Part 17 (1/2)
”Oh, she is lovely enough,” said Billy Meredith plaintively. ”But don't be lured by her, Cameron. She is still in love with her husband.”
Miriam smiled at her victim with disarming friendliness. ”But I like to be amused,” she said. ”And I have been married long enough now to feel like playing again.”
Cameron laughed at that, and the laughter fulfilled the promise of the merry eye. Miriam was quite intoxicated with the game her husband had taught her. That Eveley was a clever little thing, wasn't she?
”Suppose we dance then,” Cameron suggested eagerly. ”It is the approved method of beginning to play.”
”We resign you to your fate,” sighed Billy Meredith once more. ”I warned you, you laughed me to scorn. Now plunge and die.”
”He seems to think I am dangerous,” said Miriam, as they stepped lightly away to the call of the music.
”Well, far be it from me to say he is wrong. But I am sure you will prove a charming playfellow. You seem fairly to match my own mood. I suppose we can not climb trees and go nutting and fis.h.i.+ng and wade in the creek as we might have done together years ago, but if you will be patient and teach me your way of playing in your ladyhood, I think you will find me an apt, and certainly a willing playmate.”
”Then let's begin to-morrow night. Come to my house, and let's play pool.
It is the most reckless thing we can do. I have a sweet little friend and she has a deadly admirer, and they will come with us. She is very clever, too, and full of fun. See, that is she there, dancing--the one with the golden frock. Her name is Eveley Ainsworth and the solemn young man is Nolan Inglish, and they are unannounced but accepted sweethearts. You are not afraid of Friend Husband, then?”
”Not until Friend Husband gets afraid of me,” he said.
Later in the evening, as they were having ices in a wonderful nook in the ballroom, he said seriously, and with no laughter in the merry eyes:
”Are you trying to make a truant husband jealous? Just be frank with me, and I will do my best. I know you wanted a pal to-night. Do you mind telling me why?”
For a moment she hesitated. Then she smiled. ”If my frankness loses me a pleasant comrade I shall regret my candor. But I do want to play fairly with you. So hear then the bitter truth. I have been married five years, and I have worked like a common slave to make myself beautiful and winsome and irresistible to my husband. And you know that a wife can't do it, if the husband isn't in the mind for it. And so to-night I am starting a revolution. I do not want to struggle forever. I want to play and be happy. I have no notion of making my husband jealous. That has not even occurred to me. I just want to be joyful--to learn to be joyful--regardless of him.”
”Then may I be a disagreeable old preacher, and say one thing? You know this may be fun, but sometimes it is dangerous. Human beings are not machines, and often they make mistakes and fall in love, when they had only meant to play. You would not find it at all pleasant to be married to one man, and in love with another. And maybe you would not enjoy having a husband and a lover in two persons, I am not trying to foretell the future, or make unpleasant predictions--I am only sounding the warning note.”
Miriam considered this very solemnly. Then she said: ”Well, I think I should not mind. It does not seem to bother Lem to be married to me, and at the same time be involved in stirring friends.h.i.+ps with other people.”
”Just one more sermon then, and I am through,” he said, laughing. ”It is this. Men and women are very different. A man can play his head off with a dozen women, and still stay in love with his wife, and want no one but her. But a really nice woman, and you are awfully nice, can not have love-affairs without love. When she loves a man, she wants him, and will not have any one else. Your husband can have a dozen affairs, and still want you. But if you have a pleasant affair--you may not want your husband.”
”Well, of course, Mr. Preacher, one must take a chance. And it is to be only play, you know. That must be understood right in the start. I am really not a bit advanced nor modern, nor anything. I have no forward ideas in my head. I am just tired of trying to please my husband; I want some one to please me. It does not seem to offer you much for your pains, does it? But you may find me fairly amusing.”
”I am sure of it,” he agreed warmly. ”And it is all settled, and we are going to play together. And if sometimes you get tired of me, and fire me off, I shall bob up serenely the next day and start over, just as we might have done when we were little children.”
When Miriam reported her progress in revolution to Eveley the next day, Eveley was greatly perturbed.
”You went too fast,” she said with a frown. ”And besides--it is not fair.
He isn't married. He will fall in love with you.”
”Oh, no, we have a regular understanding,” said Miriam confidently. ”It is all settled according to rules, and we are only going to play. Lem goes to his club to-night, and you and Nolan are to come and play pool with us. Doesn't it sound emanc.i.p.ated and free?”
”Almost bolshevistic,” said Eveley grimly. ”I do not approve of it--not exactly--though I do think you are justified. But it is so risky--and people talk--”
”Well, Eveley, I think it is better to have people say, 'What do you think of the way Miriam Landis is carrying on?' than 'Isn't Miriam Landis a little fool not to get next to her husband in all these years?'
Shouldn't you?”
”Well, we'll be there,” said Eveley evasively. ”We'll be right there. If he just wasn't so good-looking, and sort of--decent? Why didn't you pick out a roue? They are lots safer than these decent young chaps.”
Nolan, always a willing sacrifice when Eveley bade, joined them without demur, and a more rollickingly gay time they had never had. Even Eveley admitted that things seemed innocent and harmless enough, but she shook her head.