OCR Text |
Show PABROT&GQ Author of The Carpet FroiTiDadadSJ The Place f Honeymoons, etc. fp CDPYWGMT ff Tff 0OB3J-riEM.ILL COnPAfiY W was the daughter of General Chet-wood, Chet-wood, the man to whom the Indian government had cause to be grateful, upon more than one occasion, for the solidity of his structures, the colonel realized definitely the seriousness of his crucifixion. He sat stiffer and stiffer in his chair, and the veins in his nose grew deeper and deeper in hue. He saw clearly that he would never understand American women. He had committed an outrageous blunder. blun-der. He, instead of dominating, had been dominated by three faultfinding old women; and, without being aware of the fact, had looked at things from their point of view. A most inconceivable inconceiv-able blunder. He would not allow that he was being swayed less by the admission admis-sion of his unpardonable rudeness on board than by the immediate knowledge knowl-edge that Elsa was known to the British Brit-ish official's sister, a titled lady who stood exceedingly high at court. "Miss Chetwood," he said, lowering his voice for her ears only. Elsa turned, but with the expression that signified that her attention was engaged elsewhere. "Yes?" "I am an old man. I am sixty-two; and most of these sixty-two I have lived roughly; but I am not too old to realize that I have made a fool of myself." my-self." Interest began to fill Elsa's eyes. "It has been said," he went on, keeping keep-ing the key, "that I am a man of courage, cour-age, but I find that I need a good deal of that just now. I have been rude to you, and without warrant, and I offer you my humble apologies." He fumbled fum-bled with his cravat as if it had suddenly sud-denly tightened. "Will you accept?" "Instantly." Elsa understood the quality of courage that had stirred the colonel. But ruthlessly: "I should, She Nodded Pleasantly to the Colonel. however, like your point of view in regard re-gard to what you consider my conduct." con-duct." "Is it necessary?" "I believe it would be better for my understanding if you made a full confession." con-fession." She did not mean to be relentless, re-lentless, but her curiosity was too strong not to press her advantage. "Well, then, over here as elsewhere in the world there are standards by which we judge persons who come under un-der our notice." "Agreed. Individuality is not generally gen-erally understandable." "By the mediocre, you might have added. That's the difficulty with individuality; indi-viduality; it refuses to be harnessed by mediocrity and mediocrity holds the whip-hand, always. I represent the mediocre." "Oh, never!" said Elsa animatedly. "Mediocrity is always without courage." cour-age." "You are wrong. It has the courage of its convictions." "Rather is it not stubbornness, willful will-ful refusal to recognize things as they are?" He countered the question with another. an-other. "Supposing we were all individuals, indi-viduals, in the sense you mean? Supposing Sup-posing each of us did exactly as he pleased? Can you honestly Imagine a more confusing place than this world would be? The Manchurian pony is a wild little beast, an individual if ever there was one; but man tames him and puts to use his energies. And so it is with human individuality. We of the mediocre tame and harness and make it useful to the general welfare of humanity. And when we encounter the untamable, in order to safeguard ourselves, we must turn it back into the wilderness, an outlaw. Indeed, I might call individuality an element, like fire and water and air." "But who conquer fire and water and air?" Elsa demanded, believing she had him pocketed. "Mediocrity, through the individual of this or that beiug. Humanity in the bulk is mediocre. And odd as it seems, individuality (which is another word for genius) believes it leads mediocrity. medi-ocrity. But it cannot be made to understand un-derstand that mediocrity ordains the leadership." "Then you contend that in the hands of the stupid lies the balance of power?" "Let us not say stupid, rather the unimaginative, the practical and the plodding. The stubbornest person in the world is one with an idea." "Do you honestly insist that you are mediocre?" "No," thoughtfully. "I am one of ! those stubborn men with ideas. I merely insist that I prefer to accept the tenets of mediocrity for my own j peace and the peace of others. Elsa forgot those about her, li-eot her intended humiliation of the i-:n at her side. He denied that he was Jj individual, but he was one, as inter esting a one as she had met in a very long time. She, too. had made a blunder. blun-der. Quick to form opinions, swift to judge, she stood guilty with the common com-mon lot, who permit impressions instead in-stead of evidence to sway them. Here was a man. "We have gone far afield," she said, a tacit admission that she could not refute his dissertations. This knowledge, knowl-edge, however, was not irksome. "Rather have we not come to the bars? Shall we let them down? In the civil and military life on this side of the world there are many situations situa-tions which we perforce must tolerate. But these, mind you, are settled conditions. condi-tions. It is upon new ones which arise that we pass judgment. I knew nothing noth-ing about you, nothing whatever. So I judged you according to the rules." Elsa leaned upon her elbows, and she smiled a little as she noted that the purple had gone from his nose and that it had resumed its accustomed accus-tomed rubicundity. "I go- on. A woman who travels alone, who does not present letters of introduction, who . . ." "Who attends strictly to her own affairs. af-fairs. Go on." Imperturbably he continued: "Who seeks the acquaintance of men who do not belong, as you Americans say." "Not men; one man," she corrected. "A trifling difference. Well, it arouses a disagreeable word, suspicion. sus-picion. For look, there have been examples. ex-amples. It isn't as if yours were an isolated case. There have been examples, ex-amples, and these we apply to such affairs af-fairs as come under our notice." "And it doesn't matter that you may be totally wrong?" His prompt answer astonished her "No, it does not matter in the least. Simmered down, it may be explained in a word, appearances. And I must say, to the normal mind . . ." "The mediocre mind." "To the normal and mediocre mind, appearances were against you. Observe, Ob-serve, please, that I did not know I was wrong, that you were a remarkable remark-able young woman. My deductions were made from what I saw as an outsider. out-sider. On the Irrawaddy you made the acquaintance of a man who came out here a fugitive from justice. After you made his acquaintance, you sought none other, in fact, repelled any advances. ad-vances. This alone decided me." "Then you were decided?" To say that this blunt exposition was not bitter bit-ter to her taste, that it did not act like acid upon her pride, would not be true. She was hurt, but she did not let the hurt befog her sense of justice. jus-tice. From his point of view the colonel colo-nel was in no fault. "Let me tell you how very wrong you were indeed." "Doubtless," he hastily interposed, "you enveloped the man in a cloud of romance." "On the contrary, I spoke to him and sought his companionship because he was nothing more nor less than a ghost." "Ah! Is it possible that you knew him in former times?" "No. But he was so like the man at home; so identical in features and build to the man I expected to gc home to marry. . . ." "My dear young lady, you are right Mediocrity is without imagination, stupid, and makes the world a dull place indeed. What woman in youi place would have acted otherwise? Instead In-stead of one apology I offer thousand." thou-sand." "I accept each and all of them. More, I believe that you and I could get on capitally. I can very well imagine the soldier you used to be. I am going to ask you what you know about Mr. Warrington." "This, that he is not a fit companion for a young woman like yourself; that a detracting rumor follows hard upon his heels wherever he goes. I learned something about him in Rangoon. He is known to the riff-raff as Parrot & Co., and I dca't know what else. All of us on shipboard learned his previ ous history. And not from respectablt quarters, either." "If I had been elderly and withou physical attractions?" Elsa inquired sarcastically. "We are dealing with human nature, mediocrity, and not with speculation. It is in the very nature of things to distrust that which we do not understand. under-stand. You say, old and without physical phys-ical attractions. Beauty is of all things most drawing. We crowd about it, we crown it, we flatter it. The old and unattractive we pass by. If I had not seen you here tonight, heard you talk, saw in a kind of rebellious enchantment en-chantment over your knowledge of the world and your distinguished acquaintance, acquaint-ance, I should have gone to my grave believing that my suspicions were correct. cor-rect. I dare say that I shall make the same mistake again." "Did you learn among other things what Mr. Warrington had done?" "Yes. A sordid affair. Ordinary peculations tnat were wasted over gaming tables." Warrington had told her the truth. At least, the story told by others coincided with his own. But what was it thut kept doubt in her mind? Why should she not be ready to believe what others believed, what the man himself had confessed? What was it to her that he looked like Arthur, that he was guilty or innocent? "And his name?" She wondered if the colonel know- that also. "Warrington is assumed. His real name is Paul Ellison." "Paul Ellison." She repeated it slowly. slow-ly. Her voice did not seem her own. The table, the lights, the faces, all receded re-ceded and became a blur. (TO B CONTINUED.) SYNOPSIS. 11 Warrington, an American adventurer, -and James, his servant. 'ans2ep? rot. th lro known up and down the lr xawaddy as Parrot & Co.. are bound for Kangoon. Klsa Chelwood. rich American flrl tourist. Warrington and asks the purser to introduce her. Ke tells her that Warrington has beaten a syndicate and sold his oil claims for 20.000. rnnglon puts Jtajah. the parrot, through h's tricks for Elsa and they pass two golden days together on the river. In Rangoon. Warrington War-rington Interferes in a row over cards caused bv an enemy, Newell Craig, l-.lsa Is annoyed by Craig and stabs h m with a hatpin. Warrington discovers Elsa on the Singapore steamer. He avoids her. Craig Is aboard and Is warned by Warrington who ceases to avoid Klsa. Craig stirs up vll gossip. Klsa tells Warrington of the hatpin Incident and he hunts up Craig, on murder bent. He finds him stretched out irunk on deck and turns the hose on him. At Penang Mallow, who drove Warrington Warring-ton from his plantation when he learned his story mmn aboard. Warrington tells Klsa that Mallow and Craig both will tell thai b.. spout monc-v that did not belong to him over the gambling table to Craig, nd asks her not to speak to him again. Nfallow balls Warrington, who keeps his temper. At Singapore Klsa calls on her fa- - ther'a old friend the American consul gen eral. Mallow calls and relates the steamer steam-er gossip about Elsa. Warrington also calls and sends a cable to the Andes Construction Con-struction company, offering to restore the iolen money If they will lift the ban. CHAPTER XIII Continued. "And a man may break any one of these laws. I consider It horribly unfair." un-fair." "So It is. But if you wish to live in peace, you must submit." "Peace at that price I have no wish for. This man Mallow lives within the pale of law; the other man is outside out-side of it. Yet, of the two, which would you be quickest to trust?" The consul general laughed. "Now you are appealing not to my knowledge of the world but to my instinct." "Thanks." "Is there any reason why you should defend Mr. Warrington, 39 he calls himself?" The consul general's wife desperately desperate-ly tried to catch her husband's eye. But either he did not see the glance or he purposely Ignored it. "In defending Mr. Warrington I am defending myself. My dear friend," Elsa went on, letting warmth -some into her voice once more, "my sympathy sym-pathy went out to that man. He looked so lonely. Did you notice his eyes? Can a man look at you the way he does and be bad?" "I have seen Mallow dozens of times. I know him to be a scoundrel of sorts; but I doubt if bald sunlight could make him blink. Liars have first to overcome the flickering and wavering of the eyes." "He said almost the same thing. Would he say that if he were a liar?" "I haven't accused him of being that. Indeed, he struck me as a truthful truth-ful young man. By the way, what is the name of the firm your father founded?" "The' Andes Construction company. Do you think we could find him something some-thing to do there?" eagerly. "He buflds bridges." "I shouldn't advise that. But we have gone astray. You ought not to see him again." "It is a hateful world!" Elsa appealed ap-pealed to the wife. "It Is, Elsa, dear. But James Is right." "Yall get your balance," said the guardian, "when you reach home. When's the wedding?" "I'm not sure that I'm going to be married." Elsa twirled the sunshade 'Tm Not Sure That I'm Going to Be Married." agalu. "Oh, bother with It all! Dinner Din-ner at ehjht, in the big dining room." Yes. But the introductions will be made on the cafe veranda. These people peo-ple out here have gone mad over cocktails. cock-tails. And look your best, Elsa I want them to see a real American girl tonight. I'll have some roses sent ud to you." Elsa had not the heart to tell him that all interest in his dinner had suddenly gone from her mind- that even the confusion of the colonel no longer appealed to her bitter malice. She knew that she was going to be bored and miserable. When she was gone, the consul ru-ral's ru-ral's wife said: "Poor girll" Her husband looked across the room interestedly. "Why do you say that?" "I am a woman." "That phrase is the City of Refuge. All women fly to it when confronted by something they do not understand." "Oh, but I do understand. And that's the pity of it." CHAPTER XIV. According to the Rules. Elsa sought the hotel rickshaw stand, selected a sturdy coolie, and asked to be run to the botanical gardens gar-dens and back. She wanted to be alone, wanted breathing space, wanted the breeze to cool her hot cheeks. For she was angry at the world, angry at the gentle consul general, above all, angry at herself. To have laid herself open to the charge of indiscretion! To have received a lecture, however kindly kind-ly intended, from the man she loved and respected next to her father! To know that persons were exchanging nods and whispers behind her back! It was a detestable world. It was folly to be honest, to be kind, to be individual, to have likes and dislikes, unless these might be regulated by outsiders. Why should she care what people said? She did not care. What made her furious was the absolute stupidity of their deductions. She had not been indiscreet; she had been merely kindly and human; and if they wanted to twist and misconstrue her actions, let them do so. Once or twice she saw inwardly the will-o'-the-wisp lights of her soul. But resolutely she smothered the sparks. The coolie stopped suddenly. "Go on," she said. But the coolie smiled and wiped his shaven poll. Elsa gazed at the hotel veranda in bewilderment. Slowly she got out of the ricksnaw and paid the fare. She had not the slightest recollection recol-lection of having seen the gardens. More than this, it was a quarter to seven. She had been gone exactly an hour. "Perhaps, after all," she thought, "I am hopeless. They may be right; I ought to have a guardian. I am not always accountable for what I do." She dressed leisurely and with calculation. cal-culation. She was determined to convince con-vince everyone that she was a beautiful beau-tiful woman, above suspicion, above reproach. The spirit within her was not, however, in direct accord with this determinara-n. Malice stirred into life again; and she wanted to hurt someone, hurt deeply. It was only the tame in spirit who, when injured, submitted sub-mitted without murmur or protest. And Elsa, only dimly aware of it, was mortally hurt. "Elsa," said Martha, "that frown will stay there some day, and never go away." Elsa rubbed It out with her finger. "Martha, do you recall that tiger in the cage at Jaipur? How they teased him until he lost his temper and came smashing against the bars? Well, I sympathize with that brute. He would have been peaceful enough had they let him be. If Mr. Warrington calls to morrow, say that I am indisposed." Martha evinced her satisfaction visibly. The frown returned between Elsa's eyes and remained there until she went downstairs to join the consul general and his wife. She found some very agreeable men and women, and some of her natural gayety returned. At a far table on the veranda she saw Craig and Mallow in earnest conversation. conversa-tion. She nodded pleasantly to the colonel colo-nel as the head boy came to announce that dinner was served. Anglo-Indian society had so many twists and ramifications rami-fications that the situation was not exactly ex-actly new to the old soldier. True, none had confronted him identical to tffis. But he had not disciplined men at these years without acquiring abundant abun-dant self-control. The little veins in his nose turned purple, as Elsa prophesied they would, but there was no other indication of how distasteful 1 the moment was to him. He would surely warn the consul general, who doubtless was innocent enough. They 6at down. The colonel blinked. "Fine passage we had coming down." "Was It?" returned Elsa innocently. .The colonel reached for an olive and bit Into it savagely. He was no fool. She had him at the end of a blind alley, and there he must wait until she was ready to let him go. She could harry him or pretend to Ignore him, as suited her fancy. He was caught. Women, all women, possessed at least one attribute of the cat. It was digging dig-ging In the claw, hanging by it, and boredly looking about the world to see what was going on. At that moment the colonel recognized the sting of the claw. Elsa turned to her right and engaged en-gaged the French consul discursively; indeed, she gradually became the center cen-ter of Interest; she drew them intentionally. inten-tionally. She brought a touch of home to the Frenchman, to the German, to the Italian, to the Spaniard; and the British official. In whose hands the civil business of the Straits settlements settle-ments rested, was charmed to learn that Elsa had spent various week-ends at the home of his sister in Surrey. And when she admitted that she |