May 15, 2025 • 21 mins
Transplanted from New York to save his familys business in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Price Ruyler quickly ascends to the top of the citys bachelor list. Yet, he remains immune to the local girls advances and their mothers schemes. That is, until he encounters the enchanting Helene, leading to a whirlwind proposal within just a week. As they journey into their fourth year of marriage, Prices love for Helene remains steadfast. However, he begins to sense a shift, sparking questions about her enigmatic past and whether any family secrets were lost in the earthquakes aftermath.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of The Avalanche. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Lynn Thompson. The Avalanche by Gertrude horn Atherton, Chapter ten,
(00:22):
Part one. During the next few days, Ryla saw little
of his wife. He was obliged to take two business
trips out of town, and as he could not return
until ten o'clock at night, he advised her to have
company to dinner and take her guests to the play,
but she preferred to dine with Polly Roberts and Aileen Lawton,
and she spent her days for the most part at Burlingame,
(00:46):
motoring down with one or more of her friends, or
sent for by some enthusiastic girl admirer already established there
for the summer. Ryla was quite willing to forego temporarily
his plan of personal guardianship, as the more she roamed
abroad unattended, the better could Spolding watch her associates. The
(01:06):
detective had his agents in society as well as in
the Palace hotel, and on the third day he sent
a brief note to Ryler, announcing that he had lit
on to something that would make his employers hair curl.
But no more a present from yours truly this time,
he added, I'm on the right track and know it.
(01:28):
No more fancy theories, but I won't say a word
till I can deliver the goods. Give your wife all
the rope you can. Pryce and Helene met briefly and amiably,
and she did not again broach the subject of the
loan for her friend, nor did she ask for her jewels.
It was apparent that she was proudly determined to conceal
(01:50):
whatever terrors or even worries, that might haunt her, But
the effort deprived her of all her native vivacity. She
was almost formal in manner, and a white face grew
more like a classic mask daily. On the evening before
the Thornton fete, however, Price was able to dine at home.
They met at table, and he saw at once that
(02:11):
she either had recovered her spirits or was making an
attempt to create the impression of a carefree young woman
happy in a tete a tete dinner with a busy husband.
Her talk, for the most part, was of the great
entertainment at Saint Matteo. The weather promised to be simply magnificent.
Wasn't that exactly like Flora Thornton's luck. The immense grounds
(02:34):
were simply swarming with workmen. Wagonloads of all sorts of
things went through the gates after every train, simply one
procession after another. But no one else could so much
as get her nose through those gates. Elene, with all
her old childish glee, related how she and Eileen Polly,
(02:54):
who apparently had forgotten her impending doom, and two or
three other girls, had called up Missus Thornton on the
telephone every ten minutes for an hour, pretending it was
long distance to make sure of a personal response, and
begged to be allowed to go over and see the preparations,
until finally, in a towering rage, her ladyship had replied
(03:17):
that if they called her again, she would withdraw her invitations.
How we did long for an airship. It would have
been such fun, for she does so disapprove of all
of us, thinks us a little flock of silly geese.
Well we are, I guess, But wasn't she one herself once?
(03:37):
She has a pretty hard time even now making life
interesting for herself out here. Anyhow, yesterday we motored down
to Menlo and dropped in at the Maynard's. There were
a lot of the props of San Francisco society, all
as rich as croesus, sitting on the verandah, crocheting socks
(03:57):
or sacks for a crop of new baby that a jew.
One or two were hemstitching lawn or embroidering a monogram
or something else equally useless or virtuous. They were talking
mild gossip and didn't even have powder on. It was ghastly.
Helene said Raylah abruptly, what do you think is a
(04:18):
secret of happiness? I mean, of course, the enduring sort.
Perhaps content would be the better word. Happiness is too
dependent upon love, and love was never meant for daily food.
You are not, by nature frivolous, and you are capable
of thought. Have you ever given any to the secret
of content? Yes, work, she answered promptly. Everybody should have
(04:42):
his daily job, prescribed either by the state or by necessity,
but something he must do if both he and society
would continue to exist. Ryla elevated his eyebrows and looked
at her curiously. Socialism I didn't know you had ever
heard of it. Aileen and I are not such fools
(05:02):
as we look, as you were good enough to intimate
just now. We went to a series of lectures early
last winter over at the University on socialism. A lot
of us formed a class, but all except Aileen and
I dropped out. We continue to read for a time
after the lectures were over, but of course that didn't last.
(05:23):
One drops everything for want of stimulus, and when one
begins to flutter again, one is lost. But I had
heard and dread and thought enough to deduce that the
only vital interest in life, after one's secret happiness, which
one would not dare spread out too thin if one
could in this American life, is necessary work well done.
(05:43):
And that is quite different from those fussy interests and
fads we create or take up for the sake of
thinking we are busy and interested. Polly's mother once told
me she never was so happy in her life as
during those weeks after the earthquake and fire, when all
the servants had run away and she had to cook
for the family out in the street on a stove
(06:04):
they brought down from a little shop in Polk Street
and set up and surrounded on three sides by inside blinds.
She happened to have a talent for cooking, and without
her the family would have starved. Polly tied a towel
around her head and did the housework, or stood in
a line and got the daily rations from the government.
She never thought once of of what, oh of doing
(06:28):
anything rather than expire of boredom. She and Rex had
been married a year and were living at home. Rex
and mister Carter helped excavate down in the business district,
as the working class wouldn't lift a finger as long
as the government was feeding them. There you are. The
ideal is complete leisure, and that of our delicate products,
(06:51):
of the highest civilization, compulsory jobs. What does progress mean
but the leisure to enjoy the arts and all the
finer fruits of progress? What else do we men really
work for? Progress has gone too far and defeated its
own ends. Every healthy human being should be forced to
work six hours a day, that would leave eight for
(07:14):
sleep and ten for enjoyment of the arts and luxuries,
then we really should enjoy them. And if we couldn't
have them unless we did our six hour stint, on
me and the dissipations that it breeds would be unknown.
I can tell you it is demoralizing, disintegrating to wake
up morning after morning, about ten o'clock and know that
(07:35):
you have nothing worthwhile to do for another day, for
all the days that you have no place in the
world except as an ornament. Women of limited incomes and
a family of growing children have enough to do, of
course too much. They never can field superfluous and demoralize,
except by envy. But as for us, why, I can
(07:58):
tell you it is a marvel. We don't all go
straight to the devil. They were alone with the coffee,
and she was pounding the table with her little fist.
Her cheeks were deeply flushed, and her black, somber eyes
were opening and closing rapidly, as if alternately magnetized by
some ugly vision and sweeping it aside. Price watched her
(08:20):
with deep interest and deeper anxiety. A good many women
go to the devil, he said, But you are not
that sort. Oh I don't know. I never could get
up enough interest in another man to solve the problem
in the usual way. But there are other resources. SI well,
what Price sat up very straight? Oh, dance ourselves into tuberculosis,
(08:46):
she said, slightly, and dropping her eyelashes, and tuberculosis of
the mind. Certainly on the whole. I think I prefer
physical to spiritual death. However, I found out one thing
to day, the dancing is to be out of doors.
There will be an immense arbor or something of the
sort erected on the lawn above the sunken garden. My
(09:08):
gown is a dream, and I shall wear the ruby. Yes,
he said, smiling, you shall wear the ruby. But you
must expect me to keep very close to you. The
closer the better, she smiled charmingly. Have you tried on
your costume? I haven't looked at it. Who am I?
(09:28):
Caesar Borgia? You are not much like him yourself, darling,
but I thought he was not so very unlike modern
American business as a whole. Rayla laughed, why not Machiavelli.
But as no doubt it is black velvet, much puffed
and slashed. I may hope it will be becoming to
my nondescript fairness. You must promise not to wander off
(09:50):
for long walks with any of your admirers. Not that
I fear the admirers, but the thieves that are bound
to get into that crowd one way or another. They
have a way of unclasping necklaces, even of the most
circumspect wives in the company of not two absorbing men.
Her eyes opened and flashed, but he had no time
(10:11):
to analyze that fleeting expression before she was promising volubly
not to wander from the illuminated spaces. He interrupted her Suddenly.
They were in the library now, and sat down on
a little sofa in front of the window. The moon
was high and brilliant, and the great expanse of water,
with the high clusters of lights on the islands, the sharp,
(10:33):
hard silhouette of the encircling mountains, the green and silver
stars so high above, the moving golden dots of an
incoming liner from Japan, the long rows of arc lights
along the shore, made a landscape of the night that
Missus Thornton, with all her millions, hardly could rival. Are
you not grateful for this? He asked whimsically and a
(10:56):
little wistfully, Oh price dear, I am more grateful than
you will ever know. I have not a fault on
earth to find with you. You would be the prince of
the fairy tale if you were not so busy. But
that is the tragedy. You are busy. I am not. Well.
Let us have the personal solution, one that fits ourselves.
(11:17):
You have time to think it out. I alas have not.
He took her hand and fondled it, hoping for her confidence.
I don't know. She had a deep, rich voice, and
she could make it very intense. I only know there
must must be a change. If if I am too,
can't you take me abroad for a year? That might
(11:40):
not be work, but at least I should be learning something.
I have traveled almost not at all, and at least
I should have you but later. Most of your friends
have spent a good deal of time in Europe. I
doubt if any state in the Union goes to Europe
as often as California, they are all the more discontented
(12:01):
when they come back here to vegetate. As Missus Thornton
would express it, it would be a blessed interval, but
no more. We should have time to think out a
new and different life. You know, in the class I
come from in France, the women are the partners of
their husbands, even in the higher bourgeoisie, that is where
(12:22):
they are still in business. Or living on great inherited fortunes.
My uncle had a small silk house in Rule, and
my aunt kept the books and attended to all the correspondents.
He always said she was a cleverer business man of
the two. But French women have real genius for business.
Some of our great ladies help their husbands manage their estates.
(12:47):
It is only the few that live for pleasure and
glitter in the most glittering city in the world, that
have furnished the novelists the material to give the world
a false impression of France. The majority lives such sober, useful,
busy lives that only the highest genius could make people
read about them. Of course, young girls dream of something
far more brilliant, and wait eagerly for the husband who
(13:09):
shall deliver them from their narrow, restricted little spheres. Perhaps
take them to the great world of Paris. But they
settle down even in Paris, and devote themselves to their
husband's interests, which are their own, and to their children.
That is it. They are indispensable, not as women, but
as partners. I barely know what your business is about,
(13:33):
only that you are in some tremendous wholesale commission thing
with tentacles that reach half round the world. Only the
wives of politicians are any real help to their husbands
in this country. Isabel Gwynn, what a help she will
be has been to mister gwyn But then she was
always busy. When her uncle died, he left her that
(13:55):
little ranch and scarcely anything else. She took to raise chickens,
not to fuss about and fill in her time, but
to keep a roof over her head and have enough
to eat and wear. I doubt if she was ever
bored in her life. I can't take you into the business, sweetheart,
said Rylah slowly, for that would violate the traditions of
(14:18):
a very old conservative house. But I can quite see
that something must be done. I married you to make
you happy, and to be happy myself. I do not
intend that our marriage shall be a failure. It is
possible that Harold would consent to come out here and
take my place. The business no longer requires any great
(14:40):
amount of initiative, but the most unremitting vigilance. I have
thought it has merely passed through my mind. But you
might hate it. How would you like it if I
bought a large fruit ranch several thousand acres and put
up a canning factory. Besides, I would make you a
foll partner, and you would have to give to your
(15:02):
share of the work considerably more than six hours of
the day. We could build a large, plain, comfortable house,
take all our books and pictures, subscribe to all the newspapers,
magazines and reviews, keep up with everything that is going
on in the world, and have house parties once in
a while, come to town for a few weeks in
(15:23):
summer for the plays. We should live practically an out
of door life. If you preferred, we could buy a
cattle ranch in the South. That would mean the greater
part of the day in the saddle. How does that
appeal to you? He had turned off the electricity, but
as he fumbled with the embryonic idea, he saw her
(15:43):
eyes sparkle and a light of passionate hope dawn on
her face. Oh, I should love it, but love it
especially the fruit ranch. That would be like France. Our
orchards are as wonderful as yours. Even if nothing could
be as big as a California ranch, that is, if
it would not be a makeshift another form of playing
(16:05):
at life. I assure you that we will have to
make it pay or go to the wall. My father
will probably disinherit me, for it will be breaking another tradition.
And he compliments me by believing that I am the
best business man in the firm. At present, my only
capital would be such of my fortune as is not
(16:26):
tied up in the house, about one hundred thousand dollars
in government bonds. Of course, in time, if all goes
well and California does not have another setback, if business
improves all over the world, I shall be able to
take all the rest of my money out that I
put into this end of the business after the fire.
(16:47):
But that may be ten years. Hence I shouldn't even
ask for interest on it, and that would be the
only compensation I could offer for deserting the firm. Perhaps
I had better buy a cattle ranch. Then if we fail,
I shall at least have the training of a cowboy
and can hire out. Elene laughed and clapped her hands.
(17:10):
Fail you, but I should help you to make it
a success. I should be really necessary, indispensable, either you
or another partner. No, no, I shall be the partner.
And you mean that you will be willing to bury
your youth, your beauty on a ranch. I have heard
bitter confidences out here from women forced to waste their
(17:33):
youth on a ranch. You are one of the fine
flowers of civilization that soon whither in the hothouse atmosphere.
I wish to become a hardy annual. And when the
ranch is running like a clock, we could take a
month or two in Europe every year or so rather,
and I could show you off bother I'll not answer
(17:54):
the telephone bell on the little table in the corner.
His own private wire rang so consistently that Riyla finally
was magnetized reluctantly across the room. He put the receiver
to his ear and asked well in his most inhospitable tones.
The answer came in Spalding's voice, and in a moment
he sat down. At the end of ten minutes, he
(18:18):
hung the receiver on the hook and returned to find
Elene standing by the window, all the light gone from
her eyes, staring out at the hard, brilliant scene, with
an expression of hopelessness that had relaxed the very fine
muscles of her face. Ryla was shocked and more apprehensive
than he had yet been Elene, he exclaimed, What is
(18:42):
the matter. Surely you can confide in me if you
are in trouble. Oh but I am not, she replied coldly.
Did I look hard? I was just wondering how many
really happy people there were behind those lights over on
Belvidere at Sorsalito. The lights looked so golden and steady
and sure, and glimpses of interiors at night are always
(19:05):
so fascinating. But I suppose most of the people are
commonplace and just dully discontented. Well, I am afraid I
have something to tell you that hardly will restore your
delightful gaiety of a few moments. Again, I'm sorry, but well,
the fact is I must leave for the North tomorrow morning,
(19:27):
and hardly shall be able to return before the next night.
I am really distressed. I wanted so much to take
you tomorrow night, and I can't wear the ruby. Her
voice was shrill. Ryla wondered if his stimulated imagination fancied
a note of terror in it. I I am afraid, not, darling,
(19:49):
but that Spalding man will be there to watch. Unfortunately,
I forgot to tell you he cannot go. He is
on an important case. Besides, when when I make a promise,
I usually keep it. But but she stammered, as if
her brain were confused, then turned and pressed her face
(20:10):
to the window. I suppose nothing matters, she said, Dully,
perhaps you will let me wear my own little ruby.
After all, that was maman's, and she gave it to
me before I was married. I should like to wear
one jewel. You shall have all your jewels if you
will promise not to give them to Polly Roberts or
(20:31):
any one else. I promise. He went over and opened
the safe, and when he rose with the gold jewel case,
he saw that she was standing behind him. Once more,
it flitted through his mind that she had watched him
manipulate the combination several times. But he had little confidence
in any but a professional thief's ability to memorize such
(20:53):
an involved assortment of figures as had been invented for
this particular safe. It was only once in a while
that he was not obliged to refer to the key
that he carried in his pocket book. Nor was she
looking at the safe, but staring upward at a maharaja
covered with pearls of fantastic size. She took the box
(21:13):
from his hand, with a polite word of thanks, offered
her cheek to be kissed, and left the room. Pryce
threw himself into a chair and rehearsed the instructions Spalding
had given him. End of Chapter ten.
Chapter ten of The Avalanche. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Lynn Thompson. The Avalanche by Gertrude horn Atherton, Chapter ten,
(00:22):
Part one. During the next few days, Ryla saw little
of his wife. He was obliged to take two business
trips out of town, and as he could not return
until ten o'clock at night, he advised her to have
company to dinner and take her guests to the play,
but she preferred to dine with Polly Roberts and Aileen Lawton,
and she spent her days for the most part at Burlingame,
(00:46):
motoring down with one or more of her friends, or
sent for by some enthusiastic girl admirer already established there
for the summer. Ryla was quite willing to forego temporarily
his plan of personal guardianship, as the more she roamed
abroad unattended, the better could Spolding watch her associates. The
(01:06):
detective had his agents in society as well as in
the Palace hotel, and on the third day he sent
a brief note to Ryler, announcing that he had lit
on to something that would make his employers hair curl.
But no more a present from yours truly this time,
he added, I'm on the right track and know it.
(01:28):
No more fancy theories, but I won't say a word
till I can deliver the goods. Give your wife all
the rope you can. Pryce and Helene met briefly and amiably,
and she did not again broach the subject of the
loan for her friend, nor did she ask for her jewels.
It was apparent that she was proudly determined to conceal
(01:50):
whatever terrors or even worries, that might haunt her, But
the effort deprived her of all her native vivacity. She
was almost formal in manner, and a white face grew
more like a classic mask daily. On the evening before
the Thornton fete, however, Price was able to dine at home.
They met at table, and he saw at once that
(02:11):
she either had recovered her spirits or was making an
attempt to create the impression of a carefree young woman
happy in a tete a tete dinner with a busy husband.
Her talk, for the most part, was of the great
entertainment at Saint Matteo. The weather promised to be simply magnificent.
Wasn't that exactly like Flora Thornton's luck. The immense grounds
(02:34):
were simply swarming with workmen. Wagonloads of all sorts of
things went through the gates after every train, simply one
procession after another. But no one else could so much
as get her nose through those gates. Elene, with all
her old childish glee, related how she and Eileen Polly,
(02:54):
who apparently had forgotten her impending doom, and two or
three other girls, had called up Missus Thornton on the
telephone every ten minutes for an hour, pretending it was
long distance to make sure of a personal response, and
begged to be allowed to go over and see the preparations,
until finally, in a towering rage, her ladyship had replied
(03:17):
that if they called her again, she would withdraw her invitations.
How we did long for an airship. It would have
been such fun, for she does so disapprove of all
of us, thinks us a little flock of silly geese.
Well we are, I guess, But wasn't she one herself once?
(03:37):
She has a pretty hard time even now making life
interesting for herself out here. Anyhow, yesterday we motored down
to Menlo and dropped in at the Maynard's. There were
a lot of the props of San Francisco society, all
as rich as croesus, sitting on the verandah, crocheting socks
(03:57):
or sacks for a crop of new baby that a jew.
One or two were hemstitching lawn or embroidering a monogram
or something else equally useless or virtuous. They were talking
mild gossip and didn't even have powder on. It was ghastly.
Helene said Raylah abruptly, what do you think is a
(04:18):
secret of happiness? I mean, of course, the enduring sort.
Perhaps content would be the better word. Happiness is too
dependent upon love, and love was never meant for daily food.
You are not, by nature frivolous, and you are capable
of thought. Have you ever given any to the secret
of content? Yes, work, she answered promptly. Everybody should have
(04:42):
his daily job, prescribed either by the state or by necessity,
but something he must do if both he and society
would continue to exist. Ryla elevated his eyebrows and looked
at her curiously. Socialism I didn't know you had ever
heard of it. Aileen and I are not such fools
(05:02):
as we look, as you were good enough to intimate
just now. We went to a series of lectures early
last winter over at the University on socialism. A lot
of us formed a class, but all except Aileen and
I dropped out. We continue to read for a time
after the lectures were over, but of course that didn't last.
(05:23):
One drops everything for want of stimulus, and when one
begins to flutter again, one is lost. But I had
heard and dread and thought enough to deduce that the
only vital interest in life, after one's secret happiness, which
one would not dare spread out too thin if one
could in this American life, is necessary work well done.
(05:43):
And that is quite different from those fussy interests and
fads we create or take up for the sake of
thinking we are busy and interested. Polly's mother once told
me she never was so happy in her life as
during those weeks after the earthquake and fire, when all
the servants had run away and she had to cook
for the family out in the street on a stove
(06:04):
they brought down from a little shop in Polk Street
and set up and surrounded on three sides by inside blinds.
She happened to have a talent for cooking, and without
her the family would have starved. Polly tied a towel
around her head and did the housework, or stood in
a line and got the daily rations from the government.
She never thought once of of what, oh of doing
(06:28):
anything rather than expire of boredom. She and Rex had
been married a year and were living at home. Rex
and mister Carter helped excavate down in the business district,
as the working class wouldn't lift a finger as long
as the government was feeding them. There you are. The
ideal is complete leisure, and that of our delicate products,
(06:51):
of the highest civilization, compulsory jobs. What does progress mean
but the leisure to enjoy the arts and all the
finer fruits of progress? What else do we men really
work for? Progress has gone too far and defeated its
own ends. Every healthy human being should be forced to
work six hours a day, that would leave eight for
(07:14):
sleep and ten for enjoyment of the arts and luxuries,
then we really should enjoy them. And if we couldn't
have them unless we did our six hour stint, on
me and the dissipations that it breeds would be unknown.
I can tell you it is demoralizing, disintegrating to wake
up morning after morning, about ten o'clock and know that
(07:35):
you have nothing worthwhile to do for another day, for
all the days that you have no place in the
world except as an ornament. Women of limited incomes and
a family of growing children have enough to do, of
course too much. They never can field superfluous and demoralize,
except by envy. But as for us, why, I can
(07:58):
tell you it is a marvel. We don't all go
straight to the devil. They were alone with the coffee,
and she was pounding the table with her little fist.
Her cheeks were deeply flushed, and her black, somber eyes
were opening and closing rapidly, as if alternately magnetized by
some ugly vision and sweeping it aside. Price watched her
(08:20):
with deep interest and deeper anxiety. A good many women
go to the devil, he said, But you are not
that sort. Oh I don't know. I never could get
up enough interest in another man to solve the problem
in the usual way. But there are other resources. SI well,
what Price sat up very straight? Oh, dance ourselves into tuberculosis,
(08:46):
she said, slightly, and dropping her eyelashes, and tuberculosis of
the mind. Certainly on the whole. I think I prefer
physical to spiritual death. However, I found out one thing
to day, the dancing is to be out of doors.
There will be an immense arbor or something of the
sort erected on the lawn above the sunken garden. My
(09:08):
gown is a dream, and I shall wear the ruby. Yes,
he said, smiling, you shall wear the ruby. But you
must expect me to keep very close to you. The
closer the better, she smiled charmingly. Have you tried on
your costume? I haven't looked at it. Who am I?
(09:28):
Caesar Borgia? You are not much like him yourself, darling,
but I thought he was not so very unlike modern
American business as a whole. Rayla laughed, why not Machiavelli.
But as no doubt it is black velvet, much puffed
and slashed. I may hope it will be becoming to
my nondescript fairness. You must promise not to wander off
(09:50):
for long walks with any of your admirers. Not that
I fear the admirers, but the thieves that are bound
to get into that crowd one way or another. They
have a way of unclasping necklaces, even of the most
circumspect wives in the company of not two absorbing men.
Her eyes opened and flashed, but he had no time
(10:11):
to analyze that fleeting expression before she was promising volubly
not to wander from the illuminated spaces. He interrupted her Suddenly.
They were in the library now, and sat down on
a little sofa in front of the window. The moon
was high and brilliant, and the great expanse of water,
with the high clusters of lights on the islands, the sharp,
(10:33):
hard silhouette of the encircling mountains, the green and silver
stars so high above, the moving golden dots of an
incoming liner from Japan, the long rows of arc lights
along the shore, made a landscape of the night that
Missus Thornton, with all her millions, hardly could rival. Are
you not grateful for this? He asked whimsically and a
(10:56):
little wistfully, Oh price dear, I am more grateful than
you will ever know. I have not a fault on
earth to find with you. You would be the prince of
the fairy tale if you were not so busy. But
that is the tragedy. You are busy. I am not. Well.
Let us have the personal solution, one that fits ourselves.
(11:17):
You have time to think it out. I alas have not.
He took her hand and fondled it, hoping for her confidence.
I don't know. She had a deep, rich voice, and
she could make it very intense. I only know there
must must be a change. If if I am too,
can't you take me abroad for a year? That might
(11:40):
not be work, but at least I should be learning something.
I have traveled almost not at all, and at least
I should have you but later. Most of your friends
have spent a good deal of time in Europe. I
doubt if any state in the Union goes to Europe
as often as California, they are all the more discontented
(12:01):
when they come back here to vegetate. As Missus Thornton
would express it, it would be a blessed interval, but
no more. We should have time to think out a
new and different life. You know, in the class I
come from in France, the women are the partners of
their husbands, even in the higher bourgeoisie, that is where
(12:22):
they are still in business. Or living on great inherited fortunes.
My uncle had a small silk house in Rule, and
my aunt kept the books and attended to all the correspondents.
He always said she was a cleverer business man of
the two. But French women have real genius for business.
Some of our great ladies help their husbands manage their estates.
(12:47):
It is only the few that live for pleasure and
glitter in the most glittering city in the world, that
have furnished the novelists the material to give the world
a false impression of France. The majority lives such sober, useful,
busy lives that only the highest genius could make people
read about them. Of course, young girls dream of something
far more brilliant, and wait eagerly for the husband who
(13:09):
shall deliver them from their narrow, restricted little spheres. Perhaps
take them to the great world of Paris. But they
settle down even in Paris, and devote themselves to their
husband's interests, which are their own, and to their children.
That is it. They are indispensable, not as women, but
as partners. I barely know what your business is about,
(13:33):
only that you are in some tremendous wholesale commission thing
with tentacles that reach half round the world. Only the
wives of politicians are any real help to their husbands
in this country. Isabel Gwynn, what a help she will
be has been to mister gwyn But then she was
always busy. When her uncle died, he left her that
(13:55):
little ranch and scarcely anything else. She took to raise chickens,
not to fuss about and fill in her time, but
to keep a roof over her head and have enough
to eat and wear. I doubt if she was ever
bored in her life. I can't take you into the business, sweetheart,
said Rylah slowly, for that would violate the traditions of
(14:18):
a very old conservative house. But I can quite see
that something must be done. I married you to make
you happy, and to be happy myself. I do not
intend that our marriage shall be a failure. It is
possible that Harold would consent to come out here and
take my place. The business no longer requires any great
(14:40):
amount of initiative, but the most unremitting vigilance. I have
thought it has merely passed through my mind. But you
might hate it. How would you like it if I
bought a large fruit ranch several thousand acres and put
up a canning factory. Besides, I would make you a
foll partner, and you would have to give to your
(15:02):
share of the work considerably more than six hours of
the day. We could build a large, plain, comfortable house,
take all our books and pictures, subscribe to all the newspapers,
magazines and reviews, keep up with everything that is going
on in the world, and have house parties once in
a while, come to town for a few weeks in
(15:23):
summer for the plays. We should live practically an out
of door life. If you preferred, we could buy a
cattle ranch in the South. That would mean the greater
part of the day in the saddle. How does that
appeal to you? He had turned off the electricity, but
as he fumbled with the embryonic idea, he saw her
(15:43):
eyes sparkle and a light of passionate hope dawn on
her face. Oh, I should love it, but love it
especially the fruit ranch. That would be like France. Our
orchards are as wonderful as yours. Even if nothing could
be as big as a California ranch, that is, if
it would not be a makeshift another form of playing
(16:05):
at life. I assure you that we will have to
make it pay or go to the wall. My father
will probably disinherit me, for it will be breaking another tradition.
And he compliments me by believing that I am the
best business man in the firm. At present, my only
capital would be such of my fortune as is not
(16:26):
tied up in the house, about one hundred thousand dollars
in government bonds. Of course, in time, if all goes
well and California does not have another setback, if business
improves all over the world, I shall be able to
take all the rest of my money out that I
put into this end of the business after the fire.
(16:47):
But that may be ten years. Hence I shouldn't even
ask for interest on it, and that would be the
only compensation I could offer for deserting the firm. Perhaps
I had better buy a cattle ranch. Then if we fail,
I shall at least have the training of a cowboy
and can hire out. Elene laughed and clapped her hands.
(17:10):
Fail you, but I should help you to make it
a success. I should be really necessary, indispensable, either you
or another partner. No, no, I shall be the partner.
And you mean that you will be willing to bury
your youth, your beauty on a ranch. I have heard
bitter confidences out here from women forced to waste their
(17:33):
youth on a ranch. You are one of the fine
flowers of civilization that soon whither in the hothouse atmosphere.
I wish to become a hardy annual. And when the
ranch is running like a clock, we could take a
month or two in Europe every year or so rather,
and I could show you off bother I'll not answer
(17:54):
the telephone bell on the little table in the corner.
His own private wire rang so consistently that Riyla finally
was magnetized reluctantly across the room. He put the receiver
to his ear and asked well in his most inhospitable tones.
The answer came in Spalding's voice, and in a moment
he sat down. At the end of ten minutes, he
(18:18):
hung the receiver on the hook and returned to find
Elene standing by the window, all the light gone from
her eyes, staring out at the hard, brilliant scene, with
an expression of hopelessness that had relaxed the very fine
muscles of her face. Ryla was shocked and more apprehensive
than he had yet been Elene, he exclaimed, What is
(18:42):
the matter. Surely you can confide in me if you
are in trouble. Oh but I am not, she replied coldly.
Did I look hard? I was just wondering how many
really happy people there were behind those lights over on
Belvidere at Sorsalito. The lights looked so golden and steady
and sure, and glimpses of interiors at night are always
(19:05):
so fascinating. But I suppose most of the people are
commonplace and just dully discontented. Well, I am afraid I
have something to tell you that hardly will restore your
delightful gaiety of a few moments. Again, I'm sorry, but well,
the fact is I must leave for the North tomorrow morning,
(19:27):
and hardly shall be able to return before the next night.
I am really distressed. I wanted so much to take
you tomorrow night, and I can't wear the ruby. Her
voice was shrill. Ryla wondered if his stimulated imagination fancied
a note of terror in it. I I am afraid, not, darling,
(19:49):
but that Spalding man will be there to watch. Unfortunately,
I forgot to tell you he cannot go. He is
on an important case. Besides, when when I make a promise,
I usually keep it. But but she stammered, as if
her brain were confused, then turned and pressed her face
(20:10):
to the window. I suppose nothing matters, she said, Dully,
perhaps you will let me wear my own little ruby.
After all, that was maman's, and she gave it to
me before I was married. I should like to wear
one jewel. You shall have all your jewels if you
will promise not to give them to Polly Roberts or
(20:31):
any one else. I promise. He went over and opened
the safe, and when he rose with the gold jewel case,
he saw that she was standing behind him. Once more,
it flitted through his mind that she had watched him
manipulate the combination several times. But he had little confidence
in any but a professional thief's ability to memorize such
(20:53):
an involved assortment of figures as had been invented for
this particular safe. It was only once in a while
that he was not obliged to refer to the key
that he carried in his pocket book. Nor was she
looking at the safe, but staring upward at a maharaja
covered with pearls of fantastic size. She took the box
(21:13):
from his hand, with a polite word of thanks, offered
her cheek to be kissed, and left the room. Pryce
threw himself into a chair and rehearsed the instructions Spalding
had given him. End of Chapter ten.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!