ntelligible and therefore inexcusable.--She had done this
incredible thing, and she had done it from a motive that seemed, at
the time, as clear, as logical, as free from the distorting mists of
sentimentality, as any of her father's financial enterprises. It had
been a bold move, but it had been as carefully calculated as the
happiest Wall Street "stroke." She had gone away with Peter because,
after the decisive scene in which she had put her power to the test, to
yield to him seemed the surest means of victory. Even to her practical
intelligence it was clear that an immediate dash to Dakota might look
too calculated; and she had preserved her self-respect by telling
herself that she was really his wife, and in no way to blame if the law
delayed to ratify the bond. She was still persuaded of the justness of
her reasoning; but she now saw that it had left certain risks out of
account. Her life with Van Degen had taught her many things. The two had
wandered from place to place, spending a great deal of money, always
more and more money; for the first time in her life she had been able
to buy everything she wanted. For a while this had kept her amused and
busy; but presently she began to perceive that her companion's view of
their relation was not the same as hers. She saw that he had always
meant it to be an unavowed tie, screened by Mrs. Shallum's companionship
and Clare's careless tolerance; and that on those terms he would have
been ready to shed on their adventure the brightest blaze of notoriety.
But since Undine had insisted on being carried off like a sentimental
school-girl he meant to shroud the affair in mystery, and was as zealous
in concealing their relation as she was bent on proclaiming it. In the
"powerful" novels which Popple was fond of lending her she had met
with increasing frequency the type of heroine who scorns to love
clandestinely, and proclaims the sanctity of passion and the moral
duty of obeying its call. Undine had been struck by these arguments as
justifying and even ennobling her course, and had let Peter understand
that she had been actuated by the highest motives in openly associating
her life with his; but he had opposed a placid insensibility to these
allusions, and had persisted in treating her as though their journey
were the kind of escapade that a man of the world is bound to hide. She
had expected him to take her to all the showy places where couples like
themselves are relieved from