The Letter of the Contract

drawing-room to write a note, her whole life might have been different. "Why didn't I?" was the question she often asked herself in the succeeding years, on

of the day. The very needlessness of writing it at once, so that her husband coul

her intention, if it wasn't that fate intervened? As a matter of fact, she went to the oriel window looking down into Fifth Avenue, with vague thoughts of the weather. It was on

od on other occasions-three or four, at least-between the two little iron posts that spaced off the opening for foot-passengers into the Park. She was looking up at th

r partially blotted out. People glanced at her as they hurried by. There were some who turned and glanced a second time. She might have been a person with a sorrow-a love-sorrow. At that thought Edith's heart went out to her in sympathy

It wasn't callousness; it was only an appreciation of mercies. She was genuinely sorry for the girl, if the girl needed sorrow; but she didn't see what she could do to help her. It was well known that out in that life of New York-and of the world at large-there were tempests of passion in which lives were w

cted as an ell from the larger one that crossed the front of the house. She had just reached the words, "shall have great pleasure in accepting your kind invitation to-" when she heard her husband's step on the stairs. He was coming up from his solitary brea

jacket and broad shoulders and splendid head, should be hers. She herself was a little woman, of soft curves and dimpling smiles and no particular beauty; and he had stooped, in his strength and tenderness, to make her bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, as she

the manner of his start that chiefly attracted her attention. After drawing back he peered forward. It was an absurd thing to think of him; she knew that-of him of all people!-but one would almost have said that, in his own house,

while she was watching him in a mirror. Never in her life had she known such a rush of shame. Bending her head, she scribbled blindly, "dinner on Tuesday

t to the kitchen to give her orders for the day. On her return he was in the hall,

e explained, as he pulled on his gloves. He g

" she thought it

I'm all

n wh

be casual: "Well, I j

with her, she was not sure which-but while giving him the note to po

ed to smother the words by

r. "You'd tell me, wouldn't

d kissed her, again smothering th

" she questioned. Within less than an hour the world had become peopled with fears, and

leaving the protection of the doorway? Was it her imagination that watched while he crossed the pavement hurriedly, to spring into the automobile before he could be observed? Was it only the needless alarm of a foolish woman that thought him anxious to r

The whole of the long day must be passed with this strange new something in her heart-this something that wasn't anything. If he would only come back for a minute and put his arms about her and let her look up into h

e held her breath. Slowly, very slowly, it began to creep up the gentle slope again. She supposed it must be the treacherous ground that made it move at such a snail's pace. It moved as if the chauffeur or

or one of the parties at least that method of communication was apparently not satisfactory, for he stepped out, dismissed the cab, and a

e analogous situation, however astounding, he would have trusted her to the uttermost; and she must do the same by him. There were ever so many reasons, she said to herself, that would not only account for the incident, but do him credit. The girl

ement, partly for his own, all the happenings, both trivial and important, of each day, that his silence with regard to this one, which surely must be considered strange-strange, if no more-w

or seven years, and still-But it wasn't that. It never had been that. If it had been-even before they were married, even before he knew her-But she would choke that thought back. She would chok

in between four and six, and of late she had become somewhat dependent on their company. They kept her from thinking. Their scraps of gossip provided her, when she talked to her husband, with topics that steered her away from dangerous ground. He himself had given her a hint that a certain ground was dangerous; and,

remember

he apple

er

lose o

and

truck her, though he had no reason to suspect that. In r

mes nou

he apple

everybody

all marrie

d and s

people more

ions, and we'd better keep them as

se our

act

e no more than a sort

se, in which he keeps all he's been

dn't have appeased her. Her thoughts would have been of the wicked world from which he had escaped more than of the paradise in which he had found shelter. She was no holy Elisab

considered vapid and inane. To miss nothing, she hurried homeward on that May afternoon, so as to be beside her tea-table

In spite of a rush of incoherent emotions she was able to reflect that she was perfectly cool, entirely self-possessed. She was merely dominated by a need-the need of coming face to face with this person and seeing who she was. She had no idea what she herself would do or say, or whether or not she would do or say anything. That was secondary; it would take care

till she had passed the stranger by a pace or two and glanced casually backward. She might have done so, however, with full deliberation, for the wo

least, though the face was of the blond, wistful, Scandinavian type that fades from pallor to pallor without being perceptibly stamped

without drawing the

ople in that house?

h much show of comprehension, but vaguely and a

. The answer seemed to come under comp

w the ge

in. After a second or two the

his w

man's part either of surpri

ef hesitation that pre

e y

was married

ye

u known

en ye

er than I've

ye

how long I'

ye

o you

emem

kes you

told

d he te

t know. I didn't care-much. He always said he would marry some da

e first

first of e

reet and down the street, and across at her own house, of which the cheerful windows reflected the May sunshine. She bowed and smiled to a man on foot. She bowed and smiled two or three times to people passing in carriages. From the Park she could hear the shrieks of children on a merry-go-round; she could follow a catchy refrain from "The Belle of New York" as played by a

was-eve

She looked down at the pavement, then, wit

rself showed no

ye

is-st

ld, suddenly took fright. Tears came to her eyes; there was a convulsiv

tell you

made in a tone of

t your feelings. Don't mind speaking, becau

tears wet on her cheek

th her answer. It

t you-

don't know. If I ever did-the thing is so dead-that

eyes. "I don't see h

a sense of her own superiority. "I suppose that's

ve

is the reason, isn't it?-becau

"It's because I don't know what else

he doesn

ake him. When h

what

comes to tell me th

that you've told me so much, I'll-I'll try to-to send him." She was struck wit

ok returned. "Oh,

ith a sense of her superiority. "He would

n't you

he likes. He's free-and so are you. I'd rather he went to you. Eleven

r my husband. We ag

ct; but I don't care anything about that. It's what I call being you

tick, stroking an end of his long mustache pensively. He wore a gray suit and a soft gray felt hat. For a minute or more there was no change in his attitude, even when the terrified eyes of the women told him he was observed. As he began to thread his way among the vehicles to cross the stre

he ignored his wife to

this mean

l. The faded woman, who was still trying to

me to he

thing for you to

illing to explain anything yo

at is-because I know alread

ou need to kn

ding my positi

Your position is

sn't. There'

. That lady would be t

She's been extremely kind. She's ans

ely you see that-that mentally s

r shall be again. No woman can be mentally like ever

, Edith; and I should nev

h. "If you hadn't wanted

n't had respo

, whose misty stare went from the one to the other in a vain effort

aid I do

hat ab

ore responsibil

hasn't more w

ife as his life has formed itsel

hat the ties he formed whe

ill-if they're o

are-of a ce

myself from them. But don't you think we'd better g

oo, lifted his hat. When the friend had go

e said, hurriedly. "I'd

We can take a st

? We

e-if that's th

e rose-colored parasol rapidly desce

ife. "I'm willing to explain any

here," she said. "If I were

? Wh

it would

ce the thing calmly. Don't

sterical

make a fuss, you're unnaturally frozen; but it

broke here than indoors. I don't know why, but I can

's sake! Can't you see that

sadly. "No, Chip, I can't see that. If there

t. That's what you don

afraid

understand-if I

to say. She's a woman whom you knew long before

was Margarethe Kastenskjold. When she went on the stage she made it Maggie Clare. She had about as much talent for the theater as a pa

been no need of it. She

he may have been a year or two older. She was living at that time with Bill

come about-or I can easily imagine. In your case-I'd-I'd rathe

a refined, educated sort of girl, entirely at sea in her surroundings, and stranded-stranded for money, mind you, next doo

how you'd

n't know how I c

hy I should know-now t

eadily. "Edith! Wha

woman of flesh and blood; but I'm not sure that I am any longer. You

ve killed the heart in your body when I never dreamed of do

woman, the woman you'd marry-as far back as when you t

ings. Men are men, and women are women. You can't make one law

thinking of men in general;

don't think I've been better

eart ache. "I did think so.

ake. If you ha

ve the right to be-that the man who asked me to marry him-and who made me love him as I think few men have been loved by women-I co

ed between us before I married you-long before I married you-that everything was at an end. But, poor soul, she doesn't know what an agreement is. Th

er. Her whole mind is

has no right to suffer. She lost the privilege of suffering when she became what she

d him. And-and continues to befr

up the street and whistling t

s to befriend hi

f her meaning. As far as she could see her way, her line of action depended o

ided for, at the very least. Hang it all, she's-she's attached to me; has been attached to me for more than ten years. I can't ignore that; no

dare sa

ertake never to see her again-of my own f

ad. "Oh, I'm not

k for? Just tell me,

ou can't abandon he

ha

d the words

ev

or me to abandon you." She ga

wo along the pavement before his ast

what do you mean? You'

e you came up-I was quite aware of being like a woman with a dose of cyanide of potassium in her hand, and doubting whether or not to take it. Well, I took it. I took it and I-died. That is, t

on't talk that way. Come in

thought she shuddered. "I can't stay ou

mean? Where a

m going to A

arriage for you after din

on't d

ou me

or two or three days-perhaps lo

l see-

to go

s talk sense. You kno

smile that seemed to stab him. "I'm afrai

t tha

are the children

away. They'll be here in a minute; and I-I can'

separated for two or three days, when you know I

ithin half an hour. You don't suppose I can go on like this? I

upted by a cry

e came prancing and screaming, followed by another of three doing th

You wouldn't understand; but-but I couldn't bear it. You must tell them I've gone to spend a few nights with Aunt Emily, as I did when she was

stay all night," he gro

or so much the worse, as the case may be. If I come back, it will be b

ere's no 'other.' If you could see how far from vi

's point of view. So that, if I don't come back, it will be becaus

she i

hall know better when I've-I'v

you may be risking you

proachful glance.

t, you may be transgressing its spirit. Don't forget that. Take ca

why I don't go over there"-she nodded toward the house-"where I had my home-where my children have theirs-where you and I ... But I can't. That's all I can say. I may do it some

rently when you've

erstand that, don't you? that I'm not making anything definite

oy galloped up. "We've seen the monkeys

avons vu les singes-mais des

ng, he put his arms about them, urging them toward their

can't do without her-that we want her at home." He turned to the younger. "Dis à maman que

d to restrain him, clinging to his knees. All he could do was to watch her-watch her while the thronging crowds and the shimmering sun