The Man Between, an International Romance

One of the most comfortable things about Frederick Mostyn was his almost boyish delight in the new life which New York opened to him.  Every phase of it was so fresh, so unusual, that his Yorkshire existence at Mostyn Hall gave him no precedents and no experiences by which to measure events.  The simplest things were surprising or interesting.  He was never weary of taking those exciting “lifts” to the top of twenty-three story buildings and admiring the wonderful views such altitudes gave him.  He did not perhaps comprehend how much he was influenced by the friction of two million wills and interests; did not realize how they evoked an electric condition that got behind the foreground of existence and stirred something more at the roots of his being than any previous experience had ever done.  And this feeling was especially entrancing when he saw the great city and majestic river lying at his feet in the white, uncanny light of electricity, all its color gone, its breath cold, its life strangely remote and quiet, men moving like shadows, and sounds hollow and faint and far off, as if they came from a distant world.  It gave him a sense of dreamland quite as much as that of reality.  The Yorkshire moors and words grew dull and dreary in his memory; even the thought of the hunting field could not lure his desire.  New York was full of marvelous novelties; its daily routine, even in the hotel and on the streets, gripped his heart and his imagination; and he confessed to himself that New York was life at first hand; fresh drawn, its very foam sparkling and intoxicating.  He walked from the Park to the Battery and examined all that caught his eye.  He had a history of the city and sought out every historical site; he even went over to Weehawken, and did his best to locate the spot where Burr and Hamilton fought.  He admired Hamilton, but after reading all about the two men, gave his sympathy to Burr, “a clever, unlucky little chap,” he said.  “Why do clever men hate each other?” and then he smiled queerly as he remembered political enemies of great men in his own day and his own country; and concluded that “it was their nature to do so.”

But in these outside enthusiasms he did not forget his personal relations.  It took him but a few days to domesticate himself in both the Rawdon houses.  When the weather drove him off the streets, he found a pleasant refuge either with Madam or with Ethel and Miss Bayard.  Ethel he saw less frequently than he liked; she was nearly always with Dora Denning, but with Ruth Bayard he contracted a very pleasant friendship.  He told her all his adventures and found her more sympathetic than Madam ever pretended to be.  Madam thought him provincial in his tastes, and was better pleased to hear that he had a visiting entry at two good clubs, and had hired a motor ear, and was learning how to manage it.  Then she told herself that if he was good to her, she would buy him one to be proud of before he returned to Yorkshire.

It was at the Elite Club Bryce Denning first saw him.  He came in with Shaw McLaren, a young man whose acquaintance was considered as most definitely satisfactory.  Vainly Bryce Denning had striven to obtain any notice whatever from McLaren, whose exclusiveness was proverbial.  Who then was this stranger he appeared so anxious to entertain?  His look of supreme satisfaction, his high-bred air, and peculiar intonation quickly satisfied Bryce as to his nationality.

“English, of course,” he reflected, “and probably one of the aristocrats that Shaw meets at his recently ennobled sister’s place.  He is forever bragging about them.  I must find out who Shaw’s last British lion is,” and just as he arrived at this decision the person appeared who could satisfy him.

“That man!” was the reply to the inevitable question—­“why, he is some relative of the old lady Rawdon.  He is staying at the Holland House, but spends his time with the Rawdons, old and young; the young one is a beauty, you know.”

“Do you think so?  She is a good deal at our house.  I suppose the fellow has some pretentions.  Judge Rawdon will be a man hard to satisfy with a son-in-law.”

“I fancy his daughter will take that subject in her own hand.  She looks like a girl of spirit; and this man is not as handsome as most Englishmen.”

“Not if you judge him by bulk, but women want more than mere bulk; he has an air of breeding you can’t mistake, and he looks clever.”

“His name is Mostyn.  I have heard him spoken of.  Would you like to know him?”

“I could live without that honor”—­then Bryce turned the conversation upon a recent horse sale, and a few moments later was sauntering up the avenue.  He was now resolved to make up his quarrel with Dora.  Through Dora he could manage to meet Mostyn socially, and he smiled in anticipation of that proud moment when he should parade in his own friendly leash McLaren’s new British lion.  Besides, the introduction to Mr. Mostyn might, if judiciously managed, promote his own acquaintance with Shaw McLaren, a sequence to be much desired; an end he had persistently looked for.

He went straight to his sister’s apartments and touched the bell quite gently.  Her maid opened the door and looked annoyed and uncertain.  She knew all about the cruelly wicked opposition of Miss Denning’s brother to that nice young man, Basil Stanhope; and also the general attitude of the Denning household, which was a comprehensive disapproval of all that Mr. Bryce said and did.

Dora had, however, talked all her anger away; she wished now to be friends with her brother.  She knew that his absence from her wedding would cause unpleasant notice, and she had other reasons, purely selfish, all emphasizing the advantages of a reconciliation.  So she went to meet Bryce with a pretty, pathetic air of injury patiently endured, and when Bryce put out his hands and said, “Forgive me, Dodo!  I cannot bear your anger any longer!” she was quite ready for the next act, which was to lay her pretty head on his shoulder and murmur, “I am not angry, Bryce—­I am grieved, dear.”

“I know, Dodo—­forgive me!  It was all my fault.  I think I was jealous of you; it was hard to find that you loved a stranger better than you loved me.  Kiss me, and be my own sweet, beautiful sister again.  I shall try to like all the people you like—­for your sake, you know.”

Then Dora was charming.  She sat and talked and planned and told him all that had been done and all that was yet to do.  And Bryce never once named either Ethel or Mr. Mostyn.  He knew Dora was a shrewd little woman, and that he would have to be very careful in introducing the subject of Mr. Mostyn, or else she would be sure to reach the central truth of his submission to her.  But, somehow, things happen for those who are content to leave their desires to contingencies and accidentals.  The next morning he breakfasted with the family and felt himself repaid for his concession to Dora by the evident pleasure their renewed affection gave his father and mother; and though the elder Denning made no remark in the renewed family solidarity, Bryce anticipated many little favors and accommodations from his father’s satisfaction.

After breakfast he sat down, lit his cigar and waited.  Both his mother and Dora had much to tell him, and he listened, and gave them such excellent advice that they were compelled to regret the arrangements already made had lacked the benefit of his counsels.

“But you had Ethel Rawdon,” he said.  “I thought she was everybody rolled into one.”

“Oh, Ethel doesn’t know as much as she thinks she does,” said Mrs. Denning.  “I don’t agree with lots of things she advises.”

“Then take my advice, mother.”

“Oh, Bryce, it is the best of all.”

“Bryce does not know about dress and such things, mother.  Ethel finds out what she does not know.  Bryce cannot go to modistes and milliners with me.”

“Well, Ethel does not pay as much atten-tion as she might—­she is always going somewhere or other with that Englishman, that she says is a relative—­for my part, I doubt it.”

“Oh, mother!”

“Girls will say anything, Dora, to hide a love affair.  Why does she never bring him here to call?”

“Because I asked her not.  I do not want to make new friends, especially English ones, now.  I am so busy all day, and of course my evenings belong to Basil.”

“Yes, and there is no one to talk to me.  Ethel and the Englishman would pass an hour or two very nicely, and your father is very fond of foreigners.  I think you ought to ask Ethel to introduce him to us; then we could have a little dinner for him and invite him to our opera box—­don’t you agree with me, Bryce?”

“If Dora does.  Of course, at this time, Dora’s wishes and engagements are the most important.  I have seen the young man at the club with Shaw McLaren and about town with Judge Rawdon and others.  He seems a nice little fellow.  Jack Lacy wanted to introduce me to him yesterday, but I told him I could live without the honor.  Of course, if Dora feels like having him here that is a very dif-ferent matter.  He is certainly distinguished looking, and would give an air to the wedding.”

“Is he handsome, Bryce?”

“Yes—­and no.  Women would rave about him; men would think him finical and dandified.  He looks as if he were the happiest fellow in the world—­in fact, he looked to me so provokingly happy that I disliked him; but now that Dodo is my little sister again, I can be happy enough to envy no one.”

Then Dora slipped her hand into her brother’s hand, and Bryce knew that he might take his way to his little office in William Street, the advent of Mr. Mostyn into his life being now as certain as anything in this questionable, fluctuating world could be.  As he was sauntering down the avenue he met Ethel and he turned and walked back with her to the Denning house.  He was so good-natured and so good-humored that Ethel could not avoid an inquisitive look at the usually glum young man, and he caught it with a laugh and said, “I suppose you wonder what is the matter with me, Miss Rawdon?”

“You look more than usually happy.  If I suppose you have found a wife or a fortune, shall I be wrong?”

“You come near the truth; I have found a sister.  Do you know I am very fond of Dora and we have made up our quarrel?”

Then Ethel looked at him again.  She did not believe him.  She was sure that Dora was not the only evoker of the unbounded satisfaction in Bryce Denning’s face and manner.  But she let the reason pass; she had no likely arguments to use against it.  And that day Mrs. Denning, with a slight air of injury, opened the subject of Mr. Mostyn’s introduction to them.  She thought Ethel had hardly treated the Dennings fairly.  Everyone was wondering they had not met him.  Of course, she knew they were not aristocrats and she supposed Ethel was ashamed of them, but, for her part, she thought they were as good as most people, and if it came to money, they could put down dollar for dollar with any multi-millionaire in America, or England either, for that matter.

When the reproach took this tone there seemed to be only one thing for Ethel to say or to do; but that one thing was exactly what she did not say or do.  She took up Mrs. Denning’s reproach and complained that “her relative and friend had been purposely and definitely ignored.  Dora had told her plainly she did not wish to make Mr. Mostyn’s acquaintance; and, in accord with this feeling, no one in the Denning family had called on Mr. Mostyn, or shown him the least courtesy.  She thought the whole Rawdon family had the best of reasons for feeling hurt at the neglect.”

This view of the case had not entered Mrs. Denning’s mind.  She was quickly sorry and apologetic for Dora’s selfishness and her own thoughtlessness, and Ethel was not difficult to pacify.  There was then no duty so imperative as the arrangement of a little dinner for Mr. Mostyn.  “We will make it quite a family affair,” said Mrs. Denning, “then we can go to the opera afterwards.  Shall I call on Mr. Mostyn at the Holland House?” she asked anxiously.

“I will ask Bryce to call,” said Dora.  “Bryce will do anything to please me now, mother.”

In this way, Bryce Denning’s desires were all arranged for him, and that evening Dora made her request.  Bryce heard it with a pronounced pout of his lips, but finally told Dora she was “irresistible,” and as his time for pleasing her was nearly out, he would even call on the Englishman at her request.

“Mind!” he added, “I think he is as proud as Lucifer, and I may get nothing for my civility but the excuse of a previous engagement.”

But Bryce Denning expected much more than this, and he got all that he expected.  The young men had a common ground to meet on, and they quickly became as intimate as ever Frederick Mostyn permitted himself to be with a stranger.  Bryce could hardly help catching enthusiasm from Mostyn on the subject of New York, and he was able to show his new acquaintance phases of life in the marvelous city which were of the greatest interest to the inquisitive Yorkshire squire—­ Chinese theaters and opium dives; German, Italian, Spanish, Jewish, French cities sheltering themselves within the great arms of the great American city; queer restaurants, where he could eat of the national dishes of every civilized country under the sun; places of amusement, legal and illegal, and the vast under side of the evident life—­all the uncared for toiling of the thousands who work through the midnight hours.  In these excursions the young men became in a way familiar, though neither of them ever told the other the real feelings of their hearts or the real aim of their lives.

The proposed dinner took place ten days after its suggestion.  There was nothing remarkable in the function itself; all millionaires have the same delicacies and the same wines, and serve these things with precisely the same ceremonies.  And, as a general thing, the company follow rigidly ordained laws of conversation.  Stories about public people, remarks about the weather and the opera, are in order; but original ideas or decided opinions are unpardonable social errors.  Yet even these commonplace events may contain some element that shall unexpectedly cut a life in two, and so change its aims and desires as to virtually create a new character.  It was Frederick Mostyn who in this instance underwent this great personal change; a change totally unexpected and for which he was absolutely unprepared.  For the people gathered in Mrs. Denning’s drawing-room were mostly known to him, and the exceptions did not appear to possess any remarkable traits, except Basil Stanhope, who stood thoughtfully at a window, his pale, lofty beauty wearing an air of expectation.  Mostyn decided that he was naturally impatient for the presence of his fiancee, whose delayed entrance he perceived was also annoying Ethel.  Then there was a slight movement, a sudden silence, and Mostyn saw Stanhope’s face flush and turn magically radiant.  Mechanically he followed his movement and the next moment his eyes met Fate, and Love slipped in between.  Dora was there, a fairy-like vision in pale amber draperies, softened with silk lace.  Diamonds were in her wonderfully waved hair and round her fair white neck.  They clasped her belt and adorned the instep of her little amber silk slippers.  She held a yellow rose in her hand, and yellow rosebuds lay among the lace at her bosom, and Mostyn, stupefied by her undreamed-of loveliness, saw golden emanations from the clear pallor of her face.  He felt for a moment or two as if he should certainly faint; only by a miracle of stubborn will did he drag his consciousness from that golden-tinted, sparkling haze of beauty which had smitten him like an enchantment.  Then the girl was looking at him with her soft, dark, gazelle eyes; she was even speaking to him, but what she said, or what reply he made, he could never by any means remember.  Miss Bayard was to be his companion, and with some effort and a few indistinct words he gave her his arm.  She asked if he was ill, and when a shake of the head answered the query, she covered the few minutes of his disconcertion with her conversation.  He looked at her gratefully and gathered his personality together.  For Love had come to him like a two-edged sword, dividing the flesh and the spirit, and he longed to cry aloud and relieve the sweet torture of the possession.

Reaction, however, came quickly, and with it a wonderful access of all his powers.  The sweet, strong wine of Love went to his brain like celestial nectar.  All the witty, amusing things he had ever heard came trooping into his memory, and the dinner was long delayed by his fine humor, his pleasant anecdotes, and the laughing thoughts which others caught up and illustrated in their own way.

It was a feast full of good things, but its spirit was not able to bear transition.  The company scattered quickly when it was over to the opera or theater or to the rest of a quiet evening at home, for at the end enthusiasm of any kind has a chilling effect on the feelings.  None of the party understood this result, and yet all were, in their way, affected by the sudden fall of mental temperature.  Mr. Denning went to his library and took out his private ledger, a penitential sort of reading which he relished after moods of any kind of enjoyment.  Mrs. Denning selected Ethel Rawdon for her text of disillusion.  She “thought Ethel had been a little jealous of Dora’s dress,” and Dora said, “It was one of her surprises, and Ethel thought she ought to know everything.”  “You are too obedient to Ethel,” continued Mrs. Denning and Dora looked with a charming demureness at her lover, and said, “She had to be obedient to some one wiser than herself,” and so slipped her hand into Basil’s hand.  And he understood the promise, and with a look of passionate affection raised the little jeweled pledge and kissed it.

Perhaps no one was more affected by this chill, critical after-hour than Miss Bayard and Ethel.  Mostyn accompanied them home, but he was depressed, and his courtesy had the air of an obligation.  He said he had a sudden headache, and was not sorry when the ladies bid him “good night” on the threshold.  Indeed, he felt that he must have refused any invitation to lengthen out the hours with them or anybody.  He wanted one thing, and he wanted that with all his soul—­solitude, that he might fill it with images of Dora, and with passionate promises that either by fair means or by foul, by right or by wrong, he would win the bewitching woman for his wife.