L115KAK 1 
 
 OTIVERSITY OF CALIFORJ5U& 
 DAVIS 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 SONG AND STORY. 
 
 Z vol. izmo. $1.50. 
 
 A collection of Mr. Fawcett's admirable poems, including 
 
 the dramatic story of "Alan Eliot," the famous 
 
 ode entitled "The Republic," and the 
 
 lyrical gem, " The Rivers." 
 
 ADVENTURES OF A WIDOW. 
 
 i vol. ismo. $1.50. 
 
 A brilliant and fascinating novel, full of epigram and 
 
 . repartee, and thrilling with the life of 
 
 the nineteenth century. 
 
 JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. 
 BOSTON. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS 
 
 BY 
 
 EDGAR FAWCETT 
 
 AUTHOR OF " A GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE," " AN AMBITIOUS 
 WOMAN," "A HOPELESS CASE," ETC. 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 
 1884 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFOKflUA 
 DAVIS 
 
Copyright, 1883 and 1884, 
 BY EDGAR FAWCETT. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 2061851 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 i. 
 
 morning, in the latter part of July, a 
 lady chanced to emerge from the hall-door 
 way of a boarding-house in Newport, and stand 
 upon its broad piazza, looking about her with that 
 air of unconscious briskness which a sense of 
 novel surroundings and a recent cup of good coffee 
 will usually conspire to produce. 
 
 The name of this lady was Mrs. Romilly or 
 Elizabeth Cleeve Romilly, as the world had long 
 ago got into the habit of calling her. It can 
 not be said that this familiar yet august title 
 implied actual fame ; a certain sharp notoriety 
 had, indeed, at one time belonged to it; it had 
 rung disagreeably in the ears of many men, 
 twenty years ago, when for a woman to "take 
 the platform " roused hotter disclaimers than 
 now, and any active feminine participation in 
 public reformatory questions would wring from 
 
 7 
 
8 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 some cleanly male lips that sort of criticism 
 which passes the bounds of even insolent dis 
 paragement. Mrs. Romilly had been a zealot, 
 in her day, and a very hot one. In not a few 
 conventional households her name had been cited 
 with derision and contempt; she had been 
 pointed to as a brazen image of vulgarity and 
 immodesty; she had been drawn by roguish cari 
 caturists in a hundred varieties of amazonian 
 costume ; her convictions had been denounced 
 as braggadocio ; her headstrong courage had been 
 declared cheap ostentation ; her resolute teachings 
 had been termed antic immorality. Journalism 
 had written of her in acrid ink and with a barbed 
 pen. Once, at the end of a lecture in a distant 
 Western town, she had narrowly escaped personal 
 assault from two or three virtue-maddened 
 matrons. The final result of it all had been dis- 
 heartenment, though never intimidation. Slowly, 
 and with that grudging surrender of vantage 
 which is given only by intrepid self-believers, 
 she withdrew from the contest. Her indomitable 
 spirit remained unbroken. It was no loss of nerve 
 that had made her retreat. It was rather a sense 
 of the mighty inequality between her own deter 
 mination, however flinchless, and the task she had 
 so self-reliantly attempted. In the morning of 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 life, with the blood at swift flow through her 
 veins, with a warm philanthropy forever cheering 
 her like some magic elixir, it had not been hard to 
 think that a right of conquest was the sure talis 
 man of victory. But now her physical forces, 
 though still fine, had lost the first electric fresh 
 ness of their vitality. Her capable intellect had 
 grown cooler ; she perceived that the world has 
 its own way of destroying its own wrongs, and 
 that a very ardent protomartyr has often been 
 well at the rear of a great beneficial movement. 
 The successful iconoclast is rarely in advance of 
 his time. It is the supporters flocking round a 
 standard who best make a rebel battle-cry scare 
 the oppressor. 
 
 This large-hearted and noble-minded woman re 
 tired into private life with a silent acknowledg 
 ment that she had striven to pluck unripe fruit, to 
 reap an immature harvest. But her retirement 
 involved, after all, no momentous effort. Some of 
 the dire foes who had denied her a single womanly 
 grace would have been amazed to see her fondling 
 fingers twine themselves in the curls of her little 
 daughter, then but a year or two old, or witness 
 the devoted vigils that duty now called upon her 
 new leisure to hold at the bedside of a young hus 
 band, seized in full health with an acute consump- 
 
10 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 tion of terrible brevity. The truth was, she had 
 always possessed a nature of the sweetest domestic 
 sympathies. She had been a New England girl, 
 the child of a college professor, from whom she 
 had inherited her remarkable brain and her large, 
 scholarly aptitude. At three and twenty, an ex 
 tremely amiable and charming young man, then 
 about to be graduated from the neighboring col 
 lege, asked her to marry him, and Elizabeth gave 
 her answer with slight hesitation. Frank Romilly 
 was her opposite in nearly everything, but he had 
 won her heart, and still held it so securely when 
 his untimely death occurred, seven years after 
 their marriage, that the loss dealt her an irrepara 
 ble blow. He had been buoyant, superficial, 
 genial, and perhaps not a little faulty. But 
 Elizabeth, with her gravity, her reflectiveness, her 
 Greek, and her budding "theories," had found in 
 him delightful relaxation and abiding charms of 
 companionship. Romilly had inherited a comfort 
 able fortune, which luckily permitted him to am 
 buscade his native indolence behind the pretense 
 of administering law. In a social sense he had 
 suffered from what public opinion held as his 
 wife's atrocious foibles. But he had been per 
 fectly willing to suffer. He had never moved in 
 any superfine circle of nabobs and notabilities ; 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 11 
 
 neither birth nor inclination had drifted him 
 thither. Hence the ostracism resultant from his 
 wife's alleged misdeeds did not saddle him with a 
 very cumbrous burden. He bore it quite grace 
 fully and lightsomely, as he bore nearly every 
 thing. He thought Elizabeth superb, and believed 
 that she was going to shake society to its founda 
 tions. He intended to be present at the shaking. 
 He did not precisely understand what all her 
 glorious tumult was about, but he would make the 
 most vehement defence of its grand motives. 
 Now and then he defended it with something 
 more than flighty verbiage ; he became sternly, 
 even chivalrously angry. He was a man of mus 
 cular prowess and excellent pluck ; this fact 
 transpired, as such facts have a trick of doing 
 where a capable biceps coexists with much quiet 
 courage. But he was very rarely called upon 
 to championize his wife. People treated him 
 coolly, or furtively cut him, instead. Then had 
 come his pitiable and premature death, happen 
 ing just at the time when his beloved Elizabeth 
 had folded her far-soaring pinions and concluded 
 that, after all, there were heights too dizzy and 
 precarious for even their dauntless aspirations. 
 
 Many years had passed since then. Mrs. Rom- 
 illy's widowhood had been a term of repose from 
 
12 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 all disputatious or polemic courses. But she 
 looked back upon her hostile past with slight 
 repentant feeling. She had made not a few sin 
 cere and lasting friends during her strenuous cru 
 sade. These had recognized her, had given her 
 their hand-clasps, had smiled disdain at the slanders 
 assailing her. She continued to enjoy their friend 
 ship, though more through the medium of corre 
 spondence than personal intercourse, since they 
 dwelt, for the most part, in remote towns and 
 cities. 
 
 Meanwhile she had seen important changes in 
 the development of society, and noted them with 
 vigilant, deliberative eyes. As her mental vision 
 swept back through a decade and more, it dis 
 cerned, in one comprehensive coup d'ceil^ the mag 
 nificent energetic push of radical thought, and 
 realized the steadfast though tardy way in which 
 her century was justifying the audacities of her 
 youth. A few former tenets now wore for her 
 calmed spirit lamentable rawness; she both re 
 gretted and abjured them. But in the main she 
 was exempt from remorseful visitations. She had 
 been fiery and defiant, yet always true to a lofty 
 ideal. Her mistakes had been those of sincerity 
 alone. The world now not only admitted this, 
 but clad its admission in distinctly handsome 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 13 
 
 terms. Ridicule, disrespect, calumny, no longer 
 shot at her a single shaft. She had outlived all 
 that ; a new generation was supplanting the old ; 
 tolerance and liberality had begun to set her deeds 
 in their proper light before men. Massive preju 
 dice still existed ; she saw it in its full, burly bulk, 
 and deplored it with a gentle, dignified sorrow. 
 At the same time she felt that the air of the age 
 had cleared wonderfully, so to speak ; in religion, 
 in morality, in charitable administration, there 
 seemed to her a precious and thrifty enlighten 
 ment. Her imperishable optimism rejoiced and 
 exulted. The recent ethical writers won her cord 
 ial and prompt recognition. She regarded them 
 with something of the enthusiasm which an astron 
 omer may feel when his glass has set its search 
 ing disk upon a new star. 
 
 If she had been gifted with the art of expressing 
 her thoughts through the pen, these more tranquil 
 years would have wedded their peace to a sturdy lit 
 erary diligence. But her books remained always un 
 written ; their pages and binding were of the im 
 material sort, and were the melody of her earnest 
 voice, the enchanting candor of her gaze. A few 
 trusted friends had felt the eloquence of both. 
 They sat devoutly at her feet, and spoke of her as 
 the rapt disciple speaks of his revered master. 
 
14 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Since her husband's death she had lived in seclu 
 sion and privacy, not shunning her fellows, yet 
 rarely seeking them. Her daughter, Leah, had 
 grown up under her devoted tutelage. This young 
 girl, now in her eighteenth year, had never known 
 any teacher save her mother. They had come to 
 Newport, this summer, chiefly because Mrs. Rom- 
 illy's habits of study and mental application had 
 induced a distressing sleeplessness which threat 
 ened to grow chronic. Her general health contin 
 ued good ; it was only that her taxed nerves had 
 sounded a first note of alarm, which she was sensi 
 ble enough to heed and obey. 
 
 She looked a very lovely and stately lady as she 
 stood, now, upon the sunlit piazza, where an arch 
 of twinkling and restless vine-leaves, just over her 
 head, put all its emerald vivacity in pleasant con 
 trast with her serene repose of posture and visage. 
 In earlier days she had been beautiful, and now 
 that her rippled hair had become a frosty gray and 
 her straight-chiselled, classic face had replaced its 
 young bloom by a \varm-tinted, healthful paleness, 
 she was undoubtedly beautiful still. Her eyes, of 
 a rich, translucent hazel, had dimmed their natu 
 ral brightness with persistent reading, but in the 
 smile that so often sought her fresh, firm lips you 
 seemed to see the lost light of the eyes reproduced, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 15 
 
 as though some kind of tender theft retained it 
 there. 
 
 She had been counselled by her physician, a few 
 days ago, to renounce all but the lightest books 
 during her Newport sojourn ; yet already this en 
 forced abstinence had begun to grow irksome. 
 They had arrived at the famed watering-place yes 
 terday, to find it in a blur of whitish fog; but this 
 morning some delicious besom of sunshine had 
 brushed all damp vapors away from sky and earth. 
 Such enlivenment was very gladdening to Mrs. 
 Romilly ; the change of air had already told upon 
 her ; she had passed a night of refreshing sleep, 
 and now the windy brilliance of nature promised 
 her an exhilaration that must go far toward mak 
 ing her bear resignedly the new yoke of intellect 
 ual idleness. 
 
 " This is a mighty improvement," soon said a 
 clear voice in the doorway. At once the lady 
 turned, meeting her daughter, Leah, and they pres 
 ently fell into a little walk up and down the piazza, 
 with interlinked arms, as two women on terms of. 
 close intimacy will so often do when they have 
 lighted among people to whom both are strangers. 
 But as yet the piazza remained vacant of all other 
 boarders save themselves. 
 
 " The fogs here are almost historical, my dear," 
 
1G TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 said Mrs. Romilly, while she and Leah thus walked. 
 u Or, in any case, they are full of the dignity of 
 tradition. It will never do to treat them disre 
 spectfully in the hearing of old residents, you 
 know." 
 
 Leah laughed. She had a way of laughing 
 without the least hint of a smile. She was so un 
 like her mother in appearance that their kinship 
 had struck some observers as incredible. To the 
 mother Leah was wondrously like her dead hus 
 band. The resemblance was at times so appealing 
 that it roused in her a pensive amusement. Leah 
 had a tall, supple figure, which she liked to clothe 
 in garments of modish taste ; she had revolution 
 ized her mother's costumes three or four j r ears 
 ago, and superintended all purchases of Mrs. Rom- 
 illy's apparel with a dainty tyranny to which the 
 elder lady yielded in kindly despair. She would 
 insist that Leah made her quite too smart ; but 
 these gentle protests were treated with an amiable 
 disdain. It cannot be said that Leah Romilly 
 passed for amiable with her few friends ; she had 
 by no means her father's nature. Girls of her own 
 age were a little repelled by her ; she struck them 
 as indifferent and imperious ; she appeared always 
 to be regarding them from a height, a distance. If 
 they did not dislike her, they seldom told her their 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 17 
 
 secrets or treated her with unreserved freedom. 
 They thought her unsympathetic, but they admired 
 her notwithstanding and perhaps with covert 
 belief, in some cases, that she withheld her sympa 
 thy because of a very solid self-esteem. This air 
 of superiority did not seem out of place in Leah. 
 It even became her, as its cool tint becomes the 
 lily, or its multiplex depth the rose. She was rare 
 and elegant ; this went without saying. You might 
 as well have denied its symmetry to a swan as rar 
 ity to so high-bred a creature, with her light-step 
 ping grace of carriage, her small, shapely head 
 overfolded in shining breadths of blond hair, her 
 delicate-featured face of cameo-like profile, her 
 nut-brown eyes of golden lashes, her slender throat, 
 full of flexible curves. 
 
 She had met very few men, either young or old. 
 With the former she was usually grand to a degree 
 of actual impertinence, and apt to comment upon 
 them afterward with a bitter wit whose scorn pained 
 her mother. Mrs. Romilly could never understand 
 where Leah had got her turn for satire. She had 
 been quick, though indolent, in all educational 
 matters ; she mastered knowledge easily, but with 
 none of the scholar's treasuring and retentive en 
 joyment. In truth, her mother, who knew her 
 best, had never been sure of anything that she es- 
 
18 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 pecially enjoyed or loved, though sure of many 
 things that she held in fatigued disrelish, and many 
 more that she viewed with an impatient irony. 
 She had never been able to place her fond mater 
 nal hand on just the spot where Leah's heart lay ; 
 she had never felt it beat ; sometimes she would 
 almost doubt if it beat at all. There seemed a vir 
 ginal superciliousness about the girl that would 
 have shocked and repulsed had it not been for her 
 strong personal charms ; she had no sooner made 
 you disapprove of her than you somehow found 
 yourself pardoning. It was pride and coldness, 
 no doubt, but the pride and coldness of a young 
 Diana, white, swift, dazzling and before the ad 
 vent of Endymion. 
 
 " I shall be quite willing to respect the fogs if 
 they will only keep at a safe distance," said Leah, 
 after the delivery of her characteristic smileless 
 laugh. " I am afraid that Mrs. Preen's establish 
 ment contains enough excuse of another sort for 
 downright depression." 
 
 "I suppose you mean the people, Leah," an 
 swered Mrs. Romilly, with a soft shake of her head. 
 " It is so like you to mean and say hard things 
 about our fellow-boarders as soon as you have seen 
 them." 
 
 "But I have also heard them," returned Leah, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 19 
 
 lightly, "and so have you. What big draughts 
 upon our interest and compassion those two spin 
 ster sisters are going to draw ! is n't their name 
 Semmes ? They are so exactly alike that I shall 
 always be in ignorance which one has the weak chest 
 and which the neuralgia. Of course, when they 
 are met in concert, as it were, we can always know, 
 for they appear to do nothing except to pity the 
 lungs of one and the head of the other." 
 
 " Leah, they are very sweet old ladies, I think," 
 murmured her mother, with placid reproach. 
 
 " Then the dressy woman with the dog," con 
 tinued Leah. " Can't you hear it now ? " she went 
 on, as a sharp, thin bark resounded from inner re 
 gions. " It is so pleasant to see that miniature 
 animal perch itself on Mrs. Dickerson's lap and 
 make hungry darts at her fork ; you feel a nice 
 exciting doubt as to whether it may not leap on 
 your own plate the next minute." 
 
 " She is a very social person. I should really 
 like to know her better." 
 
 " I am afraid that little terrier wouldn't let you; 
 I suspect that it keeps watch on the threshold of 
 her affections. But, oh, what is the name of the 
 long, ghostly man, with white eyebrows and a 
 lemon-colored moustache ? " 
 
 " I don't know, Leah." 
 
20 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " We shall soon discover. He has talked of 
 nothing but drainage and pipes and sewer-gas 
 since we arrived. Did you notice ? He is a ma- 
 lario-maniac ! Is that good etymology ? Well, 
 you need n't tell me, if it is n't. He 's so amusing. 
 I am sure he thinks that the chances of poisoning 
 himself are nine out of ten every time he takes a 
 swallow of water. He appears to be on very 
 friendly terms with Dr. Pragley, the eminent di 
 vine from Brooklyn. Do you observe, by the way, 
 mother, what a clerical glare the divine gives you 
 every now and then from the corners of his black 
 eyes? It ought to be quite easy for anybody to 
 become eminent, I should say, with that stupen 
 dous nose. It 's a sort of triumphal arch. I sup 
 pose the great sentences roll out under it, when he 
 preaches, like a band of victorious soldiers." 
 
 " Leah ! " reproved her mother, in almost a flur 
 ried whisper, " you must be more guarded ! This 
 is precisely the mood you indulged while we were 
 abroad, two summers ago ! " 
 
 Leah looked askance at the doorway, which 
 they had just passed. " Oh, I dare say it is writ 
 ten," she answered, " that I am to set everybody 
 in Mrs. Preen's boarding-house by the ears. You 
 meet such ridiculous people in boarding-houses. 
 All the normal part of creation in Newport, they 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 21 
 
 say, occupies the cottages. I really begin to 
 think you were imprudent to bring me here. I 
 foresee the dawn of my own dreadful unpop 
 ularity." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly sighed. She was never so com 
 plaisant, never so slightly individual, as with her 
 daughter. Women of one-third her parts had 
 made better mothers, after all. It was now a 
 good while ago since she had accepted Leah's 
 flaws as irremediable ; the girl, just as she stood, 
 was Mrs. Romilly's single instance of loving a fel 
 low-creature without an effort toward the removal 
 of manifest faults. 
 
 "You court unpopularity," she said, with a 
 matter-of-course regret. " You take a morbid 
 enjoyment in it." 
 
 "Oh, no; I see the nonsense in people and 
 sometimes worse than that. For example, this 
 Dr. Pragley : I don't doubt that he would like to 
 shriek pietisms at you. You remember his tirades, 
 full of bigotry and brimstone ? Which newspaper 
 is it that always bristles with them on Monday 
 mornings ? " 
 
 "I have an idea that he is a sincere enough 
 man in his special way," said Mrs. Romilly, with 
 that quiefc promptitude of response which showed 
 her large-souled disinterestedness. " If he is nar- 
 
22 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 row, he is at least earnest. We too often mistake 
 narrowness for hypocrisy, and I must remember 
 that my liberalism would be a hollow vaunt if it 
 could not find in the former all struggling or 
 thwarted growths of goodness." 
 
 " Oh, I am not treating him from that point of 
 view," said Leah, as if all such high, wise charities 
 were a thrice-told tale. She did not speak with 
 any flippant intonation ; she appeared simply to 
 disregard her mother's philosophy, not to condemn 
 it. She had the air of inferring that it was too 
 serious a subject for the gay, auroral buoyancy of 
 the hour. " I merely meant," she finished, tossing 
 her head with a light languor, " that Dr. Pragley 
 and all the rest of them are in horrible taste." 
 
 " You care too much for what is in good or bad 
 taste, Leah," said her mother. "You persist in 
 looking at people's surfaces. This trait grows 
 with you." 
 
 Leah patted her mother's hand. Any playful 
 caress was unusual with her, and when given it 
 always had an effect of severe condescension, 
 never of even momentary surrender to sentiment. 
 She had no prettiness of mannerism, no winsome 
 arts. If her beauty had not been so willowy, so 
 pliant, so exquisitely feminine, it would less often 
 have escaped the charge of ungracious hardness. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 23 
 
 " I '11 not deny that you are perfectly right," she 
 said. " The older I grow, the more I feel like re 
 belling against what displeases my sense of outward 
 fitness. And I have begun to see that there are a 
 good many people in the world, after all, who 
 please me completely as regards form, style, de 
 portment, poKsh, nicety. They don't give my 
 sense of humor the least chance at them ; they 
 suit me ; they even win from me a positive def 
 erence. I should be glad to know more of them. 
 We met a few in our European travels : we have 
 fallen in with a few since then. Shall I give you 
 their names? . . . Well, perhaps I had best not. 
 You would recall that most of them are mentally 
 dull. But they were not at all dull to me. They 
 were frivolous, if you please, but I liked their 
 frivolity ; it was so attractively expressed. I 
 sometimes think that I was made to live among 
 them to be one of them. You know how qui 
 etly I have lived thus far. It seems to me that 
 there is some experience which I was meant for, 
 yet have never enjoyed. I feel a want, a need, 
 and I should not be a bit surprised if it could be 
 gratified by precisely the same kind of society 
 that you would consider unpardonably light. I 
 believe that I like light people, aimless people, 
 people who are not serious, who don't take things 
 
24 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 in earnest provided they are always well-dressed, 
 well-mannered, conventional. Perhaps it's all a 
 natural breaking away from early influences ; per 
 haps it 's some inheritance I got from Papa. You 
 are superfine. I admire you, and shall always 
 admire you ; but you are not conventional ; you 
 would be dressing in gowns of ten years ago if I 
 hadn't insisted otherwise. You're wonderfully 
 clever ; you have great thoughts, great views. If 
 you were not my mother if I were not ever so 
 fond of you if we hadn't lived together so 
 long, and all that, why, I fancy that I should treat 
 you like a book that is too deep for me, but at the 
 same time kept in bold relief on the shelf, as a 
 possession to be proud of. I should n't open you ; 
 you would be heavy reading ; I 'd thumb over the 
 silliest novels instead. . . . Now, there is no use 
 of looking melancholy ; you 've heard me talk in 
 this strain a number of times before. It all comes 
 to one result : you are great, and I 'm small. Of 
 course, I am. /never doubted it. You have 
 sympathies with the race, secure and thorough 
 learning, a mighty talent for argument, a huge 
 brain, and a still huger heart. Jam simply a girl, 
 made after a very ordinary pattern. You are uni 
 versal, abstract; I'm particular, concrete. Mind 
 you, I don't exult in my littleness; I merely 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 25 
 
 record it. You could find a justification for the 
 existence of that inflammatory Dr. Pragley. I 
 claim your benevolence and toleration on consid 
 erably firmer grounds. Put me in your cabinet 
 of psychology, once and for all. Not as a rare 
 specimen, but one rather perfect of its kind. 
 There 's no use of fancying that you have made 
 any error about the color or cut of my wings ; 
 you have n't at all ; they belong definitely to the 
 butterfly species." 
 
 "They have been getting stronger of late, I 
 imagine," was the slow, reflective answer, " and 
 you have a greater desire to use them." 
 
 "In the sunshine yes," said Leah, with one 
 of her laughs. " Perhaps in the Newport sun 
 shine, too. You know Lawrence Rainsford prom 
 ised to make it pleasant for me when we came." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly looked at her daughter with a 
 more solicitous gaze than she herself knew of. 
 
 "You have never made it very pleasant for 
 Lawrence Rainsford," she answered, in lowered, 
 significant voice. 
 
 Leah chose to ignore this mild .touch of cen 
 sure. 
 
 " The Rainsfords are old Newport people," she 
 said. " He 's something of a celebrity, too, since 
 he painted his last five or six pictures. He ought 
 
26 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 to be well received, as they call it. I wonder 
 what kept him away all day yesterday." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly knew that Leah spoke of a man 
 whom she had already refused at least twice in 
 marriage. And she had never heard the girl 
 mention his name with even as much lively con 
 cern as now. 
 
 " Let us sit down here," Leah rapidly added ; 
 for the piazza, by no means of capacious limits, 
 had just received, through the open hall-doorway, 
 a little moving group, and at that corner which 
 Mrs. Romilly and her daughter had then chanced 
 to reach, were two commodious-looking bamboo- 
 chairs. 
 
 The group was composed of Dr. Pragley, the 
 two maidenly invalided Misses Semmes, the spec 
 tral unknown gentleman whom Leah had called a 
 malario-maniac, and the dressy Mrs. Dickerson, 
 who held her inevitable little dog clasped to her 
 heart. 
 
 But just then the dog set up a deafening clamor 
 of shrill barks, and bounded from its adorer's 
 arms. It dashed down the piazza steps, whirling 
 itself round on each in a very mercurial frenzy. 
 Its barks, meanwhile, grew more and more excited, 
 as its slim little black-and-auburn body careened 
 and plunged. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 27 
 
 Leah and her mother had already sat down, but 
 through the vine-leaves they saw that a gentleman 
 was ascending the steps, and perceived that all 
 this strident clamor was evidently roused by his 
 advent. 
 
 " How tiresome ! " said Leah, rising, as she rec 
 ognized Mr. Lawrence Rainsford. She at once 
 went forward to meet him, with her fair head a 
 little more grandly poised than usual, and her 
 elastic step a trifle more assertive. 
 
II. 
 
 HV /TEANWHILE, Mrs. Dickerson, the mistress 
 **** of the tempestuous dog, had hurried to the 
 edge of the piazza. She was a small person, with a 
 narrow, sharp-eyed face and a keenly prominent 
 chin. Her figure was no less bony than slight, but 
 it was clad in a morning-robe of ample volume and 
 liberal embellishment. There seemed to be con 
 siderably more of fluttering ribbons and breezy 
 furbelows than of Mrs. Dickerson. Nevertheless, 
 her spare body had a volatile, nervous way of con 
 stantly altering its lines and poses, that was not 
 unlike the more intense movements of her mettle 
 some pet. 
 
 As Leah approached, she had begun to address 
 the gyrating dog with raised fore-finger and bent 
 frame, in tones of commandant volubility. 
 
 "Cigarette! will you be quiet? Be quiet in 
 stantly, I say ! You naughty, naughty girl ! Come 
 right to momma ! Come ! Cigarette, momma 
 will punish you severely ! Stop barking at the 
 gentleman ! Stop this minute, now ! " 
 
 28 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 29 
 
 This outburst produced its restrictive effect upon 
 Cigarette, who moved snarlingly up the steps in a 
 sidelong, reluctant way, and was soon grabbed by 
 her owner. The threatened punishment was not 
 then administered, but, instead, the dog was per- 
 'mitted to squirm in Mrs. Dickerson's clutch, and 
 lick with a nimble red tongue the lady's half- 
 averted face. 
 
 Leah had time to shake hands with her visitor, 
 but time to do no more, before Mrs. Dickerson 
 began again, appealing to them both : 
 
 "I'm so sorry! I really am! The poor little 
 thing would 'nt bite, you know ! I suppose it 's 
 this lovely air that makes her feel kind of frolic 
 some. She would n't hurt a fly ! " 
 
 There was a slight pause during which the 
 Reverend Mr. Pragley, his cadaverous friend, and 
 the two slim, sallow elderly sisters, all diligently 
 stared. 
 
 " She looks small enough for a fly to hurt her" 
 said Mr. Rainsford, dryly, with a smile. 
 
 Mrs. Dickerson gave a tittering laugh, and re 
 ceded toward the group which she had left. She 
 at once addressed Mr. Pragley in a low voice. It 
 was noticeable, indeed, that all the members of 
 this small assemblage turned their eyes upon Mr. 
 Pragley whenever they spoke. . . . 
 
30 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " They all belong to his flock," said Leah, when 
 Mr. Rainsford had taken a seat beside her mother 
 and herself, at the farther end of the piazza, and 
 after numerous sentences had been spoken which 
 had ultimately led to the subject of Mrs. Preen's 
 establishment. " Yes, Mamma and I haye found 
 ourselves in the midst of a flock. There is n't the 
 least doubt of it. And the shepherd already dis 
 approves of us. We are looked upon as black 
 sheep already. It 's very amusing to me ; I enjoy 
 it greatly." 
 
 " Mrs. Preen's place was never given over to any 
 religious clique before," said Rainsford, quietly. 
 He usually spoke with slowness and gravity. " I 
 should n't have recommended it if I had not be 
 lieved it quite secular." 
 
 " Oh, it has been stormed, this summer, by Dr. 
 Pragley, and his myrmidons," said Leah, in her 
 careless way, and so often suggested an under 
 current of idle brilliancy, that had made her 
 mother sometimes wonder if a certain unconquer 
 able indolence had not kept her from a stronger 
 grasp upon the great choices and issues of life. 
 " Mamma and I are literally nowhere. The Rev 
 erend Mrs. Pragley and children have not yet 
 arrived. I overheard last evening that she is visit 
 ing her mother in Vermont, and is expected here 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 31 
 
 in a short time. When she arrives, there is strong 
 probability of our enforced departure. I can see 
 us standing indignant out on the drive, yonder, 
 beside our ejected trunks." 
 
 " In that case my mother will give you at least 
 a temporary refuge," said Rainsford. " If you wish 
 it, I will warn her to have one or two apartments 
 prepared." 
 
 He said this with a slight, fleeting smile. His 
 smile was infrequent, but very richly genial when 
 it came. He was a man of generous build, verging 
 a little toward stoutness, yet easily escaping the 
 charge because so solid of frame and limb, not 
 withstanding girth. His head was large, and set 
 squarely on broad shoulders. He was scarcely 
 past two-and-thirty, yet the hair had receded far 
 from his naturally high forehead, and had left a 
 face in which existed not one regular feature, im 
 pressed with a stamp of rugged nobility. His par 
 tial baldness, in other words, became him, dignified 
 him, brought his manful sort of homeliness into 
 strong relief. But you felt that it had always 
 been a kindly face the fleshly witness, somehow, 
 of a power for good in the world. His cordial blue 
 eyes told you that, and the total reverse of grim- 
 ness about his close-shorn lips. In dress and 
 manner he had the look of one who reluctantly 
 
S2 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 concedes to the rules of the reigning mode, with 
 out in any rebellious way abjuring them. 
 
 "You had best defer your preparations until 
 some new developments occur," now said Mrs. 
 Romilly. She glanced almost laughingly at Rains- 
 ford as she spoke. She had liked him thoroughly 
 ever since Leah and herself had met him two years 
 ago, on the steamer returning from Europe. She 
 had sympathized with his aims in Art, had listened 
 congenially to the account of his previous studies 
 abroad, had believed completely in his soundness 
 of principle, his accuracy of ideal, his whole virile 
 and temperate personality. She admitted with 
 Leah that he was rugged no less in feature than in 
 general demeanor. But if he shifted his person 
 without grace, if his hands and feet lacked the 
 best nicety of contour, if his conversation was 
 without decorative skill in phrase he was, none 
 the less, to her wide and yet piercing judg 
 ment, a man endowed with powerful and sterling 
 traits. 
 
 " He has the soul of a true poet," she had once 
 said to Leah, " hidden away in that somewhat awk 
 ward shape. It is like a hamadryad imprisoned in 
 a rough tree-trunk. The woman whom he loves 
 and marries will never regret her vows." 
 
 He had loved Leah, as it has been recorded, and 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. S3 
 
 had wanted to marry her. He came of a family 
 well-known in Newport and permanently -resident 
 there. His painting had kept him in New York 
 through the greater portion of the two years fol 
 lowing his return from Europe. His aged mother 
 and a spinster aunt dwelt not far away from this 
 same sun-flecked piazza on which he now sat with 
 Mrs. Romilly and Leah. They three were all that 
 were left of a once large household, in which 
 death, for more than ten years, had been making 
 sad havoc. The personal fortune of Lawrence 
 Rainsford well met his moderate wants; more 
 would come to him when the two faded ladies 
 passed away ; he was by no means a contemptible 
 match, in worldly esteem, though by no means 
 ranking with the matrimonial potentates. 
 
 " You have seen nothing of Newport," he soon 
 said. "I left you yesterday for the toils of un 
 packing. But to-day I want to claim you as 
 strangers full of tempting local ignorance. I hope 
 you will let me do so, for a little while, at least." 
 
 Not very long after this all three left the piazza 
 and strolled toward the opposite gate. The group 
 w^ere now all seated, and its calm quintuple stare 
 followed the two ladies and their escort with a ju 
 dicial severity. Leah had got her own and her 
 mother's sun-hats; her own was of white straw, 
 
34 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 very brightly wreathed with flowers. She moved 
 along, in her becoming and fashionable morning 
 dress, with a most distinguished mien. Beside 
 the graver figure of Mrs. Romilly, hers looked 
 delightfully young and active. 
 
 But some of the comments which followed her 
 self and mother might have made the girl knit her 
 white brows. 
 
 " My ! " said the Miss Semmes with the trouble 
 some chest, alluding to Leah, "how that young 
 thing carries herself ! A person would n't think 
 there was anything in this world to humble the 
 spirit of the proud, if she was the only one to be 
 judged from ! " 
 
 This Miss Semmes was the precise counterpart of 
 her neuralgiac sister. They were not twins, yet 
 they were both so slim, so frail, so flaxen-haired, so 
 low of voice, that they belonged to that feminine 
 type which time neither wrinkles nor turns gray. 
 Cockle-shells of humanity, in a physical sense, they 
 float on its waves without feeling their slow ero 
 sion. Five years or more might have intervened 
 between the ages of the sisters, and yet no positive 
 evidence of this difference had set itself on either 
 countenance. 
 
 " Very right very right indeed ! " answered 
 Dr. Pragley, to whom the last remark had ad- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 35 
 
 dressed itself. He cleared his throat as he spoke. 
 He undoubtedly possessed a nose whose massive 
 curvature Leah had not at all exaggerated. He 
 was at least six feet in height, and, as the phrase 
 has it, he sat tall. His eyes were black and lumi 
 nous ; he had a trick of rolling them about, and in 
 so doing he gave strong effect to their surrounding 
 white. He was by no means an ill-looking per 
 son ; a dense black side-whisker, of coarse texture, 
 bushed itself along either cheek, ending in a 
 little hirsute line at the corners of his mouth; 
 but his upper lip, long, and having a crease 
 in its centre, like the deep fold in some stiff 
 fabric, was bluish because so closely shaven. 
 The mouth itself was large and its smile ready. 
 Its smile was, indeed, too ready. The even 
 but almost bulky teeth which this disclosed, 
 while mingled with some peculiar writhe of the 
 back-drawn lips, gave an element of pain and 
 acidity to its whole expression. He wore the ac 
 cepted ministerial garb of a many-buttoned, high- 
 throated coat and a white neckcloth. He had a 
 habit of slightly waving one or both hands after 
 the delivery of the most quiet conversational sen 
 tence. And, in truth, all that he said seemed to 
 be delivered; nothing had the manner of being 
 spoken. It was noteworty that in the least oral 
 
36 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 requirement this gentleman was infallibly ora 
 torical. 
 
 " The young lady," he continued, " is a true 
 daughter of the Philistines." Here Dr. Pragley 
 smiled his curiously distressed smile. " But how 
 should we expect it to be otherwise ? She has 
 been reared by a mother whose ungodly teachings 
 I well remember in my boyhood I had hoped 
 I had fondly hoped, I may say that the dark 
 beliefs of Elizabeth Cleeve Romilly might have 
 undergone a blessed alteration since then. But 
 I fear I have counted too trustfully. Yesterday 
 the lady, seemingly by accident, left a book upon 
 this very piazza Animated by no worldly feeling 
 of curiosity " (here Dr. Pragley took in the aspect 
 of every attentive listener with one flashing sweep 
 of his eyes), " I looked at the title of this work. 
 It was that of an Atheist ! " 
 
 " An Atheist ! " immediately repeated four 
 shocked voices. 
 
 " Yes. It was a work by Herbert Spencer, that 
 immoral foe of all pious and sacred aspiration." 
 Here Dr. Pragley ceased to smile ; he frowned 
 instead, and his copious black eyebrows gave to 
 his frown a magisterial gloom. " Oh, when I saw 
 that unholy book," he continued, "I felt that 
 Elizabeth Cleeve Romilly was still lost!"- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 37 
 
 So resonant were these final words that they 
 produced an irreverent excitement in Cigarette, 
 whose fresh clatter Mrs. Dickerson endeavored to 
 restrain, while saying fervently to Dr. Pragley : 
 
 " She cannot be lost as long as she still lives ! 
 Let us all try and reclaim her ! " 
 
 The Miss Semmes who suffered from neuralgia 
 here eagerly broke in : " Yes ; let us try and re 
 claim her ! " But the next moment she put one 
 narrow, pale hand to her temple and faintly 
 sighed. 
 
 " My dear Mary ! " at once murmured her sister. 
 " I knew you could n't stand this draught. Rec 
 ollect we 're sitting right in a current of air ! " 
 And as she finished her admonition, the speaker 
 gave a sudden, rasping cough. 
 
 Immediately Miss Mary Semmes caught the 
 fragile arm of her sister. " Catherine ! " she said, 
 solicitously, " you think of me, and yet you know 
 that the draught hurts your chest a great deal more 
 than it does my head ! " 
 
 Both sisters now arose, apparently convinced of 
 mutual reasons for passing within doors. But just 
 then the gentleman who was so afraid of malaria 
 said, with a very high-keyed yet decisive voice : 
 
 " Ladies, don't be so careful of yourselves. Re 
 member, we are all in the keeping of Providence." 
 
38 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " True, Mr. Yarde," assented Mr. Pragley, with 
 an impressive cough. " Very true indeed ! " 
 
 But here Mrs. Dickerson, who had quieted her 
 obstreperous darling, put her head coquettishly 
 on one side, so that her acute chin looked in danger 
 of piercing a contiguous ruffle. 
 
 " Oh, come now, Mr. Yarde," she said, slyly, 
 "you don't think much about Providence when 
 you complain of bad drainage and things of that 
 kind." 
 
 Mr. Yarde raised an almost transparent hand to 
 his pale-yellow moustache. 
 
 " Mrs. Dickerson," he said, solemnly, " I repose 
 the most absolute faith in Providence. But it 
 works in mysterious ways. I maintain that it is 
 the duty of every true Christian to keep his 
 drain-pipes in good order, and to avoid those 
 perils which science " 
 
 " Science ! " here broke in the weak-chested 
 Miss Semmes, plaintively. "Oh, don't phase 
 don't mention that word in connection with Prov 
 idence ! Recollect the splendid sermon on modern 
 paganism that Dr. Pragley preached just before 
 his vacation began. I don't mean the last Sunday ; 
 I mean the Sunday before the last ! " 
 
 Here a chorus took up the refrain, so to speak. 
 The memory of that penultimate sermon was 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 39 
 
 evidently too much for even Mr. Yarde. He 
 joined in the general dithyramb. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! The Sunday before the last ! " 
 
 Dr. Pragley coughed and then smiled. All eyes 
 were directed upon him. All eyes were usually 
 directed upon him, as regarded the passionate 
 cult of his so-called flock; but when it came to 
 be a question of particular eulogy, all eyes were 
 lighted with an especially fine ardor of attention. 
 
 Dr. Pragley began to make remarks. When 
 his flock, or any limited portion of it, behaved in 
 this fond way, he invariably made remarks. . . . 
 
 Meanwhile Leah, her mother and Lawrence 
 Rainsford had left the domain of Mrs. Preen's 
 boarding-house and passed along the skirting walk 
 of the adjacent street. It was now mature sum 
 mer ; here in the heart of this poetic and unique 
 city Nature smiled and throve at her best, though 
 restrained by an art of easy and happy discipline. 
 None of the splendid abodes lay in this quarter ; 
 it was the inner heart of the town, full of great 
 overshadowing elms that cast their sweet glooms 
 across lawns cut into velvet trimness and spread 
 about homes whose thrift and peace were blent 
 with a calm continual elegance. The estates were 
 all of meagre dimension, for the high value of 
 property made this a necessity with even their 
 
40 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 prosperous owners. The large, drowsy houses 
 suggested, mostly, that generations had lived and 
 died in them, but generations with an inherited 
 respect for the repairing virtues of incidental 
 paint and carpentry. There was no touch of neg 
 lect or desuetude ; the very elms, with their 
 cloister-like arches, looked as if some careful hand 
 had pruned them of the least dead twig. The 
 whole effect was simple, rural, provincial, but 
 nevertheless clearly patrician. 
 
 "It might be England," said Mrs. Romilly, 
 "and yet you somehow see that it is New 
 England." 
 
 " You won't say that when you are nearer the 
 sea," declared Rainsford. " Here the dwellings 
 all crowd together. But on Belle vue Avenue and 
 in many other portions, Newport becomes finely 
 cosmopolitan. I have seen nearly all the famed 
 watering-places, but I have never yet seen one to 
 which this could be plausibly likened." 
 
 " That reminds me," here struck in Leah, with 
 quiet humor. " I set out in search of the sea yes 
 terday morning at a little after seven o'clock. We 
 came by the boat, you know, and were deposited 
 at Mrs. Preen's by about six. I had slept quite 
 comfortably, and wanted my breakfast. But no 
 breakfast was to be obtained until eight. So I 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 41 
 
 sallied forth, leaving poor mamma, who had not 
 slept, recumbent upon a lounge. I supposed that 
 the ocean was about a hundred yards distant. I 
 met an old man in this very street, and asked him 
 the nearest way to it. He gave me the most 
 intricate series of directions. By degrees I began 
 to understand that Newport, which I had always 
 imagined within a stone-throw of the Atlantic, was 
 miles away from it." 
 
 " Not miles away," corrected Rainsford, looking 
 at her with a hint of doubt in his pleasant blue 
 eyes as to whether she were serious or satirical. 
 He had fallen into a habit of looking at her thus, 
 and perhaps for excellent reasons. " There are 
 more Newports than one," he continued, with ex 
 planatory gravity, and as if after having assured 
 himself that she was securely in earnest. " There 
 is this Newport through which we now walk, and 
 which has 110 marine flavor, certainly, except what 
 comes from the strong, bluff breeze we are getting. 
 You don't have to possess millions to spend a 
 summer here, though many of these cottages, as 
 we call them, are rented by millionaires. Then 
 there is the dingy, shabby, mercantile Newport, 
 that fronts on Narragansett Bay. Its wharves are 
 ugly and dilapidated enough, but many of them 
 have an almost historic past. Then there is the 
 
42 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 opulent, showy, and aristocratic Newport, which is 
 mostly maritime, and has reared many villas and 
 mansions near the Atlantic that you tried to re 
 discover." 
 
 " I want to find that Newport now," said Leah, 
 in odd tones. " I think that is the one I came to 
 see." 
 
 Both Rainsford and her mother looked intently 
 at her drooped face as she moved between them. 
 Then the eyes of the mother and the lover met, 
 and with mute meaning, behind Leah's back. But 
 she herself somehow felt that the look was being 
 exchanged. 
 
 " What conspirators they are ! " she thought. 
 " How mamma wants me to marry him, and how 
 they both fear that I shall turn their little comedy 
 into a piteous farce ! " 
 
 "We are near the Casino," Rainsford said, 
 breaking a pause. " The Cliffs are still rather far 
 away." 
 
 " Oh, let us go to the Casino, by all means ! " 
 exclaimed Leah, blithely. "I have read so much 
 about that in the papers." 
 
 She expressed disappointment as they entered 
 it, a little later, by approaches that struck her as 
 pretty and odd, though strangely lacking in that 
 stateliness which she had anticipated. But when 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 43 
 
 they had gained the circular interior, with its roof 
 open to the sky, its great, round of close-cropped 
 verdure, its flanking galleries of restaurants and 
 reading-rooms, its quaint, big, gold-handed clock, 
 looming above a mass of Dutch-looking masonry, 
 and its general air of amphitheatrical spaciousness, 
 her opinion underwent rapid change. 
 
 A capable band was discoursing excellent music ; 
 the mellow cadences pealed out upon the bland 
 morning air with a sonorous fulness. Within the 
 pavilion of dark-painted wood that was wrought 
 somewhat after the Colonial pattern, numerous 
 ladies and gentlemen were seated ; others moved 
 along the smooth, hard paths. Beyond, through 
 low and broad openings, gleamed a larger sweep 
 of lawn, where lovers of tennis waved bats and 
 tossed balls, some of the male players being ar 
 rayed in short breeches, hose and caps, whose 
 bright tints or fanciful designs gave to their 
 slender and youthful figures the look of partici 
 pants in some jocund pastoral revel, not unworthy 
 of a modern Watteau. Still farther on rose a 
 structure dedicated to the double purpose of ball 
 room and theatre ; more than a single admired 
 belle had made her conquests as an amateur actress 
 in both, if the statement be not uncharitably in 
 clusive. A sense of blithesome fete hung about 
 
44 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 the whole attractive spot. You felt that it was all 
 a frivolity, and yet one of the most tasteful and 
 refined type. Whoever had planned its capabili 
 ties of enjoyment had done so with an adherence 
 to the best artistic traditions. 
 
 "You seem to know a number of the people 
 here," said Leah to Rainsford. "I notice that you 
 bow quite often." 
 
 " That is hardly strange," he answered. 
 
 "Surely not," broke in Mrs. Romilly, "when 
 you have lived so many years in Newport." She 
 spoke only to Rainsford, and as if propitiatingly. 
 
 " But Newport people are New York people as 
 well," persisted Leah, with her eyes fixed on Rains- 
 ford alone. " Or, rather, they belong, in a great 
 measure, to the large cities of which New York is 
 chief. And always before, when I have met you, 
 you have appeared such a recluse so wholly ab 
 sorbed in your painting so indifferent to any 
 thing like an acquaintanceship. Now, for my own 
 part, I envy you if you know some of these ladies 
 and gentlemen. I have observed more than one 
 whom I should think it would be very pleasant to 
 know." 
 
 Rainsford watched her, for a moment, with his 
 sedate smile. " They seem to return your compli 
 mentary opinions," he said. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 45 
 
 " Do you think so ? " asked Leah, eagerly. She 
 glanced here and there, for a little while, and then 
 turned laughingly to her mother. 
 
 "I believe it is true!" she exclaimed, softly. 
 " You remember our talk this morning." 
 
 " Yes I remember it very well," answered 
 Mrs. Romilly. The intonation that went with 
 these words made Lawrence Rainsford fix his eyes 
 in astonishment on the face of Leah's mother. 
 He found it transiently saddened, just as her voice 
 had been. . 
 
 He esteemed Mrs. Romilly as much as he loved 
 her. They were stanch friends ; there was a per 
 fect understanding between them ; his affection for 
 her was reverential. 
 
 " She is deeply distressed by something," he 
 thought. "I wonder what it is." At the same 
 instant he realized that a certain shadow of fore 
 boding had crossed his own spirit. 
 
 But now, while they both looked toward Leah, 
 as if by some mutual impulse of explanation they 
 discovered that she had withdrawn a little apart 
 from them, and had become suddenly engaged in 
 conversation with two ladies. 
 
 They were young ladies ; Mrs. Romilly at once 
 recognized them, and so did Rainsford. They were 
 sisters ; their name was Marksley ; they had crossed 
 
46 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 in the same steamer with Leah and her mother, on 
 that voyage during which the two latter had made 
 Rainsford's acquaintance. 
 
 They were thin girls, with rather pretty faces a 
 good deal alike, and very much of what our special 
 time calls style, without having any of what 
 nearly all times have agreed to call grace. They 
 were dressed with excessive costliness ; their robes 
 and bonnets must have been minor marvels in the 
 matter of expenditure. They had a shrill yet not 
 unmusical way of speaking, a slightly exaggerated 
 way of moving their arms, hands or bodies, and a 
 method of expressing themselves that surpassed 
 all limits of moderation and became, on the least 
 incentive, a positive riot of superlatives. They 
 are thus collectively described because of their 
 strong resemblance in almost every mental or per 
 sonal detail. One was named Louisa and one 
 Caroline, but only their very intimate friends 
 recollected precisely who was who. 
 
 Leah has not cared much about them on the 
 steamer, though she had never given them enough 
 thought to decide that she disliked them. But 
 they had not the accent of importance which now 
 seemed to mark them; they had been mild prat 
 tlers, then, with no stamp of fashion upon them, 
 no evidence of belonging to any notable circle. She 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 47 
 
 was now not quite sure whether or no it was the 
 chic of the place in which she had met them that 
 really gave them their striking novelty. 
 
 What they said to Leah caused her to raise her 
 brows in sharp surprise. Several yards behind the 
 Misses Marksley stood a gentleman, who slowly 
 advanced the moment that Leah directed her 
 gaze upon his face, which she did for a good 
 reason. 
 
 The Misses Marksley had effusively assured her 
 that this gentleman had desired to make her ac 
 quaintance. 
 
 Both watching, both listening, and both as yet 
 having received no signs of greeting from the sis 
 ters, Mrs. Romilly and Rainsford held a short con 
 versation together. Amid the reigning atmos 
 phere of festival, their few exchanged sentences, 
 had these been overheard, might have struck a 
 keenly dissonant note. 
 
 " They wish to present to her Mr. Tracy Tre- 
 maine," murmured Leah's mother. " Who is 
 he?" 
 
 " You see him," answered Rainsford. 
 
 "Yes I see him." 
 
 " What do you think of him ? " 
 
 "He is handsome, certainly. He has the look 
 of a very fashionable man." 
 
48 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 "He is." 
 
 "Do you know him?" 
 
 " We are on speaking terms." 
 
 " He has asked to know Leah ? " 
 
 " You heard what the Misses Marksley said." 
 
 Here Mrs. Romilly looked with great directness 
 at Rainsford's grave and placid face. Then she 
 rested her hand upon his full, solid arm. 
 
 "You have some fear?" she said. "You are 
 sorry that I have brought her here ? " 
 
 Rainsford evaded both questions. "I do not 
 care to have her meet that man," he responded. 
 
III. 
 
 gentleman whom we have heard called 
 r*- Tracy Tremaine had now drawn quite close 
 to the Misses Marksley. Both young ladies burst 
 into a self-conscious laugh as he did so. The 
 two laughs were quite similar. The mirth of 
 the sisters, like everything else about them ex 
 cept their clothes, had no individuality, no meum 
 et tuum. They never duplicated each other's 
 magnificence of raiment. Had they really been 
 twins instead of having a year between their 
 ages, they could not have striven more success 
 fully to veil this fact by a diversity of costume. 
 Caroline now went through the formula of 
 introduction, presenting Mr. Tremaine to Miss 
 Romilly; but the words had no sooner been 
 spoken than Louisa took up the burden of civility, 
 as it were. These young ladies were perpetually 
 playing, in fact, just such a conversational game 
 of pitch-and-toss. The shuttle-cock of their in 
 telligence was always floating from lip to lip, and 
 
 49 
 
50 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 not seldom with a feathery lightness easily ex 
 plainable. 
 
 "Mr. Tremaine would have gone mad in about 
 ten minutes longer, my dear, unless he had met 
 you," said Louisa, laying one specklessly-gloved 
 hand on Leah's wrist. "I never heard of such 
 a perfectly instantaneous conquest." 
 
 "Yes," chimed in Caroline, catching the shuttle 
 cock, as it were, and continuing the violent super 
 latives. "A decent feeling of Christian chanty, 
 my dear, made us grant his passionate en 
 treaties before it was too late. As it is, we Ve 
 saved him from utter insanity in the nick of 
 time." 
 
 They both wheeled their thin bodies toward 
 Mr. Tremaine with exactly the same rapid, bend 
 ing movement. 
 
 " Now we '11 leave you to your fate," declared 
 Caroline, addressing the gentleman. 
 
 "And try to be resigned to our own," pro 
 ceeded Louisa, re-wheeling herself toward Leah 
 the next moment, promptly followed by her 
 sister. "You're looking so immensely well, I 
 don't wonder he was wild to be presented." 
 Louisa's face was very close to Leah's by this 
 time, but only a few inches closer than that of 
 Caroline. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 51 
 
 " He 's an enormous swell, my dear," whispered 
 the latter. 
 
 " Oh, perfectly tremendous," came the sisterly 
 echo " if you care for that sort of thing. You 
 didn't use to on the steamer, don't you know?" 
 
 "Neither did you," responded Leah, who was 
 not thoroughly sure whether she understood this 
 ilorid species of slang. 
 
 " Oh, we 're awfully changed since we came 
 back," maintained Caroline. 
 
 " Yes, dreadfully," affirmed Louisa. They 
 both laughed again and then exchanged a little 
 nod. 
 
 While Leah looked puzzled as to the meaning 
 of this last ambiguous outburst, the double fusil 
 lade recommenced. 
 
 "Now do tell us where you are stopping, and 
 if you mean to stop long." 
 
 "Yes, do!" 
 
 " We shall be so enchanted, my dear, to come 
 and see you ! " 
 
 " Yes, we shall so perfectly love to come !" 
 
 Leah had scarcely given the full required 
 answer before the Misses Marksley, both per 
 ceiving Mrs. Romilly and Rainsford at what 
 seemed precisely the same moment, took several 
 sidelong slips in the direction of the elder lady 
 
52 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 and her companion, their splendid robes rustling 
 after them, the right hand of each cordially out 
 stretched, and either mouth wearing a smile whose 
 accurate measurements would doubtless have 
 shown the most rigid equality. 
 
 They had seemed to come and go in a kind of 
 gentle social tempest. Leah now looked at the 
 gentleman whom they had left, so to speak, 
 behind them. She had not truly observed him 
 before ; as she regarded him at present it struck 
 her that he was extremely handsome. 
 
 " I suppose my silence," he began, "has appeared 
 to you a very awkward affair, Miss Romilly. I 
 should n't dispute that point with you for an 
 instant. But the Misses Marksley are great mo 
 nopolists I mean conversationally, you know." 
 
 The speaker drawled these words a little as he 
 delivered them, and showed what Leah thought 
 an English mode of utterance ; but she found his 
 voice peculiarly rich and sweet, it also occurred 
 to her that she had never seen a male face of so 
 much strong yet half-feminine beauty. Mr. Tre- 
 maine was tall and very slim of build ; his clothes 
 hung rather loosely about his person, yet their out 
 lines implied careful tailoring. He moved his 
 limbs in a languid, unstudied way ; he occasionally 
 thrust his shapely white hands into his pockets, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 53 
 
 and then withdrew them ; he appeared indolently 
 restless. He had the air of a tired man and of a 
 somewhat dissatisfied one ; he also suggested a 
 close adherence to a certain code of polite behav 
 ior. But he did not give you the impression of 
 being at all a fop ; he had evidently paused well 
 inside the limits of anything like senseless carica 
 ture. 
 
 His eyes were large, soft, and of a dark blue. 
 Lashes of unusual length shaded them, and they 
 were a feature that even in a commonplace coun 
 tenance would have held their own through an 
 unfailing charm. The remainder of his face was 
 regular almost to the degree of perfection ; a flow 
 ing silky moustache, amber in hue, waved along 
 either oval cheek ; the chiselling of nose and chin 
 was little short of exquisite, and his uniform 
 pallor aided you to see, perhaps, how well they 
 would have borne precise copying by some deft 
 sculptor. 
 
 " Yes," said Leah, not knowing how intently she 
 scanned this face, whose beauty was in reality fas 
 cinating her, " the Misses Marksley are surely 
 great talkers. It never specially occurred to me 
 that they were until now. But, then, our acquaint 
 ance has always been slight. I suppose you know 
 them very well ? " 
 
54 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 He answered her with lowered voice and a little 
 impatient stroke of his moustache. " I ? Really, 
 we are almost strangers. Do you think, under 
 those circumstances, that I took an unwarrantable 
 liberty in getting them to present me to your 
 self?" 
 
 Leah seemed to muse for a moment. 
 
 " Not at all," she then said, with an arch chal 
 lenge in her brown eyes. " If you truly wished 
 to know me it was the proper, straightforward 
 course." 
 
 " So, then, . . you quite approve of it ? " 
 
 She gave her smileless laugh, that some women 
 thought so hard and haughty, but that men often 
 found provocative of a new and keen enjoyment. 
 
 "If I had not approved, you may be certain I 
 would very soon have made my disapproval clear." 
 
 " I don't understand," he said, looking surprised 
 enough. 
 
 " Don't you ? " she replied, with what would 
 have been pertness on many other lips. " I mean 
 that if I had n't cared to meet you I should 
 promptly have shown you so." 
 
 " Indeed ! " he said. 
 
 She had wakened his positive wonderment. He 
 was wholly unprepared for her composed inde 
 pendence. He had been, almost from boyhood, an 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 55 
 
 accepted favorite with the other sex. The Misses 
 Marksley, in their fervid vernacular, had, after all, 
 classed him correctly. In exclusive cliques he un 
 doubtedly reigned a power. He had been born 
 among exclusive cliques, as it were, and had rarely 
 seen others. In these no one had ever yet denned 
 his popularity. He was considered a man of edu 
 cational store and mental capacity, but so innately 
 lazy as to employ neither at its proper worth. He 
 was known to have lived by no means a flawless 
 life. He was admitted to have retained and even 
 nursed some distinct vices. He had no stainless 
 repute for good manners, while his ability " to act 
 the thorough gentleman if he pleased" was broadly 
 conceded him as though manners were a porta 
 ble garment, worn or shifted at pleasure, and not 
 an apparel as inseparable from real personality as 
 skin from flesh. It was well understood that he 
 had spent half of an ample fortune, and was now 
 no longer rich according to the standard of opu 
 lence set by those with whom he held constant 
 association, though expectant of a liberal future 
 inheritance from a mother who had no child save 
 himself. But in spite of all such drawbacks he was 
 petted, caressed, indulged by his own set. His 
 prominence and his influence continued indisputa 
 ble, and nobody could explain either. 
 
56 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Leah's cool assumption of the role which chooses 
 to accept or reject courtesies rather than seek and 
 be glad for them had amazed and even dismayed 
 him. If he had riot decided that she was excep 
 tionally beautiful if he had not made up his 
 mind, after the few words exchanged between them, 
 that she was endowed with a nameless and rare 
 .personal attraction, he would have found it in him 
 to seize some ungallant pretext for quitting her 
 society. He would afterward have denied the com 
 mission of such a rudeness if charged with it ; he 
 would simply have retired from the prospect of 
 being bored (as he always so retired when that 
 prospect became at all apparent to him) and have 
 accounted for his incivility with some sort of 
 plausible and quick-coined misstatement. 
 
 As it chanced, however, the intention of retreat 
 was very remote from his mind. " Are you in the 
 habit of wearing your heart on your sleeve after 
 this extremely candid fashion ? " he continued. 
 " If so, you must contrive to make it disagreeable 
 enough for your unfavored admirers." 
 
 " I should probably do so," returned Leah, look 
 ing demurely amused, " if I had any admirers to 
 deal with." 
 
 " Oh," said Tracy Tremaine, nearly under his 
 breath, while his eyes seemed to kindle a little be- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 57 
 
 neath their lowered lids, " I can believe a good deal 
 at a pinch, but there are limits, you know, to the 
 most ardent faith." 
 
 Leah liked this. Its artificiality refreshed her. 
 It resembled the passing odor of some hothouse 
 plant. And she loved hothouse plants ; they were 
 so choice and sleek beside the hardier out-of-door 
 growths. Without really understanding it, she had 
 a weary distaste for simplicity and sincerity ; she 
 longed after those trifling subtleties, railleries, in 
 nuendoes, which by some instinct she believed 
 existent in other unenjoyed states of social inter 
 course. She had a desire to shut her windows 
 from the sunshine, as something too prevalent and 
 commonplace ; she would light chandeliers instead, 
 and watch their lustre play on folded tapestries. 
 It did not occur to her that this impulse was un 
 wholesome or morbid, for her complete ignorance 
 of how those daintier people really lived whose way 
 of living addressed her imagination in terms at once 
 of culture and picturesqueness, kept aloof all hint 
 of underlying evil. She would have told you, with 
 a delicious childish candor, if you had questioned 
 her on the subject, that she gave such people credit 
 for being as fair within as without for having 
 honor and conscience as well ordered as their cos 
 tumes and as blameless as their bodily habits. 
 
58 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Coming fresh from the morality and optimism of 
 her mother, she had begun to look at life with an 
 arrogant innocence. She took it splendidly for 
 granted that most people were good ; she had never 
 known any positively bad ones. She had known, 
 she was always meeting, those who roused her 
 humor, her ridicule, even her cruel and un discrim 
 inating satire. This point in her curious nature 
 (to some so loveless, to others illogically lovable) 
 we have noted, it will be remembered, before now, 
 while emphasizing, as well, the regret with which 
 her mother had watched it. But, on the other 
 hand, not to lie, to cheat, to steal, to injure one's 
 fellow-creatures in any malignant way, seemed for 
 Leah an accepted and operative human code. As 
 for keeping one's self select, she held that to be 
 quite another matter. The older that she grew 
 the more she decided that there was an enormous 
 majority of people in the world whom she did not 
 wish to know. But those who attracted her by the 
 quality which we call patrician, won at the same 
 time her moral respect and support, though per 
 haps unconsciously to her proud young mind. 
 
 While Tracy Tremaine's compliment pleased 
 Leah, she chose, nevertheless, to receive it without 
 a sign of clemency. Her eyes wandered from his 
 attentive face ; they surveyed the lawny court near 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 59 
 
 at hand; they swept the breezy arc of pavilion 
 which fronted her, and in which she and her com 
 panion then stood. As her small head moved thus 
 from side to side on its slender prop of neck, the 
 grace of the motion made its delicate disdain very 
 piquant and alluring for him who observed it. 
 
 " Let us change the subject," she said, with an 
 airy abruptness that would have been fuel for his 
 polite wrath if almost any other woman had em 
 ployed it. " Let us speak of those Misses Marks- 
 ley. They amuse me. They did n't when I met 
 them on the steamer, some time ago, but they 
 do now. I thought them dull and uninteresting 
 then; but now . . well, now they are somehow 
 altered." 
 
 " I fancy Newport has altered them," said Tre- 
 maine, reluctantly, as though he did not quite like 
 being shunted back into this deserted conversa 
 tional channel. t 
 
 Leah lifted her brows. "Newport? How?" 
 Her surprised query made him suddenly feel con 
 cerned in answering it. He saw an opportunity 
 of diverting her, and did not himself realize how 
 rapid yet strong a value he put upon it. 
 
 "Why, in this way," he promptly said, with a 
 cold drawl in his lazy voice that was the merciless 
 prelude of his coming comments. " They got here 
 
60 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 rather early I think it was some time in June 
 . . it's nearly August now . . yes, it must have 
 been June. Well, they had secured a nice cot 
 tage on Narragansett Avenue, and they used to 
 drive about with their stout papa in a rather hand 
 some trap. They knew scarcely anybody, but all 
 of a sudden they made the most desperate dash." 
 
 " What is a desperate dash ? " asked Leah. 
 
 Tremaine laughed. "Why, they tried to get 
 about to places," he said. "Newport is very funny 
 that way. It gives people a kind of fever some 
 times. They come here with a lot of money, you 
 know, and take a liking to the style, the swagger of 
 things, and then they make a plunge they try to 
 get in the swim, as we call it here. Occasionally 
 they succeed. But it 's always foolish to show any 
 great eagerness. I suppose that is the folly the 
 Misses Marksley have committed. Newport has 
 gone to their heads, and they make this fact ab 
 surdly plain. They 're nice enough girls in their 
 way ; it 's true they 're rather bad form, and then 
 they dress too much, though that sin is widely 
 enough committed here. But they've got a jolly 
 manage; they know how to entertain ever so 
 well. Yet their trouble is that they went to 
 work with a jump instead of a push. Every 
 body laughs at them ; they 're not a bit of a sue- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 61 
 
 cess. They're the most frighful snobs, and yet 
 the idea of getting among the big swells is so new 
 to them that they scarcely know who is who. 
 They 're in a perpetual fever to be received by peo 
 ple, and people are in a perpetual fever to avoid 
 receiving them. I dare say it will end by their 
 being asked everywhere ; they 've got such a pile 
 of money, and the papa is a very decent fellow ; 
 I 've heard he 's related to some Ohio senator, or 
 somebody like that. But at present they 're the 
 sport of the place ; they quite beat Polo and the 
 Casino balls and the Skating Rink, I assure you." 
 
 All this was delightful to Leah. She had no 
 sense of its being cruel. She had fallen into the 
 habit herself, long ago, of seeing the ludicrous 
 sides of people and pelting these with her swift 
 irony. 
 
 "I'm very glad you told me about them," she 
 said. " You give them a wholly new value." 
 
 " I 'm afraid you have n't much pity." 
 
 " Oh, that is what mamma says," she cried, softly, 
 and in the smile that touched her lips and fled 
 there was a gleam of light scorn. " It never oc 
 curs to me that people who are queer deserve any 
 pity. They have no business to be queer, and when 
 they are, then let them pay the penalty by enter 
 taining us, who are not." 
 
62 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Just at this time a lady passed near the spot on 
 which they were standing. Two gentlemen accom 
 panied her. She nodded and smiled as she looked 
 at Tracy Tremaine, who at once raised his hat. 
 But her eyes dwelt on his face only an instant ; 
 they were speedily transferred to Leah's. 
 
 The girl had never before felt herself the object 
 of so piercing yet transitory a stare. The lady's 
 eyes were brilliantly black, and they seemed to 
 sweep her image, from the flowers on her sun-hat 
 to the tip of her boot; while at the same time 
 Leah herself felt that not a single point in her 
 attire, not a single mark of visage or posture, had 
 escaped this fleet yet acute scrutiny. 
 
 But when she had passed still farther onward, 
 the lady chose to refix her look upon Tremaine. 
 As she did so the turn of her full olive throat be 
 came apparent to Leah, and the jaunty, brisk move 
 ments of her somewhat small person. At the same 
 time she held up one plump forefinger, and shook 
 it at Tremaine. 
 
 "Remember my lunch, please. One o'clock, 
 sharp ! You are always late. You have only a 
 quarter of an hour, as it is." 
 
 When the speaker had become still more remote 
 Leah said to her companion : 
 
 " Who is your odd-looking friend ? " 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 63 
 
 " Do you think her odd-looking ? " he said, with 
 almost a start. 
 
 "Not as you would interpret the word," Leah 
 hastened, in a tone of apology very rare with her. 
 " I meant odd-looking in the sense of being very 
 well yet very originally dressed." 
 
 " Don't you like that mixture of red and pink ? 
 I suppose it's Worth; I believe everything she 
 wears is Worth." 
 
 Leah knew about Worth. " I like it very much," 
 she said, " for a woman as dark as she is. But you 
 forget the touches of yellow in her bonnet, and the 
 yellow roses at her breast; they helped the other 
 colors. She has a face as dark as an Egyptian 
 girl's. She is extremely handsome." 
 
 " So she has been told," said Tremaine, dryly. 
 
 " And her name ? " gently persisted Leah. He 
 appeared to wake from a sort of courteous reverie, 
 of which Leah herself, judging by his rather ab^ 
 sorbed gaze straight into her face, might very nat 
 urally have been the object. "Her name?" he 
 repeated, absently. Then, as if suddenly aroused, 
 he went on : " Her name oh, yes ; it is Mrs. For- 
 tescue Mrs. Abbott Fortescue." He ended the 
 words with an abrupt, peculiar laugh. 
 
 " You mention her name as if you considered it 
 a joke," said Leah, looking at him with a lofty 
 tranquillity. " Do you ? " 
 
64 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " Oh, good Heavens, no ! " Tremaine exclaimed, 
 in the manner of one thrown off his guard, who 
 does not often encounter such disarray. " By no 
 means, Miss Romilly. What made you suppose 
 such a thing ? Mrs. Fortescue and I are very good 
 friends." He paused here, and stroked his mous 
 tache for an instant as if he were trying to hide 
 the mutinous smile beneath it. " It seemed a little 
 funny," he went on, "to find anybody in Newport 
 who did n't know that I knew Mrs. Fortescue 
 that was all." 
 
 "I don't doubt that my ignorance in other simi 
 lar ways will provoke your amusement," Leah 
 quickly answered, "if you should continue my 
 acquaintance." She then glanced toward her 
 mother and Lawrence Rainsford, discovering that 
 the Misses Marksley had left them. 
 
 At the same time Mrs. Romilly gave a meaning 
 nod to her daughter. Leah at once moved to her 
 mother's side. She did so with her grandest air, 
 and as if supremely indifferent as to whether Tre 
 maine should follow or no. 
 
 " Mamma wishes me," she said, a moment later, 
 perceiving that Tremaine did follow. 
 
 " Have I annoyed you ? " he questioned, while 
 walking at her side. At the same time it passed 
 through his mind : " When have I danced attend 
 ance like this on any other woman ? " 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 65 
 
 " I 'm not quite sure that you have n't annoyed 
 me," returned Leah, with her eyes persistently 
 averted from his own. She had never carried her 
 sweet, fair head with more haughtiness than now. 
 " You will find me sadly deficient in the valuable 
 knowledge of Newport doings. Is n't it time that 
 you joined your friend, Mrs. what was her name? 
 who lunches at one o'clock, sharp ? " 
 
 " What insolence ! " thought Tremaine. " The 
 great Mrs. Chichester herself would never dream 
 of it, even if actually provoked. Who can this 
 girl be, who has the pride of a young queen and 
 the good looks of a young goddess ? " 
 
 He did not permit himself to be rebuffed. He 
 made it imperative for Leah to present him to her 
 mother. The introduction to Lawrence Rainsford 
 was needless. 
 
 He disliked Rainsford, though scarcely knowing 
 the man. He had set him down as a prig and a 
 bore. But his slender white hand grasped Rains- 
 ford's strong and brownish one with much apparent 
 warmth. Tremaine never permitted his dislikes 
 to interfere with his suavity. He avoided people 
 very often with a good deal of clever dexterity, 
 but when brought face to face with his aversions 
 he was invariably urbane. There was less real 
 hypocrisy here than might have been supposed ; he 
 
66 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 held an expressed animosity to be one of the car 
 dinal vulgarisms. Mrs. Fortescue's luncheon really 
 claimed him; it was, in its way, a commandant 
 engagement. But Leah chose to beam upon him 
 again before he slipped off in graceful departure. 
 Her hard moods rarely remained ; that was some 
 thing of which her worst foe could not accuse her; 
 she had always been guiltless of bearing grudges. 
 Besides, her pique had been more than half a mat 
 ter of capricious coquetry ; perhaps she wanted to 
 test the real strength of this sudden thrall in which 
 she perceived, with her first truly tingling sense of 
 conquest, that she had secured a man whose atten 
 tions were ranked as high favor by the most fastid 
 ious of her sisters. . . . 
 
 " I think you were almost cold to him, mamma," 
 she said, when Tremaine had left them, and while 
 her eyes followed the latter's figure, with its easy, 
 lounging walk. 
 
 " Cold, Leah ? " murmured her mother. There 
 was a touch of perplexity, of worriment, in the 
 brief utterance. 
 
 "Yes," Leah continued, a trifle sharply. "It 
 was very polite of him to offer to send us invita 
 tions for the Casino ball on Monday night. Yet 
 you hardly thanked him ; you left all the gratitude 
 to me." 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 67 
 
 "You seemed rather grateful," here broke in 
 Lawrence Rainsford. They had begun to move ; 
 Leah was between himself and her mother as they 
 prepared to leave the grounds. They were going 
 toward the place of exit, away from the pavilion, 
 beneath whose cool shade the band still briskly 
 wrought its inspiriting melodies. 
 
 " I was grateful," Leah answered him, with in 
 creased sharpness. She turned her look full upon 
 Rainsford's composed countenance, which he had 
 somewhat drooped, as was often his wont. " Why 
 should I not be, if you please ? " 
 
 His response was very quiet. "I don't know 
 why you should be," he said, evasively. " The 
 Casino balls are quite dull, I have found." 
 
 Leah gave a high, clear laugh. " Good gra 
 cious ! " she exclaimed. " Have you been to any 
 of them ? . . . Oh, well, I think there 's a slight 
 chance of their affecting us differently." She 
 turned to her mother. "We are going, of 
 course." 
 
 " Going, Leah ? " said Mrs. Romilly, incredu 
 lously. " You can't mean it, child ! You know 
 how entirely out of society I have been for years." 
 
 " Oh, if you won't take me, Mr. Tremaine shall ! " 
 returned Leah, with petulant decisiveness. "I 
 don't care whether it shocks people or not, mamma. 
 
68 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 I did n't come to Newport to be mewed up with 
 invalid spinsters and lugubrious divines from 
 Brooktyn." She lifted one hand and swept it be 
 fore her. " I like all this ; I think it perfectly 
 charming. It makes me feel as if I were being put 
 back into my proper element." The next instant 
 her face was quite close to her mother's ; a smile 
 had broken over it, and her brown eyes, that could 
 be so haughty, were sparkling merrily. " Dear 
 mamma," she said, " don't take me so seriously. 
 Don't try to drive me with a curb always. Throw 
 the reins on my neck for once, and let me have a 
 little gallop all to myself. Depend upon it, I 
 shan't run away ! " 
 
 Leah's voice was music itself now, and her pos 
 ture, while she leaned toward her mother and they 
 still walked onward, exquisite in its lithe, girlish 
 abandonment. Perhaps the rarity of these tender, 
 intimate changes made them irresistible; perhaps 
 they were stamped with an original and native 
 allurement, like that which so often gave an unex 
 plained sweetness to her most wilful and impe 
 rious aspects. 
 
 Rainsford had scarcely heard these latter words. 
 But their caressing tones left him in no doubt of 
 their true import ; he knew Leah in all her phases ; 
 he had good reason for such exhaustive knowledge. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 69 
 
 " I don't believe anything would induce you to 
 go alone to the ball with Tremaine," he said, a lit 
 tle louder and quicker than he usually spoke. 
 " But even if you went there with your mother 
 on his invitation I should much regret it." 
 
 Leah at once showed him a frowning face and a 
 curling lip. 
 
 " I can't help what you would regret or sanc 
 tion," she retorted, with curt speed. 
 
 Rainsford looked very grave. He made the only 
 reply that occurred to him, in his earnest single 
 ness of motive: 
 
 " Tracy Tremaine is not a man from whom you 
 should accept favors." 
 
 "What do you know against him?" she asked, 
 with a ring of eager defence in her fleet tones. 
 
 " I know of nothing for him." 
 
 " That is no answer," she said, an angry throb 
 stirring her voice. " He pleases me exceedingly. 
 I don't recollect ever having met any one whom I 
 liked so well on a short acquaintance. He is the 
 handsomest man I ever saw. And his manners are 
 perfect. He may not paint pictures, or aim at 
 being a great celebrity, but then everybody can't 
 dedicate himself to immortality. There must 
 always remain a few humble creatures who are 
 content with respectable obscurity." 
 
70 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " Leah ! " murmured her mother. 
 
 But Rainsford bore this volley of unsolicited 
 impudence in perfect silence. It roused no resent 
 ment ; it seemed only to augment a certain fore 
 boding dread. 
 
IV. 
 
 O you think I was rude, mamma? " said Leah. 
 This was a good quarter of an hour later. 
 She stood before the mirror in her own room, with 
 both arms lifted behind her head, as she gave some 
 stroke of mysterious repairing handicraft to the 
 back knots of her golden tresses. 
 
 Mrs. Romilly was in the next chamber, and an 
 swered through its open doorway. 
 
 " You were perfectly pitiless, as usual," she said. 
 "But I do not believe Rainsford thought much 
 about your treatment. He was too filled with con 
 cern at another matter." 
 
 Leah laughed scornfully. " I shan't pretend not 
 to understand you." Her fingers were still en 
 gaged with her satin strands of hair; the loose 
 sleeves, fallen from each arm, brought into solid 
 relief both their slope and swell ; the palms of her 
 busy hands, turned toward the mirror, looked like 
 the pinkish concaves of two small but deep shells, 
 just above the faint blue lines that crossed either 
 rounded wrist. 
 
 71 
 
72 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " No, I shan't pretend not to understand you," 
 she repeated, with eyes fixed on her own comely 
 reflection, as though she were directly addressing 
 it. " You mean that I have presumed to actually 
 enjoy the society of some other than one particular 
 
 man." 
 
 "No, no, Leah," firmly contradicted Mrs. Rom- 
 illy. As she spoke the last word her stately figure 
 had reached the threshold of the intermediate 
 doorway. Here she remained while continuing to 
 speak. 
 
 " No, Leah, it is not that. You cannot so mis 
 interpret Rainsford; you have known him too 
 long. He professes no rights of supervision or 
 admonition except those of a friend." 
 
 " Why should he do so ? " 
 
 " Why, indeed ! " A faint sigh went with the 
 response. 
 
 Leah turned suddenly and met her mother's 
 gaze. 
 
 " Oh, I am so tired," she said, in repressed tones, 
 that betrayed dread of being overheard, while at 
 the same time filled with strong protestation 
 " I am so tired of having you and Rainsford take 
 it superbly for granted that my matrimonial future 
 is in both your hands ! Pray, how much longer 
 am I to be laid siege to, like a beleaguered town ? 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 73 
 
 As if I did n't know that you and he were in per 
 petual stealthy collusion together ! As if I did n't 
 know that you, mamma, have a ready little rem 
 edy for all my discouragements ! Why on earth 
 don't you marry him yourself if you think him so 
 perfect?" 
 
 A moment afterward Leah had slipped to her 
 mother's side, and while putting both arms about 
 Mrs. Romilly's neck, had kissed her on the cheek. 
 It was an embrace that had nothing impulsively 
 affectionate ; there was even a matter-of-fact de- 
 liberateness about it ; you might have likened it 
 to the performance of some little half-heeded cer 
 emonial. 
 
 " There, I did n't mean that, of course," she said, 
 while going quietly back to the mirror again and 
 resuming her former posture. " That was only a 
 bit of my impertinence, you know." 
 
 Several minutes elapsed before Mrs. Romilly 
 said : " Leah, it is an old story to you that I want 
 you to be Rainsford's wife. If you cared more for 
 any other man than you care for him, I should be 
 quick to dissuade you from such a marriage. 
 But I believe Rainsford could make you very 
 happy. As for there being any plot between 
 us, that is mere nonsense, child. Rainsford does 
 not like this Mr. Tremaine, and has given me 
 
74 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 his reasons. I think they are very fair and sensi 
 ble ones." 
 
 "What are they?" asked Leah. She had ar 
 ranged her hair to her own evident satisfaction. 
 She again faced her mother, with a demeanor that 
 now had in it strong apparent intention to listen, 
 tolerantly and peacefully. 
 
 "They are these," said Mrs. Romilly, with a 
 brightening visage, as if glad of the new receptive 
 conditions under which she could make herself 
 heard. " He is a man whose whole life is one of 
 idleness and frivolity. He is popular, in a certain 
 sense, yet in no sense is he respected. He has 
 mental ability, yet he has let it all go to waste. 
 His world is a narrow, almost a contemptible one. 
 But he is wholly content with it ; he sees nothing 
 beyond, or rather he has long ago shut his eyes to 
 any larger view. But, worst of all, Leah, he is 
 the slave of a shallow, flippant and worthless 
 woman." 
 
 " Do you mean Mrs. Abbott Fortescue ? " asked 
 Leah, tranquilly. 
 
 Her mother started. " Yes, that is the name," 
 she said. " Can he already have told you of this 
 intimacy?" 
 
 "Never mind, please. What does Lawrence 
 Rainsford say of their relations?" 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 75 
 
 " Only what everybody says that they are on 
 terms which society should condemn and de 
 nounce." 
 
 " Is this Mrs. Fortescue a widow ? " 
 
 "No ; she has a husband living." 
 
 Leah shook her head slowly and sceptically. 
 She was asking herself what Rainsford could 
 really know of these easeful and resplendent 
 circles, in which his sober figure was so seldom to 
 be met. She felt herself assume toward Tracy 
 Treraaine an indignantly defensive attitude. She 
 grew sure that reckless-tongued scandal was doing 
 him a signal injustice. Besides, the girl might 
 have been dowered with a much slighter fund of 
 self-esteem, and yet have laid at the door of jeal 
 ousy Rainsford's dispatch in making her parent 
 learn these invidious reports concerning Tremaine. 
 Indeed, there was very little tinge of egotism in 
 Leah's reflections on the subject of Rainsford's 
 desire to marry her. She had got to think herself 
 deferentially persecuted, and to wonder if some 
 downright revolt on her own side might not, 
 sooner or later, become necessary. As it was, she 
 liked the young artist quite well enough to let 
 him go on loving her. This is a species of alle 
 giance which few women have ever been known 
 to resent ; indulgence is their usual order of treat- 
 
76 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 ment, even when no trace of reciprocal passion 
 exists. What gives to Doris the sudden frown 
 and the unpitying sneer, is a tendency on the 
 part of her devoted swain to meddle with some 
 other little idyllic flirtation. Then Strephon ab 
 ruptly becomes a nuisance ; his hopeless pleadings 
 lose both their poetry and their pathos, and she is 
 angry enough at him for his determined wooing 
 to smite him roundly with her crook. 
 
 Matters, however, had reached no such lurid 
 climax with Leah, though she was not by any 
 means in the best of humors when her mother and 
 herself presently descended into the dining-room. 
 The meal was luncheon, not dinner, for Mrs. 
 Preen, the proprietress, had yielded, two or three 
 seasons ago, to that luxurious influence which has 
 been slowly taking possession of Newport like one 
 of its own ubiquitous fogs, and had surrendered, 
 through the introduction of late dinners, her last 
 stronghold of domestic provincialism. 
 
 The boarders were all assembled when Leah 
 and Mrs. Romilly took their seats. They had 
 been assigned places on the immediate right of 
 Mrs. Preen, who was a lady well past middle age, 
 with considerable flesh and a chronic smile. Mrs. 
 Preen's smile was her chief personal point. It 
 had a glowing amplitude; it seemed to overflow 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 77 
 
 her somewhat puffed and sallow face. It was sel 
 dom absent ; the least temptation called it forth ; 
 it expressed an actual exorbitance of amiability. 
 But it was accompanied, at the same time, by an 
 enormous eleemosynary impulse. The word " poor " 
 was pathetically frequent in her conversation. 
 She was incessantly pitying everybody and every 
 thing, in her corpulent, beaming, oleaginous way. 
 You felt that she was sincere, or at least sincere 
 for the moment. Without that vague yet secure 
 guarantee of amiability, you would have been 
 assailed by a sense of repulsion. But the enor 
 mous kindliness of Mrs. Preen was an indisputa 
 ble fact ; to receive her facile sunshine was not to 
 doubt the genuine source whence it had emanated. 
 
 " You 've been seeing something of Newport, I 
 s'pose," she soon said to Mrs. Romilly. 
 
 She had what is called the New England accent, 
 and in spite of a short clip given to certain syl 
 lables, she readily conveyed the impression of a 
 person who has been educated, and somewhat 
 thoroughly. 
 
 "Yes," Mrs. Romilly at once answered. She 
 had made up her mind to like Mrs. Preen, as she 
 usually made up her mind to like all people ; it 
 was part of her philosophy to brighten with one 
 of her own smiles the threshold of every new 
 
78 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 acquaintance. "We went to the 'Casino. We 
 found it very gay and pleasant." 
 
 " Madam," suddenly said the Rev. Mr. Pragley, 
 looking with an expansive stare straight at Mrs. 
 Romilly, "did you not also find it very worldly?" 
 
 Leah at once broke into a full, careless laugh. 
 This was the first time that Mr. Pragley had ad 
 dressed either herself or her mother, although 
 both had been formally presented to him on a first 
 meeting. 
 
 "Worldly !" exclaimed Leah, before her mother 
 could answer. "Of course it was! That was 
 why we went." 
 
 An ominous silence followed. Mrs. Dickerson's 
 dog gave a furtive bark. Mrs. Dickerson herself 
 looked as if her spare body had been galvanized 
 into a condition of statuesque decorum, while the 
 sly, pert little head of the dog peered up from her 
 lap as if it sympathized with the shocked feelings 
 of jts mistress. Both the Misses Semmes fixed 
 their small, calm eyes upon Leah. The Mr. Yarde 
 who dreaded malaria also gazed at her. But she 
 was the recipient of one more bit of scrutiny, and 
 this was, in its way, keenly significant. 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Pragley's wife had arrived 
 an hour ago, rather unexpectedly. She was a 
 lady of perhaps five-and-forty ; she had a long, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 79 
 
 square-jawed face, eyes of a peculiarly lustreless 
 leaden blue, and hair of that dull, drab shade 
 which resists all the frosty attacks of time. She 
 was a person noted for the extreme severity of 
 her religious opinions, and it was currently stated 
 among her friends that she had exerted marked 
 influence upon her lord, in the way of urging him 
 to the expression of his most violent and denun 
 ciatory views. She now regarded Leah with a 
 look of mournful and shocked disapproval. 
 
 " I hope you don't mean what you say, miss," 
 she declared, with a manner of excessive aus 
 terity. " I hope you are only joking. The love 
 of worldliness is so great a human evil, that when 
 I see my fellow-creatures openly professing it, I 
 feel as if I were called upon by Providence itself 
 to show them the true light to yes, to lead 
 them forth from spiritual darkness." 
 
 "Indeed!" said Leah. "Did it ever occur to 
 you, however, that your illuminative efforts might 
 not be considered in just the best taste ? " 
 
 Mrs. Pragley was a sort of idol among her con 
 stituents, and she was now in the company of at 
 least five of them, her husband included. Leah's 
 tone of serene sarcasm struck them as unpar- 
 donably audacious. They exchanged gloomy 
 glances ; Cigarettte gave a second little fragment- 
 
80 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 ary bark, and then Mrs. Pragley tartly broke the 
 ensuing silence. 
 
 "I think, miss, it is always good taste to try 
 and save mortals from sin." 
 
 "Do you?" said Leah, tranquil and impervious. 
 " But have you ever reflected that all human na 
 ture is fallible, and that when we parade our own 
 virtue, we lay ourselves under suspicion as to its 
 real soundness?" 
 
 " I never parade my own virtue ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. Pragley. 
 
 "No, never!" echoed Mrs. Dickerson, so em 
 phatically that her sharp chin struck against one 
 of Cigarette's perked ears, and caused the dog to 
 utter a little squeal of pain. 
 
 Mr. Pragley gave one of his coughs. "My 
 dear Amelia," he said, addressing his wife, " your 
 zeal carries you too far." 
 
 "Yes," shot Leah's quiet speech. "Beyond the 
 bounds of good breeding." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly laid her hand on Leah's arm. 
 " My daughter," she said, " I beg that you will be 
 silent." 
 
 " Come, come," now struck in Mrs. Preen, in 
 her customary cooing voice, "we had better not 
 talk of each other's faults and virtues. I 'm sure, 
 Mrs. Pragley, that poor Miss Romilly did n't 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 81 
 
 mean to offend your Christian feelings. Young 
 people will be young, you know, and worldly 
 things are pleasant to them. Newport is worldly, 
 of course, in the summer it is so filled with 
 fashionable people." After which limpid little 
 flow of commonplaces, Mrs. Preen gave her dulcet 
 laugh, which had rich notes in it, not unlike the 
 motherly cluck made by an especially contented 
 hen. She lifted one plump finger and shook it 
 playfully at Mr. Yarde ; she was bent, it would 
 seem, on the restoration of peace among her 
 patrons. " Why, you poor Mr. Yarde," she went 
 rippling on, "if you don't look real alarmed, I 
 d'clare ! It 's just a shame to shake those poor 
 weak nerves of yours now, is n't it, sir ? " 
 
 This rather sickly flash of humor was received 
 somewhat ungraciously by the cadaverous Mr. 
 Yarde. " I am much more shocked than alarmed, 
 madam," he returned, with acid brevity, and after 
 ward fixed both eyes upon his plate. 
 
 " Dear me ! " piped the Miss Semmes with the 
 neuralgia; " I hope there is no occasion for fear" 
 
 She stole a look at Leah, which the latter re 
 turned with a faint smile of satirical amusement. 
 
 " Oh, of course, I was only joking," burst forth 
 Mrs. Preen. " Still you can all scold poor me as 
 much as you want," she proceeded, with jocund 
 
82 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 martyrdom. " I 'm sure I shan't care a bit, as 
 long as you won't disagree among each other." 
 
 Mr. Pragley slightly started, at this point, and 
 gave a roll of his black eyes that seemed to the 
 revering gaze of the Misses Semmes and Mrs. 
 Dickerson positively apostolic in its grandeur. 
 They supposed it to be the precursor of some 
 such memorable rebuke as only their sainted 
 paragon could administer; but Jove concluded 
 not to hurl his thunderbolt this time, and the rest 
 of the meal passed in low-voiced murmurs on the 
 part of nearly every one present, to his or her 
 immediate neighbor. 
 
 Only Leah and Mrs. Romilly kept completely 
 silent, the first from apparent careless disgust, the 
 last from an unwillingness to reprovoke in any 
 possible way that unconquerable spirit of mischief 
 which had already spoken so assertively. 
 
 " You need n't be distressed about me in the 
 future," said Leah, when she and her mother 
 had again retired to their own apartments. " I 
 shan't notice any of these dreadful people after 
 to-day. They are pitiable travesties on humanity. 
 They have no right to exist in this progressive 
 century. They belong to a hundred years ago, 
 at least, with their nonsensical puritanic bigot 
 ries." 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 83 
 
 She kept her word. But the manner which she 
 now chose to assume was one of supreme, un 
 compromising haughtiness. At dinner that same 
 evening, she sat beside her mother with a posture 
 and a look of repressed yet palpable contempt. 
 There was no open hostility in her deportment ; 
 she contrived that no one should catch her eye, 
 and yet she made it sweep the whole table, now 
 and then, with a peculiar flutter of the lid, a 
 peculiar accompaniment in the turn of her neck, 
 that was far from pacifying her vigilant observers. 
 
 " Leah," said her mother, as they stood on the 
 piazza afterward, in the twilight, "you are only 
 adding fuel to the flame." 
 
 "For heaven's sake, mamma, what do you 
 mean ? " she asked, with unruffled hypocrisy. 
 
 " Oh, you understand. You looked everything 
 that you wanted to say." 
 
 " I can't help that. I can't control my coun 
 tenance as I can my speech. That has its separate 
 indignation and resentment, I suppose. I confess 
 that I realized for the first time what satisfaction 
 Medusa must have had in turning some people to 
 stone." 
 
 " Your simile is an unlucky one. Medusa was 
 the type of a relentless cruelty." 
 
 Leah looked at her mother with a lofty im- 
 
84 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 patience. " Upon my word, I believe you excuse 
 these persons ! " she said. 
 
 " I think they are to be excused yes. They 
 represent a particular force in society; they are 
 religious fanatics. But, after all, they have a 
 distinct sincerity of their own." 
 
 " The sincerity of extreme impudence," said 
 Leah. "I wonder whether Mrs. Dickerson con 
 siders it * worldly ' or no to decorate herself in 
 flounces and ribbons as she does. As if the attack 
 which this Dr. Pragley made upon you was not 
 clear enough in its motive ! He remembers who 
 you are. He is one of your old enemies. He has 
 told them to treat you rudely, or try to reform 
 you, which is about the same thing." 
 
 " I am very willing that they should try to re 
 form me," said Mrs. Romilly. 
 
 Leah almost stamped one of her pretty feet. 
 " Oh, certainly ! " she exclaimed. " You would 
 actually stoop to pit your wisdom against their 
 cheap sentimentalisms. You would let them turn 
 your splendid philosophy into mockery with their 
 pietistic ignorance ! You, who are more soundly 
 moral in your finger-nails than they, souls and 
 bodies all taken together, would let them tell you 
 that you are going to be roasted in eternal tor 
 ments. I know just what you would do if you 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 85 
 
 were not afraid of my explosions. You would 
 stand up before them as calm as marble, and 
 answer their trivial assaults with arguments that 
 they have neither the education nor the brains to 
 understand. And the sole reward you would get 
 would be to have them scream some such stock-in- 
 trade word as ' infidel ' at you because you had 
 the presumption not to accept their sulpfrureous 
 dogmas." 
 
 " I should not think that my life of study and 
 thought was of any profit to me," came the slow 
 answer, " if it disabled me from frankly expressing 
 my beliefs to them in simple and direct terms. 
 We should not garner seed except to sow it. I 
 sometimes think that in these latter years of 
 inactivity I have culpably hoarded truth whose 
 dissemination I owed to my fellow-creatures as a 
 precious trust." 
 
 Leah gave ah aggravated moan. She did not 
 speak for a moment ; she was plucking from the 
 dense greenery of the thick-twined vine just in 
 front of her a little pearly spray of honeysuckle. 
 She performed this act with swift movements of 
 her agile white fingers, as though wreaking upon 
 the helpless bloom the force of a strong irritation. 
 
 " I 'm glad that I 'm not great, like you, 
 mamma," she presently said, while fixing the spray 
 
86 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 in the bosom of her muslin dress. " You make 
 me feel immensely contented with my own little 
 ness, and as if cloudland, after all, couldn't com 
 pare with my terrestrial comforts." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly caught her hand and pressed it. 
 While she still held it, too, she spoke. 
 
 " Leah ! Leah ! you often say things at your 
 very lightest, child, that seem to cast doubt on 
 your own levity. There is often something in 
 your words and deeds that frightens me." 
 
 " Why ? " asked Leah suddenly, and with al 
 tered intonation. 
 
 " Because I feel that you will some day bend on 
 life such different eyes ! eyes, I mean, that have 
 shed tears, my daughter. Yours have shed none, 
 as yet. Sorrow has not taught you one of her 
 dreary tasks. She can tame us so terribly with 
 her ferule of iron, while we spell out with sobs 
 the hard texts in her stern little primer ! " 
 
 When Lawrence Rainsford presently appeared, 
 joining them on their special corner of the piazza, 
 Leah chose to treat him with a delicious forgetful- 
 ness of her own past incivility. He bore this 
 valuable piece of indulgence with a stoic disre 
 gard of its condescension. He listened with 
 great attention while she related all that had 
 passed at luncheon. She gave him a very faithful 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 87 
 
 account, though one, at the same time, in which 
 her severities of epithet ran riot, bathing every 
 sentence, as it left her lips, in a lambent play of 
 ruthless ridicule. 
 
 " Now, you must not even hint that you think 
 me the least bit in the wrong," she finished. 
 " Mamma has greatly distressed me by inferring 
 it. I have engaged, however, to behave with 
 meekness in the future, provided the enemy fires 
 no more guns at either of us." 
 
 "You left out that proviso before, Leah," said 
 her mother. 
 
 " I am afraid, if she retains it," said Rainsford 
 to Mrs. Romilly, " that the war is by no means 
 ended." 
 
 " You mean that they will make another attack? " 
 questioned Leah. " Oh, well, let them. In that 
 case I shall certainly give them a few silencing 
 broadsides. In the name of all decency," she 
 went on, " are we to be persecuted like this for 
 the whole of the next month ? I wonder what 
 they will say or do when they see mamma and 
 myself depart en grande tenue for the Casino 
 ball." 
 
 A silence followed. The piazza was now quite 
 dim with the increased nightfall. But Leah, after 
 her abrupt little allusion, managed to watch with 
 
88 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 covert intentness the vague faces of Rainsford 
 and her mother. She saw these faces momentarily 
 turned toward each other, as though for the ex 
 change of that same meaning look with which 
 past experience had so well familiarized her. But 
 Rainsford, when he now spoke, chose to say, in 
 quite his ordinary voice: 
 
 "It might be well to change your boarding- 
 place for more congenial quarters. I could easily 
 extricate you, I think, from present surround 
 ings ; and, indeed, I suppose it is my duty to make 
 the attempt, since I am innocently blamable for 
 having lodged you at Mrs. Preen V 
 
 Before either Leah or Mrs. Romilly could 
 answer, a large figure was seen approaching this 
 end of the piazza in the uncertain light. It 
 proved to be Mrs. Preen, who held a letter in 
 her hand, which she at once gave Leah. 
 
 " This is for you, my dear Miss Romilly," said 
 the bland lady. As Leah took it, peered at it, 
 failed to decipher its superscription, and then 
 darted toward the lighted hall not far away, Mrs. 
 Preen went on addressing Mrs. Romilly and 
 Rainsford. 
 
 She appeared for some time to be commiserating 
 everything and everybody. She expressed herself 
 confident that the whole sad affair at luncheon 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 89 
 
 need not have happened if only her poor wits had 
 played the peacemaker sooner and more effec 
 tually. She was convinced that poor Dr. Pragley 
 had really meant nothing. As for poor, dear Miss 
 Romilly, her remarks had been impulsive, per 
 haps, but not really ill-meaning. And then poor 
 Mrs. Pragley was a lady of very high principle, 
 devoted to her husband's opinions and sometimes 
 defending them too sharply when supposing them 
 attacked, but at heart a most lovable creature ; 
 she had just been assured of this by poor, sweet 
 little Mrs. Dickerson, who had been a friend of the 
 Pragley family for many years. And then poor, 
 mild Mr. Yarde, who had such a horror of the 
 chills, had expressed his sincere regret at the oc 
 currence, as also those two poor, inoffensive Misses 
 Semmes had done. . . . 
 
 Rainsford found his heed growing less and less, 
 long before this compassionate monologue had 
 shown any sign of cessation. He was relieved 
 when Mrs. Preen ended, and withdrew her mas 
 sive person, leaving behind it a kind of lackadaisi 
 cally humane aroma. 
 
 He did not wish to discuss with Mrs. Romilly 
 this ponderous apologetic discourse. 
 
 " The poor woman is in a most bewildered state 
 of mind," he said. " You see, I instinctively bor- 
 
90 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 row her own pathetic adjective when speaking of 
 her. But do not let us speak of her, or of 
 this clique that has got into her house, and 
 wants so autocratically to regulate its moral at 
 mosphere." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly looked at him with such gentle 
 fixity in the deep dusk that he saw the smile, joy 
 less yet sweet, which edged her lips. 
 
 "You wish to speak of Leah," she said, "do you 
 not?" 
 
 " Yes ; I always wish to speak of her." 
 
 There was a little silence. 
 
 "You are afraid?" 
 
 " I am afraid." 
 
 "You believe that we have committed an error 
 in bringing her, with her love for brilliant super 
 ficialities, to this place, whose superficialities are 
 so filled with color and glitter ? " 
 
 " Yes. I think Newport has been a mistake." 
 
 "Ah, my dear Lawrence!" (She always called 
 him by his first name when they were alone to 
 gether). " My doctor did not think that when he 
 sent me here." 
 
 "True," he answered, with an intonation of 
 apology, "but there are so many other seaside 
 places." 
 
 "Where Leah might have been kept compara 
 tively hidden ? " 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 91 
 
 "Yes. We are very candid with each other. 
 We always are. It is best." 
 
 A breeze floated through the vines, moving 
 them tenderly. The pulse that it made in their 
 leafage was just audible and no more. But the 
 moon had begun to mount, though still invisible, 
 and her rich yet slow splendor was blackening the 
 contours of trees and houses in the quiet streets 
 outside, while turning the sky above into a golden 
 haze. 
 
 Mrs. Romilly laid her hand on Rainsford's arm. 
 " Why do you Jove her so ? " she murmured. 
 
 " Good God ! " he said, his quiet tones lending 
 the words a fivefold intensity. "How can I 
 help it?" 
 
 She kept her hand on his arm, but she did not 
 answer him. He understood why she did not. 
 He understood that it was because she had no 
 comfort to give him. 
 
 " Did you tell her what I said of that man, Tre- 
 maine ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes. But she will not credit it. She says" 
 
 And here Mrs. Romilly paused. Some one was 
 rapidly approaching them. The next instant they 
 both recognized the light, brisk step. 
 
 " I 've been answering such a kind, charming 
 note ! " exclaimed Leah, as she joined them. Her 
 
92 TINKLING CYMBALS, 
 
 voice had a defiantly merry ring; but while its 
 merriment seemed genuine enough, its defiance 
 had the effect, to these trained and loving ears 
 which heard it, of being resolutely forced. 
 
 Neither Mrs. Romilly nor Rainsford spoke, and 
 Leah went on : 
 
 " It was a note from Mr. Tracy Tremaine. It 
 enclosed two cards for the Casino ball, and it 
 asked me to drive with him on Monday afternoon. 
 I have sent away my answer. Mrs. Preen is so 
 obliging; she made one of her servants take it. I 
 thanked Mr. Tremaine most heartily for the invi 
 tations, and I accepted with thanks his request to 
 take me driving." 
 
 She seated herself as she finished. The moon 
 light had greatened so that she could see either 
 face quite clearly. A silence followed, which 
 Rainsford broke. 
 
 " Tremaine has excellent horses," he said. He 
 brought the words straight from the inner pang of 
 a heartache. The unexpectedness of their com 
 monplace almost disarmed Leah. But an instant 
 later she was her wilful and cruel self again. 
 
 " I am so glad to hear you say so ! " she an 
 swered. " I shall enjoy my drive all the more on 
 that account!" 
 
V. 
 
 next day was Sunday. Leah and her 
 mother intentionally breakfasted a little later 
 than the rest of the household, thus avoiding Dr. 
 Pragley and his adorers. But while they were 
 busied with their coffee and rolls they heard the 
 singing of a hymn in the adjacent parlor, and soon 
 afterward Dr. Pragley's stentorian voice reached 
 them in tones that made it plain he was fervently 
 sermonizing. 
 
 Leah listened. She could catch nearly every 
 word quite distinctly. But she presently left off 
 listening and resumed her breakfast. 
 
 "Do you hear? "she said. "'Eternal punish 
 ment ' 4 the vengeance of Heaven ' ' the wrath 
 of the Deity ' ' the anger of the Most High ' 
 oh, how horrible to love a God whom they believe 
 so unmerciful ! and how insolent to treat him as if 
 they could really explain his works and ways! 
 Do they ever reflect upon the irreverence of their 
 own worship ? " 
 
 " Volumes might be written on the impiety of 
 
 93 
 
94 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 the pious," said Mrs. Romilly, almost as if she 
 were speaking to herself. 
 
 Leah started. " Is that your own, mamma ? " 
 " No, Leah. A greater mind than mine put it 
 into language." 
 
 Leah looked at her with a composed fondness. 
 " Remember," she said, " that I admit few minds to 
 be greater than yours. Whose is the telling little 
 axiom ? " 
 
 " It belongs to Herbert Spencer, my dear." 
 " How true it is ! " Leah commented, sipping 
 her coffee, while the resonant voice of Dr. Prag- 
 ley still sounded. " Yes, I think I recollect meet 
 ing it. It is in the ' Lay Sermons and Reviews/ 
 is n't it?" 
 
 " Huxley wrote those, Leah." 
 " Oh, yes, so he did. I remember now. But, 
 good gracious ! why are not all these great modern 
 thinkers dead ? They ought to be." 
 " Why do you say that, my child ? " 
 " Oh, because they are so majestic, most of them, 
 that they deserve the final majesty of death itself. 
 Even some of my nonsense would be less stupid if 
 I should die. Death would give it a kind of classic 
 touch. A few people would get to think there had 
 really been something in it, because they could 
 never hear any more of it. ... Yes," she went 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 95 
 
 on, as if entertained by the quaintness of her own 
 reflections, " I suppose that if Mrs. Dickerson's 
 repulsive little dog should suddenly expire in a fit 
 we might find ourselves deciding that it had once 
 or twice barked melodiously. . . . Oh, dear, I wish 
 that he would n't do it quite so loud ! " 
 
 This last bit of irreverent vernacular referred to 
 the continued rolling periods of Dr. Pragley. Leah 
 and her mother soon afterward finished their break 
 fast and went out on the piazza. Each took from a 
 table in the hall a book which she had left there 
 since the preceding afternoon. That corner of the 
 piazza which they had already fallen into the habit 
 of occupying was very near a large window, whose 
 green blinds, at present shut, could be opened di 
 rectly upon the parlor in which Dr. Pragley was 
 still making himself rhythmically audible. Leah 
 fixed her eyes upon the pages of her book, remain 
 ing silent for some little time. Mrs. Romilly be 
 gan likewise to read. But presently, as she turned 
 a leaf of her own volume, something slipped flut 
 tering to her feet. 
 
 Half instinctively, at first, Leah stooped, reach 
 ing forth her hand. Securing what appeared to be 
 several small sheets of printed matter stitched 
 together, she cast her look upon the print itself. 
 Then she uttered a faint, abrupt cry. The next 
 
96 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 instant she had almost snatched away Mrs. Rom- 
 illy's book, and had glanced at its title. 
 
 " Oh, mamma ! this is outrageous ! " 
 
 " What, Leah ? " 
 
 " Do you see ? They have dared to put a tract 
 in your book ! It is called ' A Staff for the Lame 
 and Sight for the Blind.' Is not this too much ? 
 Are you going to endure it? If you are, I am 
 not ! " 
 
 Leah had risen, by this time. Her eyes were 
 flashing; she had thrown back her head, while 
 turning her face with a look of accusative anger 
 straight toward the near apartment. 
 
 Mrs. Romilly remained seated. "Leah," she 
 said, in earnest undertone, " I can endure it very 
 well. Pray, do not excite yourself for such a 
 trifle." 
 
 " Trifle ! " repeated Leah, ominously, below her 
 breath. But a moment later she had raised one 
 finger, with her gaze again fixed upon the neigh 
 boring window. " Listen ! " she went on, with 
 her lips pressing together and her face turning 
 pale. 
 
 It was easy to listen. The voice of Dr. Pragley 
 had seldom been more vigorous and oratorio than 
 now, outside the spacious walls of his own famed 
 tabernacle. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 97 
 
 " Yes, my friends," he appealed, " let us pray for 
 the perverted soul of that once notorious and still 
 unrepentant woman ! Let us not judge Elizabeth 
 Cleeve Romilly that is not our province, not our 
 prerogative. But let us implore the Holiness which 
 she has offended to confer upon her the mercy of a 
 blessed remorse, even though it may be a tardy 
 one ! Let us implore " 
 
 It is possible that Dr. Pragley just had time to 
 finish his next adjuring sentence before Leah, fired 
 with an irresistible purpose, had succeeded in open 
 ing the broad blinds of the adjacent window. She 
 burst into the room after that with quite enough 
 force to make her entrance a prophecy of storm 
 and outcry among the persons gathered in mute 
 and rapt absorption about their fluent pastor. But 
 if they all expected that the scene of yesterday 
 was to be tenfold intensified by this fearless young 
 antagonist, Leah now disappointed them with the 
 extraordinary equipoise and calm of her demeanor. 
 
 She stood quite still, at a distance of scarcely 
 two yards from the window by which she had so 
 impetuously entered. Through this a wide shaft 
 of the outer daylight had shot itself across the 
 floor of the big, gloomed chamber ; she stood cen 
 trally within the scope of its brightness, which 
 gave to her dilated figure, her incensed eyes, and 
 
98 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 the pale refinement of her visage, a prominence 
 otherwise lost. She looked at Dr. Pragley, and, 
 with very slight hesitation, spoke. Her voice was 
 rather unwontedly vibrant than loud. Her agita 
 tion and ire were plain, but it was also plain that 
 she had good mastery over both. 
 
 "I had made up my mind," she commenced, "to 
 give you, your wife, and your friends, sir, no 
 cause for any further personal rudeness while 
 we remained within this house. I did this at 
 my mother's anxious request, and not because 
 I am not quite able at all times to hold my 
 own with those who annoy me by verbal sharp- 
 shooting, of whatever sort. But yon have 
 shown me this morning that such a course 
 is quite beyond my powers. In the first place, 
 you, or some of your clique, impertinently placed 
 a tract in mamma's Herbert Spencer. That was a 
 very officious and objectionable thing to do ; but 
 it does not compare, in point of pure insult, with 
 the fact of your daring to call mamma names, un 
 der the disguise of praying for her, and in a voice 
 of such volume that you are certain it must 
 reach her ears and my own. I do not doubt, sir, 
 that I am giving you a very needless piece of in 
 formation when I tell you that you ought to be 
 ashamed of yourself ; for, though you could prob- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 99 
 
 ably preach for hours about modesty or gentle 
 manly courtesy, I believe that both are as foreign 
 to your nature as the demands of your profession 
 make them really requisite ! " 
 
 Leah half turned toward the window, with one 
 of her most queenly gestures, and would at once 
 have quitted the room had not Dr. Pragley's tones, 
 full of sonorous lamentation, sounded a prompt 
 response. 
 
 He had thrust his right hand into the breast of 
 his close-buttoned coat ; he had drooped his head, 
 and was shaking it from side to side with immeas 
 urable regret in the oscillation. 
 
 " Oh, most unfortunate young scoffer ! " he 
 mourned. "And it is with such wanton abuse as 
 this that you return our patient, Heaven-inspired 
 efforts ! " 
 
 Just then Leah saw the light of the window 
 darkened, and looking round, she perceived the 
 forms of her mother and Lawrence Rainsford 
 crossing the threshold. 
 
 Rainsford's appearance gave her a sense of rein 
 forcement, so to speak, but it played havoc with 
 her self-repression as well. Here was somebody 
 who would doubtless offer her the sympathy that 
 her distress merited, who would aid her in the 
 defensive stand that she had taken. As a conse- 
 
100 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 quence she did what no amount of dire conten 
 tion on the part of the Pragley faction could have 
 forced her to do. She immediately burst into 
 tears, they were the hot tears of hysterical 
 wrath and addressed him in wailing tones, that 
 had lost every trace of their former continence. 
 
 "Did mamma tell you what these dreadful 
 people have been doing? As if that old shout 
 ing sensationalist had any right to call my dear, 
 good, noble mother what he did ! I should n't 
 have minded half so much if he had had the impu 
 dence to pray for me. But mamma! who is so 
 much above him, in mind, in soul, in goodness, 
 in charity, in everything, that it would take him 
 his whole noisy, wrangling lifetime even to to 
 understand her ! " 
 
 The final sentence, gathering toward its pas 
 sionate rhetorical climax, was flung in a side 
 long manner at Dr. Pragley. And then Leah, 
 like all with whom to weep is rare, saw the lu 
 dicrous side of her perturbation, and hurried 
 toward her mother, hiding her face on the latter's 
 shoulder, while her tears changed themselves into 
 almost convulsive sobs. 
 
 " Leah," she heard her mother's voice say, low 
 and sweet in its firmness, " come with me, child ; 
 come away with me." . . . 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 101 
 
 Nothing was quite clear to Leah after that, until 
 she and Mrs. Romilly were seated, side by side, on 
 a corner of the piazza opposite to the one which 
 they had formerly occupied. Then she again be 
 came aware of her mother's fervent, persuasive 
 voice. 
 
 " Leah, do not take it so much to heart. Rains- 
 ford is speaking to those people now. He has 
 already told me that he will arrange for us to 
 leave this afternoon. There will be no further an 
 noyance. We can go to the Aquidneck House in 
 a few hours." 
 
 They did go. What Rainsford said to Dr. 
 Pragley and his c6terie he never communicated 
 afterward. The disappearance was managed very 
 quietly. Mrs. Preen came to her two departing 
 boarders with a lachrymose visage and a mien of 
 genteel matronly despair. Mrs. Romilly held con 
 verse with this bereaved lady, and made the inevi 
 table leave-taking as brief as possible. Leah, with 
 her eyes dried and glittering rather hard, main 
 tained a sturdy silence. Rainsford supervised all 
 the petty details of their withdrawal. By about 
 four o'clock that same day, they were installed 
 within two very comfortable rooms at the Aquid 
 neck. 
 
 " This is delightful " said Leah, who was now 
 
102 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 thoroughly herself again. " Why should we not 
 remain here until we leave for good ? " 
 
 " I fear it is too expensive," said her mother. 
 And then Mrs. Romilly named the price which 
 Rainsford had told her that they would be 
 charged. 
 
 "Nonsense, mamma ! " exclaimed Leah. "Why 
 talk as if we were paupers ? When have we spent 
 our full income ? " She named the amount of 
 money which they had decided to be their limit of 
 expenditure while in Newport. "Besides," she 
 went on, " there are those few extra bonds which 
 you wished to sell just before we came here. I 
 fancy that we shall like the Aquidneck. It has a 
 sort of homelike look." Here she gave a decided 
 memorial shudder. "Anything" she went on, 
 "would be better than that wretched place of 
 Mrs. Preen's." 
 
 A little later she said, as if suddenly recol 
 lecting : " Oh, by the way, now that I am here I 
 must write to Mr. Tremaine. I mean about to 
 morrow's drive, you know, that my address is 
 changed." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly made no answer, but Leah wrote 
 a brief note, and when she went downstairs with 
 her mother she paused at the desk and gave her 
 directed envelope to the clerk, saying that she 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 103 
 
 wanted it sent immediately. The clerk, who 
 chanced to be a functionary of effusive politeness, 
 assured her that the missive should be dispatched 
 at once, and added that Mr. Tremaine lived only 
 a short distance away, in the same street. " It 's 
 the old Tremaine house, miss," he continued, 
 answering affably Leah's surprised look. " Nearly 
 everybody in Newport knows it." 
 
 Leah afterward told her mother of their near 
 ness to her proposed escort of the morrow. Mrs. 
 Romilly scarcely responded at all ; but when, 
 that same evening, Rainsford appeared, meeting 
 her in the lower hall of the hotel, some temporary 
 absence of Leah gave her the opportunity to tell 
 him both of the note sent and of the neighboring 
 residence. 
 
 " I forgot he was so near," murmured Rainsford, 
 as if to himself. " She is contented here ? " he 
 went on, in much less preoccupied tones. "She 
 likes it?" 
 
 "She wants to stop here permanently. The 
 hotel pleases her." 
 
 " It is much less public and populous than the 
 Ocean House," said Rainsford. 
 
 Leah presently made her appearance. For a 
 reason that both she and Rainsford understood, 
 though it was concealed with not a little tact, 
 
104 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Mrs. Romilly soon left them. They walked out 
 together on the piazza, so much broader and 
 ampler than Mrs. Preen's. 
 
 " Your mother says you like it here," ventured 
 Rainsford. 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Leah, positively. " Very much. 
 We shall remain. It is decided." 
 
 " Will you sit down, or shall we walk ? " Rains- 
 ford had paused beside two chairs while he thus 
 spoke. 
 
 Leah gave a little laugh. " I shall stand," she 
 replied. "But only for a short time. I am tired. 
 I want to go upstairs. You know what has tired 
 me." She turned her head away from his watch 
 ful face while she spoke, and looked in at the wide 
 illumined hall. 
 
 A few people were scattered about in seated 
 groups, here and there. But he and she were com 
 paratively isolated where they now stood. 
 
 A hundred things that he might say swept 
 through Rainsford's mind. But he hit only upon 
 one. 
 
 " Leah," he began, looking at her intently in the 
 dusk, " is there not something that you are willing 
 to tell me?" 
 
 Her eyes seemed to gaze across his shoulder 
 out into the dark street beyond. "I want to 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 105 
 
 thank you so very much," she said, with an evasive 
 frankness, " for having got us away from that 
 shocking place." 
 
 " I do not mean that," he faltered helplessly. 
 
 " Well," she returned, with a ring of resignation 
 in her voice that would have been comic at an 
 other time, " what do you mean, please ? " 
 
 "Have you not guessed, Leah?" His tones 
 deepened, and seemed to throb a little. " I mean 
 that I want you to tell me you will be my wife." 
 
 There was a silence, during which they both 
 heard the sighing of the gloomy trees on the near 
 lawn. 
 
 "For the last time, I hope," Leah said, meas- 
 uredly, but by no means coldly, <c I must answer 
 you that this is not possible." 
 
 "Not possible," he said, repeating the words, 
 yet scarcely knowing that he did so. It was 
 almost as if a condemned prisoner had automati 
 cally murmured over an adverse sentence just pro 
 nounced. 
 
 " It is final quite final," Leah went on. "But 
 we must always be good friends. In time you will 
 not care ; at least, I sincerely hope not. You will 
 marry some charming girl, and you will love her 
 very much. You will tell me all about her, and 
 we will laugh together over the past." 
 
106 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 She laid her hand, very lightly, on his arm. All 
 her former hard brilliancy had vanished ; she had 
 grown very womanly and winning ; you would not 
 have believed her guilty of the least rigor, the least 
 cruelty. Her eyes, as they dwelt on RainsforcTs 
 face, were full of a rich, humid light. 
 
 " I think it better," he said, with the effect of 
 forcing speech between shut teeth, " that we should 
 never see each other again after to-night." 
 
 "No, no," she objected. She still touched his 
 arm. There was a flash of the old imperiousness 
 in her veto, softly as it was given ; and yet this 
 was mixed with a strange, uncharacteristic candor. 
 " I like you to like me. I don't want you to de 
 sert me because I care for you less than you care 
 for me. I promise always to be your friend. 
 Friendship has its demands, its conditions, its obli 
 gations. You arid I are to be friends no, I mean 
 you, myself, and mamma. There; it is settled. 
 You are not to go away permanently. I cannot 
 spare you. As I said, it will all end in time, 
 you know to what I refer. I hope she will be 
 charming and high-bred. If so, I shall be very 
 fond of her. Look, there is mamma coining. 
 Act nicely." She withdrew her hand from his 
 arm at this point. "Act as if everything had 
 not been arranged, once and for all." Just at 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 107 
 
 this point her voice, before ending, hardened a 
 little. . . . 
 
 The weather was full of moderate breezes and 
 the best sunshine on the following day. Leah 
 took a short walk with her mother in the morning, 
 and passed a certain spacious, attractive dwelling, 
 which she informed her companion was the Tre- 
 maine homestead. Mrs. Romilly did not ask her 
 how she had obtained this knowledge. But the 
 fact that Leah had secured the exact information 
 was not without its saddening result. 
 
 The Aquidneck House charmed Leah. Before 
 mid-day she had drifted into conversation with a 
 certain lady whose appearance pleased her. The 
 name of this lady was Mrs. Forbes, and her re 
 markable information on the subject of Newport 
 and Newport doings afforded Leah the most potent 
 entertainment. She insisted that her mother 
 should share her new acquaintance, though Mrs. 
 Romilly, who found the lady in question some 
 what vapid and unsatisfactory, did not long remain 
 in Mrs. Forbes's company. 
 
 " I think mamma is not very well to-day," said 
 Leah, when her mother had made an excuse to 
 withdraw from the large, shady, pleasant sitting- 
 room in which the introduction had occurred. 
 "She came here for her health, you know. You 
 
108 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 must find it a decided change from Peoria, don't 
 you? That is so far away I mean it looks so on 
 the map. Isn't it in the Rocky Mountains, or 
 very near them ? " 
 
 " Oh dear, no ! " said Mrs. Forbes. She gave a 
 blithe laugh. " You Eastern people are always 
 supposing that we Western ones come from the 
 most unearthly places. But don't let us talk of 
 Peoria. You can put it as far west on the map as 
 you please. I'm almost sorry that I told you I 
 was born and raised there. I 've been abroad ever 
 so long since I saw it. I was married abroad. I 
 married an Englishman." 
 
 " Yes?" said Leah, with interrogative suavity. 
 
 She liked everything about Mrs. Forbes except 
 her voice. The lady was plump, pretty, and of 
 excellent style in the way of attire. She had a 
 tender pink-and-white complexion, a little, reced 
 ing, piquant nose, and a mouth as small and sweet 
 as a crumpled red flower. But her voice, her pro 
 nunciation, struck Leah as shockingly nasal. It 
 was so unmelodious, so coarse, in fact, that it con 
 trasted most dissonantly with the agreeable per 
 sonnel to which it belonged. 
 
 " Yes, my husband is an Englishman," Mrs. 
 Forbes continued. " We lived in England and 
 France for nearly seven years after we were mar- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 109 
 
 ried. Then something happened with regard to 
 my property ; I have a great deal of property in 
 the West. It was this trouble that brought us on 
 here, but we find that there has been a sort of 
 false alarm, and we shall probably stop in Newport 
 until the end of the season. Poor pa died in Peo- 
 ria three years ago ; he had been with me in Europe 
 when I was married, but afterward he had gone 
 back. He died quite suddenly ; it was a dreadful 
 blow. Bertie thought it best that I should n't go 
 back right away. He said it would be different if 
 mother was living. And I am the only child. 
 By 4 Bertie ' I mean my husband, of course. His 
 full name is Bertram Chetwynde Forbes. He is 
 the first cousin of the Marquis of Chetwynde, you 
 know." 
 
 This latter statement was made with a slight 
 straightening of the jaunty little body, as though 
 it concerned a question of the most notable im 
 port. 
 
 " Oh," said Leah, " then you are one of the 
 Americans who have married among the English 
 aristocracy ? I have often heard about those kinds 
 of marriages." 
 
 Mrs. Forbes nodded her head with more sociabil 
 ity than seemed quite the proper accompaniment 
 of a lady in such close matrimonial nearness to a 
 marquisate. 
 
110 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 "Yes," she said. And then, like a little oft- 
 repeated formula, she murmured : " Bertie is first 
 cousin to the Marquis of Chetwynde." 
 
 Leah did not wish to be too interrogative on so 
 short an acquaintance. She felt very curious, 
 however, regarding Mrs. Forbes, but contented 
 herself, for the present, with saying: 
 
 " You go out a great deal into society here, 
 don't you?" 
 
 "No," said Mrs. Forbes, "I don't. Bertie 
 does, though." And here she noticeably bright 
 ened. 
 
 " Your husband goes without you ? " murmured 
 Leah. ..." You have told me so much about the 
 manners and customs of Newport that I supposed 
 you had been a good deal among the great peo 
 ple." 
 
 Mrs. Forbes laughed. Her laugh, like her voice, 
 was extremely harsh. She was so modishly and 
 brightly robed that she reminded Leah, while 
 listening, of those splendid-plumed tropical par 
 rots which satirize their feathery loveliness by 
 the utterance of hoarse screams. 
 
 " Oh, Bertie describes it all," Mrs. Forbes now 
 said. "He goes everywhere. He thinks it best 
 that I shouldn't be gay. There are the two chil 
 dren, you know, Enid and Gwendolen. Don't you 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. Ill 
 
 think that those are pretty names ? We think so. 
 Enid is named after Bertie's sister, the Countess 
 of Breadalbane, and Gwendolen is named after 
 his mother, who was the third daughter of Lord 
 George Maskelyne." 
 
 Leah recalled two pale, sickly children, who bore 
 not the slightest resemblance to her new rotund, 
 healthful-looking friend, and who had clamored 
 peevishly round Mrs. Forbes on the piazza about 
 an hour ago, until drawn away by a gaunt French 
 bonne. 
 
 " They are both quite delicate," continued the 
 mother of Enid and Gwendolen. " They are not 
 at all like Bertie and me. Bertie says that they 
 require all my care. I suppose he is right, of 
 course. But then there are the two French nurses, 
 you know, Aline and Franchise. Still, I dare say 
 a mother should be motherly and domestic." 
 
 Leah had by this time acquired a pronounced 
 dislike of " Bertie." Her drive with Tracy Tre- 
 maine was to take place at four o'clock, and very 
 punctually at that hour a dog-cart, drawn by two 
 heavy, stylish bays, drove up to the door of the 
 Aquidneck. Leah, attired simply, but with a taste 
 that well became her slender figure and lovely 
 face, was soon ensconced at Tremaine's side. 
 Mrs. Romilly saw the departure from an upper 
 
112 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 window; she somehow chose not to descend and 
 greet Leah's new escort. 
 
 " It was so good of you to come with me," 
 Tremaine said, while the bays were starting and 
 the footman was leaping into his seat behind. 
 "I was so afraid that you might refuse. Your 
 little mention of a row at your other place has 
 made me immensely curious. Do pray tell me all 
 about it." 
 
 Leah began her narration. She gave it with 
 certain touches of her old sarcastic humor that 
 caused Tremaine more than one burst of hearty 
 merriment. And, meanwhile, she noticed the 
 faultless nicety of his toilette, in which, from the 
 shining boot to the high drab hat, there was care 
 without finicality, and elegance without foppery. 
 He seemed to Leah a very finished human expres 
 sion ; he satisfied her in every way where Rains- 
 ford had fallen short of satisfying her. Nor was 
 she at all sure that this pleasure was not one of 
 mental as well as physical approval. He was not 
 very often in earnest, but then Rainsford was 
 always too much in earnest. He had no superior 
 views of life, but then Rainsford's views were in 
 a manner superior to the maintenance of agreeable 
 permanent intercourse. There lay Rainsford's 
 trouble in the eyes of Leah he was too extraor- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 113 
 
 clinary, too exceptional, without in the least pre 
 tending to be so. But Tremaine, on the other 
 hand, though quite as exempt from pretensions, 
 had an art of putting things, a manner of living, 
 a grace and taste of deportment, that were all 
 delightfully on a level with the everyday usages, 
 pastimes, or occupations. Leah felt an exhilarated 
 relief in his society. She could not help compar 
 ing the two men ; they were the only two men 
 who had ever wakened in her the slightest definite 
 regard. The one whom she knew best was forever 
 commanding her respect ; the other represented a 
 cheerful relaxation from this silent but continuous 
 levy. Not that she failed in respect for the latter, 
 but in him the moral tribute did not incessantly 
 thrust itself forward with wearying prominence. 
 Tremaine was an unpedestaled figure, so to speak ; 
 there was nothing august about him ; one's sight 
 need not be lifted too high to span his dimensions. 
 But, on the other hand, neither had it to be in the 
 least lowered. Leah felt contentedly certain on 
 this last-named point, notwithstanding what she 
 had recently heard with regard to Mrs. Abbott 
 Fortescue. 
 
 " That Pragley fellow must be the most shock 
 ing old duffer," said Tremaine, when she had fin 
 ished her piquant recital. " It 's not necessary, I 
 
114 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 suppose, for me to tell you that I think your con 
 duct was entirely proper." 
 
 But Leah soon forgot her grievance. They had 
 reached Bellevue Avenue, and had begun to feel 
 the fresh breath of the near sea. 
 
 "It is enchanting," she said, looking almost 
 gleefully to left and right. "This, then, is the 
 real Newport. I see it at last ! I have so wanted 
 to see it ! " 
 
VI. 
 
 n~THE abodes had lost that close-neighboring 
 aspect which marked them in the older part 
 of the town just left. They rose on either hand, 
 in countless varying structural designs. A few 
 and these were quite occasional had the smartly- 
 assertive air of the American villa; but by far the 
 majority of them were either noble and stately, or 
 rustically simple in a way that left it plain as to 
 the generous means of their owners and lessees. 
 The popular name of " cottages " was rarely appli 
 cable. They were mostly mansions of grand and 
 massive proportions. Their lawns lacked the am 
 plitude usually found engirding similar English 
 homes, but many of them, in spite of such disad 
 vantage, satisfied the gaze with a beautiful mano 
 rial majesty. 
 
 "I suppose the great people live here," said 
 Leah, giving full play to a childish admiration. 
 
 Tremaine laughed. 
 
 " Oh, yes," he replied. " Here are to be found 
 our American dukes and duchesses." 
 
 115 
 
116 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 "And are these people, so constantly driving 
 past us, to so many of whom you bow," she ques 
 tioned, " all what is called the cream of Newport 
 society ? " 
 
 Tremaine gave a much louder laugh. 
 
 "Oh, what a delicious phrase for this awful 
 rabble ! " he exclaimed. " Come, now, Miss Rom- 
 illy, I am sure you got that straight from the 
 newspapers." 
 
 Leah was too preoccupied to dream of being 
 offended. 
 
 "Why do you call it a rabble?" she said, as 
 carriage after carriage, in every conceivable shape, 
 from the monumental four-horse drag to the small 
 two-wheeled tilted cart, swept multitudinously 
 past them. " I think everything is so prosperous, 
 so glittering, so undemocratic ! It all seems to 
 me like a region in which poverty is quite un 
 known. As we drive along now we seem to be in 
 a kind of gentlemanly and ladylike paradise." 
 
 "Oh, there is money enough, if you mean 
 that," Tremaine answered, in his loitering, half- 
 indifferent way. "But you mustn't judge of this 
 Belle vue Avenue parade by outside appearances. 
 A few years ago it was quite another matter. 
 Then Newport was reall}* a special and peculiar 
 place. Now it is overrun by people from heaven 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 117 
 
 knows where. We used to have from thirty to 
 forty families here, who all knew each other and 
 entertained each other. It was a blessed refuge, 
 then, from such rowdy spots as Saratoga and Nar- 
 ragansett. But something has changed all that 
 of late. There are various explanations given ; 
 for my part, I am convinced that only one is to be 
 credited. I mean that wretched Casino." 
 
 " Oh, don't call it wretched ! " dissented Leah. 
 " It is so lovely ! " 
 
 " Yes, that is what everyone said when it was 
 first built. But I consider that it has ruined 
 Newport. It has done away with all the old 
 quiet, conservative charm of the place. It has 
 made Tom, Dick, and Harry flock here with their 
 wives, daughters, and sons. It has destroyed all 
 our atmosphere. The old residents can't be rude 
 to people who will get introduced to them at the 
 Casino, and will bombard them with hospitalities 
 afterward. They are forced to make some return. 
 As a consequence, it has become customary to give 
 great dinners at the Casino restaurant could 
 anything be better evidence than that of the 
 lowered tone of the place? All the fine, select 
 atmosphere of Newport has gone. The really 
 swell women don't drop- in upon each other of a 
 morning as they used to do ; that charming mix- 
 
118 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 ture of home life and fashionable life, the lady's 
 morning visit, once so distinctive a feature here, 
 lias almost completely vanished; everybody sees 
 everybody else, nowadays, at the Casino. Then, 
 again, if somebody like Mrs. Chichester, of New 
 York, or Mrs. Parkinson, of Boston, wants to 
 throw open her palace of a house and give a ball 
 to guests whom she knows and has known for 
 years and whom she desires to compliment by a 
 superb piece of real civility, she straightway 
 trembles in her boots, poor woman, at the pros 
 pect of having about two hundred extra invita 
 tions asked for the moment her regular cards have 
 been issued. Now,l maintain that the Casino is 
 responsible for this new abomination. It has 
 turned Newport into a watering-place. It never 
 was one before; they used to call it so, but it 
 never was. People would go to the Ocean House, 
 and stay there a week, and go away bored, who 
 now remain to struggle and push and elbow 
 themselves right into cottage society. For that 
 matter, there is no cottage society any longer; 
 it has become a mere memory." 
 
 Leah was so interested by this glimpse into an 
 unknown world, that she never gave the least 
 egotistic thought to her own isolation and aloof 
 ness from it. She showed, oo the contrary, her 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 119 
 
 relish of Tremaine's dilettante complaints by a 
 laugh that pealed out sweet and silvery in the 
 crisp marine air. 
 
 "Truly," she said, "it's like the wail over 
 Babylon, or some great ruined city of the past. 
 If there were only more willow-trees in Newport, 
 how pretty it would be for all you old cottage- 
 people, as you call yourselves, to decorate them 
 with croquet-mallets and lawn-tennis bats, just as 
 the poor Israelites hung up their harps, you 
 know ! " 
 
 "An excellent idea," he said, echoing her laugh. 
 " I should like to commemorate our downfall in 
 precisely some such picturesque way." 
 
 But now Leah spoke in decidedly altered tones. 
 She had remembered at last what it was so like 
 her to remember, sooner or later. 
 
 " By-the-bye," she said, very seriously, and with 
 a little heightening of her delicate head, " I sup 
 pose it has not struck you that /might be ranked 
 among your condemned pushers and struggiers, 
 has it ? " 
 
 He replied instantly, and with apparent shocked 
 astonishment. If counterfeited, nothing could be 
 more deft. 
 
 " Miss Romilly, is it possible that you are not 
 joking ? " 
 
120 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Leah felt the balm at once touch her hurt, 
 which, after all, was a mere scratch. 
 
 "Well," she admitted, with her grand, cool air, 
 "it is true that you sought an introduction to me." 
 
 " I was compelled to seek one." 
 
 "Compelled?" 
 
 " Assuredly. You understand, of course." 
 
 "But these very exclusive personages," she 
 went on, "whom I don't know, and whom you 
 know that I don't know what will they say 
 when they see us together?" 
 
 He leaned his face for a few brief seconds near 
 to her own. The bays were so well broken as 
 not to require great vigilance. 
 
 " Ah, what would they say," he murmured, " if 
 you should choose to meet and mingle with 
 them ? " 
 
 " I am sure I can't tell. Can you? " 
 
 "Quite accurately, I think. They would say 
 that, with all their exclusive tendencies, they had 
 never denied their courtesy to beauty, wit, and 
 refinement, when those three gifts met notably in 
 the person of one woman." 
 
 Leah thought this, as it was spoken, we might 
 also add, as it was looked, thoroughly delightful. 
 It so entirely banished her resentment that when, 
 a little later, Tremaine asked her whether she 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 121 
 
 would prefer to visit the polo-grounds or to quit 
 the wagon and walk a little way along the Cliffs, 
 she readily answered : 
 
 " I will leave the preference to you. Whichever 
 you choose I will choose." 
 
 Her mien of condescension, blended with her 
 unaffected ease and her brilliant beauty, affected 
 him very pleasurably. 
 
 " Let us go to the Cliffs," he said, thinking how 
 he should like to walk at her side for a little 
 while. 
 
 When they reached the end of Belle vue Avenue, 
 he signed to the groom behind him, after stopping 
 his horses. The groom sprang out and held their 
 heads, while he assisted Leah to alight. 
 
 They were presently strolling close to the edge 
 of the sea, along a hard, smooth path, beneath 
 which sloped in rugged, rocky acclivity the ex 
 treme ocean-limit. On their left was a seemingly 
 interminable line of palatial edifices ; on their 
 right the sea broke, with its immemorial music 
 and its vast, pure distances of lustrous color. 
 But sheer down from the porticoes and verandas 
 of the adjacent dwellings, directly to the verge of 
 old Atlantic itself, ran a carpeting of green lawn, 
 as sleek and even as a leopard's fur. It met the 
 grim top of the precipitous headland and there 
 
122 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 ended with an abruptness that was like a happy 
 truce between nature and art. The ocean seemed 
 to have grumblingly granted this peaceful com 
 promise ; it washed the granite bases, many feet 
 below, with a sort of leonine submission. Perfect 
 culture never before blent so harmoniously with un 
 tamed wildness. The residences themselves were 
 those past which Tremaine and Leah had already 
 driven ; but seen on this, their shoreward side, 
 they acquired a new meaning, a new vantage. 
 Their encompassing lawns not only flowed toward 
 the coast, but flowed into each other with an 
 untrammeled pastoral freedom. You felt, as you 
 looked into their vague doorways, their curtained 
 casements, that the salt, invigorating breeze 
 wandered at will through each luxurious in 
 terior. 
 
 "It is something that I have never seen before," 
 said Leah, with a peculiar thoughtful enthusiasm, 
 as they moved onward for hundreds of yards and 
 found always the same sweep of emerald grass 
 touch the austere gray rock on one hand, and the 
 same line of imposing abodes gleam to them on 
 the other. " It charms me, delights me, and yet 
 it has a certain cruelty." 
 
 " Cruelty ? " repeated her companion. 
 
 " Yes. Do you know, it makes me think of the 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 123 
 
 miserable people who are starving in crowded 
 cities not far from here. I don't know what puts 
 such a thought into my head at such a time ; but 
 it has come ; I can't help having it." 
 
 No one would have called Leah cold or haughty 
 while she thus spoke. Tremaine looked at her 
 in surprise. 
 
 " Are you so humanitarian, so philosophic ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 She suddenly frowned. 
 
 " Yes ; if I choose to be," she said, annoyedly. 
 " There is a cruelty of luxury about these cliffs, 
 as you call them. They are too lovely. I mean 
 that while so many people are shut in hot garrets, 
 not knowing where they shall get their next crust, 
 all this pomp and comfort seems like an injustice, 
 an outrage ! " 
 
 She was instinctively thinking the thoughts 
 that she knew her mother would have had if they 
 had come here together. But, more than this, she 
 was thinking the same thoughts because of hidden 
 depth in her strange, capricious nature that even 
 her mother had not possessed the skill or acumen 
 to fathom. 
 
 Tremaine disliked her unforeseen mood, but in 
 most moods she had begun so potently to please 
 him that he chose, with a sure tact, to thwart and 
 alter this one. 
 
124 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " You say truly that you have never seen any 
 thing like it before," he softly ventured. " Neither 
 has anybody, I think. Not long ago I walked 
 this same path with well, I can't dream of pro 
 nouncing his name ; he is the Russian Minister, 
 and a very good fellow. He has seen three- 
 quarters, at least, of the Inhabited sphere. I 
 asked him if he had ever seen anything like our 
 Newport cliffs before, and it was very amusing to 
 watch him, with his encumbering foreign preju 
 dices, muse and meditate until he had answered 
 me, in his halting, precarious English, that there 
 was a summer resort on the borders of the Crimea 
 which reminded him of our present ramble, and 
 yet was actually far less fine. I suspect, myself, 
 that it can't hold a candle to this, wherever and 
 whatever it is. I 've knocked round a great lot, 
 myself, but I have met only one Newport that 
 is, from this one point de vue of external supe 
 riority." 
 
 After a little more strolling they retraced their 
 steps toward the attendant vehicle. The sun had 
 now dropped to its partial extinction, and the sea, 
 under its level rays, had begun to take darker 
 wrinkles upon a surface of deepened blue. Along 
 its horizon the sky showed a ring of that faint 
 rosy haze which betokens the ripeness of summer, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 125 
 
 and tells that the sharp autumn evening is not 
 far away. As they drove back through the 
 delicious early dusk, Leah said, " Are there many 
 English people here at present ? " 
 
 " Yes, a few." 
 
 " Great swells ? " she questioned ; and then 
 laughingly added, " As you would say." 
 
 " Not many great swells ; no." He mentioned 
 the name of one British nobleman, and then 
 paused, as if he could think of no one relatively 
 distinguished. 
 
 " Do you know a Mr. Forbes? " asked Leah. 
 
 He turned quickly, with a smile : " Bertie 
 Forbes ? Of course I do. Oh, yes ; I recollect. 
 He is at the Aquidneck. Have you met him al 
 ready ? " 
 
 "No," said Leah, gravely; "but I have met his 
 wife." 
 
 " Ah," said her companion, with an odd 
 accent upon the monosyllable. "I know Mrs. 
 Forbes slightly." 
 
 "Tell me about them," demanded Leah. 
 
 "About them?" he repeated, with a quizzical 
 mystification. " Do you mean who and what they 
 are?" 
 
 " Oh, no. I have learned all that from the poor 
 little lady herself." 
 
126 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " Why do you call her a poor little lady ? " 
 
 Leah was transiently silent. " Because," she 
 soon said, with emphasis, " I have an idea that she 
 is shamefully neglected." 
 
 "Well, I must allow that you're right," re 
 turned Tremaine, with a swift sidelong look into 
 her face. " But she has n't complained, has she ? " 
 
 " Oh, no. On the contrary, she seems to think 
 that she is enormously honored by being married 
 to a man of close connection with the English 
 peerage, and who never takes her anywhere. A 
 man who is ashamed of her, in fact." 
 
 " Well, you are about right. She was a great 
 heiress. Bertie married her in England. He 
 had n't a penny. I never knew such a case of 
 unmurmuring conjugal devotion. She might be 
 made presentable enough, if he would only in 
 troduce her. But he doesn't. He spends her 
 money instead sometimes even gambles it away 
 at cards, I 'm afraid and keeps her always per 
 sistently in the background. It's shocking of 
 him, of course." 
 
 " I should say so," answered Leah. . . . 
 
 A little later, after Tremaine had assisted her to 
 alight at the hotel door, and had said a few low 
 words concerning the Casino ball, at which they 
 were soon to meet, Leah passed into the hotel on 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 127 
 
 the way to her mother's room. But before reach 
 ing the staircase she came face to face with Mrs. 
 Forbes. 
 
 " I saw you come back from your drive," said 
 this lady, in her brisk, nasal way. She looked 
 extremely pretty ; she was dressed quite showily, 
 j'et tastefulty, for dinner. "Did you enjoy it?" 
 she went on. 
 
 " Oh, very much," replied Leah. " Did you 
 not drive this afternoon ? " 
 
 " No. Bertie took some gentlemen out. But I 
 usually drive that is, when he does n't want 
 my particular horses. We have only four with 
 us, this year ; we were not sure how long we 
 should stay, you know ; and one of Bertie's has 
 gone lame several times since our arrival." 
 
 " So you let him keep you at home ? " said 
 Leah, with a dubious levity, while her brown eyes 
 dwelt very firmly on the little woman's gay, kindly 
 face. She lifted one finger and shook it with 
 smiling admonition. " Ah, Mrs. Forbes, if I were 
 you I would manage things very differently ! " 
 
 Mrs. Forbes could not feel offended. Her inti 
 macy with Leah had been rapid and almost wholly 
 of her own making. Besides, Leah greatly at 
 tracted her ; she thought her one of the most 
 beautiful young creatures she had ever seen ; and 
 
128 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 she had a pronounced liking for beauty in her 
 own sex. Apart from all these considerations, 
 too, the girl had given her little burst of famil 
 iarity with enough jocose carelessness to render it 
 safely non-committal. 
 
 " How would you manage things ? " asked Mrs. 
 Forbes, with a sudden earnestness that struck her 
 hearer as a little short of wistful. " I 'd like to 
 know. I 've been wanting to know." 
 
 Leah promptly became serious. She slipped 
 one hand into one of Mrs. Forbes's plump hands 
 as she spoke, while still maintaining her fixed 
 regard. 
 
 " You ask me that question," she said. " I don't 
 know what precise answer you wish, but I will 
 give 3*0 u a frank and sincere answer. It is this : I 
 would go to the Casiuo ball to-night. It means 
 more than it says, that slight answer of mine. 
 There 's a good deal behind it." 
 
 Mrs. Forbes's color grew slowly from its usual 
 pink into a much richer shade. But she did not 
 withdraw her hand from Leah's. 
 
 "You you mean against his will?" she said, 
 hesitatingly. 
 
 Leah pressed the hand that she held. The rec 
 ollection of Tremaine's words now keenly recurred 
 to her. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 129 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Forbes," she answered, every trace of 
 her customary secure reserve having fled, and a fer 
 vent, sincere cordiality replacing it, "I don't know 
 if I am not unwarrantably officious ! I expected 
 that you were going to snub me, and I should n't 
 have minded it if you had! . But, yes, really, I do 
 mean against his will, since you ask my meaning. 
 I would not stand being made oh, well," she 
 suddenly broke off, " I can't say it ! We have got 
 to be very good friends, of course, in this little bit 
 of a time but still I can't say it ! You can un 
 derstand if you choose." Here the speaker looked 
 as grim as her fine-cut and clear-lined face would 
 permit. "And upon my word," she pronounced, 
 with her voice as gutturally bass as she could make 
 its naturally soft tones, "I do hope that you will 
 understand ! " 
 
 " I think that I do understand," said Mrs. 
 Forbes. 
 
 Leah had not heard her speak with anything 
 like this decisiveness before. The new tone 
 startled her. 
 
 When, after dining, Leah went to her room, she 
 found a large knot of fresh pink roses waiting 
 on her dressing-table. The bouquet was shaped 
 with perfect skill for a corsage. She fixed it 
 in the bosom of her white dress, knowing 
 
130 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 well who had sent it. Mrs. Romilly also knew. 
 Mother and daughter dressed together, almost in 
 silence. 
 
 " By the way," said Leah, when they were both 
 about to go downstairs, " did Rainsford speak of 
 accompanying us ? " 
 
 Mrs. Romilly's face flushed a little. She was 
 clad in a robe of filmy black, whose sombreness 
 Leah had insisted on relieving with a few of her 
 large pink, gauzy-petaled roses. 
 
 " Leah," she murmured, " how can you expect 
 that?" 
 
 Leah tossed her head. 
 
 "I don't expect it," she answered. An instant 
 later her eyes, which had got an excited spark in 
 their velvety brown, wandered toward her mother. 
 And then she went straight up to Mrs. Romilly 
 and put both arms round the lady's neck. 
 
 " You 're a perfect picture ! " she exclaimed. 
 " I never saw you look so bewilderingly hand 
 some. Kiss me ! " 
 
 Her fresh red lips were within an inch of her 
 mother's, but she held her lightsome, flower-like 
 head obstinately backward, waiting for the kiss to 
 be given. Mrs. Romilly gave it, with a faint sigh 
 that Leah's quick, gay laugh might have drowned 
 to the girl's own ears. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 131 
 
 " You '11 have a splendid time," she exclaimed. 
 " I know you '11 be admired, /expect to be. And 
 I made you come with me, poor, dear mamma, did 
 n't I ? I got the best of you. That is the way of 
 the world ; the little people always get the best of 
 the great ones, I begin to think. . . . But you '11 
 have a splendid time, as I said. ... I intend to 
 have one myself." 
 
 Leah did. The ball of this evening was espec 
 ially brilliant in the way of patrician attendance. 
 Mrs. Abbott Fortescue was there, loudly but be 
 comingly dressed in a gown of some yellow-and- 
 black tissue that suited her tawny complexion 
 beyond cavil. But Tremaine was not at Mrs. For- 
 tescue's side. He adhered devotedly to Leah, who 
 refused to dance with him. 
 
 " I don't dance at all," she told him with posi- 
 tiveness. " I never could learn, and I shall never 
 try to learn any more." 
 
 " Dancing is a frightful bore," he said. " I am 
 so glad you hate it. I do." 
 
 " I don't hate it," said Leah, looking at the 
 forms, masculine and feminine, which were mov 
 ing across the waxed floor. " I think it is charm 
 ing to be able to dance. I envy those who can." 
 
 "A swan walks ungracefully," said Tremaine, 
 having a smile in his dark-blue eyes which his 
 
132 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 mouth, shaded with its long, blond moustache, 
 gave no sign of. " She can only swim." 
 
 " Please don't call me a swan," said Leah, with 
 arch impatience. " I don't like it. It is so near 
 being called a goose." 
 
 " Oh, /did n't call you so," returned Tremaine. 
 "Somebody whispered it just now. Shall I tell 
 you who ? It was the great Mrs. Chichester 
 the reigning power, one might say, of both New 
 port and New York. And I don't know how many 
 men," he went on, "have asked to be presented. 
 I 've promised them all that I would get your per 
 mission. Do you grant it? I wish you would 
 say 'no,' but I am very much afraid you will say 
 'yes.'" 
 
 Leah creased her straight white brows reflect 
 ively. " I want to see how mamma is getting 
 on," she said, turning her head swiftly away from 
 her companion, "before I either consent or re 
 fuse." 
 
 She saw her mother, seated in a portion of the 
 large ball-room that was reserved for dowagers and 
 non-dancers generally, in converse with a white- 
 haired, sweet-faced lady, who seemed glad of her 
 society. 
 
 " With whom is mamma talking ? " she asked of 
 Tremaine. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 133 
 
 " With Mrs. Lydia Holt Morrison," he at once 
 answered. 
 
 Leah recognized the name. " Oh, yes," she said. 
 " Mamma knew that she lived in Newport or 
 somewhere near. They met years ago. She 
 always wanted to meet her again. I know all 
 about her; mamma has told me. I am so glad 
 that they have got together. I assured her that 
 she was to have a splendid time. . . . Well, on 
 the whole, I conclude that I will let you introduce 
 those gentlemen." She said it with a laugh of 
 almost insolent condescension. He thought how 
 exquisite she looked, too, as she said it, with her 
 half-curled lip and her softly flashing eyes under 
 the dense, back-drawn gold of her hair. . . . 
 
 A little later she was the centre of quite a throng 
 of gentlemen. She found some of them tiresomely 
 stupid, and almost told them so, with her ready 
 speech, full of apt utterance and easy repartee. 
 But others she found attractive, and bent on these 
 her most indulgent smiles. 
 
 Tremaine presently dropped away from her. 
 He was irritated at her wish to know other men. 
 " She is already a great belle," he thought. " It 
 was certain to happen. The men are flocking 
 about, her like sheep. One presents another." 
 He repressed an inward oath of discontent. He 
 
134 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 was ready at oaths when annoyed and sure that 
 no woman overheard him. 
 
 He went out on the big porch, where a breeze 
 was blowing, and where people were moving 
 about. 
 
 Suddenly, a very familiar voice met his ear. 
 He started, and saw Mrs. Abbott Fortescue stand 
 ing quite near him, in the dusk. Her olive skin 
 and her black-and-yellow braveries harmonized 
 well ; but even in the dusk Tremaine's eye could 
 see that she was both pale and angry. 
 
 " You 're alone?" he said, still more annoyed, not 
 knowing what to say. 
 
 " Yes ; I saw you leave the ball-room," Mrs. For 
 tescue answered. Her black eyes were riveted on 
 his face. " I slipped away to meet you. It was 
 my only chance. You have not spoken to me this 
 evening. You drove this afternoon with that girl. 
 What does it mean ? " 
 
 They were standing together now in a very ob 
 scure portion of the spacious and shadowy place. 
 
 Tremaine looked sullenly, even defiantly, at the 
 woman who thus addressed him. 
 
 " It means anything you choose," he said. " It 
 means that I am tired." 
 
 " Tired ! " she repeated, drawing back from him 
 a little. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 135 
 
 "No," he answered, with a sudden, sinister gay- 
 ety, " not a bit of it ! I 'm refreshed ! I shall ask 
 Leah Romilly to be my wife before an hour has 
 passed. She will refuse, of course. But that will 
 not matter. It will prepare the way for my ac 
 ceptance hereafter. It 's time I married. And I 
 mean to marry her" 
 
 " You mean to marry her ? " said Mrs. Fortes- 
 cue, very softly, looking at him intently in the 
 dimness with her black eyes-, that now seemed to 
 burn his own gaze as they met it. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 As Tremaine uttered the word, he turned on 
 his heel and passed once more into the bright-lit 
 ball-room. 
 
 He so rarely committed the least discourtesy 
 toward a woman that this act was, in its way, 
 fatefully momentous. 
 
VII. 
 
 S. ABBOTT FORTESCUE went back 
 into the ball-room with a beating heart and 
 an angry soul ; but she was very far from believing 
 that Tracy Tremaine had actually meant his recent 
 words. Men may love at first sight, but the inten 
 tion of matrimony is a more deliberate affair, even 
 with the most amorous of suitors. 
 
 Tracy Tremaine had, indeed, spoken at random. 
 And yet he felt certain regarding one point that 
 he was exceedingly, however suddenly, in love 
 with Leah Romilly. Her new belleship told him 
 this in forcible terms. He watched other men 
 watch her, smile upon her, be smiled upon in re 
 turn, and his quickened pulses told him the truth. 
 No such sensation had ever entered his being be 
 fore. He measured it by his past caprices, and 
 felt the folly of resisting its intense headway. 
 
 Mrs. Abbott Fortescue was in many respects a 
 
 clever woman. She had thus far succeeded in 
 
 doing a very difficult thing with success ; she had 
 
 braved scandal, and yet held her own as a leader 
 
 136 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 137 
 
 in the fashionable world. Her dinners were not 
 only models of culinary skill; the people whom 
 she allowed to eat them were such as did not sow 
 their courtesies broadcast. She had made one 
 arch-enemy by her daring indiscretions. She 
 knew this, and in thinking of the great power 
 which that enemy held she sometimes trembled 
 for her future position. She was a woman who 
 had always skated on thin ice, and enjoyed the 
 excitement of the peril. Her good name was very 
 dear to her for the prestige that it brought, and she 
 liked to remember, now and then, that she had been 
 a poor country clergyman's daughter when she 
 married Abbott Fortescue, and that he had been 
 an obscure young stock-broker. It pleased her to 
 think that her wit and energy had pushed him 
 into his present high place as one of the Wall 
 Street -millionaires, while it had lifted herself 
 among the social celebrities of New York. She 
 knew perfectly well that her " tone " was thought 
 to be vicious, and yet that in every practical sense 
 this evil repute harmed neither her prominence 
 nor her power. She understood that her one 
 great safeguard was her husband ; as long as she 
 kept him loyal in his adherence and belief, she 
 could easily breast the tides of assailant gossip. 
 Thus far she had so kept him with an unwavering 
 
138 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 security. He was a man of considerable brains, 
 and yet he never suspected in her the least ap 
 proach to absolute infidelity. He used to say off 
 handedly that Serena liked her fun, and it was all 
 nonsense for a woman to cage herself merely be 
 cause she was married. But it never occurred to 
 him that he was even reposing confidence in her. 
 He was no longer very fond of her ; they had no 
 children ; he liked her way of presiding at the 
 head of his household, and he was proud of the 
 individual distinction that she had won. He knew 
 of her enemy, and regretted the quarrel, as he 
 chose to term it, though there had really never 
 been any quarrel at the root of this rioted antago 
 nism. 
 
 The name of the enemy was Mrs. Chichester, of 
 New York. Hers was a very different gentility 
 from that of Mrs. Fortescue. That of the latter 
 might perish in a day; a sudden esclandre publique 
 would sweep it away, as a tornado sweeps a rose- 
 garden. But the standing of the former was in 
 destructible in its august stability. The Chiches- 
 ters owned blocks of houses in New York. The 
 aggregate income of the family was enormous. 
 Their name had for several years past been one 
 of the shibboleths of our groaning socialists. 
 Mrs. Stephen A. Chichester, as it was customary 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 139 
 
 for the society-columns of the newspapers to 
 entitle her, was the acknowledged head of her 
 very wealthful house. There were other Mrs. 
 Chichesters, all of whom shared the magic that 
 engirt this race of mighty capitalists ; but she, for 
 reasons which concerned her lord's vast posses 
 sions, yet not for these reasons entirely, reigned 
 lofty and alone. Those who declared the Chi 
 chesters to be monopolist upstarts, even while 
 glad and proud to know them, could fling no simi 
 lar slur upon this particular lady. She had been 
 a Miss Vanderveer, and an heiress of large for 
 tune, before her marriage. Everybody knew the 
 Knickerbocker soundness of the Vanderveers ; 
 that implied a solidity like the foundations of 
 Old Trinity itself, near which many of this note 
 worthy race lay buried. Thus Mrs. Chichester 
 held all the advantages of colossal opulence, blent 
 with the talismanic charms of a brilliant pedigree. 
 She bore these double honors with great modesty 
 and sense. She was now nearly fifty years of 
 age, but the necessity of bringing three daughters 
 out into society had caused her to remain an ac 
 tive participant in its pomps. The daughters were 
 now all married, but Mrs. Chichester continued to 
 " entertain." It must be conceded that she enter 
 tained with a lavish splendor, tempered by the 
 
140 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 most faultless good taste. Her house at Newport 
 was a roomy mass of gray stone, towering above 
 the sea, and appointed with incomparable beauty. 
 Her new mansion, near Central Park, was one of 
 our metropolitan marvels, both without and within. 
 It has been stated that her age verged upon 
 fifty ; but she failed physically to show, by at least 
 ten years, this material advancement. She had 
 been a very lovely maiden in her youth, and she 
 was now a somewhat stout matron, with masses of 
 curly chestnut hair, into which time had slipped 
 only the most lenient silver, and a complexion 
 whose natural creamy freshness yet withstood the 
 aggression of all serious wrinkles. Her neck and 
 arms were phenomenal in their chaste and just 
 moulding, and though report spoke with bated 
 breath of the precious jewels in her possession, 
 she rarely wore as much as even a thread or band 
 of gold about throat or wrist. She had the repute 
 of being a martinet as regarded decorum, and had 
 been known more than once to strike from her 
 visiting-book the names of certain young men who 
 had offended her by their indifference, their lazi 
 ness, or their self-esteem. 
 
 She had struck Mrs. Abbott Fortescue's name 
 from her visiting-book, and had indeed once cut 
 this lady on meeting her face to face, with that 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 141 
 
 freezing avoidance which looks past, above, below 
 you, but never straightly encounters your waiting 
 gaze. 
 
 Mrs. Fortescue at length understood. She had 
 been dropped by the great regnant dignitary. She 
 invented a falsehood as the reason of the termi 
 nated acquaintance, and endeavored to make its 
 cessation appear the result of a mutual rupture. 
 No one believed the falsehood except her husband, 
 whom no one attempted to disabuse of his decep 
 tion. It reached the ears of Mrs. Chichester, and 
 hardened her more than ever against its author. 
 She had cut Mrs. Fortescue on strictly moral 
 grounds, and for no other cause. She had the 
 charity, however, not publicly to proclaim this; 
 she made, with unpharisaical wisdom, the whole 
 affair one between herself and her own conscience. 
 Of course Mrs. Fortescue profited by her reticence. 
 If the great lady had chosen to head any hot fac 
 tion against her she could ill have held her own 
 with so formidable a foe. 
 
 Mrs. Chichester liked Tracy Tremaine, though 
 she disapproved of him. There was at one time a 
 rumor that he had become engaged to a daughter 
 of hers, but events^ soon disproved this fallacy ; 
 she would never have permitted such a union. 
 Still, as recorded, she felt the spell of Tremaine's 
 
142 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 bel air and indolent attractiveness. His dead 
 father had been a beau of her own in past ante- 
 matrimonial years. Tracy reminded her of those 
 years ; he won her reluctant indulgence ; she de 
 plored his intimacy with Mrs. Fortescue, and 
 would have given much to break it. 
 
 Once or twice Tremaine had shown signs, dur 
 ing a few recent seasons, of snapping the bondage 
 in which his charmer held him. But Mrs. Fortes- 
 cue had brought him swiftly back to her side. 
 She stood, presently, fanning herself with a big 
 gorgeous fan, attended by one or two of her inal 
 ienable male devotees, and wondered whether she 
 could now resume her sway as easily as on former 
 occasions. 
 
 She had an ominous dread, however, lest she 
 might fail. Half the assemblage was talking about 
 Leah ; scores of eyes were riveted upon the girl ; 
 she had made what is called a sensation. Mrs. 
 Fortescue, clearly perceiving this, spoke of her 
 with a gentle admiration in which there was no 
 ring of the irritated foreboding from which she 
 suffered. While she stood thus, unable to keep 
 her glance from straying toward the new belle, 
 Mr. Bertie Forbes sauntered up to her side. 
 
 They were very good friends. They had met 
 abroad not many months ago, when Mr. Forbes 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 143 
 
 had secured her the entree to several rather diffi 
 cult foreign houses. 
 
 " She 's not bad," he drawled, after the talk had 
 inevitably drifted upon Leah. "I exchanged a 
 few words with her. She 's at the Aquidneck, you 
 know, so I thought it would only be civil to let 
 Tremaine present me. Besides, she 's got in with 
 my wife." 
 
 "I saw your wife here," said Mrs. Fortescue, 
 surprisedly. " Is n't that something very unu 
 sual ? " 
 
 " Bertie," who had a mindless, inanimate face, 
 over which his hair was so glued to his narrow 
 head on either side of a white, accurately central 
 parting, that it made him look as if he wore some 
 kind of glossy black satin cap which clung with a 
 wonderful skin-fit, now shifted his lank, loose- 
 jointed body a good deal sideways, and gave vent 
 to a discontented groan. 
 
 " Good gracious," he said, grumbling the words 
 to Mrs. Fortescue alone, in surly confidence, " it 's 
 all this girl's doin's, don't you know ? She 's put 
 a lot of stuff into Lucy's head about my neglectin' 
 her. Only farncy ! Arfter a few hours of ac 
 quaintance ! . . . I went to the 'otel to dress mee- 
 self to-night, and there, was Lucy in teahs. She 
 was ready to have a dreadful raow with me unless 
 
144 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 I brought her heah. She said there were two 
 nerses to mind the babies, and that I never treated 
 her as a husband should, and oh, a lot of rot like 
 that, and then ended by say in' she 'd met a real 
 woman, of real spirit, who 'd opened her eyes to 
 the propah respect thet was dew a wife, ye know. 
 Now, let me arsk you, could anything be maw of 
 a baw ? " 
 
 " Do you mean that there has been a domestic 
 insurrection," asked Mrs. Fortescue, "and that 
 this young lady has brought it about ? " 
 
 Mr. Forbes struck the black broadcloth of his 
 thin thigh with a pair of kid gloves that he car 
 ried, clutched together in lavender limpness. 
 
 " Yes ; that is precisely what I do mean. Did 
 you ever heah of such beastly officiousness ? " 
 
 At any other time Mrs. Fortescue would have 
 secretly exulted over her friend's discomfiture, 
 and regarded it as a surpassingly good joke. But 
 now it dealt her a new wound ; if Lean were clever 
 enough to turn the tables upon this abominably 
 selfish young English snob (for it was thus that 
 Mrs. Fortescue had always considered him), what 
 subverting changes might she not already have 
 wrought in Tremaine ? 
 
 "I should think it a very imprudent way of be 
 ginning her Newport career," said the dusky little 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 145 
 
 lady, " by mixing herself up in matters which do 
 not concern her. That is, if she is going to have 
 a career. What do you think ? " 
 
 "A careeah?" repeated Bertie. He glanced 
 toward the dark-coated throng which almost con 
 cealed Leah's fair young figure. " It looks awfully 
 like it. I carn't see what they see in her, for my 
 part." 
 
 He could, perfectly. The wife whom he had 
 made support him for several years in moneyed 
 sloth, and whom he had shown the manly grati 
 tude of treating a little worse than though she 
 were the nursery-goverrfess of his children and her 
 own, had needed but a straw to test the capacity 
 of her patience. Leah had supplied this straw, 
 and the petty spirit of Mr. Bertie Forbes hated her 
 accordingly. " Her mothah, you know," he went 
 on, "is really a very objectionable, public sort of 
 person. I don't think any of the women will take 
 her up on this account." 
 
 But before the evening was over, both foes had 
 the somewhat questionable satisfaction of seeing 
 Leah in close converse with Mrs. Stephen A. Chi- 
 chester. 
 
 The truth flashed, then, through Mrs. Fortes- 
 cue's ired mind. Her old enemy had gone silently 
 but effectively to work. She was setting upon 
 
146 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 this new preference of Tracy Tremairie's a cachet 
 which her own acquaintance could almost singly 
 bestow. 
 
 Mrs. Chichester had proceeded with perfect tact. 
 She had admired Leah in the hearing of Tremaine, 
 but she had by no means allowed the latter to 
 make the desired presentation. In speaking to 
 her of Leah, Tremaine had recently said : " She 
 comes from New York. Her mother is with her 
 here at the Aquidneck." 
 
 " They have not cared to go about much, I sup 
 pose?" said Mrs. Chichester, who always spoke 
 very guardedly on all matters of social degree. 
 
 "No," returned Tremaine, who understood the 
 words in their precise import. This import was 
 just as plain to him as if Mrs. Chichester had said 
 outright, " They have no position in society, since 
 I have never heard of them, and since they yet 
 live in New York." 
 
 " The mother is a sort of literary woman, I be 
 lieve," he continued. "Her name is Elizabeth 
 Cleeve Romilly. You have probably heard it." 
 
 " It has a vaguely familiar sound," said Mrs. 
 Chichester ; " and yet "... Here she shook her 
 handsome head. " No ; I can't place her." 
 
 This was surely a most credible circumstance. 
 The speaker had dwelt, through all her fifty years 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 147 
 
 of life, hedged in by every stout encompassment 
 of orthodoxy that the most conservative princi 
 ples could possibly rear between herself and that 
 loud, radical world in which Leah's mother had 
 once shone with such meteoric radiance. But 
 when Tremaine said, " Mrs. Romilly is talking now 
 with Mrs. Lydia Holt Morrison, and I believe they 
 are old friends," his companion gave an approving 
 nod. She liked the white-haired, sweet-faced Bos 
 ton woman, who had transgressed the usage of 
 upper circles, it was true, and yet who had been 
 one of the Holts, and whom she considered charm 
 ing and high-bred, notwithstanding her " advanced 
 views." 
 
 But it was not through Mrs. Morrison that she 
 secured the flattering introduction to Leah. The 
 Misses Marksley chanced to be hovering in her 
 near neighborhood, attended by one or two of those 
 unpopular male revellers to whom the pleasure of 
 reflecting that they have enjoyed fashionable life 
 is compensation for nights and days of tedious dis 
 countenance. Mrs. Chichester knew the Misses 
 Marksley, or rather remembered that for a slight 
 while past she had had the option of recognizing 
 them or not, at her royal inclination. It had fallen 
 from Tremaine, in some chance way, that Leah 
 knew these young ladies. Mrs. Chichester, who 
 
148 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 was never without at least two or three waiting 
 escorts, contrived to have herself placed not far 
 from the sisters. A little later she amazed them 
 both by addressing one of them. The honor made 
 both tingle. Two excitedly civil faces were lifted 
 to her own. It became rapidly evident to Mrs. 
 Chichester that she would have no difficulty what 
 ever in being accompanied by gentle sidelong ap 
 proaches toward the neighborhood of Leah. 
 
 And then the introduction followed. Each of 
 the Misses Marksley gave it, in a sort of fluttered, 
 demoralized duo. They were so impressed by the 
 idea that Mrs. Chichester had condescended to 
 address them at all, after a fortuitous and unex 
 pected meeting during the previous week, that 
 Leah scarcely understood their real intention from 
 their eager and half-coherent words, until, as it 
 might be said, she found herself face to face with 
 majesty. 
 
 She conducted herself in a thoroughly unawed 
 way. She was agreeable, and this, at all times 
 with Leah, meant to be fascinating. Mrs. Chi- 
 chester's trained perception read her keenly. She 
 saw the girlish egotism, the uncalculating pride, 
 the haughty self-confidence. But she liked Leah, 
 nevertheless, and was so allured and enticed by 
 something in her smile, her contour, her voice, her 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 149 
 
 attitude, that when she had pressed the slight hand 
 in her own full-palmed one, and asked her to drop 
 in at Steep Rock any morning, this sovereign lady 
 felt that, after all, she had conferred no unde 
 served compliment. 
 
 Nor would Leah have thought so if the Misses 
 Marksley, still sensibly tingling, had not assured 
 her with loquacious vehemence that she had made 
 a most signal conquest. Leah listened amusedly 
 to the voluble congratulations of the sisters. She 
 had no thought of taking offence. There was 
 something ludicrous and yet pitiable in the ami 
 able envy with which they regarded the great 
 lady's recent action. 
 
 " She can make it so monstrously pleasant for 
 you, my dear," declared Louisa. . . . "Oh, yes, 
 Leah," continued Caroline ; " she is perfectly 
 adored and worshipped in Newport, you know, 
 and anything that she says is just Zaw." . . . "If 
 she chose to take up a red-handed assassin she 
 could make him a swell," struck in Louisa. . . . 
 " Oh, she has shown that you have set her mad 
 with admiration," resumed Caroline; "and, upon 
 my word, we 're not surprised at it, for you do 
 look simply ravishing to-night, my dear, and it 's 
 no wonder a bit that the men are all insane to be 
 presented." . . . 
 
150 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 This species of convulsive exaggeration was 
 continued in spasmodic asides, until Leah began 
 to weary of it. She felt relieved when the Misses 
 Marksley withdrew themselves and their cordial 
 hyperboles. 
 
 " I think I can see why they are not a success," 
 she said soon afterward to Tremaine, in her placid, 
 even voice. " They are too anxious to please. 
 And then the way in which they hurl their super 
 latives at you ! It 's funny, but rather tiresome. 
 Are many of the Newport maidens like that?" 
 
 "Oh, no," he returned. "The volcanic style 
 is n't much in vogue. But the Marksleys are very 
 typical, very representative. They belong to a 
 class. They are essentially American, somehow. 
 No other country on the globe could ever produce 
 them. Everything that they do, they overdo. . . . 
 But I'm not going to abuse them," he continued, 
 appreciably softening his tones ; " I can't afford to. 
 They were the means of our getting acquainted. 
 . . . Here come at least four men whom they 
 frightened away from you. Don't you think 
 it was extremely nice and heroic of me to stick 
 beside you in the very teeth of your persecu 
 tion ? " 
 
 " Oh, I was not persecuted," said Leah. " I 
 should never have stood it so long if I had 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 151 
 
 been. Patience is by no means one of my few 
 virtues." . . . 
 
 That evening was a memorable one with Leah. 
 She told her mother so frankly, and with an un 
 accustomed fervor, after they had regained the 
 hotel. 
 
 " I feel that I was made for this life, too," she 
 proceeded. 
 
 "No one was ever made for such a life," said 
 Mrs. Romilly. 
 
 " Oh, nonsense, now, mamma ! You enjoyed 
 it ! I saw you having a delicious time with Mrs. 
 Morrison." 
 
 "Ah, my dear, she is a woman quite out of place 
 in all that empty whirl. I don't think that she 
 endorses its futility ; she merely accepts it. I told 
 her so to-night." 
 
 "I hope you didn't lecture her," reproved 
 Leah. " She is a power in her way. She is some 
 body whom I wish to have on my side. You see, 
 I know all about her. I have inquired. She was 
 once something like your dear self. I mean she 
 had opinions, and publicly aired them." 
 
 " She was born in a different sphere from mine." 
 
 " I know of an old, influential Massachusetts 
 family. She married a man of wealth and posi 
 tion." 
 
152 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 "Position in the fashionable world, my dear." 
 
 Leah gave a positive little gesture. 
 
 "That is the only sort of position one should 
 prize, I begin to think," she affirmed. And then 
 she burst into a laugh of merry fulness. " Don't 
 look at me, please, as if I were a hardened sin 
 ner ! ... I '11 take it all back, mamma. Believe, 
 if you choose, that I did n't mean a word of it ! " 
 
 "She means too much of it," thought Mm 
 Romilly, before answering these words of ran 
 dom self-exculpation. . . . 
 
 It was not long afterward that Mrs. Romilly and 
 Mrs. Morrison sat together, in a chamber of the 
 latter lady's residence, which overlooked a breezy, 
 ocean-skirted lawn. Books, in plenteous array, 
 lined the walls ; every appointment was quiet and 
 yet of distinctive charm ; it was evidently the 
 favorite haunt of one whose pursuits and habits 
 were scholarly. 
 
 " Yes," Mrs. Morrison said, continuing a conver 
 sation which had interested both, " I do manage to 
 reconcile my studies and my contemplations with 
 the other life that you have called so flippant and 
 weightless. I do come to Newport, as you see. I 
 do meet these aimless and unthinking people. If 
 you ask my excuse, I can only tell you that I find 
 in their outward felicities a something that satisfies 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 153 
 
 artistic feeling. And I have never outgrown that. 
 All my ethics have never killed it in me. I like to 
 think of Plato's Academe as a place where the 
 walks were kept well-tended, and where the dis 
 ciples wore togas that drooped gracefully." 
 
 She spoke this last sentence with a low, musical 
 laugh. She was a woman who had attempted great 
 things, in her day, when the white locks that now 
 shone above her aged but fresh-tinted face were 
 full of dark gloss. In the popular phrase she had 
 been as much a failure as Mrs. Romilly herself. 
 But in another sense she had succeeded. Born 
 within circles where fashion reigned predominant 
 and where the key-note was one of frivolity, she 
 had asserted an influence that told and obtained. 
 Long ago she had contented herself with being a 
 force gently to improve, not a force dominantly to 
 destroy. After all, she had plucked better fruit 
 from life than the deeper-minded sister with whom 
 she now sat in reflective colloquy. She had found 
 for herself a certain metier; she had not sunk into 
 entire obscurity with her theories and impressions. 
 If her metaphysical poems did not sell, if her pro 
 found essays remained unread, she had still se 
 cured an intellectual vantage-ground, though it 
 might have been termed only that of a lovable old 
 lady with whom light and elegant people often 
 
154 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 liked to talk, as a safeguard against the vague 
 remorse resultant from their own protracted in 
 dolence. 
 
 " We shall never agree with regard to there 
 being the least use and worth in that idle throng," 
 firmly but softly answered Mrs. Romilly. " Let 
 us speak of more concrete things. You know to 
 what I allude." 
 
 Mrs. Morrison laughed her melodious laugh. 
 "Yes, . . . to Mr. Tracy Tremaine. Surely, he 
 is very concrete ; there is nothing at all abstract 
 about him." She remained silent for a little 
 while. Then she looked earnestly with her dim, 
 kindly eyes at her companion, and added: "My 
 dear friend, I would take my daughter away from 
 Newport at once ! There is my advice, plain and 
 candid." 
 
 But Leah had no intention of leaving Newport. 
 She was now in the full zenith of her triumphs. 
 Mrs. Chichester had nodded, and if society did not 
 tremble it certainly obeyed. Leah might have 
 striven through three seasons, and then without 
 avail, for admission to houses that now opened 
 prompt and willing portals. Under the shadow 
 of her new protectress's broad and strong wing, 
 Leah was shielded from every blast of adverse 
 treatment. Society looked at her astonishedly 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 155 
 
 through its eye-glasses, so to speak, and mur 
 mured, " Who is she ? " a good many times. But 
 that did not prevent its smile from being of the 
 blandest, or its welcome from being of the most 
 effusive. She has entered, with an abrupt yet 
 tranquil advent, straight into the midst of a com 
 munity as distinct in its conservatisms and tradi 
 tions as anything of the sort which has ever 
 existed. True, it is constantly supplied with re 
 cruits, but these must bring with them the cre 
 dentials of great wealth. Only to the possessor of 
 millions will our Newport aristocracy proffer any 
 rapid cordialities. As a rule, for those who would 
 gain its complete endorsement, it presents a hun 
 dred different and devious paths toward victory, 
 not seldom so baffling to the most resigned pa 
 tience that a final cessation of effort despairingly 
 ensues. 
 
 A great deal of genuine homage fell to the 
 share of Leah, which she accepted without abat 
 ing by a jot her former reposeful aplomb. She 
 received it all as though it were quite her due. 
 She looked very much the same when throned on 
 the box-seat of some drag driven by an owner of 
 high degree as she had looked when seated beside 
 her mother on the piazza of Mrs. Preen's board 
 ing-house. She would not even permit Mrs. Chi- 
 
156 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Chester to patronize her. Perhaps, if she had 
 done so, the latter, who had got to like her very 
 much, would have liked her very much less. As 
 it was, she retained the lady's full adherence. 
 This was clearly seen, and it surely, if gradually, 
 transformed her, in the eyes of many watchers, 
 from a mere ephemeral favorite into one estab 
 lished and permanent. 
 
 The days glided along. They were days of 
 infinite enjoyment to Leah. She drove in stately 
 equipages to watch the madly topsy-turvy game 
 called Polo, undertaken by rash bo t ys on marvel 
 lously well-broken ponies ; she attended dinners of 
 great state ; she moved through ball-rooms of 
 bright-lit magnificence ; she played lawn-tennis on 
 spacious and shaded lawns ; she sat near cool win 
 dows, at afternoon receptions, with always a bevy 
 of male courtiers ready to applaud her newest 
 clever epigram and some of her epigrams were 
 undeniably clever ; she did, in short, all that the 
 mirthful throng of Newport pleasure-seekers do, 
 and yet retained among them a saliency, a dis 
 tinctness, a maiden-like leadership, which caused 
 her name to be printed in a hundred newspapers, 
 and even made her the subject of more than one 
 sententious "watering-place letter.'' 
 
 Meanwhile, mother and daughter remained at 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 157 
 
 the Aquidneck. For hours at a time Mrs. Rom- 
 illy would not see Leah. There was nearly al 
 ways some other voluntary chaperone. "Mamma, 
 you need not go," had become an oft-used sen 
 tence on Leah's lips. Mrs. Romilly remained at 
 home with relief, and yet with anxiety. She saw 
 Lawrence Rainsford frequently much more so 
 than Leah did. He told her the general drift of 
 comments regarding her child. The bitterer ones 
 he spared, or sought to spare ; sometimes Mrs. 
 Romilly would detect their unspoken presence in 
 his mind, and plead for their utterance. They 
 usually reflected upon herself, and either Mr. 
 Bertie Forbes or Mrs. Abbott Fortescue was sup- 
 posably at the bottom of their propagation. "Let 
 them sneer at my past life as they will," she more 
 than once said. " I do not care for that, as long 
 as they spare her the least slander." 
 
 But Leah evoked no slander. She quickly won 
 the reputation of being extraordinarily cold. 
 The hate of Mrs. Fortescue was always waiting 
 its chance, but none came. Bertie Forbes, whose 
 wife had now asserted a very bold independence, 
 would have abetted Leah's couchant detractor at 
 the slightest opportunity. He was brimming 
 over with spleen ; he felt an accumulating debt of 
 vengeance toward Leah with each new entertain- 
 
158 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 ment at which his wife aired what he considered 
 her abominably second-rate American manners. 
 But Leah blunted his wrath as ice blunts wind. 
 She took Mrs. Forbes under her especial care, and 
 saw that the pretty little person, with her nasal 
 voice, received exceedingly respectful treatment. 
 She even went so far as to induce Mrs. Chichester 
 to smile upon her friend. This last exquisite 
 piece of mischief if it deserves no more gen 
 erous explanation caused Bertie to gracefully 
 succumb. He was so arrant a snob that he could 
 no longer disdain a wife whom the potentate of 
 Newport had condescended to favor. Leah also 
 set herself another task though her sovereignty 
 made it too easy for that term. She conceived 
 the idea of popularizing the Misses Marksley. 
 
 "They're a black draught," said Tremaine to 
 her one day. " You 're a great belle, as every 
 one knows, but you can't make people swallow 
 the Marksleys." 
 
 But Leah differed with him. " I shall try," she 
 said. She did try, and succeeded. The Marks- 
 leys issued invitations for an "evening." It crept 
 about that everybody would refuse. Leah made 
 a point of quietly publishing the certainty that 
 Mrs. Chichester and herself would be present. 
 
 " And oh," she once or twice said, in loitering 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 159 
 
 afterthought, " I know of several others who will 
 surely go. . . . Let me think. There is Mrs. 
 Schuyler Sheldon, Mrs. Livingston Maitland, and 
 Mrs. Courtlandt Sinclair." All these ladies were 
 near kinswomen of Mrs. Chichester, and obeyed the 
 mandate of their chieftain. . . . Leah knew that 
 she dealt with actualities. The Misses Marksleys' 
 "evening*' was a brilliant success. The sisters 
 were lancees from that occasion thenceforward. 
 Their amusing struggles had ceased for ever 
 more. 
 
 "You did it," acknowledged Tremaine, after 
 ward. "But why did you do it? From charity 
 or mere caprice? I confess that I suspect the 
 latter." 
 
 Leah did not tell him what she actually more 
 than fancied that it was because the Marksley 
 sisters were inseparably concerned, in her own 
 thoughts, with the first meeting between himself 
 and her. 
 
 Toward the close of August her engagement to 
 Tremaine was widely discussed as a settled fact. 
 It had not been corroborated by a ceremonious 
 announcement, and yet it was firmly believed. 
 Other men devoted themselves to Leah, but none 
 with the changeless assiduity of Tremaine. Others, 
 too, began to give way before him. Perhaps Leah, 
 
160 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 with all her equanimity of demeanor, could not 
 hide the passion he had inspired. 
 
 She had met Mrs. Fortescue. Their meeting 
 had been a fatality, since both now revolved, as it 
 were, in the same orbit. But Leah had been 
 decently polite, and no more ; she had defined her 
 civility by a very keen limit. Mrs. Fortescue felt 
 the chill under the thin surface of conventional 
 decorum. It stung her, as cold will often sting. 
 
 " That Chichester woman has done it," she re 
 flected. " It is she who has set her up to it. He 
 would not. His role would naturally be one of 
 silence." 
 
 On a certain evening, toward the close of the 
 season, she appeared at a ball given with much 
 splendor at a private dwelling of special expanse 
 and adornment. It was an important ball, and 
 she chose to robe herself importantly. Her dress 
 was of crimson silk, with various ornaments of 
 silver, one a broad, polished zone about her waist, 
 and two more being broader bands on either arm. 
 In her dead-black hair she wore some tiny butter 
 flies, shaped of the same metal. A number of 
 ladies pronounced the costume hideous, but every 
 one noticed it, and had an opinion concerning it. 
 There was no doubt that she looked extremely 
 well. The voluminous crimson enshrouding her 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 161 
 
 figure suited her tawny coloring to perfection. 
 For some eyes the silver struck a note no less 
 discordant than novel, but in a general sense the 
 apparel was considered a striking success. 
 
 Leah, dressed in simple white, with a big knot 
 of roses in her bosom, sent by Tremaine a few 
 hours before, was also a guest at the ball. 
 
 Tremaine had not spoken to Mrs. Fortescue for 
 three weeks. But he spoke to her that night. 
 Leah saw them leave the ball-room arm-in-arm. 
 She saw them a little later, seated together on 
 a broad veranda that gave upon the sea. For 
 the first time in her life she knew the sickening 
 bitterness of jealousy. When Tremaine, toward 
 the end of the evening, at length rejoined her, 
 she turned upon him a look of freezing unconcern. 
 
 He perceived the truth. It chanced that they 
 were presently standing alone together. Strains 
 of rich music sounded near them ; dancers were 
 gliding across the waxed floor not far off. 
 
 " It is warm here," he said ; " won't you come 
 out and get a breath of fresh air ? " She took his 
 offered arm. 
 
 They were presently walking in the darkness. 
 They could not see the ocean, but its salty waft- 
 ures came to them, and they saw the stars shining 
 white and still over its concealed immensity. She 
 
162 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 had not, thus far, spoken to him. He knew that 
 her having taken his arm meant a surrender 
 which her pride, if once hurt, would have given 
 to no man but himself. 
 
 "You are angry at me," he broke silence ; "you 
 are angry at me for talking with that woman. 
 People have told you stupid things. But it 's all 
 nonsense. I'm awfully sorry you don't like my 
 chatting with her even once in a great while." 
 
 Leah withdrew her arm. He could just see her 
 face, and no more. 
 
 Her voice broke palpably as she answered him. 
 Perhaps she was too agitated to know of this. 
 "I am not angry," she said. "Why should I care 
 if you speak with some one whom you like?" 
 Then she suddenly added these words : 
 
 "What right have I even to think of your 
 affairs? I know of no right. You have given 
 me none." 
 
 " I give you every right," he swiftly said to her. 
 " I give it you, Leah, because I love you ! " 
 
 She realized then what she had uttered. She 
 paused, and he saw her eyes flash in the dimness. 
 "I I drew that forth from you ! " she stammered. 
 "I I made you say it ! " 
 
 He put both his hands about both her own. 
 "If you did and I don't grant that you did," 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 163 
 
 he murmured, "thank God, all the same, that it is 
 true!" . . . 
 
 A day or two later all Newport rang with the 
 formal and positive engagement of Leah Romilly 
 to Tracy Tremaine. Leah had made peace with 
 her mother. Mrs. Romilly knew of her daughter's 
 love for the man with whom she had plighted troth. 
 That fact helped her to be tolerant and acquiescent. 
 She even said to Rainsford, during one of their 
 morning talks, when Leah was absent : 
 
 " She loves him. I am certain of that, Law 
 rence. For her future, it may mean so much ! " 
 
 " Or so little ! " said Rainsford. 
 
 She looked into his grave face, which, as she 
 truly felt, hid an actual agony, and replied, "Let 
 us hope for the best. You know what I wanted, 
 Lawrence. But it cannot be. Still, let us hope, 
 now, all the same. I know your heart is big and 
 warm enough to do that. I know that because 
 the love she gives him isn't the love she might 
 have given you, a generous regard for her happi 
 ness in the years to come still sways you ! " 
 
 "Yes," he answered, after a pause. His face 
 was lowered as he spoke the one little word. But 
 Elizabeth Romilly knew the sound of it to be 
 good and stanch, like its speaker. 
 
 " Oh, Lawrence," she broke forth, softly, " who 
 
164 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 but you would have pronounced that small but 
 pregnant answer at such a moment ! " . . . 
 
 It was on this same morning, and but a short 
 time later, that a card was handed to Mrs. Rom- 
 illy. The card bore the name of Mrs. Ogden 
 Tremaine. The lady who desired to see Mrs. 
 Romilly, said the servant who had brought the 
 card, was waiting downstairs. 
 
 "It is his mother," said Mrs. Romilly, after 
 giving the card to Rainsford. "I might ask to 
 have her shown up here. This little sitting-room 
 will not shock her, I suppose? It is better, for 
 such an interview as that which she intends, than 
 the public parlor below." 
 
 " Much better," replied Rainsford, " for such an 
 interview as that which she intends." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly raised her brows. The second 
 portion of this sentence seemed to startle her. 
 " What do you mean ? " she questioned. 
 
 Rainsford had meanwhile slowly risen. 
 
 "You shall see," he said. His face never looked 
 more serious than now. 
 
 " I shall see ? " repeated Mrs. Romilly, with soft 
 amazement. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 "Request Mrs. Ogden Tremaine to be shown 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 165 
 
 here. I am going. I shall not disturb your com 
 ing talk." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly spoke a few words to the servant, 
 who at once departed after hearing them. Rains- 
 ford then took her hand. " Be strong and brave 
 during this interview," he said. " But I need not 
 tell you to be either you are always both." 
 After he had gone, and while she waited the com 
 ing of her guest, Mrs. Romilly wondered what he 
 had really meant. She soon had ample reason 
 for knowing. 
 
VIII. 
 
 ~T~N a very few moments after the departure of 
 " Rainsford, Mrs. Romilly found herself face to 
 face with a spare, faded woman of about sixty, 
 dressed in mourning. She had a narrow, colorless 
 visage, over which the scant white tresses were 
 worn rolled backward, thus increasing, if possible, 
 a natural expression of superciliousness which 
 dwelt you could scarcely tell where ; if it had not 
 its home in the small, light-tinted eye, it lay either 
 in the high, curving nose or the shrivelled mouth, 
 whose lips were almost as thin as paper, and loved 
 to close themselves in pursed tightness after the 
 delivery of each new sentence. 
 
 " I am very glad to meet you, Mrs. Tremaine," 
 said Leah's mother. She was about to extend a 
 welcoming hand, when something in the lady's 
 attitude prevented this gesture perhaps a little 
 heightening of the contracted shoulders, or an 
 elevation of the slight head on its slim support 
 of wrinkled throat. Instead of offering her hand, 
 Mrs. Romilly made a bow, quiet and stately, while 
 pointing to a chair. 
 166 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 167 
 
 An extremely awkward pause followed. Awk 
 ward, at least, for Mrs. Tremaine's hostess, who 
 felt herself quietly devoured from head to foot by 
 a stare which had in it what she began to consider 
 an element of hard belligerence. Both ladies were 
 now seated. 
 
 " We are somewhat near neighbors, I believe," 
 again said Mrs. Romilly, breaking the silence in 
 gentle desperation. 
 
 " Yes," came the reply, accompanied by a faint 
 yet shrill cough. " I rarely leave my house ex 
 cept in a carriage. I live very quietly here. I am 
 compelled to do so. My health makes it abso 
 lutely necessary." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly perceived that she was being held 
 at arm's-length. The tones of her guest were as 
 inflexible as if all her words were strung upon a 
 rod of steel. 
 
 " I am very sorry to hear that you are so un 
 well," she said ; and then, with the motive of shat 
 tering what might be, after all, but the half-timor 
 ous reserve of an invalid, she added : " I think that 
 your son, Trac}^ has more than once mentioned 
 your being in ill-health I mean before he became 
 engaged to my daughter. I regret, by the way, 
 that she is not in the hotel at present." 
 
 Mrs. Tremaine looked down at the slender hands 
 
168 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 crossed in her lap and clad with long gloves of 
 black kid. Then she raised her chilly little eyes 
 and said, resuming her stare : 
 
 " 1 know that your daughter is not here. I am 
 aware that she is driving with my son. I am 
 obliged to tell you that this is my reason for call 
 ing upon you now. Your daughter's absence I 
 feel forced to say it gives me my desired oppor 
 tunity." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly's doubts had vanished. Here was 
 surely no timidity, no reserve. It looked more 
 like the blunt prelude of open warfare. 
 
 " Opportunity ? " she repeated, and then sat with 
 her calm brows raised and a spark of inquiry, but 
 not resentment, in her clear hazel eyes. 
 
 "Yes. That is just the word. I wished to 
 speak of this engagement. I wished to tell you 
 that I, and that all my connections unusually 
 large, as you perhaps know, madam must refuse 
 to sanction it." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly turned pale. But it was not with 
 anger. Her thoughts had flown to Leah. "And 
 why ? " she asked, with no displeased ring in her 
 voice. 
 
 Mrs. Tremaine started in the aggrieved way of a 
 person with abnormally sensitive nerves. " Why ? " 
 she iterated, almost in a plaintive treble. Then 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 169 
 
 she raised one dark-sheathed hand, and waved it 
 once or twice before her narrow face. " Oh, pray 
 do not ask why. I want this interview to be 
 peaceful, quite peaceful, if you please. I think 
 that you must certainly understand my reasons." 
 
 " Indeed, I do not understand them. I sincerely 
 hope, however, that you have sought me with no 
 intention of insult." 
 
 "Insult!" repeated Mrs. Tremaine. Her tones 
 were a peevish whine. " That is the way with you 
 people ! One cannot even refer, before you, to 
 one's superior position, without being accused of 
 insult ! " 
 
 Mrs. Romilly rose. There was a very sweet 
 and womanly dignity in her bearing now, but it 
 was quite lost upon the callous individuality she 
 addressed. 
 
 " I shall not inquire of you by what right you 
 presume to think your position in any way supe 
 rior to mine or that of my daughter," she said, 
 with even firmness. " Such a question would be 
 as trivial as your own recent words are vulgar. 
 But I must request you either to make full expla 
 nation and apology for what you have just said, or 
 at once to leave my apartment." 
 
 Mrs. Tremaine rose flutteredly from her chair. 
 She was in a visible tremor. She looked pitiably 
 
170 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 small and mean beside the handsome, tranquil 
 woman whom she now faced. 
 
 " Oh, I was prepared to find you very clever. I 
 had heard of that. It is your profession to be 
 clever. I won't attempt to cross wits with you. 
 Tracy has been fascinated by your daughter. 
 Very well let him marry out of his set if he 
 pleases. But you will gain nothing, madam, by 
 such a union. I think we will none of us acknowl 
 edge it. I wished to talk peacefully with you, but 
 you make that impossible. When I say 'we' I 
 mean our whole large family. The Tremaines and 
 Tracys have been noted for their sensible mar 
 riages. We have scarcely had a single mesalliance 
 for four or five generations. I shan't appeal to 
 your sense of justice ; I don't suppose you have 
 any. You want to be received by us, and that is 
 all. Such a union is to me horrible horrible! 
 I can't tell you just how horrible I think it. Ours 
 is the first family in America. I was a Tremaine 
 myself; I married my second-cousin. The Tracys, 
 the Ten Eycks, the Hackensacks, the Spuyten- 
 duyvils, the Van Corlears, the Van Horns, the 
 Amsterdains, the Manhattans they are all more 
 or less cousins of mine, but there is not one of 
 them who will not yield precedence to the Tre 
 maine blood. Our record stands alone, and speaks 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 171 
 
 for itself. We were an illustrious race in Eng 
 land five hundred years ago, and since we landed 
 in this country we have produced statesmen, gen 
 erals, clergymen, diplomats all of the very great 
 est distinction. And now to think that my son, 
 Tracy the only child I have left should marry 
 the daughter of a person who used to give public 
 lectures about all sorts of shocking subjects ! You 
 see, madam, I remember you. I did not at first, 
 but when I thought about your full name, and how 
 familiar it sounded, I recollected how my poor dead 
 papa once whipped my poor dead brother, Ten 
 Eyck, for going when a boy to hear you say your 
 horrid things against religion and matrimony, and 
 all that decent people hold most sacred! And 
 now I must endure seeing Tracy link his name 
 with yours ! Oh, if you have the least shame left, 
 you ought to help me save him ! " 
 
 Mrs. Romilly was still paler than before, but a 
 smile touched her lips as this unforeseen outburst 
 ended. And her voice never faltered from its ad 
 mirable composure as she said : 
 
 " It is very sad for me to witness how the ances 
 tors of whom you boast have produced a descend 
 ant so unworthy of their distinction a person, 
 in fact, without the common rudiments of good 
 breeding." Here her wide, fair brow grew cloudy 
 
172 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 and her voice took a stern note. " I have no more 
 to say, and shall permit you to say no more in my 
 hearing. If you do not instantly leave this room, 
 Mrs. Tremaine, I shall myself retire from it." 
 
 She passed toward a door that communicated 
 with her bedchamber, and placed her hand upon 
 its knob. If she had heard a sound from the 
 wan, quivering lips of the woman whose insolence 
 had just met her rebuke, she would have disap 
 peared at once. As it was she had not long to 
 await Mrs. Tremaine's departure. . . . 
 
 Leah returned from her drive about an hour 
 later. She had taken off her hat and was swing 
 ing it carelessly by the strings, as she entered the 
 presence of her mother. The air had given her 
 cheeks a pink flush, and disordered her gold hair 
 about forehead and temples ; but it was something 
 else that had put so rich a sparkle into her brown 
 eyes and softened the outline of her lips as though 
 a coming smile had cast its shadow before. Only 
 a brief while ago the change in her had appealed 
 piercingly to Mrs. Romilly. It was like that time 
 in the life of a rosebud when the coil of its balmy 
 leaves will so loosen and relax that if you watch 
 closely you can see new interspaces for the breeze 
 to search or the dew to brim, while the heart of 
 the flower itself still remains jealously screened. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 173 
 
 It seemed to her mother as if Leah would never 
 be proud again. All her spiritual lines appeared 
 to have lost their rigidity and to have become 
 curves. Her wit would flash as of old, but it 
 rarely stung. Humanity held a new meaning for 
 her; she felt kinned to its large throbs of love 
 and hope, and more indulgent of its faults, with 
 out pausing to consider why. There are two great 
 gateways through which our chief woes enter the 
 world ; they are love and death ; yet the foot 
 prints of each are sympathy, and were these 
 blotted from off the earth it is hard to tell what 
 giant evils would spring up in their place. 
 
 Leah had laid one hand on her mother's wrist 
 before she detected that anything was wrong ; and 
 even then her misgiving was not defined. 
 
 " We had such a lovely drive," she said. " Not 
 by the sea, this morning, but along country roads, 
 you know. I shall be so sorry to leave here. 
 But our time is nearly up. Tracy says that they 
 all rush back home by the first of September." 
 
 " I think we had better go before then, Leah. 
 I should like to go to-morrow." 
 
 " Something has happened, mamma ! " exclaimed 
 Leah, peering into her mother's face with startled 
 gaze. 
 
 "Yes, something has happened. Don't be 
 
174 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 alarmed, child. Sit down here at my side, and I 
 will tell you everything. I believe I can repeat it 
 word for word." 
 
 She did, almost. Leah shivered once or twice 
 during the recital. She held her mother's hand, 
 pressing it tensely all the time. Then, at the end, 
 she rose and walked to a window, staring straight 
 out upon the shaded street below. Her face, just 
 glimpsed by Mrs. Romilly before she averted it, 
 was fixed and hueless. 
 
 Suddenly she spoke, turning toward her mother. 
 
 " You don't advise me to break the engagement, 
 do you ? " she asked. There was a wistful wild- 
 ness in her look. " You can't advise that ! He 
 loves me. I know it ! I know it so well ! He 
 has told me about her. Is she to ruin our happi 
 ness ? Answer me, mamma ! I am confused I 
 don't know what ought to be done ! I have been 
 very wilful with you, often and often. But now 
 I have no wish to do otherwise than you say. 
 You are so strong you remember how strong 
 and splendid I always thought you ! Oh, mamma, 
 I leave everything to you ! " 
 
 Leah put both arms forward as the last sentence 
 left her lips. Her mother had risen, and was ap 
 proaching her. During those few short moments 
 memory was busy in this mother's mind. She saw 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 175 
 
 Leah as a little child, clinging to her because of 
 some fancied grief or terror. Her great heart 
 quivered under the stress of motherhood that 
 lovely force which transcends all other human 
 emotions. 
 
 When she reached Leah she took the girl in her 
 arms, and put her head upon one shoulder, smooth 
 ing its tossed hair, before Leali herself could lay it 
 there. And then she felt the form that she was 
 clasping sway and pulsate. Very soon afterward 
 there came a storm of sobs. 
 
 " Oh, mamma, my own, dear, strong, fine mam 
 ma, tell me tell me what it is right that I should 
 do!" 
 
 " This is right, Leah," came the answer, which 
 cost the speaker no slight effort to give : " We 
 will go back to New York soon to-morrow, or 
 perhaps next day. You will see Mr. Tremaine to 
 night. The wedding must take place at once. 
 I think it had best take place at once or 
 not at all. . . . There, my love, don't be so 
 distressed. It shall take place. We owe it to our 
 selves to despise this coarse treatment. He will 
 be ashamed yes, I am certain that he will. Why 
 should you really care? You love him, and you 
 tell me that he loves you. That will be enough. 
 I will stand by you, darling. Oh, I am sure that 
 
176 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 you feel and realize that! . . . Stop sobbing so, 
 Leah. . . . Why should you care what a child! si i 
 old woman has said? I felt it my duty to tell 
 you all. I could not keep anything back. But 
 you know that nothing can ever part you and me. 
 If he really loves you, and will be a man, a gentle 
 man as you say he is then this little bitter expe 
 rience will prove only the beginning of a happiness 
 which I, too, shall feel nearly as much as yourself, 
 watching it, rejoicing in it, believing in it, dearest, 
 because it is yours ! " . . . 
 
 . That same evening Tremaine made his appear 
 ance. Mrs. Romilly was not present when they 
 met. Leah could scarcely keep back her tears, at 
 first. They strolled together along the vague 
 outer street, where the dusky tree-boughs waved 
 and rustled below the shining stars. Leah told 
 him everything. He listened without a word till 
 he had heard all. Then he said, very tenderly : 
 
 " Leah, I am so sorry ! What can I do ? This 
 thing is mother's mania, and I regret to add that 
 nearly all the Tremaines are possessed with the 
 same madness. What she said to your mother 
 was frightful infamous ! I won't deny to you 
 that it has serious significance. I don't think that 
 this country contains a more shocking set of snobs 
 than my own family. They are all banded to- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 177 
 
 gether by the one ruling idea their own birth. 
 There 's no doubt that we have it. If we did n't 
 their nonsense would be more excusable ; there 
 would be a certain pitiable braggadocio about it. 
 . . . Regarding those remarks made to your 
 mother, I have no way of expressing my disgust 
 for them. But surely, Leah, you can't dream that 
 it will ever make any real difference between you 
 and me ! Let the whole clan rise up against us. 
 Why should we care ? We will not care. Leah, 
 nothing on earth shall part us ! I am ashamed of 
 my race. I beg you to despise this abominable 
 treatment. Good God ! / am not to blame for it. 
 Don't hold me blamable ! If you want, I will 
 never speak to any member of my family who 
 does not recognize and receive your mother and 
 yourself! "... 
 
 Two days later Mrs. Romilly and Leah left 
 Newport. Meanwhile Rainsford had heard from 
 the former just what had passed. 
 
 " He has made every possible concession, Law 
 rence," she had said. " He hates the indignity 
 offered me. He has behaved very well. His 
 mother's line of action pains him beyond measure. 
 They both wish the wedding to be soon. I, too, 
 think it best. We shall have a very quiet wed 
 ding. Every member of Tracy Tremaine's family 
 
178 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 shall receive cards ; he will give rue the list of all 
 his kindred, and I shall omit none. Afterward it 
 can be seen just what course they all intend to 
 take." 
 
 " They will all take one course," said Rainsford, 
 in his slow, thoughtful way. " At least, I imagine 
 so. They usually stand by each other. Their 
 pride of name is something preposterous. Yes, I 
 think it quite probable that they will all, in a 
 disdainful body, refuse to be present." 
 
 But Rainsford was in error here. Three weeks 
 later the wedding occurred at Mrs. Romilly's small 
 and pretty residence in Thirty -Fourth Street. 
 Tracy Tremaine had power enough with not a 
 few of his relations to induce their attendance. 
 Without exception they all disliked the marriage. 
 But in the sense of practically recognizing or 
 ignoring it, the house of Tremaine was for once 
 divided against itself. Four or five of his aunts, 
 as many more uncles, and not a few cousins, con 
 descended to witness the ceremony. It was all a 
 most bitter ordeal for Mrs. Romilly. Not even 
 the look of supreme happiness on Leah's face 
 could dispel the regretful ache that lurked dull 
 and unaltering in her heart. She felt that her 
 daughter was passing forth into paths of hazard 
 and venture. The more that she saw of Tracy 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 179 
 
 Tremaine the less she believed in him. That he 
 passionately loved Leah she could not doubt. But 
 she distrusted his matrimonial future with Leah 
 for a wife. The girl was blinded by her love to 
 all Tremaine's faults. She insisted on thinking 
 him an almost perfect man. The awakening must 
 ultimately come. She must one day realize that 
 his whole nature was set in a key of meretricious 
 vanity. Leah would soon demand and not re 
 ceive. She would reap a deadly harvest of disap 
 pointments. The glitter of fashionable life would 
 soon lose its charm for her. She would see dross 
 and tinsel where she now saw gold and gems. 
 
 "With Rainsford," she thought, "all would 
 have been so different ! Every new year would 
 have brought its precious income of increased 
 contentment. His love would have been to her 
 like an arm on which we lean at first lightly, then 
 a little harder, and at last grow to treasure as an 
 inestimable supporting strength ! " 
 
 Rainsford was absent from the wedding. To 
 have appeared would have cost him agony, and at 
 the suggestion of Mrs. Romilly herself he made 
 the excuse of being called to Boston, where he 
 remained for several subsequent weeks. He sent 
 Leah a gift of value, accompanied merely by the 
 conventional card. 
 
180 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 It had been arranged that mother and daughter 
 should now live apart. The separation gave Mrs. 
 Romilly many pangs, acute though secret. And 
 yet she told herself that this plan was by far the 
 best. Tremaiue did not like her; he had more 
 than once shown her so by his elaborate attempts 
 to conceal the aversion. Why had it arisen? 
 With silent misery she again and again asked her 
 self that question. For Leah's sake this admira 
 ble woman would have made almost any concilia 
 tory overtures. But Tremaine prevented such a 
 step. He was constantly making overtures him 
 self; and these were so severe in their studied 
 civility as to lift a perpetual barrier against less 
 formal terms. 
 
 If Leah guessed the truth, she strove to give no 
 signs of having done so. 
 
 "I have yielded to Tracy's desire about our 
 renting a separate house," she said, a little before 
 the wedding, "because it most probably springs 
 from his intense fondness. He wants to see me 
 the mistress of my own establishment. Well, for 
 my part, you must know, mamma, dear, that I 
 should like always to have you with me. But we 
 shall see each other every day ; of course I shall 
 be very particular on that point. Tracy will pre 
 fer it, too. I am sure that he likes you very 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 181 
 
 much. You have not any doubts of that, mamma, 
 have you?" 
 
 " Oh, of course not, my dear." 
 
 On another occasion (still previous to her mar 
 riage) Leah said : " Mamma, you never speak of 
 my leaving you alone. Now, tell me tell me 
 candidly : are you not sorry ? " 
 
 " I do not wish to be sorry if you are not, my 
 daughter." 
 
 "What an answer!" cried Leah. Her eyes 
 flashed, as if in anger, but the next moment they 
 were filled with tears. She put her arms about 
 Mrs. Romilly's neck; she was getting to make 
 these tender revelations far oftener than ever 
 before. 
 
 "I 've been deceiving you ! " she said, while her 
 voice broke. " I 've made you think that it will 
 give me no pain. This is not true. But Tracy 
 wishes it ; I must yield to him, you know. It 
 would be such a bad beginning if I did not. Be 
 sides, is n't it only just and fair that he should 
 like to rule in his own house? Of course you 
 would rule here ; this house is yours. I 'm afraid 
 I 've done a great deal of the ruling heretofore ; 
 and you 've let me, without a murmur. Oh, 
 mamma, I fear I have been dreadfully wayward 
 and headstrong ! I feel it so keenly now, when 
 
182 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 our dear old life together is going to end ! Tins 
 thought sometimes makes me very miserable in 
 spite of all my happiness. And I am happy 
 that is, most of the time. I read you so clearly ; 
 you don't suspect that I do, but I do. You blame 
 me in your own heart for putting such faith in 
 Tracy. You can't bring yourself to trust him as 
 I trust him. Oh, but you are quite wrong ! He 
 will prove that you are. He worships me. We 
 are going to be a model husband and wife. We 
 are not going to live for fashion at all ; we shall 
 have a few nice social friends, and dine with them 
 now and then, or get them to dine with us. But 
 we are not going to any of the big affairs. We 
 are both a little tired of the whirl. Of course he 
 has seen years more of it than I have seen. But 
 I told him only last night that I had begun to be 
 a good deal disillusioned. I spoke as boldly as 
 you please yes, truly I did ! I told Tracy that 
 these fine people were not a bit what I had first 
 supposed them. I said that many of them struck 
 me as merely conducting themselves with an air 
 that it was all in their air that behind the air 
 there was nothing a particle different from the 
 principles and habits of persons whom they would 
 sneer at as vulgar, and not fit to walk the same 
 floors with them ! " 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 183 
 
 " So soon ! " thought Mrs. Romilly. " It was 
 sure to come, and now it is here ! This pure 
 young spirit is finding out its mistake more 
 quickly than I expected, with all my ominous 
 forebodings." 
 
 But aloud she said nothing, and Leah hurried 
 on, as though she were making a swift confession 
 that some new mood of reticence lay in wait to 
 interrupt. 
 
 " I fancied Tracy would be annoyed, mamma 
 he has lived so long in this atmosphere, you know. 
 It was rude and reckless of me at least, I feared 
 he would think so. But he surprised me by 
 agreeing with me. I was so glad that he did. 
 And then he spoke so charmingly. He said that 
 it was all sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. 
 We laughed together over that phrase. It hits 
 off so many people whom we have both met in 
 Newport. I couldn't help but reflect that per 
 haps the worst tinkling cymbal of them all. was 
 his own mother. But, of course, I didn't say so. 
 I felt how her outrageous actions have made him 
 suffer ... and I never mean to notice her unless 
 Tracy should specially ask it, and she herself 
 should specially ask as well." 
 
 Leah need not have made this latter proviso. 
 Mrs. Tremaine failed to solicit the acquaintance 
 
184 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 of her daughter-in-law. If a monomaniac, she at 
 least remained a consistent one. But monomania 
 would doubtless too charitably have defined her 
 conduct. This had rather emanated from another 
 quite explainable source a meagre intellect, 
 acted upon by massive inherited prejudice. She 
 stood in her day and her country as a dreary 
 anomaly, a pitiful, discouraging contradiction. 
 That she could exist at all in a land bought from 
 monarchism with blood, and consecrated by great 
 dead patriots to a very beautiful future, meant, if 
 it had any meaning, some fatal national weakness. 
 Such Americans as Mrs. Tremaine are either a 
 disease or a development. If the first, they chal 
 lenge cure; if the second, they prophesy disaster. 
 
IX. 
 
 T EAH'S wedding-tour lasted nearly a month. 
 ~^ She wrote to her mother very regularly 
 during this interval of separation, and every letter 
 breathed of perfect happiness. When husband 
 and wife returned, they went at once to their new 
 residence. It was small, but charmingly ap 
 pointed. They had made certain economical cal 
 culations, and had decided that their present 
 income would permit of only judicious expendi 
 tures. Both were amazed, a little later, to find 
 that Mrs. Romilly had taken a most decisive step. 
 
 She had ceased to rent the house in which she 
 and Leah had dwelt for a number of past years. 
 She had engaged apartments in a boarding-house 
 adjacent to Fifth Avenue, and near her daughter's 
 new home. And she had done this for a reason 
 which Leah too well understood when a cheque of 
 no mean amount was put into her unwilling hand. 
 
 " Yes, Leah," came the soft yet insistent words. 
 "I had no use for the house all to myself. I shall 
 be thoroughly comfortable in those other quarters. 
 
 185 
 
186 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Every year you shall receive just the same amount 
 that I have now given you. Remember, it was 
 your father's money. Some day all must be yours. 
 I shall have my books; I shall live in complete 
 comfort. But you, presiding over a larger house 
 hold, will, of course, need larger resources. . . ." 
 
 That same evening the first shadow crept over 
 Leah's devout love for her husband. They had 
 dined together, and laughingly discussed the 
 somewhat lame way in which their new menage, 
 with its new servants and its general tentative 
 atmosphere, had thus far thriven. But presently 
 Leah had referred to her mother's generosity. 
 
 "It will make matters so much easier for us, 
 Tracy," she said. And then she looked with sud 
 den fixity into his face, while he sat close at her 
 side, smoking the cigarette that she liked to have 
 him smoke almost any time in her presence, be 
 cause he was fond of it. 
 
 " Oh, Tracy," she broke forth, " I am so sure 
 that mamma would love one thing to happen, 
 above all others ! " 
 
 " What? " he asked, with a slight start. 
 
 " She would love to have you ask her to come 
 and live with us. I mean, if she thought you 
 really meant it, if she thought I had n't induced 
 you to make the request." 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 187 
 
 He was silent for some time, while her eyes 
 dwelt on his profile. Then he said, with crisp 
 brevity : 
 
 " I don't mean to ask her." 
 
 Leah bit her lip. " Tracy ! " she exclaimed, in 
 reproach, " you speak as if you disliked mamma ! 
 Do you?" 
 
 " I dislike the idea of having her live with us. 
 That is all." Leah fancied that she saw coldness 
 in the look which he now turned full upon her 
 saddened countenance ; and she had never even 
 remotely had this fancy before. He was smiling, 
 however, as he proceeded : 
 
 "I supposed the matter quite settled. If you 
 persist in reviving it, I must assume that you place 
 too slight an estimate on my opinion of what is 
 most advisable." 
 
 " No, Tracy not that ! " began Leah ; " I " 
 
 But he at once rose, the smile leaving his hand 
 some face. 
 
 " I shall not be able to argue the question with 
 you," he said. 
 
 And then she knew that she had offended him, 
 and was miserable while he stood examining some 
 new books, which lay disordered on a near table, 
 not yet having been shelved in proper fashion. 
 But soon afterward he broke silence in ordinary 
 
188 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 tones on some ordinary topic. Mrs. Chichester, a 
 few days later, sent them an invitation to one of 
 her ceremonious dinners. The invitation (all 
 except their own name and the date) was en 
 graved on heavy white paper that bore arms and 
 crest. 
 
 " I will write our refusal to-morrow," said Leah, 
 in a matter-of-course way. 
 
 " Our refusal ! " echoed Tremaine. " What can 
 you possibly mean ? " 
 
 " Why," returned Leah surprisedly, " did we 
 not both agree that we were to go very little into 
 society ? " 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 " What a memory you have ! " he said. 
 
 "Do you mean that you want to go?" she 
 asked, prepared at once to give her own acqui 
 escence. 
 
 " Enormously," he replied. " It is best to break 
 that resolve in a gradual way, and not wait for the 
 sudden rupture of it that is certain to come. No 
 human honeymoon ever yet lasted forever, and I 
 don't imagine that ours will prove an exception." 
 
 His words were softly jocular, but she felt a stab 
 of fright pierce her as she heard them, and knew 
 that she was growing pale. A moment later she 
 told herself that such serious interpretation was 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 189 
 
 folly ; but while the beats of her own heart 
 sounded in her ears, the quiet voice of Tremaine 
 sounded above them. 
 
 "Besides, you know, Mrs. Chichester's dinner- 
 invitations do not usually go begging. It is not 
 customary to refuse them except for a very good 
 reason ; and I don't think that we have even a bad 
 one." 
 
 " We have one that I thought would seem excel 
 lent," answered Leah, steadying her voice. " We 
 had both decided that a life of fashion after mar 
 riage would suit neither. Jhad seen enough of it, 
 even during my brief experience, and what you 
 said made me confident that you were sincerely 
 fatigued." 
 
 " Oh, I have been taking a rest," he answered, 
 with another laugh. That laugh, amiable though 
 it was, had an edge with a cruel cut in it. 
 
 They went to Mrs. Chichester's dinner, and to 
 many more of equal or lesser splendor through 
 succeeding weeks. Leah constantly saw her 
 mother, but often their meetings were snatched 
 from the claims engendered by frequent festivi 
 ties. She had her visiting-book, her "day," her 
 calls of courtesy. Meanwhile she was popular 
 as ever, and firmly placed by her marriage on a 
 level with the most "careful" sets. But Mrs. 
 
190 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Romilly had divined, some time ago, a weariness 
 in Leah no less manifest than were her efforts to 
 conceal it. This weariness did not mar her beauty, 
 still fresh and captivating ; it was mental, not phys 
 ical, and therefore the mother's almost clairvoy 
 ant eye detected it while wholly elusive for others. 
 Leah's step was elastic as of old ; her neat-clinging, 
 quick-rustling robes ensheathed or draped her 
 flexible figure in faultless unison with its lines and 
 movements ; she had lost that assertion which once 
 marked the pose of her small head on its slender 
 yet queenly shoulders ; she had the tamed look of 
 a bird that has been taught repose though not 
 inured to durance ; she was no longer maidenly 
 in mien or gesture ; and yet no actual touch of 
 matronhood had rounded or relaxed her still 
 girlish delicacy. 
 
 Mrs. Romilly waited for some avowal, but she 
 waited a long time before any came. At length 
 she one day tempted it by saying : 
 
 " Do you enjoy all this excess of gayety, Leah ? " 
 " No, mamma," was the slow reply ; and as Leah 
 spoke she drooped her eyes. 
 
 "Then why do you let it hurry you along?" 
 " I do so on Tracy's account. He wants it. He 
 thinks it best. He thinks it right. " 
 
 Mrs. Romilly repeated this answer to Rainsford, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 191 
 
 with whom she still had her long talks, and whom 
 Leah rarely saw. He had won added distinction 
 in his art. Money, for which he had not real 
 need, had flowed in to him, and with it a fair 
 share of no despicable fame. 
 
 " He has shown her his shallow soul," said 
 Kainsford. " She understands that what she 
 thought so durable, so individual about him was 
 the merest veneer. And she has made this dis 
 covery regarding him as a kind of sarcastic ter 
 minus to the other discoveries made regarding 
 those vainglorious worldlings among whom she 
 first met him." 
 
 "But she is still fond of him, Lawrence. I am 
 sure of that." 
 
 " You would not know it if she had ceased to 
 be at least, not for a long time," he added. 
 44 But you may be right. I am ready to grant that 
 her love, when once given, is of the inalienable 
 sort or should be ! " 
 
 After more than a year of marriage, Leah began 
 to assume a course of strange reticence toward her 
 mother respecting Tremaine. Mrs. Romilly had 
 occasionally dined with them .at first, but of late 
 she had received no invitation to do so. She felt 
 that her son-in-law was alone concerned in the ces 
 sation of these requests. But she made no in- 
 
192 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 quiry of Leah. Perhaps it was solely because she 
 dreaded to receive the wounding truth. She sel 
 dom met Tremaine. When they did encounter 
 each other, she had no fault, and yet every fault, 
 to find with the clean exactitude of his urbanity. 
 
 But Leah had been reticent in other ways. The 
 absolute selfishness of her husband had now be 
 come as well-known to her as the wretchedness 
 which this final realization caused. He had not a 
 personal whim, howsoever slight, to which he did 
 not, as time wore on, demand unqualified alle 
 giance. She nearly always gave it; she even tried 
 at first to justify it; she hated to face the bare 
 ruin of her own charming ideal. For a long time 
 her very pride made her uniformly compliant ; it 
 was so hard to admit that she had been entirely 
 deceived in him ! But at length a most brutal 
 shock came to her. Rudely enough her eyes were 
 opened to what she deemed a horrifying fact. . . . 
 "I will not tell mamma," she reflected, after the 
 first misery of her new knowledge had passed. 
 " And perhaps it will never happen again. He 
 says it has very seldom happened in his life. . . . 
 Very seldom," she repeated aloud, quoting his own 
 words with a shudder, and feeling the stinging 
 sense of what it was that had happened. 
 
 His mornings were usually spent at one of the 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 193 
 
 two or three clubs to which he belonged, and often 
 his afternoons as well. When they dined alone 
 together, and there was no engagement which, 
 called them both from home afterward, he would 
 now nearly always leave the house, often not re 
 turning until the small hours. At such times 
 she was given to understand that he was " at the 
 club ; " but she did not know which club, and 
 more than once, on inquiry, had received answers 
 of such laconic rebuff that there seemed almost 
 a slight and a slur in them. 
 
 The plain truth is that Tremaine now frequently 
 drank to excess. Leah had only seen him on a 
 single occasion when wine held him well in its 
 degrading grip, and perhaps the affright and tears 
 which she had then shown had repeatedly, since 
 being forced to confront and console both, made 
 him wary about the hour of certain home-com 
 ings. 
 
 His vice was of the sort which sometimes over 
 takes, abruptly and almost unawares, men of pre 
 cisely his character and temperament. They ap 
 pear the last men of whom one would prophesy 
 any such downfall. They have drifted into the 
 habit of taking stimulants freely indeed, too 
 freely at certain convivial times. They are 
 seen intoxicated after a " stag " dinner; they are 
 
194 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 known to have sat late over jovial beakers ; they 
 have been observed unsteadily to hail cabs near 
 dawn at the doors of their select clubs. But no 
 one accuses them of any overt inebriety. It is an 
 intemperance very temperately condoned. " Every 
 man does it now and then," runs the facile com 
 ment, and that they are constantly met, morning 
 and afternoon, in spotless broadcloth and with no 
 thirst more compromising than one which a mod 
 erate potion can satisfy, is a fact fit to blunt suspi 
 cion and put friendly warning in the light of an 
 impertinence. Besides, tliey are such cold-blooded 
 sorts of fellows. A hundred tongues, even among 
 those associates whom their frigid conventionalism 
 has most suited, and their patrician nonchalance 
 most pleased, are always prompt to quote these 
 traits of imperturbation as special safeguards against 
 real danger. But for just such men decorous, 
 aristocratic, indolent, and beset with a worship of 
 form and caste, will now and then lurk a vigilant 
 fury who has fashioned her scourge out of their 
 own egotism. They have for years kindled a flame 
 before the god of Self, and one day the flame leaps 
 devouringly into their own faces. They have for 
 years yielded to every appetite, and one day it 
 is an appetite which rises to master, perhaps to 
 slay them. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 195 
 
 It was thus with Tremaine. His passion for 
 Leah had passed, as such a passion nearly always 
 passes with such a nature. He regretted his mar 
 riage, and would have given worlds to undo it. 
 He meant to be a good husband. He thought it 
 unpardonably vulgar to be a bad one to have 
 brawls at home to let people see that you were 
 not happily married. But he was discontented by 
 a bondage which had till recently been a thrilling 
 happiness. Perhaps this same discontent served 
 to accelerate the baleful growth of a desire already 
 carelessly indulged. Twenty times a day he would 
 tell himself that he was never the man to have mar 
 ried. He still thought Leah a very beautiful crea 
 ture ; his pride in her had somehow strengthened 
 as his love decreased, and a good share of a cer 
 tain kind of pride had fallen to him by maternal 
 inheritance. He became possessed with the idea 
 that his household was not being made difficult 
 enough of ingress ; Leah had too few dislikes ; her 
 list was too expanded ; she was showing a tendency 
 toward democratic liberalisms. . . . Well, this was 
 in her blood, Tremaine argued ; it must be exter 
 minated in time. - 
 
 " I notice that you see a good deal of that little 
 Mrs. Forbes," he said. 
 
 " She is my protegee" laughed Leah. " Besides, 
 she amuses me considerably." 
 
196 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 "I think her abominably vulgar. She talks 
 through her nose, and is a bouncer besides. Then 
 one meets the greatest riff-raff at her house. You 
 did an unfortunate thing for poor Bertie Forbes 
 when you gave her that longing to know people. 
 After all, he was right. He has forgiven you, but 
 I don't doubt that he feels the injury still." 
 
 "I have not forgiven him" said Leah, with a 
 touch of her old haughtiness. "I never shall for 
 give him for being contemptible." 
 
 A hard spark came into Tremaine's eyes. " Ex 
 tend your pardon or not, as you please. But I 
 wish you to drop his wife." 
 
 "No," she answered, "I shall not do so." 
 
 He frowned now, and his voice was sharp. " I 
 insist," he said. 
 
 Leah looked at him, and slowly shook her head. 
 
 Her silent resistant firmness roused a wrath in 
 him which she had never before seen. But she 
 was somehow prepared to see it. Her idol had 
 tumbled earthward. Her idolatry, too, was now 
 daily jeering her with the emptiness of its own 
 perished fervor. 
 
 " There are those Marksley girls also," he pro 
 ceeded, with dry, low voice. " You chose to pop 
 ularize them, and in a manner you attained your 
 object. But they are still merely endured, and 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 197 
 
 everybody laughs at their grotesqueness. I will 
 not have them lunching here, or happening in so 
 intimately every two or three days. You are los 
 ing tone by letting such people know you on such 
 close terms." 
 
 " Then I shall continue to lose it," replied Leah, 
 with a laugh so icy and defiant that he started as 
 he heard. " Yes, I shall continue to lose it until 
 it is all gone. I like Lucy Forbes, and I like the 
 Marksley girls. I don't exalt them above the rest 
 of humanity, but I place them, both in morals and 
 intellect, well above a good many persons whom 
 you think it proper for me to know. And I will 
 know them I will be intimate with them. I 
 have chosen to make them all three my friends ; 
 they are all three honestly fond of me, and I would 
 not abate my friendship or my civility one jot for 
 any inducement that could possibly be offered." 
 
 Through that emphatic yet composed little 
 speech she was like and yet unlike the Leah of old 
 the Leah who had bearded Dr. Pragley and his 
 ccHerie at Newport with flashing eyes. But her 
 eyes did not flash now ; they were full, instead, of 
 a sad courage. She was the woman who with 
 stood an attempted wrong not the girl who 
 resented an irritant impertinence. 
 
 This interview had taken place at dessert one 
 
198 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 evening, while they sat over their fruits and coffee, 
 after the retirement of the servants. This was the 
 second winter of their marriage. 
 
 Tremaine rose as her answer ended. He had 
 grown white, but a smile broke from his lips. 
 " How you remind me of your mother at times," 
 he said, measuring each word. " You have the 
 true spirit of the female lecturer. What a pity 
 that fate should have drifted you away from a 
 platform ! " 
 
 He was preparing to pass out of the room as he 
 finished, but he could not reach the door until her 
 fleet retort had been uttered. And yet, although 
 fleet, it was filled with a secure self-control. 
 
 " You can pay me no such compliment," she said, 
 " as to compare me with my mother, just as you 
 can scarcely ever lower yourself so much in my 
 esteem as when you fling any paltry slur at her 
 beautiful life." 
 
 Leah shed hot tears, a little later, after he had 
 left the house and she was alone. But soon her 
 natural force asserted itself. This new rift must 
 not widen. It would be horrible. She and he had 
 years yet, perhaps, to live out together. No doubt 
 other women had made just such mistakes as hers, 
 and been forced to face just such consequences. 
 He was slowly proving to be everything that she 
 
TIXKLING CYMBALS. 199 
 
 had felt convinced he was not. She thought of 
 him as he had looked to her when they were mar 
 ried, and his merely physical stature rose retro 
 spectively like that of another man. Even his 
 love had vanished ; she had seen that weeks ago. 
 And her own love? She shivered as she tried to 
 assure herself that this had not vanished as well 
 that it had not been swept away in the general 
 ravage of hope, trust, respect. For how could 
 their future be made tolerable to either if both 
 must plod along lovelessly through uucalculated 
 years ? 
 
 Leah resolved to do her best, arid did it. In the 
 previous summer they had not gone to Newport, 
 but in the following one they again went. They 
 rented a cottage there, and lived the life which she 
 had now almost grown to hate. Still, its excitement 
 deadened her reflections. The youth in her veins 
 made her enjoy almost against her will. She often 
 wondered why people liked her as they did ; but 
 this very self-questioning showed that she was un 
 conscious of her own graces and charms ; and such 
 unconsciousness increased both, winning her ad 
 mirers and devotees of either sex whom she had 
 not put forth a finger to attract. 
 
 Meanwhile Tremaine gradually slipped deeper 
 and deeper into intemperance. But his indulgent 
 
200 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 periods were brief though frequent, and in almost 
 every case they occurred while Leah slept. He 
 and she now occupied separate apartments ; the 
 cottage was commodious enough easily to allow 
 this plan ; Leah seldom knew at what hour he re 
 turned, after late stays with cards or billiards in 
 the upper club-regions of the Casino. 
 
 She noticed that he wore an unhealthy look, that 
 he had grown thin, and that his eyes were some 
 times darkly ringed. She was not quite sure of 
 the cause, yet her suspicions verged upon certain 
 ties. She constantly blamed herself for not sim 
 ulating enough warmth during their hours of 
 meeting, and yet it is doubtful if she was often 
 truly culpable. They had their frequent quarrels 
 now, yet these were incessantly of his making. 
 Leah would not let him crush her in trivial argu 
 ment ; she would use one sarcasm of her own to 
 at least ten of his, but hers, though it nearly always 
 told with silencing power, was reluctantly given. 
 There was no longer a shadow of affection on either 
 side. But Leah had the voice of duty to chide her, 
 and used her stoutest efforts to obey it. 
 
 Mrs. Romilly had remained in New York that 
 summer. The separation was an added trouble to 
 Leah ; but she wrote her mother nearly every day, 
 if it was only a line. And in those notes and let- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 201 
 
 ters she would sometimes lay the whole bitter 
 truth bare, while adding some such merciful after- 
 comment as this : 
 
 "We can have no actual rupture, however, be 
 cause I shall always struggle to prevent it, unless 
 he should make some important demand that quite 
 transcended all possibility of concession. . . . And 
 as for the life he is leading, I must grant that he 
 never shocks me with any of its immediate results. 
 I have never seen him really in wine except once, 
 though much oftener than once I have felt sure 
 that he was the worse for it. ... I think I can go 
 on like this for a very long time. Other women are 
 doing so every day why not I? And do not 
 even fancy that I am any great martyr. My only 
 trouble is that I can't do what other women are con 
 tinually doing under the same circumstances. . . . 
 You understand what I mean ? It shames me 
 even to think of writing it." 
 
 Rainsford, who was living his usual quiet life at 
 Newport, would repeatedly see Leah and bow to her. 
 But they were never brought together that sum 
 mer in any conversational way. Where she went 
 he never went. Indeed, he went nowhere, as the 
 phrase goes. He painted his pictures and strove 
 to get from them the high peace which art will so 
 often give a hurt soul when it serves her truly. 
 
202 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 But he would sometimes make a flying trip to 
 New York, and then he always saw his dear friend, 
 Mrs. Romilly. During a visit which he paid to 
 her late in August, Leah's mother showed him the 
 lines just recorded, which had been received three 
 days ago. 
 
 " Oh, Lawrence," she murmured, " what is the 
 real meaning of those words ? " 
 
 " Despair," he answered. 
 
 "Can she go on living with him in this joyless, 
 mocking way ? " 
 
 " She will, and very bravely. It is like her to 
 be brave. Life is trying her now, and she stands 
 the test. Her former pride and arrogance were 
 merely the surface-flash of her innate womanly 
 sincerity. Below all that harmless discord she 
 rang true. She is ringing true now. She sees 
 herself bound for life to a vicious fop. She will 
 accept her destiny with stoic fortitude." Then, 
 after a moment he added : " She will accept it 
 
 without the least weak complaint, unless" 
 
 And there he paused. 
 
 " Unless ? " questioned Mrs. Romilly, intently 
 watching his strong, meditative face. 
 
 " I refer you to her own words," said Rainsford. 
 And then he quoted, with grave slowness, a por 
 tion of what Mrs. Romilty had just read him, show- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 203 
 
 ing how it had all bitten into his memory. " 4 Un 
 less he should make some important demand that 
 quite transcended all possibility of concession.' 
 Let us both trust that he will not for her sake." 
 
 " You believe that he will, Lawrence ? " 
 
 " I have not said so." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly gave a long, heavy sigh, as her 
 hazel eyes, still so youthful, searched his own. 
 " But you mean so," she persisted. " You mean 
 that Leah has herself foreshadowed the results of 
 her own pathetic misjudgment." 
 
 There is often a dramatic neatness in the occur 
 rence of everyday events which almost puts to 
 shame the deft manipulation of the nicest play 
 wright. Just as Mrs. Romilly finished speaking 
 those words, a knock sounded at the door of the 
 room in which she and Rainsford sat. The knock 
 came from a servant, and the servant brought a 
 telegram. 
 
 " It is from Leah ! " exclaimed Mrs. Romilly, 
 after she had torn open the envelope and swept 
 her glance across the message. 
 
 " Well ? " queried Rainsford. 
 
 " ' Something has happened," 1 " read Mrs. Romilly, 
 striving to repress her agitation. " 4 1 will be with 
 you to-morrow evening. I leave to-morrow for New 
 York, alone ! ' " 
 
204 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " Alone ! " echoed Leah's mother, as the paper 
 dropped in her lap. 
 
 Her eyes met Rainsford's. " It has come," he 
 said. 
 
 " 4 It has come ' ? What has come ? " 
 " That of which we have just been speaking." 
 "Do you mean that he has insulted her?" 
 " No. She would bear insult. She would resent 
 it, but she would bear it. He has made that de 
 mand. He has required, and she will not con 
 cede." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly stared at him mutely. Her face 
 was full of misery. Both knew the futility of 
 further words. Both knew that they must wait. 
 
X. 
 
 rriHE great Mrs. Chichester drove with her own 
 * hands, that summer at Newport, a pair of 
 thorough-bred bays, and drove them very well. 
 She was passionately fond of horses, and it was 
 stated that the new fashion of ladies driving 
 themselves had received its chief support from 
 her zealous concurrence. Plainly and trimly 
 dressed, with her curly chestnut hair gathered 
 well beneath a dark riding-hat, with a fragmentary 
 gossamer veil drawn across her remarkably fresh 
 face, with her gloves of just the proper fit and 
 texture to handle the reins easily, and with her 
 whip held at just the approved angle, this lady 
 presented an appearance in which ostentation had 
 no part whatever, and in which even those critics 
 who morosely condemned her pet pastime as un- 
 feminine could not but admit that she had a very 
 simple and dignified way of indulging it. She 
 usually preferred to drive in the morning, and 
 would sometimes call at the Tremaines' cottage 
 for Leah to accompany her, Leah liked well 
 
 205 
 
206 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 enough to go. She stood in no awe of her 
 friend's social grandeur, and would talk as famil 
 iarly to Mrs. Chichester as though she were one 
 of the Marksley girls. Indeed, Miss Caroline and 
 Miss Louisa had once, in that exaggeration of 
 speech which so rarely forsook them, professed 
 their joint wonder at this undaunted self-compla 
 cency. 
 
 "I believe that is why Mrs. Stephen A. dotes 
 on you so," said Caroline. "Nearly everybody 
 else grovels to her, you know. She is tired of 
 being grovelled to." 
 
 " I should think it would be a very tiresome 
 experience," laughed Leah. 
 
 "But we don't see how you hold your own 
 with her in that superb style do we?" pro 
 ceeded Louisa, nodding toward her sister. " Why, 
 Carrie and I have a feeling as if electric currents 
 were darting up and down our spines whenever 
 she speaks to us ! " 
 
 "You know she is such a perfectly terrific 
 swell," resumed Caroline. "She awes us doesn't 
 she, Lou? We don't see how you can look her so 
 straight in the eyes." 
 
 " Do you think I ought to watch her through a 
 piece of smoked glass ? " said Leah, " as we watch 
 the sun ? " 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 207 
 
 She was so firmly assured of the honest natures 
 underlying the eccentricities of these girls, that 
 she had grown to regard their present foible in 
 the light of a diversion ; and not seldom she 
 found it a very effective one. 
 
 In the morning of the day before that on which 
 her mother received Leah's alarming telegram, 
 Mrs. Chichester gave her young friend a delightful 
 drive behind the neat-stepping and well-broken 
 steeds. The day was almost perfect ; they went 
 by the Ocean Avenue way, where huge rocks 
 lifted their black bulks against the dazzling noon 
 tide sea. None of the great houses are here, and, 
 indeed, scarcely a dwelling of any sort meets your 
 sight as you glide over a road whose hard, finely- 
 tended level makes the horse-hoofs ring almost 
 as if they struck against metal. This road is the 
 sole sign of art Avhich marks the lovely, desolate 
 region. The sea-grasses thrive here, in rugged 
 coves and by ponderous ledges, as they may have 
 thriven a thousand years ago. The strong waves 
 have no ministry to perform on this unpeopled 
 stretch of coast ; they do not bear gifts of color 
 and light to the doorways of fair abodes, or wash 
 headlands green with smooth lapses of watered 
 sod ; the shore on which they break is untamed 
 as themselves ; this so-called avenue, one of the 
 
208 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 glories of Newport, strikes a rich, clear note amid 
 the scale of her delicious variability. 
 
 The two ladies went back to Steep Rock after 
 their drive, and lunched together in a sea-fronting 
 room of that fine mansion. Leah, while she 
 watched the strangely youthful face of her host 
 ess, felt a furtive thrill of envy. "Here," she 
 thought, "is a life in which plenty and peace have 
 ever gone together. What earthly trouble has 
 this woman ever kno\vn? And does she realize 
 her complete happiness ? Ah ! do we . ever do 
 that until it is past?" 
 
 Then Leah thought of her mother, and the 
 envy, becoming more generous, deepened. Be 
 tween Marion Chichester and Elizabeth llomilly 
 what intellectual distance lay ! Both were good 
 women, yet the virtue of one had been a mere 
 dormant receptivity ; she had accepted dogma 
 and homily, questioning neither ; she had bowed 
 all her life at the shrine of propriety ; she had 
 tacitly held that regarding the most vital human 
 questions thought was sin. And yet how great 
 was the place that she possessed in this American 
 society where she reigned, and where the lines of 
 provincialism were being j^early more and more 
 obliterated. Why had not Elizabeth Romilly a 
 place like hers ? Why did she, born a queen by 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 209 
 
 right of genius, dwell without a crown, without a 
 courtier? What supreme benefit might she not 
 have accomplished for her race with these mil 
 lions that had gone to rear only the airy and un- 
 durable scaffolding of a ballroom sovereignty ! 
 How might she have proved to the world that 
 certain dreams of her youth, chimerical as these 
 had seemed, could be substantiated in golden 
 realities! 
 
 While Leah's involuntary reflections took more 
 or less the meaning just given, words shaped 
 themselves on her lips of whose delivery she was 
 almost unconscious until she heard Mrs. Chi- 
 chester's full, rhythmical voice answering what 
 she had uttered. 
 
 "You ask me if I have not always been happy, 
 Leah? Well, I feel as if it were a crime to say 
 'no,' and yet I am tempted to say it." She 
 smiled, stirred a cup of frothy chocolate with her 
 little spiral-handled spoon, for an instant, looked 
 thoughtful (she who so seldom looked thought 
 ful), and then added : " Do you know, my dear, 
 that great prosperity has its own peculiar discom 
 forts ? " Leah was actually startled by this simple 
 sentence. A funny fancy crossed her mind ; she 
 wondered whether the Marksleys would have 
 remained free from hysteria if subjected to such 
 
210 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 an imposing bit of royal confidence, since Mrs. 
 Chichester had never been known, in the experi 
 ence of her most intimate devotees, to mention, 
 however indirectly, the mighty fact of her own 
 wealth and state. 
 
 "For example, my dear Leah," she now con 
 tinued, lowering her voice as though some pos 
 sible ambuscaded servant might overhear so 
 weighty a confession, "I never know what it 
 is to want anything. Ah! my child" (and she 
 sighed here with a distinct pathos), " there is so 
 much in that to want a thing ! When I put on 
 a new gown I occasionally have a most desolate 
 sensation. I am on a kind of dead level of lux 
 ury. It is all as commonplace as la pluie et le 
 beau temps. No, I mean it is all beau temps; 
 there is no pluie whatever. I wish that there 
 only were, but there is not. I need not ask the 
 price of my new gown ; I need not even concern 
 myself with how many of them I have. You 
 don't know what a bore it becomes to have no 
 personal desires ungratified." 
 
 The lady said this with a truly immense ear 
 nestness ; Leah had never seen her so earnest 
 before. Her tone and expression were precisely 
 those which might have been the fitting accompa 
 niments of extreme indigence unbosoming its 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 211 
 
 woes. She tried to look sympathetically inter 
 ested ; she tried not to let the hint of a smile mar 
 her attentive seriousness; she wanted to get the 
 whole rare satire of this new species of distress. 
 For the time she forgot even to be shocked. The 
 exquisite absurdity of extreme opulence deploring 
 its overplus in the same strain as that of some 
 meagre-pursed starveling who craves charity, 
 touched only her sense of humor, and very 
 keenly. 
 
 "But it is the same with dress as with every 
 thing else," proceeded Mrs. Chichester. She had 
 now left off stirring her chocolate ; its ropy, 
 bronze-brown liquid appeared to have palled upon 
 her taste ; she moved her head sorrowfully from 
 side to side, and stared straight past Leah at a 
 breadth of tapestry which hung by gilt rings on 
 a gilt rod. 
 
 " Dress is not my only trouble," murmured this 
 afflicted millionaire. " Oh, no, indeed ! There is 
 the wretched bore of having a chef and two or 
 three assistants who require no orders in the mat 
 ter of dinners. It would be so perfectly charming 
 to make out one's own menu when one asked 
 people to dine. But our man, Claireau, whom my 
 husband specially imported, and whom he pays 
 several thousand a year, would regard me in polite 
 
212 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 amazement if I presumed to order anything. The 
 'ideas,' as he has the impudence to call them, are 
 submitted to me, and I am expected unqualifiedly 
 to approve them. I always do ; Claireau is so 
 monotonously capable. Of course he combines 
 with his skill a great deal of handsome humbug. 
 He talks of his dishes as if they were poems, and 
 of his courses as if they were stanzas or cantos. 
 He assured me, the other day, that one kind of 
 soup had much more sentiment than another, and 
 that a certain entree was full of lyrical tender 
 ness '-pleine d\ine tendresse lyrique^ Madame.'' 
 . . . Think of that ! . . . And thus it goes on, my 
 dear. I have no real comfort in living, because I 
 live too comfortably. I could recount a hundred 
 other little miseries to you, all springing from the 
 same cause. But I will not. Let us talk of 
 something else, my dear." Here Mrs. Chichester 
 became herself again, and began to stir and sip 
 the beverage before her with a kind of repentant 
 briskness. " Let me ask you with whom you 
 shall dance the german at my ball, next Thurs 
 day? It is such a pleasure to speak with a friend 
 who has not written me asking invitations for 
 two or three other friends. There is a new little 
 misery and not so little a one, after all which 
 I forgot to record ! My ball will probably be as 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 213 
 
 mixed as one of the poor late President Lincoln's. 
 I am prepared to have it criticised as the most 
 broadly democratic entertainment ever given in 
 Newport. But what can I do? My own friends 
 betray me. I can't say 'no' to them. . . . Ah, 
 they don't reflect what hard things I say when I 
 write 4 yes ! ' " . . . 
 
 Leah afterward had her ruminations as she was 
 driven homeward in a spacious open equipage of 
 Mrs. Chichester's. She had ceased to feel amused, 
 she was silently ired. 
 
 " How preposterous seem these dainty griefs," 
 she thought, " when one reflects upon them ! 
 Where are that woman's almsgivings ? You read 
 of them in the newspapers a conspicuous cheque 
 is donated to this or that asylum or institution. 
 But what more ? . . . She broods over the tyranny 
 of her cook because he feeds her faultlessly of 
 her tailor, because he clothes her beyond reproach ! 
 And yet this woman is a Christian, and goes to 
 churches where, if you plied the question close to 
 them, they would say, with Dr. Pragley, that my 
 great-hearted mother is an atheist ! " 
 
 Leah reached home to-day in no pleasant mood. 
 It was about four o'clock. The domain of Belle- 
 vue Avenue had begun to fill with its usual throng 
 of carriages. Polo was played this afternoon, and 
 
214 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 many of the vehicles were hurrying toward the 
 grounds where that madcap game had its especial 
 theatre of revel. Leah's dwelling was in Kay 
 Street that realm of close-crowded cottages, 
 nearly all unobtrusive, and yet all informed with 
 a special home-like fascination. There, on the 
 roadside, just opposite her gate (for the near 
 ness of all these houses to the public turnpike 
 admits of no entrance within their lawns), she 
 found Mrs. Forbes, seated in a barouche, quite as 
 grand as that of Mrs. Chichester, which had just 
 brought the guest of the great lady back to her 
 cottage. 
 
 " Oh, I am so glad, Leah ! " exclaimed Mrs. 
 Forbes, leaning vivaciously forward. " I wanted 
 to see you. Come let 's go to the Polo grounds 
 or anywhere you please I don't care. But 
 you must come with me. They said here that you 
 were off somewhere with Mrs. Chichester, and I 
 was just on the point of driving to Steep Rock 
 to try and get you. I must have you. Now, don't 
 refuse ! " 
 
 Leah demurred not a little after alighting, but 
 presently permitted herself to be persuaded. She 
 had had quite enough of driving for that da}', but 
 there was a nervous eagerness in Mrs. Forbes's 
 manner which made her suspect that it had origin 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 215 
 
 in some mental trouble. For this reason she con 
 sented. 
 
 At first her suspicion seemed very far from 
 confirmation. The elegant equipage in which she 
 was now seated soon passed from Kay Street into 
 Bellevue Avenue. But, although Mrs. Forbes had 
 a great deal to say on the various topics which con 
 cerned the present rush and swirl of things, she 
 made no allusion to that particular matter which 
 had appeared on the verge of disclosure. 
 
 "Lucy," at length said Leah, quietly, "you're 
 talking in quite a random way, and I know there 
 is something you really want to tell me. Pray, 
 what is it?" 
 
 Mrs. Forbes laid one hand on Leah's, pressing 
 sensibly with her gloved fingers. 
 
 " Oh, Leah," she said, " don't ask me quite 
 yet ! " Her unalterably nasal tones somehow 
 made this appeal more plaintive than it might 
 otherwise have been. " We '11 get to the Polo 
 grounds in a minute. Don't ask me till we 're 
 driving back. . . . Or, if you say so, we won't 
 go in. I '11 tell James to turn round. What 
 do you say?" 
 
 " Oh, well," answered Leah, " we are so near, 
 now, that we might as well enter." 
 
 Polo was an oft-told tale to her, and she thought 
 
216 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 it an extremely stupid amusement for the crowds 
 that flocked to see its petty battles lost or won. 
 Still, she owned there was attraction in noting the 
 various faces and costumes, if nothing more ; her 
 eye was quite as quick as formerly to seize on all 
 comic points in either, though her tongue was 
 much less ready to record the effects of such ob 
 servation. Their carriage now entered an im 
 mense space of deep-green, elastic turf, inclosed 
 by a wooden fence of thrice the ordinary height. 
 A very wide margin on every side of this fine 
 amphitheatre was given up to visitors in equipages 
 of countless sorts, while here and there moved 
 equestrians of both sexes. Many of the carriages 
 had stopped, and words were being interchanged 
 by their occupants. Others were in motion, 
 making two continual streams that flowed past 
 one another. To-day had brought what was 
 esteemed a very full attendance ; it was a speci 
 men day, so to speak, and as usual in any 
 large gathering at Newport the winsome faces 
 of beautiful young girls were a brilliant pre 
 ponderating feature. The bustle and animation 
 of nearly everybody, their smiles, their brisk nods 
 or more stately bows, their peals of laughter, 
 their bursts of careless or mirthful speech, con 
 trasted happily with the rich radiance of female 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 217 
 
 apparel, the neat smartness which marked the 
 gentlemen's attire, the style and airs of the cock- 
 aded, booted flunkeys, the flash of silver or gilded 
 harness, the fragrance and glow of roses knotted 
 at the bosoms of charming women, the keen blue 
 of the afternoon sky, the vigorous breeze that blew 
 straight from the sea across this splendid expanse 
 of turf, and lastly the blithe music of a band 
 stationed as centrally as possible, and doing its 
 rapid, vociferous best when each game was started, 
 as though to stimulate the players in their feats of 
 supple horsemanship. 
 
 Remarkable indeed were these feats. The clipped 
 little ponies that their riders bestrode with such 
 tough adhesiveness, would now press four or 
 five of their volatile bodies together in a wriggling 
 melee, now swerve mutually from collision when 
 on the apparent verge of it, now describe the most 
 breakneck zigzags or wheel in the most giddy rev 
 olutions ; and all the while one tiny ball, struck 
 at with plunges of the mallets, dashed for with 
 headlong swoops of the ponies, continued the 
 cause of these onslaughts, tilts, shocks, sorties, or 
 retreats. The great distance which separated 
 players from spectators made this ball often invisi 
 ble amid the tumult, as it made the pigmy steeds 
 themselves assume proportions hardly larger than 
 
218 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 those of some big-framed mastiff. Suddenly a 
 lucky stroke would send the ball leaping far away 
 from the massed contestants, and then, fleet as 
 wind, a pony would dart to where it had fallen, 
 his sitter eager to strike it out of bounds with the 
 final victorious blow. But perhaps he would 
 stoop, aim, essay the swinging hit, and yet miss 
 at the decisive second. Then some adversary, hot 
 in pursuit, would perhaps halt straight at the im 
 portant spot just passed, with enough suddenness, 
 you might think, to unseat a centaur. Like light 
 ning the obedient pony would veer about; like 
 lightning the new implement would meet the ball 
 and send it flying back among those glad or 
 chagrined at its return, and fired with zeal to 
 fight for its possession. Perhaps it would soon 
 be hurled toward the opposite bounds from those 
 so nearly reached a brief while since; perhaps the 
 same ill-fortune would here repeat itself with the 
 other foe, or possibly a strenuous, rushing coup 
 would abruptly end the struggle and decide the 
 conquest. 
 
 " You need a telescope to provoke any lively 
 interest in Polo," said Leah, as she and Mrs. 
 Forbes were driven at a gentle pace along the 
 usual turfy, circular route. " Don't you agree 
 with me, Lucy?" 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 219 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Forbes, in rather absent tones. 
 The game bored her, as it does most women ; be 
 sides, her thoughts had excuse for wandering just 
 now. " I always did think that Polo was made for 
 children," she continued. "How few men ever 
 play it ! They are nearly always boys of twenty 
 or thereabouts. After that age they begin to re 
 spect their bones and joints; dyspepsia warns 
 them that they 're not immortal ; they discover 
 that while discretion is the better part of valor, 
 so is prudence the sworn friend of longevity." 
 
 Leah laughed, as she often did, at the sparkles 
 of pleasantry that came from her friend. Mrs. 
 Forbes's speedy way of delivering her bright things, 
 and the nasal voice which never failed to utter 
 them, stamped them as individual and character 
 istic. 
 
 But Leah had already plainly seen that she was 
 by no means her merry self to-day. Just as they 
 were driving away from the Polo grounds, about a 
 quarter of an hour later, Mrs. Forbes surprised 
 her by a swift, sharp laugh, arid a motion of the 
 head toward a rocky elevation of land, whose 
 highest portion commanded an evident view of 
 the game and its assembled watchers. Here a 
 few nurses with children were to be glimpsed, 
 and many more persons of both sexes, shabby 
 
220 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 in guise and clearly members of the working- 
 classes. 
 
 " That is Deadhead Hill, you know," said Mrs. 
 Forbes, after her laugh. " Oh, dear, it reminds me 
 of such a funny adventure of mine, summer before 
 last ! Bertie as usual then had gone off with 
 some swell man or woman to see Polo, /wanted 
 to see Polo, too. I had n't my horses yet ; we 
 had just got here, and did n't know how long 
 we should stay, on account of that money fright 
 in Peoria, of which I told you. So I concluded 
 I would take a walk to the Polo grounds. They 
 told me it was n't far from the Aquidneck at 
 least I think somebody said so. I found it pretty 
 far though, and when I got here I saw people stand 
 ing just as they 're standing now, and that broken 
 fence where they get in, and I said to myself, 'This 
 must be the way you go when }^ou go on foot.' So 
 I marched up, and clambered along till I had a 
 good place for seeing, and then I saw. It did n't 
 occur to me that I was n't particularly among peo 
 ple of my own kind. I had a rather good time ; I 
 did n't think much of Polo, any more than I 've 
 ever thought of it since. But when I got home 
 and told Bertie where I 'd been, you should have 
 seen his horror." Here all Mrs. Forbes's humor 
 vanished. She spoke with positive acerbity ; Leah 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 221 
 
 had never before seen her exhibit so much bitter 
 ness. " ' That was Deadhead Hill,' he informed 
 me, in the most shocked manner. He hoped no 
 one had seen me there. It was horrible to think 
 of his wife having gone where nobody except ser 
 vants and common people ever dreamed of going." 
 At this point Mrs. Forbes gave another slight 
 laugh, harsher than before. " Oh, I know what I 
 might have said, Leah, and what perhaps I ought 
 to have said I mean that Deadhead Hill was 
 much more suited to him than to me, since I was 
 n't living in conceited laziness on my husband's 
 money, as he was living on his wife's." 
 
 Leah saw the truth at last. She let a little 
 silence elapse, and then she stole her hand into her 
 companion's. 
 
 "Lucy," she said, "you've had a serious quar 
 rel with your husband. Come, acknowledge it. 
 That is what you wanted to tell me." 
 
 "Serious?" said Mrs. Forbes, turning her face 
 on Leah's, and lifting her pretty brows in mock 
 astonishment ; " that is no word for it, my dear. 
 I intend arranging for a separation." 
 
 " Really," murmured Leah. 
 
 " Without the least doubt. I 've stood his ridic 
 ulous airs long enough. I 've had the British peer 
 age substituted for the family Bible quite long 
 
222 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 enough, too, not to mention its being occasionally 
 fired in my face when his majesty chanced to be out 
 of humor. But, more than this, Leah, I have be 
 come business-woman enough not to allow the for 
 tune pa left me to be gambled away at the Metro 
 politan Club in New York and the Casino here. 
 I told him that very squarely last night. I said : 
 4 Go your way, sir, and I '11 go mine.' I am to see 
 my lawyer in a few days, and I told him that, too. 
 I suppose there '11 be a scandal, but I don't care. 
 I have n't an atom of regard left for him not an 
 atom ! He has treated me vilely ; he has used me 
 (the mother of his children, Leah !) as a mere con 
 venience and cat's-paw. I 've borne it all, for 
 months past, only from a sense of decency. Now 
 he 's gone too far, and he shall feel it. After this 
 we live apart. I '11 put him on an allowance ; I '11 
 give him three thousand a year ; not a penny more 
 and that 's more than he deserves. . . . He in 
 sulted me grossly last night. The fine gentleman 
 vanished when he found I would n't pay his gam 
 bling debts ! The rare old Chetwynde blood ac 
 quitted itself most aristocratically ! He called me 
 a common little Yankee, Leah. He said that my 
 poor, dear, dead father had been a cad. . . . Oh, 
 then I gave him a few plain truths be sure I did ! 
 I have never been so furious before in all my life, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 223 
 
 and I hope I shall never be so again. I let him 
 understand that he had come to the end of his 
 tether and he does understand it. He 's fright 
 ened now. Let him stay so. I 'm firm as steel ; 
 I mean to show him good cause for fright. He 's 
 great friends with your husband, by the way. I 
 suppose he has told Mr. Tremaine everything. 
 I 'm so fond of you, Leah, that I hate to think of 
 anything unpleasant rising between us." 
 
 " You need have no fear of anything unpleasant 
 rising between us," said Leah, quietly. "What 
 ever side my husband takes is of no import to me. 
 . . . You are wretched, Lucy, and not yourself. 
 You must dismiss the carriage when we get to Kay 
 Street, and stop and dine with me." 
 
 Mrs. Forbes demurred, but Leah insisted, at 
 length carrying her point. As the two ladies 
 passed up the short lawn-path leading to the piazza, 
 they saw Tremaine standing there. 
 
 It was nearly dinner-time. He wore full even 
 ing-dress, as he had done at this hour almost from 
 boyhood. He bowed with perfect suavity to Mrs. 
 Forbes, who at once passed indoors. Meanwhile 
 Leah lingered for a moment. 
 
 " Lucy dines with us this evening," she said. 
 
 His face clouded. " Have you asked her for the 
 purpose of annoying me ? " he replied. " I don't 
 
224 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 see what other motive you can have. Bertie has 
 told me of their quarrel. You know he and I are 
 friends. I detest that woman, and you know that 
 also. I will not have her at my table." 
 
 " Shall I tell her so ? " asked Leah, calmly. 
 
 " Yes," he answered, sullenly, below his breath. 
 " You can, if you choose." 
 
XT. 
 
 A SMILE of irony touched Leah's lips as she 
 left her husband standing on the piazza and 
 rejoined her friend. Not long afterward dinner 
 was announced, and when Leah and Mrs. Forbes 
 appeared in the dining-room they were met by Tre- 
 maine, who had chosen to assume a cool, careless 
 manner, although indignation burned not far be 
 neath its decorous outer crust. 
 
 The talk flowed rather freely, though aimlessly, 
 until dessert was served and the attendants had 
 retired. Leah had been speaking in a vein of light 
 ridicule regarding the troubles which Mrs. Chi- 
 chester had confided to her that day at luncheon. 
 
 " Some of the people who are crying the Chi- 
 chesters down as shameless monopolists ought to 
 hear of Mrs. Stephen A.'s distresses/' said Mrs. 
 Forbes. " It might comfort them a little. ... I 
 wonder if there are many married women in New 
 port this evening who have less actual griev 
 
 ances." 
 
 225 
 
226 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 She gave a sidelong look toward Tremaine as 
 she spoke the last sentence. 
 
 " Oh, most married women have very serious 
 grievances," he said, with his eyes drooped upon 
 his plate. 
 
 "Yes, and they are always foolish ones, of 
 course," said Mrs. Forbes, with a kind of mourn 
 ful satire. 
 
 " Not always," Leah broke in propitiatingly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, my dear Leah, always ! " declared 
 Mrs. Forbes, turning with great earnestness toward 
 her friend. Her lip trembled a little as she spoke. 
 A glance from Leah silenced further words. 
 
 " The longer that men live in the world," said 
 Tremaine, with his drawl, beginning to peel a 
 peach, " the more they are led to conclude that it 
 wasn't entirely made for the other sex. They 
 want a small corner of the big sphere only a 
 corner, you know. And they take the liberty of 
 being annoyed when that moderate demand is 
 interfered with." 
 
 " I don't know what you mean ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. Forbes, who had no parry of words, no power 
 of duelling with wit. " You can't allude to me, 
 surely ! I don't think there ever was a woman 
 who endured quite as much downright imposition 
 as I did from my husband. I suppose he has told 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 227 
 
 you what has happened. You always sided with 
 him, Mr. Tremaine, and no doubt you do so now." 
 
 " I heard there had been trouble," he said, a 
 trifle bluntly, " and of course I have my opin 
 ions." 
 
 Mrs. Forbes gave a peevish, exasperated sigh. 
 
 " Well, keep them to yourself, I beg," she re 
 sponded, rather tartly. 
 
 " I had no intention of airing them, really." 
 
 " If you have finished your coffee, Lucy," now 
 said Leah, " we will go into the drawing-room." 
 
 " What! and leave me?" said Tremaine, softly, 
 with a fleeting smile that had not a ray of humor. 
 
 " Yes to your cigar," she answered. 
 
 " All," said Mrs. Forbes, in tones more sad than 
 angry, though both, while she lifted one plump 
 forefinger and shook it at Tremaine, " I 'm afraid 
 you're glad enough to have me go." 
 
 " I must be polite enough to disagree with you 
 there," he promptly said, " no matter how great 
 danger I may run in doing so." 
 
 It was somehow not a rude speech as he pro 
 nounced it, though on other lips the implication, at 
 such a time, that to disagree with her was danger 
 ous, must have seemed openly assailant and harsh. 
 
 Thus Mrs. Forbes chose to deem it, however, 
 from the present speaker ; her nerves were shaken 
 
228 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 by the recent domestic tornado; they were still 
 vibrating under an acute sense of indignity. She 
 had not merely the feeling that everybody who 
 was not with her was against her, but that every 
 body who was against her must base such antago 
 nism upon the most malicious injustice. 
 
 "No one runs any danger in disagreeing with 
 me!" she exclaimed. Tears were in her voice, 
 and a good deal of spleen besides. " But when I 
 have been abused and insulted for years it is a dif 
 ferent matter." 
 
 Tremaine looked at her with a cruel tranquillity. 
 " Upon my word," he said, " I have made no in 
 quiries into your family history. Why do you 
 volunteer these interesting details ? " 
 
 " Why ? " echoed Mrs. Forbes, brokenly. " Be 
 cause I am a very unhappy woman through no 
 fault of my own, and because I see that you are 
 bent upon taunting me." 
 
 Tremaine gave his head a slight toss. His voice 
 was hard and arbitrary now, though not loud. 
 " If you want to be canonized as a martyr," he 
 replied, " I am not prepared to perform any such 
 ceremony. I confess that I lack the requisite faith 
 to do the anointing. You must seek somebody 
 more blameless more like yourself." 
 
 " Tracy," broke in Leah, firmly and decidedly, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 229 
 
 at this point, " you will please say nothing more. 
 Lucy is miserable, and you know it." . . . She 
 rose and went toward her friend, whose tears had 
 begun to flow, and whose form was trembling. 
 She laid one hand upon Mrs. Forbes's arm. 
 "Come, Lucy," she said, "come at once into the 
 drawing-room." Mrs. Forbes quitted her chair. 
 But her eyes, reproachful and shining with resent 
 ment through the moisture that had beset them, 
 were fixed upon Tremaine. A sudden impulse 
 assailed her; she yielded to it; she spoke with 
 almost violent heat. 
 
 " / never pretended to be blameless, Mr. Tre 
 maine, and you have good reason not to call your 
 self so ! " 
 
 His brow darkened. He left his chair, and went 
 several paces toward where she stood. 
 
 " What do you mean," he demanded, with chal 
 lenging directness. 
 
 "1 mean," answered Mrs. Forbes, with the look 
 of one goaded into heedless rage, " that it would 
 be well to reform your own conduct before you 
 fling slurs at mine ! All Newport knows that you 
 spend hours at Mrs. Fortescue's house, and that 
 you have revived an intimacy which is shameful to 
 yourself as it is disrespectful and unmanly toward 
 your wife ! " 
 
230 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Tremaine turned very pale. His eyes swept 
 Leah's face ; then he gave a scornful laugh, turned 
 on his heel, and passed from the room. . . . 
 
 About a half-hour later he and Leah met in the 
 lower hall. Lights had been lit ; the dusk had be 
 come night. Leah was on the point of passing 
 into the rear drawing-room. But she paused as 
 she saw her husband descend the stairs. 
 
 He held a collapsed opera-hat in one hand. 
 Across one arm he had flung a light overcoat. 
 As his step left the staircase, Leah, still standing 
 exactly where she had first paused, said to him : 
 
 " Were you going out ? " 
 
 " Yes. Has that woman gone ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Forbes has gone. ... I wish to speak a 
 few words with you." 
 
 They faced each other. Tremaine coolly took 
 out his watch and glanced at it. " I have an en 
 gagement," he said, with matter-of-fact brevity. 
 
 " What I wish to say will not detain you long," 
 returned Leah. 
 
 He gave a faint shrug of the shoulders. " Oh, 
 very well. As you please." 
 
 She at once passed into the drawing-room. Two 
 lamps in shades of rose-colored silk starred its at 
 tractive, modish interior, where }^ou noted the 
 warm gleam of a rug or two strewn on light- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 231 
 
 tinted flooring, the luminous oval of a Venetian 
 mirror, or the airy outline of a gilded bamboo 
 screen. 
 
 Tremaine threw himself into a commodious chair 
 and waited. Leah moved toward one of the small 
 tables on which a lamp was burning. The pink 
 tinge flung across her countenance decreased its 
 pallor, but in her close-joined lips and unwavering 
 gaze lay subdued yet distinct resolve. 
 
 " I said that I would not detain you long," she 
 began. " Unpleasant things are best spoken 
 quickly ; they are also best referred to by sugges 
 tion rather than detailed statement. Mrs. Forbes's 
 very plain accusation saves me from doing more 
 than mention it, and enables me at once to ask 
 you, Is her charge a true one ? " 
 
 There was a dead silence of several seconds. 
 Tremaine stared down at one of his glistening 
 boots while it lasted. Then he raised his head 
 and met Leah's answering eye. 
 
 " Do you want to make a scene ? " he asked. 
 
 " It is what I wish to avoid. My question can 
 be very well answered without one." Her tones 
 were ice itself. Her flinchless look made him 
 avert his own. 
 
 " You have made up your mind that I shall an 
 swer ? Suppose, then, I refuse ? ?> 
 
232 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 She instantly said : " I shall, in that case, assume 
 that you have answered by an affirmative." 
 
 She saw a sneer commence about his mouth, 
 under its blond shadowing growth, which he was 
 now stroking quickly with one hand. " And if I 
 totally deny this charge ? " 
 
 " Then I shall be certain that you have uttered 
 a falsehood." 
 
 He sprang to his feet with a suppressed oath. 
 She had pierced the crust of the fine gentleman. 
 " Do you suppose I will stand being made sport of 
 in this ridiculous style?" he said. "So you in 
 tended to set a trap for me, did you ? Well, 
 believe that vulgar little Western minx, if you 
 please. I'm sick of her and you, both." 
 
 " I set no trap," said Leah, with her words as 
 swift, now, as her tones were controlled. "I 
 merely gave you the chance of admitting your 
 guilt." 
 
 "Guilt!" he exclaimed. "Bah!" He raised 
 the finger and thumb of one hand, and audibly 
 snapped them. 
 
 "I gave you the chance of admitting it," she 
 went steadily en, " so that the promise I shall now 
 exact of you might naturally ensue from such ad 
 mission. I have known this thing for months. 
 Lucy Forbes's outburst pained me, but it did not 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 233 
 
 bring me any new tidings. All in all, I am glad 
 that she spoke as she did. She has marked for 
 me the limit of my own patience. We can no 
 longer live together on terms that will make such 
 an affirmation possible from a third party. I exact 
 a sacred promise of you. It is this : that from to 
 night henceforth you shall never enter the doors 
 of a certain woman, and shall in every way avoid 
 even the exchange of a word with her. Let me 
 be still more explicit. Let there be no least risk 
 of misunderstanding. The woman to whom I 
 allude is Mrs. Abbott Fortescue." 
 
 He threw back his head with a laugh of irony. 
 " It 's astonishing," he declared, " what precious 
 fools we can sometimes make of ourselves without 
 knowing it!" 
 
 " To be uncivil is not to give me your reply." 
 
 He repressed another laugh, equally full of con 
 tempt. " Please allow me a few days to reflect," 
 he said, in mockery, going to the chair which he 
 had quitted, taking from its side his overcoat, re- 
 flinging this lightly across one arm, and then 
 moving toward the door. 
 
 She glided several paces after him. She had 
 uplifted her right hand. " I want the promise or 
 the refusal to promise, now at once ! " she said. 
 And there was so stirring a solemnity in her man- 
 
234 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 ner and intonation that it put all his assumed 
 jauntiness of scorn into prompt disarray. 
 
 Half-turning, he frowned very darkly at her, 
 over one shoulder. " You '11 wait for a long time 
 before you get either ! " he retorted. 
 
 The key of Leah's voice heightened then ; the 
 immobility of her manner changed. She made a 
 gesture of excited force a sweep forward of both 
 hands, followed by their rapid withdrawal. " You 
 refuse, then ! I have no more to say. To-morrow 
 I rejoin mamma in New York. Afterward I re 
 turn to your house but on one condition your 
 promise, as before described." 
 
 She wheeled away from him then. But he 
 followed her, angry almost to madness. 
 
 " You will dare to take this course you ! " 
 he said, below his breath, and with hoarseness. 
 " You '11 forget what name I gave you when 
 
 I married you ! what a place I raised you 
 
 to!" 
 
 His hands were clenched at his sides while he 
 spoke. But she did not see this ; the light was 
 too irregularly disposed about the room, perhaps, 
 or it may have been because she was regarding 
 him across her shoulder, as he had done with her 
 but a few moments since. 
 
 " You raised me to no real place," she said, still 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 235 
 
 calmly, yet as if between shut teeth. " I care 
 nothing for what yon call position. I thought it 
 something far finer and purer than what it has 
 proved. I despise in it all that you respect. I 
 see that what you think sound and high is flimsy 
 and low. You must leave that woman once and 
 forever, or I will not live with you. You know 
 that I have been living with you for none of the 
 old reasons. Those are gone. But there should 
 have been a maintenance of respectability de 
 cency, between us. You have failed to meet even 
 these last requirements. I exact that promise in 
 the hope of making its fulfilment a barrier against 
 the separation which now seems certain." 
 
 By this time Tremaine's anger was cooled. He 
 saw the reality of the indignation that thus ad 
 dressed him. At the same time he recalled the 
 exacted promise. 
 
 " Do as you please," he said. He immediately 
 passed from the room. . . . 
 
 There was a reception that night at one of the 
 great Newport houses. Leah did not attend it. 
 She retired to bed at a late hour, but lay sleepless 
 until nearly dawn, thinking sad thoughts, telling 
 herself that hers was a wasted and ruiifed life. 
 Such a short time ago she had been so credulously 
 and trustfully happy ! And now her soul had a 
 
236 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 black past to look back upon, and a blank future 
 to foresee. Her resolve remained unaltered. She 
 would leave for New York early on the following 
 day. Before seeking her bed she had dispatched 
 the telegram of which we know; she had also 
 packed certain portions of her wardrobe and all 
 her jewels. She did not believe that her husband 
 and herself would ever live together again. She 
 meant to return to him on a single condition ; he 
 might perhaps make her return possible ; she did 
 not much care whether he would or no ; he had 
 become despicable in her sight. The man whom 
 she had loved was now a dim, memorial shadow ; 
 the man whom she no longer loved rose before her 
 as an almost hateful actuality. She shed but a 
 few tears, and these were provoked only by re 
 flections on her mother's coming pain, her mother's 
 rich, waiting sympathy. " Poor mamma ! " her 
 lips whispered, again and again. 
 
 Strangely, and yet not strangely, the grave, 
 strong face of Lawrence Rainsford shaped itself 
 to-night before her mental vision. She did not 
 know whether his love for her yet lived or not. 
 But she remembered what that love had been. 
 And she thought of the stanch, manful nature 
 whose devotion she had held at so slight a worth. 
 Why could she not have loved Rainsford? Her 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 237 
 
 mother had been so right in wanting her to love 
 him ! If only she could live that vanished time 
 over again, aided by her present dolorous experi 
 ence ! Might she not then see, understand, appre 
 ciate, and so love? Yes, beyond doubt! And 
 how different it would all have been ! No bleed 
 ing wound no shattered ideal no palsied 
 hope ! 
 
 It was almost dawn when she heard a carriage 
 stop at the gate below. Then she heard voices of 
 men, now loud and now faint. She rose and went 
 to the window, peering forth. She saw three 
 figures moving up along the garden path. The 
 central figure walked insecurely and in a tottering 
 way ; it was supported, apparently, by those on 
 either side of it. She guessed the truth, though 
 she had not recognized her husband. She with 
 drew from the window, loath to see more. Then 
 she waited. A step presently sounded upon the 
 outer stairs. It was so unsteady that it suggested 
 the most perilous insecurity ; it was indeed a suc 
 cession of irregular stamps. But the sounds grad 
 ually grew nearer. A little later she heard them 
 in the hall. Tremaine's apartment was at the 
 head of the stairs. He had but a short space to 
 traverse before reaching it. To Leah, while she 
 listened intently, it seemed as if the staggering 
 
238 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 gait must soon end in some sort of overthrow and 
 collapse, so noisy a stumble had it now become. 
 A moment later this fear was verified. A dull, 
 heavy fall now followed. She stood irresolute for 
 a little time ; then she lighted a candle and put 
 on a loose wrapper over her night-dress. Very 
 quietly, though she was shivering as if a cold gust 
 had assailed her, she went out into the hall. The 
 light that she carried presently showed her an 
 inert form, lying prone across the threshold of an 
 open doorway. She regarded this form for a 
 longer time than she knew, while holding the 
 candle uplifted in one tremulous hand. The face, 
 with its closed eyes and the stentorous breathing 
 that issued from its half-shut lips, fascinated her 
 by its familiar beauty, once so treasured as the 
 symbol of an exceptional spirit ! 
 
 It was a terrible moment with Leah. Memories 
 swept through her, each piercing in its dread ap 
 peal. She recalled her past estimate of this man ; 
 she revived her old belief in him ; she saw again 
 those graces and charms which had won her to link 
 her own life with his. And yet there he lay, 
 prostrate, incapable, an incarnate denial of her 
 faith, a dumb refutation of her respect. She gazed 
 upon the merciless evidence of a misjudgment that 
 must vibrate through all her future life. What 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 239 
 
 savage irony it seemed that this grossness should 
 lie before her as the palpable product of a ro 
 mance, a sentiment, an enthusiasm ! 
 
 There are brief intervals in many a human ex- 
 pei ence when the soul almost proves itself an 
 incorporal force, unconditioned by flesh; it grows 
 very wisely and drearily old while the body yet 
 remains young. . . . Leah stooped and touched 
 her husband's shoulder ; but it would have taken 
 a rougher grasp than any which she could employ 
 to rouse him from that despised stupor. Still, she 
 had a fair store of strength, and shame now gave a 
 spur to its use. She set down her candle on the 
 floor of the hall. Then, clinching her teeth as we 
 do when a task that we abhor confronts us, she 
 again bent down and clutched either shoulder, so 
 seeking to drag the supine frame farther into the 
 bedchamber. She might have succeeded better in 
 her pathetic effort, had not a weakness born per 
 haps of humiliation and disgust suddenly over 
 come her. As it was, she moved the fallen shape 
 only a few inches. That nerveless desperation 
 which in some feminine temperaments is the pre 
 lude of hysteria, rushed over her as she desisted 
 from the attempt. She felt like screaming aloud 
 like perversely bruiting her forlorn pain abroad 
 amid the darkness and silence ! 
 
240 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 But immediately this wild impulse fled ; it had 
 transiently jarred her sanity, and nothing more. 
 Fresh and cooler energy resulted from it. She 
 saw that the disposition of the limbs now chiefly 
 prevented the door from being closed and the 
 whole body hidden within the room. Still, the 
 body itself required further displacement. Not 
 long afterward she had made her second trial with 
 success. ... The door just grazed Tremaine's 
 dragged bulk as she closed it. Then she locked 
 it on the inside, and at once passed, by other 
 means of communication, back into her own 
 chamber. 
 
 When she had reached it her emotion underwent 
 a new and odd change. She burst into soft, un 
 controllable laughter, while the tears stole down 
 her. white cheeks. Nor was even this manifesta 
 tion one of hysteria. The sense of humor, always 
 strong with her, had abruptly intruded itself, like 
 a daring and unbidden guest, upon her dumb, 
 desolate misery. The indulgence of this weird 
 mirth, at so intensely unreasonable a time, went 
 with full perception of its ghastly discordance. 
 She made a most woful picture, seated with her 
 lovely hair half loosened in the dim candle-light. 
 That fearful, mute laughter was like the farewell 
 of her own dying youth. It had a strange and 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 241 
 
 darksome consistency, too ; it was a mournful 
 echo of the old girlish fault, so alert to see and 
 ridicule any decisive failing in her fellows. 
 
 Her beauty was never the same after that night. 
 Its freshness had vanished. It was tenderer, more 
 appealing, more poetic as though the erect deli 
 cacy of the alder had been gently given the down 
 ward curve of the real willow. People afterward 
 said of Leah that she had faded. This was true, 
 and yet the difference held a wistful interest. Her* 
 face told you that she had lived ; her brown eyes 
 burned as if they had known tears; her fair, 
 chaste brow looked as if sorrow had shadowed it ; 
 her smile, no longer brilliant, beamed with that 
 autumnal sweetness which we all know in the 
 quality of a sun-ray when its warmth has ebbed 
 yet when its light has grown mellower. 
 
 Leah started for New York at an early hour on 
 the following day. She did not see her husband 
 before leaving the house ; she was not even aware 
 if his vinous torpor had ceased or no. She hated 
 and yet loved the thought of meeting her mother. 
 
 When they did meet, which was happily in the 
 presence of no observer, she clung to Mrs. Rom- 
 illy's neck with a prolonged paroxysm of sobs. 
 Then, after the calm had followed the storm, she 
 narrated everything. 
 
242 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 "Did I do right, mamma?" she questioned. 
 "Tell me! I have lost the old wilful way of 
 always judging for myself. I want you to judge 
 for me, with that wisdom of yours which I have 
 sometimes treated so irreverently. But I never 
 meant to treat it so I never did, really I 
 only pretended. Tell me, mamma! If you blame 
 me, I will believe you ! If you approve me, I 
 will believe you ! Which is it to be ? How am 
 I to act ? Shall I break my resolve ? Shall I go 
 back to him before he makes the promise ? If he 
 never makes the promise, shall I still go back to 
 him ? Ah ! that will be hard ; and yet your an 
 swer, however given, shall be my law. You knew 
 so well at first ! You advised, you remonstrated, 
 but I heard and yet would not hear ! If only I 
 had heeded and obeyed ! How few women have 
 ever lived who have had such a mother as I ! 
 And how I have undervalued you ! Now, when 
 it is too late, I see the headstrong folly of it all ! 
 I don't ask you to forgive me. You are so large 
 in soul and heart that you always forgive easily. 
 I would have said ' too easily ' in those other days. 
 But I don't say it now. I see you in your full 
 perfection. Tears clear the eyes so you once 
 said something of that sort to me it was not 
 very long ago ... do you remember ? I '11 lean 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 243 
 
 on you like a staff, if you '11 only let me. And I 
 know you will let me. Ah ! talk of love ! I 
 never loved any one but you, and never shall! 
 That may have been my real error, mamma, dar 
 ling! I was in love with you yes, only you 
 and did not know it ! " 
 
 "Leah," said Mrs. Romilly, after this soft tirade 
 had ended, "you must not go back to him until 
 he gives you the promise. You were right. I 
 shall tell him so when we meet if we are des 
 tined soon to meet." 
 
 They were so destined. Two days later Tre- 
 maine presented himself at the house. He asked 
 for Leah, but Mrs. Romilly received him. 
 
 He was dressed with his former precision. He 
 looked extremely aristocratic. He spoke with all 
 his best nicety and composure. " I am forced to 
 tell you," he said, very early in the conversation, 
 " that I wish to see my wife, and no ambassadress 
 between herself and me." 
 
 "Your wife will not see you," replied Mrs. 
 Romilly, firm as stone. 
 
 He quietly nodded. "I see you have coun 
 selled her." 
 
 " I have. And yet my counsel was needless, I 
 think. Her leaving you was a proof of that. 
 She exacts a promise. You must give it, or she 
 will never notice you again." 
 
244 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 He looked at the speaker with a polite scorn. 
 "If I were not a gentleman," he said, "I should 
 call you a very officious and disagreeable mother- 
 in-law." 
 
 " You are not a gentleman," said Mrs. Romilly, 
 softly. " You have shown it beyond mistake." 
 
 Tremaine pressed his lips together, and his eye 
 lids lowered. Rage, though held within bounds, 
 was never expressed more surely. 
 
 "You want a separation perhaps a divorce," 
 he said. 
 
 " I want a reformation," answered Mrs. Romilly. 
 
 He drew a long breath. "Ah ! " he murmured, 
 "you advocate morality now. You have deserted 
 your former laxities of opinion." 
 
 At this insult Mrs. Romilly gave a faint, pitying 
 smile. "If I had not already told you that you 
 are not a gentleman," she said, with quiet dignity, 
 "you might have cause to fancy that your inso 
 lence troubled me." 
 
 Tremaine looked at her with repressed dis 
 dain. " It seems to me," he answered, " that we 
 address each other from wholly different stand 
 points. I don't think I should like your idea of 
 a gentleman. Would he wear long hair and 
 preach communism ? " 
 
 Mrs. Romilly shook her head. " I don't know 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 245 
 
 how he would arrange his hair," she replied; "but 
 lie would respect his marriage vows, and he would 
 abstain from drunkenness." 
 
 Tremaine bit his lip. His mild eyes flashed for 
 an instant. He walked toward the door of the 
 apartment, but paused before he had reached its 
 threshold. 
 
 " Such women as you are," he said, " have no 
 real sex. If I were as bad as you paint me, I 
 might remember this fact to your bodily harm." 
 
 " If you struck me," replied Mrs. Romilly, " I 
 should not be at all surprised. I think such men 
 as you are have often, before now, struck women. 
 And I suppose they have alwa}^ made some 
 
 A silence followed. Tremaine, with averted 
 face, scanned the carpet. Suddenly he turned 
 toward Mrs. Romilly, and said, in considerably 
 changed tones : " I want my wife to live with me 
 again. I have my reasons for wanting her to do 
 so. You and I hate each other. Agreed. A cer 
 tain promise is required of me. Suppose I make 
 that promise ? " 
 
 "If you make it, your wife will return to you. 
 If you keep it, she will live with you. But these 
 are the sole conditions. And I do not hate you. 
 I hate no one." 
 
246 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 He tossed his head. There appeared to be 
 scorn in his concession while he gave it. "Very 
 well," he said; "I'm willing to make such a 
 promise." 
 
 "To Leah herself?" 
 
 " To Leah herself." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly at once withdrew. Leah pres 
 ently appeared in her stead. 
 
XII. 
 
 A LL publicity of scandal was for the time 
 *~V avoided. By a week or two later, Leah and 
 her husband were occupying their former New 
 York residence. For several weeks afterward Tre- 
 maine conducted himself with a scrupulous ob 
 servance of reputable usage. There had been no 
 formal reconciliation. Perhaps both shrank from 
 this, as from a needless hypocrisy. Tremaine was 
 admirably courteous, however. He had a faultless 
 set of manners ; they were like a perfectly-equipped 
 dressing-case, in which nothing is wanting, from 
 the ivory-backed hair-brush to the little silver box 
 for holding soap. Leah would sometimes watch 
 him in secret consternation. She wondered if any 
 hard, voluptuous and narrow spirit ever clad itself 
 in softer and more tasteful guise. That was the 
 sole meaning of Tremaine he had good taste. 
 It ruled him as a creed, and covered him like a 
 garment. His cruel comments regarding others, 
 his choice of reading, his selection of apparel, his 
 mode of dining, his bow, his smile, his favorite 
 
 247 
 
248 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 phrase, were all set in one key of good taste. The 
 vice which had begun to victimize him, stealing in 
 by the path of selfishness, was wholly irrelevant 
 to this dainty nicety. He was the last man in the 
 world, you might have said, who would have taken 
 to drink. But intemperance is very often the 
 Nemesis of a man's own callous inhumanity. A 
 life wed to idleness and swayed solely by personal 
 concern will sometimes hoard unawares a store of 
 venom, through which may come to it, in slow but 
 certain way, the death of the viper that has stung 
 its own flesh. 
 
 Leah and her husband now rarely appeared in 
 society together. It would have been fortunate at 
 this period if a child had been given her. She 
 would have lavished upon it untold affection and 
 derived infinite comfort from the protective duties 
 of motherhood. She had flung away husks, and 
 hungered for true nourishment. Suffering had 
 drawn a veil from her eyes ; she looked at the 
 world as a place in which thousands were daily 
 feeling worse pangs than hers, and where the vast 
 common ills of her race could be fought with no 
 weapon save a resolute charity. Many noble say 
 ings of her mother shone as if in golden letters 
 through the clearing mists of memory. And her 
 love for that mother, always profound though often 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 249 
 
 so erratic in its display, now became a steadfast 
 tribute, more fond than the one which Lawrence 
 Kainsford had long paid, and yet quite as rever 
 ential. 
 
 Rainsford and she now often met at her mother's 
 dwelling. It never occurred to Leah that his old 
 wound had not healed. Seeing all things in a new 
 light, she saw herself as a kind of maimed failure. 
 She could not have brought herself to believe that 
 he regarded her in any wise except with a generous 
 pity. 
 
 " Why has Rainsford never married ? " she said 
 to her mother, one day. " There must be so many 
 good women who would most gladly join their fu 
 ture with his. It would be like setting out to sea 
 in a stanch ship that wreck has no terrors for." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly gave a smile of involuntary sad 
 ness. 
 
 " In one of your talks together," she replied, 
 "you might ask him. Perhaps he would tell 
 you." 
 
 But Leah did not ask. These talks to which 
 Mrs. Romilly referred were sometimes held in her 
 sitting-room during a brief absence of her own. 
 
 " You grow more famous every year," Leah once 
 said to him. " The critics all have a kind word 
 for you, too. That means a great deal." 
 
250 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 It was a mild afternoon, and the room where 
 they sat was full of declining yet still vivid sun 
 light. Leah looked veiy lovely. She wore a dark 
 bonnet that brought into richer relief her golden 
 hair, above the pure, exquisitely refined face. Her 
 hands, in their long gloves, were crossed upon her 
 lap. To the artistic eye of Rainsford no lissom 
 trait of her figure, in its sombre-hued, clinging 
 draperies, had been lost. She leaned a little toward 
 him as she spoke these last words, and he could 
 not but feel how changed she was, while yet, in all 
 graces of physical enticement, so winningly her 
 former self. 
 
 "I often think it may mean very little," he 
 said, "when all the critics have a kind word for 
 
 you." 
 
 " No, no," objected Leah. " I believe that the 
 best critics set the fashion for the inferior ones. 
 The last are mere copyists, I should say. And 
 when there is a war of opinion, it is because the 
 best follow different models that is, the few who 
 know of what they write are insecure and disturbed 
 in their judgments." 
 
 "But real greatness always disturbs the real 
 critics," said Rainsford, smiling with interest. "At 
 least in the beginning." 
 
 "Not always," responded Leah. "This age is 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 251 
 
 so keen-sighted and live a one that I think the fine 
 critics are apt to agree about the fine painters, 
 poets, musicians, or actors nearly as soon as the 
 world sees their work. I question if Keats would 
 be neglected to-day. I think Shakespeare would 
 be idolized." 
 
 " I did not know you had such great faith in 
 your century," said Rainsford. 
 
 " I have immense faith in it ! " exclaimed Leah. 
 " Mamma will tell you that ! We have had some 
 memorable talks together lately memorable, I 
 mean, for myself. I hold it to be the grandest age 
 that history has yet recorded. Think of the prob 
 lems solved, the educational progress made, the 
 mighty push of science, the splendid achievements 
 of art! "... She paused for a moment and gave 
 a faint sigh, not so faint that he failed distinctly 
 to catch its sound. " Ah," she presently went on, 
 looking straight at him with a melting sympathy 
 in her brown eyes : " How happy are they who 
 really belong to the age who represent it 
 by stable accomplishment and by sincere pur 
 pose ! " 
 
 "Do you speak with envy of such?" he ques 
 tioned, quite off his guard. " You ? " 
 
 The color slowly flushed Leah's face. "I, at 
 least, have the right to envy them," she answered. 
 
252 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 "But you used to think so differently," he be 
 gan. And then her hand, lifted with a soft impa 
 tience, interrupted him. 
 
 " Pray do not refer to what I used to think, or 
 what I used to be ! " she gently cried. 
 
 " I will not, if it displeases you," he said. 
 
 " It does not displease me it pains and shames 
 me. I had no excuse for my contracted views of 
 things. You know what a mother was mine. I 
 was reared under the shadow of her wisdom and 
 strength, yet I gained nothing from either. I let 
 the merest superficialities deceive me. I shut my 
 ears to the large music of life ; I deliberately lis 
 tened only to the sounding brass and the tinkling 
 cymbals." . . . She sighed again, bowing her beau 
 tiful head. 
 
 Rainsford watched her in silence for several 
 seconds. Compassion deeply stirred him. Per 
 haps if he had not let a slight interval succeed 
 her last words his own would have been less firm 
 and secure of utterance. 
 
 " I think that I understand you very clearly," 
 he said. " You misvalued the exterior meaning 
 of society. What is bright and felicitous in a cer 
 tain part of it misled you, at a first view, into sup 
 posing that no hollowness lay below." 
 
 Leah lifted her eyes to his. They were full of 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 253 
 
 eager meaning. She raised both hands and waved 
 them slightly while she spoke. 
 
 "I was charmed by external glitter nothing 
 more. I thought that perfect manners meant per 
 fect morals. I have seen my wretched mistake. For 
 this reason it is not strange that I have clung to cer 
 tain people. The Marksley sisters, for example ; 
 with all their frivolity I find that they somehow 
 ring true. And Mrs. Chichester . . . with all her 
 belief in gentility and keeping up a perpetual 
 heaped altar before it, I have seen in that woman a 
 certain cleanly self-respect which leads me to feel as 
 if she were of the stuff that what is best in antique 
 aristocracies must have been made of. She is at 
 least loyal to her own traditions ; she is stagnant 
 in her conservatisms, but the stagnancy has noth 
 ing foul about it. And then there is little Mrs. 
 Forbes, too, with her pending divorce, which I am 
 sure she will get a woman whom great wrongs 
 have not yet soured, and whose laugh is still as 
 merry as her heart is good, while she stands up 
 bravely against a husband who would have liter 
 ally ground her under his heel. These people all 
 love what I have latterly got to hate the sense 
 less whirl of fashionable pleasures. Yet there is 
 a bond between us ; in their different ways they 
 assure me that the faith to which I was once so 
 
254 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 zealous a convert has not all its members cut after 
 the same valueless pattern. They save me from 
 too sweeping a disapproval ; they prevent me from 
 being an extremist in my condemnation." 
 
 Rainsford shook his head. " I fear your con 
 version is yet too partial," he replied. " Best if 
 it were absolute. I think that as your outlook 
 widens it will become so. These exclusionists, 
 who base their assumptions of superiority on the 
 shadow they call birth or the substance they call 
 wealth, deserve an unqualified censure. They are 
 the curse of our republic; in a manner they 
 threaten its advancement and its prosperity. 
 They are a taint in its rich young blood, and 
 they mean a chronic malady whose development 
 must work incalculable harm." His voice loud 
 ened as he continued to speak, and his demeanor 
 changed its habitual repose for an indignant ardor. 
 "Aristocracy has no right of existence within this 
 land. The frauds and corruptions in our politics 
 are not one-half so perilous as this other rapidly- 
 increasing ill. Our dishonest state-craft has 
 sprung, after all, from democracy itself; democ 
 racy, who is responsible for it, ma}' one day cure it 
 with her own medicines. But this aping of what 
 had its rise long ago in the dark feudal ages of 
 Europe this subservience to a vicious and de- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 255 
 
 grading vanity this open and cruel sneer at the 
 very laws by which our country must either shape 
 her destiny or perish ah ! that is quite another 
 matter ! The great social inequalities of our un 
 completed civilization are lamentable enough ; but 
 education is always waging her war against these, 
 and it is not a millennial dream to trust that she 
 may one day vastly modify if she does not wholly 
 annul them. But when pretentious braggarts 
 have succeeded in making new social inequalities, 
 feeding the bigotry which applauds them upon 
 their own hoarded capital, what shall prevent the 
 national spirit itself from sinking to a level with 
 this disastrous change? Our government will 
 lapse into monarchism that poisonous nourish 
 ment on which the patrician idea has in all times 
 most malignantly thriven. There is not a very 
 wide step between the monopolist of millions who 
 drives a pompous drag up Fifth Avenue and the 
 miscalled * nobleman' who has received from his 
 king the preposterous hereditary right of making 
 a country's laws. To my own ears there is an 
 ominous mutter of revolutionary bloodshed at this 
 very hour in our land. I sometimes almost wish 
 that such calamity might fall upon us quickly, if 
 any vital good were to follow. Yet revolutions 
 too often accomplish nothing save ruin. Mean- 
 
256 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 while the luxuriously selfish class yearly grows 
 larger. American society, as it is called, is no 
 longer provincial; the clay for declaring it so is 
 past. People come to us from European courts 
 and marvel at the scale of splendor on which our 
 revelries are conducted. We are foreign and imi 
 tative only in our snobbery and, perhaps I might 
 add, our immorality." 
 
 There was no touch of cynicism about Rains- 
 ford's final sentence. He spoke it with lowered 
 tones and an accent of unquestionable regret. 
 
 " If you hold these opinions," said Leah, after a 
 slight silence, "and I scarcely dissent from any 
 of them then you seem to me all the more envi 
 able, because, while so near a movement in which 
 you scorn to participate, you can absorb yourself 
 with worthy and durable occupation." She looked 
 very helpless for a moment, lifting her brows and 
 letting her eyes wander transiently past Rainsford 
 rather than meet his own. "I think of it so 
 often," she murmured. " I mean the need of a 
 purpose, a pursuit. I have no real talent. The 
 women who paint pottery and disfigure mantels 
 with abnormal sunflowers, don't spur me into any 
 rivalry. I am just beginning to feel what a hard 
 doom it is, this being forced to sit with idle hands 
 in a century that is so busy, so creative, so ener 
 getic!" 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 257 
 
 " I think that no one is forced to sit with idle 
 hands, unless ill health compels it." 
 
 She looked at him with a great directness. 
 " Tell me what I can do," she said. " I think you 
 can tell me quite as well as mamma could ; and I 
 hate to let mamma see that I am unhappy or even 
 distraite" 
 
 " Did it ever strike you," slowly answered 
 Rainsford, " what an active woman your mother 
 is? how she concerns herself with many silent, 
 unostentatious charities ? how she visits the sick, 
 personally inquires into the needs of the poor, 
 advising, consoling, encouraging both ? I have 
 watched your mother's life well for years past. It 
 seems to me more finely correspondent to the best 
 essential meaning of Christian precepts than any 
 other which my experience has record of." 
 
 Leah mused for a little while, her eyes brighten 
 ing in a meditative, convinced way. 
 
 "How strange!" she presently broke forth. 
 " Mamma's goodness has become a commonplace 
 to me. I have taken it for granted since my early 
 girlhood, as though it were the charming hazel of 
 her eyes or the unblemished whiteness of her 
 hands. ... If I could only join her in those 
 modest and patient deeds of help ! If I could 
 get her to let me sit at her feet and learn how to 
 
258 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 be of use in the world ! . . . Ah ! I talk as if it 
 were difficult!" Leah's voice faltered now, and 
 she passed a fleet hand over either eye, in that 
 way which has but one import. " I shall use 
 some of my old tyranny," she went on, giving 
 a little laugh replete with sadness. " I shall be 
 rebellious, as I so often was in the past. She 
 will accede then; she is so used to my defiant 
 moods." 
 
 Leah's voice lingered over these ending words. 
 They were invested, for Rainsford, with a supreme 
 melancholy. Their wistful irony literally pierced 
 him by its pathos. What a transformation they 
 revealed, and what a piteous remorse ! 
 
 Leah's conquest of her mother was an easy one. 
 It was, in truth, no conquest, but a surprised and 
 glad acquiescence on Mrs. Romilly's part. Still, a 
 strong tinge of sorrow colored her joy. Leah had 
 bought this new aspiration at a dear juice. She 
 had gained the higher path and she was willing to 
 tread it ; but had she not gained it with bleeding 
 feet and a weary heart ? 
 
 She showed a quiet enthusiasm regarding the 
 fresh motive that now filled her days. She accom 
 panied her mother on various missions of relief, 
 and watched, often with tear-dimmed eyes, those 
 resolute, practical benignities which had long ago 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 259 
 
 become the outward though unheralded proof of a 
 most sincere philanthropy. 
 
 " I never really knew till now, mamma, just how 
 glorious a creature you are," she would say, kiss 
 ing her. " I suppose it 's on the same principle as 
 when people have lived for years within a few 
 miles of Niagara and never been there. . . . Well, 
 I 've made my visit at last," she would add, with a 
 touch of her former gayety ; " I 've been across to 
 the Canada side and gone under the Falls. It's 
 all a great deal more wonderful than I expected ; 
 it is certainly an amazing natural curiosity." 
 
 Leah now had her daily routine of benevolence. 
 She constantly witnessed the most painful sights. 
 She grew familiar with the worst rigors of pov 
 erty; she saw the awful results of that one reg 
 nant vice, drink how its fangs are buried in the 
 heart of so many homes, and its coils tightened 
 round so many struggling lives ; she watched the 
 malign despotism of inherited disease, wreaking 
 its harms upon the new-born infant, sending the 
 youth and maiden to untimely graves ; she noted 
 the sluggish lethargy with which ignorance en 
 thralls countless minds, and the stubborn down 
 ward push that it gives its victims into deeds for 
 which the law takes fearful toll. She realized the 
 immense anguish of humanity, and how feeble a 
 
260 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 minority of it has crept from night into light. 
 Perhaps the sturdy philosophy of her mother alone 
 guarded her now against the dangers of a bitter 
 pessimism ; perhaps it kept her from that rash in 
 dignation which judges all evil with no relenting 
 palliative from the futile reasoning which de 
 clares sin a fixed necessity from the cold intel- 
 lectualism which cramps all morality within utilita 
 rian fetters or from the too mawkish compassion 
 which deplores crime with over-facile tears. Leah 
 soon felt her mother's truly sublime tolerance in 
 fused into soul and intellect. She found herself 
 forgetting to rail at the ill in fighting for the 
 good. Meanwhile she met a few other women, 
 full of heroism and sacrifice, who had long loved 
 her mother and served under her lofty leadership. 
 Two or three of these Leah had met in past times. 
 She remembered, now, that she had once thought 
 them dowdy and dull and a pang of conscience 
 always went with such recollections. It was true, 
 she told herself, with her old turn for satire show 
 ing even in her present repentance, that very few 
 of these courageous workers had taken the leisure 
 to see Newport in the season, and that none of 
 them would look presentable at one of Mrs. Chi- 
 chester's glittering dinner-parties; but they had 
 their trivial duties to perform, nevertheless, even 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 261 
 
 though these were not chronicled among the 
 society-notes in the morning journals. 
 
 Leah's new friends were of various religious 
 creeds. But it was silently understood among the 
 little body of which she had been made a member 
 that all diversities of belief were welded into one 
 common and satisfying faith the beneficence of 
 steadfast humanitarian diligence. Here they all 
 assembled, so to speak, as in a temple, of which 
 Mrs. Romilly herself was the calm and pure high- 
 priestess. 
 
 " I see that we are asked to three dinners next 
 week," said Tremaine to his wife one morning at 
 breakfast. " Do you mean to accept all the din 
 ners this season ? " 
 
 " No," she answered ; " I have quite given up 
 all that." 
 
 He stared at her in his mild way for a moment. 
 
 " Do you expect me to go without you ? " he 
 said. 
 
 " If you choose certainly." 
 
 A note of impatience stirred his reply. 
 
 " It is not good form. I suppose you know that. 
 I wish to' accept at all three places. I like the 
 houses, and the people whom one meets there. 
 Am I to be kept at home because it is your whim 
 to keep me ? " 
 
262 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " It is not my whim to keep you at home," she 
 answered. " But it is my sincere desire to keep 
 myself at home." 
 
 He gave a nervous, annoyed gesture, and began 
 to stir his coffee somewhat briskly. His old, grace 
 ful languor had in a great measure left him of late ; 
 he was thinner, and at times actually haggard. 
 Leah was not at a loss to account for this change. 
 When they met at breakfast (which was not often) 
 his hand would sometimes be tremulous and his 
 eyes bloodshot. She rarely saw him after dinner, 
 and frequently he would dine away from home. 
 She had a certainty that he seldom returned at 
 night before a very late hour. She never inquired 
 of him concerning his goings and comings. 
 
 This morning, however, he looked better than 
 usual that is, than on the occasions when they 
 breakfasted together. She plainly saw that she 
 had irritated him, and knew that he would pres 
 ently make this evident. 
 
 She was not mistaken here. He fixed his eyes 
 upon her face very soon after she had spoken, and 
 addressed her in these words : 
 
 " I think you must see the absurdity of our pull 
 ing against each other in this fashion. I can't 
 dine out unless I do so with you, and because you 
 have taken to prowling among the highways and 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 263 
 
 hedges, and permitting yourself to be fooled by 
 lazy paupers, who no doubt chuckle over your 
 credulous inexperience, I don't see that this is any 
 reason why I should be kept from the natural and 
 proper enjoyment consequent upon the position to 
 which I was born." 
 
 This was the first suggestion he had ever given 
 her that he had cognizance of her altered aims. 
 She had hardly doubted that he must have seen 
 them, and yet he had never spoken regarding 
 them. Her mind worked fleetly as she reflected, 
 without a pulse of effrontery, upon his recent 
 speech. While he waited her answer he expected 
 argument if not dissent ; but neither came. Leah 
 simply said : " I do not see that I am privileged 
 to disagree with you. I will accept the invita 
 tions in both our names." . . . 
 
 " You think I did right, mamma ? ", she after 
 ward said to her mother. 
 
 "Unquestionably, my dear. He is your hus 
 band. His demand is not unjust. I wish that he 
 had always done nothing more blamable than to 
 make it." 
 
 Leah gave a great sigh. "These assemblages 
 are simply odious to me now," she said. " It is 
 not that I have ceased to like the glow and grace 
 of them. But all the people think and talk such 
 
264 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 trivialities ! They live so utterly out of their time ! 
 It makes me think of the palace of the Sleeping 
 Beauty, with the inmates wakened after a hundred 
 years of slumber. The world has gone rolling on, 
 and they have known nothing about it." . . . She 
 dropped her voice almost to a whisper, and spoke 
 as though some harsh disaster were threatening 
 her. " I see my proper course, perfectly, mamma. 
 I have married that man, I dwell under the same 
 roof with him. I must yield my preferences to 
 his so long as mine are unconventional, militant 
 against those ideas and forms to which I knew him 
 wedded when I became his wife. I put on the 
 yoke as if it were a necklace of jewels, and I must 
 wear it, though it prove a collar of iron ! " 
 
 " Leah, I hate to hear you speak like this ! " 
 
 " But you assent to my theory. While he pre 
 serves the decencies I must live with him. And 
 while I live with him I must shield from outward 
 notice and comment the hollow falsity that our 
 marriage has grown. You will agree with me 
 there." Leah paused for a brief space. " Law 
 rence Rainsford would agree with me, too." 
 
 Mrs. Romilly gave a visible start. " Why do 
 you mention Rainsford? " she quickly asked. 
 
 A moment after the question was spoken she 
 regretted it. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 265 
 
 " Why ? " murmured Leah. She laughed in an 
 abrupt, tired way. "I I don't know," she an 
 swered, avoiding her mother's look. She seemed 
 to scan the carpet while she went on : "I suppose 
 it is because he is so sure a judge between right 
 and wrong and so richly endowed with the no 
 blest qualities of manhood as well." 
 
 "If you had only thought that not so very long 
 ago ! " passed through Mrs. Romilly's mind. But 
 she was far enough from openly expressing the 
 wish one that had to do with a profound and 
 unassuaged regret. 
 
 Leah went again into gay circles. It occurred 
 to her that she was very little of a success, in pop 
 ular phrase. She tried not to be bored, yet she 
 was secretly by no means bored. She had still 
 enough youth left to feel the buoyancy of aimless 
 merriment and festivity. Her laugh was blither 
 than she knew. It was possibly her exquisite 
 beauty that still made her a favorite, though peo 
 ple declared her to be changed, and deplored the 
 change as a consequence of her husband's reputed 
 misdoings. Her mental brilliancy and native wit 
 remained the same. She pleased in spite of herself. 
 The Marksleys, and perhaps Mrs. Forbes as well, 
 had circulated the story of her novel departure 
 from received formulas of allegiance. But she 
 
266 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 never aired her late opinions. This second advent 
 was enforced ; she would not have made it but for 
 her husband's desire. And yet she made it with a 
 commendable good sense. Tremaine was covertly 
 pleased ; he saw her shine, and in a manner reign. 
 It tickled his egotism to find her still admired and 
 courted. 
 
 But her devotion to the new career continued 
 absolute. She attended few large entertainments 
 excepting afternoon receptions, and never per 
 mitted these or any similar festivity to interfere 
 with the fulfilment of her gracious offices. It is 
 possible that her condemnation of all worldliness 
 now seemed to her unduly sweeping; her con 
 verted state had lacked the needful equilibrium, 
 and had presently righted itself; she had swung 
 from one extreme to another, and recognized this 
 fact ; society did not strike her as quite so hollow, 
 after all, as she had pronounced it, nor quite so 
 black as she had painted it. She now accepted it 
 as a requirement, where before she had sought it 
 as a delicious diversion. By a good deal that oc 
 curred there she was emphatically amused. Law 
 rence Rainsford's denunciations would occasion 
 ally haunt her memory, not seldom with doubts as 
 to its full justice, and yet often with complete en 
 dorsement of its asperity. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 267 
 
 Autumn had meanwhile lapsed into winter. 
 Tremalne still hid his excesses from his wife, 
 though she continually perceived their results. 
 He managed never to appear before her in wine ; 
 she would have resented such an indignity by a 
 prompt withdrawal from the room if he had ever 
 inflicted it ; she had prepared herself just how to 
 act in the event of its occurrence. 
 
 She had formed no intimacy with any of his 
 relations, though visits of ceremony were punc 
 tiliously exchanged between herself and not a few 
 of his kinswomen. She did not at all object to 
 this turn of affairs. It would have stung her 
 pride if these aunts and cousins had all failed to 
 pay her the simple courtesy of admitting the place 
 that she held and the name that she bore. As for 
 Tremaine's mother, that lady had thus far shrouded 
 herself in a silence and seclusion which Leah felt 
 convinced would indefinitely continue. It was 
 widely known that she and her mother-in-law were 
 " not on terms." But neither her husband nor any 
 of his clan had made the least reference to this 
 estrangement since her marriage. Indeed, it could 
 hardly be called by that name ; Leah had never 
 seen the elder Mrs. Tremaine, and had no desire 
 to see her. Not that Elizabeth Romilly's daughter 
 cherished any anger. This had long ago become 
 
268 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 indifference ; she had fallen, at last, into the habit 
 of regarding Mrs. Tremaine's behavior rather with 
 pity than resentment. And she had taken it for 
 granted that her husband's condemnation of the 
 words then used, and the attitude then assumed, 
 remained quite unaltered. 
 
 But one day her eyes were opened to a wholly 
 different perception of this latter point. She dis 
 covered that Tremaine was in sympathy with his 
 mother's extraordinary conduct. The discovery 
 was a sharp blow. 
 
 He entered her room at about four o'clock, one 
 afternoon. She had passed the morning in a hos 
 pital with her mother, and had soothed the last 
 hours of a woman dying with great physical 
 agony, and half-crazed by the conviction that she 
 would soon pass among eternal torments. Leah's 
 nerves had been severely shaken, but a slight 
 sleep had relieved her distress; she rose from a 
 lounge as Tremaine's knock sounded at her door, 
 and afterward received him with excellent com 
 posure. He had ostensibly sought her for the 
 purpose of discussing an over-charge made with 
 respect to certain household repairs during the 
 previous summer; but he soon deserted this 
 topic, and almost before Leah knew it, he had 
 said: 
 
TINKLIXG CYMBALS. 269 
 
 "By the way, did it ever strike you that my 
 mother and you ought to be friends ? " 
 
 "Of course it would have been better," she 
 answered, somewhat confusedly. 
 
 " Better? It would have been the proper thing." 
 He gave a slight shrug of the shoulders, a moment 
 afterward, and turned away from the window 
 through which he had been gazing down into the 
 adjacent street. " However," he went on, with a 
 blunt brevity that of late had got saliently into 
 his manner, " I 'm afraid you don't care about the 
 proper thing any more." 
 
 Leah ignored this thrust ; she felt that she 
 could afford to do so ; it was such a mere pin 
 prick. She was silent for a little while, and then 
 she said, measuring each word : " Why have you 
 spoken of your mother ? " 
 
 " Why ? " he repeated, starting irritably. " Be 
 cause, as you very well know, family quarrels are 
 in shocking taste." 
 
 " There has been no quarrel." 
 
 He laughed harshly. " I don't know what you 
 call it," 
 
 "Then I can tell you very easily," Leah replied. 
 " I call it a one-sided attack, in which blows were 
 given but not returned. They were warded off, if 
 you please, in self-defence, but nothing more. . . .1 
 
270 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 ain not prepared to hear that you approve your 
 mother's course. I shall be terribly sorry, how 
 ever, to learn that you do." 
 
 He stood watching her for a moment, with his 
 changed eyes, that had got a reddened, fatigued 
 look about the lids and a curve of darkness below, 
 toward either cheek. " Oh, pshaw ! " he suddenly 
 said, in a kind of mutter, and with another move 
 ment of the shoulders while walking to the door ; 
 " there 's no use of hoping for common-sense from 
 you nowadays. I give you up in despair." 
 
 Leah wondered, now and then during the next 
 fortnight, what motive might have lain behind 
 those allusions to her mother-in-law. But at 
 length she had ample cause for understanding. 
 Her luncheon-hour was usually one o'clock; when 
 at home, she would descend by this time into the 
 dining-room, and eat a cold morsel and drink a 
 cup of tea. Her husband was never present 
 at this meal. But one day she was almost 
 startled to find him standing before the fire-place 
 in the dining-room, as she entered that apart 
 ment. 
 
 "Do you want luncheon?" she said, with an 
 amazed little laugh, and a glance at the rather 
 meagre repast spread upon the table. "If so, I 
 will order something hot to be cooked. I would 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 271 
 
 have had it prepared beforehand if I had known 
 you would be at home." 
 
 " Thanks ; I had a bite at the club," Tremaine 
 answered. His face was averted from Leah's ; he 
 appeared to be looking straight at the ruddy tur 
 moil of the brisk wood-fire. 
 
 "I came at this hour for a special reason," he 
 went on, breaking an interval of silence. " It 
 relates to my mother." 
 
 "Your mother?" Leah repeated, in quick inter 
 rogation. 
 
 "Yes. She is coming to see you." As Tre 
 maine spoke he slowly turned and faced his wife. 
 " She thinks it best." 
 
 " Oh, very well," said Leah, in dubious under 
 tone. 
 
 "She was to be here a little after one." He 
 took out his watch and glanced at it. " She is 
 due now. And I may as well tell you, Leah, that 
 mother considers she is making a decided con 
 cession by coming." 
 
 "A concession?" 
 
 " Yes. I dare say she will be a little stiff, too. 
 She thinks, you know, that the first advances 
 should have come from you." 
 
 "From me, Tracy?" said Leah, who had turned 
 pale, and who now rose from her chair. 
 
272 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 He slightly frowned, and his tones were peev 
 ishly raised, as he answered : " There is no use of 
 echoing every word I say, like that ! Yes, from 
 you!" 
 
 " From me ? " persisted Leah, touching her 
 bosom with one hand. "From the daughter of 
 the lady whom she insulted?" 
 
 Just then a bell-peal sounded in the outer hall. 
 " There she is, now ! " exclaimed Tremaine. " I 
 do hope you intend to behave properly." 
 
 Leah looked with fixity into her husband's face. 
 "I shall make no concessions," she said. "I am 
 prepared to receive them." 
 
 "Bah ! what an absurdity ! Mother is a woman 
 of sixty. Besides, she is though you may not 
 grant it a person of marked importance." (It 
 is not easy to describe the peculiar accent with 
 which he gave this last sentence ; they who best 
 knew the Tremaines knew the intonation well 
 when they heard it, and they never heard it 
 except when a Tremaine referred to himself or 
 others of his blood, in the sense of caste and 
 distinction.) " You certainly don't suppose that 
 she is coming to you with anything so nonsensical 
 as an apology." 
 
 " I do," said Leah, with great firmness. " I 
 shall receive her on no other terms." 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 273 
 
 He bit his lips ; his eyes had begun to glitter. 
 
 "Remember that you are in your own house. 
 On that account, if no other, preserve some re 
 spect for yourself." 
 
 "I wish always to preserve a great deal of 
 respect for my mother," she answered. 
 
 "Your mother and you are two different peo 
 ple." 
 
 " In a matter of this sort we are one." 
 
 " Her quarrels belong to herself." 
 
 "They belong to me as well whenever she 
 has been wronged." 
 
 At this moment the draperies overhanging a 
 doorway which communicated with the near 
 drawing-room were parted, and a servant ap 
 peared, bearing Mrs. Tremaine's card. Tremaine 
 himself took it, at once dismissing the servant. 
 
 " She is here," he said, speaking with low speed 
 to Leah. "Do I understand rightly that you 
 refuse to see her?" 
 
 "Oh, by no means." Leah advanced toward 
 another curtained doorway as she spoke. "Her 
 offence was a serious one, but I shall not consider 
 it beyond pardon." 
 
 He went close up to her side. " Pardon ! " he 
 sneered. " If you have any such idiotic expecta 
 tion, you will be finely disappointed ! " 
 
274 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 "Did your mother send her card to me or to 
 you ? " she quietly asked. 
 
 " To you of course." 
 
 " Then, of course, I will see her." 
 
 He scanned her pale face with a morose acute- 
 ness. " A moment ago you said that you would 
 not receive her." 
 
 Leah gravely nodded. "I did. But to see and 
 to receive are not, in this case, the same." 
 
 "I fail to discover any difference between 
 them." 
 
 "You shall be afforded the opportunity, per 
 haps, if you choose to witness our meeting." 
 
 He drew a deep breath. "Don't make me 
 curse the hour that I ever married you ! " he mut 
 tered, in his throat. 
 
 " Shall you enter with me ? " asked Leah. 
 
 He did not reply. He was observing her with 
 a look of suppressed exasperation. She brushed 
 aside one of the curtains, and passed into the 
 drawing-room. 
 
 Mrs. Tremaine rose from a chair as Leah ap 
 proached. The latter, even if she had received 
 no premonition of who it was, would almost have 
 recognized the high, arched nose, the narrow brow, 
 the white back-rolled hair and the dim, cold eyes, 
 from her mother's past description, added to the 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 275 
 
 fact of a certain resemblance which the lady bore 
 to her finer-featured son. 
 
 Leah advanced toward Mrs. Tremaine with a 
 gliding step and an entirely self-possessed mien. 
 She reached a chair not far from that which her 
 visitor had just vacated, paused beside it, and 
 rested both hands upon its back. She had no de 
 sire not to be abrupt, but she wished not to be 
 unmannerly. She at once spoke, in a voice so 
 modulated that it seemed sweet as well. 
 
 *' I am your son's wife," she said. 
 
 Mrs. Tremaine gave a little fluttered sigh. 
 
 " I know you by sight, my dear," she replied. 
 " I saw you at Newport . . . but you did not see 
 me ... I was in my own apartment, nearly 
 always, when you passed with Tracy or else I 
 saw you from my carriage-window I am such an 
 invalid I am constantly forced to hide myself 
 from the air from the open sunshine, you know. 
 But I remember you I should have known 
 you immediately if we had met elsewhere." 
 
 She was silent for a little while ; her thin lips 
 trembled, once or twice, as if from indecision what 
 to say next. Suddenly she put forth both her 
 black-gloved hands, which looked as if their en 
 casing kid had never left them since they had 
 waved themselves before her agitated face during 
 
276 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 her strange talk with Mrs. Romilly more than two 
 years ago, aiid took several rapid steps toward 
 Leah. 
 
 " I hope you will think no more of the past, my 
 dear ! " she said. " / don't want to think of it. 
 I I want to be friends with my daughter-in- 
 law!" 
 
 Leah gazed for a second at the extended hands, 
 but she did not extend her own. Her counte 
 nance v. r as not stern, yet it was exceedingly seri 
 ous. 
 
 " Your daughter-in-law wishes also to be friends 
 with you," she said. " If you place it within her 
 power to be friends with you, Mrs. Tremaine, she 
 will thank you very much." 
 
 The reply was at first a look of wonderment; 
 there was not a trace of hauteur in it, as the lady 
 put her hands still farther forward. 
 
 " I do place it within your power, my dear 
 child," she exclaimed, as though eager to correct 
 some misapprehension. 
 
 Leah receded, then, shaking her head. " Par 
 don me," she objected. " You have not done so 
 
 yet." 
 
 Mrs. Tremaine's hands dropped at her sides. 
 "Why, what do mean?" she asked, in her light, 
 cool, thin voice. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 277 
 
 "Merely this," said Leah, with a sadness and 
 tenderness commingled. "At Newport, a little 
 while after my engagement to your son was made 
 public, you addressed language to my dear mother 
 which I must believe, unless you tell me other 
 wise, that you now regret. They were cruel 
 words, Mrs. Tremaine, and quite unprovoked. 
 But they will be overlooked and forgotten if you 
 are willing to meet my mother and declare to her 
 that you do regret them. I think that I speak 
 from a full knowledge of her large and generous 
 nature when I tell you she will require no elabo 
 rate or formal apology, but merely a simple ex 
 pression of the sorrow it has cost you for having 
 dealt a deep sorrow to her." 
 
 Leah had scarcely ended her final sentence be 
 fore she saw something of the result which was to 
 follow this appeal. Mrs. Tremaine stared at her 
 with back-thrown head now, and a kind of electri 
 fied rigidity about the slim, dark-clad figure. The 
 very intensity of her scorn carried with it a maj 
 esty. Supreme prejudices, however repellent to 
 contemplate, are always supreme facts. Mighty 
 bigotry may shock us by its perversity, but we 
 cannot effectually deny its might. That remains 
 in bulky, granitic assertion. 
 
 Between the brains, the motives, the creeds, the 
 
278 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 temperaments of these two women, as they now 
 regarded each other, there lay a distance that 
 might almost be called interplanetary. Or, at 
 least, their meeting was like the dead past brought 
 face to face with the living present. A whole his 
 tory of human progression stretched between their 
 opposing minds. On both sides the antagonism 
 was sincere enough. The stanchness of their 
 mutual contempt made it doubly important. One 
 clung to her belief in the positive sanctity of 
 birth and name quite as tenaciously as the other 
 clung to a belief in the emptiness of both. It is 
 possible that they recognized one another as natu 
 ral foes during the brief but pregnant pause that 
 now ensued. In the clear brown eyes of one 
 seemed to burn the strong, active vitality of to 
 day ; in 'the faded and frosty gaze of the other 
 lay the ember-like dimness of a thousand yester 
 days. 
 
 " You think that I will degrade myself by 
 apologizing to her?" at length sounded Mrs. Tre- 
 maine's gasping whisper. " You dare to think 
 so?" 
 
 Leah's wrath had leaped up into her face. And 
 she meant to give that wrath full freedom, now. 
 She felt that she had no longer the least cause for 
 restraint no, nor the least excuse for it. It 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 279 
 
 flashed through her that here was one of the rare 
 cases when to be angry is to be right. She was de 
 fending what she loved. This woman had tempted 
 punishment. She should be taught a lesson. Yes, 
 one that till her dying hour she should never for 
 get. 
 
XIII. 
 
 "DERHAPS Leah remained silent five or six 
 good seconds. During this interval she was 
 slowly measuring the form of her companion. 
 She began at the dark rim of Mrs. Tremaine's 
 dress, and let her eyes lift themselves with a de 
 liberate scrutiny up along the fragile stature till 
 they met the narrow visage. Then she spoke. 
 
 " I shall not answer either of your questions, 
 madam. Their impertinence is too pitiable. But 
 perhaps you would care to know, since you have 
 presumed to suggest that you are my mother's 
 superior, how far below her I rank you. She is 
 the sort of woman who leaves the world better 
 for having lived in it ; you are the sort of woman 
 who tries to leave it worse. She has a great intel 
 lect and a great heart ; you have a little intellect, 
 and no heart at all. She loves her kind, and has 
 dedicated her life to help the sick, the maimed, 
 the poor, the unfortunate ; you despise your kind, 
 and never give an hour of thought to them, against 
 the distinct command of that Christ whom you 
 280 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 281 
 
 have the insolence to worship every Sunday of 
 your selfish, unprofitable life. When my mother 
 dies there will be hundreds who will weep for 
 her; when you die you will be taken to your 
 grave without a tear. Who are you, pray, that 
 you should disparage such a grand and stainless 
 life as hers? An aristocrat? Why, even that 
 flimsy claim will not serve you. You come of a 
 respectable family nothing more. You have no 
 long descent, no line of ancestry, no illustrious 
 name. In Europe your absurd pretension would 
 be laughed at, as you well know. . . . Come, then, 
 what is your self-valuation based upon? Is it 
 education? Why, my dear madam, you cannot 
 even spell your own language. A note of yours 
 once fell into my hands. It was carelessly given 
 me by your son, to whom you had written con 
 cerning a certain scandal at Newport, where you 
 remained later in the autumn than usual I think 
 because of his abominated wedding. The brief 
 paragraph which I read barely missed being illiter 
 ate. But my mother can not only spell English 
 correctly ; four other languages are as familiar to 
 her as her own. Few of the world's immortal 
 writers and thinkers have escaped her knowledge ; 
 she is as intimate with them as you are doubtless 
 ignorant of them. . . . Whence, then, comes your 
 
282 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 audacious reason, not only to scorn a being so im 
 measurably above you, but to mingle that scorn 
 with personal abuse? What last excuse remains 
 to you? or indeed, what last miserable make 
 shift of excuse ? Do you excel her in her manners ? 
 Why, there is hardly an unlettered pauper among 
 all those whom her lovely charities daily befriend, 
 who would not shame to attack a fellow-creature 
 with the coarsely arrogant sentiments which you 
 then delivered. That my mother should even 
 be willing to accept an apology from you is but 
 evidence of her surprising generosity. That you, 
 after so atrocious a transgression, should defend 
 your behavior, merely stamps you as incapable to 
 appreciate a spirit that you are miserably far from 
 resembling ! " 
 
 All rebukes, however just, may be spoiled in 
 their effect from an overplus of passion. But 
 Leah, angry as she was, kept the flame of her ire 
 from out-soaring the bounds of dignity. Her im 
 petuosity was leavened by moderation ; her sen 
 tences came fleet and warm, yet each one was 
 tellingly trenchant. She hinted, in voice, in mien, 
 in expression, of a reproachful power yet held in 
 reserve. 
 
 Once or twice, during her speech, Mrs. Tre- 
 maine visibly shivered ; once or twice she lifted 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 283 
 
 her hands imprecatingly ; once or twice she uttered 
 a low, horrified moan. But at length, as Leah 
 ended, she cried out with querulous sharpness : 
 
 "Why did I ever enter this house? I might 
 have known what to expect ! " 
 
 " Surely you did know," sped Leah. " Then 
 why did you come ? " 
 
 Mrs. Tremaine strove to moisten her thin, 
 blanched lips. She was very agitated ; she even 
 appeared like a person in straits for breath. 
 
 " You are as brazen as your mother ! " she ex 
 claimed with husky difficulty. " No, you are even 
 worse than she is ! " 
 
 " Ah ! you don't know what a compliment you 
 are paying me ! " said Leah, with freezing satire. 
 
 "I I shall never forget this hour ! " 
 
 " It was my intention to fix it in your memory." 
 
 "I I don't know how to deal with such people 
 as you are ! I I have been educated to to al 
 ways avoid you ! " 
 
 " Pardon me. You have not been educated at 
 all. I made that very clear a moment ago." 
 
 "You you should at least have the decency 
 to remember that I am the mother of your hus 
 band." 
 
 " That is just the point. You have had the in 
 decency to ignore it." 
 
284 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " Of course you excel me in in brains ! But 
 that is all all!" 
 
 " By no means. You forget breeding." 
 
 Mrs. Tremaine clenched her gloved hands to 
 gether, at this point, looking the picture of impo 
 tent distress. Her suffering was quite real even 
 more real than it had been during her encounter 
 with Mrs. Romilly. She esteemed herself the vic 
 tim of a most frightful outrage. 
 
 " Breeding ! " she repeated, with the disdain of 
 a weak thing that will sting till its weakness has 
 been wholly crushed. And then she gave a little 
 dry, sour, feeble laugh. "As if an adventuress 
 like you could teach me that ! " 
 
 " No one could teach it to you," said Leah, feel 
 ing an actual pang of compassion as she watched 
 the frail, perturbed shape from which this last 
 malicious protest had burst. " You are beyond all 
 power of learning it ! " 
 
 She turned, and was about to leave the drawing- 
 room. Contempt had prevailed against wrath. 
 A weary unconcern possessed her. It passed 
 through her mind "How much wiser mamma 
 was to disdain it all ! I was mistaken ; to be angry 
 is always to be wrong." 
 
 Suddenly Leah's eyes fell upon her husband. 
 He was advancing from the farther room. Some- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 285 
 
 thing in his white, twitched face made her instantly 
 indignant again. Then, as he plainly scowled at 
 her while passing her, she felt her mood regain all 
 its former fire. 
 
 He went straight to his mother, and put one arm 
 about the lady's waist. Mrs. Tremaine had seen 
 him some seconds ago. She now clung to him, and 
 wailed with hysterical violence : 
 
 "Oh, Tracy my son I have been so terribly 
 treated did you hear it? this is what has re 
 sulted from my coming here take me at once to 
 my carriage, Tracy I shall be ill for weeks after 
 this." 
 
 " Remain, if you choose, mother," he said. 
 
 " I forbid her remaining," said Leah. 
 
 44 You hear ! " cried Mrs. Tremaine putting one 
 arm within her son's, and speaking with the tri 
 umphantly childish accent that conscious defeat 
 will employ when it has abruptly found an ally. 
 " She forbids me to remain ! I I don't wish to 
 remain. I I was very wrong to come. But 
 still, my son, you hear ! She forbids me ! " 
 
 Tremaine looked at his wife. He spoke to her 
 as we address a rebellious servant. 
 
 " I believe I am master in my own house," he 
 said. 
 
 44 Certainly," Leah answered. 44 And I am also 
 mistress here." 
 
286 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " Come, Tracy come," said his mother, pulling 
 at the arm she had grasped. "I I have made a 
 fearful error. I I am justly punished." 
 
 " That is perfectly true," said Leah, as mother 
 and son gained the threshold of the doorway which 
 gave upon the outer hall. 
 
 Tremaine now turned and once more looked at 
 his wife. 
 
 " You have behaved like a tigress," he said in 
 an undertone. 
 
 " Then I have only played the part," she an 
 swered, " which my sweet and noble mother was 
 once too human to play. Even a tigress will al 
 ways defend her young. . . ." 
 
 She felt wretchedly tired and sickened after they 
 had gone. Repeatedly she asked herself what view 
 her mother would take of her conduct, and at last 
 she firmly concluded to tell her mother nothing of 
 the whole deplored occurrence. She thought with 
 portentous concern of her husband's future action. 
 For several hours she paced the floor of her cham 
 ber, and strove to set a line of conduct which should 
 be followed with skill and tact. But incessantly 
 there rose before her mind the probability of his 
 unqualified blame. How could she endure that? 
 Would she merit either his open arraignment or 
 his covert innuendo ? When they met at dinner 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 287 
 
 how should she treat him ? It was like surveying 
 the region of a masked battery, and wondering 
 from what special quarter the first dogged bullet 
 would dart. 
 
 But Tremaine did not appear at dinner. Leah 
 ate the meal alone, or rather almost failed to eat 
 it. She retired at a comparatively early hour, but 
 could not sleep. Her memory naturally drifted 
 toward that hateful event which had succeeded 
 their last quarrel at Newport. She knew that any 
 plea, however paltry, would serve him now for 
 drinking immoderately. A hundred recent signs 
 in him told her that his vice had strengthened. 
 
 " If the least vestige of love remained," she 
 mused, " it would all be so different ! I could 
 pardon so much ! As it is, I have to reflect just 
 what it will be proper to pardon, and just what 
 will mark the boundary line of all possible indul 
 gence." 
 
 Waiting in her bed for some sound below that 
 would apprise her of his return, Leah questioned 
 her own thoughts respecting her reason for keep 
 ing this whole late affair from her mother. Was 
 it not as much because of Lawrence Rainsford as 
 it was through regard for the loved one's mental 
 peace ? True, Rainsford knew of her dreary mat 
 rimonial mistake. But why let him know these 
 
288 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 final bitter facts? In some unguarded moment 
 her mother might tell him all ; they were such con 
 fidential friends. No; it was enough that Rains- 
 ford should understand the complete failure of her 
 marriage. Let pride guard from him any further 
 humiliating details. 
 
 But Tremaine did not return that night. When 
 Leah saw her mother on the succeeding day, he 
 had not returned. Still, she kept entirely silent 
 regarding all that had passed. Another night 
 went by, and yet he gave no sign. But on the 
 following morning a written order to pack certain 
 articles of apparel and leave them at a well-known 
 hotel, was brought her by the man-servant who had 
 received it. 
 
 " This was sent to you, Thomas ? " she said, in 
 cool, matter-of-fact tones, after she had read the 
 message. 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Tremaine," was the man's reply. 
 
 Leah raised her brows, and looked with chill 
 composure at the speaker. 
 
 " Well ? Why do you bring it to me f If Mr. 
 Tremaine gives this order you have nothing to do 
 but carry it out." 
 
 At the same time she was secretly relieved to 
 learn the intended course of her husband. He 
 chose not to return home. He had decided on a 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 289 
 
 plan of temporary absence from the household. 
 He had taken up his abode at a hotel. But this 
 precipitate change could not continue long. They 
 must soon meet, if for nothing else than the ar 
 rangement of a permanent separation. 
 
 Still, Leah said nothing to her mother. When 
 two more days had elapsed she began to feel not 
 only the biting discomfort of suspense, but the 
 mortification of confronting her servants, and of 
 fancying that she read either sympathy or curios 
 ity in every new shade of expression that crossed 
 their disciplined countenances. 
 
 On the afternoon of the third day she deter 
 mined to seek her mother and declare just how 
 matters stood. With this intent she left the house 
 at about three o'clock. The walk was not a long 
 one; there had been a snowfall on the previous 
 day, and as Leah passed along Madison Avenue, 
 breathing the brisk wintry air, an occasional 
 merry, jingling sleigh sped by her. The pave 
 ments had little flecks of snow upon them ; the 
 sky, seen only in those niggard strips which the 
 close-built city affords, was of a lucent yet milky 
 azure. But Leah's mood was not in accord with 
 the bracing weather. The blithe sleigh-bells found 
 no echo in her dulled spirits. She was thinking, 
 as she moved onward, of the public exposure that 
 
290 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 might be waiting her, with all its consequent hurts 
 and torments. Yet she would play no part of hos 
 tile assertiveness. If the worst came if her hus 
 band were unwilling to live with her longer, she 
 would accept his decision, but never goad him into 
 any rash clinching of it. As far as she knew, or 
 had the right to doubt, he had preserved a certain 
 promise. That promise once broken, she would 
 be justified in annulling their marriage-relations. 
 But until then she would be willing, even glad, to 
 remain his wife before the eyes of the world. 
 
 Strangely enough, fate itself seemed to answer, 
 a few moments afterward, these latter reflections. 
 She had gained a certain corner at which was situ 
 ated a very handsome and imposing mansion of 
 red brick, with fanciful and unique stone copings, 
 and a wide vestibule, where you saw doors of 
 brilliant stained glass in Gothic design above an 
 interspace of quaintly tessellated flooring. Leah 
 had often noticed this dwelling before ; she knew 
 that it was the residence of Mrs. Fortescue ; it 
 seemed to her a model of all reposeful elegance 
 and dignity in metropolitan architecture ; there 
 had been a time, and not very long ago, when she 
 had envied the easy fortunes of its proprietress. 
 Now, perhaps, she would not have given this per 
 sonage a thought if it had not been that a glossy 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 291 
 
 coupg, drawn by two alert and stylish bays, dashed 
 up to the curb only a few yards in front of her, 
 and then suddenly halted. The next moment a 
 gentleman alighted from the carriage ; he at once 
 assisted a lady to alight. Leah was meanwhile ad 
 vancing toward them both. A great tingling thrill 
 of consternation and shame swept through her as 
 she recognized her husband and Mrs. Fortescue. 
 
XIV. 
 
 T EAH briefly hesitated as the truth rushed 
 -^ upon her ; she was only a few yards away 
 from the pair ; the recognition on either side was 
 no less complete than abrupt; they both palpa 
 bly started as they perceived who she was. While 
 passing onward, with steps that she tried to make 
 as firm and even as before, she wondered if they 
 had observed the hot, red blood dye her cheeks. 
 " He has broken his promise," she was telling her 
 self, a little later, while her heart beat wildly, and 
 her face burned like fire in the chill afternoon air. 
 "It was the one contemptible thing left him to 
 do, and he has done it. Now my action is plain 
 to me." 
 
 She did not go to her mother's house. By a 
 different course she retraced her steps homeward. 
 Soon after the return she wrote and dispatched a 
 note to her mother, mentioning Mrs. Tremaine's 
 visit of three days ago, yet not giving any of its 
 details, and ending with an account of what she 
 had so recently witnessed. " I shall be busy for 
 292 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 293 
 
 at least two hours," the note then ran, "in making 
 preparations for a permanent departure. I will 
 never sleep under the same roof with him again. 
 Will you not come for me a little before dusk, if 
 you receive this in time ? I will wait for you till 
 after dark ; then, if you are not here, I will go to 
 you. I am terribly in earnest now, as I know you 
 will understand. . . ." 
 
 Dusk came, but it did not bring Mrs. Romilly. 
 When dinner was announced, Leah descended 
 from her own apartment into the dining-room. 
 She even seated herself at the table, while feeling 
 that she had neither wish nor will to eat a morsel. 
 But she had both wish and will to preserve ap 
 pearances ; her retreat should be a dignified one. 
 Tremaine's empty place opposite her own ad 
 dressed her through its vacuum, as if with a posi 
 tive presence. A very short while after she had 
 seated herself, she heard a peal sound at the outer 
 hall-door. 
 
 She supposed that it might, most probably, 
 mean the arrival of her mother, and after hearing 
 the door opened she rose, about to enter the hall. 
 But just then a quick, approaching step, which 
 she more than half recognized, made her pause. 
 Almost immediately afterward her husband en 
 tered the room. 
 
294 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " Go," he said to the servant, who stood near 
 by. " Don't come back till you are called." 
 
 The servant obeyed this peremptory dismissal. 
 If it had not been given, Leah might still have 
 remained ignorant regarding the condition of him 
 who gave it. But there was no mistaking that 
 thick, reckless utterance ; and as she looked more 
 closely into her husband's face, she saw that its 
 unusual pallor was mingled with an unusual 
 harshness even savagery of expression. He 
 had kept his eyes fixedly upon her since his en 
 trance, except during the moment of pronouncing 
 his recent command. A timid woman might have 
 felt fear; but Leah felt none. She returned his 
 gaze without a tremor until he spoke. 
 
 " Well, I 'm back again." 
 
 The roughness of his tones had a dogged bra 
 vado. They were as unlike his wonted suavity as 
 it was possible to imagine. The change in him 
 had scarcely been more radical on that hated bac 
 chanal night ; then he had been incapable ; now, 
 however, he looked very capable and in a 
 strongly sinister sense. 
 
 " I 'm back again," he repeated, with a high, 
 brief laugh. "Well, what have you to say to me?" 
 
 " Nothing," she replied. 
 
 His step was heavy and a little unsteady as he 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 295 
 
 walked toward an easy-chair and dropped into it. 
 The heat of the room had begun to tell upon him 
 already ; the air outside had sharpened still more 
 with the winter nightfall. 
 
 "Oh, come," he said, moving his head from 
 right to left against the tufted back of the chair. 
 " I know very well you 've got a lot of talk pre 
 pared for me. I 'd like to get it over as soon as 
 possible." 
 
 Leah walked quietly to one of the doors. She 
 had seen quite plainly by that last sentence that 
 his mind was so clouded with drink as to leave 
 scarcely a trace of his ordinary personality. 
 
 "I told you that I had nothing to say," she 
 responded, and with a direct, bold frankness. She 
 knew that any assumption of dignity, of reproach, 
 or of regret would all equally be lost upon his 
 blunted perceptions. 
 
 She was on the verge of quitting the room 
 when he rose with precipitation. " Stop ! " he 
 exclaimed, " You saw me this afternoon. What 
 do you mean to do ? I know you 're not going to 
 pass it over." 
 
 " Then you know what I am going to do." 
 
 " I do not know ! " he contradicted, with a 
 frown. "Tell me." 
 
 " I told you before." 
 
296 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 "Before? When?" 
 
 "A little time previous to your giving me a 
 certain promise a promise which you have since 
 broken." 
 
 He smiled. The smile was not precisely a leer, 
 and yet it resembled one. "Oh, yes, I recol 
 lect; you said you would 't live with me any 
 longer." 
 
 "I said so. I meant it. And I mean it still." 
 
 His dulled eyes each caught a sudden sparkle. 
 If he had been his sober self he might have tried 
 satire, but he would have seen the absurdity of 
 anger. As it was, the mere animal rage that 
 drink so often rouses for slight cause now broke 
 leash, for what seemed to him a potent, impelling 
 grievance. 
 
 " You mean it, do you ? " he muttered, his voice 
 sombre with threat. " Go, then, if you please ! 
 Do you think I care whether you go or stay? Do 
 you think I want to live with a woman who re 
 fuses to know my own mother? And who are 
 you, that you should refuse? When I married 
 you, I made you somebody I took you out of 
 the common ranks I gave you my name. Yes, 
 my name ! You don't think that was anything ! 
 Oh, no; of course you don't. What business 
 have you with pride? You might have some pride 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 297 
 
 that I made you a Tremaine ; but you Ve no cause 
 for any other." 
 
 Leah looked full at him now. She was white 
 as death, and she had curled her lip. 
 
 "You are right," said she. "I have no cause 
 for pride now. I had once, when I thought that 
 I was married to a gentleman." 
 
 He literally sprang toward her, then. If she 
 had not been greatly angered, she might have felt 
 a timid throe ; she might have drawn away from 
 him. As it was, she held her ground; she did 
 not withdraw an inch, but met his near eyes, 
 bloodshot and kindled, with her own clear and 
 calm ones. 
 
 "How dare you say that I am not a gentle 
 man?" he again muttered. His look swept her 
 figure from head to foot. "Ah! mother was 
 right. A man should never marry beneath him. 
 /married that way; I see it very plainly at last!" 
 
 "It took you some time to make the discovery," 
 flashed Leah, forgetting how foolish she was to 
 bandy either word or wit with one whom drink 
 had pushed into insensate passion. " You did not 
 make it until you had disgraced yourself in two 
 ways by drunkenness and by falsehood!" 
 
 He caught one of her arms, just above the 
 wrist. His clasp was so tense that it pained her. 
 
298 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 He peered so closely into her face that she smelt 
 the wine-taint in his breath. 
 
 " Let me go," she said, trying to recede. 
 
 His hand tightened instead of relaxing. "I 
 will take no more insolence from you!" shot his 
 next words. "You've called me nearly every 
 thing that 's bad. I '11 show you that I can still 
 be worse." 
 
 "You cannot frighten me," said Leah, without a 
 quiver in her voice. Her straight glance did not 
 quail, either. "What that is worse can you 
 show me, except that you are a miserable cow 
 ard?" 
 
 He dropped her arm. As he did so she turned 
 to fly from him. They were both quite near one 
 of the draped doors. At this moment he struck 
 her. The blow was given with his clenched hand. 
 It fell upon her head just above one temple. She 
 reeled for a moment ; then, as she was sinking to 
 the floor, dazed and stunned, she felt that she was 
 in some one's arms, and that these arms had kept 
 her still erect, though she drooped feebly against 
 a supporting form. Was it her mother's voice 
 that she now heard ? It seemed so far off ... it 
 seemed like a voice in a dream. . . . 
 
 " If you strike again, strike me ! " 
 
 What other voice did she now hear? Was it 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 299 
 
 her husband's ? . . . But it was so different so 
 changed. . . . 
 
 " Mrs. Romilly I was mad I despise myself 
 Oh, my God ! I did not mean to do it 
 I ..." 
 
 Leah heard no more, after that. The blank 
 that followed seemed a very long one when she 
 awoke from it. She found herself in a dim apart 
 ment, whose details gradually resolved themselves 
 into those of her own drawing-room. . . . Her 
 mother was bending over her. . . . Then it all 
 suddenly became clear. 
 
 "Mamma," she murmured, "I I am to be 
 with you to-night ? " 
 
 " Yes, Leah ; yes, my darling." 
 
 " This this is my house, is n't it, mamma ? " 
 
 "Yes, Leah." 
 
 " Can't we go ? ... Can't we go together ? " 
 
 " Yes, my child. The carriage that I came in is 
 outside. I was at the hospital till quite late ; I 
 ordered a carriage and came to you as soon as I 
 got your note. I reached here " 
 
 " Yes, I know. ... It was you who caught me 
 when he . . . ' 
 
 " Yes, Leah, it was I." 
 
 " Where is he now ? " 
 
 " He is upstairs. I told him you were better, and 
 
300 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 he went away. You have been better, Leah, though 
 you did not know it. You have been talking 
 foolishly, but that was nothing. I knew it was 
 merely hysteria. ... I have seen so much sick 
 ness, of so many kinds, that I have grown quite a 
 doctor, my child. . . . He is worse than you far 
 worse ; he is half crazed by what he did." 
 
 " But I I am not to stay here, mamma. You 
 don't mean that?" 
 
 " No, no, my darling. You are to go home with 
 me to my home. The carriage is waiting. . . . 
 There see you are able to stand very nicely. 
 . . . And you can walk well, too. It will only be 
 a step. Here, let me put on your bonnet ; I had 
 it brought down ; I knew you would presently be 
 better. . . . That is perfect. . . . Now hold fast 
 of my arm. We only have to get down the stoop, 
 you know. Why, you are almost as strong as I 
 am. . . . Leah, don't stop ; use a little real nerve ; 
 you have so much of it, darling. I sent all the ser 
 vants away ; they think you are still on the sofa ; 
 and he, as I told you, is upstairs. He will not 
 know we have gone until we are actually away. 
 . . . Hold fast of my arm. We are on the stoop 
 now, Leah. The carriage is just below. . . . Why, 
 you are walking splendidly. ... Be careful of 
 the steps. . . . There, you have got down in ex- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 301 
 
 cellent style. . . . Now, here is the carriage. . . . 
 Raise your foot a little that is the way my 
 love." 
 
 Leah sank back on the cushions of the carriage. 
 Presently she had a sense of motion, and of lips 
 pressed against her cheek. Then a kind of fierce 
 strength came to her. She put both arms about 
 her mother's neck. The wild mood, of whose real 
 vehemence she had no memory, still lingered in 
 brain and nerves. 
 
 " Oh, mamma," she cried, " how right you were 
 long ago ? Tinkling cymbals. . . . that is all it 
 ever was ! . . . Tinkling cymbals ! . . . And I 
 thought it such fine, lovely music ! . . . I could 
 not hear the discord I thought it all so sweet 
 I was so wayward, so bad, so foolish! . . ." 
 
 A little later her mind wandered in a way that 
 keenly alarmed her mother, whose neck her arms 
 still clasped. 
 
 " Who put that tract into your book, mamma ? 
 Was it Tracy Tremaine ? Let us leave this house ; 
 I don't like that woman with the pale face and 
 white hair. The Marksleys say that she 's his 
 mother. But I can't believe it. ... No, I can't 
 believe that he would strike Lucy Forbes. Poor 
 Lucy ! She has had a hard time of it. She says 
 that her head shows a mark where her husband 
 
302 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 struck her. Look, and see. Tracy Tremaine did 
 not strike her. ... It was her own husband. . . . 
 Tracy is a gentleman. . . . The Tremaine family, 
 you know, is the oldest in the country. . . They 
 date hundreds of years back, to an old, thin, 
 queer woman who once insulted me no, not me, 
 mamma you ! I would n't have minded if it had 
 been I. But she said such dreadful things of you. 
 She prayed for you, and got a little woman with a 
 little horrid dog, whose name was Mrs. Dickerson, 
 to set the dog upon 3*011. . . . Don't you recollect 
 it all ? " . . . And then Leah laughed a loud, dis 
 traught laugh. . . . 
 
 She never remembered entering her mother's 
 apartment. And for many days afterward her 
 memory was lost in the fiery whirl of fever. 
 
 Her illness was at no time dangerous. Her de 
 lirium now and then took a woful form, but the 
 physician who attended her constantly declared 
 that although the brain was inflamed and the pulse 
 at a rapid stroke, her physical strength still gave 
 no sign of that fatal downward collapse which, 
 in so many cases of fever, is the prelude of 
 death. 
 
 His prophecy proved correct. Leah's recovery 
 was as rapid as her seizure had been. " Yesterday 
 you were convalescent," her mother cheerfully 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 303 
 
 said to her, one morning, "and to-day you are 
 nearly well." 
 
 A little later she saw Lawrence Rainsford, who 
 had known every least detail of her illness, though 
 Leah herself had no idea of his solicitude. Mrs. 
 Romilly insisted that the interview should be a 
 brief one, and at its end Leah surprised her by 
 saying : 
 
 " Mamma, why did Rainsford start when he first 
 saw me to-day ? " 
 
 " Did he start, Leah ? " 
 
 " Yes. Am I changed at all ? " 
 
 " Oh, not much my dear." 
 
 " You have always dressed me. You have never 
 let me see a glass. There is no glass in this room. 
 There used to be one. Why has it been taken 
 away ? " 
 
 Mrs. Romilly clasped one of Leah's hands in 
 both her own and pressed it softly against her lips. 
 Then she spoke several sentences to which her 
 daughter listened with keenest attention, drawing 
 a long sigh at their end. 
 
 "Very well, mamma," she soon said. " Let me 
 look at myself, any way. Bring me a hand-glass." 
 
 The hand-glass was brought, and Leah looked 
 into its tell-tale depths. She saw that her golden 
 hair was very deeply streaked with gray. She 
 
304 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 burst into a flood of tears ; the glass almost fell 
 from her hand. 
 
 " I am an old woman ! " she exclaimed. " Law 
 rence Rainsford must have thought so. That is 
 why he started when he saw me. . . ." 
 
 In a fortnight longer she was able to leave the 
 house. The weather was now verging upon early 
 spring. With her mother she would take walks of 
 slowly increasing length. Thus far she had made 
 no reference whatever to her husband. One day, 
 during a walk of this sort, she questioned her 
 mother concerning him. 
 
 " I hear that he is very ill, Leah," was the 
 answer. 
 
 "Who told you?" 
 
 "Rainsford. He has heard." 
 
 " Do you mean dangerously ill? " 
 
 " Yes. And from dissipation. But, perhaps, I 
 am wrong to say that. The truth is, Lawrence 
 knows his attending physician ; they chanced to be 
 old friends. Dr. Holcroft says that his patient had 
 passed through a terrible period of self-indulgence; 
 he had disappeared from the society of all his ac 
 quaintances ; for a long time no one could find 
 him. But at last he was discovered, and in a most 
 wretched state. Dr. Holcroft was summoned. An 
 attack of delirium treinens soon afterward ensued, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 305 
 
 from which the unhappy man gradually recovered. 
 But on the verge of recovery a malarial fever set 
 in, due, no doubt, to the reduced condition of his 
 system. No fear was entertained for several days. 
 Then the fever changed to one of typhoidal nature, 
 with a complication of pneumonia besides. In 
 this condition he still lingers." 
 
 A long silence followed Mrs. Romilly's an 
 nouncement. Leah at length looked at her 
 mother. 
 
 " I am his wife, after all," she said. " I ought 
 to go to him." 
 
 " You, Leah ! You, who are yourself just re 
 covering from a severe sickness ! " 
 
 Again Leah was silent. Then with a certain 
 tender timidity, her eyes once more sought those 
 of her mother. 
 
 "Oh, mamma," she murmured, "you are so fine, 
 so noble ! He insulted you, but still, after all, he 
 is my husband ! . . . And you have always found 
 it so easy to forgive. . . . What if you should go 
 to his bedside now? Do I ask too much of you 
 when I ask you to go in my place ? " 
 
 " I went four days ago, Leah," said Mrs. Rom- 
 illy, quietly. " I went, and offered my services. 
 A domestic came and told me that they were not 
 needed. There was no other answer." 
 
306 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 Leah felt a thrill pass through her as she listened 
 to these simple yet significant words. She saw her 
 mother's beautiful soul in a new light, as we see a 
 sunbeam strike the peak of a sublime mountain- 
 top in a new way. 
 
 " You are a saint ! " she exclaimed. " Nobody 
 but a real saint could have acted like that ! " 
 
 Mrs. Roniilly answered with one of her peaceful 
 smiles. 
 
 The next day the tidings came that Tracy Tre- 
 maine was dead. 
 
XV. 
 
 T EAH felt no grief. The old love had long 
 -*-^ been dead in her heart. Still, this miserable 
 end of so young a life, once treasured past all 
 price, could not but shock and sadden her. She 
 thought how wild her grief would have been if 
 death had dealt him its blow in those happy van 
 ished days. Perhaps this reflection increased the 
 melancholy of her mood. In the black garb 
 which she at once assumed, with her golden, gray- 
 streaked hair and her face which now, after her 
 sickness, would always look a little faded, though 
 still most interestingly and refinedly beautiful, she 
 made a picture that only a very careless eye could 
 dwell upon without afterward remembering. 
 
 " I will do just as you tell me," she said to her 
 mother. " It seems to me that I should forget 
 everything now." 
 
 " Yes, Leah, that is right ; but you must not go 
 there alone. I fear to have you do so. I have 
 heard from Rainsford " 
 
 307 
 
SOS TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 " What have you heard from Rainsford ? " she 
 eagerly broke in. 
 
 " That the Tremaine clan has massed itself to 
 gether in displeased congress ; that very bitter 
 things are said of you and very compassionating 
 things of your dead husband ; that your claim to 
 inherit as his widow is held a matter for legal dis 
 pute, on the ground of deliberate desertion. I 
 suppose we are to be two against a great many. 
 But we must make a firm stand. We must not 
 permit this overbearing race to drive us to the 
 wall." 
 
 Leah went to where her mother sat. She put 
 both hands about one of Mrs. Romilly's, and held 
 it thus while she spoke. 
 
 " You shall find me strong and resolute, mamma. 
 . . . But I only wish that he had given some sign 
 of regret before the last. That would have taken 
 from what we are about to do the atmosphere of 
 mere worldly policy which now surrounds it, and 
 have touched our action with a color of real senti 
 ment. I don't mean as regards the opinion or 
 judgment of society ; I mean, rather, the new im 
 pulse which would be born of pardon and pity for 
 the dead. We should both feel it, mamma. I find 
 that it is hard not to forgive the dead, simply be 
 cause they have passed away, whatever were their 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 309 
 
 misdeeds. But if they have wounded or wronged 
 us in life, and yet leave some souvenir of repent 
 ance to reach its appeal out of the final silence, 
 why, then I should fancy that it was a very easy 
 thing to let oar thought of them grow as tender as 
 the grass-blades that the next Spring will draw 
 from the cold earth above their graves ! . . . Oh, 
 I should so like to believe, mamma, that Tracy 
 Trernaine does not side with his people now, 
 wherever and whatever he may be ! And if I 
 only had some proof of this some proof besides 
 those remorseful words which you said he spoke 
 on that wretched evening I should gain twice 
 the courage that I mean presently to show, and 
 feel myself possessed of twice the reason for show 
 ing it." 
 
 The unshed tears stood in Mrs. Romilly's eyes 
 as she looked up at Leah and said : 
 
 " My darling, it cannot be ! No voice can come 
 to us from the dead ! But your place is now at 
 your husband's side ; they must not push you 
 away; they must not be let to push you. It is 
 something that we need not argue about; it is 
 something that we may merely understand and 
 accept. As for his justification of our course, I 
 am confident that amid the immortality in whose 
 existence I have never through all my life lost 
 
310 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 faith, lie must now (spiritually cleansed of faults 
 that have cost us both so much pain) approve and 
 sanction our behavior ! " 
 
 Only an hour or so after this Leah received a let 
 ter written by her dead husband. It seemed like 
 a direct answer to her eager yearning. It was 
 dated a month previous to his death. Tremaine 
 had never been a scribe ; the style of the whole 
 communication was weak enough, and some of its 
 sentences not only lacked grace but coherence as 
 well. And yet the spirit of the document breathed 
 a sincere contrition. Its writer appeared to antici 
 pate his approaching end. He expressed himself 
 unworthy of ever again receiving his wife's notice ; 
 still, he had yielded to a mood of intense remorse, 
 and had determined that she should one day learn 
 of the bitter self-contempt from which he suffered. 
 That day would doubtless be when he was no 
 more. He had no hope of her pardon, and there 
 fore he would arrange that she should not read 
 these lines until after he was dead. 
 
 Such a letter was precisely what Leah had wished. 
 
 " It arms us both," she said to her mother, just 
 before they started for the house in which Tre 
 maine lay. " The dead man is on our side ; we 
 know it now. Let this haughty family deny our 
 claim ; he authorizes it." 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 311 
 
 Leah passed the threshold of her residence with 
 a steady step and a collected mien. She inquired 
 of the servant who admitted herself and her 
 mother where Mr. Tremaine's body had been 
 placed. On hearing the desired tidings she went 
 quietly upstairs to the room indicated, followed by 
 her faithful and devoted mother. 
 
 The room was empty when they entered it. 
 They looked together at the face of the dead ; it 
 was fearfully altered. Scarcely a vestige of its 
 old beauty remained. Excess and disease had 
 wrought miserable wreck upon it. A little later 
 Mrs. Tremaine entered the room, accompanied by 
 two ladies, both her near kinswomen. 
 
 All three of the new-comers directed looks of 
 mournful horror upon Leah and her mother. One 
 was a Mrs. Amsterdam, who had been a Miss Tre 
 maine ; she was the sister of the dead man's mother; 
 she was stouter than Mrs. Tremaine, but had the 
 same light-tinted eyes and arching nose. The 
 other was a Mrs. Van Corlear, who had also been 
 a Miss Tremaine, though her relationship was more 
 distant. She had a handsome, swarthy, black-eyed 
 face, and a very queenly carriage ; she was a 
 great leader in society, and noted for her strong 
 patrician tendencies. Both Mrs. Amsterdam and 
 Mrs. Van Corlear had met and known Leah ; they 
 
312 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 had, indeed, been present at her wedding, and ex 
 tended their full, gracious recognition of the alli 
 ance. 
 
 But they both regarded her now as though she 
 were some impertinent intruder. Leah quickly 
 saw their plain and positive hostility. She began 
 coolly to untie her bonnet-strings. At the same 
 time, in a low voice, she said to her mother : 
 
 " I want you to remain here with me to-night, 
 mamma. You will, will you not ? " 
 
 " Certainly, Leah." 
 
 The three ladies exchanged shocked looks. 
 Then Mrs. Van Corlear spoke, addressing Leah : 
 
 " You cannot possibly mean what you have just 
 said." 
 
 "Why should I not mean it?" Leah asked 
 calmly. 
 
 " Oh, do not attempt to argue with her here," 
 murmured Mrs. Tremaine, in a sort of frozen 
 whisper, to Mrs. Van Corlear. " They they 
 would not scruple, you know, Katharine, to speak 
 loudly, to to say dreadful things. . . . And we 
 we are quite in their power; we must submit, 
 you know." 
 
 " True," said Mrs. Amsterdam, very faintly, with 
 the edges of her lips. " Anything would be better 
 than the least disturbance." 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 313 
 
 Leah gave her mother a despairing glance. Im 
 mediately afterward Mrs. Romilly said, with her 
 sweet voice so modulated that it seemed a portion 
 of the hush which filled this chamber of death : 
 
 " Ladies, there is nothing that could induce 
 either my daughter or myself to cause a shadow of 
 disturbance. Pray be certain of that. Leah to 
 day received a letter written by the dead. In that 
 letter Tracy Tremaine implores her forgiveness. 
 I am sure that she had already forgiven him, 
 and"- 
 
 " Forgiven him!" broke forth Mrs. Tremaine, 
 bursting into tears. " Oh, Katharine, Susan, did 
 I not tell you they had come here to insult us? 
 . . . What shall we do ? It is so hard to act in a 
 case of this terrible sort ! " 
 
 The next moment Mrs. Tremaine was clasped 
 in the arms of her sister, who endeavored to 
 soothe the trembling lady with certain very low 
 words. 
 
 But Mrs. Van Corlear had meanwhile fixed her 
 fine black eyes upon Leah. 
 
 "Do you really intend to remain in this house?" 
 she asked, with chilling superciliousness. 
 
 "It is my house," Leah answered. 
 
 " You left it. You deserted Mm." 
 
 " Ah," said Leah, very placidly, and with a sad 
 
314 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 smile, "you must not presume to address such 
 words to me. If so, I shall have but one course 
 left." 
 
 " What course ? " 
 
 "I shall insist upon your immediate departure." 
 
 Mrs. Van Corlear's large frame visibly quivered. 
 She was a sort of social despot, in her way; it 
 seemed to her that this was the very acme of 
 daring insolence. 
 
 " You have no right to be here none what 
 ever," she said. "You are a faithless and cul 
 pable wife. Your conduct has horrified us all. 
 We come of a family that support each other. 
 We will not have one of our race injured and 
 insulted without resenting it. We have all gath 
 ered about poor Tracy now, and you cannot drive 
 us away. We are of the same blood with him ; 
 we are Tremaines. Of course you do not under 
 stand what it is to be a Tremaine. We showed 
 you the greatest tolerance and forbearance until 
 you proved that to us. We acknowledged you. 
 No Tremaine had ever married like this before ; 
 but we acknowledged you. In place of gratitude 
 you have exhibited the worst sort of thankless- 
 ness. You cannot assert any wifely dignity now ; 
 it is too late. You cannot drive us away ; we will 
 not go." 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 315 
 
 "Not a word, Leah," said Mrs. Roinilly. She 
 saw her daughter's face pale and twitch ; she put 
 an arm about Leah's waist, and a hand within hers 
 as well. " Remember where we are," she went on. 
 "Say nothing. Bear this, and more, in silence. 
 Silence is far best." 
 
 " You are right, mamma," Leah said. " Let us 
 go into another room. We remain here to-night 
 both of us." She loudened her voice a little as 
 she continued : " And to-morrow, at the funeral, 
 I shall know where my place is, and keep it. 
 Come." 
 
 They left the room together. They remained 
 in the house that night. They saw no one until 
 the following day, except two of the servants. 
 But a great family-conclave had assembled. Steps 
 passed their closed door, and low voices were 
 heard in halls and in neighboring apartments until 
 quite a late hour. Then, at last, all was still. 
 Neither Leah nor her mother got much sleep that 
 night. 
 
 " Oh, what would I have done without you ? " 
 Leah said, while her arms clasped her mother's 
 neck. "How could I have gone through it all? 
 You are my staff. If I had not you to lean upon, 
 the arrogance of this strange, implacable family 
 would have overwhelmed me. I should have 
 
316 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 sunk down ; I should have had no nerve, no 
 spirit to bear up against them. Trouble and 
 sickness have tamed me so, mamma, darling! I 
 am so changed from that wilful Leah of other 
 days ! " 
 
 " Changed ! yes ! " said Mrs. Romilly, kissing 
 her ; " but changed for the better, my child. I 
 think that I love you even more now than I did 
 then ! " 
 
 "No no," said Leah. "You have always 
 loved me the same ! Yours was the perfection of 
 a mother's love from the very first ! All the 
 fault, all the shortcoming, all the error, lay in 
 myself!" 
 
 The funeral took place at ten o'clock the next 
 morning. Leah and her mother went below stairs 
 at half-past nine. The drawing-room was filled 
 with her husband's kindred; they had mustered 
 in full force. Leah clung to her mother's arm. 
 Together they moved toward the coffin. Leah's 
 face was draped with a heavy widow's veil. Mrs. 
 Romilly guided her daughter to the head of the 
 coffin. Mrs. Tremaine sat there, surrounded by 
 several dark-robed ladies. The husband of Mrs. 
 Van Corlear, a tall man, with bushy gray whiskers 
 and gold eye-glasses crowning an austere nose, 
 stood solemnly at the side of Mrs. Tremaine. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 317 
 
 No chair was near at hand, and this gentleman 
 offered none. 
 
 Mrs. Romilly looked at him with a stately mild 
 ness. 
 
 " A chair for my daughter, please," she said. 
 
 Her words were hardly above a whisper, but 
 they carried command. 
 
 Mr. Van Corlear, with an august gravity, went 
 and got two chairs. He placed them at the foot 
 of the coffin. Mrs. Romilly bowed her thanks, 
 and then, with her own hands, moved both chairs 
 to within a few inches of where Mrs. Tremaine 
 sat. A flutter passed through the little sombre- 
 clad group. A shivering sob was heard from 
 Tremaine's mother, as she buried her face in her 
 black-bordered handkerchief. Mrs. Romilly pointed 
 to one of the vacant chairs. Leah sank into it. 
 She then seated herself at Leah's side. 
 
 The funeral was to occur at a church in the 
 lower portion of Second Avenue, whose contigu 
 ous graveyard had long held the Tremaine family- 
 vault. Carriages were in waiting outside. When 
 the coffin had been borne to the hearse, and the 
 relatives rose to follow it, Leah slipped her hand 
 within her mother's arm, and so passed out 
 through the hall and down the stoop. Mr. Van 
 Corlear had given his arm to Mrs. Tremaine. 
 
318 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 They were directly in front of Mrs. Romilly and 
 Leah ; the former, with watchful promptitude, had 
 contrived to make this intervening distance as 
 slight as possible. But when all four had reached 
 the sidewalk, and Mr. Van Corlear, having opened 
 the door of the first carriage, was about to assist 
 his companion inside of it, Mrs. Romilly, with 
 Leah's hand close-pressed round her arm, glided 
 in front of them. 
 
 " My daughter will take this carriage," she said, 
 very softly. 
 
 The gentleman's grasp was upon the door-knob 
 of the vehicle. For just an appreciable instant he 
 opposed what Mrs. Romilly sought to do. Then 
 their eyes met. His were full of gloom, bewilder 
 ment, and even decorous indignation as well. 
 Hers were clear, peaceful, determined. 
 
 " His mother ! " broke from Mr. Van Corlear, 
 as if those two words, however faintly uttered, 
 could exert a paralyzing force. 
 
 " His wife ! " said Mrs. Romilly, indicating Leah 
 with a decisive yet thoroughly courteous motion 
 of the head. And then she composedly pushed 
 her child toward the open doorway of the carriage. 
 A loud, distracted sigh sounded from behind Mrs. 
 Tremaine's heavy veil. But the dark little drama 
 had ended. Mrs. Romilly had gained her point, 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 319 
 
 and at least twenty eyes had seen her gain it. 
 She closed the carriage door with her own hand 
 after they were both seated. Then she pulled 
 down the curtain at either window, and kissed 
 Leah, who had begun to tremble. 
 
 "There, my child," she said, "I think it is all 
 over now. They will give you your fitting place, 
 after this. They see that I will not let them take 
 it from you. You shall be nearest him at the 
 church, nearest him at the grave. . . . But I am 
 almost sure that there will be no further trouble." 
 
 She was right. They had seen the last of this 
 dreadful, untimely antagonism. Whatever form, 
 in the future, the offended pride of the Tremaines 
 meant to take, it had resolved upon at least a 
 present course of concession and surrender. 
 
XVI. 
 
 "OUT Leah, in the months of seclusion that 
 ^ followed her husband's death, gradually 
 found that no further torments of hostility were 
 to be inflicted upon her. She received the full 
 amount of her inheritance, paid over in polite 
 solemnity by Tremaine's executors, who had both 
 been near of kin to him. But the whole family 
 dropped her acquaintance forever. This was their 
 majestic revenge for having presumed to let one 
 of their race stain his own name by wronging her. 
 If she had been notably to blame if they could 
 have surrounded the decease of their kinsman 
 with any romantic perfume of melancholy martyr 
 dom if they could have persuaded themselves 
 that he had not injured the sanctity of that pre 
 cious affair which they called " his position," and 
 that Leah had not come forth from the unhappy 
 episode with a provoking accompaniment of inno 
 cence and misfortune, they might have extended 
 to her no small amount of lenient indulgence. 
 But that certain real and disgraceful facts had 
 320 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 321 
 
 transpired, and that both sympathy and pity had 
 been given the young widow to the detriment of 
 her dead husband's past repute as a gentleman, 
 these high-strung relations found flagrantly of 
 fensive. 
 
 Malicious reports reached Leah, but she hardly 
 heeded them. She had grown quite careless of 
 the world whence they sprung. She now reoccu- 
 pied with her mother their former residence. 
 When her term of conventional mourning had 
 ceased, she took pleasure in entertainments of a 
 purely social and yet moderate-toned description ; 
 gatherings at which there would be some one, 
 perhaps, who could produce charming music, or 
 some one who could read with skill and feeling 
 from the poets, or some one famed for rare gifts of 
 conversation. She would sometimes reflect on 
 the milder yet richer enjoyment which evenings 
 like these afforded, and contrast it with the fever 
 ish rush, the garish glitter, the excited whirl of 
 other hours. 
 
 " What a vain pomp that all was ! " she more 
 than once said to her mother. "And to think 
 that it all goes on just the same ! that the cym 
 bals are still tinkling, and the vanities still flaunt 
 ing themselves with the same old peacock strut ! " 
 
 " And yet you are not socially satisfied, Leah," 
 
322 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 her mother once said, with a look at Rainsford, 
 who now often dropped in during an evening. 
 "We have both noticed it; have we not, Law 
 rence ? " 
 
 " I am afraid that we have," agreed Rainsford, 
 with a latent touch of humor stirring his native 
 gravity. 
 
 Leah gave a soft laugh. All her tones and 
 movements were softened, nowadays. Her dark 
 robes suited this change; they brought out the 
 poetry in her thinned, faded face, with the gray- 
 streaked hair above its pathetic delicacy of out 
 line. She still had beauty, and of a most uniquely 
 interesting sort ; only, she did not dream that the 
 least remnant of it had been left ; she would look 
 into the glass and openly call herself an old 
 woman. Perhaps it was because of this complete 
 unconsciousness with respect to a single personal 
 charm, this entire absence of the remotest co 
 quetry, this pretty and yet thoroughly sincere 
 demureness, that now invested her with a novel 
 and original fascination. 
 
 " Have }'ou both found me out in my culpable 
 discontent?" she asked. "Well, I will make you 
 both a confession ; I have picked and chosen the 
 members of my little salon with great care; 
 I have gone very devoutly and diligently to 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 323 
 
 work. But I feel that it is quite a failure, after 
 all." 
 
 " And why ? " asked Mrs. Romilly, though she 
 suspected what answer would come. 
 
 "Why?" echoed Leah. "My people are so 
 few of them enough in earnest. There is the 
 main trouble. My first danger was in founding 
 an asylum for disappointed fashionables. But 
 that danger I foresaw and avoided in time. There 
 is nothing so abhorrent to me as the woman (yes, 
 she is usually a woman) who, because she has not 
 the proper amount of money or beauty or caste to 
 shine beside such bright butterflies as Mrs. Chi- 
 chester, would cultivate what she calls 4 an intel 
 lectual taste.' She must nurture that dainty sort 
 of hypocrisy in some other drawing-room than 
 mine. I could instance several distinct cases 
 where I have found her in several distinct shapes, 
 and headed off her intentions with adroit strategy. 
 Then my second danger was in falling upon the 
 mere scholars. If there is anything at once both 
 delightful and dreary it is scholarship. I have 
 not the least objection to all of my guests acquir 
 ing Sanskrit; but they must riot be professional 
 with it ; they must not simply know books, they 
 must have a feeling for them. Learning un 
 leavened by imagination produces the pedagogue ; 
 
324 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 and the place for the pedagogue is not the parlor, 
 it is the schoolroom." Here Leah paused, laugh 
 ing. " Do I bore j~ou ? " she asked, looking at 
 both Rainsford and her mother equally. "Do 
 you find my confession tiresome, or do you want 
 to hear what was my third danger ? " 
 
 "By all means we want to hear," said Rains- 
 ford. " In giving us the details of your struggle 
 you can make us perceive more clearly your unat- 
 tained ideal." 
 
 She laughed again at his sober satire ; the notes 
 of her laughter were still young and sweet. " My 
 third danger," she re-commenced, "was the Bohe 
 mians. . . . Oh, you need neither of you look 
 incredulous ! Of course, I don't mean the gentle 
 men with soiled collars and shiny coat-sleeves, nor 
 the ladies with drooping ringlets and skirts that 
 barely touch the floor. There are plenty of Bohe 
 mians who respect their milliners and tailors, I 
 find. But they are Bohemians, all the same ; they 
 think with an incessant laxity; they never read 
 anything, but always skim it ; they regard science 
 as a fairy-tale, philosophy as a fantasy, literature 
 as a trifle ; they are strikingly clever, and nothing 
 more ; everything about them is filigree and em 
 bellishment, and they possess so much that it's a 
 mystery how they can thus attach it to nullity. 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 325 
 
 They always pass for persons of great mental 
 culture, but they are really the most hollow of 
 shams. Their minds are stocked with the names 
 and the substance of many things, but they have 
 reached the spirit of nothing. . . . Well, these 
 (and perhaps a few others whom I will not men 
 tion) were the dangers I wished to shun. But 
 now I discover that my little sifted and sorted 
 community doesn't satisfy me, after all. There is 
 such a small amount of genuine talent about it. 
 I want to secure people who will not be mere 
 lookers-on in my Vienna; I want them to be 
 more individual and operative, less unassertive 
 and sympathizing." 
 
 " Such assemblages are not possible in this new 
 land of ours," said Rainsford, very seriously. 
 " We need at least a century to make them so 
 if we live a century longer as the republic we 
 have aimed to be. Brilliant men and women will 
 meanwhile rise among us; not a few such have 
 already risen. But a wide diffusion of just that 
 special humanity to which you refer is yet a 
 future gain. Our universities must throw a 
 broader academic shadow; then, like the sturdy 
 ivy of other climates, that kind of growth will 
 thrive there. . . ." 
 
 But if Leah was truly disappointed by what she 
 
326 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 chose to term her failure, the pleasant buoyancy 
 of her spirits gave slight evidence of this fact. 
 She had been more than three years a widow when 
 her mother said to her, one day : 
 
 "Leah, if I should die how lonely you would 
 be ! " 
 
 "Mamma!" she cried, "how can you speak like 
 that ! " 
 
 Mrs. Romilly gave a very cheerful smile. " Oh, 
 I can't live forever, darling ; and there is a good 
 difference between our ages." 
 
 Leah was close at her mother's side now. She 
 was looking very intently into the sweet hazel 
 eyes that she knew so well. 
 
 "Tell me," she murmured, with great earnest 
 ness, "have you fancied anything, mamma? Have 
 you had any premonition of illness ? any. . . ." 
 
 " My dear," broke in Mrs. Romilly, very fondly 
 stroking the J r oung widow's gray-gold hair, "I 
 never was better in my life." 
 
 Leah watched her wonderingly. "Then why 
 did you try to frighten me?" 
 
 " Not at all, darling. I did not try. Is it like 
 me to try?" 
 
 "No, said Leah, kissing her a little dubiously. 
 
 "I only meant," Mrs. Romilly continued, "that 
 you would be quite alone if I had to go. And of 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 327 
 
 course the chances of your outliving me by a good 
 many years, child, are very strong." 
 
 " Oh, but I don't want to think of them." 
 
 " Is it not best to think of them ? " 
 
 Leah gave a sudden start. "What do you 
 mean?" she questioned, in quite an altered 
 voice. 
 
 "Suppose you married, my love?" said her 
 mother, with great tenderness. " Very happily, I 
 mean, this time." She laid strong accent upon 
 the last two low-spoken words. 
 
 Leah broke into a nervous laugh. "Married?" 
 she exclaimed, incredulously. "I? At my age?" 
 Then she laughed again. " Oh, no, of course I 
 am not old that is, not in years. But look at 
 my hair it's grayer than yours!" Here her face 
 took a comic sadness. "I can't dream what has 
 put this idea into your wise, cool head. Because 
 you are in love with me you must n't think anyone 
 else is. Why, who would ask me to marry him?" 
 
 "I know one who would, Leah." 
 
 She watched her mother with a trembling lip 
 for several seconds, after this. Her face had 
 grown quite pale. 
 
 "Yes!" she exclaimed, with a mournful bitter 
 ness. "I understand! He might ask it if he 
 
 O 
 
 thought you wanted it. He might ask it out of 
 
328 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 pity ! Hush, mamma, ... he is a great painter, 
 now; he is still young; men grow old so much 
 more slowly than women. It is dreadful for me 
 even to fancy his making such a sacrifice, when 
 he might. . . . Oh, no ; let us never speak of this 
 again ! Never, now ! Promise me." 
 
 "But, Leah," came the gently persistent words, 
 "if it were not a sacrifice ? If " 
 
 "But it is! I know better than you! Promise 
 me that this shall be the last of the subject 
 between us ! " 
 
 "I promise, then," said Mrs. Romilly. 
 
 That same evening Rainsford came to the 
 house. Leah sat in the drawing-room alone, let 
 ting her fingers wander listlessly over the keys of 
 the piano. She had not heard the outer bell ring. 
 But it had last rung some time ago. Mrs. Romilly 
 had contrived to meet Rainsford in the hall, and 
 to hold a conversation of some length with him in 
 an adjacent room. He was forced to louden his 
 step a little as he now approached the piano. 
 Then she turned and saw him. 
 
 " Pray do n't rise," he said. " I will sit just 
 there, at your side. You can go on playing, if 
 you wish. You know how I like Schumann." 
 
 Leah played on for a little while. 
 
 "But it is so absurb," she presently said, paus- 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 329 
 
 ing. "I have no touch no style no expres 
 sion. There is so much music in me, and yet I 
 never could bring it out, somehow." 
 
 "You play much better than you did," he said, 
 with a critical directness which might have struck 
 her as brusque in anyone else. But she had long 
 ago grown used to his grave candor. 
 
 "Do you really think that?" she asked, inter 
 estedly. 
 
 "I am sure of it." 
 
 "How long is it since you have noticed the 
 change?" 
 
 "Oh, along time." 
 
 "A long time?" she repeated, in surprise. "Do 
 you mean a year ago?" 
 
 A very rich smile filled his rugged, thoughtful 
 face. "No," he answered; "longer than a year 
 ago. Three years. . . . Since the time when you 
 began to see everything so differently to be the 
 high-minded, large-souled woman that you are 
 now." 
 
 Her head had slightly drooped. But she gave a 
 faint laugh. "When I began to get old," she said. 
 
 "You have never been old." 
 
 She stole a sad glance at him. "Don't tell me 
 that gray hair is n't an accompaniment of age," she 
 said, " or I shall accuse you of paying me a wan- 
 
330 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 ton compliment. And how funny that would be 
 from you ! " 
 
 "I can't help what you think of it. The change 
 has only made you more beautiful in my eyes. It 
 tells me of the other change." 
 
 She looked at him wistfully, eagerly, then, while 
 he bent nearer toward her. Her voice had a 
 tremor as she said : " Ah ! you mean that it 
 makes you sorry for me !" 
 
 " Sorry ? It tells me that you have suffered, 
 surely." 
 
 The tears glistened in her gaze, but they did 
 not fall. 
 
 "I I don't want to be pitied," she said, with a 
 pathetic, faltering wilfulness, that was like a dreamy 
 memory of other long-past rebellious days. "It 
 makes me pity myself more. And it is not well 
 to do that. It turns one's heart away from all the 
 many sorrows in the world which one can help." 
 
 " That you do help so often ! That you conse 
 crate your life to helping ! " 
 
 She had drooped her head again ; both her 
 hands lay folded in her lap. 
 
 "I was very wayward and selfish once," she 
 said. "I have a great deal to make up for." 
 
 " So you think, now, of the sorrows of others 
 for this reason ? " 
 
TINKLING CYMBALS. 331 
 
 " I try to think of them." 
 
 "I wonder if you have thought much of one 
 special sorrow." 
 
 " Whose ? " she said, still not raising her look. 
 
 " Mine," he responded. 
 
 " Yours ? " 
 
 "Yes, mine. The sorrow that you gave me 
 . . . well, not so very long ago. It has never died. 
 I think it has even gained in strength since it was 
 first dealt me. To see you grow more lovely, 
 more womanly, more worthy of a man's complete 
 devotion, has made it heavier and keener." 
 
 She looked up at him then. Her eyes were 
 burning through their mists of tears. 
 
 " I thought all that was past ! " she said. 
 
 " No," he answered ; " it can never pass except 
 in one of two ways. Death must end my pain, 
 Leah, or love your love must end it ! If you 
 cannot give me your love, tell me so to-night. 
 Then I will wait as bravely and as patiently 
 as I can for the other colder cure." 
 
 She slowly rose, looking almost saintly in her 
 sweetness; then, standing beside him, with her 
 dark robes and her pale, pure face, she reached 
 out for one of his hands while he still remained 
 seated.. She took it between both her own, and 
 slowly raised it to her lips. As she did so he 
 
332 TINKLING CYMBALS. 
 
 knew that her tears were falling upon it. But 
 her voice was now quite clear, though very soft, 
 as she murmured : 
 
 " You need not wait for death. I give you 
 love instead. ... I give you a love that will 
 last, I think, even beyond death I " 
 
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