Davidge

“ Davidge went to his desk tremulous; Mamise to her typewriter. She hammered out a devil’s tattoo on it, and he devoured estimates and commercial correspondence, while an aromatic haze enveloped them both as truly as if they had been faun and nymph in a bosky glade.
Miss Gabus played Mrs. Grundy all morning and at the noon hour made a noble effort to rescue Mamise from any opportunity to cast an evil spell over poor Mr. Davidge. Women have a wonderful pity for men that other women cultivate! ”

“ It fuses elements that otherwise resist welding, and it annihilates all minor fears in one great terror that ends in a joyous relief.
Mamise was having a noble cry now, and Davidge was sobbing with laughter––the two forms of recreation most congenial to their respective sexes.
Davidge caught her hands and cooed with such noise that the driver outside must have heard the reverberations through the glass:
“You blessed child! I’m a low-lived brute, and you’re an angel.”
A man loves to call himself a brute, and a woman loves to be called an angel, especially when it is untrue in both cases. ”

“ She meant that she was late to life, late to a career.
Davidge stared at her in wonderment as she bent to throw the lever into first speed. She roughed it in her impatience, and the growl of the gear drowned the sound of another man’s voice calling her name. This man ran toward her, but she did not notice him and got away before he could overtake her.
Davidge was jostled by him as he ran, and noted that he called Miss Webling “Mees Vapelink.” The Teutonic intonation did not fall pleasantly on the American ear at that time. ”

“ Mamise came upon Davidge one day in earnest converse with a faithful old toiler who had foreseen the same situation and wanted to know what his boss thought about it.
Iddings had worked as a mechanic all his life. He had worked hard, had lived sober, had turned his wages over to his wife, and spent them on his home and his children.
He was as good a man as could be found. Latterly he had been tormented by two things, the bitterness of increasing infirmities and dwindling power and the visions held out to him by Jake Nuddle and the disciples Jake had formed before he was taken away. ”

“ Worse yet, she had to ask Davidge to give her brother-in-law a job. And Davidge said he would. He said it before he saw Jake. And when he saw him, though he did not like him, he did not guess what treachery the fellow planned. He invited him to come to the shipyard––by train.
He invited Mamise to ride thither in her own car the next day to see his laboratory for ships, never dreaming that the German menace was already planning its destruction.
Not only in cheap plays and farces do people continue in perplexities that one question and one answer would put an end to. ”

“ Perhaps the wretch had a sentimental interest in Davidge, too. She was a widow and a man-grabber; she still had a tyrannic beauty and a greed of conquest. Marie Louise was determined that Davidge should not fall into her clutches, but she could hardly exact a promise from him to stay away.
The taxi was crossing the aqueduct bridge before she could brave the point. She was brazen enough to say, “You’ll accept Lady Clifton-Wyatt’s invitation to tea, of course?”
“Oh, I suppose so,” said Davidge. “No American woman 136 can resist a lord; so how could an American man resist a Lady?” ”

“ But his eyes quarreled with his ears, and kept telling him that this tall beauty who ignored him so perfectly, so haughtily, was really his lost Mamise.
If men would trust their intuitions oftener they would not go wrong so often, perhaps, since their best reasoning is only guesswork, after all. It was not going to be destiny that brought Davidge and Marie Louise together again so much as the man’s hatred of leaving anything unfinished––even 15 a dream or a vague desire. ”

“ He despised his suspicions, and yet––somebody had destroyed his ship. He remembered how shocked she had been by the news. Yet what else could the worst spy do but pretend to be deeply worried? Davidge had never liked Jake Nuddle; Mamise’s alleged relationship by marriage did not gain plausibility on reconsideration. The whim to live in a workman’s cottage was even less convincing.
Mr. Larrey had spoiled Davidge’s blissful mood and his lover’s program for the evening. Davidge moved slowly toward Mamise’s cottage, not as a suitor, but as a student. ”

“ That was not her real reason, but Davidge asked for no other. If he noted that she was strangely excited over a trifle like getting a few servants and a hostess out of bed, he made no comment.
When she pleaded, “Do you mind if I go back to Washington with you?” he chuckled: “It’s certainly better than going alone. But what will you do when you get there?”
“I’ll go to the railroad station and sit up,” Marie Louise announced. “I’m no end sorry to have been such a nuisance.”
“Nuisance!” he protested, and left his intonation to convey all the compliments he dared not utter. ”

“ For situations make people as well as people situations.
Now was the time for an acquaintance of souls. An almost absolute dark erased them from each other’s sight. Their eyes were as useless as the useless eyes of fish in subterrene caverns. Miss Webling could have told Davidge the color of his eyes, of course, being a woman. But being a man, he could not remember the color of hers, because he had noted nothing about her eyes except that they were very eye-ish. ”

“ Davidge was fascinated by her careless summary of such great events; for to one in love, all biography of the beloved becomes important history. But having seen her as a member of Sir Joseph’s household, he was more interested in the interregnum. ”

“ Thousands of men who began poorer than I did are richer than I am. The road’s just as open to you as to me.”
Jake had plenty of answers for this. He had memorized numbers of them from the tracts; but also he had plans that would not be furthered by quarreling with Davidge the first day. He could do Davidge most harm by obeying him and outwardly catering to him. He solaced his pride with a thought of what Davidge’s business would look like when he got through with it.
He laughed: “All right, boss. I was just beefin’, for the fun of beefin’. Them shanties suit me elegant.” ”

“ Davidge opposed her with all his might. He pointed out that the dream of women laboring with men, each at her job, had been postponed, like so many other dreams, lost like so many other benefits that mitigated war.
The horrors of peace were upon the world. Men were driving the women back to the kitchen. There were not jobs enough for all.
But Mamise pleaded to be allowed to work at least till her own ship was finished. So Davidge yielded to quiet her. She put back into her overalls and wielded a monkey-wrench in the engine-room. She took flying trips on the lofty cranes. ”

“ At this delicious moment an insolent cub in boots and spurs cut in and would not be denied. Davidge was tempted to use his fists, but Mamise, though she longed to tarry with Davidge, knew the value of tantalism, and consented to the abduction. For revenge Davidge took up with Polly and 261 danced after Mamise, to be near her. He followed so close that the disastrous cub, in a sudden pirouette, contrived to swipe Polly across the shin and ankle-bones with his spur. ”

“ She’s not on the level.”
Davidge realized that the stenographer he was wooing was not on the level. She was in the clouds. But his curiosity was piqued. He motioned Larrey to a chair and took another.
“Shoot,” he said.
“Well, it’s this Miss Webling. Know anything about her?”
“Something,” said Davidge. He was too much amused to be angry. He thought that Larrey was another of those amateur detectives who flattered Germany by crediting her with an omnipresence in evil. He was a faithful reader of Ellis Parker Butler’s famous sleuth, and he grinned at Larrey. “Well, Mr. Philo Gubb, go on. ”

“ Davidge despised a man who broke his contracts. He broke one with himself and despised himself. He broke his contract to ignore the existence of Marie Louise. The next time he came to Washington he sought her out. He called up the Widdicombe home and learned that she had moved. She had no telephone yet, for it took a vast amount of time to get any but a governmental telephone installed. So he noted her address, and after some hesitation decided to call. If she did not want to see him, her butler could tell him that she was out. ”

“ She had told Davidge that she was dining out with Polly somewhere; consequently it would be safe to tell Polly that she was dining out with Davidge somewhere. The two would never meet to compare notes. Besides, it is pleasanter to lie by telephone. One cannot be seen to blush.
She called up Grinden Hall and was luckily answered by what Widdicombe called “the ebony maid with the ivory head.” Mamise told her not to summon her lame mistress to the telephone, but merely to say that Miss Webling was dining with Mr. Davidge and going to the theater with him. ”

“ She, too, had dressed with a finikin care, as Davidge had, neither of them stopping to think how quaint a custom it is for people who know each other well and see each other in plain clothes every day to get themselves up with meticulous skill in the evening like Christmas parcels for each other’s examination. Nature dresses the birds in the mating season. Mankind with the 227 aid of the dressmaker and the haberdasher plumes up at will.
But as Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell, and Davidge his Larrey, so Mamise had her sister Abbie. ”

“ Those shanties would be considered palaces in Belgium and northern France. In fact, any number of women are over there now building huts for the poor souls.”
Davidge grew more and more wretched. He could not understand such a twisted courtship. His sweetheart did not want jewels and luxuries and a life of wealthy ease. Her only interest in him seemed to be that he would let her live in a shanty, wear overalls, and pound steel all day for union wages.
184 CHAPTER III
An eloquent contrast with Marie Louise was furnished by Jake Nuddle. ”

“ Triffitt gaped with astonishment as he saw Professor Cox-Raythwaite and Selwood descend from the taxi-cab, pass up the steps, and disappear.
“Talk of mysteries!” he said. “This——”
Davidge pulled out an old-fashioned watch.
“Nine o’clock,” he remarked. “Come on—we’ll go in. Now, then, Mr. Triffitt,” he continued, pressing his companion’s arm, “let me give you a tip. You mayn’t know that I’m a Yorkshireman—I am! We’ve a good old proverb—it’s often cast up against us: ‘Hear all—say naught!’ You’ll see me act on it tonight—act on it yourself. ”

“ If we let the lady go, hawk and man must have their necks wrung, after forest laws.’
‘And I tell thee,’ cried Davie, ‘that this is a noble gentleman of Scotland, and that we will fight for him to the death.’
‘Let it alone, Davie,’ said George. ‘No scathe shall come to the lady through me.’
‘Save him, Davie! save Skywing!’ screamed Jean.
‘To the rescue—a Drummond,’ shouted David; but his father pushed his horse forward, just as the men in green, were in the act of stringing, all at the same moment, their bows, as tall as themselves. ”

“ Davy drew a long breath. “So you think,” said he, “that the sweet woman in the church is loving her husband in spite of all?”
“Fear she is, poor fool,” said Lovibond.
“Bless her!” said Davy, beneath his breath. “D’ye think, now,” said he, “that all women are like that?”
“Many are—too many,” said Lovibond.
“Equal to forgiving and forgetting, eh?” said Davy.
“Yes—the sweet simpletons—and taking the men back as well,” said Lovibond.
“Extraordinary!” said Davy. “Aw, matey, matey, men’s only muck where women comes. Women is reg’lar eight-teen-carat goold. ”

“ Do you think she's that?' David tried to laugh it off.
The minister nodded.
'You'll find it out in Paris even more than you have here. Paris is a bad place, they say. So's London, for the matter of that. Davy, before you go, I've got one thing to say to you.'
'Say away, sir.'
'You know a great deal, Davy. My wits are nothing to yours. You'll shoot ahead of all your old friends, my boy, some day. But there's one thing you know nothing about—absolutely nothing—and you prate as if you did. Perhaps you must turn Christian before you do. ”

“ Une seule main lui à suffi pour mettre le suicidé par terre; de l’autre main il tient encore sa carafe, qu’il vient de remplir à la fontaine de la cour.
De voir la tête effarée et les yeux pleins de larmes du petit Chose, l’abbé Germane à cessé de sourire, et il répète, mais cette fois d’une voix douce et presque attendrie:
— Quelle drôle d’idée, mon cher Daniel, de faire du trapèze à cette heure!
Le petit Chose est tout rouge, tout interdit.
— Je ne fais pas du trapèze, monsieur l’abbé, je veux mourir.
— Comment!... mourir?... Tu as donc bien du chagrin? ”

“ He said nothing in answer to this last remark, and Ancrum could not decipher him in the darkness visible of the ill-trimmed lamp.
'She's been on your mind, Davy, hasn't she?' he said, gently, laying his blanched hand on the young man's knee.
'Well, perhaps she has,' David admitted, with an odd note in his voice. 'She's not an easy one to manage.'
'No. But you've got to manage her, Davy. There's only you and she together. It's your task. It's set you. ”

“ Davey was, like herself, richly and healthily replete, though with less of his substance in stature; a frankly fat gentleman, blooming still at eight-and-forty, with a large smooth shining face, void of a sign of moustache or whisker and crowned with dense dark hair cropped close to his head after the fashion of a French schoolboy or the inmate of a jail. ”