The Common Law

ty nor on account of any domineering instinct-but because, mistaken or otherwise in her ethical reasoning, she was co

ng to submit to restrictions which centuries of social usage had establis

civilisation which required ignorance of innocence, she had as yet lost none of her sweetness and confidence

ence and training, had hastened to a premature maturity her impatience with the faults of civilisation. And in the honest revolt of youth, she forgot t

onvictions and let God judge; that was her only creed

ght heart and a healthy interest, not doubting that all was righ

parties and dinners and concerts with other men; and Neville didn't like it. Penrhyn Cardemon met her at a theatrical supper and asked her to be one of hi

irritation that confused her. She

end two weeks with your parents. I don't mind not going if you don't wish me to, Louis, and I'll stay here in town while you

and her sweet way of re

s going, Valerie-Card

did you meet

he Opera. She's perfectly

's mistress," h

e and neck; and at the same inst

painting; she, standing once more for the ful

was aware that he was coming toward her. And the next moment he had dropped at he

him, dropped one slim hand on

at all the scorn in your voice was for Mar

id no

ing her hand wander from his shoulder to his thick,

hat is a little matter-compared to making life happy for

doubts and misgivings and cross-purposes would make me happy

t not begin that hop

ie! You are bre

r. You kno

at him; her li

floor and knelt there confro

m not. You know what I am doing for your sake, for your family's sake, for my own. I am only gi

est, fiery discussions, of passionate arguments, of flash

arms and told her how ashamed he was of his bad temper at the idea of her going on the Mohave, and said that she might go; that he di

m off to Spindrift House happy, and madly in love; which resulted in two letters a

ie's, and together they had added the lu

to receive anybody; and now, delighted to be able to ask people,

had promptly av

etty little sitting room. "We can have all kinds of a rough house now." And he got dow

set my parrot on you

and inspecte

"I believe I've seen

friend-unless you'v

his trowsers, and walk

bird I used to know-I-

then address

ou old scoundrel!"

g first one slate-coloured claw from his perch, then the ot

arrot?" asked Valerie, astonished. Ogilvy ap

ly where I did see him," he tried

Answ

re did you

a gave Lepar

ed the briefest glance-a

, carelessly. "There are plenty of parrots tha

ruthful! Rita, hold him tig

liarly distasteful to Ogilvy, an

le truth, and nothing but the

said, maliciously, "Qu

e kind of parrots occasi

all the same jargon,

t Sam, aware of something else in his g

What he had not told her was that Querida's volcanically irregular affairs of the heart a

ng her; and never believed any of them. He could not believe now that the gift of this crimson, green

ou this parrot?" he

ortnight while I was there, and come back with me; and he said that He had intended to give

A few moments later, as he and Ann

our friend, José, had ta

" nodded Annan, sm

added Ogilvy. "Got the

Cordon of the

end of the

ling." Ogilvy cast a gleef

girl. All whi

…. "And Neville isn't tha

"So you thi

she isn't taking Sundays out if it's

ny artists who've married their models as we h

g briskly, swung hi

et little th

's the only sort that will marry her…. I don't know-she's a healthy kind of

's done it,"

el

it look

Kelly Neville-a dear fellow, so utterly absorbed in the career of a brilliant and intelligent young artist named Louis Neville, that if the entire earth blew up he'd begin

es only a moment to say, 'Hello, old man! How in hell are you?' It takes only a moment to put

vy. "Anyway, that Valerie child is safe en

*

d, was sewing industriously on her week's mending. Rita, in dishabille, lay

ent over her weekly accounts and had now taken up her regular mending; and ther

ry the st

rs are sure

ad sundow

ip the cup

and thou

end of ev

ng! Din

l the sh

e and o

merry m

g a chocolate

little creed,"

It's the o

lerie went on blithe

n of yours been away?" inqu

teen

sure it isn

m struck her, and she looked

she said, conscious of the sof

foot-board of the bed, kicking the newspaper to the floor. "Do you know," she

e of a smile as she bent lower ove

hat it was about time for you to p

ie sewed on

ler

ha

s' sake, say

to say, dear?" aske

anger of making a sill

Nevi

y that very

ler

t her, calmly amu

with him. You knew it, anyway, Rita. You've known it-oh,

Yes, I have known it…. W

D

u intend to do a

d Valerie. "Wha

uld try

't wan

had b

hy

love him you'll either become his wife or his mis

blushed

en-ch

iends might perhaps pretend to be. No girl of any sense would ever put herself in such a false position…. I tell you, Valerie, it's only the exceptional man who'll stand by you. No doubt Louis Nevill

embled on the edge of a smile as

it

es

this. I know it. He knows I know

ta said, slowly: "

assed her needle throu

id, softly, "

ou ref

es

him…. Life isn't a very sentimental affair-not nearly as silly a matter as poets and painters and

demurely, yet in her smile Rita divined the hidden tra

ves together in single blessedness! Will you? We can h

e," said Valerie, with a slight shiver

so, cut out all frills and nonsense, and save and save until we have enough to retire

t want to see it

enjoy

I have, anyway. It's all very well for you to say wait t

There was a slight

fore I go? Why should you and I not be as happy as we can a

can afford to be, Valerie…. But

hy

will make yo

it do

if it i

eyes-deep brown wells of truth that the other gazed

shivering, "you won

him, and I love him.

better marry him!" stam

r for you!

s, but how

not made for it! We are part of the game to them; they are the whole game to us; we are, at best, an important episode in their careers; they are our whole careers. Oh, Valerie! Valerie! listen to me, child! That man could go on living and painting and eating and drinking and sleeping and getting up to dress and going to bed to sleep, if you lay dead in your grave. But if you loved him, and were his wife-or God forgive me!-his mistress, the day he died you would die, though your body might live on. I know-I know, Valerie. Death-whether it be his body or h

! What are

ve you from lifelong unhappiness-trying to

o you

quiet, leaned forward, resting her elbows on

lesson,"

ling-forgive me!

pulsive embrace; they both cried a little, arms around each

married,

N

so sorr

me me for thinking ab

you lo

as too young to know….

stake, but it's no more shame to you than it

But he let me see how absolutely wicked he wa

haven't ever even had

e y

id not

you, d

r head on Valerie's knees, cryin

ow…. Not that first one … and there's nothing to do about it-nothing, V

ause

es

you ha

" sobbed Rita, "I love him

the pretty tear-stained face gleaming through the fingers-looked and wonde

give herself. Love was no happiness to her, no confidence, no sacrifi

e you?" whis

thin

d he woul

u thin

ons everything," said

t never

*

elations with Louis Neville. But, like Neville's logic, Rita's failed before the innocent simplicity of the creed which Valerie had embraced. Valerie was willing that their relations should remain indefinitely as they were if the little gods of convention were to be considered;

rie asked him to come again. He did; and again after that. She and Rita dined with him once or twice

to tell his parents that he wished to marry and to find out once and for all what their attitudes would be toward such a girl as Va

ured into business, but had been emotionlessly content to marry and live upon an income

ithout increasing the number of his acquaintances-legacies in the second generation left him by his

and Rita dined with

tellectual people, and their prematurely dried-out offspring. And intellectual in-breeding was thinning

whose drawing-rooms were musty with what had been fragrance once, whose science, religion, interests, desires were the beliefs, intere

ical expression fit for a cultivated society; the Academy of Music remained the

ilt of the million-voiced metropolis fell on closed eyes, and on ears attuned only to the murmurs of the past. They lived in their ancient houses and went abroad and summered in

le Louis Neville and his

llis, a mining engineer from Denver. She came to see them with

adt and Hart, their last great sculptor, Powers. Blankly they gazed upon the splendours of the mural symphonies achieved by th

ship of kin to kin, of friend to friend, had become only part of a negative existence which confo

sat in the parlour at Spindrift House with his father and mother, reading the Tribune or the Evening Post or poring over some an

waited him in town; hunger for Valerie gnawed ceas

departure, "would it surprise you very m

illy; "you mean Stepha

transparently pale, ne

ectacles, and he hesitated; then,

an Stephani

book and removed, the th

that we are to be prep

wife," he said. "I sha

my oldes

and I are merely very good friends. I

derstand otherwise, Lou

window, considering, yet conscio

ther, pulling the white-and-lilac wool

is Valer

West Eighth Street?

moment at his son's grimly set jaws,

fat

the Chelsea W

N

his shoulders, which dismissed many, many things from any possib

est?" she asked in

ted, very beautiful young girl-an orphan-who

his father,

ther have only to meet her to recognise in her every

ther, casting aside the evening news

ld you,

this girl? In what description of

ellow's fac

ngaged in-

ha

absurdity of any hope from the beginning, yet now commi

Louis!" falte

like a knife by the thin

n actress, wh

ped me with

d you?

posi

nderstand that the gir

es

ared at him a

an you propose to ha

ng every hour. In your youth the word actress had a dubious significance; to-day it signifies only what the character of her who wears the title signifies. In your youth it was immodest, unmaidenly, reprehensible, for a woman to be anything except timid, easily abashed, ignorant of vital truths, and submissive to every

ur mother

it possible even for a man's own mother

rose in p

unsteadily; "the subje

*

and at parting. But his mother met him at the oute

you bear…. It is an honourable name in the land, Louis…. I pray God to bless you an

ening; but not too late to call Valerie on the telephone and hear again the dear voice with its hap

*

ed their days; evening brought the happiness of a reunion eternally charming in its surpr

sister came unannounced-agreeable women more or less fashionable, who pleaded his sister's sancti

they found pouring tea in the studio of an artist already celebrated; and every one of them expressed themselves and their curiosity to his sister, Mrs. Collis, who, n

im and pretty Countess d'Enver. And went quite mad over Valerie-so much so that she remained for an hour talking to her, al

e had returned from putting her into h

ke a hit with the lady. What w

to a reception of th

aughing. "What is the F

ons of the latest group of revolting painters and sculptors and literar

dining together at D

care to g

st for us to accept suc

y n

e to become to each other-I thought-pe

, then, looking up at her, suddenly laid his ha

take us as it fi

s it quite fai

of her bally club! It's across to her, now. And as half of society has exchanged husbands and half of the remainder doesn't bot

*

Minute Club was anything

not intellectual; where writers called a spade a spade, and painters painted all sorts of similar bucolic instruments with candour and an inadequate knowledge of their art; where composers thumped their pianos the harder, the

ising modernity, one suspected a sub-stratum

for all. There was an ugly deliberation in the glorification of the raw, the uncouth; there was a callous

ects with blobs for faces and blue shadows where they were needed to conceal the defects of impudent drawing; its composers maundered with both ears spread wide for stray echoes of Salome; its sculptors, stupefied by Rodin, achieved sections of human anatomy protruding from lumps of clay and marble;

eir impotence against the changeless laws of truth and beauty. With them it was not a case of a loose screw; all screws had been tightened so brutally that the machinery

g unusual in their prettiness, in their toilets; and also a little something lacking; and it

her Pittsburgh parents; and Mrs. Hind-Willet was born to a social security indisputable; and Latimer Varyck had been in the diplomatic se

of many people turning as they passed into the big reception room. A woman near her murmured, "What a beauty!" Another added, "How intelligently gowned!

ome. José Querida has just departed. He gave us such a delightful five-minute talk on mode

hich might have meant anything ineffa

nds like a massage parlour-not," he added with respect, "that Huneker doesn't know what

laughed, still reta

rbingly beautiful, Miss West? When they have given

ill," sai

Her poise, her unconsciousness, the winning simplicity of her manner were noticed everywhere, and everywhere commented on. People betrayed a tendency to form

"To me there is no modern painter comparable to Mr. Nev

s were because she thought him ugly, uninspired, and disreputable, which unexpected truism practically stunned that harm

eadful, Kelly?" she whisper

face when you told the truth about Richa

ciousness, the winning simplicity of

se anything. But Mr. Varyck would make

gave a five-minute prelude to the second act of his new opera, "Yvonne of Bannalec." The o

r the chair where Valerie was

the very click of his sabots and the gurgle of the cider in his jug. And that queer little

come in?" inquired Vale

n't appear during the entire opera. It's a marvellously important

"-whom Neville insisted on calling a "disease,"-said a coy and rather dirty little French po

s certainly naked and ne

le, d

h still lingering on cheek and brow. "I can't understand

ere's Carrillo, the young apostle of Brua

, Ke

poem on it and all Manhattan sat up and welcomed him as a peerless realist; and dear old Dean Williams compared him to Tolstoy and

at his type-written manuscript and

n Madiso

p sits scratch

t trails a len

s scrape the asp

untain and the

women, waddl

ercise their

'round the litt

frantic, circl

osing-see! be

mutt meets

nother madly

; but his a

ap!' replies th

ther starts

dom, crazed wi

arking out his

dogs who made

mutts to gambo

pite from the

assy place to

to roll on n

ogs who also

ks for this bri

ord, a humble mo

*

awling, scratc

'round the happ

t of thing may be modern and strong, but it

erably. "I don't think I care for-for

to execute-here an unclothed woman, chiefly remarkable for an extraordinary development of adipose tissue and house-maid's knee; here a pathological gem that migh

e back and neck and one ear of an unclothed lady protruded; an

Neville, repressing a

unty! I didn't

ice, Kelly? Where is

o-andante-which I suppose this mess in marble symbo

" she whispered, eyes s

nute fashionable impro

e'd had

te-dat

colde

told

to win a

nch or I'

taken Trix

given he

ish abou

olded

oulde

gh withi

, pall

a scheme to

a hack t

Harlem-by

he lonely t

!" she

of offending, and barely contrived to compose their features when

Street, breathing in the fresh, sparkl

ugh to marry you I'd have driven you into that kind

ace s

ld your own i

ld. But they w

raid to fig

ise-" She gazed smilingly into spa