JIM'S TRIAL
The quarrel had left Mary in a quiver of exalted rage.How dare a friend trample her most sacred feelings! She pitied Jane Anderson and her tribe--these modern feminine leaders of a senseless revolution against man--they were crazy.They had all been disappointed in some individual and for that reason set themselves up as the judges of mankind.
"Thank God my soul has not been poisoned!" she exclaimed aloud with fervor."How strange that these women who claim such clear vision can be so stupidly blind!"She busied herself with her little household, and made up her mind once and for all time to be done with such friendships.The friendship of such women was a vain thing.They were vicious cats at heart--not like her gentle Persian kitten whose soul was full of sleepy sunlight.These modern insurgents were wild, half- starved stray cats that had been hounded and beaten until they had lapsed into their elemental brute instincts.They were so aggravating, too, they deserved no sympathy.
Again she thanked God that she was not one of them--that her heart was still capable of romantic love--a love so sudden and so overwhelming that it could sweep life before it in one mad rush to its glorious end.
She woke next morning with a dull sense of depression.The room was damp and chilly.It was storming.The splash of rain against the window and the muffled roar from the street below meant that the wind was high and the day would be a wretched one outside.
They couldn't take their ride.
It was a double disappointment.She had meant to have him dash down to Long Beach and place the ring on her finger seated on that same bright sand-dune overlooking the sea.Instead, they must stay indoors.Jim was not at his best indoors.She loved him behind the wheel with his hand on the pulse of that racer.The machine seemed a part of his being.He breathed his spirit into its steel heart, and together they swept her onand on over billowy clouds through the gates of Heaven.
There was no help for it.They would spend the time together in her room planning the future.It would be sweet--these intimate hours in her home with the man she loved.
Should she spend a whole day alone there with him? Was it just proper? Was it really safe? Nonsense! The vile thoughts which Jane had uttered had poisoned her, after all.She hated her self that she could remember them.And yet they filled her heart with dread in spite of every effort to laugh them off.
"How could Jane Anderson dare say such things?" she muttered angrily."`A coarse, illiterate brute!' It's a lie! a lie! a lie!" She stamped her foot in rage."He's strong and brave and masterful--a man among men-- he's my mate and I love him!"And yet the frankness with which her friend had spoken had in reality disturbed her beyond measure.Through every hour of the day her uneasiness increased.After all she was utterly alone and her life had been pitifully narrow.Her knowledge of men she had drawn almost exclusively from romantic fiction.
It was just a little strange that Jim persisted in living so completely in the present and the future.He had told her of his pitiful childhood.He had told her of his business.It had been definite--the simple statement he made--and she accepted it without question until Jane Anderson had dropped these ugly suspicions.She hated the meddler for it.
In the light of such suspicions the simplest, bravest man might seem a criminal.How could her friend be blind to the magnetism of this man's powerful personality? Bah! She was jealous of their perfect happiness.Why are women so contemptible?
She began a careful study of every trait of her lover's character, determined to weigh him by the truest standards of manhood.Certainly he was no weakling.The one abomination of her soul was the type of the city degenerate she saw simpering along Broadway and Fifth Avenue at times.Jim was brave to the point of rashness.No man with an ounce of cowardice in his being could handle a car in every crisis with such cooldaring and perfect control.He was strong.He could lift her body as if it were a feather.His arms crushed her with terrible force.He could earn a living for them both.There could be no doubt about that.His faultless clothes, the ease with which he commanded unlimited credit among the automobile manufacturers and dealers--every supply store on Broadway seemed to know him--left no doubt on that score.
There was just a bit of mystery and reserve about his career as an inventor.His first success that had given him a start he had not explained.The big deal about the new carburetor she could, of course, understand.He had a workshop all his own.He had told her this the first day they met.She would ask him to take her to see it this afternoon.The storm would prevent the trip to the Beach.She would ask this, not because she doubted his honesty, but because she really wished to see the place in which he worked.It was her workshop now, as well as his.
For a moment her suspicions were sickening.Suppose he had romanced about his workshop and his room? Supposed he lived somewhere in the squalid slums of the lower East Side and his people, after all, were alive? Perhaps a drunken father and a coarse, brutal mother--and sisters----She stopped with a frown and clenched her fists.
She would ask Jim to show her his workshop.That would be enough.If he had told her the truth about that she would make up to him in tender abandonment of utter trust for every suspicion she harbored.
The car was standing in front of her door.He waved for her to come down.
"Jump right in!" he called gayly."I've got an extra rubber blanket for you.""In the storm, Jim?" she faltered.
