Best Short Stories - [52]

Alice Haskett’s remarriage with Gus Varick was a passport to the set whose recognition she coveted, and for a few years the Varicks were the most popular couple in town. Unfortunately the alliance was brief and stormy, and this time the husband had his champions. Still, even Varick’s staunchest supporters admitted that he was not meant for matrimony, and Mrs. Varick’s grievances were of a nature to bear the inspection of the New York courts. A New York divorce is in itself a diploma of virtue, and in the semi-widowhood of this second separation Mrs. Varick took on an air of sanctity, and was allowed to confide her wrongs to some of the most scrupulous ears in town. But when it was known that she was to marry Waythorn there was a momentary reaction. Her best friends would have preferred to see her remain in the role of the injured wife, which was as becoming to her as crape to a rosy complexion. True, a decent time had elapsed, and it was not even suggested that Waythorn had supplanted his predecessor. Still, people shook their heads over him, and one grudging friend, to whom he affirmed that he took the step with his eyes open, replied oracularly: ‘Yes — and with your ears shut.’

Waythorn could afford to smile at these innuendoes. In the Wall Street[84] phrase, he had ‘discounted’ them. He knew that society has not yet adapted itself to the consequences of divorce, and that till the adaptation takes place every woman who uses the freedom the law accords her must be her own social justification. Waythorn had an amused confidence in his wife’s ability to justify herself. His expectations were fulfilled, and before the wedding took place Alice Varick’s group had rallied openly to her support. She took it all imperturbably: she had a way of surmounting obstacles without seeming to be aware of them, and Waythorn looked back with wonder at the trivialities over which he had worn his nerves thin. He had the sense of having found refuge in a richer, warmer nature than his own, and his satisfaction, at the moment, was humorously summed up in the thought that his wife, when she had done all she could for Lily, would not be ashamed to come down and enjoy a good dinner.

The anticipation of such enjoyment was not, however, the sentiment expressed by Mrs. Waythorn’s charming face when she presently joined him. Though she had put on her most engaging teagown she had neglected to assume the smile that went with it, and Waythorn thought he had never seen her look so nearly worried.

‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘Is anything wrong with Lily?’

‘No; I’ve just been in and she’s still sleeping.’ Mrs. Waythorn hesitated. ‘But something tiresome has happened.’

He had taken her two hands, and now perceived that he was crushing a paper between them.

‘This letter?’

‘Yes — Mr. Haskett has written — I mean his lawyer has written.’

Waythorn felt himself flush uncomfortably. He dropped his wife’s hands.

‘What about?’

‘About seeing Lily. You know the courts —’

‘Yes, yes,’ he interrupted nervously.

Nothing was known about Haskett in New York. He was vaguely supposed to have remained in the outer darkness from which his wife had been rescued, and Waythorn was one of the few who were aware that he had given up his business in Utica and followed her to New York in order to be near his little girl. In the days of his wooing, Waythorn had often met Lily on the doorstep, rosy and smiling, on her way ‘to see papa.’

‘I am so sorry,’ Mrs. Waythorn murmured.

He roused himself. ‘What does he want?’

‘He wants to see her. You know she goes to him once a week.’

‘Well — he doesn’t expect her to go to him now, does he?’

‘No — he has heard of her illness; but he expects to come here.’

‘Here?’

Mrs. Waythorn reddened under his gaze. They looked away from each other.

‘I’m afraid he has the right… You’ll see…’ She made a proffer of the letter.

Waythorn moved away with a gesture of refusal. He stood staring about the softly lighted room, which a moment before had seemed so full of bridal intimacy.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she repeated. ‘If Lily could have been moved —’

‘That’s out of the question,’ he returned impatiently.

‘I suppose so.’

Her lip was beginning to tremble, and he felt himself a brute.

‘He must come, of course,’ he said. ‘When is — his day?’

‘I’m afraid — to-morrow.’

‘Very well. Send a note in the morning.’

The butler entered to announce dinner.

Waythorn turned to his wife. ‘Come — you must be tired. It’s beastly, but try to forget about it,’ he said, drawing her hand through his arm.

‘You’re so good, dear. I’ll try,’ she whispered back.

Her face cleared at once, and as she looked at him across the flowers, between the rosy candle-shades, he saw her lips waver back into a smile.

‘How pretty everything is!’ she sighed luxuriously.

He turned to the butler. ‘The champagne at once, please. Mrs. Waythorn is tired.’

In a moment or two their eyes met above the sparkling glasses. Her own were quite clear and untroubled: he saw that she had obeyed his injunction and forgotten.

II

Waythorn, the next morning, went down town earlier than usual. Haskett was not likely to come till the afternoon, but the instinct of flight drove him forth. He meant to stay away all day — he had thoughts of dining at his club. As his door closed behind him he reflected that before he opened it again it would have admitted another man who had as much right to enter it as himself, and the thought filled him with a physical repugnance.