Hallie Erminie Rives

“ His love was worship, instinct with reverence, he could not for that very love’s sake destroy its object.
“You want me to go away and leave you alone, Cherokee?” he asked.
“No, Marrion, no! I am too much alone, and that makes me hungry, desperately hungry, for companionship,” she stammered. “But, tell me, how is Robert?”
“No better; I am almost ashamed to ask you to be brave any more, for I’ve hoped so long without fulfillment.” ”

“ Cherokee said timidly, “for I need the money. All I had has gone for my winter wardrobe.”
“Then I will tell you how to help us both. The model I want is yourself.” He spoke bravely now.
“Me?”
“Yes, if you will let me, I can do us both justice, and you will be counted the dream of all New York.”
She listened to his speech like the bird that flutters around the dazzling serpent; she was fascinated by this dangerous man, and neither able nor honestly willing to escape.
“Besides, I will make your portrait for Mrs. Stanhope free of charge,” was the artist’s afterthought. ”

“ She looked at him with an admiring, grateful gaze:
“Your friendship is even better than love.”
“That is both,” he answered.
“You will promise to go away at once, or I cannot live near you and without you.”
“Yes, Cherokee, I promise,” he said firmly, and continued:
“To-day for a short interval we have belonged to each other. Heart has spoken to heart. [Pg 191] To-morrow you are only my friend’s wife. Not a word, not a thought of yours or mine must destroy his trust. Our past will lie buried as in a deep grave, no tears bedewing it, no flowers marking the spot.” ”

“ You have come back to find me stabbed by a thousand disappointments, striving with grim indifference, learning to accept, unquestioning, the bitter stone of resignation for my daily bread. I would scarce venture now to spread poor stunted wings that life has clipped so closely that they bleed when they flutter even toward the smallest hope.”
He fiercely cried, and clinched his hands together, with one consuming glance at her:
“I was to blame, Cherokee, for believing that you had promised to marry Fred Stanhope; Willard Frost is charged with this as well”—he bit his lips hard. ”

“ To Marrion she was not a woman, she was the woman—the type, the [Pg 116] abstraction, the eternal enigma—which has caused, and will forever cause, to doubt, hesitate and tremble, all the intelligence, the philosophy, and religion of humanity.
All his soul was in his eyes; Eve, Pandora, Cleopatra, Phyrne, passed before his imagination and said: “Do you understand, now?” and he answered: “Yes, I understand.”—Robert was safe at home and was now sleeping quietly, so Marrion thought he had done his duty.
“I shall leave you now, Mrs. Milburn; he will be all right when he has had his sleep out.” ”

“ Marrion stood for a moment immovable, then he took her hand with reverential homage.
“Cherokee, you have raised all womankind in my eyes. I did love you—now I worship you. Your open frankness is so unlike the irresolute frailty, the miserable wiles of your sex. You have touched a chord in my heart that has been mute for years. To me you are a garden of roses, you have bloomed even under blight. Beholding you now, I am enabled to forget that the world is evil.” ”

“ Like most Southerners, Major McDowell had the happy faculty of entertaining his guests royally.
The New Yorker was there for the day, at the kind solicitation of the Major and his most estimable wife. Afternoon brought a rimming haze; the wind had hushed, and the thick, lifeless air bespoke rain. A cloud no bigger than a man’s hand had gathered at low-sky; then mounted, swelling, to the zenith, and wrapped the heavens in a pall and covered the earth’s face with darkness that was fearfully illumined by the lightning’s glare. ”

“ A great future is waiting to claim you, Mr. Milburn.”
“Not unless that future’s arm can hold both of us, Cherokee, for you are still all I really want praise from—all I fear in the blaming. But, sweetheart, you have dropped me as a child throws away a toy when it is weary. When Frost told me he had been here it started afresh some thoughts that I find lurking about my mind so often of late.” ”

“ Even the solid, practical outside world recognizes the bonds of such faith, and looks with contempt upon the man who, having parted with his friend, reveals secrets which have been told him under the sacred profession of friendship.”
“Why is it, Robert, that women cannot be true, or a man and woman cannot form a lasting, loyal friendship?”
“The first case, jealousy or envy breaks; the second generally ends in one falling in love with the other, and that spoils it,” he explained.
She looked up archly: “Which will be the most enduring, your friendship for Marrion, or your love for me?” ”

“ A thousand beautiful visions floated voluptuously through the thirsting silence. They flushed him as in the wakening strength of wine. And his body, like the sapless bough of some long-wintered tree, suddenly felt all pulses thrilling.
His hot lips murmured, “Victory is mine. Aye, life is beautiful, and earth is fair.”
Then the door opened and the model entered. She did not speak but stood straight and silent, her hands hanging at her side with her palms loosely open—the very abandonment of pathetic helplessness.
The master drew nearer and put out his hands. “Cherokee,” he said. ”

“ He often talks to me: ‘Why, mother,’ he tells me, ‘I never saw anything like it; as soon as she appeared she shone; a sudden brightness fills the place wherever she goes; a softened splendor comes around.’ And dear, I am not blind, I see you are besieged by smiles and light whispered loves—you hold all hearts in that sweet thrall; you are the bright flame in which many moths burn.”
“You are both very, very, kind—Fred and you”—Here she was interrupted by a maid entering with a card.
“Mr. Willard Frost.”
“Ah, Cherokee, what did I tell you? ”

“ Now, I can drink or let it alone.”
“I detest a drunkard,” said Frost, laconically.
“But somebody’s father, brother, or husband, might be strong in all other points and weak in that one,” Cherokee spoke, just a trifle severely.
“And woman has the brunt of it to bear,” said Marrion.
“I hold that we are nearer true happiness when we demand too little from men than when we expect too much,” was Frost’s retort.
Here Robert turned to Marrion:
“I see, from your play, that you believe in an equal standard of morals. You propose to be as lenient with women as with men.” ”

“ Has he had no other annoyance, vexations or sorrow?”
“Yes, he lost his mother in mid-winter, but I saw but little change in him; true, he alluded to it in a casual way,” remarked Frost, lightly.
“But such deep grief seeks little sympathy of companions; it lies with a sensitive nature, bound within the narrowest circles of the heart; they only who hold the key to its innermost recesses can speak consolation. From what I know of Robert Milburn this grief must have gone hard with him.” ”

“ Often one’s whole life is changed between the exit and entrance of a home.
“Ah, my dear Mrs. Milburn, how pleased I am to meet you here. Are you out for pleasure?”
Whose voice could that be but Willard Frost’s, sounding in her ears like clods on a coffin.
“Yes, I presume one would call it pleasure, going to the Chrysanthemum Show and to get some flowers for hospital patients. You know the sick love these little attentions.” ”

“ Cherokee willingly accepted for truth the statement that Marrion had made. Enough for her woman heart to know that her husband needed her attention and love. There over him she leaned, her hair rippling capewise over her gown, while from the ruffled edge her feet peeped, pink and bare. She was wrapped in a long robe of blue cashmere, with a swansdown collar, which she clasped over her breast with her left hand. ”

“ Every heart burst forth into an exclamation of delight and admiration. There was youth, sweetness and love on her flushing face. Few brides have looked happier than Cherokee; few men have looked more manly than Robert Milburn, as he met and took her hand for life. ”

“ As for Cherokee, there were no moments of sober reflection. She was too much in love to calculate for the future, and did not imagine that so delicious a life could ever come to an end. Happy in being the help-mate of Robert, she thought that his inextinguishable love would always be for her the most beautiful of all ornaments, as her devotion and obedience would be an eternal attraction to him.
There was but one thing now left undone. She slipped out the side entrance, down into the lawn where Sylvan was. ”

“ I know now that love is the crown and fulfillment of all earthly good. Have you quit caring for me? I infer as much.”
Hastening to undo the effect of her last words, she said:
“Forgive me, Robert, what need I say? You read my utmost thoughts now as always. I have not changed towards you.”
His sad expression gave place to exquisite joy and adoration.
“I am grateful for the blessing of a good woman’s love.” ”

“ She felt that the best plan for her was to take her husband away from his associates, herself away from hers, and let time and change bring about a reformation, and, in spite of the warning, she hoped that the old fond love would come to them again.
There is no period in life when we are more accessible to friendship than in the interval which succeeds the disappointment of the passions. There is then, in those gentler feelings, something that keeps alive but does not fever the affections. ”

“ If Cherokee had but known that the plighted troth was broken—had gone all to pieces, in fact—she might have felt some relief for that dull ache she felt. Suddenly she turned to her husband:
“Robert, I have a great favor to ask?”
“What’s that?”
“Let’s take a vacation. Change would help us both.”
“I am too busy, Cherokee, I cannot leave my work now. People are never contented. Those in the depths of the country sigh for the city excitement, and those in the city long to be soaked in sunshine and tangled in green fields.” ”

“ That evening Robert did not go down town to dinner, but stayed at home, by way of doing penance. He sat in his room, reading; suddenly he threw aside the paper and said:
“What nonsense to pretend to read in a home like this, I ought to give all my time to adoration of you; few men are so blessed.”
“How lovely of you to say that; you are the very best husband in all the world, I know you are.” ”

“ Latham smiled, and there was the least tinge of a sneer in his smile.
When Cherokee closed her eyes to sleep that night, she could only see Willard Frost—the one man in all the world whom she loathed; the coldest, most unsympathetic creature that ever got into a man’s skin instead of a snake’s. ”

“ Forever busy at the one unending task of dragging through the weary hours, from the early, painful waking of dawn, alone with sorrow, to the tardy, feverish, midnight sleep—alone with sorrow still.
Like a good woman she sought to hide her husband’s faults, and keep the watch alone; but Marrion was like one of the family ”

“ How he loves his mistress who sits him so light, so firm, so easily swaying; she bends him to her will by master-strength; yet pats and soothes as she might a frightened child. Sweetness and strength! that is all the magic. The rein is a channel through which intelligence goes most subtly. Good Sylvan knows and loves his rider—feels her vividly to the core of his quick sense; will serve her unquestioning to the limit of his speed and stay. ”

“ Pass a few busy, taskful years, come and go a few brief seasons of stimulating activity and wholesome intercourse; then I can hold out my untrembling hand to Robert’s wife, and forget the lover in the friend; now let us part.”
She stepped forward and extended her hand; he kissed it and pressed it warmly, and then the dream was ended. A matter of a moment, true enough, but death itself is but a moment, yet eternity is its successor.
Cherokee took the path to the house; her eyes held a troubled light as they looked back, Marrion was standing where she had left him, in a hopeless attitude. ”

“ The air, as well as the leaves, was [Pg 99] permeated, soaked through and through, with sunlight—quivering, brilliant, radiant; sunlight that blazes from out a sky of pearl, opal and sapphire; sunlight that drenched historic “Ashland” with liquid amber, kissed every fair thing awake, and soothed every shadow; sunlight that caresses and does not scorch, that dazzles and does not blind.
Upon one hunting trip the Major took Robert up near Cherokee’s old home—the woods and fields where her childhood passed. ”

“ Who are we, any of us, that we should be hard on others?”
“Judge gently,” she replied.
“I hope I always do that.”
“If I only dared tell her now,” said Frost to himself, “but it’s not my affair.”
He saw the feminine droop of her head, and the dainty curve of her beautiful arm.
“She is about to weep,” he muttered.
Miss Baxter, who had been amusing herself with other revelers, turned to interrupt: “Mr. Frost, you haven’t given him dead away?”
This, so recklessly spoken, only added to Cherokee’s discomfort. A flush rose to her cheek. ”

“ Gradually the wind increased, and soon, with fierce gusts, shook the trees with shuddering anxiety. An appalling crash of thunder followed almost instantly, its deep boom vibrating [Pg 173] in suddenly grand echoes; then, with a whirling, hissing rush of rain, the unbound storm burst forth, alive and furious. After an hour there was a temporary lull, the wind no longer surged with violence, rain fell at intervals, a sullen mist obscured earth and heaven.
Robert was preparing to confront the weather when there came a loud knock on the door. ”

“ With some, to write is not a vague desire, but an imperious destiny. This was true of Marrion Latham; to this man of only eight and twenty years, heaven had entrusted its solemn agencies of genius. What a vast experience he must have had, for few people become great writers without tasting all these fierce emotions and passionate struggles. It is said that we must measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have known. Whatever grief he had borne had been in silence, and his laugh was as joyous as when a boy.
He was of high lineage, and Southern born ”

“ Here Frost, more wickedly practical, continued: “Now, you are of gentle blood, being fitted out by nature with the most unfortunate combination of attributes. Nature has given you much more than your share of intelligence and manly beauty, together with most refined and sympathetic sensibilities and luxurious tastes, and then has placed you in an orbit representing intelligence, aristocracy and wealth. ”