XIII

When a “high life” engagement such as that of Norman and Miss Burroughs, collapses on the eve of the wedding, the gossip and the scandal, however great, are but a small part of the mess.  Doubtless many a marriage—­and not in high life alone, either—­has been put through, although the one party or the other or both have discovered that disaster was inevitable—­solely because of the appalling muddle the sensible course would precipitate.  In the case of the Norman-Burroughs fiasco, there were—­to note only a few big items—­such difficulties as several car loads of presents from all parts of the earth to be returned, a house furnished throughout and equipped to the last scullery maid and stable boy to be disposed of, the entire Burroughs domestic economy which had been reconstructed to be put back upon its former basis.

It is not surprising that, as Ursula Fitzhugh was credibly informed, Josephine almost decided to send for Bob Culver and marry him on the day before the day appointed for her marriage to Fred. The reason given for her not doing this sounded plausible.  Culver, despairing of making the match on which his ambition—­and therefore his heart was set—­and seeing a chance to get suddenly rich, had embarked for a career as a blackmailer of corporations.  That is, he nosed about for a big corporation stealthily doing or arranging to do some unlawful but highly profitable acts; he bought a few shares of its stock, using a fake client as a blind; he then proceeded to threaten it with exposure, expensive hindrances and the like, unless it bought him off at a huge profit to himself.  This business was regarded as most disreputable and—­thanks to the power of the big corporations over the courts—­had resulted in the sending of several of its practisers to jail or on hasty journeys to foreign climes.  But Culver, almost if not quite as good a lawyer as Norman, was too clever to be caught in that way.  However, while he was getting very rich rapidly, he was as yet far from rich enough to overcome the detestation of old Burroughs, and to be eligible for the daughter.

So, Josephine sailed away to Europe, with the consolation that her father was so chagrined by the fizzle that he had withdrawn his veto upon the purchase of a foreign title—­that veto having been the only reason she had looked at home for a husband.  Strange indeed are the ways of love—­never stranger than when it comes into contact with the vanities of wealth and social position and the other things that cause a human being to feel that he or she is lifted clear of and high above the human condition.  Josephine had her consolation.  For Norman the only consolation was escape from a marriage which had become so irksome in anticipation that he did not dare think what it would be in the reality.  Over against this consolation was set a long list of disasters.  He found himself immediately shunned by all his friends.  Their professed reason was