Speaker 1: Chapter twelve of Wired Love by Elichiva Thayre. This LibriVox
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Crosses on the line.
Speaker 1: It happened that, not long after Sin sang, at a
Speaker 1: concert given in one of the principal halls of the city,
Speaker 1: of course, a party from the hotel Norman attended. This
Speaker 1: party consisted not only of the young people, but also
Speaker 1: included Missus Simonson. Syn made a great success and was
Speaker 1: on courd every time she sang. Never had nat so
Speaker 1: fully realized the beauty and brilliancy of her friend as
Speaker 1: she did upon that evening, Nor could she fail to
Speaker 1: observe that Clem too was startled into a new admiration.
Speaker 1: Was it because of this that a seriousness quite foreign
Speaker 1: to the gay scene fell over Natty's face. As for Celeste,
Speaker 1: she was decidedly envious, and had there been no gentleman
Speaker 1: in the party, would have turned exceedingly glum. As it was,
Speaker 1: she with some difficulty, called up her usual smiles and
Speaker 1: contented herself with whispering spitefully to Quimby, how could she
Speaker 1: appear before the public so it seems so unwomanly charming? Indeed,
Speaker 1: replied Quimby, without the slightest idea of what she had said,
Speaker 1: as his attention was concentrated on sin and his brain
Speaker 1: incapable of entertaining two ideas at once. But while acknowledging
Speaker 1: her attractions, Quimby preserved his composure, arguing to himself in
Speaker 1: a common sense way, what is the use of a
Speaker 1: fellow falling in love with a girl that every other
Speaker 1: fellow is sure to fall in love with two? You know,
Speaker 1: Missus simpson good soul quite swelled with pride in her lodger,
Speaker 1: and by her behavior created the impression in the minds
Speaker 1: of people sitting near that she was the singer's mother,
Speaker 1: and Joe unsentimental. Joe was entirely carried away with the music,
Speaker 1: of course, for music was art, and art only in
Speaker 1: another branch was his life and work, and was not sin,
Speaker 1: a beautiful work of nature, the mother of all art.
Speaker 1: You will be a very lucky man who shall call
Speaker 1: our sin, his whispered Clem to Joe, as she came
Speaker 1: out in answer to an encore. What ejaculated Joe so
Speaker 1: savagely that every one turned to look at him, And
Speaker 1: Clem opened his eyes wide with surprise. Bad nonsense, and
Speaker 1: some way or other. After this, the music sounded very
Speaker 1: dismal to Joe, and the close air of the room
Speaker 1: made his headache. But he had been working very hard
Speaker 1: all day and was tired, so this was quite natural.
Speaker 1: Was Clem presuming on his good looks and thinking of
Speaker 1: making Sin his? He wondered if he was, she certainly
Speaker 1: would not be fool enough to Joe stopped here in
Speaker 1: his meditations because he would like to have been a
Speaker 1: little sure that she would not. Very strongly, he felt
Speaker 1: just then that things of a doubtful nature were sometimes
Speaker 1: very uncertain. It was, of course, no sentiment on his
Speaker 1: part that caused these emotions. He did not wish Sin
Speaker 1: to throw herself away in matrimony, that was all, And
Speaker 1: so strong were his feelings on this point that he
Speaker 1: could not banish the idea from his mind all the
Speaker 1: rest of the evening, and was noticeably thoughtful. But he
Speaker 1: was very gay, even unusually wildly gay, on the way home,
Speaker 1: and kept Missus Simonson, whom he escorted, in such a
Speaker 1: state of laughter that she burst three buttons and was
Speaker 1: all waged up when they reached the hotel. Why are
Speaker 1: you so thoughtful? To night Claire masked Natty as they
Speaker 1: walked down their street behind the rest in the wake
Speaker 1: of Joe's gaiety and Celeste's meaningless giggle. The Leste was
Speaker 1: clinging to the arm of the unwilling but helpless Quimby
Speaker 1: and chatting of the handsome tenor. With a slight start,
Speaker 1: Natty replied to Clem's question, I do not know, am I. Yes,
Speaker 1: you have hardly spoken a word all the way. There
Speaker 1: is anything the trouble, asked Clem, and she looked moodily.
Speaker 1: Oh the ground did not see the anxiety in his
Speaker 1: eyes as he spoke nothing, she replied, then startled him
Speaker 1: by bursting out passionately. I'm tired of living with no object,
Speaker 1: with nothing but a daily routine. Can it be there
Speaker 1: is no better place in the world for me that
Speaker 1: my life must always be? Thus I cannot be contented.
Speaker 1: Clem stopped short and stared at her agitated face. I
Speaker 1: never knew you were not happy, Natty, he said gently. Oh,
Speaker 1: I am not unhappy. I am only discontented. Natty replied.
Speaker 1: You are somewhat contradictory in your statements, said Clem as
Speaker 1: they went on again, for she also had stopped. Is
Speaker 1: it of its troubles that annoy you, poor little girl.
Speaker 1: It is a monotonous life. Natty flushed at the tenderness
Speaker 1: in his voice. That is one thing, she replied, a
Speaker 1: little tremblingly. But I want something to work for a
Speaker 1: Sin has. I am ambitious. My present Usian can never
Speaker 1: content me. I'm haunted all the time by an an
Speaker 1: easy consciousness that if I was smart, I should be
Speaker 1: doing something to get ahead, And yet I don't know
Speaker 1: what to do. I remember you once said something about
Speaker 1: being a writer. Why not try that, suggested Clem. They
Speaker 1: had reached their own landing at the hotel and paused.
Speaker 1: The remainder of the party had disappeared. Seems so hopeless,
Speaker 1: Natty answered, dispiritedly. There is no opening anywhere. But it
Speaker 1: will never do to wait for that. You know, if
Speaker 1: the world is a closed oyster, we must open. It
Speaker 1: is not the way Sin did, said Clem, half surmising
Speaker 1: the realization of the difference between Sin's brilliant success and
Speaker 1: her own plodding along that had caused her dejection. And
Speaker 1: as he spoke, he took her hand in his, but
Speaker 1: Natty snatched it quickly away. Ah Sin, she said, in
Speaker 1: sudden and uncontrollable jealousy. Of course, you would never expect
Speaker 1: me to compare with her, looked at her a moment.
Speaker 1: Then some emotion flashed his face, and he would have
Speaker 1: spoken had not. Miss Cling, disgusted with inability to catch
Speaker 1: a word from inside, opened her door, saying, sharply, are
Speaker 1: you coming in? Miss Orger's certainly, Natty replied quickly, and
Speaker 1: already ashamed of her jealous outburst. Good night, clem, But
Speaker 1: will you not come over and congratulate sin on her success?
Speaker 1: He asked, detaining her. I heard a carriage just stop,
Speaker 1: and I think she is in it. Not to night,
Speaker 1: to morrow, said Natty hastily, and left him before he
Speaker 1: could again urge the request. Ooh, said Miss Cling, as
Speaker 1: Natty closed the door behind her. Was it mister Stanwood
Speaker 1: who came home with you? Yes, Natty answered briefly. I
Speaker 1: should hardly have thought Miss Archer would have allowed it,
Speaker 1: remarked Miss Kling, with a sneeze. I don't know why
Speaker 1: she would have forbidden it, replied Natty coldly, yet looking
Speaker 1: somewhat startled. Poor Natty's nerves were decidedly unstrung. To night.
Speaker 1: You do not mean to say that, your ignorant of
Speaker 1: what every one else knows, queried Miss Kling, with a
Speaker 1: malicious sparkle in her eyes, that they are just the
Speaker 1: same as engaged. Natty turned her very pale face towards her.
Speaker 1: I I think you are mistaken, she faltered. Mistaken now indeed,
Speaker 1: cried Miss Cling positively. I should think your own eyes
Speaker 1: might tell you that why missus Symondson says, miss Archer
Speaker 1: has thought of nobody but him since he came into
Speaker 1: the house, and that anybody can tell he is in
Speaker 1: love with her from its actions and the attention he
Speaker 1: pays her. And Sir Leste told me the same thing
Speaker 1: long ago. But I suppose miss Archer is willing he
Speaker 1: should come home with you. She isn't, of course, jealous
Speaker 1: of you. There was a sneering emphasis in Miss Cling's
Speaker 1: last words that made them anything but complimentary, as Natty felt,
Speaker 1: but saying only in a voice she vainly tried to steady,
Speaker 1: you may be right. She went into her own room
Speaker 1: and locked the door behind her. She knew, now knew
Speaker 1: what that first romantic acquaintance, that dejection at the companionship
Speaker 1: lost in the obnoxious red head, that joy when sea
Speaker 1: was restored to her in clem, that unsatisfied desire to
Speaker 1: have him back on the wire all to herself, that
Speaker 1: suppressed jealousy of Sin led to and what it all
Speaker 1: meant that she loved him and he did he as
Speaker 1: they said, love Sin alas who could help loving bright,
Speaker 1: beautiful Sin to attract him to herself? Was only the
Speaker 1: romance of the first acquaintance, And even this Sin slightly shared.
Speaker 1: It was not Sin's fault. Natty could not be guilty
Speaker 1: of the petty meanness of disliking her friend because she
Speaker 1: possessed attractions superior to her own. But if he loved Sin,
Speaker 1: then indeed had the curtain fallen on the sad ending
Speaker 1: of her romance? The lights were out and all was darkness.
Speaker 1: If he loved Sin, Natty, with the first full knowledge
Speaker 1: of her own feelings, could hardly hope otherwise, remembering her intimacy,
Speaker 1: his marked attention to her, his praise of her and
Speaker 1: her winning beauty and talents. Yes, it must be that
Speaker 1: he loved her. Oh why must Sin be given everything
Speaker 1: and she nothing? What kind of fate was it that
Speaker 1: marked out the broad, sunny road for one and the somber,
Speaker 1: uneven pathway for another? Must her life be one of
Speaker 1: lonely discontent, a telegraph office at the beginning and a
Speaker 1: telegraph office at the end. Was this to be all
Speaker 1: no thought, Natty, raising her head proudly and looking at
Speaker 1: the red and swollen eyes that gazed at her from
Speaker 1: the opposite glass. Life shall give me something of its best,
Speaker 1: if not of love, then of fame, and I will
Speaker 1: work and persevere until I gain it. Yet, for all
Speaker 1: her resolution, Natty sobbed herself to sleep, not so easy
Speaker 1: as it to renounce love and look forward to the
Speaker 1: life barren of its best and sweetest gift. And after
Speaker 1: this there was a change in her observable even to
Speaker 1: the undiscerning Quimby. Shadows had fallen over her face, lurked
Speaker 1: in her gray eyes, and around the corners of her mouth.
Speaker 1: The old restlessness had given place to a settle gloom.
Speaker 1: He was less often seen among the gay circle that
Speaker 1: gathered in Sin's parlor, pleading every possible excuse for staying away,
Speaker 1: and when with them, to his surprise and delight, and
Speaker 1: to Celeste's dismay, she devoted herself to Quimby, to Joe,
Speaker 1: to any one, rather than to Clem. For most of
Speaker 1: all she had changed to him, afraid of betraying her secret,
Speaker 1: and unable to control the pain that overpowered her. When
Speaker 1: in his presence now she knew her own heart. She
Speaker 1: avoided him in every practicable way, and seldom, even over
Speaker 1: their wire, talked with him. He was always tired or
Speaker 1: busy when he called her. Now, Clem, surprised and puzzled
Speaker 1: by this unaccountable change, at first endeavored to overcome her coolness,
Speaker 1: but ended by becoming cool in his turn, and talked
Speaker 1: and joked with Sin more than ever. And if a
Speaker 1: touch of the shadows on Natty's face sometimes crept over
Speaker 1: his own, she in her own self engrossment did not
Speaker 1: observe it. If Quimby's hopes burned brighter at this state
Speaker 1: of affairs, and he was consequently happier, Joe, for some
Speaker 1: reason unexplained, was not. In fact, he was decidedly queer,
Speaker 1: now gay, now horribly cynical, not to say morose. Truly Cupid,
Speaker 1: viewed in the character of a telegraphist, was far from
Speaker 1: being a success, for he had switched everybody on to
Speaker 1: the wrong wire. Sin gay, unconscious, Sin no more dreamed
Speaker 1: of Clem being supposedly in love with her though she
Speaker 1: did that Joe was so filled with thoughts of her that,
Speaker 1: had he been a different kind of a man, one
Speaker 1: would have called him desperately in love but sin unconscious
Speaker 1: of all this sore and with sorrow, the ever increasing
Speaker 1: coldness between Natty and Clem. But she had quite set
Speaker 1: her heart on the romance that had commenced in dots
Speaker 1: and dashes, culminating in orange blossoms, a wired love. Now,
Speaker 1: to her vexation, she saw her anticipations liable to be
Speaker 1: set at nought, and herself unable to obtain even a
Speaker 1: clue to the trouble. Like the line man who goes
Speaker 1: up and down to find where the wires were not work,
Speaker 1: she could not find the break anywhere, and decided that romances,
Speaker 1: whether wired or taken in the ordinary way, are certainly
Speaker 1: very unwildy things to manage. It seems to me that
Speaker 1: you do not use that wire very often, now, she
Speaker 1: said one evening to Clem and Natty, the latter of
Speaker 1: whom she had forcibly dragged forth from the solitude of
Speaker 1: her room. Were it not for me, it would rust.
Speaker 1: Why I used to hear your clatter into the small owls.
Speaker 1: But now now we are more sensible, concluded Natty, leaning
Speaker 1: over the piano to look at some music. One gets
Speaker 1: tired of talking in dots and dashes After a time,
Speaker 1: Poor Natty's trouble made her bitter. Sometimes, yes, one wants
Speaker 1: a person they don't know to talk with in order
Speaker 1: to make it interesting, added Clem. Not to be outdone,
Speaker 1: good gracious, thought Syn dismayed the result of her probing.
Speaker 1: This is really dreadful. Then, she exclaimed impulsively, I hope
Speaker 1: you are not quarreled, you two, oh dear now, replied
Speaker 1: Natty quickly, what should we quarrel about? But Clem, after
Speaker 1: looking at her a moment, advanced and how thatt his hands,
Speaker 1: saying frankly, I believe we have been cross to each
Speaker 1: other of late, although how it happened I do not know.
Speaker 1: So let us make up and be good. Syn looked
Speaker 1: up hopefully at this, but Natty, who could hardly conceal
Speaker 1: her agitation, replied coldly, I do not see that anything
Speaker 1: has been the matter, and, placing a limp hand in
Speaker 1: his for an instant, turned away. Clem bit his lip,
Speaker 1: then took out his watch, saying I believe I have
Speaker 1: an engagement down town. This evening, I shall have to
Speaker 1: leave you now, I fear, ladies. Natty celebrated his departure
Speaker 1: by bursting into tears that she vainly tried to hide
Speaker 1: and was detected in the situation on the sofa by Sin.
Speaker 1: Syn's arms were about her in a moment, and Syn's
Speaker 1: voice said, lovingly, is it dear? Tell me what is
Speaker 1: the matter lately? Trust me with it? Is it about
Speaker 1: Clym with a determination, very brave and unselfish, but unfortunately
Speaker 1: entirely uncalled for, not to mar Sin's happy love by
Speaker 1: her sorrow. Natty checked the tears of which she was ashamed,
Speaker 1: and answered, no, I am very weak and foolish. The
Speaker 1: idea of my crying like a school girl. I'm only
Speaker 1: unhappy because because I'm nobody. And this was all the
Speaker 1: information sympathetic and perplexed Sin could obtain, sitting that night
Speaker 1: on a low cricket before the fire, with her dark
Speaker 1: hair unbound, and it was fortunate for Joe's peace of
Speaker 1: mind that he could not see her just then, as
Speaker 1: she was such an interesting study. Sinn thought it all
Speaker 1: over and could not, as she told herself, make out
Speaker 1: what it was all about. I thought everything was going
Speaker 1: on so smoothly, she mused, And now here is what
Speaker 1: Clem himself would term gotten the wire, and no one
Speaker 1: can find out where it is. Doesn't she love him?
Speaker 1: I want I should If I wish she does he
Speaker 1: love her. If he does not, he is no kind
Speaker 1: of a hero. Oh I know what would test the matter?
Speaker 1: A crisis? After instances, the house would only get on
Speaker 1: fire and Nat burn out, that is almost and Clym
Speaker 1: save her just in time. But this is the sort
Speaker 1: of thing that brings these heroes to terms and the dramas.
Speaker 1: But I suppose everything is so different in real life.
Speaker 1: Clem would not wake up in time, and she would
Speaker 1: burn to a crisp or some one else would save her.
Speaker 1: First Quimby, for instance, he is always doing something he
Speaker 1: ought to Now I don't think it would do to
Speaker 1: risk it. Nevertheless, I am convinced that a crisis is
Speaker 1: what is essential to complete the circuit telegraphically speaking, or
Speaker 1: in other words, to bring down the curtain on everybody,
Speaker 1: embracing everybody with a great a clar end of Chapter twelve.