Edith Wharton

“ Frederick Tilney descended the terrace steps of Sea Lodge and strolled across the lawn to the cliffs.
The upper windows of the long white façade above the terrace were all close-shuttered, for at nine o’clock Newport still sleeps, and he who is stirring enough to venture forth at that unwonted hour may enjoy what no wealth could buy a little later—the privilege of being alone. ”

“ It had grown to such a passion with him, this craving to have the world to himself, that he had overcome the habit of late rising, and learned to curtail the complications of his toilet, in order to secure a half hour of solitude before he was caught back into the whizzing social machinery.
“And talk of the solitude of the desert, it’s nothing to the Newport cliffs at this hour,” he mused, as he threw himself down on a shaded seat invitingly placed near the path which follows the shore. ”

“ Only I can’t see why she should give Magraw my particular hour. Now that I’ve given him such a good start they’ve plenty of other chances of meeting. But perhaps she’s afraid of competition, and wants to clinch the business by this morning interview. Poor girl! How she must hate it at heart! I’ll do her the justice to say that if she had enough to keep body and soul together she’d never look at a Magraw. But if this hand-to-mouth life is hard on a man it’s ten times worse for a woman—and her day is over sooner, too. ”

“ No wonder she shrinks at the idea of growing old in such a trade. To see people cooling off, and the newcomers crowding her out—how can I blame her for being afraid to face such a future? Why, I ought to do what I can to help her—but to help her to Magraw! Bah—there’s something rotten in our social system; but it isn’t her fault, and only a primitive ass of a man would be fool enough to blame her, instead of pitying her as a fellow victim.”
At this point Miss Grantham started up with an apprehensive gesture with which Tilney was painfully familiar. ”

“ Miss Grantham uttered a cry of dismay. “Don’t suggest it even in joke! Don’t you see what a catastrophe it would be?”
“Why should it be a catastrophe?”
“Don’t you really see? In the first place we should both be out of a job, and in the second, I should earn the everlasting enmity of the Bixbys. What they want for Sadie is not money but position. Mrs. Bixby tells me that every day.”
Tilney received this in meditative silence; then he said with a slight laugh: “Well, if position is all they want, why don’t you choose me as your candidate?”
Miss Grantham did not echo his laugh ”

“ Bixby tell what things cost. Mrs. Bixby takes the bit in her teeth at times, but Sadie is such a dear adaptable creature that, when I’ve broken her of trying to relieve her callers of their hats, I shall really have nothing left to do. That habit is hard to eradicate, because she is such a good girl, and it was so carefully inculcated at her finishing school.”
Tilney reflected. “Magraw is a good fellow too. There’s really nothing to do except to tone him down a little—as you say, one feels as if one didn’t earn one’s keep.” ”

“ It’s the only thing that can tear me from my bed!”
“I confess one doesn’t associate you with the sunrise,” he said, letting his glance rest with amusement on the intricate simplicity of her apparel.
“And you!” she smiled back at him. “If our friends were to be told that Fred Tilney and Belle Grantham were to be found sitting on the cliffs at nine o’clock in the morning, the day after the Summerton ball——”
“And that they had come there, not to meet each other, but to escape from every one else——”
“Oh, there’s the point: that’s what makes it interesting. ”

“ At any rate, he advanced to meet her without a moment’s hesitation, determined to protect her, by whatever expedient, from the embarrassment of interrupting the colloquy on the bench. He had but a moment in which to consider how this should be effected; but it was not the first time he had trusted to his gift of improvisation in delicate situations, and he was now sustained by the unwonted sense of his complete disinterestedness. The progress of his own affairs had in fact made it impossible for him to interfere from personal motives ”

“ No—they’re making straight for the bench—by George, I believe they were looking at the house to make sure I wasn’t coming! Don’t be alarmed, my dear Miss Grantham, I’ve no desire to interfere with your amusements. I see now, though, why Magraw was in such a hurry to have me balance his bank book this morning. Just a dodge to keep me indoors, of course. It’s beastly bad taste, anyhow, to make a poor devil like me go over a bank book with such an indecently big balance. That’s the kind of thing that makes a man turn socialist. ”

“ Tilney met her smile with a look of unrelieved melancholy. “I don’t wonder,” he said, “that you find solitude less oppressive than my company; but since our purpose in seeking this bench is to snatch an hour’s quiet enjoyment, and since enjoyment of any sort is impossible to me to-day, it is obviously you who are entitled to remain here, and I who ought to take myself away.” And he held out his hand in farewell.
Miss Grantham detained it in hers. “To have you surrender your rights because you are too miserable to enjoy them, leaves me with no heart to profit by my own ”

“ You see, I really can’t help Magraw much. It takes a woman to give a man a start. Aline will say, ‘Oh, bring him, if you choose’—but when he comes she won’t take any notice of him, or introduce him to any of the nice women. He was too shy to go to the Summertons’ last night—he’s really very shy under his loudness—so Aline’s dance will be his first appearance in Newport; and if he’s seen dancing the cotillon with you, at a little sauterie like that, with only a handful of people in the room, why, he’s made, and my hard work is over for the season. ”

“ The lady, who was young, tall and critical-looking, drew her straight brows together and smilingly pondered his assertion.
“I suppose you thought that because it happens to stand in the grounds of Sea Lodge instead of Cliffwood—we haven’t any benches, by the way; but my theory is a little different, as it happens. I think things belong only to the people who know how to appreciate them.”
“Why, so do I—if the bench isn’t mine, at least the theory is!” Tilney protested. ”

“ Magraw’s the best fellow in the world—but there are moments when he takes me for the butler.”
“Oh, I know,” she sympathized. “Mrs. Bixby——”
“That isn’t the worst, though: it’s the reaction. He took me for the butler yesterday afternoon—and in the evening I found a ruby scarf pin on my dressing table.”
But her sympathy was ready for any demand on it. “I know, I know——” she reiterated; and then, breaking off, she added with a mounting color: “You know I couldn’t go to the dance to-night if Mrs. Bixby didn’t pay for my dress.”
“Oh, the cases are not the same; and it’s different for a woman.” ”

“ Tilney colored in turn, but they continued to face each other boldly.
“Did Aline betray me? How like a woman!” he exclaimed.
“I can quite understand,” Miss Grantham witheringly continued, “the importance you attached to having Mr. Magraw invited to your cousin’s dance. You had to make some return for the scarf pin. But to use my name as a pretext—to tell Aline Leicester that I was trying to marry Mr. Magraw!” ”

“ Tilney listened attentively to this plea; but when it had ended he said, with a discouraging gesture: “I was just going to try to get an invitation for Magraw!”
“Lump them together, then—it will be just as easy; and if you should want Mr. Bixby to do anything for you—such as putting you on to a good tip——”
“Thanks, but I’ve been put on to too many good tips. If it weren’t for the good tips I’ve had, I should be living like a gentleman on my income.”
“Well, you’ll make Mrs. Bixby think you the most eligible young man in Newport. ”

“ I told Aline in the strictest confidence——”
“Every one at the dance was congratulating me on my conquest of Mr. Magraw. I don’t see why Aline should keep one secret and not the other.”
Tilney’s brow darkened ominously. “Well, at any rate, I’ll soon undeceive Magraw!”
“A thousand thanks. And I suppose you leave it to me to undeceive Sadie? She talked of you all the way home. Of course, you’re almost the only decent man she’s met.”
“Ah, then the remedy is simple enough. You’ve only to introduce a few others.”
“Yes, I’ve thought of that.” Miss Grantham examined him with a cold smile. ”

“ But the very fact that one is abetting them to lead a false life, and renounce and deny their past, and impose themselves on people who wouldn’t look at them if it were not for their money, and who rather resent their intrusion as it is—well, if one oughtn’t to be paid well for doing such a job as that, I don’t know what it is to work for my living! ”

“ I was foolish enough to think you might give me this last morning——”
“The whole day is at your service,” he interposed nervously, “but———”
“Ah, yes; there will always be a but between us now. No wonder men get on so much better than women; they are so much more prudent! Now, even if I were engaged to Mr. Magraw——” She broke off, and he fancied he could see her flush through the fog. ”

“ Hutchins Magraw, as it attended Miss Grantham’s slender silhouette across the lawn.
“I hadn’t realized how disgustingly fat the man has grown. One would think a fellow with that outline would know better than co rig himself out in a check a foot square, and impale his double chin on the points of that preposterous collar! It’s odd how little the most fastidious women notice such details. If they did, fewer men would make themselves ridiculous. ”

“ Hardened wretch as I am, I was beginning to have a sentiment for that bench—it would never have occurred to me to sit there with Miss Bixby, for instance. It’s queer how a woman’s taste deteriorates when she associates with common men—but I mean to let Miss Grantham know that, though she’s welcome to Magraw, she can’t have my bench into the bargain!”
By this time the couple under observation had completed their lingering adieux, the gentleman returning across the lawn to his house, while the lady retraced her way toward Cliffwood. Tilney remained in concealment while Mr. ”