by Zane Grey
“Everything except love,” interrupted Margaret, bitterly.
Mrs. Maynard actually flushed, but she kept her temper.
“It’s desirable that you love your husband. Any sensible woman can learn to care for a man. Love, as you dream about it is merely a—a dream. If women waited for that they would never get married.”
“Which would be preferable to living without love.”
“But Margaret, what would become of the world? If there were fewer marriages—Heaven knows they’re few enough nowadays—there would be fewer families—and in the end fewer children—less and less——”
“They’d be better children,” said Margaret, calmly.
“Eventually the race would die out.”
“And that’d be a good thing—if the people can’t love each other.”
“How silly—exasperating!” ejaculated Mrs. Maynard. “You don’t mean such nonsense. What any girl wants is a home of her own, a man to fuss over. I didn’t marry for love, as you dream it. My husband attended to his business and I’ve looked after his household. You’ve had every advantage. I flatter myself our marriage has been a success.”
Margaret’s eyes gleamed like pointed flames.
“I differ with you. Your married life hasn’t been successful any more than it’s been happy. You never cared for father. You haven’t been kind to him since his failure.”
Mrs. Maynard waved her hand imperiously in angry amaze.
“I won’t stop. I’m not a baby or a doll,” went on Margaret, passionately. “If I’m old enough to marry I’m old enough to talk. I can think, can’t I? You never told me anything, but I could see. Ever since I can remember you and father have had one continual wrangle about money—bills—expenses. Perhaps I’d have been better off without all the advantages and luxury. It’s because of these things you want to throw me at some man. I’d far rather go to work the same as Blaid did, instead of college.”
“Whatever on earth has come over you?” gasped Mrs. Maynard, bewildered by the revolt of this once meek daughter.
“Maybe I’m learning a little sense. Maybe I got some of it from Daren Lane,” flashed back Margaret.
“Mother, whatever I’ve learned lately has been learned away from home. You’ve no more idea what’s going on in the world today than if you were actually dead. I never was bright like Mel Iden, but I’m no fool. I see and hear and I read. Girls aren’t pieces of furniture to be handed out to some rich men. Girls are waking up. They can do things. They can be independent. And being independent doesn’t mean a girl’s not going to marry. For she can wait—wait for the right man—for love.… You say I dream. Well, why didn’t you wake me up long ago—with the truth? I had my dreams about love and marriage. And I’ve learned that love and marriage are vastly different from what most mothers make them out to be, or let a girl think.”
“Margaret, I’ll not have you talk in this strange way. You owe me respect if not obedience,” said Mrs. Maynard, her voice trembling.
“Oh, well, I won’t say any more,” replied Margaret, “But can’t you spare me? Couldn’t we live within our means?”
“After all these years—to skimp along! I couldn’t endure it.”
“Whom have you in mind for me to—to marry?” asked the girl, coldly curious.
“Mr. Swann has asked your hand in marriage for his son Richard. He wants Richard to settle down. Richard is wild, like all these young men. And I have—well, I encouraged the plan.”
“Mother!” cried Margaret, springing up.
“Margaret, you will see”
“I despise Dick Swann.”
“Why?” asked her mother.
“I just do. I never liked him in school. He used to do such mean things. He’s selfish. He let Holt and Daren suffer for his tricks.”
“Margaret, you talk like a child.”
“Listen, mother.” She threw her arms round Mrs. Maynard and kissed her and spoke pleadingly. “Oh, don’t make me hate myself. It seems I’ve grown so much older in the last year or so—and lately since this marriage talk came up. I’ve thought of things as never before because I’ve—I’ve learned about them. I see so differently. I can’t—can’t love Dick Swann. I can’t bear to have him touch me. He’s rude. He takes liberties.… He’s too free with his hands! Why, it’d be wrong to marry him. What difference can a marriage service make in a girl’s feelings.… Mother, let me say no.”
“Lord spare me from bringing up another girl!” exclaimed Mrs. Maynard. “Margaret, I can’t make you marry Richard Swann. I’m simply trying to tell you what any sensible girl would see she had to do. You think it over—both sides of the question—before you absolutely decide.”
Mrs. Maynard was glad to end the discussion and to get away. In Margaret’s appeal she heard a yielding, a final obedience to her wish. And she thought she had better let well enough alone. The look in Margaret’s clear blue eyes made her shrink; it would haunt her. But she felt no remorse. Any mother would have done the same. There was always the danger of that old love affair; there was new danger in these strange wild fancies of modern girls; there was never any telling what Margaret might do. But once married she would be safe and her position assured.
CHAPTER VII
Daren Lane left Riverside Park, and walked in the meadows until he came to a boulder under a huge chestnut tree. Here he sat down. He could not walk far these days. Many a time in the Indian summers long past he had gathered chestnuts there with Dal, with Mel Iden, with Helen. He would never do it again.
The April day had been warm and fresh with the opening of a late spring. The sun was now gold—rimming the low hills in the west; the sky was pale blue; the spring flowers whitened the meadow. Twilight began to deepen; the evening star twinkled out of the sky; the hush of the gloaming hour stole over the land.
“Four weeks home—and nothing done. So little time left!” he muttered.
Two weeks of that period he had been unable to leave his bed. The rest of the time he had dragged himself around, trying to live up to his resolve, to get at the meaning of the present, to turn his sister Lorna from the path of dalliance. And he had failed in all.
His sister presented the problem that most distressed Lane. She had her good qualities, and through them could be reached. But she was thoughtless, vacillating, and wilful. She had made him promises only to break them. Lane had caught her in falsehoods. And upon being called to account she had told him that if he didn’t like it he could “lump” it. Of late she had grown away from what affection she had shown at first. She could not bear interference with her pleasures, and seemed uncontrollable. Lane felt baffled. This thing was a Juggernaut impossible to stop.
Lane had scraped acquaintance with Harry Hale, one of Lorna’s admirers, a boy of eighteen, who lived with his widowed mother on the edge of the town. He appeared to be an industrious, intelligent, quiet fellow, not much given to the prevailing habits of the young people. In his humble worship of Lorna he was like a dog. Lorna went to the motion pictures with him occasionally, when she had no other opportunity for excitement. Lane gathered that Lorna really liked this boy, and when with him seemed more natural, more what a fifteen-year-old girl used to be. And somehow it was upon this boy that Lane placed a forlorn hope.
No more automobiles honked in front of the home to call Lorna out. She met her friends away from the house, and returning at night she walked the last few blocks. It was this fact that awoke Lane’s serious suspicions.
Another problem lay upon Lane’s heart; if not so distressing as Lorna’s, still one that added to his sorrow and his perplexity. He had gone once to call on Mel Iden. Mel Iden was all soul. Whatever had been the facts of her downfall—and reflection on that hurt Lane so strangely he could not bear it—it had not been on her part a matter of sex. She was far above wantonness.
Through long hours in the dark of night, when Lane’s pain kept him sleepless, he had pondered over the mystery of Mel Iden until it cleared. She typified the mo
ther of the race. In all periods of the progress of the race, war had brought out this instinct in women—to give themselves for the future. It was a provision of nature, inscrutable and terrible. How immeasurable the distance between Mel Iden and those women who practised birth control! As the war had brought out hideous greed and baseness, so had it propelled forward and upward the noblest attributes of life. Mel Iden was a builder, not a destroyer. She had been sexless and selfless. Unconsciously during the fever and emotion of the training of American men for service abroad, and the poignancy of their departure, to fight, and perhaps never return, Mel Iden had answered to this mysterious instinct of nature. Then, with the emotion past, and face to face with staggering consequences, she had reacted to conscious instincts. She had proved the purity of her surrender. She was all mother. And Lane began to see her moving in a crystal, beautiful light.
For what seemed a long time Lane remained motionless there in the silence of the meadow. Then at length he arose and retraced his slow steps back to town. Darkness overtook him on the bridge that spanned Middleville River. He leaned over the railing and peered down into the shadows. A soft murmur of rushing water came up. How like strange distant voices calling him to go back or go on, or warning him, or giving mystic portent of something that would happen to him there! A cold chill crept over him and he seemed enveloped in a sombre menace of the future. But he shook it off. He had many battles to fight, not the least of which was with morbid imagination.
When he reached the center of town he entered the lobby of the Bradford Inn. He hoped to meet Blair Maynard there. A company of well-dressed youths and men filled the place, most of whom appeared to be making a merry uproar.
Lane observed two men who evidently were the focus of attention. One was a stranger, very likely a traveling man, and at the moment he presented a picture of mingled consternation and anger. He was brushing off his clothes while glaring at a little, stout, red-faced man who appeared about to be stricken by apoplexy. This latter was a Colonel Pepper, whose acquaintance Lane had recently made. He was fond of cards and sport, and appeared to be a favorite with the young men about town. Moreover he had made himself particularly agreeable to Lane, in fact to the extent of Lane’s embarrassment. At this moment the stranger lost his consternation wholly in wrath, and made a threatening movement toward Pepper. Lane stepped between them just in time to save Pepper a blow.
“I know what he’s done. I apologize for him,” said Lane, to the stranger. “He’s made a good many people victims of the same indignity. It’s a weakness—a disease. He can’t help himself. Pray overlook it.”
The stranger appeared impressed with Lane’s presence, probably with his uniform, and slowly shook himself and fell back, to glower at Pepper, and curse under his breath, still uncertain of himself.
Lane grasped Colonel Pepper and led him out of the lobby.
“Pepper, you’re going to get in an awful mess with that stunt of yours,” he declared, severely. “If you can’t help it you ought at least pick on your friends, or the town people—not strangers.”
“Have—a—drink,” sputtered Pepper, with his hand at his hip.
“No, thanks.”
“Have—a—cigar.”
Lane laughed. He had been informed that Colonel Pepper’s failing always took this form of remorse, and certainly he would have tried it upon his latest victim had not Lane interfered.
“Colonel, you’re hopeless,” said Lane, as they walked out. “I hope somebody will always be around to protect you. I’d carry a body guard.… Say, have you seen Blair Maynard or Holt Dalrymple tonight?”
“Not Blair, but Holt was here early with the boys,” replied Pepper. “They’ve gone to the club rooms to have a little game. I’m going to sit in. Lately I had to put up a holler. If the boys quit cards how’m I to make a living?”
“Had Holt been drinking?”
“Not tonight. But he’s been hitting the bottle pretty hard of late.”
Suddenly Lane buttonholed the little man and peered down earnestly at him. “Pepper, I’ve been trying to straighten Holt up. He’s going to the bad. But he’s a good kid. It’s only the company.… The fact is—this’s strictly confidential, mind you—Holt’s sister begged me to try to stop his drinking and gambling. I think I can do it, too, with a little help. Now, Pepper, I’m asking you to help me.”
“Ahuh! Well, let’s go in the writing room, where we can talk,” said the other, and he took hold of Lane’s arm. When they were seated in a secluded corner he lighted a cigar, and faced Lane with shrewd, kindly eyes. “Son, I like you and Blair as well as I hate these slackers Swann and Mackay, and their crowd. I could tell you a heap, and maybe help you, though I think young Holt is not a bad egg.… Is his sister the dark one who steps so straight and holds herself so well?”
“Yes, that sounds like Dorothy,” replied Lane.
“She’s about the only one I know who doesn’t paint her face and I never saw her at—well, never mind where. But the fact I mean makes her stand out in this Middleville crowd like a light in the dark.… Lane, have you got on yet to the speed of the young people of this old burg?”
“I’m getting on, to my sorrow,” said Lane.
“Ahuh! You mean you’re getting wise to your kid sister?”
“Yes, I’m sorry to say. What do you know, Pepper?”
“Now, son, wait. I’m coming to that, maybe. But I want to know some things first. Is it true—what I hear about your health, bad shape, you know—all cut up in the war? Worse than young Maynard?”
Pepper’s hand was close on Lane’s. He had forgotten his cigar. His eyes were earnest.
“True?” laughed Lane, grimly. “Yes, it’s true.… I won’t last long, Pepper, according to Doctor Bronson. That’s why I want to make hay while the sun shines.”
“Ahuh!” Pepper cleared his throat. “Forgive this, boy.… Is it also true you were engaged to marry that Helen Wrapp—and she threw you down, while you were over there?”
“Yes, that’s perfectly true,” replied Lane, soberly.
“God, I guess maybe the soldier wasn’t up against it!” ejaculated Pepper, with a gesture of mingled awe and wonder and scorn.
“What was the soldier up against, Pepper?” queried Lane. “Frankly, I don’t know.”
“Lane, the government jollied and forced the boys into the army,” replied Pepper. “The country went wild with patriotism. The soldiers were heroes. The women threw themselves away on anything inside a uniform. Make the world safe for democracy—down the Hun—save France and England—ideals, freedom, God’s country, and all that! Well, the first few soldiers to return from France got a grand reception, were made heroes of. They were lucky to get back while the sentiment was hot. But that didn’t last.… Now, a year and more after the war, where does the soldier get off? Lane, there’re over six hundred thousand of you disabled veterans, and for all I can read and find out the government has done next to nothing. New York is full of begging soldiers—on the streets. Think of it! And the poor devils are dying everywhere. My God! think of what’s in the mind of one crippled soldier, let alone over half a million. I just have a dim idea of what I’d felt. You must know, or you will know, Lane, for you seem a thoughtful, lofty sort of chap. Just the kind to make a good soldier, because you had ideals and nerve!… Well, a selfish and weak administration could hardly be expected to keep extravagant promises to patriots. But that the American public, as a body, should now be sick of the sight of a crippled soldier—and that his sweetheart should turn him down!—this is the hideous blot, the ineradicable shame, the stinking truth, the damned mystery!”
When Pepper ended his speech, which grew more vehement toward the close, Lane could only stare at him in amaze.
“See here, Lane,” added the other hastily, “pardon me for blowing up. I just couldn’t help it. I took a shine to you—and to see you like this—brings back the resentment I’ve had all along. I’m blunt, but it’s just as well for you to be put wise quick.
You’ll find friends, like me, who will stand by you, if you let them. But you’ll also find that most of this rotten world has gone back on you.…”
Then Pepper made a sharp, passionate gesture that broke his cigar against the arm of his chair, and he cursed low and deep. Presently he addressed Lane again. “Whatever comes of any disclosures I make—whatever you do—you’ll not give me away?”
“Certainly not. You can trust me, Pepper,” returned Lane.
“Son, I’m a wise old guy. There’s not much that goes on in Middleville I don’t get on to. And I’ll make your hair curl. But I’ll confine myself to what comes closest home to you. I get you, Lane. You’re game. You’re through. You have come back from war to find a hell of a mess. Your own sister—your sweetheart—your friend’s brother and your soldier pard’s sister—on the primrose path! And you with your last breath trying to turn them back! I’ll say it’s a damn fine stunt. I’m an old gambler, Lane. I’ve lived in many towns and mixed in tough crowds of crooked men and rotten women. But I’m here to confess that this after-the-war stuff of Middleville’s better class has knocked out about all the faith I had left in human nature.… Then you came along to teach me a lesson.”
“Well, Pepper, that’s strong talk,” returned Lane. “But cut it, and hurry to—to what comes home to me. What’s the matter with these Middleville girls?”
“Lane, any intelligent man, who knows things, and who can think for himself, will tell you this—that to judge from the dress, dance, talk, conduct of these young girls—most of them have apparently gone wrong.”
“You include our nice girls—from what we used to call Middleville’s best families?”
“I don’t only include them. I throw the emphasis on them. The girls you know best.”
Lane straightened up, to look at his companion. Pepper certainly was not drunk.
“Do you know—anything about Lorna?”
“Nothing specifically to prove anything. She’s in the thick of this thing in Middleville. Only a few nights ago I saw her at a roadhouse, out on the State Road, with a crowd of youngsters. They were having a high old time, I’ll say. They danced jazz, and I saw Lorna drink lemonade into which liquor had been poured from a hip-pocket flask.”