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She looked up, finding herself alone. She did not remember when or
how he had left the room, or how long afterward she had sat there.
The fire still smouldered on the hearth, but the slant of sunlight
had left the wall.
Her first conscious thought was that she had not broken her word,
that she had fulfilled the very letter of their bargain. There had
been no crying out, no vain appeal to the past, no attempt at
temporizing or evasion. She had marched straight up to the guns.
Now that it was over, she sickened to find herself alive. She looked
about her, trying to recover her hold on reality. Her identity
seemed to be slipping from her, as it disappears in a physical
swoon. "This is my room--this is my house," she heard herself
saying. Her room? Her house? She could almost hear the walls laugh
back at her.
She stood up, a dull ache in every bone. The silence of the room
frightened her. She remembered, now, having heard the front door
close a long time ago: the sound suddenly re-echoed through her
brain. Her husband must have left the house, then--her _husband?_
She no longer knew in what terms to think: the simplest phrases had
a poisoned edge. She sank back into her chair, overcome by a strange
weakness. The clock struck ten--it was only ten o'clock! Suddenly
she remembered that she had not ordered dinner...or were they
dining out that evening? _Dinner--dining out_--the old meaningless
phraseology pursued her! She must try to think of herself as she
would think of some one else, a some one dissociated from all the
familiar routine of the past, whose wants and habits must gradually
be learned, as one might spy out the ways of a strange animal...
The clock struck another hour--eleven. She stood up again and walked
to the door: she thought she would go up stairs to her room. _Her_
room? Again the word derided her. She opened the door, crossed the
narrow hall, and walked up the stairs. As she passed, she noticed
Westall's sticks and umbrellas: a pair of his gloves lay on the hall
table. The same stair-carpet mounted between the same walls; the
same old French print, in its narrow black frame, faced her on the
landing. This visual continuity was intolerable. Within, a gaping
chasm; without, the same untroubled and familiar surface. She must
get away from it before she could attempt to think. But, once in her
room, she sat down on the lounge, a stupor creeping over her...
Gradually her vision cleared. A great deal had happened in the
interval--a wild marching and countermarching of emotions,
arguments, ideas--a fury of insurgent impulses that fell back spent
upon themselves. She had tried, at first, to rally, to organize
these chaotic forces. There must be help somewhere, if only she
could master the inner tumult. Life could not be broken off short
like this, for a whim, a fancy; the law itself would side with her,
would defend her. The law? What claim had she upon it? She was the
prisoner of her own choice: she had been her own legislator, and she
was the predestined victim of the code she had devised. But this was
grotesque, intolerable--a mad mistake, for which she could not be
held accountable! The law she had despised was still there, might
still be invoked...invoked, but to what end? Could she ask it to
chain Westall to her side? _She_ had been allowed to go free when
she claimed her freedom--should she show less magnanimity than she
had exacted? Magnanimity? The word lashed her with its irony--one
does not strike an attitude when one is fighting for life! She would
threaten, grovel, cajole...she would yield anything to keep her
hold on happiness. Ah, but the difficulty lay deeper! The law could
not help her--her own apostasy could not help her. She was the
victim of the theories she renounced. It was as though some giant
machine of her own making had caught her up in its wheels and was
grinding her to atoms...
It was afternoon when she found herself out-of-doors. She walked
with an aimless haste, fearing to meet familiar faces. The day was
radiant, metallic: one of those searching American days so
calculated to reveal the shortcomings of our street-cleaning and the
excesses of our architecture. The streets looked bare and hideous;
everything stared and glittered. She called a passing hansom, and
gave Mrs. Van Sideren's address. She did not know what had led up to
the act; but she found herself suddenly resolved to speak, to cry
out a warning. it was too late to save herself--but the girl might
still be told. The hansom rattled up Fifth Avenue; she sat with her
eyes fixed, avoiding recognition. At the Van Siderens' door she
sprang out and rang the bell. Action had cleared her brain, and she
felt calm and self-possessed. She knew now exactly what she meant to
say.
The ladies were both out...the parlor-maid stood waiting for a
card. Julia, with a vague murmur, turned away from the door and
lingered a moment on the sidewalk. Then she remembered that she had
not paid the cab-driver. She drew a dollar from her purse and handed
it to him. He touched his hat and drove off, leaving her alone in
the long empty street. She wandered away westward, toward strange
thoroughfares, where she was not likely to meet acquaintances. The
feeling of aimlessness had returned. Once she found herself in the
afternoon torrent of Broadway, swept past tawdry shops and flaming
theatrical posters, with a succession of meaningless faces gliding
by in the opposite direction...
A feeling of faintness reminded her that she had not eaten since
morning. She turned into a side street of shabby houses, with rows
of ash-barrels behind bent area railings. In a basement window she
saw the sign _Ladies' Restaurant:_ a pie and a dish of doughnuts lay
against the dusty pane like petrified food in an ethnological
museum. She entered, and a young woman with a weak mouth and a
brazen eye cleared a table for her near the window. The table was
covered with a red and white cotton cloth and adorned with a bunch
of celery in a thick tumbler and a salt-cellar full of grayish lumpy
salt. Julia ordered tea, and sat a long time waiting for it. She was
glad to be away from the noise and confusion of the streets. The
low-ceilinged room was empty, and two or three waitresses with thin
pert faces lounged in the background staring at her and whispering
together. At last the tea was brought in a discolored metal teapot.
Julia poured a cup and drank it hastily. It was black and bitter,
but it flowed through her veins like an elixir. She was almost dizzy
with exhilaration. Oh, how tired, how unutterably tired she had
been!
She drank a second cup, blacker and bitterer, and now her mind was
once more working clearly. She felt as vigorous, as decisive, as
when she had stood on the Van Siderens' door-step--but the wish to
return there had subsided. She saw now the futility of such an
attempt--the humiliation to which it might have exposed her... The
pity of it was that she did not know what to do next. The short
winter day was fading, and she realized that she could not remain
much longer in the restaurant without attracting notice. She paid
for her tea and went out into the street. The lamps were alight, and
here and there a basement shop cast an oblong of gas-light across
the fissured pavement. In the dusk there was something sinister
about the aspect of the street, and she hastened back toward Fifth
Avenue. She was not used to being out alone at that hour.
At the corner of Fifth Avenue she paused and stood watching the
stream of carriages. At last a policeman caught sight of her and
signed to her that he would take her across. She had not meant to
cross the street, but she obeyed automatically, and presently found
herself on the farther corner. There she paused again for a moment;
but she fancied the policeman was watching her, and this sent her
hastening down the nearest side street... After that she walked a
long time, vaguely... Night had fallen, and now and then, through
the windows of a passing carriage, she caught the expanse of an
evening waistcoat or the shimmer of an opera cloak...
Suddenly she found herself in a familiar street. She stood still a
moment, breathing quickly. She had turned the corner without
noticing whither it led; but now, a few yards ahead of her, she saw
the house in which she had once lived--her first husband's house.
The blinds were drawn, and only a faint translucence marked the
windows and the transom above the door. As she stood there she heard
a step behind her, and a man walked by in the direction of the
house. He walked slowly, with a heavy middle-aged gait, his head
sunk a little between the shoulders, the red crease of his neck
visible above the fur collar of his overcoat. He crossed the street,
went up the steps of the house, drew forth a latch-key, and let
himself in...
There was no one else in sight. Julia leaned for a long time against
the area-rail at the corner, her eyes fixed on the front of the
house. The feeling of physical weariness had returned, but the
strong tea still throbbed in her veins and lit her brain with an
unnatural clearness. Presently she heard another step draw near, and
moving quickly away, she too crossed the street and mounted the
steps of the house. The impulse which had carried her there
prolonged itself in a quick pressure of the electric bell--then she
felt suddenly weak and tremulous, and grasped the balustrade for
support. The door opened and a young footman with a fresh
inexperienced face stood on the threshold. Julia knew in an instant
that he would admit her.
"I saw Mr. Arment going in just now," she said. "Will you ask him to
see me for a moment?"
The footman hesitated. "I think Mr. Arment has gone up to dress for
dinner, madam."
Julia advanced into the hall. "I am sure he will see me--I will not
detain him long," she said. She spoke quietly, authoritatively, in
the tone which a good servant does not mistake. The footman had his
hand on the drawing-room door.
"I will tell him, madam. What name, please?"
Julia trembled: she had not thought of that. "Merely say a lady,"
she returned carelessly.
The footman wavered and she fancied herself lost; but at that
instant the door opened from within and John Arment stepped into the
hall. He drew back sharply as he saw her, his florid face turning
sallow with the shock; then the blood poured back to it, swelling
the veins on his temples and reddening the lobes of his thick ears.
It was long since Julia had seen him, and she was startled at the
change in his appearance. He had thickened, coarsened, settled down
into the enclosing flesh. But she noted this insensibly: her one
conscious thought was that, now she was face to face with him, she
must not let him escape till he had heard her. Every pulse in her
body throbbed with the urgency of her message.
She went up to him as he drew back. "I must speak to you," she said.
Arment hesitated, red and stammering. Julia glanced at the footman,
and her look acted as a warning. The instinctive shrinking from a
"scene" predominated over every other impulse, and Arment said
slowly: "Will you come this way?"
He followed her into the drawing-room and closed the door. Julia, as
she advanced, was vaguely aware that the room at least was
unchanged: time had not mitigated its horrors. The contadina still
lurched from the chimney-breast, and the Greek slave obstructed the
threshold of the inner room. The place was alive with memories: they
started out from every fold of the yellow satin curtains and glided
between the angles of the rosewood furniture. But while some
subordinate agency was carrying these impressions to her brain, her
whole conscious effort was centred in the act of dominating Arment's
will. The fear that he would refuse to hear her mounted like fever
to her brain. She felt her purpose melt before it, words and
arguments running into each other in the heat of her longing. For a
moment her voice failed her, and she imagined herself thrust out
before she could speak; but as she was struggling for a word, Arment
pushed a chair forward, and said quietly: "You are not well."
The sound of his voice steadied her. It was neither kind nor
unkind--a voice that suspended judgment, rather, awaiting unforeseen
developments. She supported herself against the back of the chair
and drew a deep breath. "Shall I send for something?" he continued,
with a cold embarrassed politeness.
Julia raised an entreating hand. "No--no--thank you. I am quite
well."
He paused midway toward the bell and turned on her. "Then may I
ask--?"
"Yes," she interrupted him. "I came here because I wanted to see
you. There is something I must tell you."
Arment continued to scrutinize her. "I am surprised at that," he
said. "I should have supposed that any communication you may wish to
make could have been made through our lawyers."
"Our lawyers!" She burst into a little laugh. "I don't think they
could help me--this time."
Arment's face took on a barricaded look. "If there is any question
of help--of course--"
It struck her, whimsically, that she had seen that look when some
shabby devil called with a subscription-book. Perhaps he thought she
wanted him to put his name down for so much in sympathy--or even in
money... The thought made her laugh again. She saw his look change
slowly to perplexity. All his facial changes were slow, and she
remembered, suddenly, how it had once diverted her to shift that
lumbering scenery with a word. For the first time it struck her that
she had been cruel. "There _is_ a question of help," she said in a
softer key: "you can help me; but only by listening... I want to
tell you something..."
Arment's resistance was not yielding. "Would it not be easier
to--write?" he suggested.
She shook her head. "There is no time to write...and it won't
take long." She raised her head and their eyes met. "My husband has
left me," she said.
"Westall--?" he stammered, reddening again.
"Yes. This morning. Just as I left you. Because he was tired of me."
The words, uttered scarcely above a whisper, seemed to dilate to the
limit of the room. Arment looked toward the door; then his
embarrassed glance returned to Julia.
"I am very sorry," he said awkwardly.
"Thank you," she murmured.
"But I don't see--"
"No--but you will--in a moment. Won't you listen to me? Please!"
Instinctively she had shifted her position putting herself between
him and the door. "It happened this morning," she went on in short
breathless phrases. "I never suspected anything--I thought we
were--perfectly happy... Suddenly he told me he was tired of me...
there is a girl he likes better... He has gone to her..." As
she spoke, the lurking anguish rose upon her, possessing her once
more to the exclusion of every other emotion. Her eyes ached, her
throat swelled with it, and two painful tears burnt a way down her
face.
Arment's constraint was increasing visibly. "This--this is very
unfortunate," he began. "But I should say the law--"
"The law?" she echoed ironically. "When he asks for his freedom?"
"You are not obliged to give it."
"You were not obliged to give me mine--but you did."
He made a protesting gesture.
"You saw that the law couldn't help you--didn't you?" she went on.
"That is what I see now. The law represents material rights--it
can't go beyond. If we don't recognize an inner law...the
obligation that love creates...being loved as well as loving...
there is nothing to prevent our spreading ruin unhindered...is
there?" She raised her head plaintively, with the look of a
bewildered child. "That is what I see now...what I wanted to
tell you. He leaves me because he's tired...but _I_ was not
tired; and I don't understand why he is. That's the dreadful part of
it--the not understanding: I hadn't realized what it meant. But I've
been thinking of it all day, and things have come back to me--things
I hadn't noticed...when you and I..." She moved closer to him,
and fixed her eyes on his with the gaze that tries to reach beyond
words. "I see now that _you_ didn't understand--did you?"
Their eyes met in a sudden shock of comprehension: a veil seemed to
be lifted between them. Arment's lip trembled.
"No," he said, "I didn't understand."
She gave a little cry, almost of triumph. "I knew it! I knew it! You
wondered--you tried to tell me--but no words came... You saw your
life falling in ruins...the world slipping from you...and
you couldn't speak or move!"
She sank down on the chair against which she had been leaning. "Now
I know--now I know," she repeated.
"I am very sorry for you," she heard Arment stammer.
She looked up quickly. "That's not what I came for. I don't want you
to be sorry. I came to ask you to forgive me...for not
understanding that _you_ didn't understand... That's all I wanted
to say." She rose with a vague sense that the end had come, and put
out a groping hand toward the door.
Arment stood motionless. She turned to him with a faint smile.
"You forgive me?"
"There is nothing to forgive--"
"Then will you shake hands for good-by?" She felt his hand in hers:
it was nerveless, reluctant.
"Good-by," she repeated. "I understand now."
She opened the door and passed out into the hall. As she did so,
Arment took an impulsive step forward; but just then the footman,
who was evidently alive to his obligations, advanced from the
background to let her out. She heard Arment fall back. The footman
threw open the door, and she found herself outside in the darkness.
THE END.
The Reckoning, by Edith Wharton.
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