Andrew Vane

“ Now the scales fell from Andrew’s eyes, and he knew that what she had said was true. Compared to Margery — the Margery he had loved and lost, what was this Mirabelle to whom he had yielded her place? Beautiful, yes! But the perception of beauty, like beauty’s self, lies only skin-deep. Now, with Radwalader’s suggestion that the way of retreat lay open, came the reaction, inevitable in such a nature as Andrew Vane’s, from an emotion purely extrinsic. ”

“ One night in late August her child was born, and the west wind that brought a new soul to the Sterling door, pausing an instant in its passing, gathered up, and in its kind arms bore away, on its pathless flight into the Great Unknown, the tired spirit of Helen Vane. ”

“ Wait a moment!” — as Andrew was about to speak — “let me explain. I’m not the sort that cuts into other people’s affairs as a rule. I detest meddling, and ordinarily I don’t want to be bothered with what doesn’t concern me. But I like you, Vane — I do, heartily. I’d be more sorry than a little to see you in trouble. What’s more, I feel to a certain extent responsible, as I was the one to introduce you. Well, then — suppose you leave the whole affair to me. I know the world, and especially Paris, and more especially Mirabelle Tremonceau. ”

“ Andrew Vane!”
“I never heard anything better in the way of a sermon,” said Andrew, groping for an answer.
“It’s too true to be good,” retorted Mrs. Carnby. “Do you believe any of it?”
“Some, perhaps — not all. And the whole attack is a little abrupt. What have I been doing?”
“Nothing! You’ve hit upon precisely the objection. ‘Tekel! — thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting!’ Margery Palffy is like my own daughter to me, Mr. Vane. She calls me her fairy godmother, you know. Are you looking forward to introducing her to Mirabelle Tremonceau?” ”

“ Radwalader sank back easily into his chair.
“My good Mirabelle,” he said, “all this is very admirable as sentiment and, I must say, extraordinarily well done. It’s a pity that it should be wasted upon an impossible situation. Be patient with me for a moment, and I’ll show you precisely why you’ll neither edify the capitals of Europe with an account of my private affairs nor compel me to do anything but what I choose to do in the case of Mr. Andrew Vane. We are three in number: I, a gentleman who chooses, for reasons of his own, to keep one side of his life from the view of the general public ”

“ The two men were eating at the leisurely rate which is the most invaluable lesson Paris teaches the American. Andrew’s lips curled in a little sneer.
“It’s all a farce,” he said, “and, God knows, I’m the biggest mountebank of them all. When I look back six weeks, it’s another Andrew Vane I see — a better one.”
“But not a happier one, I fancy,” suggested Radwalader.
“Why not? Do you think, after all your experience, that Paris brings happiness? Distraction, perhaps — amusement — knowledge — but happiness? Oh no!” ”

“ As the thought came of the motherhood thus denied her, she wondered why she had been faithful to John Vane. Once she had believed in him, and so strong had been this faith that some shreds of it yet remained, to bind her to him through all the unspeakably humiliating days of his gradual but inevitable degradation. Nor was her fidelity of the negative, meaningless kind which is strong simply because unassailed. As a woman of the world, she had, more than once, been brought into contact with men lax in their scrupulosity, but scrupulous in their laxity. ”

“ She realized that emotion would be as fatal to her purpose as would sheer frivolity.
“Under your words,” continued Andrew, “I can see that there must lie a more or less intimate knowledge of many things which we have never mentioned— many things which I did not suppose you would ever—”
“Find out? You really are young, aren’t you? Why, my dear Mr. Vane, any given woman of average intelligence can find out whatever she chooses about any given man, provided always she hasn’t the fatal handicap of being in love with him. ”

“ It came into being, my dear Vane, in a stuffy, overfurnished little apartment in one of the suburbs, as a patron of questionable merit by a charming creature with more ideas than reputation, and was first worn at the little Mathurins — or here — by Ninon Gyrianne: at a theatre where my lady would not be seen, by a woman whom she would not receive! ”

“ Vane has been taught her creed, which is to make a necessity of virtue. His daily fare has been a rechauffé of worn-out fallacies. I haven’t a doubt but what he’s been instructed that an honest man is the noblest work of God, and I’ve no idea that he’s ever understood till now that vice is its own reward, or how immaterial it is whether a thing is gold or not, so long as it really glitters. ”

“ It was all very sane and healthy, all in wonderful contrast to her morbid life in the shadow of John Vane’s personality.
There had been no children — a fact which, in happier hours, she had deplored, but for which she was now profoundly grateful. There are things which it is easier to bear alone. To share with another — and that other her child — the humiliation of her ill-starred association with her husband, would but have been to double the burden’s weight. In her own case the period of martyrdom was well-nigh done. ”

“ John Vane had wooed his wife with the easy confidence born of adequate position, adequate means, and more than adequate ability. Four years of Harvard had taught him to believe life in the little Western town which had been his birthplace, to be, for a man of literary bent, a practical impossibility ”

“ Chapter IX. The Woman in the Case. In the sun-spangled stretch of shade under the acacias of the Villa Rossignol four drank coffee and talked of Andrew Vane. Mrs. Carnby had remained in Paris three weeks beyond her usual time ”

“ Don’t call the servants for a half-hour, at least: it irritates them immeasurably to have their eating confused with other people’s drinking.”
“I really don’t mean it as gossip,” said Mrs. Ratchett, as the men vanished into the house. “I’m interested in Mr. Vane. He seems more rational and cleaner-cut than the American cubs one sees over here as a rule; and if he’s only going to go the way of the rest of them — if there’s a woman in the case—”
Mrs. Carnby shrugged her shoulders. “Andrew Vane has been in Paris for ten weeks,” she said. ”

“ And he went through this little performance himself with the utmost solemnity. “It’s Vivandière,” he added. “I shall stake a louis on Vivandière.”
“And I, for originality’s sake, shall choose Mathias, with my eyes open,” said Andrew, laughing, as they took their places in line before the booth.
“Well, you couldn’t do better,” observed his companion. “He’s a willing little beast, and not unlikely to romp home in the lead. I’d bet on him myself, except that I’m so damnably unlucky that it really wouldn’t be fair to you, Vane. I never back a horse but what he falls. ”

“ Vane has been too sharp for us, all around. For once in my life, I’ve made a miscalculation. He’s out of the net, right enough, and the best we can do is to abandon the chase and apply ourselves to something more profitable. I’m glad to think that, however unsatisfactory, from a financial point of view, the venture may have proved to me, at least you have not suffered—”
“Enough of that!” broke in Vicot. ”

“ It’s never too late to mend. Cut loose, my dear Vane — cut loose from Mirabelle, and go back to the girl you really care for. You’ll have to deny a few things, of course, and swallow some humiliation; but don’t get tragic over it. In affairs like this, the first course is humble-pie, but the pièce de résistance is invariably fatted calf!”
“Cut loose from Mirabelle,” repeated Andrew. ”

“ I’ve served you faithfully, haven’t I — faithfully, unflinchingly, and loyally — from first to last?”
“From first to last,” echoed Radwalader, slowly nodding.
“Then,” said Mirabelle, with sudden passion, flinging back her head, “I ask for my reward — for my payment — for my wages. I ask of you the honour and integrity of Andrew Vane!”
“The—”
“Yes! — that — that — that! in payment for mine, which I’ve sold to you. Fair exchange is no robbery. I love him, do you hear? ”

“ Paris does such a deal for the raw American, in the way of opening his eyes. Vane is just beginning to ‘learn how.’ I’ve no doubt that in Boston he ate his lettuce with sugar and vinegar, and thought it effeminate to have his nails manicured. Now that he’s acquiring the art of living, pray make some allowance for the crude colouring of his exquisses. The finished picture will be a creation of marked merit, I warrant you. I’ve seen a good bit of Vane, and he can be trusted to take care of himself.”
“The question is whether he can be trusted to have other people take care of him,” said Mrs. ”

“ You must pardon me my shortcomings. I can’t very well be all things to all men — much less to one woman. And, while we are on this subject, it may interest you to know that Vane has chosen his profession: he’s going to be a novelist. ”

“ They moved from their luxurious apartment to a cheap hotel, thence to a cheaper one, thence to a boarding-house. The backward path was strewn with unsettled bills, and loans never to be repaid. Vane wrote spasmodically for the daily papers, and for such of the magazines as would still accept his work, and, on the pittance thus earned, and the generosity of Helen’s father, they contrived to exist, in a fashion, for something over two years. ”

“ The only place where I feel my age is in my knees. Since you’ve never occupied Mademoiselle Tremonceau’s strapontin, my dear Vane, you can have no idea of the physical discomfort attendant upon being a little lower than an angel. Think of my having won — even a placé! Shall we go now? I abhor the crush at the end. Give me a minute to cash my ticket, and then we’ll look up the carriage.”
“Do you speak French?” said Mademoiselle Tremonceau to Andrew, as Radwalader strolled off in the direction of the caisse. ”

“ Carnby. “But, my dear Mr. Vane, that’s not a profession. It’s only a synonym for getting on in society. We’re all of us civil engineers!”
She pushed back her chair as she spoke.
“We’ll wait for you in the salon,” she added, “and, meanwhile, Mrs. Ratchett and I will think up a profession for Mr. Vane. Jeremy, you’re to give them the shortest cigars you have.”
“I was once in the same quandary,” said Radwalader to Andrew, when the men were left alone, “and concluded to let Time answer the question for me. ”

“ You don’t want me to be only the whim of a man’s changed fancy, the thing on which he practises all he has learned from — from—”
“I would to Heaven I could make a man fit for you!” answered Mrs. Carnby, drawing the girl close to her, “but, since I can’t do that, I want you to see things in their true light, and to learn that charity begins in the same place which is called a woman’s sphere, and that love, from her standpoint, is little more than forgiveness on the endless instalment plan!”
“But Andrew—” said Margery eagerly.
“Andrew Vane is only a man,” said Mrs. ”

“ Carnby frankly. “The women one speaks of as being in cases are always more or less disreputable. Well, there is a woman in the case of our young friend — and a very engaging woman at that.”
“Engaging appears to be a habit with Mr. Vane’s flames,” said Mrs. Ratchett. “It’s a little hard on the one in America. And pray where did you see her? — the other, I mean.”
“Oh, here, there, and everywhere. Vane made the mistake, at first, of trying to carry on his little affair sub rosa. People are always seen when they try not to be, you know. ”

“ Vane,” said Peake. “I’ve always maintained that a man of my tastes had no business in the States; but it seems I have, after all. I think I told you, Radwalader — my late, lamented Aunt Esther, you know. ”

“ I’m so careless, Andrew. I don’t think — I forget. You see, we are different, nous autres. What are little things to other women are great things to us, and what are great things to them—”
Then she looked into his eyes. Almost unconsciously, her fingers touched his arm.
“I wish I could make you understand,” she added. “Even with me, there is only one thing that can justify—”
She paused for a breath, with a gesture toward the open window. ”

“ Radwalader closed the piano gently.
“If it affords you any satisfaction to hear it,” he answered, rising with a yawn, “I think it likely that the injunction is entirely superfluous. We sha’n’t gain anything by prolonging this interview. It’s four minutes to six, and I must dress for dinner. When I want you, I’ll stick the blue jar in the window. Meanwhile, here’s fifty francs on account. I’ll get Mr. Vane to pay you in advance.”
Vicot stood silent for a moment, the bill crackling as he folded it between his trembling fingers. ”

“ There was a responsive light in Andrew’s face as he replied:
“Some things, no doubt. I don’t think I could suggest a desirable change in you — except one. Will you let me tell you?”
Margery nodded.
“It’s more of a restoration than a change,” continued Andrew. “I’d like to see you, in every respect, precisely as you were at Beverly.”
“And am I not? A little older, of course, and bound to be more dignified, as becomes a young woman in society; but for the rest, I’d be sorry to think you find a change in me.”
Andrew wheeled back to the piano, and refingered a few chords. ”

“ You may have noticed that Time is prone to reticence. So far, he has not committed himself one way or another.”
“I’m afraid I haven’t the patience for that,” said Andrew. “Besides, it’s different in America. One has to do something over there. It’s almost against the law to be idle.”
“Of course. The only remedy for that is to live in Paris. You might do that. It’s a profession all by itself — of faith, if nothing else. Only one has need of the golden means.”
“I think I am a homeopathist, so far as Europe is concerned,” said Andrew. “I’m already a little homesick for the Common.” ”