Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-28
Two MEN WOMAN
By HEMINGWAY.

be he did not notice it at all.
This "vagabond," as he was fond Of
calling himself, was generally careless Of
peoples attitude to him. He loved Grace
Dexral, but even she could not jar his cool,
selfpoise. 1t was this battling quality in
him that had excited her interest more than
anything else. All other men seemed anx-
ious to be her slaves, but he had never
asked the privilege. 1t was new expert
ence for Grace, and with that strange con-
trariness of women that interests them in
those who seem uninterested in them, she
fell in love with him, and almost without
thought that she was doing anything incon-
sistent with the love that was to make her
John Days wife. 1t seems impossible that
a woman could love two men, but some i'm
possibilities are facts, or only seem impossi-
bilities because inconsistent with our theo-
ries or social customs.
John Day was a descendant Of the Puri-
tans, inheriting all their seriousness; an
artist, he painted sober pieces only. His
genius was the kind that paints passion
with its thorns far better than the pleasures.
He was genius and would be great, Grace
knew, but such men are sometimes tire
some, especially if one is compelled to
breath, their atmosphere all the time, and
when easy natured Paul Sommers, who was
came to Waterford he seemed to unstrain
something in her that had been keyed up to
playing pitch all her life. Her love for
him was a sort of delicious abandon. John
Day inspired her; beneath his ewes she was
the great woman ne said, she was, but this
man rested her. Although she had known
hin only three months he was already
more a confident than the other. How
could she help it if there were emotions
in her John Day had never walked, and
could not touch? Could she help it
either, if Paul Sommers stirred them all?
Her double love Lad no more wrong inten-
tion than you have when you look at one
picture after another in a gallery. Perhaps
your love of pictures should be satisfied BY
one; you ought to sit before single frame,
no doubt, and feel entirely satisfied, but you
are not even if it be a master, but wander to
the next and next, receiving great messages
or satisfaction of some kind from them all.
There is no man who entirely satisfies any
woman. Your good wife dreams of men far
better than you are. Plato's theory of men
and women as halves of whole is con-
venient and fits our customs, but it is onlya
theory after all, and has been cruelty
contradicted in every ones expert
ence. The halves have been separated
so long that the seams where they
were Joined are often worn smooth, and if
they were not, who would warrant that each
half would invariably find its fellow? The
fact that they have been separated makes it
possible for them to separate again, and if
they could ever live apart they can ALWAYS
live apart. Beside this, there are some
wholes that are not perfect all round; ap-
piles, for instance, that if divided evenly
will leave one half sound and the other rot
tan trh l1l L.,
does not necessarily make every part of it
alike. and great as the magic of love u.s., it
cannot altogether deceive us. 1t cannot
make Paul Sommers out of q John Day,
and some women, one of whom was Grace
Dexral, have need of both. Grace did not
think of these things; she would have
thought it sin to do so; but like all wom-
en-. did them and thought nothing of it.
"What harm to sit here on the porch and
watch that lazy man? How like Bacchus'
head his looked against the vines. She
caught herself wondering If he were ever
drunk, and somehow it did not seem dread
full in the least. She was sure if he had
been, it was with wine. Men liked him
she knew. His songs at their suppers were
talked Of What a bore to be q woman; but
if she had not been a woman he would not
have loved her. He did love her-she felt
his burning kisses now, and blushed that
the remembrance did not make her angry.
His lips parted as she looked at them as if
humming a song, though there were no
words. She wished he would speak, not
that the silence was awkward. but she
wanted to hear his voice. It would
finish the delicious impression he was
making on her, though she shlvered little
at what she knew he would say. By and
by she forgot him, or he became part of a
picture. His head was crowned by the
vines, and there she could see no farther,
but beyond the 1.-THE body stretched her rose
bordered walk, beyond it the dusty road,
the lake, and the hills, and sky. A dark
green worm was crawling up one OF the pill
lars of the porch. She heard the swish Of
scythes in the long, damp grass-for it was
having time-the talk of men about the
weather; and almost smelled the sweat she
saw them wipe away with great red hand
kerchiefs-wouldi if the overpowering odor
of the fresh-cut grass had not filled the air.
"Grace !" ss-s's-.
His voice startled her, though she had
been expecting it; it was as if one of the men
or women you have been painting should
suddenly address you.
"Gracep'
"Well?"
~ am going away to-morrow."
'You ought to have gone to-day"
81 know, but if 1 had should have lost
a day."
''What of the many days that come?
What of tomorrow? Will it not be lost,
and the next day, and the ne1t?"
eyes, but have shortened the loss by
one."
'Why any loss?" ...s-.
"Do you say that?" q. -. .-..-
"Why not?"
"why not? Because you have no right
to both of us; because / must have all of
you or none; because-becausei why nots'
stretch out like the kings in Macbeth's Wis
ion until the crack Of DOOM"
"what if you both" T. -e.-r
'Impossiblei"
"Yet do love you both"
"What are you made of?' .s,t=-
"The common stuff of mortals. Do Won
not love two kinds of wine or more? You
read more than one poet; and confess, you
have seen other women with eyebrows that
arched more than mine"
Eyes, but never such q woman as YOU
are"
"No, but other women, women that make
you feel as 1 cannot; in whose eyes you see
other things, whose voices have other tones,
and yet who are as attractive in their way as
l am in mine"
mot to me-"
"Not to-day, you mean. Go tomorrow as
you plan. You will soon learn that other
women have eyes and lips. Am the first
woman you have kissed? What made you
kiss them? Love. It's naturel We have
done her wrong. Stay here and 1 will give
you all 1 have for you; not all, for there is
that answers to another voice. I
shall marry neither, for until woman can
marry two, or her husband is not held COM
plete answer to all wishes, marriage will be
a curse to some. Why should you make me