Evening star., 1935-06-02

Mary Shelley to the second per-
Torrance. and Payne had to skulk
about in the dark of the house. listen
ing to the audience roar and watching
his own Mary laugh herself to tears at
Irving's lines.
The most important people in the
aristOcracics of society and art wei
coined Irving back to London. The
peerage took him up. and the King
chatted with him, laughed at the in
formalities permissible to an American.
While Payne dared not appear in pub
lie. it amused Irving to take Mary
about with him and force people who
had diSdained her before to be polite
to her for his sake. They said for spite
that she was toadying to Irving in
order to meet people of consequence.
Payne could not believe this. but he
could see that Irving was capturing
Mary's deeper interest. Irving showed
no sign of infatuation - and Payne
was grateful to him for that. He was
still more grateful when Irving sud-
denly went back to Paris.
Yet he was not entirely gone: for
Mary talked of him, thought of him,
broke out in frequent laughter at re-
membered things Irving had done or
said.
This spoiled little rhe relief that
came to Payne from the success of
Charles IL" at Covent Garden.
Though no more money came to him
from its crowded houses. they con-
WINGED his creditors that he could in
time pay off his debts if he were let
alone, and they called off their bailiffs.
Circumstances beyond his control
brought utter failure to the next play,
and later to an opera. The White
Lady"
With misfortune wrecking his every
effort. Payne found his only comfort in
Mary. But he needed closer life with
her. And she needed his protection not
only from the grind of penury but
from the starvation of her warm,
sweet body. her passionate eagerness
tor life
There were hours when Payne could
have taken her If he had been less
reverent of her, if he had been ruth
less enough to beat down the re-
sistance that even the most loving
woman instinctivcly makes to her own
desires and her lovers.
But he felt that he must wait until
he had luxuries TO offer her. Shelley
had offered her only disasters and
hardships and she had found her
luxury in self-sacrifce, voluptuous-
ness in running herself for love- There
are women, and men. who love such
opportunities. But Payne was too
gentle to ask anything for himself. He
wanted to give happiness, not misery.
And he was quelled by his two rivals.
Shelley's ghost and the absent laugh
ing Irving still stood between them.
He resolved again and again to come
out with the flat question:
DO you love Irving? Is he neces-
sary to your happiness?"
He must know the answer to the
maddening riddle. How to find it?
Suddenly he remembered how in his
old role of Hamlet he had put on a
play within play to catch the con-
science of the King. Why not put on a
scene to startle the truth out of Mary?
One afternoon they met in the
pleasant garden of Charles and Mary
Lamb. They walked together to Mary
Shelley's little house in Kentish Town.
The fields we're odorous with hay. the
afternoon enchanting. Stagefright al
most overcame him but he fought it
down and, assuming role, broke out
suddenly in a denunciation of Wash
ington Irving. Mary was perfectly de-
ceived. She gasped:
II thought you were fond of
Irvine"
81 was till l found out the truth
about him. Of course he is a notorious
philanderer with women. A man
S}ooco't mind that II, another man Rrt