From the Improvement Era, July 1933 –

Legacy

By J. Rae Tooke

“I tell you Con, it is no use your trying to argue me out of it. You lawyers make your living arguing, I know, but I’ve made up my mind this time. I think Ethel sees it too. Our marriage was a mistake from the first.”

Jeffery Fare’s face was flushed and earnest. His keen, bright eyes, shot forth quick, pointed rays of light as they looked defiantly into the face of the older man standing before him.

“I know there is no use mentioning the money side of it to you,” he went on, “and yet a case is a case in these hard times, and if you won’t handle it, somebody else will, for I am prepared to go through with this. Last night’s hideous affair put an end to all thought of happiness in our home.”

“Just a minute, Jeff old man.” The older man’s voice was rich and full ; just the sort of voice you would expect Conway Gordon to have when you looked into his strong, kind face. It was the sort of voice that would win your trust and confidence even though you did not see the firm chin, the broad, high forehead with the sprinkling of gray hair above it.

“Just a minute boy, not so fast!” Gordon laid his hand on the young man’s shoulder while he looked into the straightforward eyes. “Come into the den. We will talk about it.”

“It was the first time he had seen into Conway Gordon’s heart, and what he saw there startled him.”

He led the way to a room where warm tints of walls and hangings, cozy chairs and shelves of books, seemed reaching out in friendly welcome. Drawing forward two big chairs, he motioned Jeffrey into one of them.

“You see Jeff, I can’t help but think of your little son,” he began as they settled into their chairs. “You were just about like he is now when I first saw you.”

“Too bad I ever outgrew it! ” the other broke in with a short laugh.

“No, I don’t think that, Jeff. Your record so far has been one that any person would have reason to be proud of. There’s something inside that fine healthy body of yours that won’t let you go crooked. You’re made of the stuff that doesn’t run, Jeffrey Fare, and I’d bank on you doing the right thing on almost any occasion.”

Jeffrey shifted uneasily in his chair. “You’ve been a mighty good friend to me Con — I used to call you. Uncle Con, didn’t I?”

The older man nodded and Jeffrey went on.

“That’s why I want you to know that I didn’t jump into this thing all of a sudden. I’ve seen it coming for a long time. I tried to pretend that I didn’t see it at first. I fought against the admission of it; fought with all the stuff there

was in me. There wasn’t enough apparently.” His hands were gripping the chair arms tightly. His body sank further into the cushions as he said, “I’m glad Mother didn’t live to see me giving in.”

“You’re not giving in!” Conway Gordon’s words were hurled out like a challenge to a fighter.

“Yes I am Con. We are only ruining each other’s lives this way and I want to tell you that there is — there is—”
“Another woman,” Gordon’s voice broke in.

Jeffrey nodded slowly.

“She nursed our little boy two years ago. We haven’t seen a great deal of each other since, but — well, love is a thing you can’t command. Her faith in me has been the one thing that has kept me going lately. You see how It is now don’t you, Con?”

“I see that side of it, Jeff. Your face told me more than your words, but let me ask you a few questions.” He leaned slightly forward, facing his companion.

“You have lived long enough and seen enough of the failures and weaklings in humanity to appreciate certain things which you have back of you which they perhaps never had. What are some of those things, Jeff?”

“Mother!” Jeffrey answered quickly. “You knew mother. Con, and I think you know how much she meant to me.” The young man cleared his throat gruffly.

“She was a splendid woman, Jeff. They don’t make so many like her. Was there anything else?”

“Well I guess you might say there was my home life generally. Dad was a funny old stick in many ways but he wasn’t so bad. He and I ,hit it off pretty well you know.”

“Did your father and mother have very much in common do you think? Were they in love?”

“Oh I never thought much about them in that way.” Jeffrey gave a short laugh. “Somehow a kid thinks of his parents as being past the romantic stage. They never went out much together except when we all went along, but I always thought that they were satisfied.”

“Your mother was a lot younger than your father, was she not?”

“Yes she was, and she always looked it; always so fresh and full of life; beautiful, wasn’t she?”

“Beautiful all the way through. You have reason to be proud of her young man. But what if she had fallen in love with someone else and left you, or taken you and left your father to satisfy her own desires? How do you think it would have affected your life, taking the viewpoint of society into consideration?”

“I see what you’re getting at now; lawyer tactics all right. But I tell you it was different in their case.” Jeffery waved his hand as though to clear away the argument. “They were contented and I can’t think of mother ever wanting to leave me or Dad either. We were happy together. It seemed to take us all to make up the home. But in my own case—”

“Hold on, we’ll come to that later.” Conway Gordon moved in his chair. He seemed talking to some unseen presence in the room as he went on.

“It is a peculiar age in which we live; we are a queer people. Every day we read divorce, we talk divorce, we sanction divorce and separation. We even advise it for our acquaintances. Yet when it lays its talon claws on our own hearts; raises its rancorous voice in our own homes and demands recognition, then do we see it in a different light.

“We feel the eyes of the world glaring into our souls. We see the gnarled finger of scandal pointed at our children and we must needs stop and consider the cost.” His gaze came back to his companion’s face.

“Marriage has never been for me, Jeff, yet through my profession it has been my lot many times to search the depths of marriage; to reveal its hidden wounds or its buried happiness and I have learned a great deal.

“When it is a question of divorce and there are no children the thing is comparatively easy to settle; where there are, it is an entirely different matter.”

“And do you think for one moment that I have not thought of that?” The young man’s head was thrust forward, his eyes were staring hard. “It is not my wish to leave my little son. He will be loved and cared for in the new home.”

“But he loves his mother, Jeff, just as he loves you. It takes both of you to make up his life, just as it took both your father and your mother to make up yours. No matter Which of you takes him he must do without the other in a separation which is more cruel than death and one which society sanctions and brands at the same time.” “I know what you’re trying to say, Gordon. God knows it is no easy problem to solve but a man has to go through it to understand. You have always been so outside it all. You can’t realize the driving force of the power of love.”

The eyes of the two men met. Defiance shot forth from the glance of Jeffrey Fare but it fell defenceless before the wounded, hunted look caught behind the quiet gaze of his old friend. It was the first time he had seen into Conway Gordon’s heart and what he saw there startled him.

“I’m sorry. Con.” The words were simply spoken but they rang with sincerity.

“I guess there aren’t many know it, Jeff. They’ve known me for so long as a confirmed old bachelor but there was a woman, lad — just one. There never could have been another from the time that I first met her. But I was too late. Same old problem, been going on since the start of civilization, I guess. She was already married.”

“I had no idea, Con, I’m sorry!”

“There was a child too. That is what made the difference. It all happened in a city far from here but I can see her yet on the night she made her decision.”

The room seemed suddenly to be filled with a warm radiance that lit up the face of the speaker.

“She had had her fight, Jeff. I could see that in spite of her brave smile, but for the sake of the child, she was holding fast to what she believed to be the only way.

“‘It is going to be my life’s work now,’ she told me, ‘to make the best home I can for my child and the man who is his father.’ That is the reason, Jeff, that I have gone through life alone.”

His voice trailed off and for a moment neither spoke. Then the younger man lifted his eyes questioningly.

“And do you think after all that she was right? Did the result justify the sacrifice of her and your own happiness?”

“That is for you to judge, Jeff. That woman was your mother.”