"_Titania_ and _Bottom_, by Jove!" whispered Ronalds to me as Tompkins followed his wife into the drawing-room on the evening of their arrival at Grantleigh Manor. (Tompkins is asked everywhere on account of his relationship to old Lord Wrexford.) My fancy, which I had allowed to play freely about the lady of Tompkins' choice since I had heard of his marriage, had wavered between a spinster of uncertain age who had accepted him as a _dernier resort_ and a simpering school girl too young to know her own mind. I now glanced at the bride--and gasped.
She was one of those women whose beauty is so absolute, so compelling, as to admit of neither question nor criticism. It quite took away one's breath. Every man in the room was gaping at her, but she bore the ordeal with all grace and calm, though she was the daughter of a struggling curate in some obscure locality remote from social advantages. She was of a singularly striking type: the beauty of her face was almost tragic in its intensity: the ghost of some immemorial sorrow seemed to lurk in the depths of her dark eyes: but when her too sombre expression was irradiated by the transient gleam of her rare smile, she was positively dazzling. (I am aware that I shall seem to "promulgate rhapsodies for dogmas" so to speak, but my proverbial indifference to feminine charm should endorse me.)
As the days passed--we were at Grantleigh for a fortnight--I found myself watching for some flaw in her conception, some inaccuracy in her interpretation of her _role_. But I watched in vain. There was always a perfect appreciation of the requirements of the situation, always the perfection of taste in its treatment. Evidently she had thrown herself into the part and was playing it--would play it, perhaps, to the end--with artistic _abandon_, tempered by a fine discretion and discrimination. If her yoke galled, this proud woman made no sign. But even the subtlest artiste has her unguarded moment, and it was in such a moment that I chanced to see her the night before the last of our stay.
The men had come in late from a day's shooting over the moors and were on their way to their rooms to dress for dinner. Tompkins had gone up stairs just ahead of me (his apartments were next mine) and had carelessly left a door opening on the corridor slightly ajar. In passing I unconsciously glanced that way and my eyes fell full upon the mirrored face of Elinor Tompkins as her husband crossed toward where she sat at her dressing table. The flash of feeling that crossed her countenance held me for a moment transfixed. Such a look, such an unbelievable complex of shrinking, repugnance, utter loathing and self-contempt I had never seen or imagined.... Like a flash it came and went. The next instant she had forced herself to smile and was lifting her face for her husband's caress, while Tompkins, physically and mentally short-sighted, bent and inclined his lips to hers. I caught my breath sharply. A choking sensation in my throat paid tribute to her art. Not even Duse was more a mistress of emotional control, expression, and repression. But this was something more than the perfection of acting: it was courage, the courage of endurance long drawn out--a greater than that which impels men to the cannon's mouth and a swift and sure surcease from suffering.
That evening at dinner, Villars, who had run up to town for the day, and found time for a gossip at the Club, proceeded to open his budget.
He had had the satisfaction of surprising us with the rumored engagement of Lady Agatha Trelor to the scapegrace son of an impoverished peer: he had hinted delicately at a scandal in high official life: and had made his climax with the announcement of the sudden demise of old Lord Ilverton and the consequent succession of Delmar to his title and estates--when I glanced, by purest chance, at Mrs. Tompkins. (I had fallen into a way of looking at her often--she was certainly an interesting study.) Her face was white, even to the lips. Chancing to turn, she found my eyes upon her. In an instant she had somehow compelled the color to her cheeks and recovered her wonted perfect poise and calm.
That night in the smoking room, Villars shed light upon the subject.
Tompkins was presumably haunting his wife's footsteps at the moment.
In his unconscious egotism he never spared her: there was seldom a moment when she might drop her smiling mask: the essence of his personality pervaded her whole atmosphere.
"I met old Waxby at the Club to-day," Villars was saying, "and--_apropos_ of Delmar's succession to the title--he mentioned that there had been a serious affair of the heart between him and our fellow-guest, Mrs. Tompkins, then Elinor Barton. It seems one of Ilverton's innumerable country places was near the village where the Bartons lived and Delmar met the girl there last Autumn. The affair soon assumed serious proportions: Ilverton heard of the engagement: cut up an awful shindy: had a scene with Del, and finally bundled him off to India post haste. The girl had grit, though. She sent her compliments to Lord Ilverton with the assurance that he need have given himself no uneasiness, as she had already twice refused his son and heir, and was prepared to repeat the refusal should occasion arise. They say his Lordship, who had cooled down a bit, chuckled mightily over the message and vowed that had it only been one of his younger sons, she should have had him, by Jupiter!... But things weren't easy for the girl at home. She had an invalid mother, a nervous, nagging creature, who dinned it into her ears that she'd lost the chance of a lifetime: that she was standing in the light of three marriageable younger sisters: that with her limited social advantages few matrimonial opportunities might be expected to come her way--and more to the same effect till the poor girl was nearly driven frantic."
"Why not have tried the stage--with her voice and presence any manager would have been glad to take her on," Landis suggested.
"She considered it, they say, but her reverend father turned a fit at the bare suggestion. At this juncture, Tompkins presented himself as a suitor: it was duly pointed out to Miss Barton by her loving parents that he was rather an eligible _parti_: rich, not bad looking, and a nephew of Wrexford's, and that she would better take the goods the gods provided, which, in sheer desperation, she ultimately did. You can see she loathes him, but she's evidently made up her mind to be decent to him--and by Jove, she doesn't do it by halves! She's got sand, all right, and I honor her for the way she makes the best of a bad bargain--though it's not a pleasant thing to see."
"It's a beastly pity!" broke in Ronalds warmly. "It makes me ill to see her wasting herself and her subtleties on a dolt like Algy. What a splendid pair she and Del would have made, and what a shame his Lordship didn't obligingly die a few months sooner--since it had to be!"
At this precise moment I caught sight of Tompkins standing just without the parted portierres. How long he had been there I could not guess, but doubtless quite long enough. He looked like a man who had had a facer and was a bit dazed in consequence. I think I gasped, for on the instant he looked my way with a glance that held an appeal, which I must somehow have answered. In an instant he was gone and the other men, all unaware of his proximity, pursued their theme.
I did not see Tompkins at our hurried buffet breakfast next morning, and I began to hope he would not go out with the guns that day, thus sparing me the awkward necessity of meeting him again. But he presently appeared on the terrace in his shooting togs, and I knew I was in for it. His manner, however, which was entirely as usual, reassured me. Either he had heard less than I had feared or the callousness of stupidity protected him. He chatted with his wonted gayety with the men: he made the ladies at hand to see us off a labored compliment or two, and met my eye without consciousness or embarassment. I wondered if it were stolidity or stoicism? All day he was in the best of spirits: he was positively hilarious when we gathered at the gamekeeper's cottage for luncheon--and I decided upon the former with a sense of relief, for the thing had somehow got on my nerves.
But later, as we returned to the field, he so palpably waited for me to come up with him (we always put Tompkins in the van for safety's sake--he did such fearful and wonderful things with his gun) that I was forced to join him. After a moment he said, with an effort:
"Sibley, I want to ask, as a very great personal favor, that you will never, under any circumstances, mention to anyone--to _any one_," he repeated, with a curious effect of earnestness, "about--last night."
I hastened to give him my assurance. It was the least I could do.
"Thank you," he said simply. "I felt I might depend upon you." Then, because we were men--and Englishmen--we spoke of other things.
Late that afternoon, as we bent our steps homeward, Tompkins and I found ourselves again together. We had somehow strayed from the rest, and under the guidance of a keeper, striding ahead, laden with trappings of the hunt, were making our way toward Grantleigh.
Tompkins' manner was entirely simple and unconstrained. A respect I had not previously accorded him was growing upon me. We were both dead tired, and when we spoke at all it was of the day's sport.
As we neared the Manor, the keeper, far in the lead, vaulted lightly over a stile in a hedgerow. I followed less lightly (my enemies aver that I am growing stout) with Tompkins in the rear.... Suddenly a shot, abnormally loud and harsh in the twilight hush, rang out at my back.
Blind and deaf--fatally blind and deaf as I had been--I realized its import on the instant. Even before I turned I knew what I should see.
Tompkins was lying in a huddled heap at the foot of the stile, and as I bent over him I saw that it was a matter of moments. He had bungled things all his life, poor fellow, but he had not bungled this.
"An accident, Sibley," he gasped, as I knelt beside him. "I was--always--awkward--with a gun, you know. _An accident_--you'll remember, old man? Elinor must not--"
Speech failed him for an instant. An awful agony was upon him, but no moan escaped his lips. His life had been a farce, a failure, but if he had not known how to live, assuredly he knew how to die.... The shadows were closing round him. He put out a groping hand for mine.
"I think I'm--going, Sibley," he whispered. "Tell Elinor--" And with her name upon his lips, he went out into the dark.
FOOTNOTE:
[81] Copyright, 1904, by the Frank A. Munsey Company.
MARGARET S. ANDERSON
Miss Margaret Steele Anderson, poet and critic, was born at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1875. She was educated in the public schools, with a short special course at Wellesley College. Since 1901 Miss Anderson has been literary editor of _The Evening Post_, of Louisville, having a half-page of book reviews and literary notes in the Saturday edition. From 1903 to 1908 she was "outside reader" for _McClure's Magazine_; and since quitting _McClure's_, she has been a public lecturer upon literature and art in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Memphis, and Lake Chautauqua. Miss Anderson's fine poems have appeared in _The Atlantic Monthly_, _The Century_, _McClure's_, but the greater number of them have been published in _The American Magazine_. She has also contributed considerable verse to the minor magazines. The next year will witness Miss Anderson's poems brought together in a charming volume, entitled _The Flame in the Wind_, which form they very certainly merit. No Kentucky woman of the present time has done better work in verse than has she.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _McClure's Magazine_ (August, 1902); _The Century_ (September, 1904).
THE PRAYER OF THE WEAK[82]
[From _McClure's Magazine_ (September, 1909)]
Lord of all strength--behold, I am but frail!
Lord of all harvest--few the grapes and pale Allotted for my wine-press! Thou, O Lord, Who holdest in Thy gift the tempered sword, Hast armed me with a sapling! Lest I die, Then hear my prayer, make answer to my cry: Grant me, I pray, to tread my grapes as one Who hath full vineyards, teeming in the sun; Let me dream valiantly; and undismayed Let me lift up my sapling like a blade; Then, Lord, Thy cup for mine abundant wine!
Then, Lord, Thy foeman for that steel of mine!
NOT THIS WORLD[83]
[From _McClure's Magazine_ (November, 1909)]
Shall I not give this world my heart, and well, If for naught else, for many a miracle Of spring, and burning rose, and virgin snow?-- _Nay, by the spring that still shall come and go When thou art dust, by roses that shall blow Across thy grave, and snows it shall not miss, Not this world, oh, not this!_
Shall I not give this world my heart, who find Within this world the glories of the mind-- That wondrous mind that mounts from earth to God?-- _Nay, by the little footways it hath trod, And smiles to see, when thou art under sod, And by its very gaze across the abyss, Not this world, oh, not this!_
Shall I not give this world my heart, who hold One figure here above myself, my gold, My life and hope, my joy and my intent?-- _Nay, by that form whose strength so soon is spent, That fragile garment that shall soon be rent, By lips and eyes the heavy earth shall kiss, Not this world, oh, not this!_
Then this poor world shall not my heart disdain?
Where beauty mocks and springtime comes in vain, And love grows mute, and wisdom is forgot?
_Thou child and thankless! On this little spot_ _Thy heart hath fed, and shall despise it not; Yea, shall forget, through many a world of bliss, Not this world, oh, not this!_
WHISTLER (AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM)[84]
[From _The Atlantic Monthly_ (August, 1910)]
So sharp the sword, so airy the defense!
As 'twere a play, or delicate pretense; So fine and strange--so subtly-poised, too-- The egoist that looks forever through!
That winged spirit--air and grace and fire-- A-flutter at the frame, is your desire; Nay, it is you--who never knew the net, Exquisite, vain--whom we shall not forget!