The Common Law

and mother at their summer Lome near Portsmouth. Valerie had already gone

ding-house tucked away somewhere amid the hills of Delaware County, determined to enjoy every minute of a vacation well earne

y with Rita, played tennis on a rutty court, danced rural dances at a "platform," went to church and giggled like a schoolgirl, and rocked madly on the veranda in a rickety rocking-chair, demurely tolerant of the adoration of two boy

rtly dressed and very

y at the local minister's and flirted with him till his gold-rimmed eye-glasses protruded; behaved like a thoughtful and considerate angel to the old, uninteresting and in

e ate with an appetite that amazed Rita, whose soph

id, resentfully, "I don't understand. When my Maillard's

t the Knickerbocker," suggested Valerie, cheerfully.

you pretend yo

rankly. "It helps the hash wonderfully. Try it, dear. Close your eye

I'm not as fond

ike an agreeable man, and

hat," said Rita,

many years without them not to enjoy

are no men here,

n here," said Val

tutes.

is superfici

s a

I let him pat

child. He'

he creature drive me to the post office in a buckboard, and he continued to sit closer until I took the reins, snapped the whip, and

a perfectly shod foot and silken ankle to the rag

we know too much to like the only sort o

alerie. "We don't want

w

't y

t I w

o get m

ld thin

ev

that you've had-that most girls have had. I never had any boys to play with. That's really all I am

," murmured Rita

mischief, too; and, sometimes, I think, a little malice-perhaps a kind of diluted deviltry. But it's a hungry heart, dear, hungry for laughter and c

senti

n't-k

tch out, s

d

tfully, swinging

s, is no good. I'

ou

cour

ow

, carelessly. "Every gi

ave to hunt f

n-love?" asked V

een happily in love is it l

aid Valerie.... S

become of me if I

ake my advic

? For goodn

il you became

lous idea," remarked Va

egan t

on chances that you'd be contented only wi

mean? Or because I am

nd then

t el

wn world of their own accord to play about for a while in our world.

ashamed,

o endure them. It takes courage for a man to ask us to go into that world with him; it takes more for us to do it. And our courage is vain. We stand no chance. It means a rupture of all his relations; and a drifting-not into our world, not into his, b

at gives us the more

de it we are not going to be any too happy. If we live without it-I don't know.

o.... They look ha

while.... But the worst of

ndered, grave, velvet-eyed,

ps a brief happiness-with lov

ny men, if social conditions were rever

ta lay in the shadow of

grass stems with abs

to marry a man," she

de no r

n friendship. I think-I don't know-but I think-if any man offered me love-and I found that I could respond-I think

ened he

er grass very deftl

ve it is supreme contentment. And if it is-what

s sa

of it.... But, after all, love is love. You can't make it more than it is by law and custom; you can't make it less; you can'

al, dear," sai

unmoral

hilosophy so

haps I'd better run if anything

s ran-in P

men of god as a friend, by the way-a Protean gentleman with three quick-change stu

mean Quer

e's no

mi-

tal shepherd who likes to lie with his handsome

Rita. "Look out f

he b

e trouble. Anyb

length on her stomach in the grass, exp

eerfully. "But then I've never before

ever go to t

had a tiny income; I have it now. But it

t you

ther. Besides, she w

you go t

y a few more-or borrow them from the library. And that is h

ave been we

e examinations for Barnard-knowing, of course, that I couldn't go-and passed in

rd luck, was

me-and she had the education of a cultivated woman; she was a lover of the best

are equipped for a governess-or a

er I advertised, offering myself as a teacher

w m

t o

e you couldn't afford

k all the little income. I was glad enough when Schindler

kno

ass blade and bit it

ort of a world,

-if you look a

't y

entir

nced up at

ppen to become

what do you expect?" she sa

ou

rs got on my nerves. I wanted to study music, too

ome life un

rl leave h

t run away

the metropolis as a

imidly: "Did you care t

might like me to ask y

rouble was I had too much of it. My town was an ancient, respectable, revolutionary relic set in a very beautiful rolling country near the sea; but I suppose I caught the infection-the country rolled, the breakers rolled, and finally I rolled out of it all-over and o

ffice with him?" cried Val

at cross-legged on the gr

he post office when nobody knows our address

'm beginning to think I'd like to have a letter.

wned Rita, closing her eyes. Sh

my trunk. Sam presented it. Bring it

egged on the grass by the hammock, the writing case on

as to Nevill

mmock; she's too pretty

e she loves

ividual, Kelly, and a pat

address. I may send it to José Querida; but that is none of your business. When I saw the new moon on

lk to a man about another man he always attempts to divert the conversation to himself. Yes, he does. And y

t deep in a corner of my heart I've wished for you a hundred times. The moo

lly, I worship you, without sentiment or any nonsense in reserve. You are life

to your parents is ended. I'd adore it. You'd probably hate it. Such food! Such beds! Such

expanse of the stump-pond, and we'd listen to t

. Can I? True, I never tried. But if you come here, and conditions are favourable, and you are so i

y; I'm a novice in the woods and fields, and, somehow, I'd like to have you share my novitiate in this-as you did

me something to read-anything, please, from Jacobs to James. There's latitude for you. Be a man, and send me yourself. You have no idea how welco

r fr

RIE W

in all her life. And she tearfully begged the yokel who was rowing her to replace the fish in

her. Neither she nor Rita were very well next day, but a

sely, as did baskets of fruit and boxes of cho

e. When he comes the first of August I wish you to keep tight hold of me, be

n white who offered Neville a shy and sun-tanned hand as he descended

aughingly; "I never saw such a flawl

How well you look

ehaved like one, too. Did you ever see such a skin

rries and cream," he said-"and it's just

, demurely. "... I don't think you look particularly vigor

veral times a day until I've become as leathery and attenuated as a punctured pod of kelp.... Where's the rig

to meet you in

there room for

brought yar

se to the rear of the vehicle, swathing it securely in, fathoms of rope; she sprang in, he followed; but she begge

, buck-boards-drove across the railroad track, and turned up a mountain road-a gradual ascent bordered heavily by blackberry, raspberry, thimble berry and wild grape, and flanked by young growths of beech and map

g the sweet air of the uplands deep into his lungs. "These

are much higher. You need blankets at night...."

t believe y

rying to rea

in your favo

xceedingly d

nder mark on

his handkerchief and s

got to go just tell me a few minutes before your departure.... The main thing i

ita w

then," she added, philosophically, "what can a girl expect on eight dollars a week? Besides, Ri

oarding house of

e and two rooms the odour of medicine and my own cooking

poor

as I had mother," she said, with

t tender maple twigs there. The winged mountain beauties-Diana's butterflies-bearing on their velvety, blue-black

nch of narrow, iron-tired wheels, the stillness wa

t my ease-quite accus

at, Va

ness. And sometimes I go and sit in my room for a while-to reassure myself.... You see I am used to an enclosure-the walls of a room-the w

hillocks of Delaware County i

ess would so utterly over-awe me that I'd remain in my hotel under t

tus eris!" he laughed, mischiev

e morbo periculi!" s

" he exclaimed: "vix a te

silly! Besides, I probably know more Latin than you do-as it was my mother's favourite rela

; "I never was so snubbed an

me tangere!" At the same instant he was aware of her arm in light, frie

ve you again, Louis. The world i

d. Here and there a silvery ghost of the shorn forest stood, now almost mercifull

ulously; over the steel-blue stump-ponds the blue kingfishers soared against the blue. It was a sky world of breezy bushes and ruffled waters, of pathless fields and

, Louis?" she asked, g

stop

ause

sais rien

sently. He also leaned back, thoughtfully

desire to pa

N

u know

nst a solid wall. The

ke

gh the

ht thro

rmured-"but wha

easures of anticipatio

"You are good for

experience; and that all good work is made up o

uerida?" he as

etim

alw

sometimes"-she was silent, her dark

by that?" he inq

asked, na?vely, interr

times you like Querid

t things; I say them." She had turned her head to loo

Querida," she said.

reason to d

idius? 'Non amo te, Sabidi

... You and he are such excellent friends

er upcurled lip he saw the faint smile lingering, the

the stump-pond where Valerie had caught her first and only fish, past a few weather-beaten farm houses, a white-washed church, a boarding house or tw

r hand a friendly shake. "Why did

have burst into tears

ie, calmly: "I wanted

him I'll

offered hand with a smile. A hired man took away the

moment," he said

was rice pudding and the stewed sacrifice was prunes, Nevill

ng mothers prematurely aged and neglectful of their coiffure and shoe-heels; simpering maidenhood, acid maidenhood, sophisticated maidenhood; shirt-waisted manhood, flippant manhood,

rotting forest bones-here amid the wasted uplands and into this flimsy wooden building came the rank and file of the metropolis i

e and Rita in the long summer twilight, lo

centre of social activity after supper, some young girls were playing in partners

fanning herself and uttering screams of laughter at jests emanating from th

layed base-ball in the dusty road. Ominous sounds arose from the parlour piano, where a gaunt maiden

d. There came the clatter of dishes from the wrecks of the rit

by little the raucous voices were hushed; the scuffle and clatter and the stringy noise of the piano died away, till

amed over her shoulder from the open parlour-window, sighed, stifled a y

this place I become horribly sleepy by nine

hat way about it,"

, reproachfully, "I thou

t on the s

ply, gathering up her bonbons. "Louis, you'll forgive me, wo

moment on Neville's sleeve in a light gesture of excuse for le

xcept for Neville, who stood on the steps sm

ta," she said. "Rita is

not a particula

hy

it so.... And I don't believe she tries to make it so. Perhaps she doesn't care. Sh

back and his well-set shoulders. They were inviting, those firm,

about in the fl

o the p

lease. I have cold cream and a pair of glo

ong it, she holding to her skirts and his a

charmed with her beauty and the quaint, childish pleasure that she took in manoeuvring among the shoreward li

sing in an exceedingly agre

g further under the disadvantage

se, L

eel as romantic as that

gone to t

h! Hu

are positively corrupt to do such

all I know

e until they drifted into the still waters of the outlet where the star

e, cheek on hand, watching the fire-flies on the wat

ed to resume the oars; so he crossed with her, swung th

distraite, as he tied the boat, then-for the road was

t been very amusing

rm in his-a momenta

talk," she said. "Does

so soft and fine of texture-so cool and fresh and slender that the youth and

"I didn't think you co

t senti

n't

ooks like it

the

you m

luous. I don't think anything you do c

et littl

elly. I can never

that?

cy and of frien

ides!-Friendship is only a name; co

believ

dishonest promise," he said. "You

be at your expense-at the cost of one atom of my regard for you. As I care for you now, so have I from

of her presence, he was aware of a tranquillity, a rest that he had not known in weeks. Vaguely first, then uneasily, he remembered that he had not known it

ngled jewel-weed, welled up, bubbling in the starlight. She knelt down and drank from

ips with his; and, laughing, she let him kiss her again-but not a third tim

new hero for the pantheon: a new dryad to weep over.

u credit i

N

ve kissed you, y

-y

that belief

te sure that my belief is very firmly fixed. Hear me recite my creed. Credo! I believe that

ocking at

pus?... Wh-what are you going to do, K

in around her waist as they move

as tragically curious as Pandora and Psyche and Blueb

ing to-

she said

alked on, she with he

nt me to?" he

I never want what those I car

erent. I think I

reason i

Valerie-I don

nder the wide stars-something that had not been a moment since, and now was-something

tter go,"

o the ragged lawn, ascended the dew-wet

d deserted as they mounte

my door,"

on the ne

od night

she released it; laid both hands lightly on

"You have made this a ve

e you in t

have a horse ready at daylight

ll not see

you come to

for a day? Querida is

g up over Sunda

ght for a while until the strain of his set teeth

was already threatening to be a matter of phrases now-of forced sm

he said. "Those commissio

he calm routine of the old regime-as though the c

need me?"

of men's figures to deal with-that sym

u don't

N

her door, standing partly turned away from him. Then, op

is, dear," she