita a twinge of pain ; were the 
 thinness, the lightness, the result of sheer lack
 
 THESE TWAIN 145 
 
 of food? They had been so proud, so reticent! 
 She went back to the bedroom, and gently and 
 with a good deal of difficulty, coaxed the 
 stricken little creature to take the medicine 
 prepared for her. Then the long vigil began. 
 Hour after hour Nita sat beside her, there 
 where she crouched, seeming scarcely to 
 breathe, showing consciousness only by her 
 tight grip on the strong young hand. It had 
 not been thought safe to administer a powerful 
 drug, and for some reason the mild sedative 
 was unable to reach the nerves, so strained and 
 concentrated. Evening passed into night. 
 Nita's thoughts wandered in centuries-old 
 paths, seeking replies to the great, never- 
 answered riddles of human existence, human 
 destiny, returning again and again to the 
 huddled figure at her side. Midnight came, 
 but still Miss Sophia remained motionless, 
 with fixed, unwavering gaze, and then 
 
 And then at last she straightened up, and 
 smiled, and dropped back with a weary little 
 sigh upon the pillows ready to receive her. 
 Her hold on Nita's numb fingers relaxed. 
 She turned her head, and gave another little 
 sigh, and then was quite, quite still. 
 
 The shock and strain had been too great for
 
 146 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 her enfeebled physique to withstand; a merci- 
 ful blood vessel had given way. But it was 
 several minutes before Nita realized that she 
 had gone to join the sister who had been her 
 unfailing prop and comfort throughout her 
 life, the sister who she had been so sure "would 
 not die and leave her all alone." 
 
 In the gray November dawn Donald For- 
 sythe and Nita Wynne stood alone together in 
 the little parlor. Everything had been done 
 that could be done as yet. Both were very 
 quiet, but neither felt any horror of the solemn 
 presence in the adjoining room, for neither 
 was afraid of death. And in the calm passing 
 of the two ladies there had been nothing grue- 
 some, but only peace and beauty. 
 
 It was at once of the living and of the dead 
 that Donald now spoke, revealing a long hid- 
 den, long cherished purpose, as he could not 
 have revealed it save to one who shared his 
 pity and his wrath, who had seen the victims 
 suffer and die. 
 
 "Ten years ago," he said in a voice gray and 
 cold as iron, "ten years ago I swore to myself 
 I'd do everything in my power to tear the cov- 
 ering of legality and respectability off such
 
 THESE TWAIN 147 
 
 robberies. Those two embodied for me all 
 the multitude of men and women with just a 
 little money, who need protection so badly. 
 The book" his left shoulder jerked "was a 
 means rather than an end. I've been working, 
 hunting facts, and now this Trans-Continental 
 Trust scandal " 
 
 Nita's dark-ringed eyes were alight with re- 
 sponse and understanding. "Go on," she said 
 quietly. 
 
 Perhaps the past few hours had temporarily 
 stripped away some of his habitual half cyn- 
 ical, half humorous reserve, through the con- 
 tact they had brought him with those ultimate 
 realities beside which our usual conventional 
 standards of action and speech become so 
 utterly insignificant. . . . Certain it is that he 
 spoke to her with a frankness he had never 
 before used. 
 
 "The North Eastern and the Trans-Conti- 
 nental Trust were closely connected. And 
 now Del vain is going to let me do some 
 articles I've pieced things together bit by 
 bit" 
 
 Her quick intelligence bridged the gaps in 
 his broken sentences. That libel suit of the 
 Trans-Continental Trust Company versus The
 
 148 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 Morning Star, which resulted in so much 
 financial scandal and so many blackened repu- 
 tations, had recently ended. She saw his op- 
 portunities saw also something of the prob- 
 able complications. 
 
 And she had a strange feeling that for the 
 moment at least they stood outside the material 
 world, isolated, free. 
 
 Frankly as he had spoken, she replied: 
 "But what about Atkinson Matthews?" 
 In that question, too, there were gaps: and 
 even as she had bridged them, so did he. 
 
 "I won't give up everything," he answered 
 grimly. 
 
 She perfectly understood \ he had sacrificed, 
 was sacrificing enormously to the girl he had 
 married. This vow, sworn so many years ago, 
 he would keep, even should the keeping of it 
 cause a break with Atkinson Matthews, and 
 with Elsie but it was easy enough to divine 
 what Elsie's attitude would be! It was long 
 since she had made the slightest effort to con- 
 ceal the fact that it was Atkinson Matthews' 
 prospective heir she had married, rather than 
 Donald Forsythe. Times without number 
 had Nita heard her talk of what they would 
 do when the old man died, treating Donald's
 
 THESE TWAIN 149 
 
 inheritance of his fortune as a matter of course, 
 a thing absolutely certain, not one depending 
 on the volition of an individual whom increas- 
 ing age was rendering not only tyrannical but 
 whimsical. And should a rupture come, as 
 come it well might if these projected articles 
 of his aroused any appreciable amount of com- 
 ment, then the menace constantly hovering not 
 far from that ill-assorted household would in- 
 deed become a very present danger. She 
 wondered whether Donald Forsythe fully rec- 
 ognized this peril of which it was so impossible 
 to speak. Without definite knowledge, partly 
 through intuition, partly through chance 
 glimpses of certain significant straws, she had 
 come to believe that he did realize something 
 of it at least. 
 
 He did in fact realize as much as Nita sup- 
 posed, and more ; to himself he summed a good 
 deal of it up in one phrase: You couldn't 
 count on Elsie. She had a way of twisting 
 things, of finding interpretations of which no 
 one save herself had ever dreamed, that made 
 her a series of surprises and the surprises 
 were usually unpleasant. 
 
 Day by day he wondered more and more at 
 the blend of pity and passion which had swept
 
 150 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 him off his feet and into wedlock. That pity 
 had played an important part in it all, he 
 knew. Who, indeed, could have helped feel- 
 ing sorry for Elsie, when the catastrophe of 
 her father's failure came, just as she was pre- 
 paring for her long anticipated debut? He 
 had chanced to be in East Hampton, where 
 she was at the time, and he remembered her 
 pale little face, her obvious distress over the 
 gossip. She had seemed so forlorn, so utterly 
 adrift! And she had clung to him, who had 
 believed his lameness must taint any woman's 
 feeling for him with the pity he dreaded and 
 shrank from. He knew now that he had been 
 merely a convenient sympathizer and com- 
 panion, not even the object of one of her many 
 violent, transient infatuations. And he did 
 not minimize the share her prettiness had had 
 in his sudden, tempestuous wooing. A man 
 too fastidious to be other than clean-lived, he 
 had been to a certain extent coerced by a pas- 
 sion of which he had since become a trifle 
 ashamed. Thus had it come about that he 
 had taken into his keeping the emotional, irre- 
 sponsible little creature who, as he was now 
 aware, regarded him as a sort of makeshift. 
 And he had believed she loved him, had been
 
 THESE TWAIN 151 
 
 passionately grateful when she responded to 
 his love-making with the fervor which now 
 puzzled him whenever he thought of it. 
 
 He got out of the car, and hurried with that 
 quick limping stride of his down the side street 
 toward Park Avenue, where stood the large 
 apartment house in which Elsie and he occu- 
 pied a very few feet of extremely valuable 
 space. This apartment represented one of his 
 concessions. He would have preferred more 
 comfortable quarters in a less fashionable 
 neighborhood, but to Elsie the necessity for 
 keeping a large part of her clothing in boxes 
 under her bed and using electric light at mid- 
 day though her complaints about these and 
 other inconveniences were almost incessant 
 seemed as nothing in comparison with the ad- 
 vantage of having No. Park Avenue on 
 her cards. 
 
 He let himself in, hoping against hope that 
 she had gone out. He was very tired. 
 
 "Well, Donald! Where have you been?" 
 
 Elsie's greeting could not have been accu- 
 rately described as cordial. She looked charm- 
 ingly pretty, however, in her dainty negligee 
 of lace and ribbon, with a rosebud trimmed 
 boudoir cap resting lightly on her curls.
 
 152 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 She bore the same resemblance to a fluffy 
 Persian kitten now that she had had in those 
 bygone days when she told Nita Wynne she 
 intended to marry a millionaire. A tiny white 
 dog with pink eyes and a resigned expression 
 lay upon her knee, and she was busily engaged 
 in tying a large pale blue satin bow on his 
 collar. 
 
 "Something's happened, Elsie." 
 
 "Oh, has it? Well, I'm glad to know you 
 had some decent reason for staying out all 
 night!" 
 
 A mixture of curiosity and hostility colored 
 her tone. She was one of those women who 
 believe they show their knowledge of the 
 world by maintaining an attitude of suspicion 
 toward the men whose names they have taken, 
 while claiming the perfect confidence of those 
 same men in and for themselves. 
 
 An instant Donald compressed his thin lips. 
 Then he said quietly: "Aunt Cornelia died 
 yesterday afternoon." 
 
 "Oh! How perfectly awful! Why didn't 
 you tell me? I'd have gone right up there!" 
 
 It was true; but well he knew how hyster- 
 ically reluctant would have been the going. 
 
 She went on, pulling out and patting the
 
 THESE TWAIN 153 
 
 loops of the big satin bow; "That was why 
 they telephoned here from the office, then, just 
 before you called me up. They said they 
 didn't know Where were you ?" 
 
 "At Miss Wynne's. Delvain wants me to 
 get her to do some work for the magazine." 
 
 The explanation was necessary, if tears and 
 reproaches were to be avoided. But he felt 
 that it was humiliating. 
 
 "Oh!" said Elsie again, then turned her at- 
 tention to the resigned Fluff. "Was 'urn a 
 booful, booful 'ittie doggie, wiv 'urn's lovie boo 
 wibbon on 'urn's collar?" She paused an in- 
 stant, still busy with the bow. Suddenly be- 
 traying the apprehension she knew it would 
 not be "quite nice" to express clearly, she 
 added: "Was Nita with you? Perhaps Miss 
 Sophia'll live with her? It would be an aw- 
 fully good arrangement now they're both " 
 
 Every syllable grated on the man's weary 
 nerves. 
 
 "You needn't worry," he said with the iron- 
 ical inflection which always made Elsie feel 
 herself a martyr. "The shock was too much 
 for Aunt Sophia. A blood vessel burst in her 
 brain it killed her." 
 
 "Oh, Donald, how can you speak so unfeel-
 
 154 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 ingly!" Elsie wailed. "And your poor dear 
 aunts were so devoted " She hesitated an 
 instant. "I suppose they were awfully hard 
 up?" 
 
 He read her thoughts as easily as though 
 they had been printed. And again the ironical 
 inflection curved his voice. 
 
 "I don't think they had very .much to leave 
 me," he replied. 
 
 Her eyes filled at once with the ever-ready 
 tears. "Oh, Donald, how can you? And 
 they're not even buried yet!" 
 
 Every fiber in him shrank from the impend- 
 ing scene. Emotional outbursts were a joy 
 to Elsie ; him they harassed almost beyond en- 
 durance. 
 
 "Well, in the meanwhile I'll go and take a 
 bath," he said, self-defensively brutal, and 
 limped quickly out of the room. 
 
 It was the fat Irish cook who, deciding that 
 in all probability he hadn't had any breakfast, 
 made fresh coffee and brought it to him.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE ACQUIRED VIRTUE 
 
 "X/DU'VE no idea, Nita darling, how 
 JL awfully queer Donald is!" Elsie ex- 
 claimed in her most plaintive tone. "I 
 thought he'd feel just terribly about his aunts, 
 and he didn't care a bit, not one single You 
 know he used to go and see them all the time 
 at least he said he did. Of course, I had no 
 way of knowing where he really went." 
 
 "But Elsie, you've no reason to suppose he 
 was lying to you!" Nita declared impetuously; 
 then shut her lips tight and busied herself with 
 the tea things, wishing she had held her tongue. 
 It was several years since she had ceased trying 
 to achieve the almost impossible feat of im- 
 pressing Elsie with the bad taste of her fre- 
 quent criticisms of her husband criticisms 
 which Nita knew were confided to many 
 besides herself yet not offend her. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, you're not married!" the 
 younger woman replied conclusively, using her
 
 156 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 favorite and an unanswerable argument. 
 "No man tells his wife the truth more than 
 half the time! Poor mother used to say she 
 thought it was always wise for women to have 
 one or two babies, because then they could gen- 
 erally get anything they wanted out of their 
 husbands by threatening to divorce them and 
 take the children. Besides, I never did believe 
 Donald would bother so terribly much Of 
 course you mustn't repeat this to any one, but 
 I was awfully shocked at the way he talked 
 right after they died!" 
 
 Nita knew that Elsie was perfectly sincere. 
 Had any relative of her own expired thus sud- 
 denly, she would have had hysterics at the very 
 least. 
 
 "Perhaps Mr. Forsythe felt it more than he 
 showed," she suggested quietly. 
 
 Elsie shook her pretty head, on which the 
 tiniest of hats was perched at the most extreme 
 of angles. 
 
 "My dear, I haven't lived with Donald for 
 more than six years without learning all about 
 him. He simply hasn't any heart! Even 
 when my darling little girl " she sighed and 
 put her scrap of a handkerchief to her eyes as 
 she always did when she mentioned the child
 
 THE ACQUIRED VIRTUE 157 
 
 that, to her great relief, had never breathed 
 "even then he was awfully hard and Oh, 
 Fluffy darling, what are you doing?" 
 
 Fluff, disregarded for a moment, was chew- 
 ing at the detested blue bow with all the en- 
 ergy of which his diminutive jaws were ca- 
 pable. Elsie picked him up, twisted the bow 
 back into place, told him he was "a naughty, 
 naughty ittie doggie," and went on: 
 
 "Donald's got a horribly moody disposition, 
 and he doesn't appreciate anything you do for 
 him. Now some men " 
 
 Nita recognized the symptoms. Elsie, she 
 knew, had something to tell her, and she 
 wanted yet half disliked to hear the confidence. 
 
 "Two lumps that's right, isn't it?" she 
 asked, pouring out the tea. "I'm so glad I 
 happened to order toasted muffins to-day I 
 know you like them." . 
 
 And she too was perfectly sincere. For if 
 their friendship had been largely a matter of 
 claims, conscious and unconscious, on Elsie's 
 part, and of solicitude and guardianship on her 
 own, there had been a time when she lay ill 
 with diphtheria, and Elsie haunted the house, 
 keeping filled with flowers the room from 
 which doctors and nurses barred her. Nita
 
 158 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 had never forgotten that episode and the testi- 
 mony it gave of Elsie's affection and generos- 
 ity. She did not know that the subsequent 
 florist's bill had surprised and dismayed Don- 
 ald Forsythe ; it is easy to be lavish with other 
 people's money. 
 
 "It's terribly hard on me, you know," Elsie 
 continued, pouting her soft red lips, "but he 
 never thinks of that. If I do say it myself, 
 I've got an awfully affectionate nature, but all 
 the same Why, he won't so much as take 
 the trouble to be nice to Uncle Atkinson! 
 Uncle was awfully angry because Donald 
 wouldn't promise to vote for for Johnson or 
 Hooligan or whatever the man's name was 
 you know, the one that wanted to be mayor or 
 governor or something. I told him he ought 
 to promise so as to please Uncle he wouldn't 
 have to do it, of course. But that's Donald all 
 over!" 
 
 It certainly was; for loyalty to his given 
 word was Donald Forsythe's pet hobby if 
 such a thing can be called a hobby. Long ago 
 Nita had recognized this fact, though it had not 
 made any particular impression upon her. 
 Now Elsie's complaint stamped it on her 
 mind.
 
 THE ACQUIRED VIRTUE 159 
 
 But she only passed the muffins for the 
 third time, and said: "Well, then, why not 
 take him as he is and make the best of it? You 
 know he's really not at all a bad sort of a hus- 
 band." 
 
 "Oh, no not according to our American 
 standards! He doesn't get drunk, he doesn't 
 beat me, and as far as I know, he doesn't make 
 love to other women. It's those delicate little 
 attentions, the the soul sympathy, you know, 
 foreign men " 
 
 Nita gave her a quick, penetrating look. 
 "Soul sympathy." That was a new idea for 
 Elsie. Who had put it into her head? 
 
 "Where did you learn so much about 
 foreign men?" she asked, a careless tone soft- 
 ening her clear-cut utterance. 
 
 Elsie blushed, and stooped to feed Fluff 
 with bits of muffin. Still bending down, she 
 answered : 
 
 "Well, I was talking to Count Czerniatow- 
 ski the other night" 
 
 It was coming, the expected confidence! 
 
 "He's awfully clever and terribly subtle, you 
 know, and he said he wondered at the way we 
 American women endured our husbands' ne- 
 glect of us."
 
 160 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Count Czerniatowski? Isn't he the draw- 
 ing-room violinist?" 
 
 "Yes. I met him at Nell Dane's the other 
 night. It was one of her crushes, or she 
 wouldn't have asked me" Elsie spoke petu- 
 lantly. ff l can't afford to entertain her." 
 
 Nita made no reply. This particular griev- 
 ance was an old, old story. 
 
 "The Count played some things," Elsie 
 went on. "He only did it to oblige her. You 
 know he won't appear in public. He says the 
 bourgeois atmosphere of an American audi- 
 ence is alien to his art." 
 
 "Does he play well?" Nita inquired, with an 
 irony her companion failed to perceive. 
 
 "Divinely! And he's so terribly handsome 
 tall and dark and pale, you know, with the 
 loveliest eyes! When he looks at you, you 
 feel he's penetrating awfully far He said 
 he knew right away I wasn't happy." 
 
 "Don't you think that was rather imperti- 
 nent? Do have some more muffin!" 
 
 "Oh, he says the artist soul can't be bound 
 by the social limbo he's awfully eloquent, you 
 know, and terribly melancholy. He wants to 
 see me again. He says he can't be sure about 
 the color of my aura until he views me in my
 
 THE ACQUIRED VIRTUE 161 
 
 own home and gets its psychic vibrations. 
 He's awfully interested in my aura it's ter- 
 ribly touching, you know!" She sighed, and 
 took another muffin. 
 
 Nita suppressed a smile. As she had sus- 
 pected, Elsie was in the opening stages of one 
 of those short-lived infatuations which were 
 to her as a sort of emotional debauch. This 
 Count, the authenticity of whose title Nita 
 thought doubtful, had become a social semi- 
 fad. Probably he was seeking more profitable 
 game than Elsie. She devoutly hoped he was, 
 and she knew Elsie took seriously every idle 
 compliment paid her, believing that if a man 
 flattered her he must be in love with her. 
 
 While Elsie chatted on, her one subject the 
 Count and his perfections, Nita was making 
 up her mind to call on her stepmother, from 
 whom she would hear all the latest gossip about 
 the melancholy violinist with the lovely eyes 
 and the touching interest in Elsie's aura. 
 Since she had recovered from her chagrin at 
 finding herself indebted to Mrs. Wynne's 
 efforts on her behalf, they had been on surpris- 
 ingly pleasant terms ; Nita, generous and com- 
 punctious, giving her perhaps more credit for 
 her kindliness than she altogether deserved.
 
 162 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Some day," Elsie was saying, "he's going 
 to play a lot of his own compositions for me. 
 He says my nature is strangely responsive. 
 And he says I ought to change my name ; that 
 Elsie's bad for me, and I ought to call myself 
 Walburga or Euphrosyne, he isn't quite sure 
 which." She twisted in her chair, poking at 
 the cushions among which she presently 
 snuggled. She loved softness and ease and 
 warmth. 
 
 Nita bit back the retort hovering on her lips. 
 Her influence over Elsie, though perhaps not 
 very great, was one of that irresponsible little 
 person's principal safeguards. So long as 
 Elsie talked openly to her Impatient as she 
 was, she controlled herself to endure another 
 half-hour's rhapsodies, and was at last re- 
 warded by a change of subject. 
 
 "Do come to dinner Thursday night, won't 
 you?" Elsie begged. "I've got to have Ru- 
 dolph and Geraldine, and I can't stand I've 
 asked Dwight Brainerd he goes everywhere 
 and I want another woman. Geraldine's 
 so awfully superior since they got a motor! 
 You know Rudolph's coining money, and it's 
 making her just unbearable." 
 
 Elsie's jealousy of her sister was another old
 
 THE ACQUIRED VIRTUE 163 
 
 story. She was disappointed and sore over 
 her own marriage a mere makeshift instead 
 of the brilliant match to which she had confi- 
 dently aspired. And in some obscure manner 
 she distorted her failure into a grievance 
 against Geraldine, the once despised and 
 now envied. Her single, cherished conso- 
 lation was the thought of Atkinson Mat- 
 thews. 
 
 Nita was tempted to plead a previous en- 
 gagement ; she liked Dwight Brainerd, but she 
 did not care about meeting either Drake or 
 Geraldine. It was only her desire to keep in 
 close touch with Elsie throughout this period 
 of the Count's ascendancy which caused her to 
 accept the invitation. 
 
 "You know, I'm not at all sure I ought to 
 ask Dr. Brainerd," Elsie went on confiden- 
 tially. "It doesn't seem kind You know 
 he lets people talk about his wanting to marry 
 Helen Carstairs, but if you could have seen 
 the way he looked at me the other night! I 
 was wearing some pink roses, and he said they 
 just suited me! It's perfectly terrible how 
 men I don't want them to be miserable, but 
 what can I do?" 
 
 Nita smiled, and for the several hundredth
 
 164 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 time wondered at Elsie's ability to believe any- 
 thing that pleased her. 
 
 It was not until her guest was fastening her 
 voluminous and expensive furs that she re- 
 membered the appointment made with Donald 
 a week ago, over the telephone. He was to 
 stop in and see her after office hours ; he might 
 appear at any moment, and she had forgotten 
 to tell Elsie he was coming. She knew how 
 close a watch that pretty little person kept on 
 her husband's every movement, in accordance 
 with her theory that no man could be trusted 
 except, of course, the temporary object of her 
 adoration. But it was too late now to speak 
 about the matter, and anyway, it was a mere 
 business arrangement. Only for his sake she 
 was glad that there was a good ten minutes' 
 interval between Elsie's departure and his ar- 
 rival. 
 
 He dropped into the comfortable chair she 
 indicated with an unconscious little "Ah!" of 
 satisfaction that betrayed his fatigue. Dur- 
 ing the month which had elapsed since they 
 stood together in the gray November dawn 
 they had scarcely exchanged a word. Now 
 she noticed that the hollows at his temples were 
 deeper than usual, the shadows under his eyes
 
 THE ACQUIRED VIRTUE 165 
 
 broader and darker; she guessed that he had 
 been doing double work, and was showing the 
 effects. The North Eastern, the Trans-Con- 
 tinental Trust, all that complicated financial 
 web in whose center sat John Korner, while 
 subsidiary spiders helped to spin it out and 
 over and around the mere thought of tracing 
 its intricacies was enough to make one dizzy! 
 She said nothing, but quietly substituted 
 strong bouillon for the coffee she had intended 
 to give him. 
 
 "Elsie left only a few minutes ago," she re- 
 marked tentatively. "She was telling me 
 about Nell Dane's musicale." 
 
 "You didn't go, did you?" 
 
 "No; I had Mary Nelson and two or three 
 other people in to dinner. I'm a bit sorry not 
 to have heard that Count Czerniatowski play, 
 though. Is he any good?" 
 
 "Oh, he plays fairly well does the fiery, im- 
 passioned stuff and reels back exhausted when 
 it's over. Whereupon the assembled multi- 
 tude thrills and reaches for handkerchiefs." 
 
 Nita's eyes twinkled; he had told her all she 
 wanted to know. 
 
 Borne on the strong northwest wind came 
 faint yet distinct the sound of the tower clock,
 
 166 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 striking six. He listened, counting the 
 strokes. 
 
 "It's later than I thought. Now about 
 those articles. We want a series on Furnish- 
 ing the City Flat. Will you do them for us?" 
 
 Nita demurred. "You know I've never 
 written anything." 
 
 "What difference does that make? Your 
 name's well known, you're an expert in your 
 own line, and we've a first-class photographer. 
 We want some common sense in our articles 
 to balance the fiction. Think, only think, I do 
 beseech you, of the number of your fellow mor- 
 tals whom you may save from being engulfed 
 in cosy corners and having their eyesight de- 
 stroyed by 'artistic' lamp shades!" 
 
 Nita's smile brightened her face as with sun- 
 shine. "On purely humanitarian grounds, 
 then" 
 
 "Oh, certainly! They're the only ones with 
 which the Colonial has any concern nowadays. 
 We're all for home and uplift and sweet, rosy 
 optimism. Everything for the best in the best 
 of worlds that's the way to build up your sub- 
 scription list. It's really very amusing." He 
 stretched out his long legs, and leaning back in 
 the big chair, regarded her quizzically.
 
 THE ACQUIRED VIRTUE 167 
 
 "I wish to goodness that man had never 
 bought the Colonial!" she exclaimed impul- 
 sively. "It's a miserable shame " 
 
 She checked herself, as she was so often 
 obliged to do, and turned down the spirit lamp 
 with such vigor that she extinguished the flame 
 and had to relight it. 
 
 "Why scorn an energetic and profitable 
 policy of sweetness and uplift? I assure you 
 the Colonial's at least three times as popular 
 as it used to be!" 
 
 "I'm beginning to be sorry " 
 
 Again she checked herself, flushing and 
 breaking the sentence sharply. She had no 
 right . . . 
 
 His left shoulder jerked. "Your judg- 
 ment's a bit harsh, isn't it?" 
 
 "And yours?" 
 
 "Mine? Oh, 'madame, ce n'est que pour 
 riref There are two sides to everything, 
 tragic and comic. I choose to look at the 
 comic one, that's all. And then I well, I'm 
 part of the comic side myself." 
 
 "Or the tragic." 
 
 No sooner had the words passed her lips 
 than she would have given a great deal for the 
 power to recall them.
 
 168 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 A shadow went across his face, momentarily 
 obliterating its smiling irony. 
 
 "Perhaps! Only that's the one I won't 
 look at. It's so abominably easy to see it and 
 feel sorry for yourself! Which to my mind 
 isn't exactly estimable. I'd rather laugh at 
 it all. That way leads to tolerance some- 
 times even if one only limps along it." 
 
 "I don't think your way of laughing is ex- 
 actly what I'd call tolerant!" 
 
 "Very likely it isn't; that's an acquired 
 virtue otherwise it's not a virtue at all." 
 
 "We're usually told it is." 
 
 "Oh, the conventional moralizing! Pure 
 poppycock, most of it. I'll wager anything 
 you started out yourself with all sorts of cast- 
 iron rules of conduct; most people especially 
 most women do who have any strength of 
 character worth mentioning. Own up now; 
 didn't you see everything and everybody as all 
 white or all black?" 
 
 His glance was half quizzical, half laughing ; 
 but the laughter was very gentle. 
 
 "Yes, I did," she answered honestly. 
 
 "And now? Think of some of the people 
 and things j r ou condemned ten years ago, when 
 I first knew you."
 
 THE ACQUIRED VIRTUE 169 
 
 Up into Nita's conscious mind leaped words 
 she herself had spoken in her untrained and in- 
 experienced youth: "She smokes and makes 
 up ... nice women don't do such things." 
 How positive she had been then! And to- 
 day why, among her best, most valued friends 
 were women who did both. 
 
 She nodded, a little ruefully. "I felt sure 
 of my ability and my right to judge ten years 
 ago." 
 
 "Quite so! You're learning, you see gar- 
 nering experience. And experience plus the 
 intelligence and imagination that together 
 with good will make up understanding, equals 
 tolerance the true and genuine kind." 
 
 "But if I'd started with it, had more for- 
 bearance, more charity to begin with " she 
 protested. She was thinking of her step- 
 mother. 
 
 "You might have escaped some pretty hard 
 knocks, but it would have been because you 
 didn't stand up and take them. Tolerance 
 that isn't learned, that doesn't develop from 
 understanding, is poor, sloppy, slushy sort of 
 stuff mere laziness, half the time, or lack of 
 moral backbone. It's almost as bad as being 
 easy on yourself and hard on other people."
 
 170 JHE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Even on those who like the new Colonial?" 
 
 He chuckled. "That's one on me, all right! 
 Oh, well, perhaps when the millenium comes, 
 the best work will be the most popular. But 
 at present " 
 
 His shrug dismissed the subject. Return- 
 ing to the question of the articles, they settled 
 certain necessary details. Then he took his 
 leave. 
 
 After he had gone, Nita went into her pretty, 
 quaintly furnished bedroom to dress for a din- 
 ner at the Cavanaghs'. While her hands 
 moved quickly and skillfully among the wavy 
 masses of her light-brown hair, her thoughts 
 glided back over the talk of the afternoon. 
 And it was on Elsie's words and tones that 
 they lingered, rather than on Donald For- 
 sythe's ; she was directing and controlling them, 
 actually, but not yet consciously.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 
 
 THURSDAY night came, clear and cold. 
 There had been a heavy storm during 
 the afternoon first snow, then sleet and 
 now the trees and bushes of Gramercy Park 
 were covered with a thin, glistening coat of ice. 
 Overhead, a moon nearly at the full looked 
 down with serene contempt at the winking arc 
 lights, and irradiated the frost-enveloped park, 
 turning it into a place of exquisite, shimmering 
 beauty. Each leafless branch, each tiny twig 
 had its place in the sparkling crystal network 
 that made the little enclosure a veritable Land 
 of Faerie. Even the forbidding iron railing 
 had the Ice King done his very best to trans- 
 form into silver and spun glass: but man's 
 handiwork is far less susceptible to his magic 
 touch than is Nature's. 
 
 Nita lowered the window of her taxi as they 
 skirted the park, breathing in the glittering, 
 champagnelike air with that exceptional keen- 
 ness of enjoyment which was characteristic of
 
 172 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 her. She reveled in the beauty that was one 
 result of the storm, and entirely forgot how 
 the pitiless, sleet-laden wind had impeded and 
 chilled and buffeted her that afternoon. Not 
 until the cab had jolted over the Twenty-third 
 Street car tracks did she lean back and begin 
 to consider the ordeal no, ordeal was too 
 strong a word the discomfort which was be- 
 fore her. They certainly were not pleasant, 
 these occasional meetings with Rudolph Drake 
 and his wife! He would probably be as- 
 signed to her, while Mr. Forsythe struggled 
 with Geraldine ; talk about misfits ! And what 
 a pity it was that Elsie and Geraldine insisted 
 on giving each other dinner for dinner. Why 
 should they consider it necessary to eat to- 
 gether just so many times a year, because they 
 chanced to be related? There was neither 
 affection, nor sympathy, nor even liking be- 
 tween them. Phoebe had married an English- 
 man and gone abroad to live, or no doubt she 
 would have thought it her duty to dine her sis- 
 ters, however little she might care for them. 
 
 The phrase drew her wandering thoughts to 
 Elsie's latest well, "crush" the schoolgirl 
 slang best expressed it. She remembered the 
 riding master with whom Elsie had talked of
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 173 
 
 eloping until she herself had laughed her out 
 of the notion, and wondered whether this so- 
 called Austrian Count were not a person of 
 much the same caliber. Only it was less easy 
 to manage Elsie nowadays! And she was as 
 capable as ever of compromising herself. Had 
 she but married the desired millionaire, she 
 would have been safe. With sufficient money 
 to take the social position she regarded as her 
 right, she would have eschewed risking it, 
 dreaded a newspaper scandal. Discontent 
 fostered her emotional debauches, and if ever 
 there should come a man who made serious love 
 to her, who considered the game worth the 
 candle ! Nita looked straight at the facts as 
 she knew them, blinking nothing, yet aware 
 that behind those she could see and understand 
 there were others, strange, repellent. 
 
 She was fond of Elsie; she believed that 
 even if "the child" did enjoy emotional de- 
 bauches, it was always with the conviction that 
 the latest was the ultimate great passion. 
 
 The streets were in the wretched state which 
 is their normal condition after a snowstorm; 
 this one, like ninety-nine out of every hundred, 
 had taken the Street Cleaning Department by 
 surprise. The taxi could progress but slowly,
 
 174 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 and Nita had time to do a good deal of think- 
 ing before she reached the apartment house on 
 Park Avenue. Dwight Brainerd, a bachelor 
 and successful physician, had just arrived: 
 Nita was a minute or two late, and there was 
 as yet no sign of the Drakes. 
 
 Elsie rushed to greet her friend. 
 
 "Oh, Nita dear," she wailed, "I do have the 
 most awful luck ! Uncle Atkinson telephoned 
 a little while ago and asked if he might come 
 up for dinner! Isn't it dreadful? After I'd 
 got my table all arranged and and every- 
 thing!" 
 
 Nita was used to Elsie's habit of making a 
 tragedy out of every morsel of inconvenience. 
 But she knew from experience how the arrival 
 of an extra guest may ruin the best-laid plans ; 
 and Elsie's were never any too well devised. 
 
 "Shall I do the table over for you?" she 
 asked quickly. "I'm sure I can make it look 
 all right. And if anything's likely to give 
 out, I can " 
 
 Elsie interrupted her. "I've just thought! 
 There is something oh, Nita dear, do tell 
 Uncle you think I don't look a bit well, and it's 
 an awful pity I haven't a motor so I'd get out 
 of doors more it would do me such lots of
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 175 
 
 good! He might take the hint from you 
 you've always been a favorite of his, you 
 know!" 
 
 Nita laughed. She had done a good many 
 things for Elsie, but this particular request she 
 had not the faintest intention of fulfilling. 
 Apart from other considerations, she knew At- 
 kinson Matthews far too well. "One look at 
 you, Puss, and he'd think me an unmitigated 
 romancer. You're the very picture of health." 
 
 "Oh, but I'm really not all right, you know, 
 and if " Donald was coming toward them, 
 and having some idea how he would regard her 
 little scheme, she snapped the sentence off 
 short. Pausing an instant to survey Nita's 
 exquisite costume of rose-pink satin, tulle, and 
 silver Miss Wynne, it must be admitted, had 
 an entirely feminine and perverse desire to look 
 her best whenever she encountered her former 
 lover and his wife she went on: 
 
 "Geraldine's sure to be late. She thinks it's 
 so awfully to be late and keep every one wait- 
 ing. Next time I go to dinner with her, I 
 mean to be a good three quarters of an hour 
 Isn't that a new gown, Nita?" 
 
 The question she had tried not to ask had 
 slipped out in spite of her.
 
 176 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 Nita smiled. "Yes; just as new as new can 
 be." 
 
 "How awfully lucky you are!" sighed Elsie 
 lugubriously. "I wish Z had a lot of money of 
 my own. It must be awfully nice to be able to 
 do just as you please!" 
 
 Remembering the long day she had spent 
 working over estimates, arguing with an obsti- 
 nate husband and a foolish wife, each of whom 
 wanted the apartment they had recently rented 
 decorated with a different kind of sight- 
 destroying horror, trying to persuade a su- 
 percilious architect not to put a wardrobe in 
 the one place where there was decent light for 
 a dressing table, correcting other people's 
 blunders and fighting the storm, Nita's eyes 
 twinkled with mirth at that last remark. And 
 happening to catch Donald Forsythe's glance, 
 she saw that he understood, understood not 
 only the irony but also the pitiableness of 
 Elsie's wail. 
 
 "I can't tell you how terribly I envy you!" 
 that pretty little person went on: her percep- 
 tions were far from keen. "If it wasn't for 
 my p'ecious ittie doggie-dog, I don't know 
 what I'd do tiss muvver, 'tweetness!" She 
 hugged Fluff too tight, and he yapped a pro-
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 177 
 
 test, whereat she petulantly threw him on the 
 floor. "You have such lots of fun!" 
 
 Elsie vibrated between envy and scorn of 
 Nita's self-supporting, spinster independence, 
 the envy being usually expressed in her own 
 husband's presence. Now, as she again picked 
 up and caressed the resigned Fluff, she looked 
 sidewise at him to see what effect her remark 
 had had ; she had never become accustomed to 
 his impassivity, hoping always to succeed in 
 making him wince. 
 
 "Miss Wynne gets more fun and excitement 
 out of just living than any one I ever knew," 
 Forsythe said. "Aren't you ever bored?" he 
 added, turning to Nita. 
 
 As lightly as he had asked the question, she 
 answered it. 
 
 "No, I don't believe I ever am! I get 
 angry and cross and even blue sometimes, but 
 bored never. People are so entertaining! I 
 had to tackle a choice pair to-day; the man 
 wanted peacocks on the walls of a room about 
 eight by ten, and the woman thought large red 
 and purple chrysanthemums would be 'awfully 
 stylish'!" 
 
 The instant she had spoken she remembered 
 with dismay Elsie's constant use of the ad-
 
 178 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 verb. But that charming little person, like 
 the majority of us, was quite unconscious of 
 her own tricks of speech. So she joined in the 
 laugh which followed Nita's description, 
 though why it should be thought funny she 
 hadn't the least idea. Big chrysanthemums 
 were "awfully stunning!" And then Geral- 
 dine appeared in the doorway, with Rudolph 
 Drake's handsome head and broad shoulders 
 showing behind her. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, I'm so sorry we're late," she 
 said in a rather indifferent tone. "The streets 
 are in such a wretched condition our 
 motor could scarcely get through them. We 
 wouldn't b'e here yet, if Williams wasn't such 
 a competent chauffeur." 
 
 "I didn't expect you for at least half an 
 hour. You know you're always late, no mat- 
 ter what the weather's like," replied Elsie 
 tartly. Those allusions to the motor and the 
 chauffeur had rubbed the Persian kitten's fur 
 the wrong way. 
 
 "It is so difficult to find time for all the 
 things one has to do!" Geraldine replied per- 
 functorily, and turned to shake hands with 
 Forsythe, leaving Elsie to welcome Drake 
 with what cordiality she could muster.
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 179 
 
 But he was quite indifferent to the quality 
 of her greeting. During the moment Geral- 
 dine paused in the doorway he had caught 
 sight of Nita Wynne, and from that instant 
 the consciousness of her presence absorbed him 
 to the exclusion of all else. The girl who had 
 lost something of her glamour when he believed 
 her ready to be his, had regained it all and 
 more once he realized that she had definitely 
 drawn herself out of his reach. Unattainable, 
 she had never ceased to be wonderful and de- 
 sirable, an ideal to be worshiped and exalted. 
 He believed her perfect, and whenever con- 
 science pricked him, he would say to himself 
 that if Nita had married him, he would have 
 been another and a very different man. It 
 would have been worth while then, to make an 
 effort, with her love and pride for a reward! 
 But Geraldine well, Geraldine was his 
 wedded mistress; that was the long and the 
 short of it. 
 
 In spite of Elsie's troubled anticipations, it 
 was Atkinson Matthews who was the last to 
 arrive; but his reception was of the warmest, 
 nevertheless. 
 
 "Oh, Uncle Atkinson, I'm so awfully glad 
 to see you!" she cried with much enthusiasm.
 
 180 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "It was just too terribly sweet of you to come 
 out in this awful weather !" 
 
 "I hope I didn't" 
 
 "Oh, you didn't put me out a bit not one 
 single solitary bit! We're always so awfully 
 glad to have you, we wouldn't care how much 
 trouble you made us !" 
 
 Which was not the most tactful of remarks. 
 
 Atkinson Matthews smiled. Elsie had 
 overdone it; she so often overdid it! 
 
 Immediately after his coming, they went in 
 to dinner, Elsie uncomfortably aware that 
 Geraldine's critical eyes would note every de- 
 ficiency. In lighting the candles, the maid had 
 carelessly scorched the fringe of one shade; 
 Geraldine instantly saw it, looked at the burned 
 place long enough to call every one's atten- 
 tion to it, and let her gaze wander away to her 
 husband. Elsie flushed; she was a poor 
 housekeeper, and though too lazy to remedy 
 her shortcomings, found their results irritat- 
 ing. 
 
 "What a dreadfully dull affair that last 
 musicale of Nell Dane's was! Weren't you 
 bored to death, Elsie?" remarked Geraldine, as 
 she unfolded her napkin. "You were wise, 
 Miss Wynne, not to go."
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 181 
 
 ff l enjoyed it very much!" Elsie exclaimed. 
 The Persian kitten had claws, and thought she 
 saw a chance to use them. "But of course 
 one has to be really musical in order to appreci- 
 ate Count Czerniatowski's playing!" 
 
 "Yes; so he told me." Donald's mockery 
 was entirely lost on two out of the three women. 
 
 "Surely, you don't think him an artist!" 
 Geraldine, like her sister, did not know 
 Chopin's Marche Funebre from the Trovatore 
 Miserere, but she could speak about matters of 
 which she was ignorant with far more assur- 
 ance than Elsie was ever able to acquire. 
 
 Dwight Brainerd good-naturedly inter- 
 posed. "I suppose that's one of the questions 
 people will quarrel over until Doomsday. 
 Not Czer what's-his-name's playing, but 
 whether some particular type of performance 
 is or is not art." 
 
 Understanding his purpose, Nita came 
 promptly to his assistance. But knowing 
 more than he did of the underlying complica- 
 tions, she dexterously twisted the subject. 
 
 "Just think, though, how much less inter- 
 esting life would be if even professional critics 
 agreed ! I was talking to Margaret Lane yes- 
 terday about her new book. She says most
 
 182 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 of the reviewers like it, but each has a different 
 'why/ " 
 
 "Well, no two people ever read the same 
 book or see the same picture," put in Forsythe. 
 "That sounds like a bull, doesn't it! But you 
 know what I mean." 
 
 Elsie giggled. She had a fixed idea that 
 giggling and gayety were synonymous. 
 
 "Or look at any matter from the same- point 
 of view," added Drake, feeling that he ought 
 to say something. "And speaking of points 
 of view, did I tell you I met Carstairs of the 
 Trans-Continental Trust the other day?" 
 
 He had turned to Forsythe, speaking with 
 that change of tone, a change so slight as to 
 be almost imperceptible, which always came 
 when he addressed his brother-in-law. Be- 
 tween the two men there was an instinctive 
 antagonism, unreasoning, never openly ac- 
 knowledged by either, even to himself, yet of 
 which each was secretly aware. 
 
 "No; how is he?" Donald replied somewhat 
 carelessly. "Serene as ever, I suppose." 
 
 "Of all the nonsensical blunders," Atkinson 
 Matthews, who had been silently devoting him- 
 self to his dinner, now exclaimed abruptly, "of 
 all the nonsensical blunders, that Trans-Conti-
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 183 
 
 nental affair was the worst! I tell you, the 
 way these fools are interfering with business is 
 ruining the country! Reform's all very well, 
 but it's got to be taken in mighty small doses 
 if it's not to do more harm than good." 
 
 "Well, I think you're right." Drake was 
 speaking the truth, but it was a truth empha- 
 sized by that unavowed hostility. He knew 
 how widely Forsythe's opinions differed from 
 those of his great-uncle. "If they don't stop 
 pretty soon, jamming fool laws Lord 
 knows we need a rest!" 
 
 The exclamation came as with a jump; he 
 lifted his wine glass hurriedly and drained the 
 contents; his hand shook as he set it down. 
 Brainerd noticed the start and the trembling; 
 his first glance at Drake had told him that the 
 younger man was drinking more these days 
 than was good for him. 
 
 "Indeed we do!" For the moment Ger- 
 aldine spoke with evident sincerity. "What's 
 the use of stirring up things so? It only up- 
 sets people and hurts business." 
 
 "That's sense!" declared Atkinson Mat- 
 thews emphatically and returned to his dinner, 
 leaving Elsie to wish that it had been she who 
 had evoked his commendation, not Geraldine.
 
 184. THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "But the Trans-Continental Trust crowd 
 were a set of thieves 1" flashed out Nita. 
 
 Forsythe's lips twisted in an ironical little 
 smile. "I'm afraid you don't appreciate the 
 divine right of the strongest to take and to 
 keep. Korner's as sure that any interference 
 with him is Use majeste as the veriest Hohen- 
 zollern of them all." 
 
 "How can you talk so, Donald?" Elsie ex- 
 claimed angrily. "Uncle Atkinson says busi- 
 ness men ought to do just as they please, and 
 of course he knows!" 
 
 "An aristocracy of money kings, beyond and 
 above the law," said Dwight Brainerd lightly. 
 "Is that the idea?" 
 
 "It's all very well for you to laugh, Doc- 
 tor," responded Geraldine reproachfully, "but 
 if you were the wife of a Wall Street man, 
 you'd know what hardships such disturbances 
 bring. We'd have had our car a year sooner 
 if it hadn't been for the Trans- Continental 
 row. Wouldn't we, Rudolph?" 
 
 Drake nodded rather gloomily. He was 
 thinking that should any fresh disturbance 
 come within the next year or two, they would 
 have to give up more than the car. 
 
 "I hear some of the little lambs are object-
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 185 
 
 ing to being sheared, instead of displaying that 
 docility which befits all well-bred sheep," For- 
 sythe remarked a trifle drily. 
 
 "Some people have made money though," 
 Brainerd said, endeavoring to help along the 
 conversation. "They say Cuthbert Frayne 
 cleaned up nearly half a million." 
 
 "Frayne always was a lucky beast." 
 Drake's sullen tone seemed to close the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 A minute's silence fell on the ill-assorted 
 group; and the waitress considerately chose 
 that instant to let a couple of spoons drop on 
 the floor. 
 
 Nita saw Geraldine's smile, saw Elsie wince 
 before it, and rushing to her friend's assistance, 
 destroyed the pause with a bit of harmless gos- 
 sip. For a little while the three women 
 chatted amicably enough ; Drake and Forsythe 
 and Atkinson Matthews sat thinking very dif- 
 ferent thoughts; and Brainerd surveyed them 
 all with a detached and meditative gaze. 
 Surely, the bringing of these people into a 
 more or less close relationship was a prank of 
 the laughing, mischief -loving little gods! He 
 looked from soft, childish Elsie to Geraldine, 
 slow-moving, full-bosomed, as bare of shoul-
 
 186 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 ders and back as was socially permissible, with 
 heavy lidded eyes and reddened, sensuous 
 mouth; then let his gaze pass on to slender, 
 supple Nita, alert, vivid, reminding him of a 
 Damascus blade encased in a silken sheath. 
 Presently his glance wandered back to Elsie, 
 who was leaning forward now, so that the can- 
 dlelight shone upon her face. And something 
 about the soft lips, something in the expression 
 of the half -closed eyes, arrested the attention 
 of this physician who had given much time and 
 study to psycho-analysis. He was not sure, 
 but he believed he glimpsed certain possibili- 
 ties, neurotic and worse. 
 
 He felt uncomfortably as though he had 
 spied into another's privacy and caught sight 
 of some deformity usually concealed. 
 
 Drake's eyes too were wandering from one 
 to another of the three women. He was wish- 
 ing he could get away, could be alone some- 
 where where he could drink enough to dis- 
 perse the thoughts and desires that buzzed 
 and whirred about him like so many hor- 
 nets. 
 
 After dinner, Atkinson Matthews joined 
 Nita; his old, indulgent liking for her had 
 never diminished. Elsie, chattering disjoint-
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 187 
 
 edly and perfunctorily to Rudolph Drake, 
 hoped Nita was impressing upon him her need 
 of a motor; for a time expectations of coming 
 joy ran high within her. Then, as D wight 
 Brainerd left Geraldine and strolled across the 
 room to Nita, she thought she saw her oppor- 
 tunity to clinch the matter. 
 
 "I've hardly been able to say a word to you, 
 Uncle Atkinson. How are you feeling now- 
 adays?" she asked solicitously. 
 
 "Oh, pretty well pretty well for an old 
 man." His quick, shrewd glance belied his 
 paternal smile. He had never been fond of 
 Elsie. 
 
 "You really must take care of yourself. It 
 wouldn't do for you And they say there's 
 lots of pneumonia around this winter," she 
 added hopefully. 
 
 Atkinson Matthews' smile had become sar- 
 castic. 
 
 "Don't worry about me," he replied. "I'm 
 a very cautious person." 
 
 "I don't suppose I ought to talk," Elsie 
 went on; here was her chance to discover 
 whether Nita had succeeded in getting her 
 what she wanted. "Nita's always scolding me 
 and telling me I don't get out into the air half
 
 188 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 enough. Did she say anything to you, 
 Uncle?" 
 
 "No; she probably thought you'd tell me 
 yourself if there was anything wrong." 
 
 So Nita hadn't even asked She hadn't 
 any motor herself she couldn't afford one 
 probably she was jealous it was perfectly 
 horrid of her to be so selfish 
 
 These thoughts rushed, tumbling over one 
 another, through Elsie's small brain. She 
 could not stop to sort them out, but that Nita 
 had been "perfectly horrid" was her dominat- 
 ing impression. She must try to do something 
 for herself. 
 
 "Oh, no, indeed! I'm the last one to com- 
 plain, even when I'm almost worried to death. 
 Everything costs such an awful lot nowadays, 
 you know ! Donald and I have a terribly hard 
 time trying to make ends meet, but Z never say 
 anything." 
 
 Donald caught the last sentence, and his thin 
 lips pressed tightly together. If only she 
 would refrain from such open begging! 
 Never in his life had he cringed to any 
 one for help or favor, and now she, his 
 wife . . . 
 
 Nita, too, had heard Elsie's extremely plain
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 189 
 
 hint, and she spoke to Forsythe rather hur- 
 riedly: "I've finished a draft of the first arti- 
 cle, but I'm not sure it's right." 
 
 "I'll drop in and take a look at it some day 
 soon; I'll call you up, and we'll arrange a 
 time." 
 
 Nita made a swift gesture of assent, and 
 Elsie wondered what on earth they had been 
 talking about. Just then the Drakes' car was 
 announced, and Geraldine, who all through the 
 evening had been watching her husband with 
 a certain veiled anxiety, said: 
 
 "Come, Rudolph, we must go; I'm tired, if 
 you're not. He does three men's work and 
 never seems to mind it in the least," she added, 
 turning to Matthews. 
 
 The words were commonplace enough, but 
 something in the tone caught Nita's quick ear. 
 It was not the first time that some trifle had 
 made her ask herself whether it could be that 
 Geraldine really cared? Had cared, per- 
 haps, all along; married for reasons other than 
 those which she herself, in common with the 
 rest of their little world, had assigned to her? 
 Had she, with that blind self-confidence of 
 youth which fancies it sees so clearly, been un- 
 just to Geraldine?
 
 Her thoughts thus engaged, she scarcely no- 
 ticed Drake. But Elsie glanced at him, and 
 saw with surprise that his eyes were fixed hun- 
 grily, worship fully on the clear-cut face and 
 slender throat above the rose-pink gown. Un- 
 observant as she was, she could not miss the 
 import of that look. She wondered whether 
 Nita were really as indifferent as she seemed, 
 and if so, why ? To no man's admiration would 
 she herself have been thus insensible! But 
 Nita was a hard, unsympathetic sort of person 
 at bottom, just like Donald! And men were 
 such fools! Sometimes those cold women 
 It had been silly of her to look up to Nita all 
 these years, when she herself was really so 
 much the better, as well as the prettier of the 
 two! 
 
 She'd never look up to her again I She knew 
 now what Nita was! Why, she could have 
 wheedled that motor out of Uncle Atkinson as 
 easily but she was too mean to try, even when 
 she knew her Elsie's health depended on it ! 
 No one was willing to do anything for her. 
 Uncle Atkinson was a horrid old pig; Donald 
 ought to have asked him for an allowance 
 insisted upon it any decent man would! It 
 was only because he didn't want her to have
 
 MRS. FORSYTHE ENTERTAINS 191 
 
 things and Nita didn't want her to have 
 things they were all against her. But she 
 knew Nita now; she'd never trust her any 
 more. . . . 
 
 So the growth of years withered in an hour.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 OUT OF THE DAEK 
 
 4 'TT'ES, I think I see now what you mean. 
 JL Thanks ever so much ! It's very good 
 of you to take such a lot of trouble." 
 
 While she spoke, Nita was collecting the 
 scattered sheets of manuscript; this done, she 
 looked up, her luminous gray-green eyes meet- 
 ing Donald Forsythe's dark ones frankly and 
 smilingly. 
 
 "Oh, I thought it would be better to show 
 you then you'd be able to manage the rest 
 without any bother." His glance was clear 
 and frank as her own. 
 
 "I bought the last number of the Colonial" 
 Nita said, "and took a look over it to see if I 
 could get any notion how the articles were put 
 together." 
 
 "Did you read Barnaby's serial?" Forsythe 
 asked, with a mischievous twinkle. 
 
 Nita nodded: then they both laughed. 
 
 "It's a great work," declaimed Donald with 
 mock solemnity. "I assure you, it's a great
 
 OUT OF THE DARK 193 
 
 and noble work! Just wait until that hero of 
 his, the gallant youth from the untrammeled 
 West, really starts off!" 
 
 Nita's smile had faded; she spoke impetu- 
 ously, and as if she were thinking aloud. 
 
 "It's getting on your nerves," she said. 
 
 An instant Donald hesitated; then he 
 grasped again at that manner of careless 
 amusement he wore like a cloak, swiftly caught 
 and wrapped it close around him, almost as 
 though he feared to lose it. 
 
 "Oh, no," he replied very lightly, very in- 
 differently. "After all, it's merely a question 
 of demand and supply. Fortunately, the 
 stock of twaddle is practically unlimited. Va- 
 rieties of it appear constantly. Now, this eve- 
 ning, for instance, we're going to Geraldine's 
 to hear Count Czerni-what's-his-name talk 
 about 'The Relation of Music to the Planetary 
 Forces.' " 
 
 "I thought Geraldine rather scorned the 
 Count? She seemed to the other night, when 
 Elsie spoke of him." 
 
 "He wasn't much of a success at Nell 
 Dane's. But since then Mrs. Vansorton and 
 her crowd have decided he's the eighth wonder 
 of the world at least."
 
 194 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 To Nita's straightforward temperament this 
 talk, which had so little to do with their 
 thoughts, was disagreeable to a degree. De- 
 terminedly she laid hold upon it. 
 
 "I read your North Eastern article," she 
 said abruptly. The words were simple even 
 to triteness; but they conjured up a multitude 
 of memories, flung wide the entrance to a long 
 vista of possibilities. 
 
 "And the newspaper comments? They're 
 mild as yet ; I've only been called an anarchist, 
 a savior of society, and a few other things. 
 Perhaps when the third and fourth appear 
 the first two are merely gentle preliminaries." 
 
 "If you call the one I read gentle !" 
 
 "I assure you it is comparatively speaking. 
 Only points out the error of their ways in a 
 tender, almost fraternal manner." 
 
 "Burning at the stake for the good of their 
 souls!" 
 
 "Precisely 1" And beneath the light, play- 
 ful 'tone she suddenly caught a glimpse of 
 something hard, inflexible as wrought steel. 
 "The North Eastern people gave me my first 
 instruction in Nietzschean ethics as applied to 
 business. I'm greatly indebted to them. And 
 what I owe, I pay."
 
 OUT OF THE DARK 195 
 
 It was a pagan creed, perhaps, this that he 
 avowed so frankly; but it struck a responsive 
 chord in Nita. Then, with a desire to slip 
 away from the serious note which was partly 
 intentional, partly instinctive, she exclaimed 
 mischievously : 
 
 "But what about the acquired virtue?" 
 
 An instant he looked at her, not understand- 
 ing the allusion; then a smile crinkled the cor- 
 ners of his eyes, and he said with a not quite 
 complete return to his usual light tone: 
 
 "Tolerance? It can be carried to excess, 
 even when it's acquired and I haven't amassed 
 any large quantity of it I Besides, one doesn't 
 tolerate vermin." 
 
 "Then you class John Korner ?" 
 
 "With other rats." 
 
 "You're determined to carry it through?" 
 
 "To the end." The lightness was all gone 
 now. 
 
 "But will Delvain ?" 
 
 "Delvain won't kick, so long as the circula- 
 tion keeps on growing. For lo! The adver- 
 tiser loveth a large circulation, and by his grace 
 is it that a magazine flourisheth and waxeth 
 stout!" 
 
 "He'll risk a libel suit?" Nita persisted.
 
 196 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Not much danger of that! The Trans- 
 Continental tried it." 
 
 And then at last she gave utterance to a 
 part at least of the thought which lay in the 
 back of each of their minds. 
 
 "What does Mr. Matthews say?" 
 
 Donald paused. By nature less impetuous 
 than Nita, he had long known how needful it 
 was for him to bridle his tongue, and that with 
 curb and snaffle. Atkinson Matthews, his 
 wishes and his fortune, formed one of Elsie's 
 favorite subjects of speculation and complaint. 
 Therefore he replied slowly, though with an 
 attempted return to the careless, half mocking 
 tone he so often used: 
 
 "Oh, he came into the office a few days after 
 my article appeared and read me the riot act 
 in at least six different languages. I know you 
 can stand a certain amount of profanity, but 
 well, one of the office boys chanced to overhear 
 a few fragments of his discourse, and fainted 
 on the spot!" 
 
 "With horror, or admiration?" laughed Nita, 
 swift to comprehend and meet his tone. 
 
 "Oh, admiration! He's been trying to rival 
 him ever since." 
 
 She started to speak, and checked herself.
 
 OUT OF THE DARK 197 
 
 The short winter twilight was fading; on the 
 tall buildings to north and west lights shone in 
 straight, encircling garlands. 
 
 There was a brief silence, not empty, but 
 crowded with things unspoken, more than half 
 divined. And this time it was Donald who 
 changed the subject, and changed it far from 
 dexterously. 
 
 "You don't think very much of that man's 
 playing, do you?" He did not suspect how 
 much of his hidden anxiety he was betraying 
 by this recurrence to a matter already discussed 
 and laid aside. 
 
 But Nita understood. And in the shield- 
 ing dusk she winced a little, not quite knowing 
 why. 
 
 "No, I do not," she replied emphatically, 
 adding almost at random: "He has a certain 
 theatrical sense " 
 
 Donald's shoulder jerked. "That's it, ex- 
 actly! It's his melodramatic quality Geral- 
 dine and the rest are so wild about. They'll 
 be tired of it before long." 
 
 "It's perfectly sickening, this rushing after 
 first one craze and then another no matter 
 what, if only it's the latest thing!" Nita burst 
 out, quite unpremeditatedly. "Oh, I know it's
 
 198 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 only silliness and the sheep instinct, but when 
 life's so short, and there are such heaps of 
 really worth-while things to do and to enjoy, 
 all this fussing and fuming about clothes and 
 fashions and the newest dance step and the 
 latest fad we all waste so much time on seems 
 perfectly imbecile!" 
 
 "From a notoriously well dressed woman 
 and one of the best dancers in New York " he 
 began, but she interrupted him, throwing out 
 her hands in a swift protesting gesture. 
 
 "Oh, I know, I know! And it's just that 
 my own waste that frightens me! When I 
 think how much of my life is gone, and how 
 little I've done with it, how much I meant to 
 do, and how many of the big things have 
 slipped by " 
 
 She paused abruptly. She had given vehe- 
 ment, incomplete, and rather incoherent ex- 
 pression to a mixture of thoughts and feelings 
 which had long been fermenting in her mind. 
 Something of the old thirst for life and yet 
 more life, something of the old eager craving 
 for experiences of any and every kind, some- 
 thing of the astonished dismay which seizes so 
 many of us when we realize that our youth is 
 going, realize "the little done, the undone
 
 OUT OF THE DARK 199 
 
 vast," compare the splendid hopes with which 
 we started out and our actual achievement, met 
 and mingled in those brief phrases. 
 
 And behind all these lay that consciousness 
 of spiritual isolation which comes to us all at 
 times, when the solitude of our own souls 
 frightens fus, and we stretch forth groping 
 hands. 
 
 "If you feel that," said the man almost 
 harshly, "what about me? What do you think 
 7 " ' 
 
 He stopped, breaking the phrase. 
 
 For an instant they sat staring at each other 
 through the gathering dusk of the February 
 afternoon dusk which while they were talk- 
 ing had become darkness lighted only by a 
 few rays from the lamps in Gramercy Park. 
 And both were aware of a sudden nearness; 
 and both were aware of an indefinite, gripping 
 fear, as though some shadowy, phantasmic 
 monster had leaped upon them out of the 
 gloom. 
 
 For the first time in all the years of their 
 peaceful friendship, each felt that a crisis had 
 come. 
 
 Only an instant had passed when Nita 
 sprang to her feet and touched the switch but-
 
 200 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 ton on the wall. A soft light flooded the quiet, 
 homelike room, thrusting them apart who for 
 that instant had drawn close unbelievably 
 close to each other. 
 
 "There!" she exclaimed. "That's better, 
 isn't it? I fancy I was beginning to see 
 spooks !" 
 
 Her voice was a little unsteady, and she 
 avoided Forsythe's glance; yet that instant of 
 nearness was already beginning to seem unreal. 
 
 After Donald had gone, Nita changed her 
 gown. There was no apparent reason for do- 
 ing so ; only one guest was coming to dine with 
 her, and the Liberty confection of delicate 
 pinks and grays into which she slipped was of 
 much the same type as the wistaria-hued one 
 of which she divested herself ; it was a yielding, 
 half instinctive, to an impulse into which she 
 refused to probe. Unconsciously she was try- 
 ing to dismiss Donald Forsythe from her mind, 
 to fasten her thoughts on the coming visitor. 
 
 She might have found this dismissal impossi- 
 ble had she not been interested in her expected 
 guest as well as fond of her. Mary Nelson 
 had been brought up in a small town by an 
 uncle and aunt to whom happiness here meant
 
 OUT OF THE DARK 201 
 
 hell fire hereafter. With the best intentions 
 possible, they had mentally starved her until 
 she at last managed to break away and become 
 one of New York's many self-supporting 
 women. But the traces of her revolt never 
 left her, and she still regarded her cigarette 
 case as a banner, and a cocktail as a Declara- 
 tion of Independence. 
 
 Now as, dinner finished, she sprawled in the 
 biggest of Nita's chairs, a cigarette between 
 her awkward fingers, she looked across to 
 where her hostess sat perched in her favorite 
 place on the window seat, arms clasped about 
 her knees, spirited little golden-brown head 
 thrown back, talking quickly, with swift-flung 
 words and an occasional eloquent movement of 
 her expressive hands: 
 
 "I've known Helen Carstairs for years 
 never well, she's quite a bit younger than I am 
 and I must say I'm sorry for her. Mr. Car- 
 stairs is one of the pleasantest men to meet you 
 can imagine perfectly charming manners. 
 Every one liked him and thought him a fine 
 specimen of the American business gentleman 
 Heavens !" 
 
 Mary Nelson spoke slowly, with many 
 pauses: "I wonder what he thinks of him-
 
 202 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 self now. He's a thief, of course ; but do you 
 suppose he was a deliberate " 
 
 Nita, her quick comprehension rushing to 
 the end of her friend's sentence, broke in : 
 
 "A deliberate thief! Ye gods and little 
 fishes, how could he be anything else? Why, 
 Mary, it went on for years ! Organized cheat- 
 ing that's what it was!" 
 
 "I know." Mary's forehead puckered pain- 
 fully with the effort to express the idea in her 
 mind. "It looks that way it is that way, of 
 course. But don't you suppose he somehow 
 made things seem different " 
 
 "Twisted the whole business about until he 
 was able to justify himself in his own eyes?" 
 
 Mary nodded gratefully. As so often hap- 
 pened, Nita had clothed her thoughts in the 
 phrases she herself was unable to find for them. 
 
 "Um-m!" Nita stared meditatively out over 
 the park. "I doubt it! What makes you 
 fancy ?" 
 
 "Only this" and again Mary's brow puck- 
 ered as the long-considered creed was slowly 
 pronounced "only this: I don't believe any 
 one any one who's normal or whose mind 
 hasn't been hasn't been " 
 
 "Perverted?"
 
 OUT OF THE DARK 203 
 
 "Yes ; perverted when they were young, ever 
 deliberately does anything very wrong without 
 without " 
 
 "Fixing it up until it looks all right ?" Nita 
 bent forward eagerly; her slight body seemed 
 poised as for a spring. 
 
 "And then when realization comes I won- 
 der! Can you imagine yourself doing any- 
 thing you thought really really wrong, 
 Nita?" 
 
 "Oh, but I have lots of times!" 
 
 Mary brushed the admission aside with a 
 clumsy gesture which scattered cigarette ash 
 all over Nita's deep-toned Chinese rug. 
 
 "I don't mean little things little fibs and 
 little naughtinesses." She had been about to 
 say meannesses, but changed the word. Noth- 
 ing of that sort could be made to fit in with 
 her somewhat exalted idea of Nita Wynne. 
 "I mean a big wrong a a " 
 
 "A moral crime?" 
 
 Once more Mary nodded her assent to the 
 other's interpretation. But this time silence 
 followed. For Nita was again conscious of 
 the vague terror which had shivered through 
 her that afternoon. And with the terror came 
 not the laughing protest with which a few years
 
 204 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 weeks, perhaps earlier she would have met 
 the question, but doubt. Doubt of herself 
 which was pain, a certainty that she had never 
 yet been tested. 
 
 It was only for a moment that this indefinite 
 fear and definite doubt held and shook her, but 
 it was a moment which remained in her mem- 
 ory as a landmark. 
 
 "I don't know," she said. And now it was 
 she who spoke slowly, looking up at the sky 
 where gathering clouds obscured the stars. 
 "If I was tempted enough how can I tell?" 
 
 "That's just it how can any of us tell? 
 And then we haven't all the same standards 
 don't think the same things wrong and that 
 mixes it up dreadfully. Now my uncle and 
 aunt they thought they were only doing their 
 duty. I can see that now " 
 
 The talk drifted away into an impersonal 
 discussion, but through Nita's brain certain 
 phrases kept running: "Tolerance that isn't 
 learned is poor, sloppy, slushy sort of stuff. 
 ... As bad as being easy on yourself and hard 
 on other people." 
 
 Charity forbearance. Mary had acquired 
 these, had learned to understand the point of 
 view of those relatives she had once regarded
 
 OUT OF THE DARK 205 
 
 simply as tyrants. But as for her, Nita 
 Wynne 
 
 She had been, perhaps was even yet, hard on 
 other people! If the test should ever come, 
 would she flinch and be easy on herself?
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 
 
 WINTER merged into spring, the pleas- 
 ant, unshadowed spring of 1914. Nita 
 felt that the season had affected her to an un- 
 usual extent, bringing both a loss of energy 
 and an increase of restlessness. It seemed to 
 her as though she were waiting, marking time 
 the time that was slipping away so fast 
 accomplishing nothing worth while. It was 
 her belief that as every human being owes to 
 others the conditions which enable him to exist, 
 it is his or her duty to justify that existence by 
 rendering to the world the very best return 
 that he can for value received. She still loved 
 her own work, but it no longer impressed her 
 as sufficient. 
 
 With Elsie her relations had become just a 
 trifle strained. For from resentment because 
 Nita had not used on her behalf the influence 
 with which she mistakenly credited her, Elsie 
 had rapidly progressed to a belief that she had
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 207 
 
 somehow worked against her. Her thoughts 
 were not clear, even to herself, but she felt in- 
 jured, and in her attitude towards her old 
 friend there was now a certain distrust, a cer- 
 tain incipient hostility. She had begun to 
 watch for offenses, and they, expected and 
 looked for, are sure to come. 
 
 Nita was by no means unaware of the 
 change. But though it troubled her a little, 
 the trouble was more than counterbalanced by 
 the new note in Elsie's talk about the Count. 
 If she put more emphasis than ever on his ad- 
 miration of herself, it was emphasis which had 
 become just a bit supercilious. The air of 
 amusement with which Donald, who knew that 
 opposition was as flame to tinder, had through- 
 out treated the affair was beginning now to 
 have its effect, and when Elsie avowed that 
 she had always thought Count Czerniatowski 
 a fortune hunter, "like all those foreign noble- 
 men, you know," Nita felt sure the crisis was 
 past. 
 
 Nevertheless, and for the first time in all 
 the years during which a rather one-sided in- 
 timacy had existed between them, Elsie puz- 
 zled her. Never before had invitations to dine 
 at the Forsythes' been so showered upon her,
 
 208 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 and yet with every meeting she grew more and 
 more conscious of that incipient hostility. 
 She tried to tell herself it was all imagination, 
 but her instincts refused to be cheated. Was 
 her long service as a kind of safety valve at an 
 end? 
 
 Yet Elsie was more than ever lavish with 
 protestations of affection, especially when in 
 June they both went down to East Hampton 
 for the summer. And Nita insisted to herself 
 that her fancy had been playing tricks with 
 her. 
 
 So it happened that they were having tea 
 together on a certain July afternoon. The 
 Fourth was just over, the majority of the men 
 had gone back to town, and most of the women 
 were resting and recovering from the holiday. 
 Consequently the broad veranda of the Maid- 
 stone Club had a somewhat forlorn look, two 
 or three tea tables merely emphasizing the gen- 
 eral effect of empty spaces. 
 
 "Of course," Elsie remarked plaintively, 
 "of course you know I never find fault with 
 people. I'm always ready to make allow- 
 ances, but I do think it was awfully mean of 
 Geraldine not to ask me to that lunch she gave 
 last May! Suppose she did invite only half
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 209 
 
 a dozen! People must have thought it aw- 
 fully queer my own sister. It gave me one 
 of my headaches, and you know what my head- 
 aches There's Evelyn Acland, going over 
 the golf links! / don't think she's so awfully 
 pretty; do you?" 
 
 "Yes, very pretty; her complexion " 
 
 "Well, you know she was perfectly devoted 
 to Doctor Brainerd for an awfully long time. 
 I told Donald I but you know how he is! 
 And of course it wouldn't do for me to say 
 much. Poor man! I do feel sorry for him, 
 but how could I help it if he Who's that 
 man over there? Do you know him ?" 
 
 "It's Mr. Frayne. I've met him." Nita's 
 tone was not enthusiastic. "But Elsie, who 
 on earth told you that ridiculous story about 
 Evelyn and Doctor Brainerd? There's not a 
 word of truth in it." 
 
 She spoke earnestly, for the tale Elsie had 
 repeated was gossip of a kind she particularly 
 disliked. Not the slightest attention, how- 
 ever, did her protest receive. When a man 
 appeared, Elsie's interest was immediately 
 and irremovably focussed. 
 
 "Oh!" she exclaimed joyfully. "He's seen 
 you he's c6ming this way!"
 
 210 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 Before Nita could reply, Mr. Frayne had 
 approached and was shaking hands with her, a 
 thing he would assuredly not have done had 
 almost any other of his numerous acquaint- 
 ances been in sight; it was only the fact that 
 he had no choice save that of her society or a 
 magazine which drove him to her. For Miss 
 Wynne disliked Cuthbert Frayne, regarding 
 him as an excellent example of a type she did 
 not in the least admire, and he, being aware of 
 her dislike and lack of admiration, cordially re- 
 turned the former and was irritated because 
 her business success and social position extorted 
 his respect. 
 
 He was at that time a man of between 
 forty and forty-five, of medium height and 
 very heavily built, with bright, china-blue eyes, 
 a short, thick neck, and a number of little 
 tufts of coarse hair growing out of his ears 
 and nostrils. He admired himself hugely, 
 partly because he was very rich, partly because 
 he was in his own opinion a man of strong 
 character. Certain it was that he usually had 
 his way, and at the same time contrived to keep 
 within the letter of the law. He never allowed 
 scruples or a regard for the rights and feel- 
 ings of any one else to stand in his path, hav-
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 211 
 
 ing no use for what he tersely and inclusively 
 described as "damned nonsense!" 
 
 "This is luck!" he exclaimed with that ap- 
 pearance of hearty good humor which had 
 misled more than one unfortunate individual. 
 "I've been yawnin' my head off in the billiard 
 room, knockin' the balls around and wonderin' 
 what on earth I could do with myself. Have 
 tea with me, won't you?" 
 
 The arrival of the waitress with the loaded 
 tea tray made only one answer possible, but 
 Nita's tone was frosty: 
 
 "We've already ordered tea, thank you. 
 This is ours, coming now. Perhaps you'll join 
 us?" 
 
 He responded by dropping heavily into a 
 chair he never sat down, but always dropped 
 and Nita was obliged to introduce him to 
 Elsie. 
 
 "Your husband old Matthews' nephew, 
 Mrs. Forsythe?" he asked at once. Then 
 turning on the waitress before Elsie could an- 
 swer, he demanded: "Say, haven't you got 
 any cake to-day? Just the regular truck? 
 Stupidest lot of old fossils runnin' this club I 
 ever struck! Should think some of the live 
 ones 'ud get hold of things and shake 'em up a
 
 212 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 bit. I would, if I was down here more. Is 
 your husband that Forsythe?" 
 
 "Yes ; Mr. Matthews is my husband's great- 
 uncle. Do you know him?" Elsie's tone was 
 as cordial as Nita's had been cool. 
 
 "Oh, Lord, yes! Funny old codger, ain't 
 he? Got some good sound ideas, though. 
 Guess he don't much like the way Forsythe's 
 been layin* into the North Eastern?" 
 
 It was distinctly a question. Cuthbert 
 Frayne never lost a chance of acquiring in- 
 formation, information, that is, of the kind he 
 called practical. 
 
 Elsie looked bewildered. She occasionally 
 read some of the fiction published in the 
 Colonial, but never any of her husband's 
 articles. And she was trying to remember 
 where and what she had heard of this Mr. 
 Frayne. Suddenly it came to her; her own 
 dinner table, Doctor Brainerd's voice; "They 
 say Cuthbert Frayne cleaned up nearly half a 
 million." 
 
 "What do you mean?" she asked. 
 
 "Why, those articles he's been writin' for 
 the what's-it's-name the Colonial." 
 
 "I've never looked at any of them," Elsie 
 faltered plaintively. "You know, Mr.
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 213 
 
 Frayne, I'm awfully stupid about business and 
 figures and things. I knew Donald had been 
 writing about the North Eastern. It's that 
 big railroad, of course?" 
 
 Frayne chuckled. "It's gettin' to be a 
 pretty mad railroad ! Of course, there's never 
 much doin' in summer nothin' goin' on now 
 but the Mexican squabble and so people are 
 glad to have somethin' to talk about." 
 
 Nita spoke quickly, crisply. "Those arti- 
 cles are making talk, then? Well, when the 
 next comes out the August one " 
 
 "Oh-h! You've read it already?" 
 
 His meaning was as unmistakable as it was 
 insolent. Nita flushed and was furious with 
 herself. 
 
 "I'm a contributor to the magazine," she 
 said haughtily. "I see it in proof." 
 
 "Yes yes. I see. I see," Frayne an- 
 swered. "And so the next is to be hot stuff, 
 is it? Well, August's a good time for that 
 sort o' thing." 
 
 Nita, disdaining to reply, sat watching the 
 cloud shadows chase each other across the white 
 lines of the sand dunes and over the rippling, 
 wind-ruffled waters of the little pond, drifting 
 on until they disappeared beyond the tree-clad,
 
 214 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 rising ground farther along. The beauty of 
 it all restored her serenity. What, after all, 
 did Cuthbert Frayne or his opinions matter to 
 her? 
 
 "It's against the railroad, then? I thought 
 the articles were just about it! Uncle Atkin- 
 son won't like that." Elsie's tone was at once 
 anxious and appealing. "Do please tell me 
 more, Mr. Frayne," she added, as if requesting 
 advice from an oracle a manner very pleasing 
 to this man who loved to domineer. 
 
 "Well, it seems your husband's got his own 
 ideas about business, and the way the North 
 Eastern people have been runnin' theirs don't 
 suit him." 
 
 "Oh, is that all?" Elsie felt vaguely relieved. 
 
 "All?" Cuthbert Frayne laughed loudly. 
 "All? I guess they think it's enough!" 
 
 Elsie puckered her pretty forehead,, per- 
 plexed and dismayed. In her broad-brimmed 
 white straw hat piled with snowdrops and 
 clinging, transparent gown semi-nudity was 
 the fashion that summer she looked more soft 
 and warm and Persian-kittenish than ever. 
 But she was planning to use her claws on her 
 husband the very first time he came down from 
 New York for a week-end. Why hadn't he
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 215 
 
 told her what he was doing? Of course, she 
 wasn't going to be bothered reading his stupid 
 old articles why hadn't he gone in for some- 
 thing interesting like like oh, well, some- 
 thing he could have gotten lots of money out 
 of! She wasn't fit to be so loaded down with 
 worries and responsibilities and after all 
 she'd done for him, too! Exactly what these 
 meritorious deeds of hers were she would have 
 found it difficult if not impossible to state, but 
 she was sure they were innumerable. 
 
 Nita glanced at the tiny, green-enameled 
 watch on her wrist, and rose. 
 
 "I must go now," she said. "I'm dining 
 out." 
 
 Elsie glanced up, started to speak, and 
 stopped. Nita might return to the Inn if she 
 pleased. There was no reason why she her- 
 self should not remain where she was and go 
 on talking to Mr. Frayne. She gave him an 
 appealing, sidelong glance as she replied: 
 
 "Very well, darling. I think I'll stay here 
 a little longer." Her tone was indifferent ; but 
 there had been no shadow of indifference in her 
 look. 
 
 Nita went through the clubhouse and turned 
 down the road leading to the Inn. But de-
 
 216 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 spite her excuse, she did not immediately go 
 indoors, but continued towards Main Street. 
 There the peace of the little town pond, bor- 
 dered with ancient, drooping willows, the soft 
 deep lights and shadows caressing water and 
 trees, the silver poplars turning the pale under- 
 side of their leaves to the cool breeze, sun- 
 drenched, fragrant with the scent of roses and 
 honeysuckle from the many village gardens, 
 soothed her ruffled temper. 
 
 Elsie waited until she was sure Nita was out 
 of earshot, and then remarked pensively: 
 "Nita Wynne's awfully clever, isn't she ? You 
 know she makes just heaps and heaps of 
 money/' 
 
 "She's done mighty well," Frayne admitted 
 grudgingly. Respectable women he mentally 
 divided into two classes : those who earned their 
 own living, and those who did not. The 
 former he considered grossly overpaid if they 
 received more than twenty dollars a week. 
 What could women of that sort, the rejected of 
 men, as he liked to believe them, do with all 
 that? The latter, of course, might have just 
 as much as their husbands or fathers could give 
 them, for thus they became walking testimon- 
 ials of prosperity.
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 217 
 
 Elsie found his tone encouraging. She 
 spoke in her prettiest, most confidential man- 
 ner: "Well, you know I'm not a bit like that 
 not a bit clever about business, I mean and 
 it's awfully hard on me sometimes when I don't 
 understand. You see, if I'd been told what 
 Donald was doing " 
 
 "I don't know as I could explain." 
 
 "Oh, but I don't want you to!" Elsie cried 
 quickly. Explanation would have wearied her 
 almost as much as it would have bored him. 
 "I don't care a bit about the horrid old rail- 
 road, I never could see any use in a woman's 
 learning about such things awfully unfemi- 
 nine, I call it. It's Uncle Atkinson I'm think- 
 ing of." 
 
 He laughed again. "That's sensible! It's 
 how it may hit you you're worry in' about?" 
 
 She gave two or three vehement little nods, 
 and he drew his chair a trifle closer. 
 
 "Mind if I smoke?" Without waiting for 
 her answer, he lit a very long, very black cigar 
 and went on; "Say, that feller who's just gone 
 off in the racer's got a horn like mine! Hear 
 it? Regular 'Hi, there, you! Get out o' my 
 way !' I like that sort. Well, I suppose your 
 husband knows his own business and his own
 
 218 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 uncle, but I should say that if he's lookin' to 
 get anythin' from Matthews " 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 "He's runnin' an almighty big risk of get- 
 tin' left." 
 
 "Oh, how awfully mean of Donald!" she 
 cried. "When he knows I 
 
 She broke off, winking back the ever-ready 
 tears. Again and again, since his discovery a 
 few weeks after their marriage that she was 
 confidently counting on his inheritance of At- 
 kinson Matthews' fortune, had Donald warned 
 her not to expect anything from the dictatorial 
 old man who might easily take it into his head 
 to cut them off with the proverbial shilling, but 
 she had never been willing to pay any attention 
 to him. Unless absolutely forced to do so, she 
 never believed anything that was not pleasant. 
 
 "You could do with some of the old man's 
 coin, eh? And you ought to have it ! There's 
 nothin' so well worth spendin' money on as a 
 pretty woman I Some fellers would be darned 
 glad to have Forsythe's chance!" 
 
 Elsie blushed prettily ; with pleasure, not an- 
 noyance. Anything might be pardoned a man 
 who admired her and said so ! She had aired 
 her grievances against her husband often and
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 219 
 
 to people of both sexes, but few of them had 
 proved so sympathetic as this Mr. Frayne. 
 She felt sure they were going to be very good 
 friends. 
 
 They stayed there talking until the shadows 
 grew long over the tennis courts and the rolling 
 golf course far beyond them, that stretches out 
 to Hook Pond and the low-lying sand dunes 
 which separate it from the ocean. And when 
 at last they bade each other good night, it was 
 with reluctance and an engagement to go 
 motoring together next day. 
 
 Nita had of course been aware from the first 
 that trouble would come so soon as Elsie 
 learned of Atkinson Matthews' wrath. What 
 she had not expected was the ill temper pres- 
 ently manifested towards herself: Elsie ob- 
 viously avoided her and sulked openly. As 
 they were both staying at the Inn, they met a 
 dozen times a day, and Elsie's spoilt-child be- 
 havior was quickly noticed and freely dis- 
 cussed, though always behind Nita's back. 
 But it was two or three weeks before the storm 
 broke. 
 
 Donald, looking thin and tired, came down 
 to East Hampton for a brief holiday. Elsie 
 had fully intended "to give him a piece of her
 
 220 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 mind" at once, but an invitation to tea at Mrs. 
 Lemaine's proving too attractive to be resisted, 
 she was away when he arrived ; so they had no 
 opportunity for any private talk before din- 
 ner. Afterwards Ted Bryant's insistence 
 brought them both, with Nita, into one of the 
 small card rooms for bridge. Donald, wearily 
 hoping to defer the scene with Elsie which his 
 knowledge of her told him was surely coming, 
 yielded quite willingly to Bryant's entreaties; 
 Nita with reluctance, and a feeling that since 
 trouble was inevitable, the sooner it came the 
 better; and Elsie because she could not bear to 
 refuse any man's flatteringly worded request 
 except her husband's. 
 
 "Haven't had a decent rubber for a week," 
 Bryant remarked, as he shuffled the cards. 
 "Every one's stark staring mad about these 
 new dances. I tried to get that man Frayne 
 to play one night he's a shark at it but he 
 was huffy and wouldn't. Know him, For- 
 sythe?" 
 
 "Yes; he's rather interesting; he runs so true 
 to type." 
 
 "Where did he get his money from, any- 
 way?" Bryant asked. He felt that his al- 
 lusion to the dancing craze had been tactless,
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 221 
 
 and was glad to find another, almost any other, 
 subject. 
 
 "Oh, his father made a fortune during the 
 Civil War, supplying paper-soled shoes to the 
 Federal troops, nice, flimsy things that gave 
 the men's feet abundant ventilation. His son 
 keeps up the business, and prospers even as 
 did his sire." 
 
 Bryant laughed. "Guess he doesn't need to 
 envy the old man his luck in living in war 
 time!" 
 
 Forsythe's face grew very grave. "Per- 
 haps he'll have the same luck himself." 
 
 "Oh, nonsense! There'll never be another 
 big war. It would cost too much ; the nations 
 couldn't afford it. Austria and Russia are 
 just snarling at each other, that's all." Bry- 
 ant spoke in the easy, confident tone so many 
 people used during those last days of July, 
 1914. 
 
 "I hope you're right, only I don't trust 
 Germany." 
 
 "Oh, Donald, stop talking your awfully 
 scary politics and hurry up and deal. You 
 couldn't go, not if there were a dozen wars, so 
 why fuss?" exclaimed Elsie pettishly. 
 
 "Bit of an alarmist, isn't he, Mrs. For-
 
 222 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 sythe?" Bryant said hastily, trying to cover 
 over the brutal allusion to Donald's lameness. 
 "Let me see two spades." 
 
 For a while the game proceeded in apparent 
 peace. Yet Nita was aware that the tension 
 was increasing moment by moment. She felt, 
 rather than saw, the other woman's growing 
 restlessness, and she was not surprised when 
 between two deals Elsie asked abruptly: 
 
 "Have you seen Uncle Atkinson lately, 
 Donald?" " 
 
 The question sounded innocent enough; but 
 Nita recognized it as the first rumble of the 
 coming storm. 
 
 Donald thrust out his lower lip in a funny 
 little grimace. "I had that pleasure a few 
 days ago. One no trump." 
 
 Elsie was not to be turned aside so easily, 
 yet she still evaded the direct issue : "How is 
 he?" 
 
 "I may be wrong, but in my humble opinion 
 he possesses vigor enough for at least a score 
 of tolerably energetic persons," replied Donald 
 rather grimly. "Your bid." 
 
 Had Fate not been against him, he might 
 have succeeded in delaying the tempest until 
 they two were alone together ; more he did not
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 223 
 
 hope to accomplish. He could not prevent the 
 summoning of Ted Bryant on the "long dis- 
 tance" which interrupted the game and left 
 him practically defenseless. The closing of 
 the door seemed to shut him in, a prisoner. 
 
 From without came the sound of laughing 
 voices, the sweet fragrance of the summer 
 night ; but not one of the three who sat together 
 about the green-topped card table was con- 
 scious of anything save the presence of the 
 other two. Through Donald's long fingers the 
 cards sifted automatically, over and over again ; 
 in the room itself this soft swish of card against 
 card was the only noise. Nita's nerves were 
 tingling; every muscle drawn taut, she sat 
 erect, instinctively bracing herself for the com- 
 ing attack. The light from the chandelier 
 above caught the gold threads in her coiled 
 hair, turning it into a coronet; her finely mod- 
 eled throat, pure white as it rose from the filmy 
 black of her evening gown, her small, nobly 
 carried head, were those of a young Victory. 
 Yet never in her life had she felt so helpless. 
 
 Elsie was not clever enough to finesse suc- 
 cessfully; moreover, she had goaded herself on 
 until she was too angry even to try. Suddenly 
 she leaned forward, resting her arms on the
 
 224 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 table; her little hands clasped and unclasped 
 spasmodically. 
 
 ''Donald, what did Uncle Atkinson say 
 about those awful articles of yours?" 
 
 It had come at last. Vaguely, inconse- 
 quently, he wondered who had given her the 
 specialized information out of which that ques- 
 tion must have sprung, certain through long 
 experience that she had never obtained it for 
 herself. Strange that no one had done it be- 
 fore. He bent his lips into a smile, but his 
 eyes were somber: 
 
 "My dear Elsie, I may be old-fashioned, but 
 in the presence of two ladies I really can not 
 repeat what my extraordinarily eloquent uncle 
 said!" 
 
 Elsie understood the hint and tried to sneer. 
 "Oh, you needn't remind me Nita's in the 
 room! I'll bet she's known all about this hor- 
 rid mess you've gotten into for ever so long. 
 She wouldn't tell me anything oh, no! 
 Trust her for that! You think yourselves 
 mighty clever, you two, don't you, treating me 
 like a child and ridiculing my friends the way 
 you did Mr. Frayne just now! I'm sick and 
 tired of being watched every blessed minute!" 
 
 The irritation she had been storing up and
 
 225 
 
 brooding over for months ever since the night 
 when Nita's refusal to lie to Atkinson Mat- 
 thews had first aroused her resentment had 
 burst out like some fermenting liquor. But 
 it might have evaporated harmlessly, had it 
 not been for Cuthbert Frayne's encourage- 
 ment, above all, his suggestion of Nita's guard- 
 ing care. 
 
 Neither of the two against whom the out- 
 break was directed made any reply. They 
 had in truth treated her as the childish, irre- 
 sponsible being she had proved herself, was 
 proving herself now. Nita sat motionless, her 
 lips compressed, her face very pale. Donald's 
 heavy eyebrows were drawn together ; his dark 
 eyes looked almost black; and they never 
 moved from his wife's angry countenance. 
 
 Elsie had only paused for breath; an in- 
 stant, and she resumed her tirade all the more 
 vehemently because she was already fright- 
 ened, quaking at her own recklessness, half 
 wishing she had held her tongue. 
 
 "Yes, I am just tired and sick of it all! 
 I mean what I say, too! You've got to show 
 me some consideration whether you want to or 
 not. The very idea of your making Uncle 
 Atkinson mad at you, when you know per-
 
 226 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 fectly well I'd never have dreamed of marry- 
 ing you if I hadn't thought he'd die soon and 
 leave you his money!" 
 
 "That will do, Elsie," Donald said in the 
 stern tone she heard from him only when she 
 had exceeded the limits of his almost bound- 
 less patience the tone before which she in- 
 variably quailed. "We'll postpone this dis- 
 cussion to some more suitable time." 
 
 "That's what you always say! I tell you 
 I'm not a child, and I won't be treated like one 
 I won't, I won't! I'll kill myself, I'll kill 
 myself, I tell you and when I'm dead then 
 you'll be sorry you're a nasty, mean, 
 cruel " 
 
 Sobs choked her. She gave one glance at 
 Donald's rigid face and ran out of the room 
 and through the crowded hall to the stairway, 
 crying unrestrainedly. 
 
 He did not move to follow her; for experi- 
 ence had taught him that after one of these 
 scenes, with their shameless stripping away of 
 all decencies, all reserves, it was wisest to leave 
 her to herself awhile. But heretofore they 
 had been reserved for him alone; and so he 
 was newly and very bitterly ashamed. There 
 was no way of shielding her, no possible means
 
 ELSIE DECLARES WAR 227 
 
 of covering up the unabashed display of her- 
 self which she had made. It was done ; words 
 were useless; only his shoulder jerked, and his 
 long lean fingers played mechanically with the 
 scattered cards. 
 
 An instant later Bryant returned. 
 
 "I'm so sorry," Nita explained quietly. 
 "Elsie has a headache and has gone up to bed." 
 
 She scarcely heard his polite regrets. All 
 her thoughts were absorbed by that which she 
 had just heard and seen. 
 
 Presently she knew Bryant was gone, and 
 that Forsythe had arisen and stood facing 
 her. 
 
 "So it's come." 
 
 "Well, she was sure to hear " 
 
 "Yes; I'm not altogether sorry. Only I 
 wonder " He broke off; an instant his mis- 
 ery-filled eyes stared at her blankly before he 
 added harshly: "I can't give up this one thing!" 
 
 For her, with her knowledge old and new, 
 that brief phrase held volumes; all the anguish 
 of his repeated self-questionings, all his en- 
 deavors scrupulously to fulfill every claim his 
 marriage made upon him, all his disappoint- 
 ment and thwarted hopes echoed in and 
 through it. And with this understanding
 
 228 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 came memory of the hour when they two stood 
 together in the gray dawn, that hour and all 
 the events leading up to it. 
 
 Again she heard his steady voice telling her 
 of the cherished purpose, of the ten years' toil. 
 He had foreseen this crisis then, and then as 
 now he had declared he would not yield. 
 
 He must not, should not, give up this one 
 thing he had saved out of the wreck! , 
 
 "No," she declared emphatically. "You've 
 worked too long, and" intuition leaped to her 
 aid "it's too late now. What's done is 
 done." 
 
 He nodded. "You're right. And it 
 wouldn't be dealing squarely with Delvain. 
 He's a mighty decent sort, at bottom straight 
 as they make them." 
 
 But it was not until she thought it over 
 afterwards that she grasped the full meaning 
 of that tribute, and realized that he too was 
 gaining through experience, winning a broader 
 vision, a deeper, truer understanding.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE TURN OF THE BALANCE 
 
 NITA found herself in a decidedly unpleas- 
 ant position. For Elsie, appearing late 
 the following afternoon, refreshed by a long, 
 sound sleep and bearing no traces of her re- 
 cent hysterics traces there were, but they 
 showed only in the shadows under Donald's 
 eyes met her with an aggrieved air and the 
 stiffest of formal salutations. Had they not 
 been staying in the same house, the situation 
 might have contained elements of relief for 
 Nita, a certain lifting of responsibilities. As 
 it was, the daily encounters under the eyes of 
 half a hundred more or less gossip-loving 
 women, whose curiosity, long since aroused, 
 had been on the qui vive from the moment 
 Elsie rushed through the hall in tears, were 
 distinctly disagreeable. Nita knew her world 
 far too well not to be perfectly aware of the 
 kind of thing that was being said. And she 
 could not defend herself by word or deed, for
 
 230 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 departure would have taken on the semblance 
 of flight. 
 
 This for a very few days ; then personal mat- 
 ters were submerged in the anxiety with which 
 she watched the incredibly swift gathering and 
 breaking of the war cloud. Many of the peo- 
 ple caught in the war zone were acquaintances 
 of hers ; some of them were her friends. Then 
 came the President's proclamation of neutral- 
 ity, the dread of panic, the closing of the New 
 York Stock Exchange, and keenly felt by 
 patriotic Nita, in whose veins ran the blood of 
 those brave men and women who founded 
 colonies and built a nation the shame of the 
 United States' failure to protest against the 
 rape of Belgium. 
 
 Her business had recalled her to New York 
 by the first of September, and full as her days 
 were in this, her busiest season, she somehow 
 found time to take a course in First Aid, in the 
 preparing of bandages and the dressing of 
 wounds. For she was one of those who be- 
 lieved that the American sense of justice would 
 soon force the United States to enter the con- 
 flict. Subconsciously she welcomed the activ- 
 ities which crowded her waking moments and 
 sent her to bed so tired that her sleep was in-
 
 THE TURN OF THE BALANCE 231 
 
 slant and profound; she did not want time for 
 introspection. She, who had never before 
 shrunk from confronting her own mind and 
 heart, now felt an unacknowledged dread of 
 both, an unacknowledged wish not to discover 
 that which they might have to reveal. 
 
 In obedience to this unacknowledged wish, 
 she used to keep her thoughts busy, while going 
 from place to place, by repeating to herself the 
 instructions given by the physician in charge 
 of the First Aid class. And it was this mental 
 preoccupation so carefully cultivated which, 
 although she never knew it, turned the balance 
 for Rudolph Drake and turned it forever. 
 
 They met late one rainy afternoon, as she 
 was hurrying to keep an appointment. She 
 was trying to recall the exact phrase the doctor 
 had used and, absorbed in the hunt, she passed 
 Drake by quite unaware of his proximity. 
 But he believed she had seen and deliberately 
 avoided greeting him. And that very day the 
 firm with which he was connected had col- 
 lapsed like a house of cards. And he knew he 
 could not face the impending investigation. 
 
 He had been wandering through the streets 
 for hours, dazed, numb as though some vital 
 nerve had been severed. The consciousness of
 
 232 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 present ruin and future disgrace had held him 
 in a vice-like grip which seemed to check the 
 very current of his blood. His legs and arms, 
 his feet and hands, were as leaden things which 
 did not belong to him. His mind was a blank ; 
 he neither felt nor thought nor suffered. And 
 then he met Nita Wynne, and she walked past 
 him with head erect. 
 
 It was as though the sight of this woman 
 who to him was the living embodiment of all 
 that was sweet and high and noble his re- 
 ligion, a religion in which, backslider though he 
 was, he nevertheless devoutly believed had 
 been the one thing needed to rouse him from 
 his apathy. The merciful numbness passed; 
 the vice-like grip had become an iron cage. 
 He was no less a prisoner than before, only he 
 had become conscious of the bars, could dash 
 himself against them. And now his mind be- 
 gan involuntarily to form pictures pictures 
 that moved swiftly, ruthlessly across the screen 
 of his quivering consciousness. 
 
 He had been able to excuse himself, been 
 able to condone his own wrongdoing, so long as 
 it remained unknown. And he had meant 
 only to borrow the money in order to satisfy 
 the claims of the more importunate of the many
 
 THE TURN OF THE BALANCE 233 
 
 creditors now clamoring around him, thanks to 
 years of consistent living beyond his income. 
 He had had the gambler's faith in his luck ; the 
 swing of the financial pendulum would surely 
 carry him to riches, sooner or later. Indeed, 
 he had been rich more than once on paper. 
 And he had had a scheme which promised great 
 things. But for the outbreak of the war and 
 consequent closing of the Exchange 
 
 A newsboy offered him a paper and was 
 answered with a curse. 
 
 He felt a dull surprise at finding himself 
 before the door of the apartment hotel in which 
 he lived. He suddenly realized that he was 
 wet to the skin and very tired. Then he re- 
 membered with a dull sort of relief that Ger- 
 aldine was out of town on a brief visit. Her 
 questions, her solicitude, would have been as 
 so many lashes falling upon raw wounds. 
 There was nothing she could give that he 
 wanted now. 
 
 Curious that the little sitting room with its 
 gilt, garland-patterned Empire furniture 
 should be quite unchanged! How cheap, how 
 futile it looked! Well, that was what his life 
 had been, cheap and futile. And it would be 
 worse.
 
 234 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 To-morrow probably, in a very few days at 
 the latest, they would find him out. He would 
 be arrested, he supposed. Then he would have 
 to get bail somehow. And if he did? What 
 was it all for, anyway? Cheap and futile. 
 
 Oh, what a fool he had been ! What a fool ! 
 What a fool! 
 
 Ten years and more ago, the moment of 
 choice had come. But he had not recognized 
 it for what it was. And he had said the easy, 
 the expedient thing, taking what had seemed 
 to him an opportunity. Once he had planned 
 to win a girl's love and trust win them, hold 
 them, deserve them, so long as life should last. 
 He had aspired ; and it was even then too late. 
 
 His head ached and throbbed. In his tem- 
 ples the pulses beat hard and fast, with tiny, 
 pitiless hammer-strokes. He flung himself 
 down on the frivolous little gilt sofa, and sat 
 staring straight before him with eyes which 
 saw nothing save the wasted years slowly 
 marching past, never to return. 
 
 With an odd sense of detachment, he 
 watched his phantom self, seeking feverishly 
 for money by day, seeking feverishly for 
 pleasure by night. Constant excitement, a 
 half-conscious struggle to fight off thought.
 
 THE TURN OF THE BALANCE 235 
 
 Hanging over the ticker, hurrying with gay 
 parties from theater to cabaret, from theater to 
 cabaret, dancing, drinking, until the empty 
 laughter came easily from his hot lips, craving 
 more and more fiercely the stimulus of excite- 
 ment and of alcohol ... or worse. What of 
 value, what of happiness, had there been in it 
 all? Cheap and futile! 
 
 Well, it was over now, the old way of life. 
 And that which was to take its place? 
 
 He shivered. He was standing in the dock, 
 he faced the jury, he was conscious of hundreds 
 of curious, merciless eyes, staring, staring- 
 God! He could not endure it. There must 
 be some way out, some way of escape ! 
 
 Escape? To be hunted down, and cap- 
 tured, and dragged back. 
 
 The dark waters of despair rose quickly; 
 they were at his lips, he was choking, drown- 
 ing 
 
 And now he was suddenly aware of a new 
 presence in the room. Over there in the 
 shadowy corner it crouched, a loathsome, 
 shapeless Thing. It moved; it was coming 
 nearer to him, that incarnate Fear. Nearer it 
 came; and nearer; nearer yet . . . 
 
 He started to his feet with a strangled cry;
 
 236 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 the movement awoke him from his trance. 
 His head ached and throbbed. He must rest, 
 must cease thinking, must sleep, else he would 
 go mad. He must sleep; must sleep 
 
 He felt in his pocket for the little box of 
 white powders, so precious, so difficult to pro- 
 cure. For several nerve-racking months there 
 had been no sleep for him without drugs. His 
 fingers closed over the box; he drew it forth 
 and switched on the light. 
 
 The sudden glare stung his burning eye- 
 balls ; but without light he might take an over- 
 dose and find, not sleep, but death. 
 
 Death. 
 
 The thought touched him like a gentle hand. 
 What good was life to him? Cheap and futile 
 in the past; in the years to come A trial 
 and prison he shivered. He was afraid to 
 live. . 
 
 A coward; yes, he was a coward. No won- 
 der Nita had refused to notice him! And 
 after to-morrow when he stood before the 
 world a convicted thief 
 
 Here it was in his hand, the means of escape 
 and rest Deliberately, mechanically, he 
 went to the carafe standing on a side table and 
 measured the proper amount of water into a
 
 THE TURN OF THE BALANCE 237 
 
 tumbler. He must be careful to take neither 
 too much nor too little. It was with a feeling 
 of security such as he had not known for years 
 that he raised the glass to his lips. 
 
 It was done. He had passed out of the 
 world of living men. A few moments of con- 
 sciousness were all that were left him. 
 
 And now a sudden, overpowering desire 
 wrung his very heartstrings a longing for the 
 sound of Nita's voice, for the sight of Nita's 
 face. The love which had drawn to and in- 
 corporated within itself all that was best in 
 him, the love which he had cherished in his heart 
 as an ideal, disregarded often but never absent, 
 rose up now in its might, sweeping shame and 
 regret and fear aside, dominating this ultimate 
 moment, claiming expression. He must 
 speak to her, must tell her somehow that al- 
 ways, always .... 
 
 Making his difficult way to the flimsy little 
 rose-painted desk he found a sheet of Ger- 
 aldine's scented, pink-tinted notepaper, and 
 began to write. 
 
 At first the pen moved rapidly. Then 
 drowsiness began to dull his senses. The pen 
 slipped, blotting the paper; the poison was at 
 work. His hand faltered and stopped; and
 
 238 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 went on again, slowly and yet more slowly 
 He sank forward over the rose-painted desk, 
 amid the dainty silver and crystal appoint- 
 ments with which it was strewn .
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 "NOTHING MATTERS ANY MORE" 
 
 DRAKE'S suicide was something of a 
 shock to Nita. Memory brought back 
 the debonair young man she had regarded as 
 a veritable knight of romance ; imagination pic- 
 tured him lying dead, there in the frivolous 
 little hotel room. But she was a different per- 
 son from the crude young idealist who had 
 made of handsome, weak-fibered Rudolph 
 Drake an impossibly immaculate hero. All 
 that past in which he had played so prominent 
 a part was over and done with; she looked at 
 it from across a gulf of hard-working, thought- 
 crowded years, looked at it compassionately, 
 with a better, clearer understanding alike of 
 herself and of him, but as if from a great dis- 
 tance. And the Rudolph Drake she had occa- 
 sionally met during recent years had seemed 
 to her a complete materialist, one whose only 
 desire and creed was to eat, drink, and be 
 merry. And for all her better understanding,
 
 240 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 her wider vision, this was a type for which she 
 had no use and but slight sympathy. 
 
 The theft which had been the propelling 
 cause of his suicide was carefully hushed up, 
 and it was generally believed to be the result 
 of a nervous breakdown due to overwork. He 
 had once taken some shares of a motor-boat 
 stock in payment of a bad debt, and that stock, 
 suddenly developing into one of those "war 
 babies" which brought unexpected riches to 
 their owners, made it possible to cover up his 
 peculations. But all this happened later, and 
 at first it was only known that he had left little 
 or no money a fact of which Nita's step- 
 mother presently informed her. 
 
 "It serves Geraldine right," she declared 
 with that air of perfect rectitude possible only 
 to those conscious of possessing an assured in- 
 come. "She spent money like water. / 
 never could afford to dress as she did always 
 in the very latest fashion. No wonder poor 
 dear Rudolph killed himself with overwork!" 
 
 "I understood from Elsie that he was mak- 
 ing a great deal of money," Nita said, remem- 
 bering the younger sister's oft-reiterated envy 
 of Geraldine's gowns and hats and generally 
 lavish expenditure. But she could not help
 
 " NOTHING MATTERS " 241 
 
 smiling a little at the former Mrs. Ashurst's 
 righteous indignation. 
 
 "Hu-umph! Elsie!" Mrs. Wynne's ex- 
 clamation was an unreproducible mixture of 
 snort and sniff. "Elsie's a perfect little fool. 
 By the way, I hear she's running around with 
 that man Frayne. She'll get herself into a 
 bad scrape one of these days, see if she doesn't," 
 she added hopefully. Gossip was now her 
 main interest in life. 
 
 "Oh, she likes to flirt, but there isn't a bit 
 of harm in her; it's just play." 
 
 Nita spoke carelessly, but during the next 
 few days her stepmother's hint often recurred 
 to her. There might be, probably was, 
 scarcely any foundation for the gossip, and 
 yet Well, whether or not one admired 
 Cuthbert Frayne, he was not a person to be 
 lightly dismissed! She felt anxious, and she 
 might have gone to Elsie and tried to close the 
 breach between them, had she not known the 
 uselessness of any such attempt. Elsie would 
 have taken it merely as justifying her own 
 course; if she were ever again to have any in- 
 fluence over her, it was from Elsie's self that 
 the first movement toward reconciliation must 
 come.
 
 And then something happened which for a 
 time drove all else from her mind. 
 
 She had returned from a meeting of one of 
 the Belgian Relief committees late one after- 
 noon, and with her hat still on, was standing 
 by the table in her sitting room, glancing with 
 characteristic rapidity over the little pile of let- 
 ters delivered during her absence. Her sim- 
 ple gown of gray-blue silk with Vandyck collar 
 and cuffs of Brussels point clung closely to 
 her slender, supple figure. Under the shadow 
 of her broad-brimmed hat with its single 
 sweeping plume, her eyes seemed more than 
 ever luminous, her profile more clearly, de- 
 cisively cut. The proud carriage of the small 
 head, the buoyant poise of the graceful body, 
 the swift movements of the delicate hands, all 
 contributed something to the general effect of 
 alertness, of a readiness to be up and doing, off 
 and away. More than ever now, in these days 
 when her abilities and her sympathies alike 
 were responding generously to the many de- 
 mands made upon them, did she seem intensely, 
 gloriously alive, so alive that beside her the ma- 
 jority of people appeared half moribund. 
 Dynamic, full of energy and vitality, she re- 
 sembled some radiant spirit of light
 
 " NOTHING MATTERS " 243 
 
 The electric bell rang sharply, and Nita 
 glanced away from her letters, a slight frown 
 wrinkling her smooth white brow. She had 
 given strict orders to telephone up the name of 
 every caller, but the new elevator boy was 
 stupid. She turned to the open door. 
 
 On the threshold stood a black-veiled, black- 
 robed figure one she had never thought to see 
 there. Her heart was beating quickly as she 
 silently ushered Geraldine into the room. 
 
 And yet was it really Geraldine? For as 
 her unexpected guest flung back the long crape 
 veil which had enshrouded face and form, 
 Nita could not help starting a little. That 
 bloodless face in which the once bold eyes 
 looked so unnaturally large, thin, with sunken 
 temples and gray lips could it in truth be 
 Geraldine's? Her pity, more than her sur- 
 prise, held Nita dumb. 
 
 A long moment the two women stood silent, 
 staring at each other as though neither had 
 ever actually seen the other before. All the 
 life in Geraldine's worn body seemed concen- 
 trated in her resolute, burning eyes. And still 
 she gazed steadily, searchingly at Nita, stand- 
 ing there so slight and supple, so tense and 
 vivid and electric.
 
 244 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "You did not expect to see me here." Ger- 
 aldine's voice was very low ; the words dragged 
 as though speech were an almost intolerable 
 effort. 
 
 "No: you have something to tell me." It 
 was a statement, not a question. 
 
 Just perceptibly, the other woman winced; 
 it was as if some overstrung nerve quivered 
 painfully to the vibrations of that crystal-clear 
 voice. 
 
 "And yet," she murmured, apparently 
 speaking to herself, "and yet you're not 
 really so beautiful. I don't understand." 
 
 A sigh of utter weariness stole through the 
 gray lips, and Nita pushed forward an arm- 
 chair. Geraldine sank into it, and Nita 
 waited, waited with tingling nerves 
 
 Presently the tired voice was heard 
 again : 
 
 "I found Rudolph's body. I got home that 
 night. But I had come too late. He was 
 dead." 
 
 Tearlessly, steadily, without break or quiver 
 were those words spoken. And yet Nita 
 shrank back aghast, as from a crater suddenly 
 yawning open before her. Every other feel- 
 ing was lost in pity ; pity, not for the man who
 
 ' NOTHING MATTERS " 245 
 
 had fled out of life, but for the woman she had 
 long despised. 
 
 And again the weary voice, inflectionless, 
 without touch of color or emotion, went stead- 
 ily on: 
 
 "This was lying under his hand. He had 
 written it at the last when he was dy- 
 ing." 
 
 Out of the little black bag on her wrist she 
 took a sheet of scented, pink-tinted notepaper 
 and unfolded it carefully, looking at it with 
 dry eyes, holding it in fingers that did not 
 tremble. 
 
 It was Nita who trembled : the flooding pity 
 was becoming an anguish. 
 
 For a moment there was silence. A long 
 shaft of sunlight, stealing through the western 
 window, rested softly on Geraldine's black 
 draperies. 
 
 Then Drake's widow held out the little sheet 
 of paper. "He wrote to you. So I have 
 brought you this. He wanted " 
 
 Weary tone, dragging words, expressed 
 only a great fatigue ; but the rare tears rose to 
 Nita's eyes, blinding her so that she could 
 scarcely read the scrawled, incoherent phrases. 
 She saw her own name repeated again and
 
 246 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 again: "Nita Nita! I love you I've al- 
 ways loved you forgive . . ." 
 
 And she flung out her hands to Drake's wife, 
 and the message Drake had scrawled in his last 
 conscious moments fluttered to the ground. 
 
 "I'm sorry!" she cried, her voice breaking. 
 "I'm very, very sorry!" 
 
 Her own words rang in her ears, useless, in- 
 adequate but what was there to say? And 
 suddenly she was swept back through the 
 years; she was one of a multi-colored throng 
 of dancers; past her glided Geraldine on the 
 arm of Rudolph Drake, she very pale, he 
 flushed, preoccupied 
 
 And the bit of paper, by means of which a 
 wrecked and broken man had striven to reach 
 the woman he loved with a love that remained 
 when all else crumbled away before on-coming 
 death, lay upon the floor unnoticed. For the 
 agony of the living was the greater, and had 
 blotted out the agony of the dead. 
 
 Then for the first time Geraldine's masklike 
 face changed a little, and though when she 
 spoke the words still dragged, a faint hint of 
 relief, a faint hint of surprise tinged the color- 
 less tone as she said slowly, with the accent of 
 one who accepts as true that which had for-
 
 " NOTHING MATTERS " 247 
 
 merly seemed unbelievable: "You never 
 loved him." 
 
 And she stooped and picked up the fallen 
 paper, smoothing it out gently. 
 
 The strain of this interview was racking 
 sensitive, impressionable Nita. But with an 
 effort of her strong will she controlled her shiv- 
 ering nerves and said quietly: "What do you 
 mean? Why did you come here and bring me 
 that yourself? I don't understand." 
 
 She made a little gesture toward the paper 
 in Geraldine's hand as she unconsciously 
 echoed Geraldine's phrase. And presently 
 Rudolph Drake's widow looked up, and 
 spoke : 
 
 "No, you don't understand," she said very 
 slowly. "And yet and yet the truth is here." 
 She touched the paper tenderly. "He loved 
 you. I knew it always. Oh, he cared for 
 me too in a way. A man can love two 
 women, but differently. He gave you his 
 best, and I I took what I could get. You 
 drew out all that was finest in him, somehow. 
 I never could learn your secret, and so It 
 was only what was left that I could touch, his 
 lower, weaker the rest was gone, out of my 
 reach. And yet you never loved him. I
 
 248 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 might have known But I was afraid, I was 
 afraid" the word came shuddering from 
 the bloodless lips. "I realized from the very 
 first what what kind of love it was he gave 
 me. And when I saw him lying dead, I 
 thought perhaps if I hadn't taken it hadn't 
 worked to get it he might have had the happi- 
 ness he wanted some day. I could only 
 satisfy what was worst in him. And so I 
 tried to make that the larger part. I know 
 now what I did to him. But since there never 
 could have been anything else, anything dif- 
 ferent, since you did not love " She paused 
 and drew a long, full breath. "I can keep 
 sane now," she said. 
 
 Nita could not speak. 
 
 And after a while Geraldine went on in a 
 monotonous, inflectionless tone the tone of a 
 sleepwalker: 
 
 "He wasn't all mine," she said dully, "he 
 wasn't all mine ever. Not even dead. I 
 used to think sometimes how you'd gloat over 
 it all and me if you knew. When I found 
 that paper, I tried to burn it, but I I couldn't. 
 Then I saw how it might help me to learn 
 what I had to know. My humiliation, your 
 triumph just didn't count any more. That's
 
 " NOTHING MATTERS " 249 
 
 why I came, to find out whether you cared. 
 Now I'm satisfied." 
 
 The broken, monotonous speech ended. 
 And minutes sped while the woman Rudolph 
 Drake had loved and the woman who had loved 
 him sat gazing at each other. 
 
 For Nita was stricken dumb. After one 
 horrified gesture of repudiation when Geral- 
 dine had spoken of her as "gloating" over her 
 unhappiness, she sat motionless. She scarcely 
 dared even to pity the woman who faced her, 
 so calm in the majesty of her great grief. 
 This sorrow was immeasurable, beyond sympa- 
 thy as it was beyond tears. Compared with it, 
 every emotion she herself had ever known 
 seemed dwarfed into insignificance. A won- 
 der that was akin to awe possessed her. 
 Surely such agony implied a depth and a great- 
 ness of character Could she, who had once 
 deemed herself Geraldine's superior, ever feel 
 pain like this? The power so to love and to 
 suffer 
 
 The small old-fashioned clock upon the 
 mantel shelf ticked on inexorably. The ray of 
 sunlight had shifted; it no longer caressed the 
 black-robed figure but settled happily on 
 Nita's slender form, which now seemed to draw
 
 250 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 to itself, magnet-wise, all the surrounding light 
 and color. And still the silence remained un- 
 broken in that quiet room where the very air 
 was tense, vibrating yet to those monotonously 
 spoken words which had expressed a boundless 
 passion, a passion which had absorbed a 
 woman's whole nature, been in very truth her 
 life. Nita felt the strain, the steady, search- 
 ing gaze of those haggard eyes, becoming un- 
 endurable. 
 
 "Good-by." Geraldine rose abruptly, draw- 
 ing the thick veil over her face. Her purpose 
 was accomplished. 
 
 And then at last Nita spoke. And still it 
 was of the living that she was thinking far 
 more than of the dead. 
 
 "I didn't want to take or to keep anything 
 from you," she said earnestly. "I didn't know 
 I was keeping anything from you. It 
 seemed all over and forgotten." 
 
 The other woman, who was already moving 
 slowly toward the door, paused a moment. 
 
 "Yes, I know," she said at last. The faint 
 touch of emotion was gone from her voice, 
 leaving it as toneless, as utterly weary and 
 drained of all feeling as it had been at first. 
 "Such things just happen. In the very be-
 
 ' NOTHING MATTERS " 251 
 
 ginning, before people said you were engaged 
 to him, I believed you'd taken him from me 
 for your amusement. I thought that a long 
 time. I used to hate you. I wish I could hate 
 you still. But nothing matters any more." 
 
 The door closed behind her. 
 
 Automatically Nita went to the window and 
 flung herself down in her favorite place among 
 the heaped golden-brown cushions. She felt 
 as though the monotonous tones of that tired 
 voice would never cease to echo in her ears. 
 "Nothing matters any more." The weary, 
 dragging words came again and yet again. 
 "Nothing matters any more." 
 
 And she knew that the brief sentence held a 
 complete truth. For there was one woman in 
 the world whose heart was broken, one woman 
 to whom nothing mattered any more, now Ru- 
 dolph Drake was dead.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 BEVELATION 
 
 FOR a while the memory of Geraldine and 
 the things Geraldine had said fairly 
 haunted Nita. Busy as she was in that outer 
 world where efforts to mitigate the horror once 
 deemed impossible now held imperious sway, 
 the inner realm of her thoughts had space and 
 to spare for her own past, her own trial and 
 judgment. Dim, dusty recollections were 
 dragged forward into the light, and with the 
 appearance of each, the severity of her self- 
 questioning increased. A great doubt pos- 
 sessed her: Had she failed Rudolph Drake in 
 his hour of need, and so failing him become in 
 some measure responsible for the final 
 tragedy? 
 
 The break had been inevitable. She could 
 not have married him, knowing what she did 
 and being what she was. But had she been 
 gentler, less unsparing in her condemnation 
 then and since ?
 
 REVELATION 253 
 
 For he had given her his best ; all that was in 
 him of gold. Gold smothered in dross and in 
 meaner than dross, but gold nevertheless. 
 
 He had given his best to her, his worst and 
 she faced quite frankly her knowledge of what 
 that worst must have been to the woman who 
 had yielded her all to him, surrendering her 
 heart and soul, her very self, so completely that 
 now when he was gone she had nothing left; 
 neither love nor hate, pride nor hope: nothing 
 . . . save the power to suffer. 
 
 Never would Nita forget that during long 
 years she had held Drake's wife very cheaply, 
 judging wholly by appearances and from the 
 outside, blind to the truth that from thence no 
 real understanding is possible. Seeing at first 
 only the surface littlenesses and imperfections, 
 she had taken them for the whole ; now rushing, 
 generous and remorseful, to the other extreme, 
 she tried to ignore them altogether. She had 
 learned a lesson, been humbled in her own eyes, 
 she who was once so sure of herself, so prone to 
 see character and conduct as all black or all 
 white. And again she remembered Donald's 
 words: "Tolerance is an acquired virtue- 
 else it isn't a virtue at all. It must come 
 from understanding" understanding ob-
 
 254 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 tained through experience, and none too 
 easily! 
 
 This inner enlightenment, together with her 
 unflagging energy, made her one of the most 
 efficient as well as one of the hardest workers 
 on the Relief Committee. For her ardent par- 
 tisanship, her tendency to rebel rather than to 
 submit, were no whit diminished. Often they 
 stood her in good stead, sometimes they re- 
 sulted only in mental turmoil. It was no use, 
 for instance, to rage inwardly because, with the 
 coming of the Great War, Donald Forsythe's 
 series of articles was brought to an abrupt 
 close by the politic Delvain. It was one of the 
 minor wrecks which the mere shadow of Jug- 
 gernaut's car had sufficed to bring about. Ten 
 years' labor, ten years' planning and persist- 
 ence, ten years' holding fast to one purpose 
 despite all objections and obstacles and dis- 
 couragements and then, in the very moment 
 of accomplishment, a catastrophe utterly un- 
 foreseeable destroyed it all in an instant! He 
 had declared proudly: "What I owe, I pay," 
 and the power to pay had been taken out of his 
 hands just as he was in the act of settling his 
 debt. Oh, but it was cruel, unjust to rob him 
 of that one thing to which he had clung so des-
 
 REVELATION 255 
 
 perately ! cried Nita in the depths of her pas- 
 sionate soul. 
 
 It was no surprise to her when Forsythe ap- 
 peared at the Headquarters, no surprise to find 
 herself frequently working side by side with 
 him. Little as they had seen of each other 
 since Elsie's outbreak at East Hampton, they 
 immediately and without effort slipped again 
 into the comfortable grooves of their former 
 relations. Speech and silence had always been 
 easy between them, . untroubled save when 
 thought of Elsie intervened. And now, when 
 both were busy, hand and brain alike, with un- 
 selfish work and unselfish problems, a tacit 
 avoidance of merely personal matters, of Elsie, 
 and of the difficult guardianship they had once 
 shared, though unequally, was very simple. 
 For the victims of a nation ran amuck, they 
 toiled, two among a great Fellowship of the 
 Compassionate. 
 
 And then, all in an instant, the thunderbolt 
 struck. 
 
 It was late April, and an unusually severe 
 heat-wave had been suddenly followed by a 
 cold snap. Now that it was nearly six o'clock, 
 the wind was cool enough to make fast walking 
 not only pleasant, but necessary if one chanced
 
 256 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 to be wearing thin clothing. Donald and 
 Nita, coming from a sub-committee meeting at 
 Mrs. Cavanagh's, both felt the want of air and 
 exercise and together swung along down Fifth 
 Avenue, she with her light buoyant step, he 
 with that quick limping stride of his to which 
 she had long since become accustomed. 
 
 For a while they went on in an uncon- 
 strained, companionable silence, each finding a 
 rest for tired brain and rasped nerves in the 
 other's mere presence. And the tempers of 
 both had been sorely tried that afternoon by a 
 speaker who, having been invited to talk about 
 one subject, had insisted on discoursing upon 
 another and very different one. 
 
 It was Donald who suddenly exclaimed, al- 
 most explosively : "I don't know which I hate 
 the most a neutral or a pacifist!" 
 
 Nita gave a quick little shrug. "One's a 
 liar the other may not be that, at any rate." 
 
 He assented with a nod. "You're right. 
 Honest neutrality at a time like this it isn't 
 possible except for a cad, a coward, or an ego- 
 
 maniac.*' 
 
 "And then they actually have the nerve to 
 adopt a 'holier than thou' attitude, and prate 
 about their liberality, and wide sympathies,
 
 REVELATION 257 
 
 and loving kindness!" Nita declared indig- 
 nantly. 
 
 "It's mighty easy to misapply names, and 
 call 'broad-mindedness' and 'brotherly love' 
 what is really nothing but a lack of moral back- 
 bone make it an excuse for doing the easy 
 instead of the difficult thing. Sometimes, I 
 suppose, it's honest self-deception; but more 
 often it's nothing but sheer rank hypocrisy." 
 
 "Well, our pacifist friend was sincere, at 
 least, even if he did talk a string of pretty ab- 
 surdities and want to turn the earth over to 
 the thugs and thieves and cutthroats !" 
 
 "Yes, and the queer part of it is, he seems to 
 imagine that all men who don't agree with him 
 must have a hankering to become thieves and 
 cutthroats themselves." He paused an in- 
 stant and then, his equanimity restored, went 
 on in his usual half -whimsical tone and man- 
 ner: "Should yonder eminently respectable- 
 looking citizen suddenly evince an uncontrol- 
 lable desire to throttle the life out of me, I'd 
 certainly do my best to disappoint him, and if I 
 happened to injure him seriously in the 
 process, I wouldn't regard it as my bounden 
 duty to expire either with remorse or melan- 
 cholia. Which doesn't imply that I have any
 
 258 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 designs on his windpipe, so long as he treats 
 mine with all due and proper respect." 
 
 "The difference seems to escape our pacifist 
 friends entirely. Carried out to a logical con- 
 clusion, their theory would do away with all 
 locks and police and a number of other things 
 necessary at the present stage of civilization, 
 and let the enterprising burglar burgle at his 
 own sweet will." Her tone changed, and she 
 added seriously: "It's as though they had a 
 blind spot or a sort of mental paralysis 
 brought on by horror. I suppose if we real- 
 ized truly realized, any of us, all that's actu- 
 ally going on over there now, at this very mo- 
 ment " She caught her breath. 
 
 "We'd go mad." For once it was he who 
 finished her sentence. 
 
 "It isn't safe to stop and think." Her 
 clear voice was very low. 
 
 "We may be obliged to stop and think. If 
 the Lusitania Devlin Morris has had one of 
 those anonymous warning letters." 
 
 "Is he going to pay any attention ?" 
 
 "No; he sails to-morrow just the same, and 
 so does Geraldine. She's going to join Phoebe 
 in Devonshire." 
 
 The Englishman Phoebe Haight had mar-
 
 REVELATION 259 
 
 ried was now with his regiment "somewhere in 
 France." 
 
 "But surely there are limits even to what the 
 Huns will do! Besides, they must know it 
 would mean war with the United States. 
 We've stood a lot, but when it comes to letting 
 them murder our own people that's just a 
 little too much!" 
 
 "I should hope so! But they're insane 
 vanity-mad, blood-mad. And we we sit 
 quiet and endure and gabble about 'friendly 
 relations!' If we'd only spoken out when 
 Belgium was invaded said to Germany: 
 "You shan't do this thing" think where 
 America would stand to-day in the eyes of the 
 nations!" 
 
 "It might have flung us into the war," Nita 
 answered, with head held high and kindling 
 eyes. "We might have lost some of our 
 'safety' and 'prosperity,' but we'd have saved 
 our souls!" 
 
 "And it might have prevented the war 1 If 
 the other neutral nations had followed our 
 lead, and I believe that's what they would have 
 done" 
 
 "At least we'd have had a right to talk then 
 about ideals and standing for humanity!"
 
 260 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 His shoulder jerked with the quick, invol- 
 untary movement she knew so well. 
 
 1 'People tell us it wasn't any of our business. 
 Our business! We despise the man who 
 doesn't go to the help of a woman or a child in 
 danger, whether he's ever seen them before or 
 not. And then we try to excuse what amounts 
 to national instead of mere personal cowardice 
 by chattering about 'our business!' We let 
 hundreds and thousands of women and chil- 
 dren be tortured and killed and and worse 
 without lifting a finger to save them, because 
 years ago, in what was practically a different 
 world, we didn't sign one particular treaty, 
 and so it isn't any of 'our business!' Our " 
 His voice snapped. "Heaven knows I've no 
 right to talk!" It was as though some force 
 which had broken from his control were driv- 
 ing the words out. "I'm a cripple not a 
 man. God! If I could only go and help!" 
 
 A part of the enveloping cloak had fallen. 
 For the first time in all his life he had per- 
 mitted another human being to see something 
 of what his lameness really meant to him that 
 lameness he usually treated so lightly, so non- 
 chalantly, speaking of it as though it were a 
 thing rather amusing than otherwise.
 
 REVELATION 261 
 
 And Nita understood understood the chaf- 
 ing of the present, the heavy burden so gayly 
 and gallantly borne in the past. His rebel- 
 lion, his pain were hers. And because she felt 
 with him, not merely for him, she could not 
 utter a word. Only in the semi-darkness of 
 the almost empty Avenue she touched his hand 
 with her gloved fingers. 
 
 He gripped them fast; and it was as though 
 an electric shock had passed up her arm. An 
 instant the lights danced before her eyes. 
 And then then she saw his face, illumined by 
 the glare from a show window. 
 
 It might have been a moment, it might, for 
 all she knew, have been an hour before he 
 turned to her, slowly, with a resolute control of 
 movement and of tone, and said "Thank you" 
 very quietly. 
 
 But though he spoke so calmly, he was pale 
 even to the lips. For he had realized the full 
 meaning of his self -revelation ; and with the 
 knowledge there came a great fear.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 LOVE AND LOYALTY 
 
 AFTER a sleepless night, Nita fell towards 
 dawn into a heavy slumber from which 
 she awoke to find that for her the aspect of the 
 world was changed. Looking back, she won- 
 dered at her own blindness. Had she not 
 from the very first been perfectly contented 
 and in sympathy with Donald Forsythe? 
 Had she not turned to him in her perplexity, 
 ten years and more ago? Had she not liked 
 ever since to consult him, longed for his ap- 
 proval, fiercely resented all that stood in his 
 way? And now 
 
 Nita Wynne one of a triangle! Nita 
 Wynne, involved in a " situation a trots!" 
 Here indeed was matter for the mirth of the 
 little gods. The idea of such a thing had 
 never crossed her mind, so incredible did it 
 seem. She would as soon have expected her- 
 self to turn pickpocket. 
 
 "Can you imagine yourself doing anything 
 you thought really wrong, Nita?"
 
 LOVE AND LOYALTY 263 
 
 She remembered Mary's question. No; 
 face to face with the plain issue, she could not 
 so imagine herself. Yet here she was, 
 stranded on perilous rocks against which the 
 great waves thundered, where a single false 
 step 
 
 How was he feeling now? For the truth 
 had come to him, as suddenly as to herself: 
 she knew that with an intuitive certainty far 
 beyond all doubt or question. Both had 
 drifted, both awakened to hear the surge and 
 thunder. 
 
 Yet she knew the whole truth, while he 
 was his more than a half knowledge? His 
 face had been full in the light, hers partly in 
 shadow. 
 
 Back into her mind sprang memory of 
 Elsie's complaint that Donald had refused to 
 promise what Atkinson Matthews wanted, be- 
 cause the promise was one he could not keep, 
 Elsie's cry "That's Donald all over," and her 
 own recognition that the refusal was charac- 
 teristic. This recognition, what did it not im- 
 ply now? 
 
 Loyalty: loyalty to word and bond and 
 
 Elsie. 
 
 The necessity of at once deciding on her fu-
 
 264 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 ture course weighed heavily on Nita. All 
 drifting was must be ended forever. But 
 what to do? How to find and choose the way 
 which would be the best for all three? Her 
 eyes once open to the truth, she faced it cour- 
 ageously, evading nothing. 
 
 That other woman, the woman who loved 
 Drake, had come to her to learn whether she 
 had indeed stood between him and any, even 
 the remotest, chance of happiness, because 
 thought of such a possibility had rendered her 
 pain intolerable. It was with Geraldine's 
 face, Geraldine's fear before her eyes that Nita 
 sought desperately for a way of helping Don- 
 ald Forsythe. 
 
 And it was while she was thus striving to 
 put all thought of self aside that to her amaze- 
 ment Elsie, dainty and Persian-kitten-like as 
 ever, with Fluff on her arm, walked into the 
 room. 
 
 "Oh, Nita dear, I just couldn't keep away 
 any longer! I'm so terribly unhappy!" 
 
 And, dropping the little dog, Elsie threw 
 herself into Nita's arms, sobbing on her shoul- 
 der while Fluff yapped an accompaniment. 
 
 There are moments in every life when it 
 seems as though one's fate were entirely con-
 
 LOVE AND LOYALTY 265 
 
 trolled by the mischief-making, mirth-loving 
 little gods; such a moment had now come to 
 Nita Wynne. 
 
 Mechanically she asked the obvious, un- 
 avoidable question: "Why, what's the mat- 
 ter, Elsie?" 
 
 Elsie dried her eyes, reflecting that her nose 
 might get unbecomingly red if she wept much 
 longer, and answered with many little sniffs 
 impeding the words: "G-Geraldine s-sailed 
 to-day, and I'm s-so lonely!" 
 
 In spite of her pain and perplexity, Nita al- 
 most laughed aloud. The idea of Elsie cry- 
 incr for Geraldine for Geraldine with whom 
 
 o 
 
 she wrangled every time they met! 
 
 "It's too bad!" As had so often happened 
 in the past, Nita spoke with an irony which 
 was entirely lost on Elsie. 
 
 "I w-went down to see her off" the sniffs 
 were subsiding "and took her some orchids. 
 Itf r> er a man I know had just sent me a 
 dozen perfect beauties, the awfully expensive 
 kind. You know orchids look awfully snappy 
 on black, and Oh, dear, I felt so horribly, 
 having her go off like that!" 
 
 Nita's only thought was of the threats made 
 against the Lusitania.
 
 266 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Of course you must be anxious," she said 
 gently. "But I wouldn't worry if I were you. 
 I don't believe even the Germans would be 
 fiendish enough to sink a passenger ship full 
 of noncombatants." 
 
 "Oh, I wasn't thinking of that!" exclaimed 
 Elsie naively. "Of course, Geraldine will be 
 all right. But I do think she might have 
 stayed with me I can't understand such self- 
 ishness Z'm not a bit that way, and I But 
 it's perfectly awful to have men go crazy about 
 you the way they will keep doing over me!" 
 
 "Is it the Count?" Nita asked perforce. In 
 her own mind she had long ago concluded that 
 that astute gentleman had simply made use of 
 Elsie, and played upon her vanity. 
 
 "Well er partly," Elsie spoke with a 
 hesitation evidently meant to be noticed. "He 
 tries to pretend he's awfully indifferent, but 
 it's just put on I can see that. You know 
 I've always understood people awfully well!" 
 
 "I don't think you need trouble about him. 
 He's not the sort of person to do anything des- 
 perate." Before the words ceased to vibrate, 
 Nita remembered the man who had done some- 
 thing desperate. 
 
 "It's terribly easy for you to talk, Nita!
 
 LOVE AND LOYALTY 267 
 
 You're so cold and But I'm not made that 
 way. Besides," added Elsie with infinite sat- 
 isfaction, licking up, so to speak, every avail- 
 able bit of cream with extended little pink 
 tongue, "you've never been through the sort 
 of experiences I've had! Of course I don't 
 talk about them, but I could tell you stories ! 
 If only I wasn't so tender-hearted I Oh, 
 do be quiet, Fluff!" 
 
 For Fluff was making a series of little 
 rushes at a footstool and yapping in a way 
 Elsie usually described as "too awfully cute 
 for anything," but at the present moment 
 found exasperating. So she caught up the 
 little dog, administered several sharp slaps 
 that made Fluff yowl and Nita wince, and 
 went on: 
 
 "What was I talking about? Oh, yes; I 
 was just saying I hated to hurt and of course, 
 Mr. Frayne 
 
 That startled Nita. "Mr. Frayne?" 
 
 Elsie blushed. "Well, he hasn't said- 
 much. You know he's one of those terribly 
 strong, silent men " 
 
 Nita was entirely satisfied. She was inti- 
 mately acquainted with Elsie's propensity for 
 believing that every man who complimented
 
 268 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 her adored her. Elsie had missed her accus- 
 tomed confidante, her accustomed audience; 
 that and that alone, had brought her here. If 
 only she had stayed away after all these 
 months! Unconsciously Nita sighed and 
 pushed the heavy hair back off her burning 
 forehead. 
 
 "Does your head ache? You look awfully 
 pale." Elsie spoke in her prettiest, most 
 caressing way. 
 
 "A little it's nothing. A touch of neu- 
 ralgia, probably." 
 
 "Oh, you poor thing! I know what neu- 
 ralgia is ! I suffer from it awfully. Why, last 
 night, after I'd been out in the wind you re- 
 member how it blew yesterday? I thought 
 I'd be taken right off my feet passing the li- 
 brary ! I'd been shopping till I was just ready 
 to drop I got some hand-embroidered 
 blouses, wonderful bargains, you know, and 
 just too awfully sweet! They didn't fit me 
 of course I knew they wouldn't, they 
 weren't anywhere near my size, but I thought 
 I might as well have them sent home; I can 
 return them in a day or two Well, when 
 I got home, I thought my head would split! 
 I don't believe any one has such awful head-
 
 LOVE AND LOYALTY 269 
 
 aches as I do," she added with satisfaction. 
 "And Donald isn't a bit sympathetic. He 
 says I'd be all right if I'd eat a sensible lunch ; 
 he's terribly unfeeling! But if anything's 
 wrong with him Why, just last night " 
 
 Donald last night! If only she would talk 
 of something, anything else ! Nita could have 
 screamed with pain; but she merely clenched 
 her hands until the nails made angry marks on 
 the soft palms. 
 
 Unconsciously merciless, Elsie went on: 
 "Well, last night was a fair sample. He 
 never came in till awfully late, and then of 
 course he didn't want any dinner said he was 
 too tired to eat and didn't care for any. Of 
 course it was rather cold I had to have some- 
 thing, and I wasn't going to wait forever: 
 I knew he- could have gotten home per- 
 fectly well, if he hadn't stopped to go to one 
 of those stupid Belgian they're none of his 
 business! I told him so, and he was awfully 
 cross. Of course he didn't say anything, but 
 I could see You've no idea, Nita, how aw- 
 fully hard it is to get along with a fussy, self- 
 ish person like Donald!" 
 
 "Too tired to eat out awfully late." The 
 words bit into Nita's consciousness as though
 
 270 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 they had been so many drops of carbolic acid. 
 She knew why he had not returned home until 
 after the dinner hour, though it was still early 
 when, almost in silence, they parted at her 
 door. Her torturing imagination pictured 
 him tramping the streets, unable to enter the 
 place he called home and face the life he had 
 made for himself, fighting, fighting 
 
 She said something what, she never knew. 
 Only she presently became aware that Elsie 
 was talking of Helen Carstairs' recent mar- 
 riage, and was dully grateful for the change of 
 subject. 
 
 At last Elsie declared she must be going. 
 
 "The buses get so crowded! I do wish I 
 had a car!" Elsie never walked over three 
 blocks under any combination of circumstances. 
 "It's been so awfully nice to have a good long 
 talk with you, Nita, darling, and hear all 
 you've been doing! Come along, baby dear. 
 Where's muvver's p'ecious ittie darling?" she 
 added, looking around for Fluff, who was 
 thoroughly enjoying his brief liberty. He 
 had discovered Nita's work basket, and 
 thought that as a plaything it left nothing to 
 be desired. 
 
 "Oh, angel 'tweetness!" Elsie exclaimed,
 
 LOVE AND LOYALTY 271 
 
 trying to extricate the little dog from a tangle 
 of silk and thread. "I'm afraid he's gotten 
 your things into an awful mess, Nita darling, 
 but I know you don't mind. 'Urn was a 
 naughty, naughty ittie sing!" 
 
 She took Fluff in her arms and showered 
 him with kisses a proceeding to which he sub- 
 mitted with the hopeless resignation of one 
 who has suffered much and often. 
 
 When Elsie at last was gone, Nita gave a 
 long shuddering sigh of relief. Suddenly she 
 put her hands to her throat and flung herself 
 face downwards on her sofa, biting her lips 
 until they bled. 
 
 In after years she always shrank from the 
 memory of this, the darkest hour of her life.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE MOMENT OF TRIAL 
 
 r I THROUGH days which afterwards re- 
 M. mained in her memory as one long and 
 hideous nightmare, Nita fought for self-mas- 
 tery. And little by little, as the pain that 
 was with her wherever she went and whatever 
 she did, dogging her every footstep, greeting 
 her with the dawn of every new day, haunting 
 her throughout the endless watches of the 
 dragging nights, became a familiar instead of 
 a strange companion, her will began to assert 
 itself. She had been beaten to her knees, but 
 remain there she would not. And at last she 
 was able to grip her pain and throttle it into 
 submission, that she might ask and have an an- 
 swer to the question: "What was best for 
 him?" 
 
 That was what mattered now that and 
 that alone. 
 
 Something she must do ; she could not go on 
 meeting him casually, for in every such en-
 
 THE MOMENT OF TRIAL 273 
 
 counter there was danger Danger for him, 
 danger of increasing that sense of having 
 failed in perfect loyalty which she knew was 
 to him as gall added to his already bitter cup. 
 
 No glittering generalities about the inherent 
 rights of passion embellished for her eyes the 
 downward road. She would never be easy 
 on herself; she had learned to see other peo- 
 ple's black and white soften into gray while her 
 own retained their sharply marked difference. 
 And the distinction was as plain to her now as 
 it had ever been. 
 
 So there in the pleasant room overlooking 
 Gramercy Park, Nita Wynne faced her pres- 
 ent and her future with honest, unswerving 
 eyes. Her point of view was essentially di- 
 rect and simple: A promise could not be 
 broken without dishonor. Before God and 
 man, Donald Forsythe had bound himself by 
 a solemn pledge; she knew that to him as to 
 her it was a thing which at all costs must be 
 held inviolate. And an added force to the 
 compulsion of that pledge was given by Elsie's 
 very deficiencies -the pitiless, inescapable 
 claim of the weak upon the strong. She was 
 no other now than she had always been. 
 
 They could buy happiness, he and she, only
 
 274 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 at the price of self-respect. And she well 
 knew all that self-respect and honor and loy- 
 alty meant to this man she loved so dearly, this 
 man of the cynical tongue and the knightly 
 soul. 
 
 But what was she to do? Inaction was in- 
 tolerable to her now, as always. And sud- 
 denly, sharply, hideously, the answer came 
 came with the shrill cry of a newsboy, flinging 
 horror to the shuddering air. 
 
 For the unbelievable had happened; the 
 Lusitania had gone down. 
 
 "It means war," Mary said quietly. 
 
 In the darkness of the room, a darkness 
 modified only by the shaded light from a small 
 desk lamp, Nita's face appeared luminously 
 white. And there was a note as of distant 
 bugles in her voice, although she spoke as 
 quietly as her friend and even more briefly. 
 
 "It must," she said. 
 
 There followed a moment's silence. Mary's 
 nerves were tingling. She felt that Nita, sit- 
 ting there so motionless, outwardly so unex- 
 cited, was in truth a veritable human dynamo, 
 a center of force which charged the air with 
 electricity. And impelled by this sense of an
 
 275 
 
 abundant, concentrated power, she asked al- 
 most breathlessly: 
 
 "What are you going to do, Nita?" 
 
 It was the question which had once before 
 been put to her, under very different circum- 
 stances and when she was a very different per- 
 son ; it was the question she had been putting 
 to herself, consciously and sternly, or uncon- 
 sciously and imploringly, during all these re- 
 cent, emotion-packed days. And now she re- 
 plied swiftly and without any shadow of wav- 
 ering : 
 
 "I'm going to do my best over there." 
 
 "Won't you wait?" 
 
 The broken phrase was eloquent. 
 
 "No!" The monosyllable snapped like a 
 whiplash. "Would you wait while you 
 watched a fire sweeping forward? Wait 
 while you watched people burn, because they 
 weren't your own? God knows I can't do 
 much! But what I can do I will." 
 
 "You've made your plans?" 
 
 "Yes; as soon as the news came. The 
 Cavanaghs are giving a hospital unit to 
 France. They're going over with supplies 
 themselves on the next Cunarder. And I'm 
 going with them."
 
 276 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 She broke off there. True child of a gen- 
 eration which was shy, half-ashamed of emo- 
 tions, the sentences which rushed to her lips 
 seemed to her extravagant, high-flown. But 
 the fire that had been smoldering in her eyes 
 was a clear blaze as she added simply: "I've 
 got to do something definite in the fight 
 against them " 
 
 Had she said pirates, Huns, spawn of Hell, 
 or even summed the whole up in the one word 
 Prussians, it would scarcely have thrilled her 
 hearer as did that pronoun, spoken as she spoke 
 it. 
 
 A long time the two women sat in silence. 
 The tragedy indeed meant more to Nita than 
 even Mary guessed, for Geraldine was of 
 those who had gone down with the stricken 
 ship, dying bravely and, as Nita correctly sur- 
 mised, gladly. And Devlin Morris too was 
 dead, Donald's friend, the young lawyer for 
 whom great things had been predicted; these 
 and others they both had known. 
 
 She remembered the bitter cry in which 
 Donald had given vent to his grief and rage at 
 his own powerlessness. So far as was hu- 
 manly possible, she would fight for both. 
 There where France and England, Belgium
 
 THE MOMENT OF TRIAL 277 
 
 and Russia and brave little Serbia strove in a 
 death-grapple with the Powers of Darkness- 
 there, where he could not, she would go. Serv- 
 ing him and God. She saw her way clear 
 at last; in exaltation she trod the heights, con- 
 secrated and unafraid. 
 
 All through the brief, busy time of prepara- 
 tion, this sense of consecration remained with 
 her. And then for she was no saint, but only 
 a faulty woman, impatient, warm-blooded it 
 suddenly vanished, and she was left with only 
 the consciousness that a parting which might 
 well prove lifelong yawned like an open grave 
 between Donald and herself. She believed 
 the soul destined to "carry, high through death, 
 her cup unspilled," that a lifelong parting was 
 not a parting forever: but she craved the hu- 
 man joy, the years spent side by side in human 
 companionship. Something higher, finer, 
 nobler, might be in store for them; but they 
 would have missed the best this life has to 
 give. 
 
 She longed to see and to speak with him once 
 more; she feared a last interview with its pos- 
 sible shattering of hard-won self-control, but 
 how could she go to face death, as face it she 
 must and would, without so much as a word,
 
 278 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 a handclasp? And yet if it were to help him, 
 to save for him his faith in himself 
 
 The struggle was still being waged within 
 her, when she learned that the power of de- 
 cision had been taken out of her hands. Elsie 
 announced that she was coming down to see 
 her off, and had insisted upon Donald's ac- 
 companying her. 
 
 "There may be a riot or or anything," she 
 tearfully protested over the telephone. "It 
 wouldn't be safe for me to come by myself, and 
 I do so want to see the last of youl Oh, I 
 hope America will keep out of this awful war!" 
 
 Neither Elsie's fear, nor her evident belief 
 that their good-by was to be good-by indeed, 
 had any especial effect on Nita. Both were 
 swept away by the thought of seeing Donald 
 once again. 
 
 She nerved herself to that encounter as she 
 did not need to nerve herself to the obvious 
 perils of the crossing. Yet what had she to 
 fear from it? Nothing, to the eyes of many; 
 the loss of the most precious thing in the world, 
 to her own. 
 
 The day so longed for, yet so dreaded, came 
 at last. Nita met Mr. and Mrs. Cavanagh 
 with Doctor Macneven, the physician who was
 
 to be in charge of the hospital unit, at the pier. 
 The doctor had served with the American Red 
 Cross in France during the dark days of 1914, 
 returned to the United States for a brief, 
 much-needed rest, and was now going back. 
 Nita, who had known him for years, would or- 
 dinarily have had much to say to him, but now, 
 all her senses were alert for the sight of a thin, 
 clever face, the sound of a familiar, dragging 
 step. 
 
 She went down to her stateroom, made a 
 few necessary arrangements, and hurried up 
 on deck again. The day was bright and clear, 
 with a brisk breeze, and the waters of the har- 
 bor danced and sparkled in the sunshine. Yet 
 though a beautiful, it was not a joyous day; 
 for over there by the New Jersey shore lay the 
 interned liners, black, massive, sullen. And 
 from them there seemed to emanate, like a dark 
 and poisonous vapor, something of the evil 
 spirit directing the nation whose flag they 
 flew. 
 
 And extending far up the river, in lines of 
 white dots, was the American fleet the fleet 
 upon which so much, it was then believed, 
 might soon depend. 
 
 "Oh, here you are, Nita!" Elsie's rather
 
 280 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 high-pitched voice made Nita start, although 
 she had been expecting to hear it. She forced 
 her stiff lips into a smile. 
 
 "Such a time as we had getting on board!" 
 Elsie continued excitedly. "You wouldn't 
 believe the awful amount of red tape I 
 didn't think we'd ever be able to manage it, 
 but Donald And then they knew I'd lost 
 my darling sister on the Lusitania" 
 
 She put her handkerchief to her eyes, feel- 
 ing herself to be an object of intense inter- 
 est. 
 
 Nita introduced her to the rest of the party 
 and noticed, with disappointment and relief so 
 intermingled that she could not have told 
 which feeling predominated, that Doctor Mac- 
 neven and Donald For sy the had fallen quickly 
 and easily into talk. They were old friends, 
 and had many sympathies and ideas in com- 
 mon. 
 
 But though he talked to the doctor, his eyes 
 never left her. 
 
 "It's an awfully solemn business, going off 
 like this, isn't it?" Elsie chattered on, putting 
 into heedless, uncomprehending speech some- 
 thing of that which lay deep down in the 
 hearts of all the others, "Do be sure and have
 
 THE MOMENT OF TRIAL 281 
 
 your life-preserver handy, Nita. If I were 
 you, I'd put it on and keep it on." 
 
 Nita, the stiff smile still bending her lips, 
 forced herself to answer: 
 
 "Oh, no, you wouldn't !" She was doing her 
 courageous best to speak lightly. "They're 
 too uncomfortable. You'd find you couldn't 
 possibly sleep in one." 
 
 "Well, I don't see how you'll ever be able to 
 sleep one single wink, anyway! When you 
 think that the very next minute !" She 
 shivered with a pleasant, vicarious sense of 
 imminent danger, looked up at stately Mrs. 
 Cavanagh and went on, relishing what she felt 
 was a most impressive statement. "Of course, 
 you know, all this awful business comes home 
 to me more than to most people. You know 
 my darling sister was lost on the Lusitania." 
 
 Nita turned away her head with a feeling 
 of repulsion she could not altogether repress. 
 The minutes sped. And presently a warn- 
 ing bell clanged. There were only a very few 
 moments left. He must come to her now! 
 So far he had successfully avoided her, but 
 now he must take her hand and meet her 
 glance. And then . . . would he be able to 
 maintain his air of mere calm friendliness, or
 
 282 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 would there flash into his eyes that look she 
 had once seen in them, that look which having 
 seen, she could never forget? And suddenly, 
 through some subtle, inexplicable intuition, she 
 knew he would be able to suppress the betraj^- 
 ing light, unless she wilfully evoked it. Steel- 
 strong, trained through many difficult years, 
 his will could master even that force, did she 
 not join with it against him. And now her 
 own craving heart sprang up in revolt, tugging 
 frantically against the bonds of honor, cry- 
 ing out that she could not leave him thus. 
 They must have their supreme moment of mu- 
 tual confession, though it be followed by life- 
 long regret. 
 
 And the issue lay in her keeping, her con- 
 trol. She knew that with unreasoned, abso- 
 lute certainty. Let her but show him the 
 truth, and all she now hungered and thirsted 
 for would be hers. Surely it was no crime 
 a look, an instant's happiness! That joy 
 grasped, what mattered the after sorrow? 
 She was willing to pay the price. 
 
 She was willing to pay the price; was she 
 willing that he should pay, too? Plainly as 
 though it were some electric sign flashing out 
 at midnight, the alternative appeared before
 
 THE MOMENT OF TRIAL 283 
 
 her. He was as yet uncertain of his self -be- 
 trayal: she knew that, for sheer intensity of 
 feeling had rendered her clairvoyant. By 
 forcing herself to play the mere friend who 
 had no need of concealment or fear, she could 
 convince him that he had revealed nothing. It 
 rested with her to give him back his self- 
 reliance, to restore to him his belief in his own 
 unstained loyalty, to assure him that his secret 
 was his still, held close and inviolate. All this 
 she could give to render the long road stretch- 
 ing before him, if not smooth, at any rate far 
 less stony. All this or a moment's joy, fol- 
 lowed instantly by shame, a sense of failure, of 
 dishonor. And this her doing, who had sworn 
 to hold their love high above all that might 
 stain or soil it! 
 
 Thoughts like these rushed, fragmentary, 
 chaotic, through Nita's mind, emotions rather 
 than ideas. And beneath and penetrating 
 them all there echoed the memory of a weary 
 voice speaking slow, difficult words: "Noth- 
 ing matters any more." 
 
 Again came the clang of the bell, followed 
 by a warning call. Elsie jumped up in the 
 middle of a sentence. 
 
 "I suppose that means we've got to go,"
 
 284 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 she said regretfully. "Good-by, Nita darling! 
 Do take care of yourself and write if you ever 
 if you ever have time. Come on, Donald, 
 we must hurry! Good-by, dear, good-by!" 
 
 She hastened towards the gangway. 
 
 Nita saw Donald shaking hands with the 
 doctor; then he turned to her. 
 
 "Good-by, Miss Wynne," he said. His 
 voice was a little hoarse, a little strained. 
 
 The moment had come, the moment when 
 she must choose for both. An instant she 
 wavered and temptation had her by the 
 throat. She had tasted joy; with her whole 
 heart and soul, with every nerve and fiber of 
 her being she craved that which she could get 
 so easily, so very easily. And again the tired 
 voice was in her ears : "Nothing matters any 
 more." 
 
 Did anything, could anything matter to her, 
 save Donald Forsythe's ultimate good? 
 
 One man who had loved her was dead. Him 
 she had somehow failed; but this other who 
 loved her and whom she so loved, him she 
 would not fail. And she had seen the great 
 fear dawn in his eyes, she saw the dread that 
 was in them now. She would kill his fear that 
 he had been false to his own ideals, give him
 
 loyalty and honor to be his companions 
 through the years. For she had learned life's 
 difficult lesson of relative values, and she knew 
 what was of greatest worth. Leniency to- 
 wards others, because of the impossibility of 
 knowing the truth about their temptations and 
 resistances, yes; but never a compromise with 
 one's highest standards for one's self. 
 
 Only a couple of seconds elapsed between 
 Donald's "Good-by, Miss Wynne" and the 
 instant when Nita faced him, her hand out- 
 stretched, a sweet grave smile on her lips. But 
 in that flash of time she had met the supreme 
 test, had fought her battle, and emerged vic- 
 torious. 
 
 "Good-by," she said. "Please remember 
 me to all our friends on the committee." 
 
 Voice and smile were held steady, unfalter- 
 ing. If she spoke with a touch of solemnity, 
 it was no more than the occasion warranted. 
 
 And then he was gone, hurrying with his 
 quick limping step across the gangway to the 
 pier and Elsie. 
 
 Darkness closed over Nita; she swayed and 
 caught at the rail to steady herself. For a 
 moment she clutched it, blindly, despairingly. 
 
 A long, slow shudder passed through the
 
 286 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 huge vessel, and that movement seemed to 
 dispel the darkness. Once again Nita saw the 
 sunlit river, the jagged sky-line, the veil of 
 smoke which hung festooned over the city, the 
 brilliant blue above, the little group of peo- 
 ple standing on the shore. Then river and 
 sky and shore vanished. She saw one face, 
 one only. 
 
 The ship trembled again. A tiny line of 
 water appeared between it and the wharf, a 
 line which broadened slowly at first, then 
 faster and faster. And still Nita saw noth- 
 ing save Donald Forsythe's face. He stood 
 perfectly still, not moving even to make a ges- 
 ture of farewell; but she knew he was watch- 
 ing her. 
 
 For the second time in her life she had 
 closed a door behind her; for the second time 
 in her life she was going out alone, into the 
 unknown. 
 
 Wider and wider grew the space between 
 them as the steamer advanced in stateliest 
 fashion towards the sea. The little group on 
 shore became blurred, merged presently into a 
 formless mass. Slowly, steadily, relentlessly, 
 the great ship moved onward towards those 
 lands over which the war-cloud hung. And
 
 287 
 
 to Nita Wynne, standing there alone, as she 
 believed that henceforward she must always 
 stand, there came again that solemn sense of 
 consecration the touch of God's hand laid 
 upon her soul.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE LITTLE GODS ENJOY THEMSELVES 
 
 fTlHE August sun, reflected back from a 
 A brick wall on the opposite side of a nar- 
 row court, poured a steady stream of heat into 
 Donald Forsythe's small private office, though 
 it was only about half -past nine o'clock. The 
 day was not an exceptionally warm one, but 
 the little room was already like an oven. And 
 yet Donald dreaded leaving it, as leave it he 
 must early in the following week, for East 
 Hampton and Elsie. 
 
 He was thinner than ever, if that were pos- 
 sible, the lines of his irregular profile more 
 sharply cut, the hollows at the temples more 
 pronounced, the dark eyes more deeply set. 
 His life, never particularly easy, had been 
 doubly difficult since that April day of which 
 he scarcely dared to think. Always he had 
 found his one anodyne in work, and during 
 these past months he had toiled as never be- 
 fore.
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 289 
 
 The telephone rang imperiously; he failed 
 to recognize the voice which asked: 
 
 "Is this Mr. Forsythe Mr. Donald For- 
 sythe?" 
 
 "Yes. Who's speaking, please?" 
 
 "This is Cuthbert Frayne." 
 
 "Who? I didn't get" 
 
 "Cuthbert Frayne." 
 
 "Oh! Good morning, Mr. Frayne." 
 
 Donald did not allow any note of surprise 
 to enter his voice, but he nevertheless won- 
 dered what on earth Cuthbert Frayne could 
 possibly want with him. There had been 
 months, during the past autumn and winter, 
 when Frayne rather annoyed him, as being the 
 object of one of those transient, silly infatua- 
 tions of Elsie's. But all that had apparently 
 ended some time ago, and much to his relief, 
 since otherwise it would have been out of the 
 question to allow Elsie to go to the country 
 without him, while to require her to remain in 
 town was practically impossible. 
 
 "Are you alone?" 
 
 Both the question and the tone in which it 
 was asked were peculiar, and Donald replied 
 promptly and with some curiosity: 
 
 "Yes; quite alone."
 
 290 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Then Forsythe, go to East Hampton 
 this morning. Take the ten-seven train. 
 Don't wait go now." 
 
 "Why, what in the name of " 
 
 "I can't explain. Only go! And see 
 here, Forsythe. Whatever happens, remem- 
 ber, Z told you to go." 
 
 The receiver clicked on the hook as, before 
 Donald could say another word, Frayne rang 
 off. He tried to get the connection renewed 
 but without success, and from Frayne's of- 
 fice received only an assurance that he had not 
 been down that day and was not expected be- 
 fore the late afternoon, if then. 
 
 The whole affair was perplexing; slight as 
 was his acquaintance with Frayne, Donald 
 was sure there was some good reason for his 
 mysterious was it advice, or warning? He 
 had spoken with unmistakable sincerity and 
 there was nothing of importance to be done in 
 the office and just time to catch the ten-seven 
 train. Donald shut his desk. 
 
 Owing to the breaking-down of a gravel cart 
 at a grade crossing, the train was more than 
 an hour late, and Donald had plenty of time 
 to think the whole matter over quietly before 
 they drew into the station at East Hampton,
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 291 
 
 a little after two. He had sent no word of his 
 coming, partly because it seemed unnecessary, 
 partly because of a peculiar, foreboding in- 
 stinct. And it was this same sense of tangled 
 issues which led him, once arrived at the Maid- 
 stone Inn, to go unannounced straight up to 
 Elsie's room and knock at her door. 
 
 The "Come in!" was immediate, as though 
 such a summons had been expected. He 
 opened the door. 
 
 Elsie faced him, dressed as for a journey. 
 She was fastening her gloves. A packed suit 
 case with her initials on it stood ready beside 
 her. And as she saw him she gave a queer, 
 muffled, animal-like little cry and shrank back. 
 Fluff, tucked under her arm, yapped shrilly. 
 
 Donald closed the door, and with his back 
 to it stood silent, looking at her. He had a 
 curious feeling of unreality, of playing a part 
 whose every word and gesture had been ar- 
 ranged long ago. 
 
 "Well?" he said presently. 
 
 Elsie's cheeks were touched with rouge: it 
 stood forth now, startling against her pallor. 
 Her eyes were full of fear. She had been 
 keyed up to meet another and a very different 
 situation; the existing one had come too sud-
 
 292 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 denly for her rather slow wits to make the im- 
 perative changes, imperative adjustments. 
 She could not take hold of it and protect her- 
 self on the instant as a cleverer woman might 
 have done. 
 
 "Why are you here?" she gasped. The 
 words meant little; the tone much. 
 
 Only the surface of his mind was occupied 
 by her. Underneath, he was wondering how 
 and why Cuthbert Frayne had come to know 
 and to give him that warning message. So his 
 reply was long delayed, and she could not en- 
 dure the strain. 
 
 "You shan't stop me!" she cried sharply, 
 hysterically. "You shan't, I tell you, you 
 shan't! I'm going to him I don't care what 
 you say, I don't care what happens." 
 
 The rising sobs choked her. 
 
 Donald, still standing silent, his back 
 against the door, saw red for a moment. A 
 brief, furious rage, unreasoning, atavistic, 
 caught and shook him. He was suddenly sure 
 that it was Cuthbert Frayne to whom Elsie 
 alluded, and had Frayne entered his presence 
 at that instant, he would indubitably have had 
 him by the throat. 
 
 Then swiftly as it had come, his rage sub-
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 293 
 
 sided; had not Elsie, in accordance with her 
 own expressed wish, long ceased to be his wife 
 in anything but name? Between them no 
 mental or spiritual bond had ever existed. 
 Why should he, a reasonable man of the 
 twentieth century, yield to the possessive, 
 dog-in-the-manger instinct of the primitive 
 brute? 
 
 His composure regained, he looked her up 
 and down wonderingly. He had long known 
 the potentiality that was within her of this sud- 
 den recklessness, this sudden willingness to 
 fling aside the social position about which she 
 talked so much, seeming to value it so highly. 
 Always he had marveled at the streak of 
 primitive passion in the otherwise worldly and 
 calculating Elsie, aware that it might at any 
 instant transform her into a little animal, 
 ready to sacrifice to her immediate desires and 
 appetites all that she usually cared for most. 
 One could not, he knew, count on her, count 
 on her reactions to any given stimulus, as it is 
 possible to do with most people. But he was 
 not a physician, and he did not fully under- 
 stand, did not see the whole truth as Doctor 
 Brainerd had glimpsed it on that winter even- 
 ing when the pink-shaded candlelight falling
 
 294 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 on Elsie's face had revealed that which he felt 
 guilty for having observed. 
 
 Donald's voice was tired and pitying, rather 
 than angry, as he asked quietly and a little 
 wonderingly: "Is it Cuthbert Frayne?" 
 
 She had quailed at sight of him, and she 
 quailed still. She tried to answer, tried to 
 protest, but could not. It was as though he 
 had brought with him an arctic frost, congeal- 
 ing her hot blood. 
 
 And just at that moment a knock sounded 
 on the door, and they heard the voice of the 
 Irish porter, saying: "The carriage is coom 
 ter take yer ter th' thrain, m'm." 
 
 Donald opened the door, so placing himself 
 that he screened Elsie. 
 
 "Mrs. Forsythe has changed her mind. 
 She isn't going to-day," he said. 
 
 He had not the faintest doubt of the power 
 of his will over hers, of his ability perfectly to 
 control her actions, so long as he was with her 
 in person. For these were facts which had 
 been demonstrated many times. 
 
 The door closed again, and turning, he re- 
 peated his question in a slightly altered form: 
 "It is Cuthbert Frayne?" 
 
 She nodded ; then broke into a shrill, hysteri-
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 295 
 
 cal cry: "I will go to him I will I will! 
 I hate you! I've hated you for years! I 
 won't" 
 
 At the moment she really believed she had 
 hated Donald for years; but she was in truth 
 quite unable to cherish any strong feeling for 
 any length of time, and what she now called 
 hatred was only a mixture of irritation, dis- 
 appointment, and a vague dislike. Donald 
 knew this, and he smiled a little; for to him 
 she could not but seem rather absurd. 
 
 "You're going to stay here in East Hamp- 
 ton for a while, anyway," he said, with the 
 quiet determination against which she had long 
 since become aware that her resistance was as 
 futile as Fluff's, though this did not prevent 
 her from attempting feeble combat. 
 
 She threw herself face downwards on the 
 bed, crying unrestrainedly, like the spoilt child 
 she so greatly resembled. 
 
 "Oh oh ! I wish I was dead! Every- 
 body's horrid to me," she wailed. "I'll kill 
 myself I will! Then you'll be sorry you 
 treated me so! I will kill myself I don't 
 care " 
 
 "Oh, no, you won't," Donald remarked with 
 calm conviction. "Oh, no, you won't. You
 
 296 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 will sit up and listen to me. Now then," and 
 something, the ring of command in his voice, 
 perhaps, made her obey, though the tears were 
 still running down her face, streaking the 
 rouge and powder, and the great gulping sobs 
 convulsed her slender throat "now then; you 
 were going to run away?" 
 
 "Y-yes." The word came reluctantly, de- 
 spite her previous outbursts. The expensive 
 French hat of blue straw which matched her 
 suit had been knocked awry, giving her a some- 
 what dissipated appearance. 
 
 "You were going to Frayne?" The ring of 
 command was still in his voice. 
 
 For answer, she sobbed violently. 
 
 He paused; then said with the utmost de- 
 liberation: "It was Frayne who telephoned 
 me to come down here to-day." 
 
 That made her gasp. "Oh, he wouldn't! 
 He wanted me to wait to go to Reno or some- 
 where and get a divorce, but I I couldn't 
 bear / don't mind the scandal! I love him 
 I" 
 
 A fresh spasm of sobbing choked her. 
 
 But that broken confession had dispersed 
 all uncertainty for Donald, making clear the 
 mystery of Frayne's warning. Had the train
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 297 
 
 been on time, he would have arrived before 
 Elsie's preparations for departure were well 
 under way. His coming would almost cer- 
 tainly have stopped her, while he himself 
 easily might, and very likely would, have re- 
 mained entirely ignorant of the step she had 
 intended to take. A little more quickness of 
 wit on her part 
 
 Frayne wanted everything arranged legally 
 and in strict accordance with established so- 
 cial customs: Elsie thought only of getting 
 what she wanted with the utmost possible ra- 
 pidity. And she wanted it, he realized, as 
 she had never wanted anything before. Only 
 he did not know that this was simply because 
 Frayne was the first man who, since her mar- 
 riage, had done more than flirt a little with 
 her. 
 
 He must see Frayne, and at once. 
 
 "Dry your eyes and wash your face, Elsie," 
 he said authoritatively. "We're not going to 
 let you make a fool of yourself." 
 
 And with an odd appreciation of the irony 
 of it all, he suddenly recognized that he had 
 linked himself with Cuthbert Frayne. 
 
 He went down to the office, engaged a room 
 for the night, and calling up Frayne's place
 
 298 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 of business on the telephone, made an appoint- 
 ment to meet him there next day, all with that 
 same odd feeling of unreality, of playing a 
 part previously written and even rehearsed. 
 Then he walked down to the beach and lay 
 awhile on the sand. It would be wise to leave 
 Elsie alone for a time ; and he really had noth- 
 ing more to say to her. 
 
 Consequently he was not in the least dis- 
 turbed when on the following morning she 
 sulked, refusing to speak to him. His busi- 
 ness now was with Frayne, and for that in- 
 terview he would need all his energies, all his 
 self-control. 
 
 The appointment was for five o'clock; in- 
 terruptions being distinctly undesirable, Don- 
 ald had chosen a late hour. He was shown at 
 once into the room where Frayne awaited him, 
 a good-sized thickly-carpeted apartment smell- 
 ing strongly of hot leather and stale cigarette 
 smoke. In after years that combination of 
 odors always brought Frayne's face into Don- 
 ald's mind as he saw it then, anxious, with 
 keen, uneasy eyes. 
 
 For a moment the two men stood measuring 
 each other across the wide oak table which 
 separated them, both aware, the one awk-
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 299 
 
 vvardly, the other with a certain bitter amuse- 
 ment, that they were ignoring all the conven- 
 tionalities of their unconventional situation. 
 It was Donald who at last broke the silence : 
 
 "I thought it best that we should meet and 
 talk this affair over quietly," he said. And 
 no one would have guessed that at sight 
 of Frayne the unreasoning, atavistic rage had 
 leaped up in him once more and been sternly 
 repressed. He, the lamester, could dominate 
 only by force of will and brain; and he meant 
 to dominate. 
 
 Frayne nodded, with a relieved expression 
 which caused Donald to add in the rather caus- 
 tic tone he sometimes used: 
 
 "Of course, I know that according to all the 
 established rules for a matter of this kind, we 
 ought at least to be breaking chairs over each 
 other's heads. Take it all in all, though, I'm 
 not thirsting for your blood just now. And 
 I'm perfectly willing to suppose that you'll 
 restrain any latent desire you may have to im- 
 bibe mine." 
 
 "That's right," Frayne's reply was compre- 
 hensive, if not eloquent. He was in truth 
 more than a trifle bewildered. 
 
 "Well, then, suppose you give me a brief
 
 300 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 history of the whole matter. I really think 
 I may be wrong, but I really do think I have 
 some small claim to enlightenment." 
 
 Irony was a weapon Frayne did not under- 
 stand. He was, however, neither a weakling 
 nor a coward, and if he knew nothing of rapier 
 play, he was at least capable of wielding a 
 bludgeon with some efficiency. Only just now 
 a bludgeon seemed rather out of place. He 
 drew a long breath, and began: 
 
 "I met the little lady last summer, and 
 oh, I guess you know well enough how these 
 things start off! I ain't a villain out of a 
 movie show" in moments of excitement 
 Frayne occasionally lapsed into the vernacu- 
 lar "but where's the harm in a bit of flirtin'? 
 'Least, that was what Z thought. And then 
 I found I was gettin' in deeper and deeper. 
 She well, she wasn't happy." 
 
 For the first time he squared his big shoul- 
 ders and glanced aggressively at Donald, who 
 gave a little nod. 
 
 "I know!" he said sympathetically. "She 
 made you feel sorry for her, didn't she? I 
 know!" 
 
 A blow would have been less humiliating to 
 Cuthbert Frayne than that pronouncement, so
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 301 
 
 spoken. For a blow he could have returned, 
 while against this hint that he had been what 
 he himself would have termed "an easy mark," 
 he was powerless. Donald saw with entirely 
 carnal satisfaction that his flick of the lash 
 had drawn blood. 
 
 Frayne had a confused, exasperated sense 
 that it was he who should be triumphant, con- 
 descending to this cripple, to this husband 
 whose wife was ready to leave him at the lift- 
 ing of his Frayne's little finger. It was 
 his to be superior, his to sneer. And yet he 
 was aware of inferiority, of being dominated 
 mentally and morally, by one he could have 
 disposed of, physically, with ease. 
 
 His irritation showed in voice and manner 
 as he replied bluntly: "Yes, she did. 
 Damned sorry." 
 
 Donald held up a protesting hand. 
 
 "There, there!" he said in the soothing man- 
 ner he knew to be particularly galling to 
 Frayne. No person on earth is so exasperat- 
 ing as the opponent who is able to keep his 
 temper after we have lost our own. "Don't 
 get excited ; it's much too hot." 
 
 But for all his soothing tone, his nonchalant 
 manner, his knowledge that it was he who dom-
 
 302 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 inated the situation, the consciousness of his 
 physical inferiority to Frayne was like a 
 gnawing tooth within him. 
 
 Frayne glowered at him, speechless for a 
 moment. Then he managed to control him- 
 self so far as to be able to snap out: "Well, 
 what the devil are we to do, anyway? What 
 are you going to do?" 
 
 "You think that's the question?" 
 
 "Of course; ain't it?" 
 
 Donald smiled; and again that feeling of 
 unreality and a part rehearsed, swept over 
 him. 
 
 "If you'll pardon my saying so," he re- 
 marked pleasantly, "your point of view seems 
 to me a trifle shall we call it, medieval? 
 Will you be so good as to tell me frankly 
 just how you think I am to settle affairs 
 for the three of us? I'd really like to 
 know." 
 
 Frayne opened his mouth to speak, but no 
 words came, and he sat staring at Donald and 
 looking somewhat like a huge, embarrassed, 
 gasping fish. Concrete issues he could man- 
 age, whether they were of men or of events, 
 but these subtleties perplexed him hopelessly. 
 Characteristically enough, he had endeavored
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 303 
 
 to dispose of his difficulties by dumping them 
 on another man's shoulders. 
 
 And still that other man waited for a reply, ' 
 an ironical smile just touching his clean- 
 shaven, thin-lipped mouth, as though he read 
 Frayne's thoughts and considered them amus- 
 ing. 
 
 "A man ought to be able to manage his own 
 wife." Frayne was perfectly aware of the 
 banality of this remark, but he could think of 
 no other. 
 
 Donald's smile became a wee bit more pro- 
 nounced. 
 
 "How, please?" he inquired. "By lock and 
 key, physical violence, or will power? The 
 first two methods are obsolete in fact, they're 
 actually illegal and the third requires con- 
 stant exertion. Oh, I admit that face to face 
 with Elsie, I'm entirely capable of govern- 
 ing her, but surely you don't expect me to 
 remain face to face with her for the rest of my 
 natural life?" 
 
 "Then you mean to let her do as she darned 
 pleases?" Frayne's exclamation was unmis- 
 takably tinged with alarm. 
 
 "Not altogether. But if your respect for 
 the proprieties hadn't induced you to call on
 
 304 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 me for assistance You see?" A shrug 
 completed the sentence. 
 
 "What did she tell you?" Frayne demanded 
 brusquely. It was quite needless to explain 
 that he had believed Elsie possessed of a 
 quicker wit than was hers. 
 
 "That you wanted her to go to Reno and 
 get a divorce, but she objected to the neces- 
 sary exile. I understand it was your strong 
 desire to have everything done decently and in 
 order." 
 
 Frayne hesitated. As well almost as Don- 
 ald himself, he knew the word "exile" had been 
 substituted for another. Presently he said 
 with a certain blunt straightforwardness 
 which was not without dignity: "Well, not 
 to beat about the bush any, it's this way. I'd 
 like to marry the little lady. I guess we'd 
 hit it off first-rate. She's my sort, and she 
 ain't yours. She don't care a hang about the 
 things you like; all she wants is plenty of 
 money and the kind of good time I'd give her. 
 Ain't that so?" 
 
 Donald nodded. "Yes," he said slowly, 
 "yes, you're right." 
 
 "But you see it's this way, 4 ' Frayne went 
 on, encouraged by the other's attitude.
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 305 
 
 "Scandal wouldn't suit my book not by a 
 long shot. I'm a self-made man, socially, and 
 I've had to do some pretty stiff climbin'. I 
 mean to climb higher yet, but I couldn't do it 
 with a wife other women wouldn't know. 
 See?" 
 
 "I see. But you can hardly expect me to 
 become greatly exercised over the difficulties 
 of your social career." 
 
 "No; but that ain't all." Frayne was 
 speaking now with obvious embarrassment. 
 " 'Twouldn't suit her either. You know 
 how women are, once they've kicked over the 
 traces! And she's the sort that if she ever 
 thought she was outside " 
 
 He broke off with an imploring glance at 
 Donald, drew forth a large silk handkerchief, 
 and wiped his moist forehead. 
 
 "I understand," said Donald quietly. "Go 
 
 on." 
 
 Frayne paused. He very much did not 
 want to go on. The thing in Elsie which Doc- 
 tor Brainerd had divined and Donald felt, the 
 thing which underlay and complicated the en- 
 tire situation, he was vaguely aware of, but 
 without knowledge or understanding. 
 
 "Well," he went on at last, "there ain't much
 
 306 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 more to say. If you and her get divorced, 
 then she can marry me all straight and regu- 
 lar. But I wish" 
 
 Again he broke off, and again Donald 
 forced him to continue : 
 
 "Go on!" 
 
 "I wish it could be managed without her 
 goin' off all alone to a place like Reno. Here 
 in New York where people know her it's dif- 
 ferent." 
 
 Donald glanced up quickly, with a half sup- 
 pressed exclamation: "Ah! You see the 
 danger too, then?" 
 
 "You bet I do! I didn't at first, but 
 now " 
 
 "It's the obstacle which occurred to me.' 
 Frankly, I have a certain feeling of re- 
 sponsibility. And yet I don't quite see 
 how a smash-up of some sort is to be 
 avoided." 
 
 A long pause; in the stillness a couple of 
 flies buzzed insistently. At last Frayne said 
 with a curious mixture of diffidence and 
 bravado : 
 
 "There's a way if you'll take it." 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 "Let her divorce you here."
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 307 
 
 Donald's shoulder jerked. "But that 
 means " 
 
 Frayne had intended to say one thing; he 
 substituted another. "Providing legal evi- 
 dence. It's often done." 
 
 "Yes, I know" 
 
 "Of course, if you insist on Reno," Frayne 
 continued thoughtfully, "I suppose between 
 us we can make the little lady agree." 
 
 "If I insist! Really, my dear Mr. 
 Frayne!" 
 
 "Oh, damn it all! I forgot!" Frayne's 
 consternation was as sincere as it was ludi- 
 crous. "Sittin' here talkin', we two 
 
 "It's not quite the usual thing under the cir- 
 cumstances, is it? But it seems so much more 
 sensible than coffee and pistols for two, for 
 instance." 
 
 Frayne started, and looked uneasy, and 
 Donald smiled a little. He had dominated, 
 as he had meant to do; he could feel confident 
 that if he yielded, he yielded to his own belief 
 that he was doing what was right and just, not 
 to Cuthbert Frayne. For he knew that it 
 was Frayne who feared him, not he Frayne. 
 
 "Of course," he said encouraginglyhe 
 could afford to be encouraging now! "of
 
 308 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 course, if things weren't exactly as they 
 
 are" 
 
 He stopped there. He could not add that 
 if he had had a spark of love left for his wife, 
 or if he had thought her one who required 
 more than material and sensual satisfactions, 
 he would be opposing with all the strength of 
 his wit and his will the man with whom he now 
 talked so quietly. 
 
 Frayne continued eagerly: "Of course, I 
 know I'm the one who ought to pay the shot 
 all right, if anybody's got to pay! If we 
 didn't have such a damfool divorce law in this 
 State there'd be no trouble. It would be just 
 a plain matter of correctin' a mistake, and no 
 harm done to anybody. But as things are " 
 
 Again Donald's shoulder jerked. "As 
 things are, it looks as if I might have to make 
 myself legally culpable in order to keep Elsie 
 from spoiling all the rest of her life ! Thanks 
 to you " 
 
 But he stopped there. For he knew Elsie 
 too well to hold Frayne entirely, or even prin- 
 cipally responsible. Frayne or another the 
 first who seemed likely to satisfy the demands 
 of her real self, unfastidious beneath the so- 
 cial veneer, greedy, sensual, materialistic, un-
 
 THE LITTLE GODS 309 
 
 intelligent. There was no doubt whatever in 
 his mind that Frayne was right when he de- 
 clared that he would "hit it off first-rate" with 
 Elsie. She would be at once happier and 
 safer with Frayne, who could give her all she 
 wanted, than she had ever been with him ; mat- 
 ters had so fallen out that he could best fulfill 
 the pledge and obligation he had taken upon 
 himself by leaving her free to become the wife 
 of this other man. He smiled a little grimly 
 as he thought of the smirch he must put upon 
 his own name, the infidelity of which he must 
 become apparently guilty in order that the 
 very essence of loyalty might be preserved. 
 And when he left Frayne, he had agreed seri- 
 ously to consider "the one way." 
 
 Surely, the little gods were enjpying them- 
 selves ! 
 
 The grim smile was still on Donald's lips as 
 he got into the elevator, for he believed that 
 this thing which he had practically agreed to 
 do, far from removing the barrier between 
 Nita Wynne and himself, would render it for- 
 ever impassable.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 AN END AND A BEGINNING 
 
 rTlHE first bit of information about the 
 A ironic twist Donald's affairs had taken 
 that Nita received, came to her one April 
 morning, as she lay in her steamer chair, 
 propped up with pillows, and watched the 
 sunshine sparkling on the waters of the Irish 
 Sea. Nearly a year of hard work, "some- 
 where in France," and constant strain, mental 
 and moral as well as physical, had temporarily 
 exhausted her usually abundant stock of vi- 
 tality. The doctors had ordered her to go 
 home and rest, under threat of a possible in- 
 validism, and she was now on her way from 
 Liverpool to New York, her common sense 
 telling her that she was incapacitated for the 
 kind of work she had been doing during the 
 past months, while in her own country she 
 could add her voice, her testimony, feeble 
 though both might be, in protest against con- 
 tinued and shameful inaction. For the
 
 AN END AND A BEGINNING 311 
 
 Lusitania had been followed by the Arabic and 
 the Ancona; the crowning atrocity of the Sw- 
 sex had brought forth one more example of 
 epistolary talents, and the United States was 
 still, officially at least, on friendly terms with 
 the murderer nation. Nita thought of the hos- 
 pital near Paris where she had served, of the 
 children in the little English coast villages, 
 foully done to death by Zeppelin bombs, of the 
 faces of the Belgian refugees 
 
 But these were thoughts against which she 
 had been warned. She moved a little, and the 
 edge of the fur rug in which she was wrapped 
 to the chin touched her cheek caressingly. 
 She drew forth one hand and stroked it with an 
 almost childish delight. It was so pleasant to 
 remember that such soft and lovely things still 
 existed in the world! 
 
 And now she was going back home. Once 
 more the problems of that individual life, of 
 whose importance to herself she had come to 
 feel almost ashamed, must be met face to face. 
 Not that she had ever forgotten or tried to 
 evade them; only to one of her sympathetic 
 temperament self-abnegation had seemed in- 
 evitable, a mere matter of course there in 
 France, where a nation set the example.
 
 312 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 For a long time Nita lay alone, soothed by 
 that gentle lapping of the water she was so 
 soon to exchange for the clash! bang! of the 
 New York streets. She was dreaming rather 
 than thinking, for her brain seemed partly be- 
 numbed by the very force and multiplicity of 
 the impressions it had received during the past 
 year: yet what she had seen was after all but a 
 tiny fragment of the stupendous whole. And 
 now as she reclined there, temporarily out of 
 it all, the one thing clearly present to her mind 
 was a sense of fellowship, of being herself one 
 in a vast, closely knit organization of indi- 
 viduals, strikingly different, strikingly alike. 
 She was proud, very proud, of her own small 
 part in this fellowship, while humble as never 
 before in her opinion of herself. For she had 
 seen what men and women mere ordinary, 
 everyday men and women can become; real- 
 ized as a living, splendid fact what she had 
 heretofore only believed in a vague, theoretical 
 way : that in humanity divinity abides. 
 
 She was presently aroused by the appearance 
 of the steward, bringing letters forwarded 
 from her hotel in London. Nita read several 
 with mild pleasure, and at last came to one 
 in her stepmother's sprawling hand. Mrs.
 
 AN END AND A BEGINNING 313 
 
 Wynne loved to pour forth gossip, and as let- 
 ters offer a means of doing this unchecked by 
 interruptions, she was the most faithful of cor- 
 respondents. Her writing was fairly legible, 
 and Nita went idly through paragraph after 
 paragraph of small talk, which if it told of an 
 existence that now seemed very remote, was 
 nevertheless restful to one who had been living 
 at a tension which strained body and nerves to 
 the breaking point. She turned a page: 
 
 "I have one piece of news I'm sure will sur- 
 prise you," Mrs. Wynne wrote. "Elsie has 
 divorced Donald Forsythe, and in this State! 
 The case was tried before a referee, and so far 
 as I can find out, no one knows much about it. 
 Well, it only goes to prove what I've always 
 said: Any woman can get a divorce if she 
 really wants one. Watch the man; that's all 
 there is to it." 
 
 Nita gave a little gasp and sat up straight, 
 eagerly looking for more. But the next sen- 
 tence switched to a different topic, and she 
 dropped back again among the pillows, un- 
 consciously crushing the letter in a hard grip. 
 Lightning-swift her thoughts raced back over 
 the years, seeking an explanation; the seem- 
 ingly obvious one she had instantly dismissed,
 
 314 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 as unworthy of even the briefest consideration. 
 She knew Donald Forsythe too well. Some- 
 thing of the truth she divined almost instantly, 
 but the actual, rather ironical way it had come 
 about, she could not even guess at. Her belief 
 was that her dread had been justified, and 
 Donald permitted Elsie to obtain the divorce in 
 order to save her good name. Such were the 
 outlines of the affair as she saw them, not 
 wholly unlike the fact, only more crude, more 
 glaring in color. It was when she tried to fill 
 in those outlines that she found herself at- 
 tempting the impossible. 
 
 Passing from this vain endeavor, she sought 
 to gauge Donald's mental attitude toward 
 the situation and toward herself. It was 
 then that she came nearest to the full truth, al- 
 most as near, indeed, as it is ever possible for 
 one human being to come to the mind and heart 
 of another. She remembered the sacrifice she 
 had made, the ideal of loyalty she had held so 
 high. And humbly, from the very depths of 
 her soul, she thanked God that in this one thing 
 at least she had not failed. There might, prob- 
 ably would be, whispers and innuendoes; the 
 law would forbid them to marry in their own 
 city and State. All that these unpleasant-
 
 AN END AND A BEGINNING 315 
 
 nesses would mean to him, loving and reverenc- 
 ing her as he did, she very well understood; 
 but she intended to brush them aside. Before 
 the high judgment seat of their own con- 
 sciences they would stand, he and she, free 
 from blame. 
 
 And once again a weary, dragging voice 
 echoed in her ears: "Nothing matters any 
 more." 
 
 What matters, what does not matter : some- 
 thing of this was among the lessons the years 
 had taught her. 
 
 Of these and many other things she thought 
 long and often during the following week 
 while, lying at ease in her steamer chair, she 
 drew in fresh vitality with every breath from 
 the sea she dearly loved. And sometimes mem- 
 ory took her back to the girl who had been so 
 sure of herself, so ready to pronounce judg- 
 ment on others. "Tolerance is an acquired 
 virtue else it isn't a virtue at all," Donald had 
 said. How much of it had she as yet acquired, 
 who had once had so little? And suddenly she 
 remembered an episode of her youth, her own 
 emphatic: "She smokes and makes up and 
 drinks cocktails, and every one knows that she 
 and Mr. Ashurst arranged their divorce.
 
 316 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 Nice women don't do such things." She could 
 hear herself saying that, could see the dining 
 room in her old home, her father seated on the 
 other side of the damask-covered table. How 
 positive she had been then! 
 
 The days of the voyage, the first few days 
 after her return slid by, shadowy as a remem- 
 bered dream. It seemed to her that her real 
 life was temporarily suspended while she 
 waited for the meeting which was to be at once 
 an end and a beginning, to give significance to 
 her existence, past, present, and future. But 
 when a week had passed, she understood that if 
 it was to come at all, it must come either 
 through chance or her own doing; and chance 
 might be so slow, might act so awkwardly ! 
 
 Two weeks and more had gone, and she was 
 again established in the little apartment on 
 Gramercy Park, when one afternoon she sat 
 down at her desk, wrote a brief note, and dis- 
 patched it on the instant only to wish heart- 
 ily that she could undo the impetuous act the 
 moment the missive was safely in the box. 
 There is such a terrifying finality about the 
 posting of a letter! 
 
 Yet to the outsider this one would have 
 seemed simple and impersonal enough:
 
 AN END AND A BEGINNING 317 
 
 My dear Mr. Forsythe, 
 
 It has occurred to me that several rather in- 
 teresting and perhaps useful articles could be 
 made out of my experiences in France and 
 England. As I know very little about arrang- 
 ing for such things, I am venturing to ask you 
 to come in some afternoon this week and give 
 me a little advice. I have been ill, and am still 
 unable to go around very much, else I would 
 not trouble you. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 ANITA WYNNE. 
 
 Businesslike and unromantic, surely! Yet 
 Nita flushed crimson every time she thought of 
 those somewhat stiff phrases. She hoped he 
 would come immediately she hoped he would 
 not come at all I And then she rebuked herself 
 for giving so much as an instant's consideration 
 to the traditions and standards of behavior 
 inherited from generations of women to whom 
 a husband meant not only a mate but also a 
 food-and-clothes purveyor. For ten years 
 and more she had faced the world, standing 
 erect and unaided on her own two feet. She 
 was glad now that circumstances had thrust 
 her out of the ranks of the dependents, 
 
 Although it seemed long to her, in clock 
 measurement the time was short between her
 
 318 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 sending of the note and Donald's appearance. 
 She had mailed it late one afternoon, and the 
 next his quick limping step sounded in the hall 
 outside her door. 
 
 She rose and stood waiting, lithe, tense, 
 seeming as of old poised ready for flight. But 
 when he entered and took her outstretched 
 hand, she could not see his face for the mist 
 that dimmed her eyes. And she never knew 
 how long the silence lasted. 
 
 Presently they were seated, she leaning 
 back in the big chair which was Mary's favor- 
 ite, he sitting straight and stiff, rigid as never 
 before in her presence. And his first question 
 came almost tonelessly, as if an effort were re- 
 quired just to force it through his lips: 
 
 "You've been ill?" 
 
 She smiled, a little wistfully ; somehow, with 
 the breaking of the long silence, ease had come 
 to her. More than ever did she resemble a 
 crystal-shielded flame. Her slender form, her 
 long, thin, nervous hands, seemed refined to 
 the very utmost, as though the inner fire had 
 burned away all the dross, leaving only an ex- 
 quisite, transparent shell for the radiant spirit 
 to inhabit, 
 
 "Yes," she said quietly; and though she
 
 AN END AND A BEGINNING 319 
 
 thought she spoke in her usual tone, her voice 
 had never before been so musical, so velvet- 
 soft. "Yes, a little. I worked too hard, of 
 course. Every one does over there." A 
 shadow passed across her face, darkening her 
 eyes for a moment. She would never forget 
 what she had seen "over there." 
 
 "And now?" 
 
 If the breaking of the silence had brought 
 ease to her, for him self-control was becoming 
 more difficult every instant. Her fragile look, 
 the wistful smile, the passing shadow all 
 these indicated a need which appealed to every 
 fiber of manliness within him. 
 
 "And now," she repeated, speaking very 
 quietly, though the slim hands clasped together 
 in her lap held each other in a tense grip, "and 
 now I want to pick up all the threads I've 
 dropped in the past eleven months. I want to 
 find out" she forced herself to finish the sen- 
 tence, though the violent beating of her heart 
 made her almost breathless "what has hap- 
 pened to all my friends and why." 
 
 He drove straight at what he recognized for 
 the real meaning of her words; fencing, eva- 
 sion, seemed unworthy, almost an insult to her. 
 "You know, then?"
 
 320 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 An instant she hesitated, but only that she 
 might master the choking constriction of her 
 throat. And in one brief sentence she ex- 
 pressed her faith : 
 
 "I know you have saved Elsie," she said. 
 
 He had been staring out of the window with 
 eyes that saw nothing of either park or street. 
 Now he turned towards her sharply, as his 
 shoulder jerked in the old familiar way. 
 Loyal to the end, he would have denied the 
 implication, but could not with those beloved 
 eyes upon him. 
 
 "Who is the man?" she asked gently. 
 
 "Cuthbert Frayne. They will be married 
 next month." Why refuse to admit what she 
 would surely know in a very little while ? 
 
 "Then what we both tried so hard to pre- 
 vent ?" For the first time in all the years 
 that difficult joint guardianship was thus 
 openly acknowledged. 
 
 But he interrupted her with a quick gesture 
 of denial. "No I not that." 
 
 "Tell me ; I want to think as well of her as I 
 
 can." 
 
 And bluntly, minimizing as far as he could 
 Elsie's wrong, laying all possible stress on his 
 own shortcomings, he told her what he had
 
 AN END AND A BEGINNING 321 
 
 thought never to reveal to any human being. 
 
 When he had finished, she was silent for a 
 time, while her knowledge both of him and of 
 Elsie supplied many of the gaps his chivalry 
 had left unfilled. Then very slowly she asked : 
 
 "And what of you?" 
 
 "I've left the Colonial, and I'm joining the 
 staff of the National Review/' 
 
 "Oh, I am gladl" she exclaimed, the old 
 eager interest in tone and manner. For the 
 National Review, a weekly paper recently 
 started by a little band of exceptionally intelli- 
 gent men and women appealed, and was in- 
 tended to appeal, to educated and public- 
 spirited readers, and was achieving a success 
 very unlike that sought by the Colonial. 
 
 While they talked, the light had faded. 
 The corners of the room were full of shadows ; 
 everywhere outlines were softened. And with 
 the shadows, memories came thronging. 
 
 "But you?" Donald spoke brusquely, almost 
 violently. For his heart had leaped at that 
 note of eager interest in her voice, "You 
 won't go back." 
 
 She shook her head; and the mouth which 
 character had shaped into lines both strong and 
 sweet quivered a little.
 
 322 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 "Not for a time, at least." Something of 
 the struggle and the agony, the sacrifices and 
 the heroisms she had witnessed and shared 
 found expression now through the new, deep 
 thrill in her tones. "It was all very wonder- 
 ful. I'm just beginning to see fiow wonder- 
 ful" 
 
 She paused, unable to find words, she whose 
 speech had always been so swift, so impet- 
 uous. 
 
 And neither of them remembered the osten- 
 sible reason for his presence. 
 
 Suddenly he rose ; the strain and the conflict 
 were becoming too great for his endurance. 
 He dared not stay. 
 
 And Nita realized his pain and his struggle, 
 and all the strength of her being cried out in 
 protest. Her head swam, every nerve quiv- 
 ered. She felt dumb, helpless, stricken; yet 
 she rose and faced him, and words fell from her 
 stiff lips : 
 
 "I went over there mostly because you 
 wanted to go and couldn't. I tried to do 
 good work for both of us," 
 
 The last words were scarcely more than 
 breathed; but he heard them and took a quick 
 step forward. Then he recoiled.
 
 AN END AND A BEGINNING 823 
 
 "For both of us? You don't mean you 
 can't mean " 
 
 A moment her Hands covered her face, obe- 
 dient to the centuries-old instinct. She 
 dropped them, and confronted him proudly, 
 with head held high. Let him understand if 
 he would. 
 
 "Nita . . . ? Dearest!" 
 
 He caught the slender hands in his, and 
 stood looking down at her for one breathless 
 instant, questioning, incredulous. All the 
 complicated, perplexing web of lives entan- 
 gled with theirs fell away now. They were 
 alone together as on some mountain peak. 
 And there was only one thing that mat- 
 tered. 
 
 Swiftly he drew her to his arms, and she 
 went gladly, yielding her lips, proud to give 
 herself to this man she loved more nobly even 
 than he knew. 
 
 A little later, as they sat together on that 
 window seat from which Nita had so often 
 looked out, alone, over Gramercy Park, Don- 
 ald said : 
 
 "And I told myself I mustn't even dream 
 pf trying to make you care for me, mustn't ever
 
 324 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 tell you I loved you, because " He broke off 
 there, and his voice grew suddenly grave. 
 "Dear, how can I dare ask you to marry me? 
 You know what it means; going out of the 
 State and and all that." 
 
 She laughed softly and very happily ; yet she 
 did indeed know what it meant, knew far more 
 definitely than he, as a woman always under- 
 stands what "people will say" far better than 
 any man ever can. 
 
 "As if that mattered!" 
 
 "And I've so little to offer you! Uncle At- 
 kinson never forgave me for those North East- 
 ern articles, though since the war came, he's 
 been willing to speak to me." 
 
 The words were uttered in all sincerity. 
 He did not know that to Atkinson Matthews, 
 once Major Matthews of the Union Army, his 
 grandnephew's stand for American honor and 
 association with the American Rights Commit- 
 tee had obliterated everything else; nor that 
 because of this, he, Donald Forsythe, would 
 find himself before many months were passed 
 the astonished possessor of a comfortable in- 
 come. 
 
 Nita laughed again. "What difference does 
 that make? You have your work and I mine;
 
 AN END AND A BEGINNING 325 
 
 I don't intend to give it up, I warn you. We 
 shan't starve!" 
 
 "I wonder if any woman ever lived one half 
 so sweet and strong and lovely and gener- 
 ous" 
 
 She lifted her hand in quick protest, dearly 
 as she loved to hear him praise her. He kissed 
 the delicate fingers, and there was a short, well- 
 filled interval before she said, gently but very 
 seriously: 
 
 "Don't put me on a pedestal, Donald. It 
 isn't where I belong, dear, and it isn't a bit 
 comfortable. If you try it, I'll fall off and 
 hurt you. Just your good comrade . . ." 
 
 Another lovers' interlude, and then she went 
 on, giving expression to her thoughts in happy, 
 perfect assurance of his sympathy and compre- 
 hension : 
 
 "Do you remember what you once said about 
 tolerance being an acquired virtue? It's taken 
 a good many years to teach me even a little 
 bit of it and a good many people too. Dear 
 Miss Cornelia, and my stepmother, and Ru- 
 dolph Drake, and Geraldine Geraldine above 
 all!" 
 
 She broke off there, realizing how she her- 
 self would be judged when her marriage be-
 
 326 THE LITTLE GODS LAUGH 
 
 came known, how she herself would once have 
 judged any woman in a similar position. It 
 was another bit of irony for the little gods to 
 laugh over; but only the little gods would 
 laugh, and that just because they were little, 
 and so could not entirely understand. 
 
 He spoke adoringly: "But, sweetheart, if 
 you hadn't started out with all those fixed ideas 
 of right and wrong, you wouldn't be now 
 what you are. It's only the big people, the 
 idealists, who begin that way, and then are 
 taught by experience by life. If you'd been 
 smaller yourself, you wouldn't have expected 
 so much of everybody else." 
 
 She smiled up at him. "I wonder \ n she re- 
 plied softly. "I wonder! To sympathize to 
 understand " 
 
 And the little gods were still. 
 
 THE END
 
 By the author of " The Broad Highway" 
 
 THE DEFINITE OBJECT 
 
 Bj/JEFFERY FARNOL 
 Frontispiece by F. Vaux Wilson. $1.50 net 
 
 A vivid and enthralling romance of New York. Chicago 
 Herald. 
 
 We do not hesitate to say that Mr. Farnol has here pro- 
 duced not merely his own best work but also one of the best 
 works of fiction that any one has put forward this season. 
 We have read none in which so many and so very different 
 characters stand out more vital and distinct. New York 
 Tribune. 
 
 Readers will delight in Mr. Farnol's story which moves 
 presto to the end. It is one of the most diverting tales of 
 recent months. Boston Herald. 
 
 It is written with a whimsical and infectious gayety, a 
 lightness of touch and blitheness of spirit, which are quite 
 exhilarating. New York Times. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FAOT 
 
 A 000 131 123 2