The Blue Wall

rhaps based upon our coarser natures, to love this or that woman thrown in our way by a fortunate or unfortunate chance. But the traditions of our family were strong; I had been educa

ed in my home and in my youthful training-that one first scrutinized a woman's inheri

he test of its success lies in the fact that I had never had more than a temporary affection, sometimes stimulated by th

of the strangest of courtships and a tangle of mystery of which the rest of the world knows nothing, but which you ha

d leaves driven against the blinds, is in extraordinary contrast to the day of

as, because you have probably many times toasted

artily. Under his gruffness there was a lot of sentiment and tenderness. After his reserved moments, when he was silent and cold, he would burst forth into indulgences of fine, dry humor, like an effervescent fluid which gains in sparkling vigor by remaining corked awhile. It was commonly said-and often said by Judge Graver, of the Supreme Court-that old Colfax remained in the compara

is song heard, I came up from downtown and dropped off a surface car before the gleaming white pillars of the new probate court b

ancient mortar, but had followed the personality of the man into these new pretentious quarters. The retiring-room already gave forth an alluring odor of law books and document files, the floor already had been forced into use to bear up little piles of transcripts of evidence, tin document boxes and piles of

ed hands he made a gesture toward the opposite side

er wealth, or her position. She was there, and into my throat came something I had never felt

nature and the infinite skill of art. She wore a black gown, without ornamentation, and a black hat of graceful form. Not a harsh or stiff fol-de-rol

ble movement of restrained vigor in a poised, delicate, graceful figure, the gentleness and tenderness of a voice which at the same time suggests refinement and decision and strength, the absence of any effort to make an impression, either in manner or dress,-these are rare and beautiful attributes in an age when female children hatch out as artful women without the intervening period of girlhood. Afte

dge, I thought, sensed a significance. When my eye sought his, I found a cloud upon his

votes no end of time and energy and seriousness to the game of chess. We have never y

ish; she said hastily that s

, beaming at me. "To-morro

y instinct, and that a woman wears not only her spotlessness, but also her purity of thought, like a faint halo. Yet at that moment I knew she was glad that I had accepted the invitation: there was a blushing eagerness in her eyes, upo

him, I had not given a thought to his daughter's forebears or security of place in the social structure.

sentence the Judge addresse

of her interest. "In fact, I may say, with an old man's modesty, that there a

we turned our faces toward the ho

named it the Sheik of Baalbec. But I believe

asiness-the sensation of apprehension. I am not susceptible ordinarily to the so-called warnings of voices from within. And yet I suppose the Jud

ld Natural History Museum. It's not far out of our way, and if you will start with a problem I will giv

ng in closets, that day after day brings commonplace occurrences or, at the best, trivial abnormalities to be explained to-morrow, that romance is dead, it is strange that Fate should ha

human personality which the Judge had named the Sheik of B

rn partizanship, left the museum tied up with trusts and legacies, preventing the sale of a valuable city property and yet not furnishing enough to keep the building in repair or dust the case containing "Beavers at Work." Finally the old museum, once the pride of the municipality, had come down to the disgraceful necessity of letting its lower floor to a ten-ce

folding-doors in front of this box would open for a few moments, showing a glass-covered interior, which, as far as the back of the box, was filled with a tangle of wheels and pulleys, seeming to preclude the

, the personality of a living being returned, and it seemed to me that the brown, wax skin of his nodding head, the black hair of his pointed beard, the red of his curved, malicious lips, the whites of his eyes, which showed when he mo

hing's shapeless cotton-stuffed legs, and briefly described the point to be gained by the Sheik in the series of moves which he was t

nd at that moment I heard a human throat inhale a long breath with a frightened gasp! It was as if

who, in his next moves, was playing in slipshod fashion, as if preoccupied. I now had the advantage, and believed that I should win. My triumph was short-lived, however; my opponent awakened to his

wink and rolled the other glassy eyeball in a complete orbit of the socket, and as soon as this evil, mechanical grimace had been accomplished, t

d Judge Colfax as we went out into the sunlit street ag

g nervously. "I felt all the time as if a hidden pair of huma

dge ch

s a person-some man-or woman. I have often wi

I first sat at table with Julianna-with Julianna, whose magnificence was not boldness, whose s

le, I thrilled with the thought that she might one day be my wife, and felt that delicious and painful ecstasy when her deep eyes met mine and her lips smiled back at me the enc

sses of a forest. I was charmed by the shape and subtle motions of her white hands, the quality of the affectionate attitude

ut I liked her, because, when she looked toward Julianna, she wore that expression of loyal affection which perhaps one never sees except upon the faces of mothers or old servants. She had been in the Judge's family even at

ees under the table with the long thin legs of the Judge, and a set of chessmen, carved exquisitely from amber and ivory, on the board before me, and that when the old man was cal

of us with the same expression as he had worn when he had observed my interest in his daughter in our first meeting. Then, as on the former occasion, his optim

thy substitute. Unless you find that you must go, you may discover

mediately I turned toward Julianna, but she, instead of coming forward in the manner of one ready to say good-night, idly turned the pages of a book on the old table,

aring. From her it seemed a sacrifice of dignity for my sake. I met her glance, and then turned politely toward the Judge, w

r the suggest

ered, his deep rumbling voice

sir," I sai

smiles-those rare perplexed smiles which indicate, perhaps, that for the first time in a woman's life she does not understand her i

e play?"

" sa

m gl

do not lik

it interests him. And he prefers to play

, too," I

Our companionship is very close even for father and daughter. I surprise myself by talking so to you, but that is

which gave her the one touch of imperiousness she possessed, my heart fe

n self and was admitting, by her denial, that her fortresses were for the first time in danger. She had had her choice in conversation and she had chosen to speak not of general matters, but of herself. She had done so with charming a

ll envy the J

d up at m

"At the front of the house we are level with the street; at the rear, however, the old walled garden is almos

d to do h

she called after me. "The Judge likes it that way-as mother used to like

," said I und

chance happenings-are wonderful and at times seem malicious. I am certain that it brought

wn in disorder under the walls, threw dark and steady shadows across the patches of lesser vegetation. The tops of early blossoms and nodding grasses showed beyond these spaces of blackne

Then, when it was nearer, I saw in a flash that it was the top of a silk hat. I could see, too, the stooping shoulders of the man who wore it, I could see that he was proceeding cautiously as if he feared to att

been a stranger, I might have assumed that he had come to make a call below stairs, but the fact that it was my host, a judge of probate, with a

f artificial light escaped through the crack and for a brief second lay like a piece of yellow ribbon

ing to say to me. Julie is observant. I couldn't speak to you in the h

nswered. "This thing w

mean it!"

ung girls. I could tell by the look on her face, sir. The like of it has never been th

e talkin

man. I could see the top of the silk hat

wringing her hands. "But I'd nev

he other!" he

was not a human, sir. I could never mention he

whispered the old

un their course. God will

d," s

ne word seemed to have decided all que

ath-" the Judge b

chie uttered

nothing more now. Perhaps-perhaps it will not be a crisis, after al

rapidly across the grass to the arched exit leading to t

played as an eavesdropper. I had heard a reference made to me as one who had brought some new complication into the affairs of that household which heretofore I had regarded as the most spotless and quiet in the city, but wh

ever to return. But there is in me a certain loyalty. I do not quickly cast my lot or my reputation with that of another; when, however, I have d

m I looked into her gaze with an expression of solemnity which m

culous, sentimental appearance. S

s if she had discovered the cause of my serio

odd

. "It is filled with a tangle from which years ago I used to imagin

e more,

e bottom, and when the water was turned on and trickled from one basin to another, it gave forth a mournful sound that

a keen ima

that it causes me the greatest restlessness. My fate is like all others. I am exactly w

, above all, is a man of settled habits. His greatest genius ha

and walked t

He would not know what strange spirit moved me. I inherited none

e," I said m

ithout a smile. "But sometimes

I take a brisk

ly every afternoon at five, with father's d

u then by a shaggy, S

olesomely. "I suppose in the novels t

voice a little when she heard a step in the hall. Margaret entered, as I h

pite of my desire to avoid it, and when she left, Julianna had changed her mood. Finding, perhaps, that I was content to listen, she employed a delicate piece of strategy to place me in her father's lounging-chair where I could watch her as she leaned back among the pillows, and in a voice, more

of the Judge in y

wever, to know that her convictions about the power of inherited tendencies had come from her own thought. Her mind, un

I would have been content to sit there without my pipe, without a cigarette, listening merely to the

face into the night breeze on the avenue, glad to be alive, conscious of my health, my strength, my youth and my courage,

hought of something queer and strange lurking

not be under the same circumstances? An old man would be beastly lonely in that comfortable but ancient house, even if they had removed the garden fountain with its mournful trickle. The worl

ce to walk around the Monument at five; certainly my delay was not because I could pretend to f