The Descent of Man and Other Stories Read online

  Professor Pease, the husband of the lady who had opened Mrs. Linyard’s eyes to the triumph of “The Vital Thing,” was the repository of her husband’s scientific experiences. What he thought of “The Vital Thing” had never been divulged; and he was capable of such vast exclusions that it was quite possible that pervasive work had not yet reached him. In any case, it was not likely to affect his judgment of the author’s professional capacity.

  “You want to put that all in a book, Linyard,” was Professor Pease’s summing-up. “I’m sure you’ve got hold of something big; but to see it clearly yourself you ought to outline it for others. Take my advice—chuck everything else and get to work tomorrow. It’s time you wrote a book, anyhow.”

  It’s time you wrote a book, anyhow! The words smote the Professor with mingled pain and ecstasy: he could have wept over their significance. But his friend’s other phrase reminded him with a start of Harviss. “You have got hold of a big thing—” it had been the publisher’s first comment on “The Vital Thing.” But what a world of meaning lay between the two phrases! It was the world in which the powers who fought for the Professor were destined to wage their final battle; and for the moment he had no doubt of the outcome. The next day he went to town to see Harviss. He wanted to ask for an advance on the new popular edition of “The Vital Thing.” He had determined to drop a course of supplementary lectures at the University, and to give himself up for a year to his book. To do this, additional funds were necessary; but thanks to “The Vital Thing” they would be forthcoming.

  The publisher received him as cordially as usual; but the response to his demand was not as prompt as his previous experience had entitled him to expect.

  “Of course we’ll be glad to do what we can for you, Linyard; but the fact is, we’ve decided to give up the idea of the new edition for the present.”

  “You’ve given up the new edition?”

  “Why, yes—we’ve done pretty well by ‘The Vital Thing,’ and we’re inclined to think it’s your turn to do something for it now.”

  The Professor looked at him blankly. “What can I do for it?” he asked—“what more“ his accent added.

  “Why, put a little new life in it by writing something else. The secret of perpetual motion hasn’t yet been discovered, you know, and it’s one of the laws of literature that books which start with a rush are apt to slow down sooner than the crawlers. We’ve kept ‘The Vital Thing’ going for eighteen months—but, hang it, it ain’t so vital any more. We simply couldn’t see our way to a new edition. Oh, I don’t say it’s dead yet—but it’s moribund, and you’re the only man who can resuscitate it.”

  The Professor continued to stare. “I—what can I do about it?” he stammered.

  “Do? Why write another like it—go it one better: you know the trick. The public isn’t tired of you by any means; but you want to make yourself heard again before anybody else cuts in. Write another book—write two, and we’ll sell them in sets in a box: The Vital Thing Series. That will take tremendously in the holidays. Try and let us have a new volume by October—I’ll be glad to give you a big advance if you’ll sign a contract on that.”

  The Professor sat silent: there was too cruel an irony in the coincidence.

  Harviss looked up at him in surprise.

  “Well, what’s the matter with taking my advice—you’re not going out of literature, are you?”

  The Professor rose from his chair. “No—I’m going into it,” he said simply.

  “Going into it?”

  “I’m going to write a real book—a serious one.”

  “Good Lord! Most people think ‘The Vital Thing’ ‘s serious.”

  “Yes—but I mean something different.”

  “In your old line—beetles and so forth?”

  “Yes,” said the Professor solemnly.

  Harviss looked at him with equal gravity. “Well, I’m sorry for that,” he said, “because it takes you out of our bailiwick. But I suppose you’ve made enough money out of ‘The Vital Thing’ to permit yourself a little harmless amusement. When you want more cash come back to us—only don’t put it off too long, or some other fellow will have stepped into your shoes. Popularity don’t keep, you know; and the hotter the success the quicker the commodity perishes.”

  He leaned back, cheerful and sententious, delivering his axioms with conscious kindliness.

  The Professor, who had risen and moved to the door, turned back with a wavering step.

  “When did you say another volume would have to be ready?” he faltered.

  “I said October—but call it a month later. You don’t need any pushing nowadays.”

  “And—you’d have no objection to letting me have a little advance now? I need some new instruments for my real work.”

  Harviss extended a cordial hand. “My dear fellow, that’s talking—I’ll write the cheque while you wait; and I daresay we can start up the cheap edition of ‘The Vital Thing’ at the same time, if you’ll pledge yourself to give us the book by November.—How much?” he asked, poised above his cheque-book.

  In the street, the Professor stood staring about him, uncertain and a little dazed.

  “After all, it’s only putting it off for six months,” he said to himself; “and I can do better work when I get my new instruments.”

  He smiled and raised his hat to the passing victoria of a lady in whose copy of “The Vital Thing” he had recently written:

  Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas.

  THE OTHER TWO

  I

  WAYTHORN, on the drawing-room hearth, waited for his wife to come down to dinner.

  It was their first night under his own roof, and he was surprised at his thrill of boyish agitation. He was not so old, to be sure—his glass gave him little more than the five-and-thirty years to which his wife confessed—but he had fancied himself already in the temperate zone; yet here he was listening for her step with a tender sense of all it symbolized, with some old trail of verse about the garlanded nuptial door-posts floating through his enjoyment of the pleasant room and the good dinner just beyond it.

  They had been hastily recalled from their honeymoon by the illness of Lily Haskett, the child of Mrs. Waythorn’s first marriage. The little girl, at Waythorn’s desire, had been transferred to his house on the day of her mother’s wedding, and the doctor, on their arrival, broke the news that she was ill with typhoid, but declared that all the symptoms were favorable. Lily could show twelve years of unblemished health, and the case promised to be a light one. The nurse spoke as reassuringly, and after a moment of alarm Mrs. Waythorn had adjusted herself to the situation. She was very fond of Lily—her affection for the child had perhaps been her decisive charm in Waythorn’s eyes—but she had the perfectly balanced nerves which her little girl had inherited, and no woman ever wasted less tissue in unproductive worry. Waythorn was therefore quite prepared to see her come in presently, a little late because of a last look at Lily, but as serene and well-appointed as if her good-night kiss had been laid on the brow of health. Her composure was restful to him; it acted as ballast to his somewhat unstable sensibilities. As he pictured her bending over the child’s bed he thought how soothing her presence must be in illness: her very step would prognosticate recovery.

  His own life had been a gray one, from temperament rather than circumstance, and he had been drawn to her by the unperturbed gayety which kept her fresh and elastic at an age when most women’s activities are growing either slack or febrile. He knew what was said about her; for, popular as she was, there had always been a faint undercurrent of detraction. When she had appeared in New York, nine or ten years earlier, as the pretty Mrs. Haskett whom Gus Varick had unearthed somewhere—was it in Pittsburgh or Utica?—society, while promptly accepting her, had reserved the right to cast a doubt on its own discrimination. Inquiry, however, established her undoubted connection with a socially reigning family, and explained her recent divorce as the natural result of a runaway match at seve
nteen; and as nothing was known of Mr. Haskett it was easy to believe the worst of him.

  Alice Haskett’s remarriage with Gus Varick was a passport to the set whose recognition she coveted, and for a few years the Varicks were the most popular couple in town. Unfortunately the alliance was brief and stormy, and this time the husband had his champions. Still, even Varick’s stanchest supporters admitted that he was not meant for matrimony, and Mrs. Varick’s grievances were of a nature to bear the inspection of the New York courts. A New York divorce is in itself a diploma of virtue, and in the semi-widowhood of this second separation Mrs. Varick took on an air of sanctity, and was allowed to confide her wrongs to some of the most scrupulous ears in town. But when it was known that she was to marry Waythorn there was a momentary reaction. Her best friends would have preferred to see her remain in the role of the injured wife, which was as becoming to her as crape to a rosy complexion. True, a decent time had elapsed, and it was not even suggested that Waythorn had supplanted his predecessor. Still, people shook their heads over him, and one grudging friend, to whom he affirmed that he took the step with his eyes open, replied oracularly: “Yes—and with your ears shut.”

  Waythorn could afford to smile at these innuendoes. In the Wall Street phrase, he had “discounted” them. He knew that society has not yet adapted itself to the consequences of divorce, and that till the adaptation takes place every woman who uses the freedom the law accords her must be her own social justification. Waythorn had an amused confidence in his wife’s ability to justify herself. His expectations were fulfilled, and before the wedding took place Alice Varick’s group had rallied openly to her support. She took it all imperturbably: she had a way of surmounting obstacles without seeming to be aware of them, and Waythorn looked back with wonder at the trivialities over which he had worn his nerves thin. He had the sense of having found refuge in a richer, warmer nature than his own, and his satisfaction, at the moment, was humorously summed up in the thought that his wife, when she had done all she could for Lily, would not be ashamed to come down and enjoy a good dinner.

  The anticipation of such enjoyment was not, however, the sentiment expressed by Mrs. Waythorn’s charming face when she presently joined him. Though she had put on her most engaging teagown she had neglected to assume the smile that went with it, and Waythorn thought he had never seen her look so nearly worried.

  “What is it?” he asked. “Is anything wrong with Lily?”

  “No; I’ve just been in and she’s still sleeping.” Mrs. Waythorn hesitated. “But something tiresome has happened.”

  He had taken her two hands, and now perceived that he was crushing a paper between them.

  “This letter?”

  “Yes—Mr. Haskett has written—I mean his lawyer has written.”

  Waythorn felt himself flush uncomfortably. He dropped his wife’s hands.

  “What about?”

  “About seeing Lily. You know the courts—”

  “Yes, yes,” he interrupted nervously.

  Nothing was known about Haskett in New York. He was vaguely supposed to have remained in the outer darkness from which his wife had been rescued, and Waythorn was one of the few who were aware that he had given up his business in Utica and followed her to New York in order to be near his little girl. In the days of his wooing, Waythorn had often met Lily on the doorstep, rosy and smiling, on her way “to see papa.”

  “I am so sorry,” Mrs. Waythorn murmured.

  He roused himself. “What does he want?”

  “He wants to see her. You know she goes to him once a week.”

  “Well—he doesn’t expect her to go to him now, does he?”

  “No—he has heard of her illness; but he expects to come here.”

  “Here?”

  Mrs. Waythorn reddened under his gaze. They looked away from each other.

  “I’m afraid he has the right….You’ll see….” She made a proffer of the letter.

  Waythorn moved away with a gesture of refusal. He stood staring about the softly lighted room, which a moment before had seemed so full of bridal intimacy.

  “I’m so sorry,” she repeated. “If Lily could have been moved—”

  “That’s out of the question,” he returned impatiently.

  “I suppose so.”

  Her lip was beginning to tremble, and he felt himself a brute.

  “He must come, of course,” he said. “When is—his day?”

  “I’m afraid—tomorrow.”

  “Very well. Send a note in the morning.”

  The butler entered to announce dinner.

  Waythorn turned to his wife. “Come—you must be tired. It’s beastly, but try to forget about it,” he said, drawing her hand through his arm.

  “You’re so good, dear. I’ll try,” she whispered back.

  Her face cleared at once, and as she looked at him across the flowers, between the rosy candle-shades, he saw her lips waver back into a smile.

  “How pretty everything is!” she sighed luxuriously.

  He turned to the butler. “The champagne at once, please. Mrs. Waythorn is tired.”

  In a moment or two their eyes met above the sparkling glasses. Her own were quite clear and untroubled: he saw that she had obeyed his injunction and forgotten.

  Waythorn moved away with a gesture of refusal

  II

  A small effaced-looking man.

  WAYTHORN, the next morning, went down town earlier than usual. Haskett was not likely to come till the afternoon, but the instinct of flight drove him forth. He meant to stay away all day—he had thoughts of dining at his club. As his door closed behind him he reflected that before he opened it again it would have admitted another man who had as much right to enter it as himself, and the thought filled him with a physical repugnance.

  He caught the “elevated” at the employees’ hour, and found himself crushed between two layers of pendulous humanity. At Eighth Street the man facing him wriggled out and another took his place. Waythorn glanced up and saw that it was Gus Varick. The men were so close together that it was impossible to ignore the smile of recognition on Varick’s handsome overblown face. And after all—why not? They had always been on good terms, and Varick had been divorced before Waythorn’s attentions to his wife began. The two exchanged a word on the perennial grievance of the congested trains, and when a seat at their side was miraculously left empty the instinct of self-preservation made Waythorn slip into it after Varick.

  The latter drew the stout man’s breath of relief.

  “Lord—I was beginning to feel like a pressed flower.” He leaned back, looking unconcernedly at Waythorn. “Sorry to hear that Sellers is knocked out again.”

  “Sellers?” echoed Waythorn, starting at his partner’s name.

  Varick looked surprised. “You didn’t know he was laid up with the gout?”

  “No. I’ve been away—I only got back last night.” Waythorn felt himself reddening in anticipation of the other’s smile.

  “Ah—yes; to be sure. And Sellers’s attack came on two days ago. I’m afraid he’s pretty bad. Very awkward for me, as it happens, because he was just putting through a rather important thing for me.”

  “Ah?” Waythorn wondered vaguely since when Varick had been dealing in “important things.” Hitherto he had dabbled only in the shallow pools of speculation, with which Waythorn’s office did not usually concern itself.

  It occurred to him that Varick might be talking at random, to relieve the strain of their propinquity. That strain was becoming momentarily more apparent to Waythorn, and when, at Cortlandt Street, he caught sight of an acquaintance, and had a sudden vision of the picture he and Varick must present to an initiated eye, he jumped up with a muttered excuse.

  “I hope you’ll find Sellers better,” said Varick civilly, and he stammered back: “If I can be of any use to you—” and let the departing crowd sweep him to the platform.

  At his office he heard that Sellers was in fact ill with th
e gout, and would probably not be able to leave the house for some weeks.

  “I’m sorry it should have happened so, Mr. Waythorn,” the senior clerk said with affable significance. “Mr. Sellers was very much upset at the idea of giving you such a lot of extra work just now.”

  “Oh, that’s no matter,” said Waythorn hastily. He secretly welcomed the pressure of additional business, and was glad to think that, when the day’s work was over, he would have to call at his partner’s on the way home.

  He was late for luncheon, and turned in at the nearest restaurant instead of going to his club. The place was full, and the waiter hurried him to the back of the room to capture the only vacant table. In the cloud of cigar-smoke Waythorn did not at once distinguish his neighbors; but presently, looking about him, he saw Varick seated a few feet off. This time, luckily, they were too far apart for conversation, and Varick, who faced another way, had probably not even seen him; but there was an irony in their renewed nearness.

  Varick was said to be fond of good living, and as Waythorn sat despatching his hurried luncheon he looked across half enviously at the other’s leisurely degustation of his meal. When Waythorn first saw him he had been helping himself with critical deliberation to a bit of Camembert at the ideal point of liquefaction, and now, the cheese removed, he was just pouring his cafe double from its little two-storied earthen pot. He poured slowly, his ruddy profile bent above the task, and one beringed white hand steadying the lid of the coffee-pot; then he stretched his other hand to the decanter of cognac at his elbow, filled a liqueur-glass, took a tentative sip, and poured the brandy into his coffee-cup.