Show d. d CO r H ii 1 j t L i 1 s 's l t a R J r 2 r f i r J rp Ut Jt jQ 4 J r rR U 0 L T p 1 U J S q orence 7 v I J i afford af- af f. f MOD MOUNTAINTOPS for ford d a fins finES view but even the m most ost spiritual of 99 loves must descend to the t c J Vin ir Valley 0 of Practical Affairs Af Af- w x f fairs as occasionally ally when H bread and butter problems lems begin to present themselves r ri jp n sp r r 1 l J r r 1 f iC r t t r 4 iu a y 1 f J 41 t tt t j Y t tr t Jr aPY t d s 1 r f f 1 y P Dt sI s l I nothing startlingly new about J- J what happened to Barton Darton French and Helen Deland It might hare e happened d dany any anywhere here I suppose and probably has hu ha happened a thousand times or so since the world b began If the whole thin thiD were written out in twenty five words words words-as as the college professors insist all plots should bethe be bethe the the reader ruder would sniff and turn away assay away No d decidedly it was not the strangeness of of the affair itself but that it should happen to them Later all that I could know or guess I heard hend from Barton Batton h himself as he be sat in that dim rn green eD room of his high above e the clatter of the New ew ew York traffic so trait so high that the street noises blended themselves s into a distant roar roar like the voice of the winds through the redwood forests of Santa Susanna And all an that he told toM me fitted In bit by bit like pi pieces ces of fine mosaic until I had the perfect whole holc Barton French is ri rich h now DOW with ten sue sue- plays plays' to b his s credit and Helens Helen scenery has hall made h her r famous on n Broadway where even eren the tired business man mau is jarred out of his calm by the stran strange beauty of her ber settings but it all aU began in the old days when hen the universe was young youn w when n we lived upon the startling slopes of Russian nil lull and talked largely ely of the seven arts There was nothing we did not know The world orId lay before us fair game gam and we sat ut like sods gods on Olympus we liked to think and hurled the lightning of our wrath rath at atthe the heads of the mortals below Not that the lightning ever struck It usually came came cameto to rest quite harmles harmless in the waste-baskets waste of editors or lodged itself in the pages paes of a A newspaper which being read only by 01 our ourselves selves elres or ot by other gods gods' in other small distressed mere mortals not at t all Still it was 1 a 11 Jovian pastime and one which belonged to youth Now Russian Hill lull is fashionable again It was was was' bound to come That wonderful sweep of harbor below the opal and n nh h hills ls of Piedmont and antI Berkeley beyond made th the spot too perfect for mere artists to enjoy and one by one the ragged raged shacks where there once we dwelt have been torn down Barton Buton Barton French was a playwright and a sensible man He lie did not waste time time- in elevating the stage but content with sea sealevel level lere merely asked to ornament it as it was And since the public cares care more for tor sense than for art two of his plays had bad taken even then It was while he be was writing his third that he found his way to our hilltop Being entirely wit without bout humor except in things things' dramatic he took us as we were and sank into the tenor of our lives without t a ripple B But t it was not so with his wife Her coming cowing was accompanied by more than a ripple ripple ripple-it it was a distinct splash She did not appear until after atter Bart Barton n had bad been been established for several months and was 38 happily pegging at bis his great mat second act in that queer little cottage cotta of his which clun clung like a barnacle to the side ilde of tb the bill hilI She was as Yvette Gwyne an actress as 88 y yet t unknown to fame but about to burst Into luto uto the limelight in his bis nut nest play At present Ih she was touring the East in a second rate company Naturally we were agog ao to see her We Ve had bad grown fond lond of Barton George Geore Cambert Cam Cam- bert put our Celin felling feeling Into words If she's he the real thing we want to e wel welcome wet come coale her hero he be said and aad if she's an Imitation imitation tion we might as well know the worst at once ane So he gave gue a party In InI I s long Ion redwood room on vu the II night ight of her arrival and we all sat waiting a triBe trifle nervously before the fire lire I 5 i L. L Lf A sit v We are going y r rf rrb I r f ff said We cant can't stand your stupidity any We are aren n r There There were were re si steps ps outside and the murmur of af voices Barton carne ne a-ne into n the room roam an anbe and be Lind ind him his wife wile She was slender and and in in the candle light ligh young youn with a mop of pale hair and large blue eyes eJes There was wa's something y wistful about her although as we were later late r to find tired out there was little left for her t to desire Barton adored her ber in his quiet way and she h had everything for which she could ask but she managed to surround hers herself hersel f with the pat pathos los of of a a aspi spi spirit it crushed and misunderstood Sh She stood so lookin looking down at us for just I the proper and effective length of time then she sho advanced advance slowly into the room Suddenly the talk broke out out ut in little unconventional phrases welcome of me and over It all aU came the voice of Jules Jules De Deland who had risen I shall write a poem about you h he said dreamily I 1 ll hope pe it will be a a anice nice poem she answered i t There in a 11 word you had her It must be a nice poem I And on that very night sight began egan the affair 1 with Jules for something in he her hem absurd and needless pathos had drawn her to Jules Jule Deland JULES TULES himself had bad the air of being mis mist understood and with as little rea reason on as Yvette It was impossible to misunderstand Jules He was as as transparently clear as crystal crystal and and as useless No one who wasted d i five minutes upon him could possibly mistake mistake mistake mis mis- I take his chara character er for Jules was a po poet t i and lazy He lIe laid it to temperament temperament of course and when he J lay sy y on his back before the fire i staring into the blaze he was wont to i rem remark rk I 1 see e It t there DIY there my poem But n no one was deceived ed except possibly I his wife We Ve all knew v that his mind was i not So BO much taken much taken his his' up with his bis muse as with the sheer bodily comforts of the hearthrug hearth hearthrug hearth i rug and the time warmest spot jn in the room He took everything in ill life lite the same WilY way somehow some sOUle- how managing to get the softest st place before the fire of life and that tho t pla place e was w was s always all supplied by Helen Deland without i question or murmur Helen was was an interior decorator I 1 think at one time she phe had hall painted aint a bit but that was vas in the past b before fore she came to us Now v all nil h her r splendid vitality went I into the this matching of silks the designing of lampshades lampshades lamp lamp- sha shades es and cushions She had built up a II little shop of oC her own and slowly lo ly her ber business busi busi- nets ness was growing Jules rarely entered the shop He felt feIC somehow that it was not his place o a o martof mart martof martot of ot trade He lie even spoke once or twice of the sorrow it t was to him that t Helen lIeen could not be like other othet women women women-an an ornament to the home Jules was WIlS very advanced understand understand- advanced along his hia own lines ll He tie felt Celt that woman should be he fore fn-e emancipated Out but beautiful and entin entirely in her atti attitude attitude tude toward man Just bow how those thi 1 were all 1111 co in iii the twisted processes sel e of his lIis brain I 1 cannot say but they were all expressed passionately in III his verse erSIL from time to ti time Je It was this ani the somewhat jeering attitude attitude attitude at at- at- at of oC the Olympians tb that t led to tu his his ai air r i f i L' L ty l a a aJ l J r Fy 9 r I of martyrdom the martyrdom the subtle something was so perfectly in acc accord rd with the temperament tempera tempera- ment of of Yvette So he threw that cheap and tawdry thing tIlIng which was his heart quite frankly at her ber feet and before time the gaze of the crowd he scribbled a poem JI poem m on the wall wall wall- LI 1 j. j impromptu comp composition to My l Lady C C M 1 1 it t made even the Olympians gasp Barton Darton French rench read it with the others and made comment Youve got one too many feet in the thelast thelast last line my boy he said which said which was was like Barton But Yvette said she thought it was sweet and aud subtle and showed that he lie understood Jules stopped at Bartons Barton's door the next day ostensibly to return a book but bub he stayed two hours and after aCter that he was a familiar figure toiling up the path from his own gate to the cotta cottage e where Yvette sat at drumming her fingers against the glass and looking out over the gr great at expanse of bay and mountain and sky a sky a view which was wasas wasas as satisfying to her petty self as the ure- ure occupation of f her husband and the time entire absence of admiration from his friends For Yvette lived Ul upon L flatter and adulation And until our exodus exodus- into the mountains nothing happened What occurred occurred oc oc- urr d there we have never neer been able to explain It may have been merely the product of circumstance it may have been du due to the fact that for two months we were cooped up together or George Lambert Cambert Cam Lam Cami bert may be right right perhaps perhaps it would have hare happened anyway in the time end That Jules and Yvette should have bare cabins opposite each other was natural Jules had insisted d that tha t George Camber should give ghe up UI his colta cottage to Barton Bartoli French and aud Yvette Of course he gave gare some saDIe excuse as pitifully transparent as he was himself but out we all knew it ft was because the plan place in iu question was across from the cabin occupied by himself and Helen George who was vas to be beaW aW away y most of the summer in New York gave in Jn growling a trifle and doubled double up UI with one of the other bachelors on his short visit to Santa Susanna So while J Jules dud Yvette flirted upon the lira mountaintop Barton French and amI Helen Deland Ueland sat facin facing each other across across the narrow lI stream 1 truly believe c that up to that moment neither one hat had noticed the other Barton was too busy too engrossed in his play to have many thoughts to spare and U Helen leD was nut not a milking woman In town She he wore a suits its eternally eternally dark dark business busi ness suits She he was too boyish too ton trimly correct to be noticeable le Hut But now with her head bared the little curling close chest chestS chestnut nut locks locks bound about it and Hashing flashing in the sun liun sun the whiteness of her throat rising ng from the dull leaf green of ot Her corduroy moun woun mountain tain lain suit above flaming amin a I scarlet tit ope ie could not help hell noticing lichen Helen then the She fitted the landscape sod and was Wog as perfectly In fu accord with it as a u dryad while Yvette Yette with her ber pitiful attempts attempt at summer resort i costuming Reme seemed as much out of place asa as a painted dull doll i j c f. f Barton Buton must ha bate ha e felt this even then but his d devotion demotion to Yvette was something quite apart from rom his brain She wa was his and t somehow never neer seemed to occur to him to judge jude her 01 of watch her er flirtation with anything more than the eye of a parent smiling at the time harmless gambols of a 4 child With Helen it was different She had bad marriell married Jules some five years before belore and her loyalty and religion both bound her to him I For or she was religious In a way way her her own way Way and and folIO followed folIOed ed a. a strange sil silent nt code of b her r own making O ONE NE cannot ace a person day after tet day over o ten feet of sparkling stream Jm in air like wine win without a certain Intimacy Barton and l lichen Helen elen bad bael exchanged views VIews first on the weather the view the wild flowers rs l later t r on larger topics In the end Barton Batton began reading her his play scene by scene and he found in her a mind which matched his own 00 Unconsciously he grew to rely upon up n her advice when he herc reached ched those inevitable in in- evitable barren wastes tastes where his brain refused to carry earry him across OJ y j tomorrow morrow There wn writ never neter an an in their meetings meeting There they v cre in the white whit e glare dare of day working t you upon their two sep sepa sepa- a rata ratu arts while while vwe ive Olyn join joined d the theor them am m or wand wandered rel post past t calling a greeting fro from m the pAth Nothing co could have e b been en safer safe mr r or more devoid oid o suli vent nent But Yvette chose lS tj j se sent t it Yvette Ivette who had bad 1 J arton for months month g s who who spent her time with Jul Jules s an and j d flaunting his arlor tk before his wife wife- Yvette Y with her painted b beauty auty and lie tIer her r insatiable thirst for admiration a developed develop ll a queer jealousy of Helen Delandi Deland The thing came l to a he head d one oue night a athe at atthe atthe t the campfire The fire was as an Institution n j at Susanna It was built upon ullon a tint flat cite circle e i of rocks above the stream al and acid d it lighted u uthe up p j the surrounding country like a beacon When Its flames dames mounted to 1 their highest even the summit stood out a black tang j of rocks their surfaces catching the glow gins v here and there against the arching sky W We e lighted It just juU ahem the darkness had hall come and it burned well into th the night while grouped about Its cheering warmth we w we S fibres thres d d out the affairs of the universe We were discussing free love that night end ev every ry one was having his bis or her say 1 1 I can still see it It lime the fire tire the tIle giant trees i and ond we ve Olympians a poor handful b of t mor mortals r. r tots lost In the Immensity of th time the night nt-hl discussing J O out our lt 1 pitiful l futile human lass passions passion ons s i while the sky shy arched above e us an awesome e rem reminder hider of I he the insignificance of It all A As Am i usual Jules s 's voice had been raised raise d I i in argument banal and commonplace Woman be free tree to choose he b e declared Why u should she be tied t tl on onman one e i i man mall when het her soul wills tolls to another another- t He lIe raised raisel his hand bUilt in ill an affected gesture i and his bis eyes sought Yvette but we ail only y i smiled Jules usually talked In III platitudes and we ne hud had tome cuine to t take it as bs Inu much h fl n part t i of oC his pose as us lib bin Ion long halt half or bis his velveteen i collar As if it Jules had nut not spoken Barton Bartu n i French contributed his Ills bit lie He was leaning g hack back h hi liL I head comfortably bly pillowed against I glI Insl be the bark of a redwood ledwood his bronzed far face e i smiling a I bit it as he hc talked Its like hike this he said ard Youve Youre either I found the right person or you JOY haven't ent ont and amid d when pH oti marry you stay married I take it t. t If youve you've youve you've gues guessed ed right you dout dont wart want t to o i change ant and if you Juu haven't well haven't-well well It its it's uti up up p 1 I to 0 you Jou to take your medicine like a man maim i Nut Not ot leaning iJU personal be he |