Full Text Archive

Full Text Archive
https://www.fulltextarchive.com
are arranged, and look the place over. You needn't meet her except in a casual way. Will you?"
She rode on, thinking, making no reply. He was so direct and practical in his calculations.
"Will you? It will be all right. You might know her. She isn't objectionable in any way. Will you?"
"Let me know when it is ready," was all she said finally.
Chapter XXI
The vagaries of passion! Subtleties! Risks! What sacrifices are not laid willfully upon its altar! In
a little while this more than average residence to which Cowperwood had referred was prepared
solely to effect a satisfactory method of concealment. The house was governed by a seemingly
recently-bereaved widow, and it was possible for Aileen to call without seeming strangely out of
place. In such surroundings, and under such circumstances, it was not difficult to persuade her
to give herself wholly to her lover, governed as she was by her wild and unreasoning affection
and passion. In a way, there was a saving element of love, for truly, above all others, she
wanted this man. She had no thought or feeling toward any other. All her mind ran toward
visions of the future, when, somehow, she and he might be together for all time. Mrs.
Cowperwood might die, or he might run away with her at thirty-five when he had a million. Some
adjustment would be made, somehow. Nature had given her this man. She relied on him
implicitly. When he told her that he would take care of her so that nothing evil should befall, she
believed him fully. Such sins are the commonplaces of the confessional.
It is a curious fact that by some subtlety of logic in the Christian world, it has come to be
believed that there can be no love outside the conventional process of courtship and marriage.
One life, one love, is the Christian idea, and into this sluice or mold it has been endeavoring to
compress the whole world. Pagan thought held no such belief. A writing of divorce for trivial
causes was the theory of the elders; and in the primeval world nature apparently holds no
scheme for the unity of two beyond the temporary care of the young. That the modern home is
the most beautiful of schemes, when based upon mutual sympathy and understanding between
two, need not be questioned. And yet this fact should not necessarily carry with it a
condemnation of all love not so fortunate as to find so happy a denouement. Life cannot be put
into any mold, and the attempt might as well be abandoned at once. Those so fortunate as to
find harmonious companionship for life should congratulate themselves and strive to be worthy
of it. Those not so blessed, though they be written down as pariahs, have yet some justification.
And, besides, whether we will or not, theory or no theory, the basic facts of chemistry and
physics remain. Like is drawn to like. Changes in temperament bring changes in relationship.
Dogma may bind some minds; fear, others. But there are always those in whom the chemistry
and physics of life are large, and in whom neither dogma nor fear is operative. Society lifts its
hands in horror; but from age to age the Helens, the Messalinas, the Du Barrys, the
Pompadours, the Maintenons, and the Nell Gwyns flourish and point a freer basis of relationship
than we have yet been able to square with our lives.
These two felt unutterably bound to each other. Cowperwood, once he came to understand her,
fancied that he had found the one person with whom he could live happily the rest of his life.
She was so young, so confident, so hopeful, so undismayed. All these months since they had
first begun to reach out to each other he had been hourly contrasting her with his wife. As a
matter of fact, his dissatisfaction, though it may be said to have been faint up to this time, was
91 / 312

---