| Show S as a's r r Q D S The young editors critics special special ape ape- cial cia writers were wera enchanted e This was va Life Lite At last Moreover It was waa Democracy These young and able men having renounced their earlier socialism their sense sonso of humor humor humor hu hu- hu- hu mor recognizing its disharmony with high salaries and pleasant living were hot for Democracy Nothing paid like Democracy In Inthis Inthis inthis this heaving world Tho The Democratic Democrat Democrat- ic io wave wae rose and roared Symbolic Symbolic Sym Sym- bolic bolio was this violent eruption of ot small town fiction as realistic as the kitchen as a's pessimistic as Wall Vall street All virtue an all allx hope all lIl Idealism had gone out Of M the world no Romance mance for that matter never had existed and it was high time timo the stupid world was forcibly purged of its immemorial Ial illusion Life LICE was and ever ha had been sordid commonplace Ignoble vulgar immedicable immedicable im im- im- im refinement was was a cowardly cowardly cowardly cow cow- ardly veneer that was beneath any seeker after atter Truth and Truth was I all that mattered Love Lovo was waa to 10 laugh Happiness was hysteria and content the delusion of morons a word now hotly racing authentic authentic authentic tic As for those verbal criminals criminals crimi crimi- nals loyalty and patriotism Their success was colossal Gora Dwight caught the crest of the wave and sold three hundred thousand copies of or Fools She immediately signed a contract with one of ot the womans magazines for the serial rights of her next novel for and received a corresponding advance from her publisher Her short stories sold for 2000 apiece and her first novel no was exhumed and had a heavy sale It was difficult to bo be pessimistic with a hundred thousand dollars dollar in bonds and mortgages and the deed of a house in her strong box but Gora Dwight was an artist and could always fall back on tech tech- But although her book was the intellectual expression of wildly wildly wild wild- ly distorted complexes owing to the disillusionments of war the humiliation of ot her ego in womans woman's most disastrous adventure and the consequent repression of all her dearest urges she deserved her success far more moro than any of her adolescent rivals rials She Sho had formed her style In the da days s 's of complete normalcy and not only was that style distinguished vigorous and individual but she was able to convey her realism so subtly and yet so ambiguously that she could afford to disdain the of the younger school A marvelous f feat at Most of ot them used the frank vocabulary of the humble home as alone llone synonymous with Truth Ne Never er before had such words invaded the sacrosanct pages of American Jetter letters letters' Little they reeked as Mr rr Lee Clavering who took the entire school as an obscene Joke pointed out that they were but taking the shortest cut cut advantage advantage of the postwar license affecting all classes classes to to I save themselves the exhausting ef effort effort effort ef- ef fort of acquiring a vocabulary and forming a style The Tho spade as a l symbol vanished from fiction Miss Dwight had her own ideals little as she permitted h her r Unfortunate unfortunate unfortunate un un- fortunate characters to have ha-e any and not only was she a n. consummate consummate consummate I mate master of words and of the theart theart I art of suggestion but she had been brought up by finicky parents who I held that certain words were not notto notto notto to be used in refined society The impressions received in plastic I years earB were not to be obliterated by any fad of the hour No one knew not even her fellow fellow tellow tel fel fel- fel low Californians that she had had hada a disastrous love affair which had culminated in an attempt to murder murder mur sour der her beautiful sister in Her book had been a wild revulsion revulsion revulsion sion from every standard of her youth and she loathed love and arid the bare idea of mutual happiness In In fellow mortals as she recently had loathed blood and filth and war and Germans Success is a great healer Moreover Moreover More More- over she was a woman of ot strong and indomitable character and very proud She Sho consigned the theman theman theman man who after all was the au author author author au- au thor of her phenomenal success to nethermost oblivion You cannot sell three hundred thousand copies of a book receive hundreds of l from unknown admirers t ting Icing te Ic ing you that you are the great novelist living see your name c co in the news be i by editors and publishers and ancIl H l come a popular favorIte favorito with and carry aroun lacerated heart The past fad tad The present reigns The future rosy as the dawn Gora DiJ was far too arrogant at this per PW of ot her career to love Jove any man manc had there been anything left ot oJ heart but a pump Her me full fun to the brim She was wag qt tu aware that tho the present stark and dour realism would p the tho the Indications were to ve bo boW in the moro moderate but p pi flounced success of ot several nov X C by authors impervious to craze craz but sho she was too fertile for app appi hension on that score She l many and quite different then ther wandering like luminous gho about tho the corridors of a free from labyrinths rea rca to emerge full blooded when world was ready for tor them J The Tho last Jast time ClaverIng had I opposite a woman by a log Jog log t f both had enjoyed the tho deep lux luxl of easy chairs and his hostess seemed to melt into tho the depths depths- til they they- enfolded her nut But li l DwIght never lounged Her lIer b ba bone bone- appeared to be made r iron She sat erect toda today t 5 o 1 hassock while he reclined In chair that exactly fitted fittell his spi and enjoyed contrasting herthe her hern w n the other woman Gora DwI Dw had no beauty but hut sho she passed unnoticed in a crowd Ver if iC unrecognized Her lIer oval M 1 were a pale clear gray cold aim sinister end and nd she wore her m mass Sl brown rown hair on top of her her herH h and down to her heavy hoovy Her mouth was straight and s sh sha ly cut but mobile and relaxing into a charming sn and she had beautiful teeth A- A nOse noso was short and emphatic jawbone salient It was alto lito er a a. disharmonic t type pe fo for head was long Jong and th the face faco h eh broad across the high and her large largo light eyes set HI HIsman small dark face produced a disc effect on sensitive peo but more often otten fascinated th Clavering had been told that I Iff California days she sho had posses a superb bust but long years ars unremitting work In Franc England had taken toll toil of ot her n f J and it had never returned sh t very thin and the her frame framo was emphasized b byl bi strong uncompromising bones her feet and her brown hands w long and narrow and the st atri lines of the present fashion fashion y n very becoming to her Shew Sheow today a gown of dark red v ve vel l trimmed with brown fur arid aid touch of gold in the region of waist It was was known that her clothes at the best houses house She was a curious mixture ci cj Ciering erIng reflected and not the tho k 1 lc contradictory thing about he her the tho way in which her rather suJ su sul face could light up exactly some inner flame leapt behind those uncanny eye eYes 11 shed its light over oer the very m n des cles of her cheeks and unde under skin The oddest of ot her trait traits her apparent pleasure in see J man comfortable while she loo like a ramrod herself and sh the easiest of or mortals to tal tala when she was in the right mo me f She was morose at times bu bull favorites were seldom In with her moods and of all h hirl herf orites Clavering reigned S sup supra l This ho he knew and took of after the fashion of ot his sex sei told her all his troubles his am which he believed to bo ho bc f fu fut I he he had written plays which own criticism had damned Ii ind d deye eye but his own and Gora DW Dwig had ever seen seen and and she and stimulated his mind whey daily column must be I his brain was stagnant She Slie- knew of or his secret quest of th th woman soman and had been the re rom tory of ot several fleeting hopes hopes- never for a moment had reI him saturnine or die dis J I Not she Gora DwI Dw had an In extraordinary knowledge knowledg men for a woman to whom hon n did not make love But if sh shel I neither beauty nor allure she 1 1 n genius and a father co hardly knows more moro about won than a nurse about men AMo l over s she e had her arts little men suspected it Long lItie ago f had read an appraisement n by Sain Sn Beuve She listens tion Gora had no Intent practising seduction in forms but she listened an and f never nover betrayed and her r rew w was that men sound and wh and full of mans man's technical peculiarities had cc f tided in her hr Altogether sh she T c Twell 1 well equipped foi Ic- fiction 1 1 C Continued l morrow |
