Basil King

“ Outwardly they strove to maintain a semblance of friendship. For that Barbara had worked hard, and in a measure had succeeded. She had held Rash; she had won Letty.
She had more than won Letty; she had trained her. All that in seven months a woman of the world could do for an unformed and ignorant child she had done. Her experience at Bleary Street had helped her in this; and Letty had been quick. She had seized not only those small points of speech and action foundational to rising in the world, but the point of view of those who had risen. ”

“ Since he couldn’t give her the one thing she craved her best course was like the little mermaid to tremble into foam, and become a spirit of the wind.
It was what she was doing. She was going without leaving a trace. A girl more important than she couldn’t have done it so easily. A Barbara Walbrook had she attempted a freak so mad, would be discovered within twenty-four hours. It was one of the advantages of extreme obscurity that you came and went without notice. No matter how conspicuously a Letty Gravely passed it would not be remembered that she had gone by. ”

“ To Barbe he was a booby when he was not a baby. To Letty he was a hero, strong, wise, commanding. It wasn’t merely his vanity that she touched; it was his manliness. Barbe suppressed his manliness, because she herself was so imperious. Letty depended on it, and therefore drew it out. Because she believed him a man, he could be a man; whereas with Barbe, as with everyone else, he was a creature to be liked, humored, laughed at, and good-naturedly despised. He was sick of being liked, humored, and laughed at; he rebelled with every atom in him that was masculine at being good-naturedly despised. ”

“ No; he must not die! She swam to and fro among the drifting spars, forgetting that they might crush her with their weight; she dived and rose again, and reached the prince just when he felt that he could swim no longer in the stormy sea. His arms were beginning to fail him, his beautiful eyes were closed; in another moment he must have sunk, had not the little mermaid come to his aid. She kept his head above water, and let the waves carry them whither they would.”
Letty didn’t want Allerton’s life to be in danger, but she would have loved saving it. ”

“ The minute you abandoned your own gifts to cultivate those with which Nature had blessed someone else you lost not only your identity but your charm.
Letty worked this out as something like a principle. However many the hints she took it would be folly to try to be anything but herself. After all, it was what gave her value to a star, her personality. If Luciline Lynch whom Nature had endowed with the grand manner had tried to be Mercola Merch who was all vivacious wickedness—well, anyone could see! ”

“ She was terrified. He lay just as he had lain before—only not quite—not quite! His arms were not just as they had been; the coverlet was slightly, ever so slightly, disturbed. The nurse would see it and know that....
There was a stirring of a hand. It was so little of a stirring that she thought her eyes must have deceived her when it stirred again—a restless toss, like a muscular contraction in sleep. She was not alarmed now, only excited, and wondering what she ought to do. She ought to run to the head of the stairs and call Miss Moines, only that she couldn’t bring herself to leave him. ”

“ In his opinion Letty couldn’t take their point of view because she was so inexperienced. It seemed to her a simple thing to go away, leaving them with the responsibilities of her future on their consciences; and it would not seem other than a simple thing till she saw life more as they did. To bring her to this degree of culture they must be subtle with her, and patient. They mustn’t rush things. They mustn’t let her rush them. To end the situation in such a way as to make for happiness they must end it at a point where all would be best for all concerned. ”

“ Letty had never forgotten the look in that girl’s face as she passed out through the crowd of her colleagues. In Nettie’s presence she felt like that girl’s look.
She had no means of telling the time, but when she could no longer endure the imprisonment she decided to make a bolt for it. She hadn’t been thieving, and so they couldn’t do anything to her—and there was a chance at least that she might get away. Opening the door cautiously, she stole out on the landing, and there was, not a woman, but a man!
Joy! A man would listen to her appeal. ”

“ The night nurse was now installed, and was reading Keith Macdermot’s Destiny. She was one of those tall, slender women whom you see to be all bone. As businesslike as Miss Gallifer, and quite as detached, Miss Moines was brisk and systematic. It being her habit to subdue a household to herself before she entered on her duties her eyes regarded Miss Walbrook and Letty with the startled glance of a horse’s. ”

“ Now that Augusta Chancellor knew that the girl was beneath Rash’s roof all their acquaintances would sooner or later be in possession of the fact. It was Barbara’s part, therefore, to play the game in such a way that a bit of quixotism would be the most foolish thing of which Rash would be suspected.
That she would be playing a game she knew in advance. She must hide her suspicions; she must control her sufferings. She must pretend to have confidence in Rash, when at heart she cried against him as an infant and a fool. ”

“ I most always know with a patient. It isn’t anything in his condition. It’s more like a hunch. There’s often the difference between a doctor and a nurse. The doctor goes by what he sees, the nurse by what she feels. Nine times out of ten the doctor’ll see wrong and the nurse’ll feel right—and there you are! You can’t go by doctors. A lot of guess-work gumps, I often think; and yet the laity need them for comfort.”
Making the most of all this Barbara asked, timidly: “Is there anything I could do?”
“Well, no! There isn’t much that anyone can do. You’ve just got to wait. ”

“ Letty colored to the eyes—her deep, damask flush. The insult was worse than anything offered by Mrs. Courage; for Mrs. Courage after all was only a servant, and this a young lady of distinction. Letty had never seen anyone dressed with so much taste, not even the stars as they came on the studio lot in their everyday costumes. ”

“ While Miss Gallifer was downstairs at lunch Barbara had the sweet, unusual sense of having him all to herself. She had never so had him in their hours together because the violence of their clashes had prevented communion. Seated in this silence, in this quietude, she felt him hers. There was no one to 338 dispute her claim, no one whose claim she had in any way to recognize as superior. Letty’s claim she had never recognized at all. It was accidental, spurious. Letty herself didn’t put it forth—and even she was gone. If Rash were to open his eyes he would see no one but herself. ”

“ Even with nothing but her person as she stood, she was her own mistress. No big dread hung over her—that is, no big dread of the kind represented by Judson Flack. She might jump into the river or go to the bad, but in either case she would do it of her own free will. Merely to have the exercise of her own free will gave her the kind of physical relief which a human being gets from stretching limbs cramped and crippled by chains. ”

“ Judson Flack had led Letty to believe a part of the great world’s stock-in-trade; but it couldn’t be denied that she hid them well. Letty didn’t know what to make of it. “There’s quite a trick to it,” Steptoe had warned her; but the explanation seemed inadequate to the phenomena.
Sipping her coffee and crunching her toast she was driven to ponder on the ways of wickedness. She had expected them to be more obvious. All her information was to the effect that an unprotected girl in a world of males was a lamb among lions, a victim with no way of escape. ”

“ Letty’s eyes rested on her visitor with their compelling candor. “I don’t believe men know much about love, do you, Miss Walbrook?”
“It depends. All men haven’t had as much experience of it as I suppose you’ve had––”
“Oh, I haven’t had any.” The candor of the eyes was now in the whole of the truthful face. “Nobody was ever in love with me—never. I never had a fella—nor nothing.”
In spite of herself Barbara believed this. She couldn’t help herself. She could hear Rash saying that whatever else was wrong in the ridiculous business the girl herself was straight. ”

“ A shuffling developed into one lone step, heavy, stately, and funereal. Doing her best to emulate the historic example held up to her, Letty lengthened her neck and stiffened it. A haughty spirit seemed to rise in her by the mere process of the elongation. She was so nervous that the paper shook in her hand, but she knew that if the Celestial City was to be won, she could shrink from no tests which might lead her on to victory.
Steptoe had relapsed into the major-domo’s office, announcing from the doorway, “Mrs. Courage to see madam, if madam will be pleased to receive ’er.” ”

“ He remembered the penciled lines in Hans Andersen. “If I have been, it’s as you may be in love with an innocent little child––”
She laughed again, wildly, almost hysterically. “Oh, Rash, don’t try to get that sort of thing off on me. I know how men love innocent little children. You can see the way they do it any night you choose to hang round the stage-door of a theatre where the exquisite idylls are playing in musical comedy.”
“Don’t Barbe! Not when you’re talking about her! I know she’s an ignorant little thing; but to me she’s like a wild-flower––”
“Wild-flowers can be cultivated, Rash.” ”

“ She clasped her forehead in her hands with a dramatic lifting of the arms. “Oh! It’s too much! I don’t care about myself. But to have it on your conscience that a man has thrown his life away––”
He asked meekly, “What good was it to me when you wouldn’t have it?”
She stamped her foot. “Rash, you’ll drive me insane. Your life might be no good to you at all, and yet you might give it a chance for twenty-four hours—that isn’t much, is it?—before you—” She caught herself up. “Tell me. You don’t mean to say that you’re married?”
He nodded.
“To whom?”
“Her first name is Letty. ”

“ If you part with your reason, it’s something to know that you do it of your own free will.”
Once more Barbara confined herself to the case in hand. “Still, I don’t believe every man is as trying as Rash Allerton.”
“Not in his particular way, perhaps. But if it’s not in one way then it’s in another.”
“Even he wouldn’t be so bad if he could control himself. At the minute when he’s tearing down the house he wants you to tell him that he’s calm.”
“If he didn’t want you to tell him that it would be something equally preposterous. There’s little to choose between men.” ”

“ Miss Towell having borne away the tray, Letty struggled out of bed, and put on the woollen dressing gown thrown over a chair by the bedside. This was no place for her. Beehive Valley was not far off, and her forty-five cents would more than suffice to take her there. She would see the casting director. She would get a job. With food to eat and a place to sleep as a starting point she would find her own way to wickedness, releasing the prince in spite of all the mishaps which kept her as she was. ”

“ She knew nothing about Miss Walbrook, except that it appeared from this conversation that she lived with an aunt, whose car they were using. That she was a friend of the prince’s had been several times repeated, but all information ended there. To Letty she seemed old—between thirty and forty. Had she known her actual age she would still have seemed old from her knowledge of the world and general sophistication. Letty’s own lack of sophistication kept her a child when she was nearly twenty-three. That Miss Walbrook was the girl to whom the prince was engaged had not yet crossed her thought. ”

“ Letty suggested, “he’s too tender-hearted.”
“That’s part of it. He is tender-hearted. Besides that, his position is grotesque—a man with whom two women are in love. To one of them he’s been nominally married, while to the other he’s bound by every tie of honor. No wonder he doesn’t see his way. If he moves toward the one he hurts the other—a man to whom it’s agony to hurt a fly.” ”

“ So, 224 if Barbara Walbrook suggested an eagle on the wing and she, Letty Gravely, was only a sparrow in the street, the sparrow would be more successful as a sparrow than in trying to emulate the eagle.
And yet there was a value to good models which at first she found difficult to reconcile with this truth of personal independence. This too she thought out. “It’s like a way to do your hair,” was her method of expressing it. “You do what’s in fashion, but you twist it so that it suits your own style. It isn’t the fashion that makes you look right; it’s in being true to what suits you.” ”

“ Letty whispered to herself; “my arms clasped round a marble statue—like my prince—but only a marble statue.”
“Her flowers were neglected,” Allerton read on, “and grew wild in a luxuriant tangle of stem and blossom, reaching the branches of the willow-tree, and making the whole place dark and dim. At last she 211 could bear it no longer and she told one of her sisters––”
“I wouldn’t tell my sister, if I had one,” Letty assured herself. “I’d never tell no one. It’s more like my own secret when I keep it to myself. Nobody’ll ever know—not even him.” ”

“ In a reverent obscurity you will find Buddha on the right, Vishnu on the left, with flowers set before the one, while incense burns before the other. Somewhere in the darkness an Oriental woman will be seated on the ground, twanging on a sarabar, and now and then crooning a chant of invitation to come and share in darksome rites. ”

“ To a virtuous woman, starched and stiffened in her virtue, steeped in it, dyed in it, permeated by it through and through, nothing so stirs the dramatic, so quickens the imagination, so calls the spirit to the purple emotional heights, as contact with the sister she knows to be a hussy. For Jane Cakebread and Mary Ann Courage the opportunity was unique.
“Then I’ll go. I’ll go straight now.”
As Steptoe brought the information that the three women of the household were coming to announce the resignation of their posts, Letty sprang to her feet. ”

“ Letty trembled, and shrank back.
But from the support of the pillow the whole figure leaned forward. The hands were lifted higher, more firmly and more longingly. Strength came with the need for strength. A smile which was of life, not death, beamed on the features and brought color to the face which had all these hours seemed carved in stone.
“He’ll do now,” the nurse threw off, professionally. “He’ll be up in a few days.”
It was Barbara who gave the sign to both Steptoe and Miss Moines. By the imperiousness of her gesture and her uplifted head she swept them out before her. ”

“ The originality of men is commonplace as it’s most novel. This man is on a par with the rest, if you call it original for him to have a woman in the house.”
Barbara feigned languidness. “Well, it is—the way he has her there.”
“The way he has her there? What do you mean by that?”
“I mean what I say. There’s no one else in the world who would take a girl under his roof in the way Rash has taken this girl.” ”

“ In the fields, orchards, and gardens, white flowers, yellow flowers, red flowers were common; but blue flowers were rare and retiring, as if they guarded a secret which men should come and search out. ”

“ Miss Towell smiled, sweetly. “Thank you, dear. That’ll be very nice. I shan’t ask you to do much, because it’s your problem, you know, and you must work it out. I’ll stand by; but standing by is about all we can do for each other, when problems have to be faced. Don’t you think it is?”
As this language meant nothing to Letty, she thanked the nurse, smiled at the other patients, and, trudging at Miss Towell’s side with her quaintly sturdy grace, went forth to her great sacrifice.
Allerton had drawn from his conversation with Barbara this one practical suggestion. ”

“ Courage and Jane, having graduated to the stage of “accommodating,” were planning to earn more money by easier work. Nettie, since coming to America, had learned that housework was menial, and was going to be a milliner.
Madam’s remorse being thus allayed he told what he hoped to do for madam’s comfort. There would be no more women in the house, not till madam herself brought them back. An English chef who had lost an eye in the war, and an English waiter, ready to do chamberwork, who had left a foot on some battlefield, were prepared under Steptoe’s direction to man the house. ”

“ Barbara grew thoughtful. “Still, if people didn’t marry the human race would die out.”
“And would there be any harm in that? It’s not a danger, of course; but if it was, would anyone in his senses want to stop it? Looking round on the human race to-day one can hardly help saying that the sooner it dies out the better. Since we can’t kill it off, it’s well to remember––”
“To remember what, Aunt Marion?”
Miss Walbrook reflected as to how to express herself cautiously. ”

“ Miss Towell had said, “if I don’t nurse you back to real ’ealth, him that gave you the thimble might be displeased with me.”
It was not often that Miss Towell dropped an h or added one; but in moments of emotion early habit was too strong for her.
Coming into the room now, on some ermine’s errand of neatness, she threw a glance at Letty, and said: “You don’t look like a Rashleigh, do you, dear? But then you never can tell anything about families from looks, can you?” ”

“ If she was to send him to the devil, she must be of the type which he qualified as a “drab.” 24 Without knowing the dictionary meaning of the word, he felt that it implied whatever would contrast most revoltingly with Barbara Walbrook. Seeing with her own eyes to what she had driven him, her heart would be wrung. That was all he asked for, the wringing of her heart. It might be a mad thing for him to punish himself so terribly just to punish her, but he was mad anyhow. Madness gave him the satisfaction which some men got from thrift, and others from cleverness. ”