The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-01-15


spite OF her deliberate aloofness,
Clavering had, of course, been con.
scious from the first. Had not
every male f1rst-nighter been con.
scious Of it? There was a surfeit
Of beauty in New York. A stran.
ger, even If invested with mystery,
must possess the one Irresistible
magnet, combined with some I'm.
usual quality Of looks, to capture
and hold the interest Of weary New
Workers as she had done. Even
the dramatic critics, who looked as
if they hated everybody. had been
seen to gaze upon her with rare ap.
prevail.
But tonight Clavering had a
glimpse of something more than d
magnetism for which she was not
responsible and to which she had
seemed singularly Indifferent. 1t
was quite evident that he was
! watching charm in action. She
was sparkling and exerting her
self, talking brilliantly and illumi
natingly upon the chaos still
known as Europe, and 1t was
patent that her knowledge was not
| derived from newspapers or draw
ing-room gossip. Her personal &C.
quaintance of public men had evi.
IDENTIFY been extensive before the
war, and she had as manifestly
| continued to seq those in and ou'
OF once in vienna and Buda Pestt
throughout all the later fuctua
tons. Her detestation of the ole
German nilitarstic party was TN
mitigated and she spoke of the late
ruler OF the Dual Empire and OF
his yearning heir with no respec,
whatever. With other intelligent,
people she believed Bolshevism tc
be an inevitable phase in a coun.
try as backward and ignorant as
Russia, but, to his surprise, she re-
garded the Republican ideal of gov.
eminent as the highest that had
yet been evolved from finite minds,
still far from their last and highest
stages of development. She be.
lieved that the only hope Of the
present civilization was to avert
at any cost the successful rise OF
the proletariat to power until the
governing and employing classes
had learned sufficient wisdom TO
conciliate it and treat it with the
same impartial justice they now
reserved for themselves. c'And to
educate themselves along the lines
laid down in The Mind in the Max
ing, interpolated ClavcringD
might achieve would be followed
by the same hideous results as in
Russa-in other words, the same
results that had followed all ser.
vile uprisings since the dawn OF
history. When the underdog., who
has never felt anything but an IN.
.derdog. with all the misery and
black injustice the word implies.
hnds himself on top he will nevi.
tabiy torture and murder his for
mer oppressorS. He hasn't the in.
telligence to foresee the ultimate
folly OF his acts, or that the only
hope OF the world is equal Justice
for all classes; he merely gratifies
his primitive instinct for ven.
geance--precisely the same today,
as during the first servile uprising
OF Rome-he butchers and slaugh.
tiers and wrecks, and then sinks
with his own weight. while what
brains are left reconstruct civiliza.
ton out of the ruins. The trouble
is that the demonstrating brains
are never quite good enough, and
after a time it is all to do over
again. :"
This was. by no means a mono.
icgue, but evoked in the give and
take of argument with Mr.. Osborne.
who believed in never yielding an
incn to the demands of labor. and
with Mr.. Dinwiddie. who. since his
ASSOCIATION with the Sophisticates, =
was looking forward vaguely to.
ward some idealistic regeneration
OF the social order. although So.
clalism was rather out OF date ,
among them, and Bolshevism long
since relegated to the attic. =
But Clavering was not partition.
larly Interested in her political
views, sound as they were. For.
eign women of her class, if not as
liberal. always talked intelligently
OF politics. What interested him
keenly was her deliberate. her
quite conscious attempt to enslave
the two men beside her, and her
complete success. Occasionally
she threw him word, and once he
fancied she favored him with "a
glance Of secret amused under
standing, but he was thankful to
be on the outer edge of that CLAM
orous crescent. 1t was enough to
watch at comparatively safe dis
lance. Would his turn come next
or was she merely bent on so be
fuddling these old chaps that there
would be no place left in their en-.
raptured minds for suspicion or
criticism? No doubt he was too
rank an outsider. -. She shot
him another glance. Was
his to be the role of the. sympa.
thetic friend?
Then she began to draw DlnwId.
die and Osborne out, and it struck
him that her attitude was not
merely that Of the accomplished
hostess. They both talked we'll
they were intelligent and well-in
formed, and he was himself snter.