Ethel Watts Mumford

“ Chyne thought with fury of his own unwavering loyalty, and cursed aloud as he remembered the cold reception he had given that story about McCollum at the club.
Topping the cliff, they plunged at once into the hot and breathless jungle. High overhead the trade winds still rocked the fronds of monkey-pod and palm, but the thicket held only silence, heat, and the smells of rank vegetation. Here and there in the green twilight a white veil of steam hissed upward from some open crevasse that proved the nearness of the great craters—the lonely halls of flame, the home of Pele, the fire goddess. ”

“ She raised her eyes to the face of the woman beside her. It was white as death itself, and as cold.
"These," said the dowager duchess, bending low over the packet in her lap, "are the gloves of Queen Catharine de' Medici. They were embroidered for the wife of Duke Michael. They have never been worn—look, how soft and flexible they are after all these years."
The Duchess Claire took the gloves, silently.
"How sweet they smell," she said, softly, raising them to her face, breathing the strange, dim fragrance they exhaled. "What is it? It's like nothing that I know—it seems hardly of earth." ”

“ SHE was a handsome, middle-aged woman, with prematurely white hair, and carried herself with a proud self-reliance that was accentuated by the firm contour of her jaw. So much the first glance would have shown you, the second would have revealed eyes softened by tears, a mouth made flexible and human by experience, and if you happen to be a woman, you would have noted her exquisite, tailor-made gown and the richness of her sable collar.
She entered the cable car at Tenth street with the uneasy step of one unaccustomed to such modes of conveyance. ”

“ I am more helpless there, in that dream place, than I have ever been in the waking world, even when very badly hurt. I'm tongue-tied, and my brain feels like a pebble in a sling about to be thrown away—away—far away.
My hand, between the fingers of my nurse, is my own hand—I know it. I feel her fingers, I am conscious of the flowing of my blood, but I have no control over myself whatever. I exercise my will—or, rather, I try to do so; I strive and strain, but all I can do is to fix my attention with all my might on what the Japanese doctor is telling me. ”

“ Victoria slipped her feet to the bare floor. "So have I. It's all a nightmare, and, Sonia, think what a contrast. Yesterday we were with the pilgrimage; the songs of praise, peace, good-will to men; faith, hope, charity, lights, music, mystery. Then, suddenly, it's sickness, crime, death! We came to a miracle play, and we have seen a tragedy!"
There was a silence, during which the square of sunshine crept softly down the room. ”

“ The house and the playing children passed from view around a turn, but their image lingered. The vision, too, of the beautiful, gaudily dressed young woman, the impression of her manner, provocative, even suggestive, in spite of the presence of the nurse and babies. It required no more than this one glance to diagnose the situation. The young mother knew her beauty, cared more for admiration than for her home, more for the showy claptrap of her personal finery than the appearance of her house, or the well-being of any of its occupants. ”

“ Do I make public my process for making the Déjol silent big gun? No! Do I permit to make my 'projectile Déjol'—that would tear his, this Folsome's, little paper armor like so much gold leaf? No!—a thousand times. But patent, I do. That no other shall ever perpetrate upon this world, so mangled, and torn by war, these so deadly things—no! Me, and before me, my father, work for the good, the help of mankind. Our money has not come from blood and tears. Millions can go by—I will not take them from engines of destruction. ”

“ Linda did not wait to hear more, but hung up the receiver. Her heart was beating like a riveter. It shook her with its intensity. Her lips felt drawn and tight, her nerves stung. Dizzily she realized not only her unhappiness over her husband's absence, but the dismaying fact that Teddy was her friend no longer. Resentment, bitterness, hatred had sent their subtle vibrations over the wire in that thin, staccato voice.
She lunched alone with a great show of casual, indolent satisfaction. An engagement for the afternoon she caceled. She wanted to be home when her husband returned. ”

“ Now I know I am of no use—no use—a hand to the plow, that is all!”
“Oh, no!” said Vincent gently. “Oh, no; don't say that! Why, you saved them—saved them from destruction, every one. Where now would be all their beauty if you had not built the barrier? If you had not defended them? It was for that the love of color and line was put into your soul, You have been a faithful acolyte in the great temple. Why, if you did nothing else as long as you lived, yet have you done enough.” ”

“ All the old-fashioned flowers of a hardy garden had made the lawns a battle-ground for floral supremacy, surging about the house, swarming at the windows, meeting the hosts of roses and honeysuckle that fell from roof and balcony.
The bride and the groom stood hand in hand, gazing wide-eyed at the scene before them. It was almost too wonderful, too perfect. A house of dreams—the painted back-drop of a fairy play that might at any moment roll up into the heavens and be lost to reality. ”

“ The few people who must know the facts would be only too anxious to say nothing and lend the semblance of rejoicing to the sorrowful marriage feast. The gaping world would see this startling mésalliance apparently sanctioned by friends too blind to be considered such. A conspiracy of silence would screen Montajon—and my dainty, fairylike, gleeful Valérie was tied for life to that hound! For I knew that, having taken the step, she would abide by whatever it brought her. Not for nothing was the motto of the lion-borne escutcheon, “Je suis loyal.” ”

“ Trevoor settled herself comfortably before the dainty tea table. She was handsome, vivacious, self-satisfied. A widow of high and long standing, with a penchant for matchmaking amounting to mania.
A few moments later Renée, her niece and latest intended victim, entered the room—a slender girl, with wide-open, innocent gray eyes, and a small red mouth that drooped at the corners with a dainty suggestion of pathos. She was smartly gowned, and carried herself with an elegance at once girlish and worldly. Her aunt kissed her effusively. ”

“ I lived that year, our second honeymoon, and the last of our life together, torn between the joy of my returned happiness and the terrible knowledge of my coming loss. The wedding day came and I could have cried out in my agony, but I could give my pain no voice. I had no tears, only smiles and laughter that must be gone through with, though my heart was breaking. Imagine it if you can, sirs. Was ever a man so tried? ”

“ Jimmy had watched every move intently. At first his sympathies had been whole-heartedly with the cat, for some obscure primeval instinct that puts small boys inevitably on the side of the hunter rather than of the hunted; but as the lithe, black body slid down the tent nearer and nearer, his vivid imagination began to visualize the final pounce, the snatch of the black paws that would wrench their victim from its hold and escape with it to the inaccessible fortress of the dividing-wall before any one could interfere. The parrot hung by its beak, and executed a pirouette. ”

“ Iron he had been, and iron he remained, but rebellious metal sloughs, disintegrates, and rots where the continuous, unseen currents of electricity work upon it, until, while the semblance stands, an unbending rod, the substance is ready to melt at a touch. Are not affections aroused and palpitant the electricity of the spirit? The love he had grown to bear the boy had quickened others long dormant and wilfully sealed with the stamp of oblivion. His anguish of heart stirred shrouded ghosts of other memories—there came tormenting visions of Wully and his letter, the letter burned unread. ”

“ THERE is hardly a face in ail the crowded house that does not sooner or later take on an expression of painful reminiscent understanding. The “why” of many an illness, many a death, many a broken life is made plain. Puzzling tragedies are slowly illumined and solved. The inexorable light of fact finds and settles on them like some burning calcium, a spot-light which reveals decay and death, helpless sorrow and innocent suffering. ”

“ Through the thickness of double windows and storm-inclosed porches no sound crept in from the outer world; there was no warning when suddenly the door opened, and Factor Duncan, snow covered and stooped with weariness, stood in his own entryway. He was wet to the knees, even the bottom of his heavy gray overcoat was stiffly frozen. Under the arm he carried a package, and he stood glowering up at his wife with eyes that glinted beneath his tam-o'-shanter. Without word or sign he glowered, while the voice of the violin called through the house and echoed down the stair. ”

“ Sure enough, she's in the garden—I don't mean the courtyard where you were painting, but the garden that makes the corner of Esplanade, and is shut off from it by a good seven foot high brick wall, with a little green door on the side street. There she waits, palpitating. In comes the masked lover, and well—one can imagine it. Moonlight, distant music, tin horns, confetti, Carnival. He puts into her hands a pearl necklace—an astounding thing, the sort that wraps three or four times around the throat and then hangs to the waist. They are big, evenly matched pearls, a wonder string. ”

“ The keel is too round and wide—your enchanting head too far away; otherwise, this would be heaven!”
“Your sentiments, then, have not cooled?” she inquired.
“Not at all. Everything save my love has cooled—all is dampened save my ardor. But did you not see the clouds of steam that rose as I struck the water? Ah, there is a water-rat swimming just ahead of us!”
“Oh! Oh!” screamed Margot. She grasped his hands convulsively.
“That,” said d'Alencourt, closing his eyes, “was delicious. I pray the river may teem with rats.” ”

“ A tall man in a long ulster was pacing back and forth, pausing now and then to lean upon the rail and watch the gurgling: water overside. Idly at first she observed his coming and going. There seemed something familiar in his walk the bulk of him, as he silhouetted against the sky—even the whiff of tobacco smoke that was wafted to her nostrils as he passed, evoked something sweet and companionable. The man was smoking a pipe, a stubby pipe, such as Gerald used. Now he passed quite close to her. Elida gasped, her eyes opened wide, her heart stopped beating. ”

“ Sweetly, quietly, Yolande crept into them. For an instant their lips met.
Mrs. Challoner turned away, her eyes were no longer sapphire cold, the violets had became dew wet. She met the gaze of the big man across the table, and scarlet roses flamed in her cheeks.
"Aren't we all silly?" she said. "Let's drink to Love's Young Dream!"
"Love's Dream," echoed Benjamin Loomis, taking the hand that the defeated little chaperone unconditionally surrendered. "Our dream, too—yours and mine!" ”

“ The sonorous music, beating softly through the wide halls, gathered mystery and depth as it reverberated from the Gothic arches of the chapel to drift in roaring cadence down the echoing corridors. The dowager duchess shuddered. Only half an hour more, and the stately palace must acknowledge an upstart American as its mistress. As she gazed on the painted ornaments of the huge, hooded fireplace—the rampant stags of Vantôme—tears rose to her eyes, tears of humiliation and disappointment. ”

“ Just to break bread with you alone, to clink glasses with you alone, sit opposite you, as if I had the right to sit there always—yes, just to hear you called 'madame' by the waiter," he laughed, sadly.
Philippa hesitated. "Are you sure we won't be seen?"
"Positive! Why, I would give my life sooner than have one word said against you, and I know as well as you what the world is. The world never believes in a pure and disinterested love—it does not wish to—it has itself to excuse by the faults of others." ”

“ Then he sat up more attentively, as Lei-Aloha began to chant the legend of Puaanui, and of Pele's sledging.
“She believes it,” thought Chyne, amused; “all that mass of wonder tales—men transformed into lava pillars, and a furious goddess riding on waves of molten lava, like a surf rider on the sea; monster sharks and household deities, protecting gods who live in stones, and poison goddesses who live in trees.” ”

“ Kiera snorted like a blooded war-horse. She would steal Achmet's knife, and then!
She was deflected from her thoughts of gory reprisal by the appearance of a small boy in a white suit, nibbling an ice-cream cone. The boy had an alert, serious face; a pair of pale-blue, imaginative, wide-set eyes; a shingling of freckles on his peeling, sunburned nose; a capacious mouth; and outstanding ears that upheld a white duck "crew" cap. He advanced to Menelik, the black camel, and with a proprietary air tweaked the colored wool tassels and shell ornaments of the big beast's halter. ”

“ Outside the wind of the rising storm shrieked and whined. The distant rush of the flooding river came to his ears in the dreary lulls; then the queer, minor hoot of the south-bound train from Elgin warned him of the hour—seven. The red glow had died down in the stove, black dark occupied the carpenter's shop from wall to wall and floor to ceiling—and its old companion, cold, fingered at casement and door, seeking entry.
Allistaer rose stiffly from the bench. He had seen a way, the only way, and he was ready to take it. Once his decision made, all else was simple. ”

“ AGAIN, when the grandmother calls on God to renew to her poor dried breast the life-giving stream, that she may suckle the ailing child, born with the cursed hereditary taint, the men remain unmoved. But when, in savage determination to shield her own, she proposes to sacrifice the life and welfare of the nurse or anyone else, by any means, however inhuman, there passes from man to man a surge of angry protest, a shocked astonishment at such criminal heartlessness—while in every woman’s eyes, young and old, comes a glint of primitive ferocity that cries aloud, “So would I do—and more!” ”

“ The bride looked over her shoulder as they topped the hill. Below them lay the tangled garden, the shimmer of the pond, the inviting expanse of the house, cream-white in its setting of green. On the steps was a splotch of gray—the huddled figure of the watcher.
"Bughouse, poor old boy!" said the groom. "But, after all, there's something in what he says about biting off more than one can chew. Considerable of a yarn, that. Wonder if there's any basis of truth for it—all that about the suicide, and his wife eloping, I mean." ”

“ Roland growled at her, but long experience had taught him not to argue with Isthar.
To Linda her admonitions were even more unconventional. “Don't you fool yourself,” she said repeatedly. “You think you're a cold-blooded woman of the world. You're not. You're an impulsive, idiotic child. You've got all sorts of pride and temper—no, don't tell me you haven't. You're headed for some unhappy days, or I miss my guess. You've got to learn to eat humble pie and crow. Trouble is, both you and Rowly think a whole lot of yourselves. Fact is, too, you think a lot of each other and don't realize it.” ”

“ Without a doubt, to polish the golf bells of Scotland was a privilege, and meet for brag when one should be once again among the heather hills. But six months with a tooth-brush and silver powder!—when the open heath called, and the cloud shadows raced each other across bunker and tee—! Wully swallowed a sigh—a king may sigh at his coronation for thought of schoolboy freedom. There may have been a regret in his master's heart as well, for while the exhibition lasted the links would call in vain. ”

“ Come back—it isn't too late! Trust me, Billy! Come back!”
Then I felt it—the beat of his heart, the throb of life returning. I screamed.
On my shoulder I felt the doctor's calm hand. It steadied me. I looked up.
“He has come back,” I said, in a thin little voice that didn't seem at all my own. “The dead heart may be energized by vibration,” I whispered. “That's what you wanted to tell me!”
I looked up at him, but his eyes were fixed on Billy's face. He did not seem to see me.
“A miracle!” he whispered. “This is a miracle!” ”

“ He was used to changes, but somehow his gorge rose at his surroundings, and he longed desperately to be on a level with that distant image of all good—Victoria.
The thought of Philippa and her green boudoir intruded. He smiled half in amusement, half in scorn, and wondered at himself for choosing so poor a tool. What was it, unless remorseless Fate, that made him select that shallow, prating fool? Did he not know the vanity of woman well enough by this time to comprehend that she must be envied by some one before she can enjoy any possession—most of all a secret? ”

“ All these treasures, hers! treasures heavy with the weight of centuries—actual, tangible links in the great human chain of history, bringing the past here to her hands—hands born and grown in that far, new world, where the wheel of Fortune whirled a hundred years of concentrated living into as many days. Something of the awe of mighty heights and depths grew in her soul, leaving her shrinking upon the brink of eternities of time and life. ”

“ Save the comfort of that smell of burning clods and its suggestion of inglenook, stock-pot, and grog, there was nothing human in the solitude. Just a waste of lonely hills, where grouse and hares made their shifting homes, the setting sun, and the music of a violin. McDonald paused. His hand, suspended, held the golden bow like the wand of a magician, the last note of the aching little melody died away softly, as if absorbed by the breathless heather. Tommy sighed. ”

“ My wife was young, my wife was pretty, my wife was gay. She filled the house with music, and the house loved her. Come, I will show you her room, the lovely room that looks out on the water-garden—it is only a pond now, but it was a water-garden then. I'll show you the little boudoir she had done in saffron and rose, like the inside of a shell. I had them put the most pestilential pauper of all in that room!"
Obediently the young people followed the halting steps. Something of the enchantment of the Ancient Mariner held them attentive and breathless. ”

“ Linda and Roland stood hand in hand before the old house, looking up at the lighted windows of the second floor.
“Pray, Roland, pray,” she whispered chokingly. “I can't bear it. And yet she's happy—I saw it in her eyes. She's happy; she has no regrets, not one!”
“God help her!” he prayed devoutly. “God be merciful! It's an awful tangle, Linda. It's a fearful thing to take a man's life. But if there's forgiveness for any of us wretched mortals, surely it won't go hard with her. ”

“ Where was the rhythmic sense of line, the balanced, yet unstudied beauty of composition, the luminous color scheme of a “Pupil of Raphael?”
“Alas!” wailed Giovanni. “I shall never paint. Of myself, I am nothing! Only a copyist—only a copyist! I must measure and measure and rule and cross rule. I cannot see otherwise. I have prayed the Holy Virgin to help me, but she will not, because I have been a liar!”
Vincent pounced upon the youth and shook him.
“But the pictures,” he panted, “the panels I bought!”
“I copied them!” sobbed Giovanni. “I didn't tell any one that I didn't do it myself. ”

“ LORD LOVALL STUART McCAMMERON of Abernethy and Lochan, was a grand golfer—"gowfer," he pronounced it, with a wonderful rounded "ow." He was sixty-five years old, stood six feet six in his spiked heather-brogues, and his temper was as short as his stroke was long and his accent broad. He was the admiration and terror of all the links from John o' Groat's to "Killiecrankie," and body and soul he owned "Wully" Forsythe, the only caddie to survive his fierce czarship of "the Game of Kings."
In his tyrannical way the old man loved the boy. It was his one concession to human weakness. ”

“ Be gentle with her, make her feel at home. You were once a bride. You know what it must be to come among strange faces and surroundings. Besides, she is not even of our country—think how alone she is! Mother, forget you are a Vantôme—remember you are a woman!"
They paused a moment by the huge centre-table with its weight of treasures—massive silver candlesticks, enamel boxes, the great horn of carved ivory, gift of Mazarin to Duke Jean IV., the bowl of priceless d'Oiron faīence, the work of the Countess Hélène herself. The eyes of the dowager duchess rested upon a casket of wrought steel. ”