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The ocean was a thing of molten silver. The sound of the wailing voices in song came to her on the breeze, agonizing in its beauty. There, beyond, lay Pearl Harbour. From the other side, faintly, you heard the music and laughter from the Yacht Club. Maxine seated herself. The after-dinner couples had not yet strolled out. They were waiting for the dancing up there on the hotel veranda. She waited.
You seemed to have no scruples whatever, last night and this morning." "I've been thinking hard since then. I want my warning to you either to be justified, or else I want to apologise humbly. For if Ivor doesn't come to this house to-night, in spite of his embarrassment when he spoke about an engagement, I shall believe that he doesn't care a rap about Maxine de Renzie."
Maxine was rich so rich that the contrast of her wealth with his own poverty shut the door for Adams on the idea of marriage. He could not hope to take his true place in the world for years, and he would not stoop to take a woman's money or assistance. He was too big to go through a back door.
He stared at her. "But it is not given to any one to possess himself! How can you separate an atom from the universal mass?" "An atom may detach itself " "And fall into space! Is that self-possession? But, my God, are we going to split hairs? Maxine! Maxine!" He came close to her and put out his arms, but with a fierce gesture she evaded him; then, as swiftly, caught his hand. "Oh, Ned! Oh, Ned!
"What are your thoughts, Jacqueline?" Jacqueline, taken unawares, deprecated. "Oh, madame " But Maxine was set to her point. "Answer my question," she insisted. "I wish to know. I am, above all things, practical." It was to Jacqueline's credit that she did not smile, that she simply murmured: "Who doubts it, madame?" "Yes; I am, above all things, practical.
Okoochee was always having parades, with floats, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Okoochee and distinguished by schoolgirls grouped on bunting-covered motor trucks, their hair loose and lately relieved from crimpers, three or four inches of sensible shirt-sleeve showing below the flowing lines of their cheesecloth Grecian robes. Maxine was often one of these. Yes, Milly Pardee was happy.
Jacqueline recognized the moment, saw Maxine in all her proud foolishness, loved her with that swift intermingling of pity and worship that such beings as she inevitably call forth, finally tossed her little head in her most tantalizing manner and laughed. "With madame's permission," she said, "I will wish her good-night!" "The permission is not granted." "Nevertheless, madame!"
But Maxine was not dealing in psychological subtleties. "Love!" she cried out. "Love! All the world is in a conspiracy over this love!" "Because love is the only real thing, madame." "Perhaps! But not the love of which you speak. The love of the soul, but not the love of the body!" "Madame, can one truly give the soul and refuse the body? Is not the instinct of love to give all?"
On the death of her father, Maxine had come to an arrangement with her mother, eminently suited to the minds and tastes of both women. Maxine absolutely refused to touch any part of the colossal fortune left by her father.
They rarely troubled to take them off. While waiting avidly for dinner to be served they struck matches and lighted cigarettes and cigars. Sometimes they called in to Maxine, "Say, girlie, when'll supper be ready? I'm 'bout gone." The women trotted upstairs, chattering, and primped and fussed in Maxine's neat and austere little bedroom.
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