The Foolish Virgin | Page 5

the same when you come to analyze my wider outlook."
The artist paused and laughed softly.
"The same?" the girl asked incredulously.
"Certainly. Mine is based on intelligence, however--yours on blind instinct perverted and twisted by the idiotic fiction you read morning, noon and night."
"I don't see it," Mary answered emphatically. "Your ideal is fame, achievement, the applause of the world--mine just a home and a baby----"
Jane laughed softly.
"And that's all you know about me?"
"Isn't it true?"
"You've been in this room five years, haven't you?" the older girl asked musingly.
"Yes----"
"And though you've kept your lamp trimmed and burning, you haven't yet seen a man whom you could recognize as your equal."
"I'm only twenty-four."
"In these five years I've met a hundred men my equal."
"And smashed the conventions of Society whenever you saw fit."
"Without breaking a single law of reason or common- sense. In the meantime I've met two men who have really made love to me. I thought I loved one of them--until I met the other. The second proved himself to be an unprincipled scoundrel. If I had held your views of life and hated my work, I would have married this man and lived to awake in a prison whose only door was Death. But I loved my work. Life meant more than one man who was not worth an hour's tears. I turned to my studio and he slipped back into the gutter where he belonged. I'll meet MY Fate some day, too, dear. I'm waiting and watching--but with clear eyes and unafraid. I'll know mine when he comes, I shall not be blinded by passion or the fear of drudgery. Can't you see this bigger world of realities?"
The dimple flashed again in the smooth red cheek.
"It's not for me, Jane. I'm just a modest little home body. I'll bide my time----"
"And eat your foolish heart out here between the narrow walls of this cell you've built for yourself. I should think you'd die living here alone."
The girl flushed.
"I'm not lonely----"
"Don't fib! I know better. Your birds and kitten occupy daily about thirty minutes of the time that's your own. What do you do with the rest of it?"
"Sit by my window, watch the crowds stream through the streets below, read and dream and think----"
"Yes--read love stories and dream about your Knight."
"Well?"
"It's morbid and unhealthy. You've hedged yourself about with the old conventions and imagine you're safe--and you are--until you meet HIM!"
"I'll know how to behave--never fear."
"You mean you'll know how instantly to blindfold, halter and lead him to the Little Church Around the Corner?"
Mary moved uneasily.
"And what else should I do with him?"
"Compare him with other men. Weigh him in the balances of a remorseless common-sense. Study him under a microscope and keep your reason clear. The girl who rushes into marriage in a great city under the conditions in which you and I live is a fool. More girls are ruined in New York by marriage than by any other process. The thunderbolt out of the blue hasn't struck you yet, but when it does----"
"I'll tell you, Jane."
"Will you, honestly?"
The question was asked with wistful tenderness.
"I promise. And you mustn't think I don't appreciate this visit and the chance you've given again to enter the `big world' you're always telling me about. I just can't do it, dear. It's not my world."
"All right, my little foolish virgin, have it your own way. When you're lonely, run up to my studio to see me. I won't ask you to pose or meet any of the dangerous men of my circle. We'll lock the doors and have a snug time all by ourselves."
"I'll remember."
The clock in the Metropolitan Tower chimed the hour of five, and Jane Anderson rose with a quick, business- like movement.
"Don't hurry," Mary protested. "I know I've been stubborn, but I've been so happy in your coming. I do get lonely--frightfully lonely, sometimes--don't think I'm ungrateful----"
"You're dangerously beautiful, child," the artist said, with enthusiasm. "And remember that I love you-- no matter how silly you are--good-by."
"You won't stay for a cup of tea? I meant to ask you an hour ago."
"No, I've an engagement with a dreadful man whom I've no idea of ever marrying. I'm going to dinner with him--just to study the animal at dose range."
With a jolly laugh and quick, firm step she was gone.
Mary snatched the kitten from his snug bed between the pillows of the window-seat and pressed his fuzzy head under her chin.
"She tempted us terribly, Kitty darling, but we didn't let her find out--did we? You know deep down in your cat's soul that I was just dying to meet the distinguished Gordon--but such high honors are not for home bodies like you and me----"
She dropped on the seat and closed her eyes for a long time. The kitten watched her