Winston Churchill

“ Holt, "all I can say is, I should make new friends amongst another kind of people, if I were you. You are quite right, and if I were seeking examples of happy marriages, I should not begin my search among the so-called fashionable set of the present day. They are so supremely selfish that if the least difference in taste develops, or if another man or woman chances along whom they momentarily fancy more than their own husbands or wives, they get a divorce. Their idea of marriage is not a mutual sacrifice which brings happiness through trials borne together and through the making of character. ”

“ I—I did not know until last night. Howard only told me then. Oh, you didn't do it for me! Please say you didn't do it for me!"
"My dear Honora," replied Trixton Brent, gravely, "we wanted your husband for his abilities and the valuable services he can render us."
She stood looking into his eyes, striving to penetrate to the soul behind, ignorant or heedless that others before her had tried and failed. He met her gaze unflinchingly, and smiled.
"I want the truth," she craved.
"I never lie—to a woman," he said. ”

“ Honora, however, is an heretic, as we know. Without going definitely into her reasons, these festivals had gradually become distasteful to her. Perhaps it would be fairer to look at them through the eyes of Lily Dallam, who was in her element on such days, and regarded them as the most innocent and enjoyable of occasions, and perhaps they were.
The view from the veranda, at least, appealed to our heroine's artistic sense. The marshes in the middle distance, the shimmering sea beyond, and the polo field laid down like a vast green carpet in the foreground ”

“ The chauffeur and Brent leaped in, the bystanders parted with derisive cheers, and away they went through the village, only to announce by another series of explosions a second disaster at the other end of the street. A crowd collected there, too.
"Oh, dear!" said Honora, "don't you think we ought to take the train, Mr. Brent? If I were to miss a dinner at my own house, it would be too terrible!"
"There's nothing to worry about," he assured her. "Nothing broken. It's only the igniting system that needs adjustment." ”

“ I was really more angry than you have any idea of at the manner in which you talked to Howard. And did you seriously suppose that I was in earnest when we spoke about your assistance in persuading him to take the house?"
He laughed.
"You are either the cleverest woman in the world," he declared, "or else you oughtn't to be out without a guardian. And no judge in possession of his five senses would appoint your husband."
Indignant as she was, she could not resist smiling. There was something in the way Brent made such remarks that fascinated her. ”

“ It awoke Honora at what for her was a comparatively early hour, and as she dressed rapidly she heard her husband whistling in his room. It is idle to speculate on the phenomenon taking place within her, and it may merely be remarked in passing that she possessed a quality which, in a man, leads to a career and fame. Unimagined numbers of America's women possess that quality—a fact that is becoming more and more apparent every day.
"Why, Honora!" Howard exclaimed, as she appeared at the breakfast table. ”

“ And oh, it is humiliating not to be able to interest one's husband."
"But you do interest me," he protested.
She shook her head.
"Not so much as your business," she said; "not nearly so much."
"Perhaps I have been too absorbed," he confessed. "One thing has followed another. I didn't suspect that you felt this way. Come, I'll try to brace up." He pressed her to him. "Don't feel badly. You're overwrought. You've exaggerated the situation, Honora. We'll go in on the eight o'clock train together and look at the house—although I'm afraid it's a little steep," he added cautiously. ”

“ It is one of the blessed compensations of life that in times of prosperity we do not remember our miseries. In these enlightened days, when everybody owns an automobile and calmly travels from Chicago to Boston if he chooses, we have forgotten the dark ages when these machines were possessed by devils: when it took sometimes as much as three hours to go twenty miles, and often longer than that. How many of us have had the same experience as Honora! ”

“ Cuthbert got in beside her.
"Jerry's a joker," he observed as they drove off, "you mustn't mind him."
"I think he's delightful," said Honora.
"One wouldn't believe that a man of his size and appearance could be so fond of women," said Mr. Cuthbert. "He's the greatest old lady-killer that ever breathed. For two cents he would have come with us this morning, and let a five thousand dollar commission go. Do you know Mrs. Shorter?"
"No," replied Honora. "She looks most attractive. I caught a glimpse of her at the polo that day with you."
"I've been at her house in Newport ever since. ”

“ But one or two vague remarks of Trixton Brent's which she recalled, and Howard's own request that she should be friendly with Brent, reenforced her instinct on this point.
When she heard her husband's footstep on the porch, she put out her light, but still lay thinking in the darkness. Her revelations had arrived at the uncomfortable stage where they began to frighten her, and with an effort she forced herself to turn to the other side of the account. The hour was conducive to exaggerations. Perfection in husbands was evidently a state not to be considered by any woman in her right senses. ”

“ At that hour the last train they could have taken to reach the dinner-party in time was leaving the New York side of the ferry.
"What will they think?" cried Honora. "They saw us leave Delmonico's at two o'clock, and they didn't know we were going to Westchester."
It needed no very vivid imagination to summon up the probable remarks of Mrs. Chandos on the affair. It was all very well to say the motor broke down; but unfortunately Trixton Brent's reputation was not much better than that of his car. ”

“ He had a contempt for her husband which he had not taken the trouble to hide. But not a business contempt. "As good as the next man," Brent had said—or words to that effect. "As good as the next man!" Then she had tacitly agreed to the bargain, and refused to honour the bill! No, she had not, she had not. Before God, she was innocent of that! When she reached this point it was always to James Wing that she clung—the financier, at least, had been impartial. ”

“ But gradually as the street lights burned brighter and familiar sights began to appear, she grew more controlled and became capable of reflection. She remembered that there was a train for Quicksands at seven-fifteen, which Howard had taken once or twice. But she felt that the interval was too short. In that brief period she could not calm herself sufficiently to face her guests. Indeed, the notion of appearing alone, or with Brent, at that dinner-party, appalled her. And suddenly an idea presented itself.
Brent leaned over, and began to direct the chauffeur to a well-known hotel. ”

“ You're not perfect, by a good deal, and God knows I'm not. You're ambitious, but if you weren't, you'd be humdrum—yet there's no pitiful artifice in you as in other women that any idiot can see through. And it would have paralyzed forever any ordinary woman to have married Howard Spence."
A new method of wooing, surely, and evidently peculiar to Trixton Brent. Honora, in the prey of emotions which he had aroused in spite of her, needless to say did not, at that moment, perceive the humour in it. ”

“ Quicksands a mile-stone on a back road; another toy to break; husband a big man in the community, so far as the eye can see; visiting list on Fifth Avenue, and all that sort of thing."
"I once told you you could be brutal," she said.
"You haven't told me what you thought of the idea."
"I wish you'd be sensible once in a while," she exclaimed.
"Howard Spence, President of the Orange Trust Company!" he recited. "I suppose no man is a hero to his wife. Does it sound so incredible?"
It did. But Honora did not say so. ”

“ Holt, with a smile.
"Well," said Trixton Brent, laughing in spite of himself, "I like the working girls, I have to have a little excitement occasionally. And I find it easier to get off in the summer than in the winter."
"Men cover a multitude of sins under the plea of business," said Mrs. Holt, shaking her head. I can't say I think much of your method of distraction. Why any one desires to get into an automobile, I don't see."
"Have you ever been in one?" he asked. "Mine is here, and I was about to invite you to go down to the ferry in it. I'll promise to go slow." ”

“ They make and mar without rhyme or reason—set business by the ears, alter the gold reserve, disturb the balance of trade, and nobody ever suspects it. Old James Wing and I have got a trust company organized, and the building up, and the man Wing wanted for president backed out."
Honora sat up.
"Why—why did he 'back out'?" she demanded.
"He preferred to stay where he was, I suppose," replied Brent, in another tone. "The point is that the place is empty. I'll give it to YOU."
"To me?"
"Certainly," said Brent, "I don't pretend to care anything about your husband. He'll do as well as the next man. ”

“ There, on the deck of the ferryboat, in the flooding sunlight, the idea seemed to give him amusement. With the morning light Pharaoh must have hardened his heart.
"Well, perhaps you are," said Mr. Brent, conveying to Honora his delight in the situation by a scarcely perceptible wink. "I shouldn't like to take the other end of the bet. Why shouldn't you? You're fat and healthy and making money faster than you can gather it in."
Howard coughed, and laughed a little, uncomfortably. Trixton Brent was not a man to offend. ”

“ Brent is a fascinating man, my dear."
"I am so glad that you appreciate him," exclaimed Honora.
"And a most dangerous one," continued Mrs. Holt. "He has probably, in his day, disturbed the peace of mind of a great many young women. Not that I haven't the highest confidence in you, Honora, but honesty forces me to confess that you are young and pleasure-loving, and a little heedless. And the atmosphere in which you live is not likely to correct those tendencies. If you will take my advice, you will not see too much of Mr. Trixton Brent when your husband is not present." ”

“ Holt. "What I meant was, are you interested in the problems they have to face?"
"Extremely," said he, so unexpectedly that Honora choked. "I can't say that I've given as many hours as I should have liked to a study of the subject, but I don't know of any class that has a harder time. As a rule, they're underpaid and overworked, and when night comes they are either tired to death or bored to death, and the good-looking ones are subject to temptations which some of them find impossible to resist, in a natural desire for some excitement to vary the routine of their lives." ”

“ Honora was silent. She tried not to look at the group, in which there were two women of very attractive appearance, and another man.
"Those people are so superior," Mrs. Dallam continued.
"I'm not surprised at Elsie Shorter. Ever since she married Jerry she's stuck to the Graingers closer than a sister. That's Cecil Grainger, my dear, the man who looks as though he were going to fall asleep any moment. But to think of Abby Kame acting that way! Isn't it ridiculous, Clara?" she cried, appealing to Mrs. Trowbridge. "They say that Cecil Grainger never leaves her side. ”

“ I was tired. I never felt less like entertaining strangers. They wanted to play bridge, there wasn't a quiet spot in the Club where they could go. They knew I was on my way home, and they suggested my house. That is how it happened."
Mrs. Dallam was silent a moment.
"May I have one of Howard's cigarettes?" she asked, and added, after this modest wish had been supplied, that's just like them. They're willing to make use of anybody."
"I meant," said Honora, "to have gone to your house this morning and to have explained how it happened."
Another brief silence, broken by Lily Dallam. ”

“ Brent assented, "or he'd be sitting here now, where I am, instead of playing poker. Although there is something in matrimony that takes the bloom off the peach."
"I think that's a horrid, cynical remark," said Honora.
"Well," he said, "we speak according to our experiences—that is, if we're not inclined to be hypocritical. Most women are."
Honora was silent. He had thrown away his cigar, and she could no longer see his face. She wondered whither he was leading.
"How would you like to see your husband president of a trust company?" he said suddenly.
"Howard—president of a trust company!" ”

“ Holt," said Honora; "Mr. Brent was giving the lunch."
"Who's Mr. Brent?" demanded Mrs. Holt. "One of those Quicksands people?"
"He's not exactly a Quicksands person. I scarcely know how to describe him. He's very rich, and goes abroad a great deal, and plays polo. That's the reason he has a little place at Quicksands. He's been awfully kind both to Howard and me," she added with inspiration.
"And Mrs. Kame?" said Mrs. Holt.
"She's a widow, and has a place at Banbury.
"I never heard of her," said Mrs. Holt, and Honora thanked her stars.
"And Howard approves of these mixed lunches, my dear? ”

“ Quicksands game?"
"No," she replied. "Has Mr. Grainger been at Quicksands since?"
"Nobody knows where he's been," answered Mr. Cuthbert. "It's a mystery. He hasn't been home—at Newport, I mean-for a fortnight. He's never stayed away so long without letting any one know where he is. Naturally they thought he was at Mrs. Kame's in Banbury, but she hasn't laid eyes on him. It's a mystery. My own theory is that he went to sleep in a parlour car and was sent to the yards, and hasn't waked up."
"And isn't Mrs. Grainger worried?" asked Honora. ”