The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (6.1895)

By Evelyn Sharp 135
“I am not sure,” said Cynthia, thinking of Adrian Marks ; “ if
not, what is it ? ”
“ Good tailoring perhaps,” suggested Margaret, still thinking of
Dicky.
“Oh no,” said Mrs. Angelo, remembering the cut of Willis’s
frock-coat, “ I think it is temperament.”
“ Conversation I should say,” corrected Margaret.
Cynthia put down her cup with decision.
“We are all wrong, Margaret. I have it. We like them to be
masterful. It doesn’t matter what they are if they know how to
master us. Let them do it by their looks, or their brains, or
their qualities ; but if they do it, we are theirs. And it isn’t a
flattering reflection for either sex.”
Margaret pouted, and recalled Dicky Askew, and refused to
agree. But Cynthia was convinced. She was thinking only of
Willis Ruthven.

II
Cynthia felt very unsettled during the next few days. When
a woman has half-unwillingly made up her mind to an action that
repels while it enthrals her, she can be easily deterred from it by
a very small disturbing element. And the disturbing element in
this case was the reappearance of Willis Ruthven. It was not
only that the revival of an old friendship had blunted the edge of
a new and untried one, nor wholly because the effete and decadent
culture of Adrian Marks suffered by contrast with the frank and
healthy personality of Willis. For she was affected on the other
hand by the dread of being again absorbed in the old atmosphere
she had hated, and this dread was kept alive by the knowledge that
her