Other Things Being Equal

Chapter IV

Louis Arnold, the only other member of the Levice family, had been forced to leave town on some business the morning after Mrs. Levice’s attack at the Merrill reception. He was, therefore, much surprised and shocked on his return a week later at finding his aunt in bed and such rigorous measures for quiet in vogue.

Arnold had been an inmate of the house for the past twelve years. He was a direct importation from France, which he had left just before attaining his majority, the glory of soldier-life not proving seductive to his imagination. He had no sooner taken up his abode with his uncle than he was regarded as the most useful and ornamental piece of foreign vertu in the beautiful house.

Being a business man by nature, keen, wary, and indefatigable, he was soon able to take almost the entire charge of Levice’s affairs. In a few years his uncle ceased to question his business capabilities. From the time he arrived, he naturally fell into the position of his aunt’s escort, thus again relieving Levice, who preferred the quieter life.

When Ruth began to go into society, his presence was almost a necessity, as Jewish etiquette, or rather Jewish espionage, forbids a young man unattached by blood or intentions to appear as the attendant of a single woman. This is one of the ways Jewish heads of families have got into for keeping the young people apart,—making cowards of the young men, and depriving the young girls of a great deal of innocent pleasure.

Arnold, however, was not an escort to be despised, as Ruth soon discovered. She very quickly felt a sort of family pride in his cool, quizzical manner and caustic repartee, that was wholly distinct from the more girlish admiration of his distinguished person. He and Ruth were great friends in a quiet, unspoken way.

They were sitting together alone in the library on the evening of his return. Mrs. Levice had fallen asleep, and her husband was sitting with her. Ruth had stolen down to keep Louis company, fearing he would feel lonesome in the changed aspect of the house.

Arnold lay at full length on the lounge; Ruth swayed backward and forward in the rocker.

“What I am surprised at,” he was saying, “is that my aunt submits to this confining treatment;” he pronounced the last word “tritment,” but he never stopped at a word because of its pronunciation, thus adding a certain piquancy to his speech.

“You would not be surprised if you knew Dr. Kemp; one follows his directions blindly.”

“So I have heard from a great many—women.”

“And not men?”

“I have never happened to hold a conversation with a man on the powers of Dr. Kemp. Women delight in such things.”

“What things?”

“Why, giving in to the magnetic power of a strong man.”

“You err slightly, Louis; it is the power, not the giving in that we delight in, counting it a necessary part of manliness.”

“Will you allow me to differ with you? Besides, apart from this great first cause, I do not understand how, after a week of it, she has not rebelled.”

“I think I can answer that satisfactorily,” replied his cousin, a mischievous smile parting her lips and showing a row of strong white teeth; “she is in love.”

“Also?”

“With Father; and so does as she knows will please him best. Love is also something every one loves to give in to.”

“Every one who loves, you mean.”

“Every one loves something or some one.”

“Behold the exception, therefore.” He moved his head so as to get a better view of her.

“I do not believe you.”

“That—is rude.” He kept his eyes meditatively fixed upon her.

“Have you made a discovery in my face?” asked the girl presently, slightly moving from his gaze.

“No,” he replied calmly. “My discovery was made some time ago; I am merely going over beautiful and pleasant ground.”

“Really?” she returned, flushing, “then please look away; you annoy me.”

“Why should I, since you know it is done in admiration? You are a woman; do not pretend distaste for it.”

“I shall certainly go upstairs if you persist in talking so disagreeably.”

“Indulge me a little; I feel like talking, and I promise not to be disagreeable. Always wear white; it becomes you. Never forget that beauty needs appropriate surroundings. Another thing, ma belle cousine, this little trick you have of blushing on the slightest provocation spoils your whole appearance. Your complexion should always retain its healthy whiteness, while—”

“You have been indulged quite sufficiently, Louis. Do you know, if you often spoke to me in this manner I should soon hate you?”

“That would indeed be unfortunate. Never hate, Ruth; besides making enemies, hate is an arch enemy to the face, distorting the softest and loveliest.”

“We cannot love people who calmly sit and irritate us like mocking tarantulas.”

“That is exaggerated, I think. Besides, Heaven forbid our loving everybody! Never love, Ruth; let liking be strong enough for you. Love only wears out the body and narrows the mind, all to no purpose. Cupid, you know, died young, or wasted to plainness, for he never had his portrait taken after he matured.”

“A character such as you would have would be unbearable.”

“But sensible and wise.”

“Happily our hearts need no teaching; they love and hate instinctively before the brain can speak.”

“Good—for some. But in me behold the anomaly whose brain always reconnoitres the field beforehand, and has never yet considered it worth while to signal either ‘love’ or ‘hate.’”

He rose with a smile and sauntered over to the piano. The unbecoming blush mounted slowly to Ruth’s face and her eyes were bright as she watched him. When his hands touched the keys, she spoke.

“No doubt you think it adds to your intellect to pretend independence of all emotion. But, do you know, I think feeling, instead of being a weakness, is often more clever than wisdom? At any rate, what you are doing now is proof sufficient that you feel, and perhaps more strongly than many.”

He partly turned on the music-chair, and regarded her questioningly, never, however, lifting his hands from the keys as he played a softly passionate minor strain.

“What am I doing?” he asked.

“Making love to the piano.”

“It does not hurt the piano, does it?”

“No; but never say you do not feel when you play like that.”

“Is not that rather peremptory? Who taught you to read characters?”

“You.”

“I? What a poor teacher I was to allow you to show such bungling work! Will you sing?”

“No, I shall read; I have had quite enough of myself and of you for one night.”

“Alas, poor me!” he retorted mockingly, and seeming to accompany his words with his music; “I am sorry for you, my child, that your emotions are so troublesome. You have but made your entrance into the coldest, most exciting arena,—the world. Remember what I tell you,—all the strong motives, love and hate and jealousy, are mere flotsam and jetsam. You are the only loser by their possession.”

The quiet closing of the door was his only answer. Ruth had left the room.

She knew Arnold too well to be affected by his little splurt of cynicism. If she could escape a cynic either in books or in society, she invariably did so. Life was still beautiful for her; and one of her father’s untaught lessons was that the cynic is a one-sided creature, having lost the eye that sees the compensation balancing all things. As long as Louis attacked things, it did no harm, except to incite a friendly passage-at-arms; hence, most of such talk passed in the speaking. Not so the disparaging insinuations he had cast at Dr. Kemp.

During the week in which Ruth had established herself as nurse-in-chief to her mother she had seen him almost daily. Time in a quiet sick-room passes monotonously; events that are unnoticed in hours of well-being and activity here assume proportions of importance; meal-times are looked forward to as a break in the day; the doctor’s visit especially when it is the only one allowed, is an excitement. Dr. Kemp’s visits were short, but the two learned to look for his coming and the sound of his deep, cheery voice, as to their morning’s tonic that would strengthen the whole day. Naturally, as he was a stranger, Mrs. Levice in her idleness had analyzed and discussed aloud his qualities, both personal and professional, to her satisfaction. She had small ground for basing her judgments, but the doctor formed a good part of her conversation.

Ruth’s knowledge of him was somewhat larger,—about the distance between Mrs. Levice’s bedroom and the front door. She had a homely little way of seeing people to the door, and here it was the doctor gave her any new instructions. Instructions are soon given and taken; and there was always time for a word or two of a different nature.

In the first place, she had been attracted by his horses, a magnificent pair of jetty blacks.

“I wonder if they would despise a lump of sugar,” she said one morning.

“Why should they?” asked Kemp.

“Oh, they seem to hold their heads so haughtily.”

“Still, they are human enough to know sweets when they see them,” their owner replied, taking in the beautiful figure of the young girl in her quaint, flowered morning-gown. “Try them once, and you won’t doubt it.”

She did try them; and as she turned a slightly flushed face to Kemp, who stood beside her, he held out his hand, saying almost boyishly, “Let me thank you and shake hands for my horses.”

One can become eloquent, witty, or tender over the weather. The doctor became neither of these; but Ruth, whose spirits were mercurially affected by the atmosphere, always viewed the elements with the eye of a private signal-service reporter.

“This is the time for a tramp,” she said, as they stood on the veranda, and the summer air, laden with the perfume of heliotrope, stole around them. “That is where the laboring man has the advantage over you, Dr. Kemp.”

“Which, ten to one, he finds a disadvantage. I must confess that in such weather every healthy individual with time at his disposal should be inhaling this air at a leisurely trot or stride as his habit may be. You, Miss Levice, should get on your walking togs instantly.”

“Yes, but not conveniently. My father and I never failed to take our morning constitutional together when all was well. Father always gave me the dubious compliment of saying I walked as straight and took as long strides as a boy. Being a great lover of the exercise, I was sorry my pas was not ladylike.”

“You doubtless make a capital companion, as your father evidently remembered what a troublesome thing it is to conform one’s length of limb to the dainty footsteps of a woman.”

“Father has no trouble on that score,” said Ruth, laughing.

The doctor smiled in response, and raising his hat, said, “That is where he has the advantage over a tall man.”

Going over several such scenes, Ruth could remember nothing in his manner but a sort of invigorating, friendly bluntness, totally at variance with the peculiarities of the “lady’s man” that Louis had insinuated he was accounted. She resolved to scrutinize him more narrowly the next morning.

Mrs. Levice’s room was handsomely furnished and daintily appointed. Even from her pillows she would have detected any lapse in its exquisite neatness, and one of Ruth’s duties was to leave none to be detected. The house was large; and with three servants the young girl had to do a great deal of supervising. She took a natural pride in having things go as smoothly as under her mother’s administration; and Mr. Levice said it was well his wife had laid herself on the shelf, as the new broom was a vast improvement.

Ruth had given the last touches to her mother’s dark hair, and was reading aloud the few unexciting items one finds in the morning’s paper. Mrs. Levice, propped almost to a sitting position by many downy pillows, polished her nails and half listened. Her cheeks were no longer brightly flushed, but rather pale; the expression of her eyes was placid, and her slight hand quite firm; the strain lifted from her, a great weariness had taken its place. The sweet morning air came in unrestrained at the open window.

Ruth’s reading was interrupted by the entrance of the maid, carrying a dainty basket of Duchesse roses.

“For Madame,” she said, handing it to Ruth, who came forward to take it.

“Read the card yourself,” she said, placing it in her mother’s hand as the girl retired. A pleased smile broke over Mrs. Levice’s face; she buried her face in the roses, and then opened the envelope.

“From Louis!” she exclaimed delightedly. “Poor fellow! he was dreadfully upset when he came in. He did not say much, but his look and hand-shake were enough as he bent to kiss me. Do you know, Ruth, I think our Louis has a very loving disposition?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Yes. One would not think so, judging from his manner; but I know him to be unusually sympathetic for a man. I would sooner have him for a friend than many a woman; he has not many equals among the young men I know. Don’t you agree with me, girlie?”

“Oh, yes; I always liked Louis.”

“How coldly you say that! And, by the way, it struck me as very queer last night that you did not kiss him after his absence of a week. Since when has this formal hand-shake come into use?”

A slight flush crimsoned Ruth’s cheek.

“It is not my fault,” she said, smiling; “I always kissed Louis even after a day’s absence. But some few months ago he inaugurated the new regime, and holds me at arm’s length. I can’t ask him why, when he looks at me so matter-of-factly through his eyeglass, can I?”

“No; certainly not.” A slight frown marred the complacency of Mrs. Levice’s brow. Such actions were not at all in accordance with her darling plan. Arnold was much to her; but she wished him to be more. This was a side-track upon which she had not wished her train to move.

Her cogitations took a turn when she heard a quick, firm footfall in the hall.

Ruth anticipated the knock, and opened the door to the doctor.

Bowing slightly to her, he advanced rather hurriedly to the bedside. He had not taken off his gloves, and a certain air of purposeful gravity replaced his usual leisurely manner.

“Good-morning, Mrs. Levice,” he said, taking her hand in his, and looking searchingly down at her. “How are you feeling this morning? Any starts or shakes of any sort?”

“No; I am beginning to feel as impassive and stupid as a well-fed animal. Won’t you sit down, Doctor?”

“No; I have a consultation in a very short time. Keep right on as you have been doing. I do not think it will be necessary for me to call for several days now; probably not before Friday.”

“And to-day is Tuesday! Am I to see no one till then?”

“No one but those you have seen. Pray do not complain, Mrs. Levice,” he continued rather sternly. “You are a very fortunate invalid; illness with you is cushioned in every conceivable corner. I wish I could make you divide some of your blessings. As I cannot, I wish you to appreciate them as they deserve. Do not come down, Miss Levice,” as she moved to follow him; “I am in a great hurry. Good-morning.”

“How harassed he looked! I wonder who is his patient!” observed Mrs. Levice, as Ruth quietly returned to her seat. A sunbeam fell aslant the girl’s preoccupied face. The doctor’s few words had given her food for thought.

When later on she remembered how she was going to disprove for herself Louis’s allegations, she wondered if he could have found anything to mock at, had he been present, in Kemp’s abrupt visit of the morning.