The Hollow Land

e-headed, sandalled boys to the white beach, and lay in the warm sands, with the tonic Atlantic breezes blowing over her. Space and warmth and silenc

ame bath of warm color, blue sea melting into blue sky, white sand mingling wit

ter-pots; the slower tides rocked the little craft at the moorings, and sent bright swinging light against the weather-worn planks under the pier. Rachael smiled when she saw Derry's little dark

dismay, that Rachael's attitude was fixed beyond appeal. There was such a thing as divorce, establ

e them away to some other atmosphere: "England, I think," she told Alice. "Tha

y will begin to turn toward their father. Of course I can't blame him to them, Alice. And some day they wil

id!" Alice said, not knowi

mother were not self-controlled, normal persons, able to bear the little pricks of life, but that ou

n't talk so

smiled

mother to them, even if they

o this conclus

as it is, divorce is wrong. No matter what the circumstances

s of drink or infidelity-

d!" Rachael answered inflexibly. "It's the one vow we take wi

many marriages that couldn't be s

match, if that was possible, and involved three other small lives in the general discomfort. And I never should have married Clarence, because I didn't love him. I didn't want children then; I never felt that the a

nce Breckenridge a loss

ry would have put Billy in second place. But he bored me, and I simply wouldn't go on being bored. So that if I had had a little more courage, or a little more prudence in the fi

eased at Rachael's unusual vivacity. "Isabella Haviland t

it, and somehow I don't believe it! They have a curious affinity throug

tient, pathetic children, always with the grown-ups! The little chap must have a rather queer life of it drifting about from hotel to hotel. They're hard up, and I believe most of the shops and hotels have actually bl

oor old Billy a good turn. She and I were always friends, and had some queer times together. And more than that"--Rachael's eyes darkened--"I believe that if I had had the right influence over her she never would have married Joe. I regarded the whole thing too lightly; I could have tried, in a different way, to prevent it, at least. I am certainly going to write her, and ask for little Breckenridge. It

a few weeks or a month, so that one small complication of a summer in the city will be spared you. We are down here on Long Island on a strip of high land that runs between the beautiful bay and the very ocean, and when Ji

y. Sometimes I fancy that my old influence might have been better for you than it wa

tionately you

r with a little chill if she had been too cordial to Billy, and if Billy were laug

ny further notice to Magsie, had been to see Magsie's manager, coolly betraying her friend's marriage plans, pledging the

illy, but he was infinitely obliged to her fo

ary, was trying to break an absolute promise to the boy, inv

ust be the busiest and happiest woman in the world, and yet her heart had gone out to little Breck. The last line, however, meant more than all the rest, just now, to Billy Pickering. She was impressionable, and not giv

ou would!" fretted the little boy, flinging himself against he

ghtly in her arm, and smiling down at him, "would y

'em," said Bre

e you could go in bathing every day, and roll i

me?" he dema

long as you're a good boy, down there where it's nice

work for her, and I'll make the other kids work for her--she'll te

e selected a toy for Jim and a toy for Derry, and his mother noticed that they were his dearest toys. She took him downtown and bought him a bathing suit, and sandals, and new pajamas, and his breathless delight, as he assured sympathetic clerks that he was going down to the shore, made her realize what a

any way, never questioning that Rachael would know her invitation to be accepted. But from th

come," Rachael said, kissing h

esh salt air with obvious pleasure. "I had no idea that it was such a

the three were fast making friends as they trotted along t

home. Did you ever see the water look so delicious? We'll all go down for a dip pretty soon. I live so simply here that I'

perfunctory regret. Her tone changed:

to hear your old voice, Bil

that you've not cha

ray hair! Getting

d the sudden shadow that fell across Rach

ell, my

n here often? It

wo hours and ten minutes, I think. This is my house, with all its hydrangeas

d now she gave Billy's boy her han

are going to like my house, and my little

her upstairs to show her the third hammock between the other two, and herself invested the vis

er, Rachael; you're one of th

with a little note of real

u have such a nice way with children, but I--I am ever and ever so grateful to you! I've often thought of you, all this time, and of t

ting on the wide porch, under the velvet-black arch of the starry sky, an

ng you like to me,

ll meant to me. I only thought he would be angry for a while. I thought then that Joe would surely win him. And afterward, I thought I would go cra

the jealous silence of the long years, but presently Billy was beside Ra

okes that he--he loved me. And he had a little old picture of me--you remember the

and admirable, and strong, but many a man like Clancy has been made so, been made worth while, by having a woman believe in him. I never believed in him for one second, and he knew it. I despised him, and where he sputtered and stammered and raged, I was cool and quiet, and smiling

the floor at Rachael's feet, her wet, earnest eyes on Rac

cared. He wasn't a hard man, just desperately weak. I've thought of it so often, of late, Bill. There might ha

I? Why, my own mother and my half-sisters--hideous girls, they are, too--were pointed out to me in Rome a year ago. I didn't know them! I could have made your life much easier, Rachael. I wish I had. I w

inking, Bill--he would have reconciled Clancy to you and Joe, perhaps; one can't tell! If I had not left him, Clarence migh

y both had known, the changes, the newcomers, and the empty places. Mrs. Barker Emory had been much taken up by Mary Moulton, and was a recognized leader at Belvedere Bay now; Straker Thomas was in a sanitarium; old Lady Torrence was dead; Marian Cowles had snatched George Pomeroy away from one of the Vanderwal

trim frocks were still hers, but the old delicious youth, her roses, her limpid gaze, the velvety curve of throat and cheek, these were gone. Billy had been spirited, now she was noisy. She had been amusingly precocious, now she was assuming an innocence, a naivete, that were no longer hers, had never been natural to her at any time. She had always been coolly indifferent to the lives of other men and women. Now she was embittered as to her own desti

Billy?" Rachael presently fe

aking a scene about it--we have to draw now and then--we sank I don't know what into those awful ponies, and we still have that place--it's a lovely house, but it doesn't rent. It's too far away. The kid adores it of course, but it's too far away, it gives me the creeps. It's just going to wreck, too. Joe sa

not revert to the days when she was Clarence's

s, and all empty. They say it would cost us ten thousand

ng you in a fair income, in i

e bank lasts--I forget what it is, several thousand, more than twenty, I think--we'll go along as we are. Joe

od maid--up there on the pony farm, for instance--surely it would be saner, surel

the excitement of not knowing what will turn up. And if Joe would

anxiously if Joe were to pay for it; she would gossip of a dozen successful actresses without the self-control to work for one-tenth of their success, and she would move through all the life of the theatres and hotels without ever having her place among them, and her share of their little glory. And almost as reckless in action as she was in speech, she would cling to the brink of the conventions, never quite a good woman, never quite anything else, a fond and loyal if a foolish and selfish mother, some day noisily informing her admirers

fate in her own character. Just what did the confused mixture of good motives and bad motives, erratic unselfishnesses and even more erratic weaknesses

ngs we suspected him of!" Alice exclaimed one day. "I believe

ok. Her eyes, grave and sad, held for Alice no hope that she had come

I pray that I will never look upon his face again!" And when presently Alice hint

n. You only hurt me--I can't ever be different. You and George love me, I know that. Don't drive me away. Don't ever feel that it will be

, could only gi