I
During the next few days Ruyler saw little of his wife. He was obliged totake two business trips out of town and as he could not return until teno'clock at night he advised her to have company to dinner and take herguests to the play. But she preferred to dine with Polly Roberts andAileen Lawton, and she spent her days for the most part at Burlingame,motoring down with one or more of her friends, or sent for by someenthusiastic girl admirer already established there for the summer.
Ruyler was quite willing to forego temporarily his plan of personalguardianship, as the more she roamed abroad unattended the better couldSpaulding watch her associates. The detective had his agents in society,as well as in the Palace Hotel, and on the third day he sent a brief noteto Ruyler announcing that he had "lit on to something" that would makehis employer's "hair curl, but no more at present from yours truly."
"This time," he added, "I'm on the right track and know it. No more fancytheories. But I won't say a word till I can deliver the goods. Give yourwife all the rope you can."
Price and Helene met briefly and amiably and she did not again broach thesubject of the loan for her friend, nor did she ask for her jewels. Itwas apparent that she was proudly determined to conceal whatever terrorsor even worries that might haunt her, but the effort deprived her of allher native vivacity; she was almost formal in manner and her white facegrew more like a classic mask daily.
On the evening before the Thornton fete, however, Price was able to dineat home. They met at table and he saw at once that she either hadrecovered her spirits or was making a deliberate attempt to create theimpression of a carefree young woman happy in a tete-a-tete dinner with abusy husband.
Her talk for the most part was of the great entertainment at San Mateo.The weather promised to be simply magnificent. Wasn't that exactly likeFlora Thornton's luck? The immense grounds were simply swarming withworkmen; wagon-loads of all sorts of things went through the gates afterevery train--simply one procession after another; but no one else couldso much as get her nose through those gates.
Helene, with all her old childish glee, related how she and Aileen, Polly(who apparently had forgotten her impending doom), and two or three othergirls, had called up Mrs. Thornton on the telephone every ten minutes foran hour--pretending it was long distance to make sure of a personalresponse--and begged to be allowed to go over and see the preparations,until finally, in a towering rage, her ladyship had replied that if theycalled her again she would withdraw her invitations.
"How we did long for an airship. It would have been such fun, for shedoes so disapprove of all of us; thinks us a little flock of silly geese.Well, we are, I guess, but wasn't she one herself once? She has a prettyhard time even now making life interesting for herself--out here, anyhow.
"Yesterday we motored down to Menlo and dropped in at the Maynards. Therewere a lot of the props of San Francisco society, all as rich as croesus,sitting on the veranda crocheting socks or sacks for a crop of new babiesthat are due. One or two were hemstitching lawn, or embroidering amonogram, or something else equally useless or virtuous. They weretalking mild gossip, and didn't even have powder on. It was ghastly--"
"Helene," said Ruyler abruptly, "what do you think is the secret ofhappiness--I mean, of course, the enduring sort--perhaps content would bethe better word. Happiness is too dependent upon love, and love was nevermeant for daily food. You are not by nature frivolous, and you arecapable of thought. Have you ever given any to the secret of content?"
"Yes, work," she answered promptly. "Everybody should have his daily job,prescribed either by the state or by necessity; but something he must doif both he and society would continue to exist."
Ruyler elevated his eyebrows and looked at her curiously. "Socialism. Ididn't know you had ever heard of it."
"Aileen and I are not such fools as we look--as you were good enough tointimate just now. We went to a series of lectures early last winter overat the University, on Socialism--a lot of us formed a class, but allexcept Aileen and I dropped out.
"We continued to read for a time after the lectures were over, but ofcourse that didn't last. One drops everything for want of stimulus, andwhen one begins to flutter again one is lost.
"But I heard and read and thought enough to deduce that the only vitalinterest in life after one's secret happiness--which one would not darespread out too thin if one could in this American life--is necessary workwell done. And that is quite different from those fussy interests andfads we create or take up for the sake of thinking we are busy andinterested.
"Polly's mother once told me she never was so happy in her life as duringthose weeks after the earthquake and fire when all the servants had runaway and she had to cook for the family out in the street on a stove theybought down in a little shop in Polk Street and set up and surrounded onthree sides by 'inside blinds.' She happened to have a talent forcooking, and without her the family would have starved. Polly tied atowel round her head and did the housework, or stood in a line and gotthe daily rations from the Government. She never thought once of--"
"Of what?"
"Oh, of doing anything rather than expire of boredom. She and Rex hadbeen married a year and were living at home. Rex and Mr. Carter helpedexcavate down in the business district, as the working class wouldn'tlift a finger as long as the Government was feeding them."
"There you are! Their ideal is complete leisure, and that of our delicateproducts of the highest civilization--compulsory jobs! What does progressmean but the leisure to enjoy the arts and all the finer fruits ofprogress? What else do we men really work for?"
"Progress has gone too far and defeated its own ends. Every healthy humanbeing should be forced to work six hours a day.
"That would leave eight for sleep and ten for enjoyment of the arts andluxuries. Then we really should enjoy them, and if we couldn't have themunless we did our six hours' stint, ennui and the dissipations that itbreeds would be unknown.
"I can tell you it is demoralizing, disintegrating, to wake up morningafter morning--about ten o'clock!--and know that you have nothing worthwhile to do for another day--for all the days!--that you have no place inthe world except as an ornament! Women of limited incomes and a family ofgrowing children have enough, to do, of course--too much--they never canfeel superfluous and demoralized--except by envy--but as for us! Why, Ican tell you, it is a marvel we don't all go straight to the devil."
They were alone with the coffee, and she was pounding the table with herlittle fist. Her cheeks were deeply flushed and her black somber eyeswere opening and closing rapidly, as if alternately magnetized by someugly vision and sweeping it aside.
Price watched her with deep interest and deeper anxiety. "A good manywomen go to the devil," he said. "But you are not that sort."
"Oh, I don't know. I never could get up enough interest in another man tosolve the problem in the usual way--but there are otherresources--I--well--"
"What?" Price sat up very straight.
"Oh, dance ourselves into tuberculosis," she said lightly, and droppingher eyelashes. "And tuberculosis of the mind, certainly. On the whole, Ithink I prefer physical to spiritual death....
"However--I found out one thing to-day. The dancing is to be out ofdoors. There will be an immense arbor or something of the sort erectedon the lawn above the sunken garden. My gown is a dream and I shall wearthe ruby."
"Yes," he said smiling. "You shall wear the ruby. But you must expect meto keep very close to you--"
"The closer the better." She smiled charmingly. "Have you tried onyour costume?"
"I haven't even looked at it. Who am I?"
"Caesar Borgia. You are not much like him yourself, darling, but Ithought he was not so very unlike modern American business, as a whole."
Ruyler laughed. "Why not Machiavelli? But as no doubt it is black velvet,much puffed and slashed, I may hope it will be becoming to my nondescriptfairness. You must promise not to wander off for long walks with any ofyour admirers. Not that I fear the admirers, but the thieves that arebound to get into that crowd one way or another. They have a way ofunclasping necklaces even of the most circumspect wives in the company ofnot too absorbing men."
Her eyes opened and flashed, but he had no time to analyze that fleetingexpression before she was promising volubly not to wander from theilluminated spaces.
* * * * *
He interrupted her suddenly. They were in the library now, and sat downon a little sofa in front of the window. The moon was high and brilliantand the great expanse of water with the high clusters of lights on theislands, the sharp hard silhouette of the encircling mountains, the greenand silver stars so high above, the moving golden dots of an incomingliner from Japan, the long rows of arc lights along the shore, made alandscape of the night that Mrs. Thornton with all her millions hardlycould rival.
"Are you not grateful for this?" he asked whimsically and a littlewistfully.
"Oh, Price, dear, I am more grateful than you will ever know. I have nota fault on earth to find with you. You would be the prince of the fairytale if you were not so busy.
"But that is the tragedy. You are busy--I am not."
"Well, let us have the personal solution--one that fits ourselves. Youhave time to think it out. I, alas! have not." He took her hand andfondled it, hoping for her confidence.
"I don't know." She had a deep rich voice and she could make it veryintense. "I only know there must--must--be a change--if--if--I amto--Can't you take me abroad for a year? That might not be work, but atleast I should be learning some thing--I have traveled almost not atall--and, at least, I should have you."
"But later? Most of your friends have spent a good deal of time inEurope. I doubt if any state in the Union goes to Europe as often asCalifornia! They are all the more discontented when they come back hereto vegetate--as Mrs. Thornton would express it.
"It would be a blessed interval, but no more."
"We should have time to think out a new and different life....
"You know--in the class I come from--in France--the women are thepartners of their husbands. Even in the higher bourgeoisie, that is,where they still are in business, not living on great inheritedfortunes--
"My uncle had a small silk house in Rouen, and my aunt kept the booksand attended to all the correspondence. He always said she was thecleverer business man of the two; but French women have a real geniusfor business. Some of our great ladies help their husbands managetheir estates.
"It is only the few that live for pleasure and glitter in the mostglittering city in the world that have furnished the novelists thematerial to give the world a false impression of France.
"The majority live such sober, useful, busy lives that only the highestgenius could make people read about them.
"Of course, young girls dream of something far more brilliant, and waiteagerly for the husband who shall deliver them from their narrowrestricted little spheres... perhaps take them to the great world ofParis; but they settle down, even in Paris, and devote themselves totheir husbands' interests, which are their own, and to their children....
"That is it! They are indispensable--not as women, but as partners. Ibarely know what your business is about--only that you are in sometremendous wholesale commission thing with tentacles that reach halfround the world.
"Only the wives of politicians are any real help to their husbands inthis country. Isabel Gwynne! What a help she will be--has been--to Mr.Gwynne. But then she was always busy. When her uncle died he left herthat little ranch and scarcely anything else, she took to raisingchickens--not to fuss about and fill in her time, but to keep a roof overher head and have enough to eat and wear. I doubt if she ever was boredin her life."
"I can't take you into the business, sweetheart," said Ruyler slowly."For that would violate the traditions of a very old conservative house.But I can quite see that something must be done....
"I married you to make you happy and to be happy myself. I do not intendthat our marriage shall be a failure. It is possible that Harold wouldconsent to come out here and take my place. The business no longerrequires any great amount of initiative, but the most unremittingvigilance. I have thought--it has merely passed through my mind--but youmight hate it--how would you like it if I bought a large fruit ranch,several thousand acres, and put up a canning factory besides? I wouldmake you a full partner and you would have to give to your share of thework considerably more than six hours of the day--
"We could build a large, plain, comfortable house, take all our books andpictures, subscribe to all the newspapers, magazines and reviews, keep upwith everything that is going on in the world, have house parties once ina while, come to town for a few weeks in summer for the plays.
"We should live practically an out-of-door life--if you preferred wecould buy a cattle ranch in the south. That would mean the greater partof the day in the saddle--
"How does it appeal to you?"
He had turned off the electricity, but as he fumbled with hisembryonic idea he saw her eyes sparkle and a light of passionate hopedawn on her face.
"Oh, I should love it! But love it! Especially the fruit ranch. Thatwould be like France--our orchards are as wonderful as yours, even ifnothing could be as big as a California ranch--
"That is, if it would not be a makeshift. Another form of playing atlife."
"I can assure you that we will have to make it pay or go to the wall. Myfather would probably disinherit me, for it would be breaking anothertradition, and he compliments me by believing that I am the best businessman in the firm at present.
"My only capital would be such of my fortune as is not tied up in theHouse--about a hundred thousand dollars in Government bonds. Of course,in time, if all goes well, and California does not have anothersetback--if business improves all over the world--I shall be able to takethe rest of my money out, that I put into this end of the business afterthe fire; but that may be ten years hence. I shouldn't even ask forinterest on it--that would be the only compensation I could offer fordeserting the firm.
"Perhaps I had better buy a cattle ranch. Then, if we fail, I shall atleast have had the training of a cowboy and can hire out."
Helene laughed and clapped her hands.
"Fail? You? But I should help you to make it a success--I should bereally necessary?"
"Indispensable. Either you or another partner."
"No! No! I shall be the partner--"
"And you mean that you would be willing to bury your youth, your beauty,on a ranch? I have heard bitter confidences out here from women forced towaste their youth on a ranch. You are one of the fine flowers ofcivilization--"
"That soon wither in the hothouse atmosphere. I wish to become a hardyannual. And when the ranch was running like a clock we could take a monthor two in Europe every year or so--"
"Rather! And I could show you off--Bother! I'll not answer."
The telephone bell on the little table in the corner (his own privatewire) rang so insistently that Ruyler finally was magnetized reluctantlyacross the room. He put the receiver to his ear and asked, "Well?" in hismost inhospitable tones.
The answer came in Spaulding's voice, and in a moment he sat down.
At the end of ten minutes he hung the receiver on the hook and returnedto find Helene standing by the window, all the light gone from her eyes,staring out at the hard brilliant scene with an expression ofhopelessness that had relaxed the very muscles of her face.
Ruyler was shocked, and more apprehensive than he had yet been. "Helene!"he exclaimed. "What is the matter? Surely you may confide in me if youare in trouble."
"Oh, but I am not," she replied coldly. "Did I look odd? I was justwondering how many really happy people there were behind thoselights--over on Belvedere, at Sausalito--the lights look so golden andsteady and sure--and glimpses of interiors at night are always sofascinating--but I suppose most of the people are commonplace and justdully discontented--"
"Well, I am afraid I have something to tell you that hardly will restoreyour delightful gayety of a few moments ago. I am sorry--but--well, thefact is I must leave for the north to-morrow morning and hardly shall beable to return before the next night. I am really distressed. I wanted somuch to take you to-morrow night--"
"And I can't wear the ruby?" Her voice was shrill. Ruyler wondered if hisstimulated imagination fancied a note of terror in it.
"I--I--am afraid not--darling--"
"But that Spaulding man will be there to watch--"
"Unfortunately--I forgot to tell you--he cannot go--he is on an importantcase. Besides--when I make a promise I usually keep it."
"But--but--" She stammered as if her brain were confused, then turned andpressed her face to the window. "I suppose nothing matters," she saiddully. "Perhaps you will let me wear my own little ruby. After all, thatwas maman's, and she gave it to me before I was married. I should like towear one jewel."
"You shall have all your jewels, if you will promise not to give them toPolly Roberts or any one else."
"I promise."
He went over and opened the safe, and when he rose with the gold jewelcase he saw that she was standing behind him. Once more it flittedthrough his mind that she had watched him manipulate the combinationseveral times, but he had little confidence in any but a professionalthief's ability to memorize such an involved assortment of figures as hadbeen invented for this particular safe. It was only once in a while thathe was not obliged to refer to the key that he carried in his pocketbook.
Nor was she looking at the safe, but staring upward at a maharajah,covered with pearls of fantastic size. She took the box from his handwith a polite word of thanks, offered her cheek to be kissed, andleft the room.
Price threw himself into a chair and rehearsed the instructions Spauldinghad given him.