Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

“ I thought, as I stood by the creek, of our literature. Has it occurred to you that no American author has ever written a genuine all-round love scene? They are either thin or sensual, almost invariably the former. The soul and passion of the older races they have never developed. If a woman writer breaks out wildly sometimes, she merely voices the lack we all feel in this section of the world—in life as well as in literature. ”

“ Tiny trees sprouted from rocks in mid-stream, where moss had gathered. Red lilies and ferns grew close to the brink. The ugly brown roots of a pine clung, squirming, down the bluff.
On the mountain above the plateau a deer leaped once, crashing through the brush, tossing his white horns in terror at sight of man. A squirrel chattered high up in a redwood, where he was packing acorns for the winter. A school of salmon [172] swam serenely down the creek and disappeared in the dark perspective.
Helena sat there for a half-hour. Then she went back to Clive, but did not sit down. He rose also. ”

“ The prospect [21] of adventure after sixteen days of civilized monotony lured him aside, and he walked rapidly down the by-path. In a few moments he found himself on the edge of a large clearing. The moon poured in without let, and revealed a scene of singular and uncomfortable suggestion.
In the middle of the space was a huge funeral pyre; beyond it, evidently on a bier, Clive could see the stony, upturned feet of a mammoth corpse, lightly covered with a white pall. Between the pyre and the trees nearer him a large caldron swung over a heap of fagots, which were beginning to crackle gently. ”

“ If I married you I could become as wholly good as any mortal can. I never realized what possibilities there are in any of us as I did in the last few days before you went away. The principal reason that I love you is because I always feel that there is something in you to climb to and that you could lift me up to you. If you leave me I’ll become a bad woman. ”

“ She paused a moment and looked straight at him. “We have a more imperative duty to ourselves than to traditions. You are in the new world now, almost in a new civilization. Smash such outworn ideals. They are nothing, nothing to human happiness.”
“Such traditions as honor and faith and pity for the weaker are in the bone and blood of the older civilization. If we tore them out there is not much we’ve got that’s worth anything that wouldn’t follow.” ”

“ A good woman becomes a great deal to a man. She may lack the two things that enthrall man most, passion [140] and intellect; but she shares his burdens and his sorrows; she never fails him in poverty or in trouble; her sympathy is as ready for the small harrowings of life as for its disasters. She satisfies the domestic instinct which is in every man—symbolizes home to him. She bears his children and gives him unfailing submission and help.”
Helena pressed her fan against her lips. ”

“ They pushed in among the fronds, which grew taller as they penetrated. Soon Clive had no need to hold the leaves apart for his companion; they spread out a foot and more above their heads. The place, a young forest of slender columns, was filled with green light. Small feathery ferns nodded in a little breeze. The creek seemed to murmur above them. Clive turned and looked at Helena. ”

“ And thinking of myself meant thinking of you.”
“But you have thought more of Mary Gordon—I mean you have considered her more.”
“Yes; I have.”
She got up and went over and sat down on the edge of the bluff. He filled his pipe. She smiled as the smoke drifted to her. She thought that she had never seen the creek look so beautiful. The stones under the clear water shone like opaque jewels. Great bunches of feathery maiden-hair clung to every boulder. The long delicate strands of the ice-grass trailed far over the water. ”

“ He followed her up the steep side of the cañon, through brush so dense that they were quickly out of sight, and through a bewildering fragrance. At the top they were in the dark forest again, and pushed along as best they could. They found themselves among the straggling outposts of an under-forest of fronds. A few redwoods spread their spiked arms above it, but the sun touched many a rustling fan. The heights beyond lifted away irregularly, [151] in steeps and galleries and higher levels, a gracious blue mist softening the austerity of the crowding trees. ”

“ Clive brought his hand close above his own eyes. “Will it not help you to know that I love you unalterably?”
“Can a man remember a woman like that?”
“There is one woman in every man’s life that he never forgets; and that woman, worse luck, is rarely his wife.” ”

“ One cannot love a clever mind, nor personal magnetism, nor a charming trick of manner, nor a kind heart; nor all. There is something else. One hates to be sentimental, but I suppose what those men have lacked is soul. Our men don’t seem to have time for that. It isn’t in the make-up of this country. Perhaps I haven’t it; but, at all events, I have a mental conception of it, and know that it is what I want.”
Clive puffed at his pipe for a moment. ”

“ Helena threw back her head. “Can you not explain to Mary Gordon? Surely she would release you.”
“I never could explain to Mary Gordon. She would comprehend that after four years I had thrown her over for a prettier woman whom I had known two weeks. Women like that—simple, good, loyal women—don’t reason and analyze as a clever woman does. And the hurt lasts—not because the man is worth it, any more than any man is [167] good enough for such women—but because they are what they are.” ”

“ Van Rhuys think of me? Good-bye, Miss Gordon. Hasta luego, Mr. Clive.”
She ran down the hill as a man came forward to meet her. He was a big well-made man with the walk and carriage, the perfect adjustment of clothes which distinguish the fashionable New Yorker. His Dutch ancestry showed vaguely in his face, which was fair and large, and roughly modelled; but the clever pleasant eyes were American; the deep lines about them betrayed an experience of life which reclaimed the face from any tendency to the commonplace. ”

“ As they entered the court a man rose from a long chair, yawning and stretching himself. It was Charley Rollins.
“My God, Helena!” he exclaimed, “this is going too far. You know that all of us who know you swear by you, but you can’t do this sort of thing with such women as Mrs. Volney and Harriet Lord in the house. Sitting up all night under a tree in full view of all Del Monte is one thing, but the middle of a forest, where you have never taken a man in the daytime before—for [105] heaven’s sake, my dear child, have a care.” ”

“ A young man pushed forward from the back of the circle and grasped his hand. “I had a letter from Stanley and hoped you would get here in time for this. You can make up for being late only by drinking six quarts of fizz between now and sunrise. Boys, come up and shake.”
[42] Clive’s hand was shaken, with a solemnity which at first embarrassed, then amused him, by every man present. Then solemnity vanished, and with it any lingering remnant of Clive’s shyness.
The odor of savory viands mingled with burning pitch and the subtler perfumes of the forest. A great table was spread. ”

“ Her grace appealed more keenly to his senses than her beauty, which sometimes, as she talked, wholly disappeared, broken by a personality so strong and so variable as to play havoc with its harmonies. ”

“ You will spoil him. I should like to marry an Englishman just for the pleasure of bringing him up in the way he should go. Suppose you leave him in my charge. I will take good care of him, and see that he does nothing but loaf.” She turned to Clive, who was staring at her, his hands in his pockets, his lips together.
“Come over and stay at Casa Norte. You know all the men, and they will love to have you.” ”

“ Americans don’t seem to me to be half human. Helena Belmont says that America will be the greatest nation on earth when it gets a soul, but that it is nothing but a kicking squalling, precocious infant at present ”

“ She deliberately moved into the light and pushed her cap to the back of her head, disarranging a mass of curling dark hair. Her coloring was indefinable in the red light, but her eyes were large and long, and heavily lashed. They sparkled wickedly. The nostrils of her finely cut nose were dilating; her short upper lip was lifted. Clive ardently hoped that she would continue to defy him. Her whole attitude was that of a young worldling, [32] delighting in an unforeseen adventure. ”

“ Helena, despite her love of power, had never been known before to deliberately woo a man from another woman. They knew that she must be mastered by a passion new to her, to ignore a girl whom she liked and respected as she did Mary Gordon. Even the women believed she would win; only Rollins doubted.
“I don’t know,” he said to Mrs. Lent; “he’s broad-guage, that man. He’s so infatuated now that he doesn’t know where he’s at. But he’ll wake up, and then I don’t know that even Helena Belmont will be able to manage him. A man hates to go back on a girl, anyhow ”

“ Is it not [173] because Mary Gordon is the more helpless and appeals more to your chivalry?—although you love me more; although I have more beauty and brains and passion, and could make you far happier?”
“That is one reason.”
“Then will the manliest and best of men continue to be captured by the best and simplest of women? It will produce a better race, I suppose. If I had been your mother you would not be half what you are. It is enough for the man to have the brain, I suppose. We are a forced growth and abnormal—but what is to become of us?” ”

“ Her eyes always seem to be looking at you through tears, even when they are laughing or flirting, although I don’t believe she sheds many. I cannot imagine her crying, although I know her to be kind-hearted, and generous, and impulsive. ”

“ Chinese lanterns, suspended in a row over the table, and from the young redwoods, gave abundant light. It was a very informal dinner. The men wore flannel shirts, smoked when it pleased them, and assumed any attitude conducive to comfort. Clive tipped back his chair against a tree, and felt that it was his duty to rejoice that Mary was not present. Every man waited on himself and on the guests of honor. Helena, at the head of the table, had the one servant constantly at her elbow. It was her tendency to spoil the men she liked, and she encouraged [121] her Bohemians in all their transgressions ”

“ The two hundred torch-bearers who came after wore the ordinary outing clothes of civilization.
The strange procession marched slowly round the circle, passing perilously close to Clive. Then the priest and acolytes walked solemnly up to the caldron, the others dispersing [24] themselves irregularly, leaping occasionally and waving their torches. The fagots were blazing; Clive fancied he heard a merry bubbling. ”

“ You see, it is like this: all sorts of men came here in early days—poor men of good family who had failed at home, or were too proud to work there; desperadoes, adventurers, men of middle life and broken fortunes—all of them expecting everything from the new land, and ready to tear the heart out of anyone who got in their way. It was every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. ”

“ Rollins conducted Clive into a small drawing-room, fitted in copper-colored silken stuffs, and overlooking the ocean. Neither Miss Belmont nor her aunt was present, and Rollins introduced Clive to the assembled guests, with running footnotes not intended for the ear of the subject.
“Miss Lord”—presenting Clive to a tall handsome, scornful-looking girl. “She tears out reputations with her teeth. Miss Carter—a clever little snob, who is a joy to flirt with because you know she is too selfish to fall in love with you. ”

“ How do you suppose I bluffed him off?”
“Oh, come Helena!” said Rollins, who was beginning to feel sorry for Clive.
“You know,” she continued, tossing her head and tapping her foot, much like a spirited race-horse, [124] “I have always said I could do exactly as I pleased with a man, and I can. So it pleased me to play chess with an Englishman, whose only idea of the game is to jump over the board. ”