Margaret Busbee Shipp

“ Though there are men here whose names are known throughout the country, in a few years Staples will rank an easy first. Most men have two sides, I have known squares and even octagons; but Staples has just one side—the professional. He’s machine all the way through. I’ve watched the man with beautiful women, clever women, magnetic women, and they’re all one to him, and the whole bunch less interesting than a hobo with complicated symptoms. That’s why women are apt to be foolish about him. Let a man be impersonal, and the whole of womankind rises as a unit and resents it! ”

“ One thing I know absolutely, and that is that Nick would never do any- thing to hurt a child like that. He wouldn’t make love to her while he is still ostensibly a married man, though it’s perfectly evident that she’s in love with him.”
What a relentless power there was in youth! That pretty child could give Nick about as much real companionship as a Christmas doll. But the next four months were still hers, and she would give Nick her mind, her sympathy, her companionship, in the way she knew. He might marry Emmy then, but he would remember her. ”

“ There is no leper hospital in the State, and, of course, they can’t turn her into the streets, so that’s the quandary in which the poor dear hospital finds itself.”
Nannie had talked very fast, fearing an interruption. Cecilia’s eyes were full of tears.
“Nannie, I was about to run away. I was thinking only of myself. If I forsake my place some one will have to fill it, some one will have to do my work. You have made me see things as they are, you dear, unselfish heart! I will stay and do my own work.”
“Oh, Cecilia, if you should take that frightful disease!” ”

“ Mrs. Battersby had decided that the baby must have a change from the city, and Steven had suggested the pretty village on Lake Erie, where his mother lived. That dear lady had been gratified when her son’s usual vacation visit of a week had stretched itself to three, and when he had twice run down for Sundays afterward. After Mrs. Battersby and Polly had returned to town, he had seen Polly daily.
There was something different about Miss Trenholm, he explained to himself. One could never predicate her, and it was an interesting phase of girlhood to meet. ”

“ Zoe caught her train and twisted its soft brown folds around one arm, but it was not more pliant than the movements of her sin- uous, exquisite body, with a grace that seemed more than mortal.
It was as if they entered with her into the kingdom of the dance— an empire older than the oldest throne, a dynasty stretch- ing beyond human knowledge, gathering its myrmidons from the four corners of the earth, as glad as youth, as resistless as the tide, as capricious as the wind, as endur- ing as time. ”

“ I won't tell a soul about your engagement, and I appreciate your telling me." She looked at him with her happy blue eyes, full of good humor and the joy of living. "You know I'm not the sort of girl who goes in for quiet comers and lovemaking and petting. I like crowds, and fun, and a lot of noise—I just do J"
Harriet said it lightly. The realization of its absolute truth came to her gradually. Men didn't make love to her, except Joe now and then. She was too big. Perhaps the majority of men found five feet nine rather too much for a wife. ”

“ It’s an oddly cosmopolitan place; people from all over the face of the globe come to this spot for health, mining, or divorce. You’ll hear all sorts of yarns about the old days when there were only miners and cow-punchers around. The men who made a lucky strike would come to town and gamble until day- break, and at the end of each game some fellow would go to the door of the saloon, toss away a deck of cards, and call for a new one, so that in the early morning the street would be littered with cards as thick as leaves. ”

“ Harriet did not realize that nothing had added so much to her desirability in Joe's eyes as the preference shown her by a handsome, sophisticated man like Burton.
"Mother, what shall I do next winter?" Harriet asked slowly.
"I've been thinking a great deal about that, daughter. If we're to give Dotty the same pleasures you girls had, it would be a big help to dad if you could be independent for a year. Would you like to stay with your Aunt Mattie at Warrenton, and teach domestic science in the high school? Her husband is on the school board, and you do get along so wonderfully with children. ”

“ Harriet- could not sit around a home swarming with the Eel's Knees, and with Dotty's probable engagement making her own lack of success the more noticeable, For the first time in her happy, heedless days she faced herself as a social failure.
"Mother!" she cried, bewildered. "Why, I'm going to be an old maid!"
"Nonsense, dear," soothed her mother. "There's from now until June before Dot comes home for good; and Joe so perfectly devoted to you—" At the aghast look on Harriet's face she continued smoothly: "And who knows what nice man you may happen to meet, child? ”

“ Miss Hawkins lifted her brows somewhat incredulously, but left him without replying. “He’s like all the rest.” she thought. “Men always pin their faith to a pretty face. But he is so wrapped up in his work I didn’t know he would notice whether a nurse squinted or wore goggles. I’m sure he never speaks to one.”
There she was mistaken, for Staples had spoken to Miss Castleton twice.
A brickmason had been brought in, his face a bloody pulp from a fall. Cecilia, then a probationer, had been called upon to assist with the dressings for the first time. ”

“ Steven readjusted Polly’s pillows. They didn’t need it, but he had to give some vent to his feelings. It was delightful to find Polly so level-headed on these matters which had muddled many eminent minds.
He began to explain the evils of reci- procity. He commenced with the days when Canada, weak and struggling, asked for and was refused the treaty which would then have meant so much to her. He re- viewed her tremendous difficulty in gaining the great artery of the Canadian Pacific for the development of her Western do- minion. ”

“ Many men had made the same promise to dearly loved wives and had broken it; she smiled mirthlessly to think how small was the chance of faithfulness to a divorced wife.
“ And no publicity,” she said abruptly. “ No head-lines, no reporters, no gossip; above all, no advice from your family or mine.”
“ Then we’ll have to keep it a secret until the divorce is about to be granted,” he re- flected.
“ I thought you had already mapped out a model working plan?”
“ In a way, I have. It takes a year’s residence in New Mexico, and then divorce is about as easy to obtain as it is in Nevada. ”

“ Conservative as he was, he could not have made an ampler apology than the Americanism.
“I shall love to put them down for you, Steven,” she replied, so low that only a love-taught ear could have distinguished the capitulating preposition.
Frank and Maisie had elbowed their way through the crowd to join them.
“Well, is reciprocity quite clear to you two now?” quizzed Frank.
Polly answered swiftly:
“It’s perfectly easy to understand, after all. It means each one doing what the other one wishes, and being perfectly happy about it! ”

“ I hope you slept well.” said Cecilia. “I am your nurse.”
Though the words were forced and mechanical nothing could alter the sweetness of her voice.
“Ain’t there some mistake?” asked the patient wonderingly. “It don’t seem natural for a fine lady like you to be waitin’ on the likes of me. I should think you’d get hired somewheres else.”
“I hope she won’t,” said Staples, entering. “She is the best of nurses, so don’t you persuade her into some other work, Mrs. Long.” ”

“ Griswold met her at the station, his face aglow with pleasure and welcome. For a moment memories of like meetings swept poignantly over them both; but the man recovered himself first.
“ It’s corking of you to come, Cecil,” he said, as he helped her into his car. “ I’m afraid the trip has tired you. You’re pret- tier than ever, but aren’t you thinner?”
“ It’s you who are fatter,” she retorted. “And sunburnt! Why, Nick, you’re burned to a crisp.”
“ Out here one basks in the sunshine like a lizard. It’s the popular outdoor sport for the idle rich.” ”

“ A turban of dull gold sequins with creamy yellow paradise plumes brought out all the beauty of her clear eyes, like pale- colored jewels. Her beauty had such a vi- vacious quality that the other women at the table seemed devitalized in comparison. ”

“ The honest reproach in his voice was the best emphasis.
“He does love to help people,” thought the girl. “The chronic invalid might be a very happy one, on those days when he remembered her name.”
The next day Staples brought the book on leprosy, and explained the technical terms to her. She was surprised to learn that statistics, carefully compiled through many years, support the claim of dermatologists that leprosy is but slightly contagious. Certain high authorities contend that the disease cannot be transmitted by touch, breath or even inoculation. ”

“ Of course, Ed has more money and better looks, but a girl doesn't marry just the present generation. Those who were behind a man go into his inheritance, and into his children's inheritance. I don't suppose there's a young man in Yarborough with as fine an ancestry as Joe's—a long line of good men, holding high positions of trust in the State, and of dignified gentlewomen. ”

“ From the half-open library door, Steven could see Mrs. Battersby saying good-by to her husband a moment or so later. It must be very heart-warming and flattering to have a woman put her soft cheek against yours, and cuddle up to you as if she could never let you go, when you have been mar- ried five years, and are withdrawing your presence for only an hour.
“Please don’t look at Maisie with pat- ronizing approval when she is making a goose of herself over Frank!” commanded Polly. ”

“ Cecily would stay with him; she could not lose out of her life the eager wel- -come in his eyes and the ripple of content m his voice when he greeted her.
No doubt Nick would help her to have her way about Jimmy. Even married to another woman, it was impossible to con- ceive of him as not helping her to have her wish about anything. And she deserved something from him, for she had been a “ good sport ” through this idiotic plan of his. They were having things decent and wholesome at the end — no recriminations, no advice, no publicity — altogether a model divorce. ”

“ Just a year ago she had given up her social career, to her mother’s despair and her father’s amazement.
“Why on earth had you rather wait on strange sick folks than have a dozen fine young Kentuckians waiting on you?”
“Let me try!” she pleaded. “The work has always seemed to call me.” ”

“ She was made for domesticity. She wanted to go into her own, own kitchen and make cakes and put up marmalade. She knew the very pattern of kitchen cupboard she would choose. Of course, other girls went to work and were satisfied in it, but she knew she would abominate an office or teaching school. ”

“ A man never knew where to find her, or whether he was going to find her at all. She had her moods of withdrawal.
Steven recalled uneasily a confidence of Battersby’s:
“I tell you, Steve, the longer a man is married to one of these South Carolina women, the less he knows about her, and the more in love he is!”
As they rose from the luncheon-table, Maisie said:
“Don’t take too long to explain reci- procity to Polly, please. I think you’re quite brave to undertake it, Steve. We’re going to the exhibition later, you know, but Frank has to go to the bank for a short while.” ”