Show I 0 ETHE COMMON LAW I IY BY Y ROBERT W. W CHAMBERS j INSTALMENT 71 I I I thi don't dont think T Valeric I men are very very unlike unlike women Forgive me If it 1 I 1 seem eem to be embittered Even you have h had d your experience experIence lence with men the men the men that al all th the world seem seem to JIk like kind ike-kind kind kind jolly joly generous generous gener gener- ous US Jovial amusing men men and and clever men neri m men n of attai attainment ment of distinction And nd they the o majority o 0 are are after all ail Just men men V Valerie Just men In Ina ina a 1 world made for men a world Into which we come com come like JIke timid Intrudes uncertain through generations of f uncertainty un- un un certainty Innocently Innocently st stupid stupid pid through 1 ages g s of st stupid pid Innocence re ready d to i please though not knowing ex exactly I how dow ready to be pleased God knows with pleasures as Innocent as the simpIe simple sim sun pIe minds that dream of th them m. m Valerie I 1 do not believe any evil first came Into this world of men teen through any woman Valerie looked down at her folded small hands hands small smooth white hands pure of skin and innocent as a childs I I dont don't know she said troubled how much more unhappiness arises through me men than through women i if i any more moxe I like men Some are unruly unrulY like like children some have the sense and the in morals rals of marauding dogs But at w worst the unruly and the marauders seem so hopelessly beneath L one Intellectually f that a girls girl's resentment resentment resentment resent resent- ment Is really more of contempt than of anger anger ann and perhaps more more of pity than of either Rita said I cannot feel as chari charl- I tably You still have that right Rita Rita Rita she said softly we wc both have loved men you with the Ignorance ig Ig- Ig norance and courage of a child child I I 1 with I less ignorance and wi with h my courage a as asyet yet untested Where is the difference between us us-If us If we love sincerely Rita leaned forward rd and looked at al her searchingly Do you mean to do what what you said I you would Yes Why Because he w wants me me Rita sprang Jo her feet and and began begat I pacing the floor I r will not nol have so it she said I excitedly I I will not h have ve it it so i If It he Is a man man man-a a real real man man man-he he will L not have It so either If he will he does not nt love you mark what I 1 say Valerie Valerie Valerie-he he does not yot love you enough No man can love bye a woman woman enough to tc accept that from her it would be a s paradox I II tell you He loves me enough said Valerie Valerie Va Va- VaI I I 1 I lerie very pale He could not love me as I care for him hire it is not In e a aman L 1 man to do it nor in any human beIng being be be- ing to love as I love him You Thu I dont don't understand Rita I must b be bea I I a part of him not him not very much because because because be be- be- be cause already there is so sq much to tc him him and and I am so 50 unimportant You are more Important than heis he heis is is said Rita fiercely fiercely with all your you fineness and loyalty and divine sympathy sympathy sym sym- pathy and splendid n ld h humility with humIlity-with with 1 your purity and nd your loveliness 10 and andin andin I in spite of his very lofty lotty Intellect anc and I his rather amazing genius and his in- in i I I 1 I 1 I u II II II III I h social you respectability you are arc t the he more more- Important to the happiness a and nd welfare of this w v world even even to at t the he humblest corner In it it- it Rita Rita What wild partisan n nonsense nonsense you are talking talking- Oh Valerie Valerie If you only k knew neW If you only knew Querida called caled next day Rita wasat was wasat wast at t but flatly refused to see him I Tell Mr Querida she said to the j janit Janitor r that neither I 1 I nor Miss I West are at home to him and that he is is' as nimble at t riddles s as ashe he he Is at mischief he can guess guess this one before his friend Mr Cardemon returns from froma a voyage ar around una the world Which reply slightly disturbed Querida All An during dinner dinner and and he was dinIng dinIng din- din Ing alone alone he he considered it and hi his thoughts were mostly centered on Valeri Somehow w some way or other he must come to to- toan an understanding with Valerie West Vest Somehow some way she must be brought to listen Usten to him Because while he lived married or single poor poor or wealthy he would never rest Sever Rever b be satisfied never nevet wring from lIf lif life th the last drop that life must pay him until this womans woman's love Iove was his hisS He loved her as such a man loves he pad had no Idea of l letting that love for her interfere with other othet ambi Long ago when very poor and ver very r talented and very confident that the n world which pret pretended ride to ignore him himL really reay knew v in its furtive heart heart that thai L I it owed him fame and fortune and I social position he had determined t to toI begin begin- the final finai campaign with a perfectly perfectly per per- perfectly I suitable marriage F That was all years ago and he had I r never swerved In his determination determination- i not ot even even when Valerie West surprised surprised surprised sur sur- his life in all the freshness ol of her young beauty And as as he sat there leisurely over his claret ho lie reflected easily that tha t the time had come for the marriage and that the woman he had picked out was was perfectly suitable and that the the suitable evening to inform her hei r was the present evening Mrs Willet Hind was enough to interest him clever enough to stop gaps In a dinner table conversation conversation conver conver- wealthy enough to permit him hima a liberty of rejecting commissions which he had never before dared to exercise and fashionable enough t to carry for him what could not be carI carried car car- ried ned through his own presentable good looks and manners and fame This last Jast winter he had become a a frequenter of her house houe on Sixty- Sixty third street and so carelessly assiduous assiduous assid assid- and so delightfully casual had become his attentions t to that beautiful beautiful beautiful ful groomed widow that his footing with her was already an intimacy and his portrait of her which he had given iven her had been the he sensation of the loan exhibition exhibition- at atthe at the great Inter- Inter borough Ch Charity Bazaar He was apprehensive nor nors excited as as' as he c calmly finished his lila claret He was to drop in there after dinner to discuss with her several candidates s as architects Idea Idea- Home So when he Wa was ent ent entire entire- toc took to c his his' hat and stick fai in in ina a taxicab ts tsa a ge gentle glow of waited many years for fors s ning as this was to b be patient and unmoral man wait waft r for Valeri s first se secret ret blow at the ha i threatened artistic Neville j So he he rolled roiled away in hl comfortably h. h 3 Indolently assured ass red of fhi I In a house which it perfectly to inhabit woul Only olie one thing worried tie tIe the the short note he heah from his friend Penrhyn saying rather brusquely brusqUe 11 made up up his mind not portrait painted for live iva th lars and that he TV as g gd The Mohave 1 to be gone least Which p pained Qu i Cardemon had hadnot not what hat was almost a CO cou J he had also aiso invitation to spend th Th The Mohave 1 Mohave with ith the thein u in ur that Valerie VaI West was au l- l itea J P However Howe everything c co cc season and this did nota I the season for ripe coin yachting enterprises b seemed to be the season tl I cious clous matrimonial crite p Anil And when Mrs Wind Vid ive him In a Un tinted rose corner audaciously eluded he truly felt that ly Iy missing s something of bf t of th the chase hase and that it t too foo e easy s to be b be a t nOY However v r r. r when hen at las ly y retained her hand ain an Alma and arid had hadl dark velvet eyes rest ret TV wit KM passion upon her smaller and blacker backet ones S som where in the machinery wrong wrong ann wrong annoyingly wrong Because Mrs l Wind Will laugh laugh and and evidently was to trying to-trying trying to remain ve very her little black eyes we wew e with tears of suppress suppressed dj when amazed and offended have hav withdrawn his hand it almost convulsively Jose J beg your p rd do It Is Js perfectly po Jion hor of me to b hav but listen child I an am M ari perfectly contented not nt ag again in and I dont don't love lp Jl poor Jose what on e earth rth littleover little if I 1 dont don't laugh a 1 over it you you know M The scarlet flush fad fad J olive skin lina lma he ji fully but she only shO vigorously IS i Nonsense she said ta for a sufficient variety And to tell you the tru that I am quite as you as ag you actually are aret no no Jose There are toc to of s-of s of various Id Idoo k-i. k toM too loo oo little to to- gain gain to fr frank frank and and and you alas ou alas alas- cautious very clever leve a ai sophisticated young n there I am are not really oj or or blaming you yoU youVe very have tried the same tt t. tj place yes place yes indeed I HB Jose d dear a if you'll take t ice advice of or fair fair plump and the lesser ambition soA gO so- som I IA m A clever wealthy w your age and on the tre ed edwith eaf with you for a hu husband l and m mry herself far e eyou ei ry you and 2nd you And there'd be bein lIDo in It believe m me A ZM may kiss kiss my h b hand v v nd-v J more morally and tull taUt talk about those arC arch We we To be |