The Genius by Theodore Dreiser

At two the same day Eugene was there. He gave as an excuse to his secretary that he was going out for a business conference with a well-known author whose book he wished to obtain, and, calling a closed auto, but one not his own, journeyed to the rendezvous. He asked the man to drive down the road, making runs of half a mile to and fro while he sat in the shade of a clump of trees out of view of the road. Presently Suzanne came, bright and fresh as the morning, beautiful in a light purple walking costume of masterly design. She had on a large soft brimmed hat with long feathers of the same shade which became her exquisitely. She walked with an air of grace and freedom, and yet when he looked into her eyes, he saw a touch of trouble there.

“At last?” he said signaling her and smiling. “Come in here. My car is just up the road. Don’t you think we had better get in? It’s closed. We might be seen. How long can you stay?”

He took her in his arms and kissed her eagerly while she explained that she could not stay long. She had said she was going to the library, which her mother had endowed, for a book. She must be there by half past three or four at the least.

“Oh, we can talk a great deal by then,” he said gaily. “Here comes the car. Let’s get in.”

He looked cautiously about, hailed it, and they stepped in quickly as it drew up.

“Perth Amboy,” said Eugene, and they were off at high speed.

Once in the car all was perfect, for they could not be seen. He drew the shades partially and took her in his arms.

“Oh, Suzanne,” he said, “how long it has seemed. How very long. Do you love me?”

“Yes, you know I do.”

“Suzanne, how shall we arrange this? Are you going away soon? I must see you oftener.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know what mama is thinking of doing. I know she wants to go up to Lenox in the fall.”

“Oh, Pshaw!” commented Eugene wearily.

“Listen, Mr. Witla,” said Suzanne thoughtfully. “You know we are running a terrible risk. What if Mrs. Witla should find out, or mama? It would be terrible.”

“I know it,” said Eugene. “I suppose I ought not to be acting in this way. But, oh, Suzanne, I am wild about you. I am not myself any longer. I don’t know what I am. I only know that I love you, love you, love you!”

He gathered her in his arms and kissed her ecstatically. “How sweet you look. How beautiful you are. Oh, flower face! Myrtle Bloom! Angel Eyes! Divine Fire!” He hugged her in a long silent embrace, the while the car sped on.

“But what about us?” she asked, wide-eyed. “You know we are running a terrible risk. I was just thinking this morning when you called me up. It’s dangerous, you know.”

“Are you becoming sorry, Suzanne?”

“No.”

“Do you love me?”

“You know I do.”

“Then you will help me figure this out?”

“I want to. But listen, Mr. Witla, now listen to me. I want to tell you something.” She was very solemn and quaint and sweet in this mood.

“I will listen to anything, baby mine, but don’t call me Mr. Witla. Call me Eugene, will you?”

“Well, now, listen to me, Mr.—Mr.—Eugene.”

“Not Mr. Eugene, just Eugene. Now say it. Eugene,” he quoted his own name to her.

“Now listen to me, Mr.—now, listen to me, Eugene,” she at last forced herself to say, and Eugene stopped her lips with his mouth.

“There,” he said.

“Now listen to me,” she went on urgently, “you know I am afraid mama will be terribly angry if she finds this out.”

“Oh, will she?” interrupted Eugene jocosely.

Suzanne paid no attention to him.

“We have to be very careful. She likes you so much now that if she doesn’t come across anything direct, she will never think of anything. She was talking about you only this morning.”

“What was she saying?”

“Oh, what a nice man you are, and how able you are.”

“Oh, nothing like that,” replied Eugene jestingly.

“Yes, she did. And I think Mrs. Witla likes me. I can meet you sometimes when I’m there, but we must be so careful. I mustn’t stay out long today. I want to think things out, too. You know I’m having a real hard time thinking about this.”

Eugene smiled. Her innocence was so delightful to him, so naïve.

“What do you mean by thinking things out, Suzanne?” asked Eugene curiously. He was interested in the workings of her young mind, which seemed so fresh and wonderful to him. It was so delightful to find this paragon of beauty so responsive, so affectionate and helpful and withal so thoughtful. She was somewhat like a delightful toy to him, and he held her as reverently in awe as though she were a priceless vase.

“You know I want to think what I’m doing. I have to. It seems so terrible to me at times and yet you know, you know——”

“I know what?” he asked, when she paused.

“I don’t know why I shouldn’t if I want to—if I love you.”

Eugene looked at her curiously. This attempt at analysis of life, particularly in relation to so trying and daring a situation as this, astonished him. He had fancied Suzanne more or less thoughtless and harmless as yet, big potentially, but uncertain and vague. Here she was thinking about this most difficult problem almost more directly than he was and apparently with more courage. He was astounded, but more than that, intensely interested. What had become of her terrific fright of ten days before? What was it she was thinking about exactly?

“What a curious girl you are,” he said.

“Why am I?” she asked.

“Because you are. I didn’t think you could think so keenly yet. I thought you would some day. But, how have you reasoned this out?”

“Did you ever read ‘Anna Karénina’?” she asked him meditatively.

“Yes,” he said, wondering that she should have read it at her age.

“What did you think of that?”

“Oh, it shows what happens, as a rule, when you fly in the face of convention,” he said easily, wondering at the ability of her brain.

“Do you think things must happen that way?”

“No, I don’t think they must happen that way. There are lots of cases where people do go against the conventions and succeed. I don’t know. It appears to be all a matter of time and chance. Some do and some don’t. If you are strong enough or clever enough to ‘get away with it,’ as they say, you will. If you aren’t, you won’t. What makes you ask?”

“Well,” she said, pausing, her lips parted, her eyes fixed on the floor, “I was thinking that it needn’t necessarily be like that, do you think? It could be different?”

“Yes, it could be,” he said thoughtfully, wondering if it really could.

“Because if it couldn’t,” she went on, “the price would be too high. It isn’t worth while.”

“You mean, you mean,” he said, looking at her, “that you would.” He was thinking that she was deliberately contemplating making a sacrifice of herself for him. Something in her thoughtful, self-debating, meditative manner made him think so.

Suzanne looked out of the window and slowly nodded her head. “Yes,” she said, solemnly, “if it could be arranged. Why not? I don’t see why.”

Her face was a perfect blossom of beauty, as she spoke. Eugene wondered whether he was waking or sleeping. Suzanne reasoning so! Suzanne reading “Anna Karénina” and philosophizing so! Basing a course of action on theorizing in connection with books and life, and in the face of such terrible evidence as “Anna Karénina” presented to the contrary of this proposition. Would wonders ever cease?

“You know,” she said after a time, “I think mama wouldn’t mind, Eugene. She likes you. I’ve heard her say so lots of times. Besides I’ve heard her talk this way about other people. She thinks people oughtn’t to marry unless they love each other very much. I don’t think she thinks it’s necessary for people to marry at all unless they want to. We might live together if we wished, you know.”

Eugene himself had heard Mrs. Dale question the marriage system, but only in a philosophic way. He did not take much stock in her social maunderings. He did not know what she might be privately saying to Suzanne, but he did not believe it could be very radical, or at least seriously so.

“Don’t you take any stock in what your mother says, Suzanne,” he observed, studying her pretty face. “She doesn’t mean it, at least, she doesn’t mean it as far as you are concerned. She’s merely talking. If she thought anything were going to happen to you, she’d change her mind pretty quick.”