A smooth road of bluestone with a surface like velvet, rarely broken by badly paved or badly worn sections, ran straight south. Past mansions standing amid spacious lawns all ablaze with late summer and early autumn flowers they sped; past parks, long stretches of walls, high fences of wrought iron through which brief glimpses of woodlands and splendid gardens caught Rue’s eye. And, every now and then, slowing down to traverse some village square and emerging from the further limits, the great river flashed into view, sometimes glassy still under high headlands or along towering parapets of mountains, sometimes ruffled and silvery where it widened into bay or inland sea, with a glimmer of distant villages on the further shore.
Over the western bank a blinding sun hung in a sky without a cloud — a sky of undiluted azure; but farther south, and as the sun declined, traces of vapours from the huge but still distant city stained the heavens. Gradually the increasing haze changed from palest lavender and lemon-gold to violet and rose with smouldering undertones of fire. Beneath it the river caught the stains in deeper tones, flowing in sombre washes of flame or spreading wide under pastel tints of turquoise set with purple.
Now, as the sun hung lower, the smoke of every river boat, every locomotive speeding along the shores below, lay almost motionless above the water, tinged with the delicate enchantment of declining day.
And into this magic veil Rue was passing already through the calm of a late August afternoon, through tree-embowered villages and towns, the names of which she did not know — swiftly, inexorably passing into the iris-grey obscurity where already the silvery points of arc-lights stretched away into intricate geometrical designs — faint traceries as yet sparkling with subdued lustre under the sunset heavens.
Vast shadowy shapes towered up ahead — outlying public buildings, private institutions, industrial plants, bridges of iron and steel, the ponderous bowed spans of which crossed wildernesses of railroad tracks or craft-crowded waters.
Two enormous arched viaducts of granite stretched away through sparkling semi-obscurity — High Bridge and Washington Bridge. Then it became an increasing confusion of phantom masses against a fading sky — bridges, towers, skyscrapers, viaducts, boulevards, a wilderness of streets outlined by the growing brilliancy of electric lamps.
Brandes, deftly steering through the swarming maze of twilight avenues, turned east across the island, then swung south along the curved parapets and spreading gardens of Riverside Drive.
Perhaps Brandes was tired; he had become uncommunicative, inclined to silence. He did point out to her the squat, truncated mass where the great General slept; called her attention to the river below, where three grey battleships lay. A bugle call from the decks came faintly to her ears.
If Rue was tired she did not know it as the car swept her steadily deeper amid the city’s wonders.
On her left, beyond the trees, the great dwellings and apartments of the Drive were already glimmering with light in every window; to the right, under the foliage of this endless necklace of parks and circles, a summer-clad throng strolled and idled along the river wall; and past them moved an unbroken column of automobiles, taxicabs, and omnibuses.
At Seventy-second Street they turned to the east across the park, then into Fifth Avenue south once more. She saw the name of the celebrated avenue on the street corner, turned to glance excitedly at Brandes; but his preoccupied face was expressionless, almost forbidding, so she turned again in quest of other delightful discoveries. But there was nothing to identify for her the houses, churches, hotels, shops, on this endless and bewildering avenue of grey stone; as they swung west into Forty-second Street, she caught sight of the great marble mass of the Library, but had no idea what it was.
Into this dusky cañon, aflame with light, they rolled, where street lamps, the lamps of vehicles, and electric signs dazzled her unaccustomed eyes so that she saw nothing except a fiery vista filled with the rush and roar of traffic.
When they stopped, the chauffeur dropped from the rumble and came around to where a tall head porter in blue and silver uniform was opening the tonneau door.
Brandes said to his chauffeur:
“Here are the checks. Our trunks are at the Grand Central. Get them aboard, then come back here for us at ten o’clock.”
The chauffeur lifted his hand to his cap, and looked stealthily between his fingers at Brandes.
“Ten o’clock,” he repeated; “very good, sir.”
Rue instinctively sought Brandes’ arm as they entered the crowded lobby, then remembered, blushed, and withdrew her hand.
Brandes had started toward the desk with the intention of registering and securing a room for the few hours before going aboard the steamer; but something halted him — some instinct of caution. No, he would not register. He sent their luggage to the parcels room, found a maid who took Rue away, then went on through into the bar, where he took a stiff whisky and soda, a thing he seldom did.
In the toilet he washed and had himself brushed. Then, emerging, he took another drink en passant, conscious of an odd, dull sense of apprehension for which he could not account.
At the desk they told him there was no telephone message for him. He sauntered over to the news stand, stared at the display of periodicals, but had not sufficient interest to buy even an evening paper.
So he idled about the marble-columned lobby, now crowded with a typical early-autumn throng in quest of dinner and the various nocturnal amusements which the city offers at all times to the frequenters of its thousand temples.
Rue came out of the ladies’ dressing room, and he went to her and guided her into the dining-room on the left, where an orchestra was playing. In her blue, provincial travelling gown the slender girl looked oddly out of place amid lace and jewels and the delicate tints of frail evening gowns, but her cheeks were bright with colour and her grey eyes brilliant, and the lights touched her thick chestnut hair with a ruddy glory, so that more than one man turned to watch her pass, and the idly contemptuous indifference of more than one woman ended at her neck and chin.
What Rue ate she never afterward remembered. It was all merely a succession of delicious sensations for the palate, for the eye, for the ear when the excellent orchestra was playing some gay overture from one of the newer musical comedies or comic operas.
Brandes at times seemed to shake off a growing depression and rouse himself to talk to her, even jest with her. He smoked cigarettes occasionally during dinner, a thing he seldom did, and, when coffee was served, he lighted one of his large cigars.
Rue, excited under an almost childishly timid manner, leaned on the table with both elbows and linked fingers, listening, watching everything with an almost breathless intelligence which strove to comprehend.
People left; others arrived; the music continued. Several times people passing caught Brandes’ eye, and bowed and smiled. He either acknowledged such salutes with a slight and almost surly nod, or ignored them altogether.
One of his short, heavy arms lay carelessly along the back of his chair, where he was sitting sideways looking at the people in the lobby — watching with that same odd sensation of foreboding of which he had been conscious from the first moment he had entered the city line.
What reason for apprehension he had he could not understand. Only an hour lay between him and the seclusion of the big liner; a few hours and he and this girl beside him would be at sea.
Once he excused himself, went out to the desk, and made an inquiry. But there was no telephone or telegraph message for him; and he came back chewing his cigar.
Finally his uneasiness drew him to his feet again:
“Rue,” he said, “I’m going out to telephone to Mr. Stull. It may take some little time. You don’t mind waiting, do you?”
“No,” she said.
“Don’t you want another ice or something?”
She confessed that she did.
So he ordered it and went away.
As she sat leisurely tasting her ice and watching wi
th unflagging interest the people around her, she noticed that the dining-room was already three-quarters empty. People were leaving for café, theatre, or dance; few remained.
Of these few, two young men in evening dress now arose and walked toward the lobby, one ahead of the other. One went out; the other, in the act of going, glanced casually at her as he passed, hesitated, halted, then, half smiling, half inquiringly, came toward her.
“Jim Neeland!” she exclaimed impulsively. “ — I mean Mr. Neeland — —” a riot of colour flooding her face. But her eager hand remained outstretched. He took it, pressed it lightly, ceremoniously, and, still standing, continued to smile down at her.
Amid all this strange, infernal glitter; amid a city of six million strangers, suddenly to encounter a familiar face — to see somebody — anybody — from Gayfield — seemed a miracle too delightful to be true.
“You are Rue Carew,” he said. “I was not certain for a moment. You know we met only once before.”
Rue, conscious of the startled intimacy of her first greeting, blushed with the memory. But Neeland was a tactful young man; he said easily, with his very engaging smile:
“It was nice of you to remember me so frankly and warmly. You have no idea how pleasant it was to hear a Gayfield voice greet me as ‘Jim.’”
“I — didn’t intend to — —”
“Please intend it in future, Rue. You don’t mind, do you?”
“No.”
“And will you ever forget that magnificent winter night when we drove to Brookhollow after the party?”
“I have — remembered it.”
“So have I.... Are you waiting for somebody? Of course you are,” he added, laughing. “But may I sit down for a moment?”
“Yes, I wish you would.”
So he seated himself, lighted a cigarette, glanced up at her and smiled.
“When did you come to New York?” he asked.
“Tonight.”
“Well, isn’t that a bit of luck to run into you like this! Have you come here to study art?”
“No.... Yes, I think, later, I am to study art here.”
“At the League?”
“I don’t know.”
“Better go to the League,” he said. “Begin there anyway. Do you know where it is?”
“No,” she said.
He called a waiter, borrowed pencil and pad, and wrote down the address of the Art Students’ League. He had begun to fold the paper when a second thought seemed to strike him, and he added his own address.
“In case I can do anything for you in any way,” he explained.
Rue thanked him, opened her reticule, and placed the folded paper there beside her purse.
“I do hope I shall see you soon again,” he said, looking gaily, almost mischievously into her grey eyes. “This certainly resembles fate. Don’t you think so, Rue — this reunion of ours?”
“Fate?” she repeated.
“Yes. I should even call it romantic. Don’t you think our meeting this way resembles something very much like romance?”
She felt herself flushing, tried to smile:
“It couldn’t resemble anything,” she explained with quaint honesty, “because I am sailing for Europe tomorrow morning; I am going on board in less than an hour. And also — also, I — —”
“Also?” — he prompted her, amused, yet oddly touched by her childishly literal reply.
“I am — married.”
“Good Lord!” he said.
“This morning,” she added, tasting her ice.
“And you’re sailing for Europe on your honeymoon!” he exclaimed. “Well, upon my word! And what is your ship?”
“The Lusitania.”
“Really! I have a friend who is sailing on her — a most charming woman. I sent flowers to her only an hour ago.”
“Did you?” asked Rue, interested.
“Yes. She is a widow — the Princess Mistchenka — a delightful and pretty woman. I am going to send a note to the steamer tonight saying that — that my very particular friend, Ruhannah Carew, is on board, and won’t she ask you to tea. You’d love her, Rue. She’s a regular woman.”
“But — oh, dear! — a Princess!”
“You won’t even notice it,” he said reassuringly. “She’s a corker; she’s an artist, too. I couldn’t begin to tell you how nice she has been to me. By the way, Rue, whom did you marry?”
“Mr. Brandes.”
“Brandes? I don’t remember — was he from up-state?”
“No; New York — I think — —”
As she bent forward to taste her ice again he noticed for the first time the childlike loveliness of her throat and profile; looked at her with increasing interest, realising that she had grown into a most engaging creature since he had seen her.
Looking up, and beyond him toward the door, she said:
“I think your friend is waiting for you. Had you forgotten him?”
“Oh, that’s so!” he exclaimed. Then rising and offering his hand: “I wish you happiness, Rue. You have my address. When you return, won’t you let me know where you are? Won’t you let me know your husband?”
“Yes.”
“Please do. You see you and I have a common bond in art, another in our birthplace. Gayfield folk are your own people and mine. Don’t forget me, Rue.”
“No, I won’t.”
So he took his leave gracefully and went away through the enthralling, glittering unreality of it all leaving a young girl thrilled, excited, and deeply impressed with his ease and bearing amid awe-inspiring scenes in which she, too, desired most ardently to find herself at ease.
Also she thought of his friend, the Princess Mistchenka. And again, as before, the name seemed to evoke within her mind a recollection of having heard it before, very long ago.
She wondered whether Neeland would remember to write, and if he did she wondered whether a real princess would actually condescend to invite her to take tea.
CHAPTER XI
THE BREAKERS
The east dining-room was almost empty now, though the lobby and the café beyond still swarmed with people arriving and departing. Brandes, chafing at the telephone, had finally succeeded in getting Stull on the wire, only to learn that the news from Saratoga was not agreeable; that they had lost on every horse. Also, Stull had another disquieting item to detail; it seemed that Maxy Venem had been seen that morning in the act of departing for New York on the fast express; and with him was a woman resembling Brandes’ wife.
“Who saw her?” demanded Brandes.
“Doc. He didn’t get a good square look at her. You know the hats women wear.”
“All right. I’m off, Ben. Good-bye.”
The haunting uneasiness which had driven him to the telephone persisted when he came out of the booth. He cast a slow, almost sleepy glance around him, saw no familiar face in the thronged lobby, then he looked at his watch.
The car had been ordered for ten; it lacked half an hour of the time; he wished he had ordered the car earlier.
For now his uneasiness was verging on that species of superstitious inquietude which at times obsesses all gamblers, and which is known as a “hunch.” He had a hunch that he was “in wrong” somehow or other; an overpowering longing to get on board the steamer assailed him — a desire to get out of the city, get away quick.
The risk he had taken was beginning to appear to him as an unwarranted piece of recklessness; he was amazed with himself for taking such a chance — disgusted at his foolish and totally unnecessary course with this young girl. All he had had to do was to wait a few months. He could have married in safety then. And even now he didn’t know whether or not the ceremony performed by Parson Smawley had been an illegally legal one; whether it made him a bigamist for the next three months or only something worse. What on earth had possessed him to take such a risk — the terrible hazard of discovery, of losing the only woman he had ever really cared for — the only one he probably could ever car
e for? Of course, had he been free he would have married her. When he got his freedom he would insist on another ceremony. He could persuade her to that on some excuse or other. But in the meanwhile!
He entered the deserted dining-room, came over to where Rue was waiting, and sat down, heavily, holding an unlighted cigar between his stubby fingers.
“Well, little girl,” he said with forced cheerfulness, “was I away very long?”
“Not very.”
“You didn’t miss me?” he inquired, ponderously playful.
His heavy pleasantries usually left her just a little doubtful and confused, for he seldom smiled when he delivered himself of them.
He leaned across the cloth and laid a hot, cushiony hand over both of hers, where they lay primly clasped on the table edge:
“Don’t you ever miss me when I’m away from you, Rue?” he asked.
“I think — it is nice to be with you,” she said, hotly embarrassed by the publicity of his caress.
“I don’t believe you mean it.” But he smiled this time. At which the little rigid smile stamped itself on her lips; but she timidly withdrew her hands from his.
“Rue, I don’t believe you love me.” This time there was no smile.
She found nothing to answer, being without any experience in give-and-take conversation, which left her always uncertain and uncomfortable.
For the girl was merely a creature still in the making — a soft, pliable thing to be shaped to perfection only by the light touch of some steady, patient hand that understood — or to be marred and ruined by a heavy hand which wrought at random or in brutal haste.
Brandes watched her for a moment out of sleepy, greenish eyes. Then he consulted his watch again, summoned a waiter, gave him the parcels-room checks, and bade him have a boy carry their luggage into the lobby.
As they rose from the table, a man and a woman entering the lobby caught sight of them, halted, then turned and walked back toward the street door which they had just entered.
Brandes had not noticed them where he stood by the desk, scratching off a telegram to Stull:
Works of Robert W Chambers Page 813