making a sacrifice of the virtues—kindness, loyalty, affection—to policy.
Policy was dictating a very splendid course of action from one point of
view. Free of Jennie, providing for her admirably, he was free to go his
way, taking to himself the mass of affairs which come naturally with great wealth. He could not help thinking of the thousand and one little things
which Jennie had been accustomed to do for him, the hundred and one
comfortable and pleasant and delightful things she meant to him. The
virtues which she possessed were quite dear to his mind. He had gone
over them time and again. Now he was compelled to go over them finally,
to see that she was suffering without making a sign. Her manner and
attitude toward him in these last days were quite the same as they had
always been—no more, no less. She was not indulging in private
hysterics, as another woman might have done; she was not pretending a
fortitude in suffering she did not feel, showing him one face while
wishing him to see another behind it. She was calm, gentle, considerate—
thoughtful of him—where he would go and what he would do, without
irritating him by her inquiries. He was struck quite favourably by her
ability to take a large situation largely, and he admired her. There was
something to this woman, let the world think what it might. It was a
shame that her life was passed under such a troubled star. Still a great
world was calling him. The sound of its voice was in his ears. It had on
occasion shown him its bared teeth. Did he really dare to hesitate?
The last hour came, when having made excuses to this and that
neighbour, when having spread the information that they were going
abroad, when Lester had engaged rooms at the Auditorium, and the mass
of furniture which could not be used had gone to storage, that it was
necessary to say farewell to this Hyde Park domicile. Jennie had visited
Sandwood in company with Lester several times. He had carefully
examined the character of the place. He was satisfied that it was nice but lonely. Spring was at hand, the flowers would be something. She was
going to keep a gardener and man of all work. Vesta would be with her.
"Very well," he said, "only I want you to be comfortable."
In the meantime Lester had been arranging his personal affairs. He had
notified Messrs. Knight, Keatley & O'Brien through his own attorney, Mr.
Watson, that he would expect them to deliver his share of his father's
securities on a given date. He had made up his mind that as long as he
was compelled by circumstances to do this thing he would do a number
of other things equally ruthless. He would probably marry Mrs. Gerald.
He would sit as a director in the United Carriage Company—with his
share of the stock it would be impossible to keep him out. If he had Mrs.
Gerald's money he would become a controlling factor in the United
Traction of Cincinnati, in which his brother was heavily interested, and in the Western Steel Works, of which his brother was now the leading
adviser. What a different figure he would be now from that which he had
been during the past few years!
Jennie was depressed to the point of despair. She was tremendously
lonely. This home had meant so much to her. When she first came here
and neighbours had begun to drop in she had imagined herself on the
threshold of a great career, that some day, possibly, Lester would marry
her. Now, blow after blow had been delivered, and the home and dream
were a ruin. Gerhardt was gone. Jeannette, Harry Ward, and Mrs. Frissell
had been discharged, the furniture for a good part was in storage, and for her, practically, Lester was no more. She realised clearly that he would
not come back. If he could do this thing now, even considerately, he could do much more when he was free and away later. Immersed in his great
affairs, he would forget, of course. And why not? She did not fit in. Had not everything—everything illustrated that to her? Love was not enough
in this world—that was so plain. One needed education, wealth, training,
the ability to fight and scheme. She did not want to do that. She could not.
The day came when the house was finally closed and the old life was at
an end. Lester travelled with Jennie to Sandwood. He spent some little
while in the house trying to get her used to the idea of change—it was not so bad. He intimated that he would come again soon, but he went away,
and all his words were as nothing against the fact of the actual and
spiritual separation. When Jennie saw him going down the brick walk that
afternoon, his solid, conservative figure clad in a new tweed suit, his
overcoat on his arm, self-reliance and prosperity written all over him, she thought that she would die. She had kissed Lester good-bye and had
wished him joy, prosperity, peace; then she made an excuse to go to her
bedroom. Vesta came after a time to seek her, but now her eyes were quite dry; everything had subsided to a dull ache. The new life was actually
begun for her—a life without Lester, without Gerhardt, without any one
save Vesta.
"What curious things have happened to me!" she thought, as she went into the kitchen, for she had determined to do at least some of her own
work. She needed the distraction. She did not want to think. If it were not for Vesta she would have sought some regular outside employment.
Anything to keep from brooding, for in that direction lay madness.
CHAPTER LV
The social and business worlds of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and
other cities saw, during the year or two which followed the breaking of
his relationship with Jennie, a curious rejuvenation in the social and
business spirit of Lester Kane. He had become rather distant and
indifferent to certain personages and affairs while he was living with her, but now he suddenly appeared again, armed with authority from a number
of sources, looking into this and that matter with the air of one who has the privilege of power, and showing himself to be quite a personage from
the point of view of finance and commerce. He was older of course. It
must be admitted that he was in some respects a mentally altered Lester.
Up to the time he had met Jennie he was full of the assurance of the man
who has never known defeat. To have been reared in luxury as he had
been, to have seen only the pleasant side of society, which is so persistent and so deluding where money is concerned, to have been in the run of big
affairs not because one has created them, but because one is a part of
them and because they are one's birthright, like the air one breathes, could not help but create one of those illusions of solidarity which is apt to
befog the clearest brain. It is so hard for us to know what we have not
seen. It is so difficult for us to feel what we have not experienced. Like this world of ours, which seems so solid and persistent solely because we have no knowledge of the power which creates it, Lester's world seemed
solid and persistent and real enough to him. It was only when the storms
set in and the winds of adversity blew and he found himself facing the
armed forces of convention that he realised he might be mistaken as to