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"
The
widow
of
two
husbands
,
"
thought
Cowperwood
;
"
the
mother
of
two
children
!
"
With
the
Colonel
's
easy
introduction
began
a
light
conversation
.
Mrs.
Carter
gracefully
persisted
that
she
had
known
of
Cowperwood
for
some
time
.
His
strenuous
street-railway
operations
were
more
or
less
familiar
to
her
.
"
It
would
be
nice
,
"
she
suggested
,
"
since
Mr.
Cowperwood
is
here
,
if
we
invited
Grace
Deming
to
call
.
"
The
latter
was
a
favorite
of
the
Colonel
's
.
"
I
would
be
very
glad
if
I
could
talk
to
Mrs.
Carter
,
"
gallantly
volunteered
Cowperwood
--
he
scarcely
knew
why
.
He
was
curious
to
learn
more
of
her
history
.
On
subsequent
occasions
,
and
in
more
extended
conversation
with
the
Colonel
,
it
was
retailed
to
him
in
full
.
Nannie
Hedden
,
or
Mrs.
John
Alexander
Fleming
,
or
Mrs.
Ira
George
Carter
,
or
Hattie
Starr
,
was
by
birth
a
descendant
of
a
long
line
of
Virginia
and
Kentucky
Heddens
and
Colters
,
related
in
a
definite
or
vague
way
to
half
the
aristocracy
of
four
or
five
of
the
surrounding
states
.
Now
,
although
still
a
woman
of
brilliant
parts
,
she
was
the
keeper
of
a
select
house
of
assignation
in
this
meager
city
of
perhaps
two
hundred
thousand
population
.
How
had
it
happened
?
How
could
it
possibly
have
come
about
?
She
had
been
in
her
day
a
reigning
beauty
.
She
had
been
born
to
money
and
had
married
money
.
Her
first
husband
,
John
Alexander
Fleming
,
who
had
inherited
wealth
,
tastes
,
privileges
,
and
vices
from
a
long
line
of
slave-holding
,
tobacco-growing
Flemings
,
was
a
charming
man
of
the
Kentucky
--
Virginia
society
type
.
He
had
been
trained
in
the
law
with
a
view
to
entering
the
diplomatic
service
,
but
,
being
an
idler
by
nature
,
had
never
done
so
.
Instead
,
horse-raising
,
horse-racing
,
philandering
,
dancing
,
hunting
,
and
the
like
,
had
taken
up
his
time
.
When
their
wedding
took
place
the
Kentucky
--
Virginia
society
world
considered
it
a
great
match
.
There
was
wealth
on
both
sides
.
Then
came
much
more
of
that
idle
social
whirl
which
had
produced
the
marriage
.
Even
philanderings
of
a
very
vital
character
were
not
barred
,
though
deception
,
in
some
degree
at
least
,
would
be
necessary
.
As
a
natural
result
there
followed
the
appearance
in
the
mountains
of
North
Carolina
during
a
charming
autumn
outing
of
a
gay
young
spark
by
the
name
of
Tucker
Tanner
,
and
the
bestowal
on
him
by
the
beautiful
Nannie
Fleming
--
as
she
was
then
called
--
of
her
temporary
affections
.
Kind
friends
were
quick
to
report
what
Fleming
himself
did
not
see
,
and
Fleming
,
roue
that
he
was
,
encountering
young
Mr.
Tanner
on
a
high
mountain
road
one
evening
,
said
to
him
,
"
You
get
out
of
this
party
by
night
,
or
I
will
let
daylight
through
you
in
the
morning
.
"
Tucker
Tanner
,
realizing
that
however
senseless
and
unfair
the
exaggerated
chivalry
of
the
South
might
be
,
the
end
would
be
bullets
just
the
same
,
departed
.
Mrs.
Fleming
,
disturbed
but
unrepentant
,
considered
herself
greatly
abused
.
There
was
much
scandal
.
Then
came
quarrels
,
drinking
on
both
sides
,
finally
a
divorce
.
Mr.
Tucker
Tanner
did
not
appear
to
claim
his
damaged
love
,
but
the
aforementioned
Ira
George
Carter
,
a
penniless
never-do-well
of
the
same
generation
and
social
standing
,
offered
himself
and
was
accepted
.
By
the
first
marriage
there
had
been
one
child
,
a
girl
.
By
the
second
there
was
another
child
,
a
boy
.
Ira
George
Carter
,
before
the
children
were
old
enough
to
impress
Mrs.
Carter
with
the
importance
of
their
needs
or
her
own
affection
for
them
,
had
squandered
,
in
one
ridiculous
venture
after
another
,
the
bulk
of
the
property
willed
to
her
by
her
father
,
Major
Wickham
Hedden
.
Ultimately
,
after
drunkenness
and
dissipation
on
the
husband
's
side
,
and
finally
his
death
,
came
the
approach
of
poverty
.
Mrs.
Carter
was
not
practical
,
and
still
passionate
and
inclined
to
dissipation
.
However
,
the
aimless
,
fatuous
going
to
pieces
of
Ira
George
Carter
,
the
looming
pathos
of
the
future
of
the
children
,
and
a
growing
sense
of
affection
and
responsibility
had
finally
sobered
her
.
The
lure
of
love
and
life
had
not
entirely
disappeared
,
but
her
chance
of
sipping
at
those
crystal
founts
had
grown
sadly
slender
.
A
woman
of
thirty-eight
and
still
possessing
some
beauty
,
she
was
not
content
to
eat
the
husks
provided
for
the
unworthy
.
Her
gorge
rose
at
the
thought
of
that
neglected
state
into
which
the
pariahs
of
society
fall
and
on
which
the
inexperienced
so
cheerfully
comment
.
Neglected
by
her
own
set
,
shunned
by
the
respectable
,
her
fortune
quite
gone
,
she
was
nevertheless
determined
that
she
would
not
be
a
back-street
seamstress
or
a
pensioner
upon
the
bounty
of
quondam
friends
.
By
insensible
degrees
came
first
unhallowed
relationships
through
friendship
and
passing
passion
,
then
a
curious
intermediate
state
between
the
high
world
of
fashion
and
the
half
world
of
harlotry
,
until
,
finally
,
in
Louisville
,
she
had
become
,
not
openly
,
but
actually
,
the
mistress
of
a
house
of
ill
repute
.
Men
who
knew
how
these
things
were
done
,
and
who
were
consulting
their
own
convenience
far
more
than
her
welfare
,
suggested
the
advisability
of
it
.
Three
or
four
friends
like
Colonel
Gillis
wished
rooms
--
convenient
place
in
which
to
loaf
,
gamble
,
and
bring
their
women
.
Hattie
Starr
was
her
name
now
,
and
as
such
she
had
even
become
known
in
a
vague
way
to
the
police
--
but
only
vaguely
--
as
a
woman
whose
home
was
suspiciously
gay
on
occasions
.
Cowperwood
,
with
his
appetite
for
the
wonders
of
life
,
his
appreciation
of
the
dramas
which
produce
either
failure
or
success
,
could
not
help
being
interested
in
this
spoiled
woman
who
was
sailing
so
vaguely
the
seas
of
chance
.
Colonel
Gillis
once
said
that
with
some
strong
man
to
back
her
,
Nannie
Fleming
could
be
put
back
into
society
.
She
had
a
pleasant
appeal
--
she
and
her
two
children
,
of
whom
she
never
spoke
.
After
a
few
visits
to
her
home
Cowperwood
spent
hours
talking
with
Mrs.
Carter
whenever
he
was
in
Louisville
.
On
one
occasion
,
as
they
were
entering
her
boudoir
,
she
picked
up
a
photograph
of
her
daughter
from
the
dresser
and
dropped
it
into
a
drawer
.
Cowperwood
had
never
seen
this
picture
before
.
It
was
that
of
a
girl
of
fifteen
or
sixteen
,
of
whom
he
obtained
but
the
most
fleeting
glance
.
Yet
,
with
that
instinct
for
the
essential
and
vital
which
invariably
possessed
him
,
he
gained
a
keen
impression
of
it
.
It
was
of
a
delicately
haggard
child
with
a
marvelously
agreeable
smile
,
a
fine
,
high-poised
head
upon
a
thin
neck
,
and
an
air
of
bored
superiority
.
Combined
with
this
was
a
touch
of
weariness
about
the
eyelids
which
drooped
in
a
lofty
way
.
Cowperwood
was
fascinated
.
Because
of
the
daughter
he
professed
an
interest
in
the
mother
,
which
he
really
did
not
feel
.
