第 五十五 章 · The social and business worlds of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland,

and other cities saw, during the year or two which followed the

breaking of his relationship with Jennie, a curious rejuvenation in

the social and business spirit of Lester Kane. He had become rather

distant and indifferent to certain personages and affairs while he was

living with her, but now he suddenly appeared again, armed with

authority from a number of sources, looking into this and that matter

with the air of one who has the privilege of power, and showing

himself to be quite a personage from the point of view of finance and

commerce. He was older of course. It must be admitted that he was in

some respects a mentally altered Lester. Up to the time he had met

Jennie he was full of the assurance of the man who has never known

defeat. To have been reared in luxury as he had been, to have seen

only the pleasant side of society, which is so persistent and so

deluding where money is concerned, to have been in the run of big

affairs not because one has created them, but because one is a part of

them and because they are one's birthright, like the air one breathes,

could not help but create one of those illusions of solidarity which

is apt to befog the clearest brain. It is so hard for us to know what

we have not seen. It is so difficult for us to feel what we have not

experienced. Like this world of ours, which seems so solid and

persistent solely because we have no knowledge of the power which

creates it, Lester's world seemed solid and persistent and real enough

to him. It was only when the storms set in and the winds of adversity

blew and he found himself facing the armed forces of convention that

he realized he might be mistaken as to the value of his personality,

that his private desires and opinions were as nothing in the face of a

public conviction; that he was wrong. The race spirit, or social

avatar, the "Zeitgeist" as the Germans term it, manifested itself as

something having a system in charge, and the organization of society

began to show itself to him as something based on possibly a

spiritual, or, at least, superhuman counterpart. He could not fly in

the face of it. He could not deliberately ignore its mandates. The

people of his time believed that some particular form of social

arrangement was necessary, and unless he complied with that he could,

as he saw, readily become a social outcast. His own father and mother

had turned on him--his brother and sisters, society, his friends.

Dear heaven, what a to-do this action of his had created! Why, even

the fates seemed adverse. His real estate venture was one of the most

fortuitously unlucky things he had ever heard of. Why? Were the gods

battling on the side of a to him unimportant social arrangement?

Apparently. Anyhow, he had been compelled to quit, and here he was,

vigorous, determined, somewhat battered by the experience, but still

forceful and worth while.

And it was a part of the penalty that he had become measurably

soured by what had occurred. He was feeling that he had been compelled

to do the first ugly, brutal thing of his life. Jennie deserved better

of him. It was a shame to forsake her after all the devotion she had

manifested. Truly she had played a finer part than he. Worst of all,

his deed could not be excused on the grounds of necessity. He could

have lived on ten thousand a year; he could have done without the

million and more which was now his. He could have done without the

society, the pleasures of which had always been a lure. He could have,

but he had not, and he had complicated it all with the thought of

another woman.

Was she as good as Jennie? That was a question which always rose

before him. Was she as kindly? Wasn't she deliberately scheming under

his very eyes to win him away from the woman who was as good as his

wife? Was that admirable? Was it the thing a truly big woman would do?

Was she good enough for him after all? Ought he to marry her? Ought he

to marry any one seeing that he really owed a spiritual if not a legal

allegiance to Jennie? Was it worth while for any woman to marry him?

These things turned in his brain. They haunted him. He could not shut

out the fact that he was doing a cruel and unlovely thing.

Material error in the first place was now being complicated with

spiritual error. He was attempting to right the first by committing

the second. Could it be done to his own satisfaction? Would it

pay mentally and spiritually? Would it bring him peace of mind? He was

thinking, thinking, all the while he was readjusting his life to the

old (or perhaps better yet, new) conditions, and he was not feeling

any happier. As a matter of fact he was feeling worse--grim,

revengeful. If he married Letty he thought at times it would be to use

her fortune as a club to knock other enemies over the head, and he

hated to think he was marrying her for that. He took up his abode at

the Auditorium, visited Cincinnati in a distant and aggressive spirit,

sat in council with the board of directors, wishing that he was more

at peace with himself, more interested in life. But he did not change

his policy in regard to Jennie.

Of course Mrs. Gerald had been vitally interested in Lester's

rehabilitation. She waited tactfully some little time before sending

him any word; finally she ventured to write to him at the Hyde Park

address (as if she did not know where he was), asking, "Where are

you?" By this time Lester had become slightly accustomed to the change

in his life. He was saying to himself that he needed sympathetic

companionship, the companionship of a woman, of course. Social

invitations had begun to come to him now that he was alone and that

his financial connections were so obviously restored. He had made his

appearance, accompanied only by a Japanese valet, at several country

houses, the best sign that he was once more a single man. No reference

was made by any one to the past.

On receiving Mrs. Gerald's note he decided that he ought to go and

see her. He had treated her rather shabbily. For months preceding his

separation from Jennie he had not gone near her. Even now he waited

until time brought a 'phoned invitation to dinner. This he

accepted.

Mrs. Gerald was at her best as a hostess at her perfectly appointed

dinner-table. Alboni, the pianist, was there on this occasion,

together with Adam Rascavage, the sculptor, a visiting scientist from

England, Sir Nelson Keyes, and, curiously enough, Mr. and Mrs. Berry

Dodge, whom Lester had not met socially in several years. Mrs. Gerald

and Lester exchanged the joyful greetings of those who understand each

other thoroughly and are happy in each other's company. "Aren't you

ashamed of yourself, sir," she said to him when he made his

appearance, "to treat me so indifferently? You are going to be

punished for this."

"What's the damage?" he smiled. "I've been extremely rushed. I

suppose something like ninety stripes will serve me about right."

"Ninety stripes, indeed!" she retorted. "You're letting yourself

off easy. What is it they do to evil-doers in Siam?"

"Boil them in oil, I suppose."

"Well, anyhow, that's more like. I'm thinking of something

terrible."

"Be sure and tell me when you decide," he laughed, and passed on to

be presented to distinguished strangers by Mrs. De Lincum who aided

Mrs. Gerald in receiving.

The talk was stimulating. Lester was always at his ease

intellectually, and this mental atmosphere revived him. Presently he

turned to greet Berry Dodge, who was standing at his elbow.

Dodge was all cordiality. "Where are you now?" he asked. "We

haven't seen you in--oh, when? Mrs. Dodge is waiting to have a

word with you." Lester noticed the change in Dodge's attitude.

"Some time, that's sure," he replied easily. "I'm living at the

Auditorium."

"I was asking after you the other day. You know Jackson Du Bois? Of

course you do. We were thinking of running up into Canada for some

hunting. Why don't you join us?"

"I can't," replied Lester. "Too many things on hand just now.

Later, surely."

Dodge was anxious to continue. He had seen Lester's election as a

director of the C. H. & D. Obviously he was coming back into the

world. But dinner was announced and Lester sat at Mrs. Gerald's right

hand.

"Aren't you coming to pay me a dinner call some afternoon after

this?" asked Mrs. Gerald confidentially when the conversation was

brisk at the other end of the table.

"I am, indeed," he replied, "and shortly. Seriously, I've been

wanting to look you up. You understand though how things are now?"

"I do. I've heard a great deal. That's why I want you to come. We

need to talk together."

Ten days later he did call. He felt as if he must talk with her; he

was feeling bored and lonely; his long home life with Jennie had made

hotel life objectionable. He felt as though he must find a

sympathetic, intelligent ear, and where better than here? Letty was

all ears for his troubles. She would have pillowed his solid head upon

her breast in a moment if that had been possible.

"Well," he said, when the usual fencing preliminaries were over,

"what will you have me say in explanation?"

"Have you burned your bridges behind you?" she asked.

"I'm not so sure," he replied gravely. "And I can't say that I'm

feeling any too joyous about the matter as a whole."

"I thought as much," she replied. "I knew how it would be with you.

I can see you wading through this mentally, Lester. I have been

watching you, every step of the way, wishing you peace of mind. These

things are always so difficult, but don't you know I am still sure

it's for the best. It never was right the other way. It never could

be. You couldn't afford to sink back into a mere shell-fish life. You

are not organized temperamentally for that any more than I am. You may

regret what you are doing now, but you would have regretted the other

thing quite as much and more. You couldn't work your life out that

way--now, could you?"

"I don't know about that, Letty. Really, I don't. I've wanted to

come and see you for a long time, but I didn't think that I ought to.

The fight was outside--you know what I mean."

"Yes, indeed, I do," she said soothingly.

"It's still inside. I haven't gotten over it. I don't know whether

this financial business binds me sufficiently or not. I'll be frank

and tell you that I can't say I love her entirely; but I'm sorry, and

that's something."

"She's comfortably provided for, of course," she commented rather

than inquired.

"Everything she wants. Jennie is of a peculiar disposition. She

doesn't want much. She's retiring by nature and doesn't care for show.

I've taken a cottage for her at Sandwood, a little place north of here

on the lake; and there's plenty of money in trust, but, of course, she

knows she can live anywhere she pleases."

"I understand exactly how she feels, Lester. I know how you feel.

She is going to suffer very keenly for a while--we all do when we

have to give up the thing we love. But we can get over it, and we do.

At least, we can live. She will. It will go hard at first, but after a

while she will see how it is, and she won't feel any the worse toward

you."

"Jennie will never reproach me, I know that," he replied. "I'm the

one who will do the reproaching. I'll be abusing myself for some time.

The trouble is with my particular turn of mind. I can't tell, for the

life of me, how much of this disturbing feeling of mine is

habit--the condition that I'm accustomed to--and how much is

sympathy. I sometimes think I'm the the most pointless individual in

the world. I think too much."

"Poor Lester!" she said tenderly. "Well, I understand for one.

You're lonely living where you are, aren't you?"

"I am that," he replied.

"Why not come and spend a few days down at West Baden? I'm going

there."

"When?" he inquired.

"Next Tuesday."

"Let me see," he replied. "I'm not sure that I can." He consulted

his notebook. "I could come Thursday, for a few days."

"Why not do that? You need company. We can walk and talk things out

down there. Will you?"

"Yes, I will," he replied.

She came toward him, trailing a lavender lounging robe. "You're

such a solemn philosopher, sir," she observed comfortably, "working

through all the ramifications of things. Why do you? You were always

like that."

"I can't help it," he replied. "It's my nature to think."

"Well, one thing I know--" and she tweaked his ear gently.

"You're not going to make another mistake through sympathy if I can

help it," she said daringly. "You're going to stay disentangled long

enough to give yourself a chance to think out what you want to do. You

must. And I wish for one thing you'd take over the management of my

affairs. You could advise me so much better than my lawyer."

He arose and walked to the window, turning to look back at her

solemnly. "I know what you want," he said doggedly.

"And why shouldn't I?" she demanded, again approaching him. She

looked at him pleadingly, defiantly. "Yes, why shouldn't I?"

"You don't know what you're doing," he grumbled; but he kept on

looking at her; she stood there, attractive as a woman of her age

could be, wise, considerate, full of friendship and affection.

"Letty," he said. "You ought not to want to marry me. I'm not worth

it. Really I'm not. I'm too cynical. Too indifferent. It won't be

worth anything in the long run."

"It will be worth something to me," she insisted. "I know what you

are. Anyhow, I don't care. I want you!"

He took her hands, then her arms. Finally he drew her to him, and

put his arms about her waist. "Poor Letty!" he said; "I'm not worth

it. You'll be sorry."

"No, I'll not," she replied. "I know what I'm doing. I don't care

what you think you are worth." She laid her cheek on his shoulder. "I

want you."

"If you keep on I venture to say you'll have me," he returned. He

bent and kissed her.

"Oh," she exclaimed, and hid her hot face against his breast.

"This is bad business," he thought, even as he held her within the

circle of his arms. "It isn't what I ought to be doing."

Still he held her, and now when she offered her lips coaxingly he

kissed her again and again.