373A DARK HORSE
Iowa City is not large, nor are the prospects for metropolitan greatness at all flattering. Even her most zealous citizen, the ancient of the market corner, admits that “there ain’t been much stirrin’ for quite a spell back,” and among the broad fraternity of commercial travellers, the town is a standing joke. Yet, throughout the entire State, no community of equal size is so well known. It is the home of the State University.
In the year ’90-something-or-other, there was enrolled in the junior class of the university, one Walter R. Chester, but it is doubtful whether five other students in the same classic seat of learning could have told you his given name. Away back in his freshman year he had been dubbed “Lord” Chester. And as “Lord” Chester alone is his name still preserved, and revered in university annals.
The reasons lying back of this exaltation to the peerage were not very complex, but quite as374adequate as those usually inspiring college nicknames. He was known to be country-bred, and the average freshwater school defines the “country” as a region of dense mental darkness, commencing where the campus ends and extending thence in every direction, throughout the unchartered realms of space.
Each Friday afternoon, “Lord” Chester would carefully lock his room and disappear upon a bicycle; this much was plainly visible to everybody. On Monday he would reappear. The hiatus afforded a peg from which much unprofitable speculation was suspended. The argument most plausible was that he went home, while one romantic youth suggested a girl. The accusation was never repeated. What? The “Lord” a ladies’ man? Tut! One would as soon expect a statue to drill a minstrel show.
Thus Chester’s personal affairs remained a mystery. He never talked reflexively––rare attribute in a college man––and, moreover, curiosity never throve well in his presence. It utterly failed to bear fruit.
Another peculiarity distinguished him from375all the rest of the student body: he roomed by himself. Although invariably courteous and polite to visitors, he was never known to extend an invitation for a second visit. He quite obviously wanted to be left alone, and the “fellows” met him more than half-way.
But what, more than anything else, probably helped to designate him “Lord,” was the scrupulous way in which he dressed. There was no hint of the pastoral in his sartorial accomplishments, and it was his one extravagance. Though from the country and therefore presumably poor, no swell son of the Westernhaute mondemade an equally smart appearance.
We have been viewing the youth from the standpoint of his fellow-students. As a matter of fact, they never saw the real man, the man behind the closed door, at all. He was a terrific worker. When he decided to do a thing, he did it. Night was as day at such times, and meals were unthought of. He literally plunged out of sight into his work, and as yet he had never failed.
One reason for this uniform success lay in the fact that he was able to define his limitations,376and never attempted the impossible. He was, indeed, poor; that is, relatively so. His earliest recollections were associated with corn rows and grilling suns; which accounted for the present cheerfulness with which he tackled any task, and for his appetite for hard work. When tired, he would think of the weight of a hoe in a boy’s hand at six o’clock in the afternoon, and proceed with renewed vigor.
Such was “Lord” Chester: product of work and solitude; a man who knew more about the ideal than the real; a man who would never forget a friend nor forgive an injury; who would fight to the bitter end and die game––hero of “the” Marathon, whose exciting history is impossible to avoid in Iowa City.
By nature, Chester was an athlete, and by way of exercise he was accustomed to indulge in a few turns daily upon the cinder path. One evening in early spring he was jogging along at a steady brisk pace, when two men in training-suits caught up with him. They were puffing when they fell in beside him. Presently they dropped behind, and one, a tall important377youth, of the name of Richards, called out:
“I say, me lud, aren’t you going to clear the trail?”
Quick as a shot Chester halted and faced around.
“What’s that?” he asked quietly.
The other two nearly bumped into him, but managed to come to a standstill, before precipitating that catastrophe. They lurched back upon their heels, nearly toppling backwards, too surprised for the moment to speak. Chester did not stir.
“Jiminy crickets!” Richards’ companion exclaimed in a moment. “You’re deuced sudden, Chester, I must say.”
And Richards’ manner promptly grew conciliatory.
“Old man,” he said, smiling, “you really ought to train. You’ve got form––by George, you have! Besides, you wouldn’t have any opposition to speak of, you know.”
Richards was still smiling; but a smile, however warmly encouraged from within, is apt to take cold in a frost. The casual glance with378which Chester took in the young man, from his light sprinting-pumps to his eyes, may be accurately described as frigid. Not until he had held the other’s embarrassed look for an appreciable pause did he deign to speak.
“There really ought to be,” he said without emotion, “at least one man in the field. I think I shall train.”
Thus it came about that “Lord” Chester decided to enter athletics. Five minutes previously even the thought had not occurred to him; but he wasn’t the man to quail before a bluff.
The track management of this particular university was an oligarchy; was governed by a few absolute individuals. Perhaps such a condition is not as rare as might be supposed. However that may be, it was here a case of being either “in” or “out.” Chester was unpopular, and from the first had been out.
There were only four entries for the running events, the same names appearing in all; so he could not be kept from the field. But he well knew that various ways existed by which favoritism could be shown, and that these preferences,379too trifling in themselves to warrant complaint, might prove a serious handicap in a close contest. He knew that, however honors might lie among the other entries, they would hesitate at nothing to prevent him from taking a place. In fact, Richards openly boasted that he would pocket “’is ludship” at the finish.
So Chester shaped his plans accordingly. He had never aimed at the impossible, nor did he now. He withdrew from all short-distance runs and yard dashes, and concentrated his mind upon the Marathon––thus dignified, although the faculty would permit nothing more arduous than two miles.
In saying trained, everything is meant that the word can be made to imply: the sort of hour in, hour out, to-the-limit-of-endurance training which either makes or kills. A fortnight before Field Day Chester was in perfect condition, and had his capabilities gauged to a nicety. He was now entered only in the Marathon; they virtually had forced him from the half-mile, and they should be made to pay the penalty.
One day before the race Chester went to the bank and inquired the amount of his380balance. It was shown him: one hundred and six dollars and some odd cents. He drew a cheque for the amount, and thrust the bills into his pocket. From the bank he walked straight up Main Street for three blocks, then turned in at a well-kept brick house.
“Mr. Richards in?” he asked of the servant-girl.
“Yes, sir. Right upstairs––second door to the left. He’s got company now.”
The junior nevertheless resolutely mounted the stairs and knocked upon the door. The noise inside resembled a pocket-edition of the Chicago Board of Trade, so Chester hammered again, louder.
“Come!” some one yelled, and the noise subsided.
He opened the door and stepped inside. A half-dozen young fellows were scattered about, but as he knew none of them, except by name, he ignored their presence and walked directly up to Richards.
“I’ve come on business,” he said; “can I speak with you a moment?”
“Sure!” Richards removed his feet from a381chair, kicking it at the same time toward his visitor. “These fellows know more about my business now than I do myself, so get it off of your chest, Chester.”
The company laughed, but Chester remained wholly unmoved.
“All right,” said he, calmly. “You’re in the Marathon: want to risk anything on it?”
Up went Richards’ feet once more, this time to a table. He winked broadly at his friends, and replied with an air of vast carelessness,
“Why––yes; I don’t mind. Guess I can cover you.”
“How much?” demanded Chester. “Odds even, mind.”
“I said I’d cover you, didn’t I?” with some warmth. Richards fumbled in his trousers pockets, extracting therefrom a handful of loose change.
Chester advanced to the table. At sight of his roll of bills a sudden silence fell. All eyes were glued upon them while he counted.
“Five––ten––fifteen”––and so on, up to one hundred. He stowed the remaining five back in his pocket, pushed the pile into the382middle of the table and looked coolly down at his host. Said he,
“One hundred, even, that I win the Marathon. Cover, or show these fellows the sort of piker you are.”
And Richards came very near to showing them. His face was a study. He hadn’t ten dollars to his name; he was painfully aware of the fact, and here were these six boys who would know it too in about two seconds. He was rattled, and sat looking at the pile of bills as though charmed. He racked his brain for some way out of the predicament, but the only thing he could think of was to wonder whether the portrait on the top note was that of Hendricks or Rufus Choate. “It can’t be Choate,” suddenly occurred to him. “But then it––”
There was a laugh in the back of the room. Richards stood up. A dozen fire alarms would not have recalled him so quickly. Whatever else might be said of the man he was game, and now his gameness showed.
“Give me an hour; I’ll meet you then in front of the postoffice.” While speaking he had gotten into his coat; now he walked toward383the door. “Amuse yourselves while I’m gone, fellows,” he said, and disappeared down the stairway.
Chester replaced the notes in his pocket, nodded gravely to the company and followed.
Not a boy spoke, but all sat staring blankly at the doorway.
An hour later, both Richards and Chester appeared at the postoffice. The former, by dint of much persistent circulation among his fellow athletes, had found enough of them who were willing to pool their funds in order to secure the necessary amount. The two young men had witnesses, the wager was properly closed and the money deposited. Neither spoke an unnecessary word during the meeting, but when Chester started to leave, Richards turned facetiously to his friends.
“’Is bloomin’ ludship will start training Friday; bet he has his wheel in soak.”
To which remark Chester paid not the slightest attention.
Whatever may be said to the contrary, six boys can no more retain a secret than can six girls, and inside of an hour the story of the big384bet had spread over the town. In due course it penetrated to the city: one day a reporter appeared and interviewed the principals, and on the following Sunday their photographs adorned the pink section of a great daily. This was nuts for the university––but it is getting ahead of our own story somewhat.
Chester, naturally, was the centre of curiosity. He had not pawned his “bike,” as was demonstrated when Friday rolled around; but had it been known that the last cent he owned in the world had been staked upon the issue, no doubt the interest would have been greater.
Field Day opened bright and clear, and early in the afternoon Athletic Park began to fill. A rumor had gone abroad that the two principal competitors had actually come to blows, and that each had sworn to die rather than lose the race. Long before the opening event the inclosure was crowded with spectators, all eagerly discussing the Marathon, to the exclusion of every other contest. The opinion was freely expressed that Richards would “put a crimp in that chesty Chester,” and that he would “win385in a walk.” They made no bones about playing favorites.
It was a still, hot day, and if there is any advantage in atmospheric conditions each contestant should have been inspired with that absolute confidence of winning, without which the fastest race is but a tame affair. At two o’clock the band commenced playing. The judges tried to follow the programme, but the cries of “Marathon! Marathon!” grew so insistent and clamorous that they finally yielded, and the event was called.
Richards responded first. He was popular, and the grandstand gave him an ovation as he took his position under the wire. It seemed as though the handkerchief of every girl present was in the air. The two figureheads, friends of Richards, came next, and last of all Chester.
A feeble attempt at applause marked his passage in front of the grandstand; but he never looked up, and for any indication he gave to the contrary, he might have been the only person on the grounds. His track suit was hidden by a long black door curtain, in lieu of a bath-robe,386and a pretty girl on the front row remarked audibly, “He’s all ready for the funeral.”
“Sure thing,” answered her companion. “He knows his obsequies are about to take place.”
“Peels well,” a man by the rail critically commented. “But––rats!––Richards has pocketed this event ever since he’s been here; you can’t make the pace for him with anything slower than an auto.”
The runners were in line at last, crouching low, tense, finger-tips upon the ground, the starting-pistol above their heads.
“Starters ready?” floated in a sing-song voice from the judges’ stand. “Timers r-r-read-y-y?” A sharp crack from the pistol, and they were off.
Then a queer thing happened. Instead of dawdling along behind, as every one expected, Chester, without an instant’s hesitation, pushed to the front and set the pace.
And what a pace! It was literally a race from the word go. Chester took the inside and faced the music, Richards and the others close in behind. Sympathy in the grandstand was387beginning to turn; everybody appreciates pluck. The spectators, however, knew him to be a novice, and many supposed that he had lost his head; so when he passed the grandstand on the first lap, any amount of contradictory advice was shouted noisily.
“Let them set the pace!” “You’re killing yourself!” “Oh, you bally Lord!––go it, kid!” “Don’t let ’em nose you out, Chester, old scout!” “Save your air, old top, you’ll need it!” and much more of a like kind was hurled at him, which reached his ears through the veil of singing wind, like the roar of distant breakers upon the seashore.
He kept his own counsel. He had followed that pace every day during the last two weeks of his training, and he knew precisely what he could do. Besides the air was quiet, and the disadvantage of being pace-maker was not so great as people thought.
In this formation they came round the half-mile oval the second time, each man working with the nice regularity of well-oiled machinery. Not a sound now from the grandstand; only the softpatof the runners’ feet could be heard.388The crowd had caught Chester’s idea: but could he hold out?
They had passed the three-quarter pole on the third lap when a yell went up, and everybody rose excitedly to their feet. Space was growing rapidly between the leaders and those behind; it was now resolved to a duel between the principals.
As they dashed past, the crowd examined them closely, scores of field-glasses being trained upon them like so many guns.
Chester was still erect, his head well back, chest forward, arms working piston-like, close down at his sides, while his long, regular tread was as light and springy as an Indian’s. His jaw was set grimly, but it was manifest that he was still breathing deep and regularly through his nostrils.
It was equally manifest that his opponent was in distress. The last of his strength and determination was dying away in a desperate effort to keep his pace; his face was colorless, eyes staring, his step irregular. Worst of all, his mouth was open, and his chest could be seen to vibrate as he panted.
He heard a voice ... and glanced back.
He heard a voice ... and glanced back.
389
“By Jove!” muttered the man at the rail, as amazed as though the blue canopy of heaven had suddenly fallen, “Chester’ll take it, I do believe!” And the crowd was beginning to believe the same.
The rivals maintained their relative positions until, on the last lap, the three-quarter pole was once more reached. The two figureheads had dropped out and mounted a fence where they would not be too far away from the finish.
Every eye was trained upon the racers, the excitement was tense. Chester was pounding grimly away; sweat was pouring down his face until it glistened in the sun; his legs ached as though in a boot of torture. But he had no thought of allowing Richards to close the gap between them by an inch. He was counting thepat-pat-pat!of his feet upon the track. “Seventy-three more, and it’s won, old boy,” he muttered. He could hear Richards’ every breath. “One, two, three,––” he counted.
He heard a voice, so broken that the words could hardly be distinguished, and he glanced back.
“For God’s––sake, Chester––hold––up!”390gasped Richards. “I––can’t lose––this race––now.”
He was a pitiable figure, his white face drawn in lines of pain, his body swaying uncertainly, as he pressed despairingly on.
For one moment Chester’s heart felt a throb of pity. Then he thought of his work in sun and rain; of Richards’ contempt in the past; of the cheers for his rival and the open ridicule of his own pretensions; and last of all, but far from being the least consideration, the two hundred dollars absolutely necessary to carry him through his final year to graduation.
Ah, nobody knew about that two hundred dollars, save himself and one little girl, who had driven into town early in the afternoon, and who had slipped timidly into as good a seat as she could find in the stand. She showed one dot of pink among hundreds of fluffy white gowns; Chester was ignorant of her presence, but as he sped round and round the track, her eyes never once left him, nor did she cease praying silently that he might win!
Only for an instant did he hesitate; then his face settled into an expression not pleasant to391look upon. He forgot that he was tired, that a grandstand full of howling maniacs was ahead of him. He thought only of the girl in pink––and made his spurt.
Richards tried to follow, but a haze was forming over his eyes. His heart was pounding until he believed that he must suffocate. Then he reeled suddenly, lost his balance and fell into darkness.
“So this is victory!” murmured Chester to himself a moment later, as he swayed unsteadily upon the shoulders of a howling mob. He was thinking of poor Richards lying back there upon the track. But just then he espied the transfigured face of the girl in pink.
“It is! It is!” he shouted joyfully.
393THE WORTH OF THE PRICE
Nobody in a normal humor would dispute the fact that Clementine Willis was a strikingly handsome girl. One might even be moved, by a burst of enthusiasm, to declare her beautiful. There was about her that subtle, elusive charm of perfection in minute detail, possible only to the wealthy who can discriminate between art and that which is artificial, and who can take advantage of all of art’s magic resources, without imparting the slightest suggestion of artificiality.
Her hair and eyes were dark––very dark; her skin bore the matchless, transparent tint of ivory; every line of her high-bred face, and of her hands and her slender, arched feet, bespoke the ultimate degree of refinement.
She was the sort of girl, in short, that a full-blooded man must needs stare at, perhaps furtively, but with no thought of boldness. Stupid,394indeed, must be he who would attempt anything even remotely approaching familiarity with Miss Willis.
Her smart brougham waits in front of a new and resplendent down-town office building on a certain afternoon, while Miss Willis ascends in one of the elevators to the tenth floor. She proceeds with assurance, but leisurely––mayhap she is a trifle bored––to a door which somehow manages to convey an impression of prosperity beyond. It bears upon its frosted glass the name of Dr. Leonard, a renowned specialist in diseases of the throat, besides the names of a half-dozen assistants––in much smaller lettering––who, doubtless, are in the ferment of struggling for positions of equal renown.
The door opening discloses a neat, uniformed maid and a large and richly furnished reception-room. Five ladies, of various ages and all handsomely gowned, are seated here and there, manifestly forcing patience to relieve theennuiwhich would have been tolerated with no other detail of the day’s routine.
This cursory survey is sufficient, it is hoped, to demonstrate that Dr. Leonard’s practice is395confined among a class of which most other practitioners might be pardonably envious.
The white-aproned, white-capped maid smiled a polite recognition of the newest arrival. A bit flustered by the calmly impersonal scrutiny with which her greeting was received, she addressed Miss Willis in a subdued voice.
“I was to tell you, Miss Willis, that there is no occasion for Dr. Leonard to see you himself to-day. If you please, Dr. Carter will fill your engagement.”
Miss Willis did not please. It was quite clear that she regarded this arrangement with considerable disfavor.
“You may inform Dr. Leonard that I shall not wait,” she said coldly. “If I am so far improved that I do not require his personal attention, I shall not come again.”
With that, she turned decisively to leave. The maid followed her, hesitantly, to the door, and Miss Willis could not repress a smile at the girl’s consternation. The situation had ended in an altogether unexpected manner. And then, in the next instant, it became manifest that,396however absolute Dr. Leonard might be, it was not a part of the maid’s duties to discourage those who would seek his services. She was emboldened to protest.
“Just try him, please, Miss Willis,” in a nervous murmur; “he––truly––he’s––”
The assurance was left unfinished; but the speaker’s flurry revealed her predicament, and Miss Willis smiled encouragement.
“Very well,” she returned graciously.
The maid gave her a grateful look and conducted her though several rooms, all in accord with the sumptuous reception-room, to a tiny private office, where she opened the door and stood respectfully on one side.
The visitor’s submissive mood all at once vanished. She stared resentfully at the cramped quarters, and entered reluctantly, as if with a feeling of being thrust willy-nilly into a labelled pill-box. A man was writing at a desk in a corner, and he continued writing.
“Take a chair, please,” he said crisply, without looking up. And this was the only sign to indicate that he was aware that his privacy had been invaded.397
Miss Willis’s dark eyes flashed. She seemed about to make an indignant rejoinder, but thought better of it. She ignored the invitation to sit down, however, and by and by the circumstance caught the writer’s attention; he bent a quick, surprised look round at her––then proceeded with his writing. He did not repeat the request.
He presently finished his task, noted the time, and made an entry upon a tabulated sheet beside him; he then filed the memorandum upon a hook, and swung round in his chair, facing the intruder––for such the girl felt herself to be.
Fortunately Miss Willis was not without a sense of humor, and she was able to perceive an amusing quality in her reception to-day. Such supreme indifference to her very existence was so wholly foreign to anything in her past experience, that she was acutely sensible of its freshness and novelty.
But now the man became all at once impressed with the circumstance that she was still standing, and he bounded guiltily to his feet.
“Pardon me!” he exclaimed in confusion. “I was––was very busy when you came in.398Won’t you please have this chair?” He awkwardly shoved one forward.
The man was young; Miss Willis was unable to determine whether he was good-looking, or ugly; whether he was the right sort, or impossible; so she accepted the proffered chair.
He resumed his own seat, and leaned one arm wearily upon the desk. Already he had forgotten his momentary embarrassment, and he was now regarding the girl simply as a patient.
“Dr. Leonard has given me the history of your case,” he informed her in a matter of fact way. “He requests that I continue with it––unless, of course, you prefer that he treat you himself.” He got up as he spoke, and Miss Willis decided that he was good-looking and young, and that he was tall and of a figure to appeal to the feminine eye.
Then she was guilty of a most reprehensible act of slyness. She turned full upon him the batteries of her lustrous dark eyes, and smiled dazzlingly, bewitchingly.
“I came to see Dr. Leonard,” she said in a tone that made one think of dripping honey.399“And I object to being turned over to an assistant––at least before consulting me.”
Utterly at variance with all precedent, the bewitching look produced no effect whatever. The man bowed gravely, pressed a bell-button, and then went over to where Miss Willis was sitting. Before he could speak––if he had any such intention––a girl in starched cap and apron appeared in answer to his ring.
“Miss Willis has concluded not to remain,” he informed the maid. “Show Number Twenty-seven into Room Four. Inform her that I will see her in two minutes.” Producing his watch, he deliberately marked the time.
He turned to Miss Willis in a moment, with an air which said as plainly as words could have said it: “It’s a terrible waste of precious time, but if necessary I’ll sacrifice the two minutes to humoring any further caprices you may develop.”
This was too much for the young lady’s tranquillity: she laughed, and laughed frankly.
“Pray tell me,” she managed to say, “whatmynumber is.”400
Without the slightest alteration in his serious mien, he consulted a list hanging beside his desk.
“Seven,” he announced at length.
“Oh!”
“Why?” quickly. “Has there been some mistake?”
“No––oh, no”; Miss Willis was now perfectly composed. “I had a feeling, though, that it must have been nearer seven thousand.”
“It would be impossible, you know,” the man patiently explained, “to see that many patients in a day.”
“Indeed? How interesting!” Her irony was unnoticed, and once more she laughed. To tell the truth, if anybody could associate such a frivolity with Miss Willis’s dignity, she giggled.
She contemplated the man with undisguised curiosity. Naturally enough she had met more men than she could even remember, but never one anything like this particular specimen. To add to her quickened interest, he was not only positively good-looking, but every line of his face, the poise of his well-proportioned, upstanding figure, the tilt of his head and the squareness of his chin, all spoke of strength; of401elemental strength, and of a purposeful, resolute character. And, too, she told herself that he had nice eyes. The nice eyes never wavered in their respectful regard of her.
He spoke again:
“I can assure you that Dr. Leonard meant no discourtesy. The new arrangement means nothing further than that your trouble is more distinctively within my province. It is his custom, once he has thoroughly diagnosed a case, to assign it to the one of his assistants best qualified to treat it. Dr. Leonard is a very busy man; he can’t be expected to do more than supervise his aides.”
And now he was actually rebuking her!
He bowed once more, and moved toward the door. His hand was upon the knob, when an imperious command brought him to a standstill.
“Wait,” said Miss Willis. “Dr. Carter, if I remain here––”
He coolly interrupted. “Pardon me, Miss Willis, but my patient is waiting. I shall be at liberty in ten minutes, then I shall return.”
This time he was gone.
Number Four must have been an adjoining402room, for the next instant she could hear Dr. Carter’s voice through the thin board partition. His speech was as unemotional and businesslike as when addressing her. She could not make up her mind whether to go or wait, and so sat pondering and presently forgot to go.
Here was a man such as she had never dreamed of as existing; one absolutely disinterested, who treated people––even people like Clementine Willis––as abstractly as a master mechanic goes about repairing a worn-out engine. Perhaps it was a characteristically feminine decision at which she presently arrived, but anyway she made up her mind, then and there, to know more of this man.
After a while Miss Willis fell to surveying the room; with an undefined hope, perhaps, that it would throw some further light upon the young doctor’s character. It was essentially the home of a busy man. Every article had a use and a definite one. The spirit of the place was contagious, and presently she began to have a feeling that she was the one useless thing there.
In one corner of the room was the desk where403he had been writing, upon which was a pile of loose manuscript. Reference books were scattered all about, some with improvised bookmarks, but mostly face downward, just as they had been left. The environment was that of one who seeks to overtake and outstrip Time, rather than to forget him.
Dr. Carter returned at last, entering quickly but quietly.
“Pardon my leaving you so abruptly,” he apologized, the impersonal note again in his voice, and an inquiry as well. He seemed surprised that she had not departed.
The girl was manifestly at a loss for words; this was such an extraordinary predicament for her to find herself in that she determined to say something at any cost.
“Dr. Carter,” she faltered, “I––have changed my mind; I––I––wish you to continue my treatment––if you will.” It was not at all what she had intended saying, and she was chagrined to feel her cheeks grow suddenly hot; she knew that they must be rosy.
It was likely that young Dr. Carter was unused to smiling; but suddenly his eyes were404alight. He spoke, and the dry, impersonal note was gone.
“I’m glad,” he said. “We hard-working doctors can stand almost anything––without caring a snap of our fingers, too––but when it comes to doubting or questioning––notourmethods, but those that have been tried and proven, and of which we merely avail ourselves,––why, we can’t be expected to waste much sympathy on the scoffers.”
He rang the inevitable bell, and gave word to the maid: “Tell Dr. Leonard that Miss Willis has decided to continue her treatment with me.”
Now, in the light of the foregoing experience, it was strange that during the next week Miss Willis’s throat should require considerably more attention than it ever had under the celebrated specialist’s personal ministrations. She made five visits to Dr. Carter, but it could not be said that he had advanced an inch toward the opening she had made. His voice and manner were a bit more sympathetic––and that was all.
Miss Willis seemed to find a keen delight in the fact that her identity, for the time being,405was erased by a number; during each visit she made it a point to learn what this number was, treating the matter in a sportive spirit, unbending her wit to ridicule a practice which failed to discriminate among the host of patients who came to see Dr. Leonard.
“For our purposes,” Dr. Carter tolerantly explained, “a number more conveniently identifies our patients; their differences are only pathological. A name is easily forgotten, Miss Willis, unless there is some unusual circumstance associated with it, to impress it upon the mind.”
She was curious to learn what unusual circumstance had caused him to retain her name, but lacked the temerity to ask. She would have been amazed, unbelieving, had he told her that it was her beauty; that he was clinging rather desperately to the unlovely number, which had no individuality and whose features were altogether neutral and negative.
The change in his manner, when it came, almost took away her breath. It was on the occasion of her last visit. After the familiar preliminary examination, instead of proceeding at406once with the treatment, as had been his invariable custom, Dr. Carter walked over to his desk and sat down. For a space he soberly regarded her.
“Miss Willis,” said he, presently, “there is nothing whatever the matter with your throat.”
She gasped. This calm statement brought confusingly to her mind the circumstance that she had forgotten her throat and its ailment, when, of all considerations, the afflicted member should have been uppermost in her mind. Dr. Carter had not, however, and he must be wondering why she continued to come after the occasion to do so no longer existed. He at once relieved her embarrassment, though.
“I suppose,” he said, and she felt a thrill at the note of regret in his voice, “that you will be glad to escape from this hive?”
“No, I shan’t,” she said, with unnecessary warmth. This involuntary denial surprised even herself, and she blushed.
The smile left Dr. Carter’s lips, but he said nothing––merely sat looking at her in his grave way.
Here was to be another period, which Miss407Willis could look back upon as one of temporary inability to find words. She started to leave, furious with herself for her inaptness, and instead of going she paused and turned back.
Dr. Carter had risen; he was standing as she had left him. She drew a card from her cardcase.
“You may think what you please of me, Dr. Carter,” she said with sudden impulse, extending the card and meeting his look steadily, “but I would be glad if you were to call.”
It seemed to take him a long time to read the address. All at once his hands were trembling, and when he looked up the expression in the gray eyes brought a swift tide of color to the girl’s face, where it deepened, and deepened, until she tingled from head to foot, and a mist obscured her vision.
“Nothing in all this world would give me more pleasure,” said the man.
The girl turned and fled.
That very evening Dr. Carter availed himself of the invitation. Singularly enough, since she had been hoping all the afternoon that he would408come, Clementine Willis was frightened when his name was announced. Her hand was shaking when he took it in his; but there was not a trace of expression on his face.
Miss Willis realized, for the first time, that she had been horribly brazen––or, at least, she told herself that she had been––and as a consequence, she was wretchedly ill at ease. Her distress was in marked contrast with the man’s self-possession, which amounted almost to indifference. There was no spark visible of the fire which had flashed earlier in the day. It was as though he had steeled himself to remain invulnerable throughout the call.
And the usually composed girl prattled aimlessly, voicing platitudes, conventionalities, banalities, inanities––anything to gain time and to cover her embarrassment: to all of which the man listened in sober silence, watching her steadily.
Abruptly, Miss Willis grew angry with herself, and stopped. When angry she was collected.
Dr. Carter’s face lit up humorously.409
“You have no idea,” he said, “how you have relieved my mind.”
The girl looked a question.
“I supposed I was the embarrassed individual,” he laughed.
“If you had only given me a hint,” suggested the girl, reproachfully. She was now amazed that she had ever lost her grip upon herself, and wondered why she had.
“A hint!” he exclaimed. “I was dumb; I thought you’d see.”
The tension was off, and they laughed together. From then on, both remained natural. In the midst of a lull, Dr. Carter suddenly said:
“You’ll think me a barbarian, Miss Willis, but I have a request to make. I am in the mood to-night to be unconventional”––the corners of his serious mouth lifted humorously––“to be what I really am,” he illuminated, “and to meet you in the same spirit.” He paused with a little shrug. “It is a disappointing reversion to the primitive, I must admit.” He glanced up whimsically. “May I ask you a question––any question?”
“Do you think it possible,” the girl evaded,410“for a modern woman to meet you––the way you say––naturally?”
He seemed to question her seriousness.
“I have seen little of women for a number of years,” he returned, “but I’d hate to think it impossible.”
“Little of women!” was the surprised comment.
“You misunderstand,” he quickly corrected. “I go out so seldom that the woman I see is not the real woman at all; not the woman of home.” His hand made a little motion of forbearance. “In his consultation-room the patients of a physician are––sexless.”
“I think that a woman––that I––can still be natural, Dr. Carter,” said Miss Willis, slowly, her eyes downcast. “What did you wish to ask?”
It was his turn to hesitate.
“I hardly know how to put it, now that I have permission,” he apologized, with a deprecatory little laugh.
“We seldom do things in this world,” he went on at once, “unless we want to, or unless the alternative of not doing them is more unpleasant.”411He merged generalities into a more specific assertion. “There was no alternative in your requesting me to call. Candidly, why do I interest you?”
His voice was alive, and the woman, now thoroughly mistress of herself, gazed into the frankest of frank gray eyes.
“I scarcely know,” she said, weighing her answer. “Perhaps it was the novel experience of being considered––sexless; of being classified by a number, like a beetle in a case. Let me answer with another question: Why did I interest you sufficiently to come?”
He sat in the big chair with his chin in his hand, looking now steadily past and beyond her, one foot restlessly tapping the rug.
“I can’t answer without it seeming so hopelessly egotistical.” The half-whimsical, half-serious smile returned to his eyes. “Don’t let me impose upon your leniency, please; I may wish to make a request sometime again.”
“I will accept the responsibility,” she insisted.
“On your head, then, the consequences.” He412spoke lightly, but with a note of restlessness and rebellion.
“To me you are attractive, Miss Willis, because you are everything that I am not. With you there is no necessity higher than the present; no responsibility beyond the chance thought of the moment. You choose your surroundings, your thoughts. Your life is what you make it: it is life.”
“You certainly would not charge me with being more independent than you?” protested the girl.
“Independent!” he flashed upon her, and she knew she had stirred something lying close to his soul. His voice grew soft, and he repeated the word, musingly, more to himself than to her: “Independent!”
“Yes,” with abrupt feeling, “with the sort of independence that chooses its own manner of absolute dependence; with the independence that gives you only so much of my time, so that the remainder may go to another; with the independence of imperative impartiality; the sort of independence that is never through working413and planning for others––that’s the independence I know.”
“But there are breathing-spells,” interrupted Miss Willis, smilingly. “To-night, for example, you are not working for somebody else.”
“You compel me to incriminate myself,” he rejoined, the whimsical, half-serious smile again lighting his gray eyes. “I should be working now, and I will have to make up the lost time when I go home.” He bowed gallantly. “The pleasure is double with me, you observe; I do not think twice about paying a double price for it.”
He spoke lightly, almost mockingly; but beneath the surface there was even the bitter ring of revolt, and constantly before the girl were the little gestures, intense, impatient, that conveyed a meaning he did not voice. She could feel in it all the insistent atmosphere of the town, where time is counted by seconds. She wondered that he felt as he did, ignorant that the disquiet had come into his life only during the past week. To her, the glimpse of activity was fascinating simply because it was in sharp414contrast with her life of comparative, dull emptiness.
He caught the wistful look on her face.
“You wonder that I rebel,” he said, with an odd little throaty laugh. “I couldn’t well appear any more unsophisticated: I might as well tell you. It’s not the work itself, but the lack of anything else but work that makes the lives of such as I so bare. We are constantly holding a stop-watch on time itself, fearful of losing a second; the scratch of a pen sealing the life of a Nation, commuting a death-sentence, defining the difference between a man’s success and ruin can all be accomplished in a second. If we let that second get away from us, we have been deaf to Opportunity’s knock. We stop at times to think; and then the object for which we give our all appears so petty and inadequate, and what we are losing, so great. We laugh at our work at such times, and for the moment hate it.” But he laughed lightly, and finished with a deprecating little minor.
“You see, I’m relaxing to-night––and thinking.”
“But,” Miss Willis protested, “I don’t see415why you should have only the one thing in your life. It is certainly unnecessary, unless you choose.”
He smiled indulgently.
“You have no conception of what it means to shape your life to your income. I am poor, and I know. Years ago I had to choose between mediocrity and”––he looked at her peculiarly––“and love, or advancement alone. I had to choose, and fixing my choice upon the higher aim, I had to put everything else out of my life. The thought is intolerable that my name should always be under another’s upon some office-door. You know what I chose: you know nothing of the constant struggle which alone keeps me, mind, soul, and body, centred upon my ideal, nor how readily I respond to a temptation to turn aside.
“This,” he completed listlessly, “is one of the nights when the price seems too large; in spite of me, regret will creep in.”
“But,” persisted the girl, “when you succeed––it will not be––too late?” There was a plaintive inquiry in the words; the tragedy of the man’s life had awakened pity.416
He spoke with a sudden passion that startled her.
“It is too late already; my work has refashioned my life. I am desperately restless except when doing something that counts; something visible; and doing it intensely. I’ll never”––his voice was bitter with regret––“never conform––now.”
The girl answered, almost unconsciously.
“I think you can,” she hesitated, “and will.”
For a long, long moment they searched each other’s eyes.
“And this price you are paying,” said the girl at last, “is it worth it?”
The man drew a long breath.
“Ah, I wonder! To-night doubt has undermined my resolution.”
“If you question yourself so seriously,” she said very softly, “then surely you can find but one answer.”
“Again I wonder. I have wondered and––and hoped––God help me!––since the moment I looked into your eyes.”
Suddenly he was out of his chair and coming417toward her. Her heart leaped, her eyes shone; she extended her hands in welcome.
“Then you will come again,” she whispered, as they drew together.
“If you will let me. I couldn’t stay away now.”
THE END