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The Story Of International Relations,

Part One: Cold-Blooded Idealists


Jo-Anne Pemberton
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PSIR · PALGRAVE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The Story of
International Relations,
Part One
Cold-Blooded Idealists

Jo-Anne Pemberton
Palgrave Studies in International Relations

Series Editors
Mai’a K. Davis Cross
Northeastern University
Boston, MA, USA

Benjamin de Carvalho
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Oslo, Norway

Shahar Hameiri
University of Queensland
St. Lucia, QLD, Australia

Knud Erik Jørgensen


University of Aarhus
Aarhus, Denmark

Ole Jacob Sending


Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Oslo, Norway

Ayşe Zarakol
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
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Science at Northeastern University, USA, and Senior Researcher at the
ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway.
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Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Norway.
Shahar Hameiri is Associate Professor of International Politics and
Associate Director of the Graduate Centre in Governance and International
Affairs, School of Political Science and International Studies, University of
Queensland, Australia.
Knud Erik Jørgensen is Professor of International Relations at Aarhus
University, Denmark, and at Yaşar University, Izmir, Turkey.
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Ayşe Zarakol is Reader in International Relations at the University of
Cambridge and a fellow at Emmanuel College, UK.

More information about this series at


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Jo-Anne Pemberton

The Story of
International
Relations, Part One
Cold-­Blooded Idealists
Jo-Anne Pemberton
School of Social Sciences
University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW, Australia

Palgrave Studies in International Relations


ISBN 978-3-030-14330-5    ISBN 978-3-030-14331-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14331-2

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.

Cover illustration: © Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgements

I am considerably indebted to a number of people who have supported me


in preparing this manuscript. I thank members of my family: Mark, Sally,
Gail and Gregory Pemberton. I also thank Helen Pringle for her support.
Many thanks to Peter Carman and Jean-Michel Ageron-Blanc, president
and chef d’enterprise respectively, of the Paris American Academy, for their
generous assistance during my stays in Paris. I am especially grateful to the
following archivists: Jens Bol, Mahmoud Ghander and Steve Nyong. Their
help and expertise made it possible for me to access archival records and
other materials of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s held in the UNESCO
Archives in Paris.

v
Contents

1 The League of Nations and the Study of International


Relations  1

2 The League of Nations and Origins of the International


Studies Conference 71

3 The Paris Peace Conference, Racial Equality and the


Shandong Question157

4 The Quest for a Machinery of Cooperation in the Pacific:


The Covenant Rejected, the Washington Conference and
the 1924 Exclusion Laws241

5 The Institute of Pacific Relations 1927–1929 and the


Evolution of the International Studies Conference 1928–
1930315

vii
viii Contents

6 International Studies in 1931: From Copenhagen to


Shanghai397

7 The Lessons of Manchuria467

Index579
Abbreviations

BCCIS British Coordinating Committee for International Studies


BIIA British Institute of International Affairs
CFR Council on Foreign Relations
CISSIR Conference of Institutions for the Scientific Study of International
Relations
CLON Commission of the League of Nations
DNVP Deutschnationale Volkspartei
FPA Foreign Policy Association
GIIR Geneva Institute of International Relations
GRC Geneva Research Center
IAP Institut für Auswärtige Politik
ICIC International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation
IICI Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle
IIIC International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation
ILO International Labour Organization
IPR Institute of Pacific Relations
ISC International Studies Conference
ISIPR International Secretariat of the Institute of Pacific Relations
JCIPR Japanese Council of the IPR
LNU League of Nations Union
LON League of Nations
LSE London School of Economics and Political Science
NSDAP National Socialist German Workers’ Party
OIC Organisation of Intellectual Cooperation
OJ Official Journal (of the League of Nations)
PID Political Intelligence Department
RIIA Royal Institute of International Affairs

ix
x ABBREVIATIONS

SDN Société des Nations


UA UNESCO Archives
UIA Union of International Associations
List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation at the side of the


Palais Royal in Paris 2
Fig. 2.1 The signing of the Kellogg Pact by the German Gustav Stresemann.
1928. Place: Paris 71
Fig. 2.2 Kellogg-Briand Pact, with signatures of Gustav Stresemann, Paul
Kellogg, Paul Hymans, Aristide Briand, Lord Cushendun,
William Lyon Mackenzie King, John McLachlan, Sir Christopher
James Parr, Jacobus Stephanus Smit, William Thomas Cosgrave,
Count Gaetano Manzoni, Count Uchida, A. Zaleski, Eduard
Benes72
Fig. 3.1 Council of Four at the WWI Paris Peace Conference, May 27,
1919 (candid photo) (L–R): Prime Minister David Lloyd George
(Great Britain), Premier Vittorio Orlando (Italy), French Prime
Minister Georges Clemenceau and US President Woodrow
Wilson158
Fig. 3.2 Japanese peace delegates in 1919 with Makino Nobuaki 159
Fig. 4.1 The Conference on Limitations of Armaments, Washington 242
Fig. 4.2 The Punahou School in Honolulu where the first conference of
the Institute of Pacific Relations took place in 1925 243
Fig. 5.1 Old engraving of the building of the School of Politics
(Schinkelsche Bauakademie) 316
Fig. 5.2 International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (League
of Nations). Plenary Session in the Palais Wilson, between 1924
and 1927 317

xi
xii List of Figures

Fig. 6.1 The Chinese delegation addresses the Council of the League
of Nations following the Mukden Incident 397
Fig. 6.2 Portrait of the attendees of the Fourth Biennial Conference
of the Institute of Pacific Relations 398
Fig. 7.1 Lytton Commission in Shanghai, 1932 468
CHAPTER 1

The League of Nations and the Study


of International Relations

International Studies in the Interwar Years


This study traces the development of the academic subject of international
relations, or what was often referred to in the interwar years as interna-
tional studies, within the framework of the Organisation of Intellectual
Cooperation (OIC) of the League of Nations (LON). In this regard, its
focus rests on an institution which came to be known as the International
Studies Conference (ISC) and which commenced life at a meeting in
Berlin in 1928. The determination to avert another European war and the
zeal for international organisation engendered by the creation of the LON
were key factors behind the formation of the ISC. Its founders hoped that
through furthering the institutional development of the study of interna-
tional relations, they would help foster mutual comprehension among
peoples and help entrench the LON system. Indeed, the aforementioned
Berlin meeting was itself intended to serve as an instrument of interna-
tional rapprochement and as a means of reinforcing the LON. The choice
of Berlin as the location for the meeting, which was initiated and organ-
ised by the OIC’s Paris-based executive arm, namely, the International
Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC), must be viewed in light of
Germany’s entry into the LON in September 1926 and, more particularly,
the desire to further harmonise Franco-German relations. The organisers
of the Berlin meeting were acutely aware that in the absence of

© The Author(s) 2020 1


J.-A. Pemberton, The Story of International Relations, Part One,
Palgrave Studies in International Relations,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14331-2_1
2 J.-A. PEMBERTON

Fig. 1.1 International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation at the side of the


Palais Royal in Paris. Source: Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication/
Médiathèque de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine

­ ranco-­German rapprochement there could be no assurance of peace and


F
security in Europe.
This study does not claim that the year 1919 marks the birth of inter-
national relations as an academic discipline. Courses in the field of interna-
tional law and diplomatic history had long been offered in academic
institutions in Europe and North America. Furthermore, generalist
courses on international affairs under such rubrics as Contemporary Politics
had been introduced into the curricula of American universities as early as
1900. Yet what needs to be underlined is the fact that almost all of those
1 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL… 3

involved in promoting the study of international relations in the interwar


years believed that they were engaged in a new intellectual enterprise. This
partly explains why this study traces the development of international
studies in the period after the end of the Great War or what later became
known as the First World War.
The other main factor explaining my temporal starting point is the
birth of the LON. For the purposes of this study, this organisation is sig-
nificant in two mutually informing respects. First, the LON was deeply
involved in the development of the study of international relations, above
all, through its intellectual organs. Second, a prime motivation behind the
promotion of such study was the desire to see a hardening of the norms
enshrined in the LON Covenant. In this way, the development of the dis-
cipline of international relations can be seen as a component of a larger
enterprise: it was a feature of the new world order which was proclaimed
and which began to be instituted at the end of the First World War. Indeed,
the cultivation of the study of international relations was viewed exactly in
this light by many of its partisans.
It should be emphasised that the ISC was not the first attempt at organ-
ising the study of international relations on an international basis. That
honour must go to the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR), a body that
resulted from a meeting of representatives of nations bordering the Pacific
in mid-1925 in Honolulu and whose membership soon came to include
non-Pacific powers with imperial interests in the region. It is important to
note that in the official literature produced by the IPR’s international sec-
retariat (ISIPR) in the IPR’s early years, the IPR was far from being rep-
resented as a strictly regional organisation. To the contrary, the IPR’s
secretariat stressed the point that the Pacific was a crucial arena of world
politics and that the IPR was a body engaged in international relations
research. In this connection, it is also noteworthy that from 1927 down to
1945, observers from the LON and the International Labour Organization
(ILO) attended IPR conferences. This study discusses the IPR at length.
A key reason for this concerns the fact that as an international organisation
engaged in collaborative research on international problems, the IPR was
the principal model for the ISC. Further to this, the IPR served as a yard-
stick against which the ISC would be measured on various occasions
throughout its life. That these two bodies had overlapping memberships
and that the IPR was a constant fixture at ISC conferences from 1929 to
1949 are of relevance in this context.
4 J.-A. PEMBERTON

To the extent that the IPR might be viewed as a largely regional organ-
isation, it cannot be seen as different in kind from the ISC: the members
of the latter body were predominantly European, and their eyes were
trained mainly on European affairs. In fact, American and Canadian mem-
bers occasionally criticised the ISC because of its bias towards Europe. To
its credit, the ISC sought to rectify this situation. For example, repeated
approaches were made by the ISC’s secretariat to Chinese and Japanese
institutions in the hope that they would join the conference. These
approaches met with a degree of success.
Another reason for dwelling on the IPR is that its activities show that
concentrated scholarly thinking about international relations both in
abstract and in concrete terms was not confined to countries such as
France, Great Britain and the United States in the years after 1918. It is
true that the institutional development of the study of international rela-
tions was most advanced in these three countries at the time, above all, in
the United States. Yet insights into the nature and conduct of interna-
tional relations developed in the interwar period by individuals and groups
located outside these centres of power and influence should not be over-
looked. Such insights certainly were not overlooked at the time, as evi-
denced by the very positive international reputation enjoyed by the IPR
and the ISC’s ongoing attempts to establish a membership that repre-
sented the greater part of the globe.
Both the IPR and the ISC served as forums in which the major political
controversies of the interwar period were rehearsed. In the case of the
IPR, this point largely relates to its conference discussions concerning
Chinese efforts to re-establish China’s autonomy and unfolding events in
Manchuria. In the case of the ISC, this point largely relates to debates tak-
ing place in the years between 1934 and 1937 on the topics of collective
security and peaceful change. These debates well demonstrate that the
defence of the League system by interwar students of international affairs
in the face of the challenges confronting it was generally based on hard-­
headed political calculations. Indeed, partisans of the LON often discussed
the conditions giving rise to the political crises of the interwar years in
terms ‘as frank as those of any blood-and-iron historian,’ to borrow Frank
M. Russell’s description of the analysis of the disarmament question issued
by Salvador de Madariaga who headed the Disarmament Section of the
LON Secretariat between 1922 and 1928.1

1
Frank M. Russell, Theories of International Relations (New York: D. Appleton-Century,
1936), 441–2. Madariaga joined the secretariat in 1921.
1 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL… 5

The ISC’s discussions of the topics of collective security and peaceful


change are of historical interest because they overlap with the debate con-
cerning appeasement and provide us with further insights into the concep-
tual environment in which that increasingly polarised debate occurred.
What we also obtain from examining these discussions are instructive illus-
trations of the rhetorical manoeuvres performed on behalf of the Hitler
regime with a view to manipulating foreign opinion in its favour. A good
example of the above was on display at the 1937 conference of the ISC
where a senior Nazi propagandist gave vent to the German grievance
about the fact that Germany had been stripped of its colonial possessions
under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. In the forum of the 1937 con-
ference of the ISC, the same propagandist mounted a detailed argument
to the effect that the retrocession of the German colonies was a matter of
law and justice, an argument accompanied by a vague hint that should
Germany’s former colonies not be returned to Germany, there might be
trouble ahead. Of further historical interest in regard to the 1937 confer-
ence was the discussion within its framework of what was referred to as the
colonial problem, a discussion which served to further prise open the colo-
nial question in a way favourable to a policy of decolonisation.

The Origins of Intellectual Cooperation


My account of the development of the study of international affairs in the
years between the First and Second World Wars and in the early post-war
period is mostly chronological. Before embarking on this account, I want
to elaborate on the origins, institutionalisation and guiding philosophy of
the OIC because it was this organisation that provided the institutional
and, importantly, the cultural setting in which much of what is discussed
in this study takes place.
The OIC can be seen as the culminating point of the profusion of activ-
ity taking place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in
regard to international intellectual cooperation. An inspirational figure in
this regard was Léon Bourgeois, an adherent of France’s Radical Party
(Parti radical) who emerged as a leading statesman. The degree of ­influence
exercised by Bourgeois over many years caused Julien Luchaire, the first
director of the IIIC, to describe him as that ‘remarquable pontife de la
Troisième République.’2 Of more significance in this context is another

2
Julien Luchaire, Confessions d’un Français moyen, vol. 2, 1914–1950 (Florence: Leo
S. Olschki, 1965), 81–2. See also Danielle Wünsch, ‘Einstein et la Commission i­ nternationale
6 J.-A. PEMBERTON

description that Bourgeois earned: ‘apostle’ of international intellectual


cooperation.3 Speaking in his capacity as minister for public instruction in
1891 at a congress of savants, Bourgeois called for the institution of
arrangements that would ensure that new discoveries in all those fields
into which scientific method had penetrated were ‘systematically dove-
tailed into the existing body of knowledge.’4 In this context, Bourgeois’s
motive was not solely pedagogical: he saw in the systematic integration of
scientific knowledge a template for integration in the wider social arena. In
a study called Solidarité (1896), Bourgeois sought to ‘establish on the
scientific doctrines of natural solidarity a practical doctrine of moral and
social solidarity,’ involving ‘a rule specifying the duties and rights of each
in the interdependent action of all.’5
Bourgeois gave expression to such a doctrine as the premier French
delegate at the Conferences of the Peace at The Hague in 1899 and 1907,
where he enunciated the ‘principle of international solidarity,’ the actual
and growing ‘solidarity of nations’ and the existence of a ‘véritable Société
des nations.’6 Accordingly, the preambles to The Hague Declaration
(1899) and The Hague Convention (1907) on the Pacific Settlement of
International Disputes affirmed ‘the solidarity which unites the members
of the society of civilised nations.’7 Bourgeois, who would go on to win
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1920, elaborated on the thinking behind and
implications of these pronouncements in a work appearing in 1910 enti-
tled Pour la Société des Nations, stating therein that

ideas are also facts, or, as people say, forces. We speak of a politique réaliste: it
is an incomplete, blind réalisme that does not hold account of ideas in the

de coopération intellectuelle,’ Revue d’histoire des sciences 57, no. 2 (2004): 509–20, 510.
3
Charles André, L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle (Rennes: Imprimerie
Provinciale de l’Ouest, 1938), 41.
4
F. C. S. Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations:
Its Conceptual Basis and lessons for the present (PhD diss., University of London, 1953), 243.
F. C. S. Northedge cites a speech given by Bourgeois at the general session of the Congrès
de Sociétés Savantes in Paris, May 27, 1891. See also Léon Bourgeois, Solidarité (Paris:
Armand Colin et Cie, 1896), 13–4, classiques.uqac.ca/Cclassiques/bourgeois_leon/soli-
darite/solidarite.html.
5
Bourgeois, Solidarité, 30.
6
Léon Bourgeois, Pour la Société des Nations (Paris: Bibliothèque-Charpentier, 1910),
106, 167, 259. Emphasis added. See also Wünsch, ‘Einstein et la Commission internationale
de coopération intellectuelle,’ 510–1.
7
Bourgeois, Pour la Société des Nations, 48.
1 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL… 7

estimation of the apparent facts and in the calculations of the active forces …
[P]ublic opinion acts each day more powerfully on the direction of general
affairs and this opinion is more and more directed itself by two growing
forces: one of the moral order, the increasing respect for the life of the
human person; the other of the material order, the ever tightening eco-
nomic solidarity of nations. These two forces tend to the same end: respect
for the law and the maintenance of peace.8

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw an increasing


number of international congresses of an intellectual character.9 A very
important institution in this regard was the Union of International
Associations (UIA), which was established in 1910 at what the UIA later
described as the ‘First World Congress’ and in which 132 non-­governmental
international organisations participated. The key figures behind this con-
gress were two Belgians, namely, Henri La Fontaine and Paul Otlet, both
of whom had spent the previous two decades seeking to organise knowl-
edge along the lines suggested by Bourgeois.10 Obtaining a membership
comprised of 230 unofficial international associations by 1914 and in
receipt of the support of the Belgian government and the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, the stated purpose of the UIA con-
sisted in ‘the elaboration of a world organization, founded on law, scien-
tific progress and technique, and on the free representation of out the
common interests of humanity.’11 It is thus not surprising that after the
war the UIA emerged, as stated by Sir Eric Drummond, the LON’s first
secretary-­general, as one of the staunchest supporters of the LON, a draft
covenant for which the UIA had prepared before the war’s end.12 Indeed,

8
Ibid., 23–4. Emphasis added.
9
Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 241–2.
10
Union des Associations Internationales, Publication no. 98, August 1921, quoted ibid.,
248. On role of La Fontaine and Otlet, see Northedge, International Intellectual
Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 244.
11
Mémoire de Secrétaire Général de la Société des Nations sur l’activité educative et
l’organisation du travail intellectuel accomplies par l’Union des Associations internationals,
1921, quoted in Pham Thi-Tu, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations (Paris:
Librairie Minard, 1962), 13. On the support given by the Belgian government and the
Carnegie Endowment for the UIA, see Jean-Jacques Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée: La Société des
Nations et la Coopération Intellectuelle (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1999), 13.
12
Jan Kolasa, International Intellectual Co-operation: The League Experience and the
Beginnings of UNESCO (Wroclaw: Zaclad Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1962), 18.
8 J.-A. PEMBERTON

the UIA was described by contemporary students of the LON as ‘one of


the chief pioneers of the idea of a League of Nations.’13
On February 5, 1919, the UIA presented a petition to the Peace
Conference in Paris which called for the covenant of the proposed LON
to include a charter for ‘Intellectual and Moral interests.’14 Although this
petition had little impact, the Belgian government submitted to the Peace
Conference on March 24, 1919, an amendment to the covenant to the
effect that it would provide for an international committee on intellectual
relations in order to promote the ‘development of moral, scientific and
artistic international relations among diverse peoples and promote, by
every means, the formation of an international spirit.’15 As this proposal
also failed to elicit much enthusiasm, it was withdrawn by the Belgian
delegate, namely, Paul Hymans, in the conference’s commission on the
LON ‘without discussion.’16
There are a number of explanations for the lack of interest in such pro-
posals. For example, H. R. G. Greaves, in his 1931 study of the committees
of the LON, pointed to a desire on the part of certain delegates to the peace
conference to not complicate the covenant with ‘unnecessary matter.’ As the
conference proceeded, a view emerged in some circles, especially in American
and British circles, that the nascent LON was already overburdened in an
organisational sense.17 In relation to this last point, Henri Bonnet, a former
member of LON’s secretariat who went on to replace Luchaire as director
of the IIIC, noted that as a result of the war, the international commu-
nity found itself facing major tasks in the fields of economic and social recon-
struction and that in view of this, the conference endowed the LON with
multiple technical organisations. As Bonnet further noted, although the war
had severely disrupted intellectual life, the problems in that area were in

13
H. R. G. Greaves, The League Committees and World Order (London: Oxford University
Press, 1931), 112 and André, L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 29–30.
14
Greaves, League Committees and World Order, 113.
15
David Hunter Miller, The Drafting of the Covenant, vol. 2 (New York: G. B. Putnam’s
Sons, 1928), 522. See also Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations,
17–8; Greaves, League Committees and World Order, 114; and F. R. Cowell ‘Planning The
Organisation of UNESCO, 1942–1946: A Personal Record,’ Journal of World History 10,
no. 1 (1966): 210–36, 219.
16
Greaves, League Committees and World Order, 113. See also Pham, La Coopération
Intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 18; Cowell ‘Planning The Organisation of UNESCO,
1942–1946,’ 219.
17
Greaves, League Committees and World Order, 113. See also Kolasa, International
Intellectual Co-operation, 19.
1 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL… 9

some ways less visible than or were simply ‘overshadowed’ by the enormous
problems in the economic and social areas.18 Finally in this context, we
might note the observation of Nitobe Inazō, one of the LON’s first under-
secretaries-general, that ‘a certain number of members—considered that the
League of Nations was first and foremost a political organisation which
should not dissipate its efforts to too great an extent.’19 Madariaga
later stated that on this point the British were ‘adamant’: the British view
was that the ‘League was to be a League, not a Society; it was to deal with
peace and war, not with humdrum facts and relations between nations.’20
Irrespective of the attitude described by Nitobe and Madariaga, non-­
government organisations continued to pressure the LON to act in the
field of intellectual cooperation. At the Third Conference of the
Associations for the League of Nations in December 1919, representatives
of the UIA won support for a resolution which demanded that the LON
‘encourage and direct initiatives in the domain of the sciences and of
education.’21 Subsequently, the Paris-based European Council of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace sent to the LON Secretariat
a resolution adopted at the council’s meeting of February 15, 1920, which
asked that the assembly fund chairs in international relations. It also rec-
ommended that the LON should play a leading role in the creation of an
‘international organisation for the promulgation of reliable and indepen-
dent information with a view to preventing international conflicts.’22
On July 8, 1920, Paul Appell, rector of the University of Paris, com-
municated to Drummond the contents of a resolution passed by the
French Association of the League of Nations at a meeting of its executive
committee (of which Appell was president), on June 21.23 The resolution
demanded that the LON establish as soon as possible an international
office of intellectual and educational relations: ‘a permanent organisation

18
Henri Bonnet, Intellectual Co-operation in World Organization (Washington: American
Council on Public Affairs, 1942), 4. See also Kolasa, International Intellectual Co-operation,
19.
19
Minutes of the Intellectual Committee on Intellectual Co-operation, 1923, quoted in
Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 334.
20
Salvador de Madariaga, ‘Gilbert Murray and the League,’ in Jean Smith and Arnold
Toynbee eds., Gilbert Murray: An Unfinished Autobiography (London: George Allen and
Unwin, 1960), 194–5.
21
Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 13.
22
Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 274.
23
André, L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 31.
10 J.-A. PEMBERTON

of intellectual work, analogous to the one which existed for manual work,’
that is, the ILO.24
This resolution was accompanied by a draft convention which had been
prepared by Luchaire (then chef de cabinet of the French minister of edu-
cation), which outlined a detailed plan for what Luchaire referred to as a
Permanent Organisation for the Promotion of International Understanding
and Collaboration in Educational Questions and in Science, Literature
and Art.25 Brussels and Paris were not the only sources of pressure: propo-
sitions regarding the creation of an organisation addressing intellectual
cooperation emanated from associations and institutions based in Cracow,
Geneva, London, New York, Oxford and Vienna.26 The first official steps
in the direction of intellectual cooperation within the framework of the
LON occurred when at the eighth session of a meeting held at Saint-­
Sébastien between July 30 and August 5, 1920, the Council of LON con-
sidered a plan submitted to it by the UIA.27 The UIA asked the council to
support its plan for what it termed an International University: its plan for
the convening of summer schools in Brussels with the purpose of fostering
‘an elite of some thousands of minds’ who would cooperate in the promo-
tion of ‘international understanding and in the work of the League of
Nations.’28 The UIA also requested a subvention to assist it in the publica-
tion of a Code des voeux et résolutions des congrès internationaux: a

24
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 20 and S. H. Bailey,
International Studies in Modern Education (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), 5n.
For a somewhat different account of the form of this resolution, see André, L’Organisation
de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 31.
25
Kolasa, International Intellectual Co-operation, 20. For further discussion of Luchaire’s
role, see Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations,
274–5 and Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 13. Jean-Jacques Renoliet notes that at its congress in
Brussels in September 1920, the UIA called for an international conference to be held in
order to draft the statutes of an international organisation for intellectual work. This idea was
also taken up at the fourth conference of the League of Nations Associations in Milan in
October 1920. See also André, L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 31. André
points out that Luchaire was charged with this task at Milan.
26
Kolasa, International Intellectual Co-operation, 18.
27
André, L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 34, 37.
28
Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 13. See also Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société
des Nations, 18 and Bailey, International Studies in Modern Education, 7n. Stanley Hartnoll
Bailey points out that a so-called International University functioned between September 5
and 20, 1920, in Brussels. In attendance were forty-seven professors and one hundred stu-
dents. The main focus of its syllabus was on (1) international questions of a legal, economic
and technical character; (2) comparative studies of history and contemporary international
1 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL… 11

­ ublication involving the ‘coordination of the principal desiderata in all


p
the domains of international life.’29
The discussion of these proposals at the council took place following a
presentation of a report prepared by Bourgeois in the course of which he
praised the UIA’s achievements and the service it had rendered to private
international associations and acknowledged the utility of the proposed
international university and its planned programme of studies. However,
Bourgeois then stated that as this university had yet to be established, it
would be ‘premature’ to accord to it League ‘patronage.’30 Rather, he sug-
gested that the council should send to the UIA an ‘expression of all its
sympathy’ for its new undertaking, wish it every success and authorise the
secretariat to assist the UIA ‘in the measure possible, in the realization of
… [this] … work of international interest.’31 Deferring to the opinions
expressed by its ‘eminent rapporteur,’ the council decided to accord
‘moral encouragement’ rather than financial support to the planned inter-
national university. Nonetheless, the council agreed to allocate the funds
requested by the UIA for the publication of the proposed Code des voeux
et résolutions des congrès internationaux as it considered that such a publi-
cation would be of great value to the LON Secretariat and to the manifold
private international organisations.32
On December 13, 1920, during the First Assembly of the LON and
following a successful attempt by France’s Gabriel Hanotaux to ward off a
proposed resolution authored by La Fontaine favourable to the teaching
of Esperanto, discussion of the question of intellectual cooperation
­commenced.33 On that same day, a motion was put forward by delegates
representing Belgium, Italy and Romania, suggesting that the assembly
invite the council to pay close attention to the work currently being under-
taken in the field of international intellectual cooperation, to possibly
accord to this work its patronage and ‘to present to the assembly, during

institutions; and (3) the League of Nations. For the history of the UIA’s proposal, see André,
L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 34–6.
29
André, L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 34–6 and Pham, La coopération
intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 18.
30
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 18–9 and Northedge,
International Intellectual Co-operation, 261.
31
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 19.
32
Ibid.
33
Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 14. Renoliet observes that Gabriel Hanotaux’s action was in
order to defend the French language.
12 J.-A. PEMBERTON

its next session, a detailed report on the educational influence which they
are called upon to exercise on the formation of a liberal spirit of under-
standing and world-wide co-operation.’34 Importantly also, the motion
called upon the council to investigate the utility of establishing a technical
organisation dedicated to the organisation of intellectual work.35 As this
motion concerned the creation of a new technical organisation, it was sent
to the assembly’s Second Committee, the mandate of which concerned
technical organisations, for its consideration.36 The committee endorsed
the resolution without hesitation and assigned the Belgian delegate,
namely, La Fontaine, who remained secretary-general of the UIA, the task
of reporting on the committee’s view to the assembly.37
The report that La Fontaine presented was entitled Report on the
Organization of Intellectual Labour, and therein La Fontaine recalled the
advances that had been made in the field of intellectual cooperation in the
preceding decades and insisted on the need to ‘give more force and more
power to human thought.’38 Most importantly, La Fontaine stated in his
report that ‘there should be placed, at the crown’ of the LON’s technical
organisations in the fields of labour, hygiene, economics, communications
and transit, a technical organisation ‘devoted to the world’s intellect.’39

34
Actes de la Première Assemblée, Séance plenière, December 1920, quoted in Pham, La
coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 21. See also Northedge, International
Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 278.
35
Actes de la Première Assemblée, Séance plenière, December 1920, quoted in Pham, La
coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 21.
36
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 21n, 24. Following a gen-
eral discussion of the activities of the council, the LON Assembly at each session would dis-
tribute the questions that required examination among six committees. The First Committee
addressed constitutional and juridical questions; the Third Committee addressed disarma-
ment; the Fourth Committee addressed budgetary and administrative questions; the Fifth
Committee addressed social questions and the Sixth Committee addressed political ques-
tions. Questions concerning Intellectual Cooperation were addressed by the Fifth Committee
in 1921 and 1923, by the Second Committee in 1922 and from 1924 to 1927, by the Sixth
Committee in 1928, by the Second Committee from 1929 to 1930 and then by the Sixth
Committee from 1931 to the outbreak of the war.
37
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 19–21. See also André,
L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 39.
38
Greaves, League Committees and World Order, 115.
39
Kolasa, International Intellectual Co-operation, 20. See also Pham, La coopération intel-
lectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 21; Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation
Within the League of Nations, 279; and André, L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle,
38.
1 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL… 13

La Fontaine’s proposal met with lively resistance from George Nicoll


Barnes, a delegate of Great Britain, who advised against encouraging intel-
lectuals to come to the LON ‘demanding alms’ rather than seeking funds
for their activities in their own countries.40 Barnes complained that creat-
ing an intellectual equivalent of the ILO, aside from being unnecessary
given the ILO’s capabilities, would serve to reinforce the distinction
between intellectual and manual work, a distinction which in a democratic
age was otherwise ‘tending to disappear.’41 Despite these objections, the
assembly adopted the report, passing a unanimous resolution in which it
expressed its wholehearted approval of the ‘moral and material support’
that the council had accorded the UIA. It requested that the council
should continue to ‘participate in a large measure in the efforts tending to
realise the international organisation of intellectual work’ and that it
should present to the next assembly a report in the form specified in the
motion put forward by the Belgian, Italian and Romanian delegates on
December 13.42
The council addressed the assembly’s resolution of December 18 on
March 1, 1921, at its twelfth session. It examined two options in this con-
text: whether the UIA should be transformed into a technical organisation
of the LON or whether an entirely new organisation should be created. In
the report adopted by the council which had been prepared by the Spanish
delegate José María Quiñones de León, it was noted that before deciding
on either of these options, it was necessary to know whether the LON’s
members ‘were ready for an enterprise similar to the institution’ of the
ILO and, assuming a response in the affirmative, whether the LON ‘dis-
posed of sufficient financial means in order to support such an
organization.’43
Based on views expressed at the First Assembly concerning LON
expenses, the report concluded that ‘in the current situation of the world,

40
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 22. See also Northedge,
International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 279.
41
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 22 and Northedge,
International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 279. See also Hsu Fu
Teh, L’activité de la Société des Nations dans le domaine intellectuel (Paris: Marcel Rivière,
1929), 33.
42
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 19–22. See also Northedge,
International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 278–9 and Renoliet,
L’Unesco oubliée, 15.
43
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations 22–3.
14 J.-A. PEMBERTON

what can best favour intellectual co-operation is private effort … [and] …


that the League can, for the moment, render a greater service to this cause
in helping these initiatives, than in trying to organise intellectual work.’44
Such a conclusion would appear to have favoured the UIA option. It is
thus noteworthy that at the council session of March 1, Bourgeois recalled
Luchaire’s proposal for an office of education which would be charged
with promoting the idea of international cooperation and which had been
adopted by the Fourth International Conference of the League of Nations
Associations in October 1920.45 This proposal, which was inserted in the
report of Quiñones de León, was also adopted by the council, although
financial concerns and a disinclination to expand the role of the LON sug-
gested that it was unlikely that the plan for a new organisation would find
favour in the end.46
At its thirteenth session on June 27, the council charged the secretary-­
general with preparing a report on these various options for the benefit of
the Second Assembly. The resultant report comprised two detailed memo-
randa. The first of these memoranda elaborated on the activities of the
UIA, noting its desire to collaborate with the LON and to even find a
permanent place within that organisation.47 The second of the two memo-
randa ‘underlined the importance of international intellectual and educa-
tional collaboration, notably in what concerns the intellectual and moral
development of national collectivities, scientific activity, and even in order
to favour the development of the League of Nations.’48 In connection
with this second memorandum, it should be noted that in his report to the
council, the secretary-general insisted that the LON could not ‘pursue any
of its aims, either the general aims of co-operation as laid down in the
covenant, or even its more precise aims such as the campaign against the
use of dangerous drugs and against the traffic in women and children,
without, at every moment, encountering educational problems, and with-
out being obliged to ask for active help from those engaged in education

44
Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 15 and Ministres des Affaires étrangères. 1921, quoted in
Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 16.
45
Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 16.
46
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 22 and Renoliet, L’Unesco
oubliée, 16.
47
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 23. See also André,
L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 40–1 and Hsu, L’activité de la Société des
Nations dans le domaine intellectuel, 35.
48
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 23.
1 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL… 15

in all countries.’49 At the same time, however, the secretary-general also


determined that it would be ‘premature’ at this point to establish a new
technical organisation. In order to ensure against an unnecessary duplica-
tion of work being undertaken by existing organisations, he suggested
that a study of the terrain be conducted and that for this purpose a provi-
sional consultative committee be established under the auspices of
the council.50
Jean-Jacques Renoliet, the author of a comprehensive history of the
OIC, points out that Drummond’s caution in this matter was a result of
advice given to him by Jean Monnet, the under-secretary-general in charge
of internal administration. Monnet suggested to Drummond that for rea-
sons of cost and reasons of a non-fiscal nature, a proposal for a permanent
organisation would ‘encounter the opposition of the assembly and par-
ticularly of the British Dominions.’51 Renoliet notes that such caution was
deplored by Bourgeois, a feeling that was reflected in a report that
Bourgeois submitted to the council entitled The Organization of
Intellectual Labour.52 Therein, Bourgeois contended that it was in fact
international intellectual cooperation that had given birth to the LON,
stating that ‘if an international intellectual life had not been long existent,
our League would never have been formed.’53 Continuing in this vein,
Bourgeois declared that ‘[n]o association of nations can hope to exist
without the spirit of reciprocal intellectual activity among its members,’
and he called on the LON ‘to take steps to show how closely the political
idea which it represents is connected with all aspects of the intellectual life
which unites nations.’ Indeed, Bourgeois stated that the LON had ‘no
task more urgent than that of examining … [those] … great factors of
international opinion—the systems and methods of education, and scien-
tific and philosophical research.’54 Nonetheless, Bourgeois took care in his
report to ‘disarm the critics by deprecating ambitiousness’ and by restrict-
ing his recommendations to what was ‘immediately feasible’ in light of the

49
League of Nations [hereafter LON], Official Journal [hereafter OJ], no. 12. (1921),
1111. For the secretary-general’s statement in full, see Pham, La coopération intellectuelle
sous la Société des Nations, 27.
50
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 23. See also Northedge,
International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 280–1.
51
Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 18.
52
Ibid.
53
LON, OJ, no. 12. (1921), 1105.
54
Ibid. See also Bonnet, Intellectual Co-operation in World Organization, 6 and Kolasa,
International Intellectual Co-operation, 21.
16 J.-A. PEMBERTON

‘climate of feeling’ in the assembly at the time.55 Thus, irrespective of the


title of his report, Bourgeois acknowledged that the situation of intellec-
tual workers ‘fell more directly within the competence of the ILO.’56
The council adopted the reports of Drummond and Bourgeois at its
meeting of September 2, 1921, and charged the latter with presenting to
the Second Assembly a resolution he had drafted for adoption by that
body.57 The text of this resolution invited the council to appoint a com-
mittee comprised of not more than twelve members, which would serve as
a consultative organ of the council in regard to ‘the study of questions of
international intellectual cooperation and of education.’58 It recom-
mended that this committee would submit a report to the next assembly
‘on the measures that the League could take in view of facilitating intel-
lectual exchange among peoples, notably in what concerns the communi-
cation of scientific information and methods of education’ and that it
would undertake a study of the French plan for an international office of
education as mentioned in the council’s report of March 1.59
The resolution was sent to the assembly’s Fifth Committee, which
devoted itself to questions of a social nature, and was discussed by it
between September 8 and 10, the discussion being based on the two
memoranda prepared by Drummond and the report of Bourgeois. As a
result of this discussion, the text of the resolution was modified in two
ways. First, in order to forestall the misunderstanding that the LON was
attempting to involve itself in the domestic affairs of states in the field of
55
Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 284.
56
Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 284.
Hsu Fu Teh pointed out that a consultative commission charged with addressing ‘questions
concerning the social and economic conditions of intellectual workers’ was established within
the framework of the ILO in March 1927. Hsu, L’activité de la Société des Nations dans le
domaine intellectuel, 76.
57
André, L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 40–1 and Pham, La coopération
intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 23–4.
58
LON, OJ, no. 12. (1921), 1105. Northedge notes that the services of the members of
the Committee were to be ‘unpaid, apart from travelling expenses.’ Northedge, International
Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of Nations, 287. See also Malcolm W. Davis,
‘Experiences of the Committee for International Cooperation,’ Journal of Educational
Sociology 20 no. 1 (1946): 49–51. Siegfried Grundmann observes that the concept of ‘intel-
lectual co-operation’ was first mentioned in the Bourgeois report. Siegfried Grundmann, The
Einstein Dossiers: Science and Politics—Einstein’s Berlin Period, trans. Ann M. Hentschel
(Berlin: Springer, 2004), 176.
59
Pham, La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 24. The number was raised
to 14 in 1924, to 15 in 1926, to 17 in 1930 and to 19 in 1937.
1 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL… 17

education, the Fifth Committee eliminated the words et d’éducation from


the formula, ‘questions internationales de coopération intellectuelle et
d’éducation,’ a move which, however, did not prevent education becom-
ing one of the ‘most fruitful branches’ of the OIC activities.60 Second and
on the urging of Norway’s Kristine Bonnevie, it was decided that women
should be included in the committee, thereby ensuring that in principle its
composition would be in harmony with LON policy concerning equality
of opportunity for men and women.61 Thus modified, the proposal was
presented to the Second Assembly by Gilbert Murray, the Australian-born
Murray serving on the occasion of that assembly as a delegate of South
Africa and as the Fifth Committee’s rapporteur. On September 21, the
Second Assembly unanimously adopted the proposal, and thus, the legal
foundation for the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation
(ICIC) was established.62
The assembly’s decision was ratified by the council on January 14,
1922, with the council allocating to the ICIC a modest sum transferred
from the budget of the international bureaux section of the secretariat in
order to cover the travel and other related costs of the members of the
prospective committee.63 This allocation of funds was the result of a des-
perate compromise, the occasion for which was the registration by an
Australian delegate of a vote opposing any funds being allocated to the
ICIC on the pretext that intellectual cooperation was not mentioned in
the Treaty of Versailles.64 In regard to its work, while the council envis-

60
Ibid., 24–5 and Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation Within the League of
Nations, 18n, 285. Northedge records that Murray told him, Northedge, that Catholic
influences were more important than political objections in regard to Intellectual
Cooperation’s involvement in class-room activities. Bonnet simply notes that there were
objections on political grounds and on grounds of religious freedom. Bonnet, Intellectual
Co-operation in World Organization, 5.
61
On Kristine Bonnevie’s role, see Renoliet, L’Unesco oubliée, 19. On LON practice in
regard to female representation, see Northedge, International Intellectual Co-operation
Within the League of Nations, 286. Article 7 of the covenant declared the following: ‘All posi-
tions under or in connection with the League, including the Secretariat, shall be open equally
to men and women.’ André, L’Organisation de la Coopération Intellectuelle, 43n.
62
In his report of the Fifth Committee’s deliberations, Murray echoed Bourgeois in stat-
ing that the future of the LON depended on the ‘formation of a universal conscience.’ Pham,
La coopération intellectuelle sous la Société des Nations, 24–5, 27. See also Bonnet, Intellectual
Co-operation in World Organization, 6–7.
63
Grundmann, The Einstein Dossiers, 176–7.
64
Ibid., 177.
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That was all, no signature, nothing but the message and the threat.
Carmel bit her lip.
“Tubal,” she called.
“Yes, Lady.”
“Who has been in the office—inside the railing?”
“Hain’t been a soul in this mornin’,” he said—“not that I seen.”
Carmel crumpled the paper and threw it in the waste basket. Then
she picked up her pen and began to write—the story of the
disappearance of Sheriff Churchill. Without doubt she broke the
newspaper rule that editorial matter should not be contained in a
news story, but her anger and determination are offered as some
excuse for this. She ended the story with a paragraph which said:
“The editor has been warned that she will be sent to join Sheriff
Churchill if she meddles with his disappearance. The Free Press
desires to give notice now that it will meddle until the whole truth is
discovered and the criminals brought to justice. If murder has been
done, the murderers must be punished.”
CHAPTER IV
WHEN Carmel entered the office next morning she found Prof. Evan
Bartholomew Pell occupying her chair. On his face was an
expression of displeasure. He forgot to arise as she stepped through
the gate, but he did point a lead pencil at her accusingly.
“You have made me appear ridiculous,” he said, and compressed his
lips with pedagogical severity. “In my letter, which you published in
this paper, you misspelled the words ‘nefarious’ and ‘nepotist.’ What
excuse have you to offer?”
Carmel stared at the young man, nonplused for an instant, and then
a wave of pity spread over her. It was pity for a man who would not
admit the existence of a forest because he was able to see only the
individual trees. She wondered what life offered to Evan Pell; what
rewards it held out to him; what promises it made. He was vain, that
was clear; he was not so much selfish as egotistical, and that must
have been very painful. He was, she fancied, the sort of man to
whom correct spelling was of greater importance than correct
principle—not because of any tendency toward lack of principle, but
because pedantry formed a shell about him, inside which he lived
the life of a turtle. She smiled as she pictured him as a spectacled
turtle of the snapping variety, and it was a long time before that
mental caricature was erased from her mind. Of one thing she was
certain; it would not do to coddle him. Therefore she replied, coolly:
“Perhaps, if you would use ordinary words which ordinary people can
understand, you would run less risk of misspelling—and people
would know what you are trying to talk about.”
“I used the words which exactly expressed my meaning.”
“You are sitting in my chair,” said Carmel.
Evan Bartholomew flushed and bit his lips. “I—my mind was
occupied——” he said.
“With yourself,” said Carmel. “Have you come to work?”
“That was my intention.”
“Very well. Please clear off that table and find a chair.... You may
smoke!”
“I do not use tobacco.”
She shrugged her shoulders, and again he flushed as if he had been
detected in something mildly shameful. “I am wondering,” she said,
“how you can be of use.”
“I can at least see to it that simple words are correctly spelled in this
paper,” he said.
“So can Tubal, given time and a dictionary.... What have you done all
your life? What experience have you had?”
He cleared his throat. “I entered the university at the age of sixteen,”
he said, “by special dispensation.”
“An infant prodigy,” she interrupted. “I’ve often read about these boys
who enter college when they should be playing marbles, and I’ve
always wondered what became of them.”
“I have always been informed,” he said, severely, “that I was an
exceptionally brilliant child.... Since I entered college and until I came
here a year ago I have been endeavoring to educate myself
adequately. Before I was twenty I received both LL.B. and A.B.
Subsequently I took my master’s degree. I have also worked for my
D.C.L., my Ph.D....”
She interrupted again. “With what end in view?” she asked.
“End?...” He frowned at her through his spectacles. “You mean what
was my purpose?”
“Yes. Were you fitting yourself for any particular work?”
“No.”
“Merely piling up knowledge for the sake of piling up knowledge.”
“You speak,” he said, “as if you were reprehensible.”
She made no direct reply, but asked his age.
“Twenty-six,” he said.
“Nine years of which you have spent in doing nothing but study;
cramming yourself with learning.... What in the world were you going
to do with all of it?”
“That,” he said, “is a matter I have had little time to consider.”
“Did you make any friends in college?”
“I had no time——”
“Of course not. Sanscrit is more important than friends. I understand.
A friend might have dropped in of an evening and interrupted your
studies.”
“Exactly,” he said.
“Of course you did not go in for athletics.”
“Exercise,” he said, “scientifically taken, is essential to a clear mind. I
exercise regularly morning and evening. If you are asking whether I
allowed myself to be pummeled and trampled into the mud at
football, or if I played any other futile game, I did not.”
“So you know almost everything there is to be known about books,
but nothing about human beings.”
“I fancy I know a great deal about human beings.”
“Mr. Pell,” she said, becoming more determined to crush in the walls
of his ego, “I’ve a mind to tell you exactly what I think of you.”
For an instant his eyes twinkled; Carmel was almost sure of the
twinkle and it quite nonplused her. But Evan’s expression remained
grave, aloof, a trifle patronizing. “I understood I was coming here to
—work.”
“You are.”
“Then,” said he, “suppose we give over this discussion of myself and
commence working.”
How Carmel might have responded to this impact must remain a
matter for debate, because she had not quite rallied to the attack
when the arrival of a third person made continuance impossible.
There are people who just come; others who arrive. The first class
make no event of it whatever; there is a moment when they are not
present and an adjoining moment when they are—and that is all
there is to it. The newcomer was an arrival. His manner was that of
an arrival and resembled somewhat the docking of an ocean liner.
Carmel could imagine little tugs snorting and coughing and churning
about him as he warped into position before the railing. It seemed
neither right nor possible that he achieved the maneuver under his
own power alone. His face, as Carmel mentally decapitated him, and
scrutinized that portion of his anatomy separately from the whole,
gave no impression of any sort of power whatever. It was a huge
putty-mask of placid vanity. There was a great deal of head, bald and
brightly glistening; there was an enormous expanse of face in which
the eyes and nose seemed to have been crowded in upon
themselves by aggressive flesh; there were chins, which seemed not
so much physical part of the face as some strange festoons hung
under the chin proper as barbaric adornments. On the whole, Carmel
thought, it was the most face she had ever seen on one human
being.
She replaced his head and considered him as a whole. It is difficult
to conceive of the word dapper as applying to a mastodon, but here
it applied perfectly. His body began at his ears, the neck having long
since retired from view in discouragement. He ended in tiny feet
dressed in patent-leather ties. Between ears and toes was merely
expanse, immensity, a bubble of human flesh. One thought of a pan
of bread dough which had been the recipient of too much yeast....
The only dimension in which he was lacking was height, which was
just, for even prodigal nature cannot bestow everything.
He peered at Carmel, then at Evan Bartholomew Pell, with an
unwinking baby stare, and then spoke suddenly, yet carefully, as if
he were afraid his voice might somehow start an avalanche of his
flesh.
“I am Abner Fownes,” he said in a soft, effeminate voice.
“I am Carmel Lee,” she answered.
“Yes.... Yes.... I took that for granted—for granted. I have come to
see you—here I am. Mountain come to Mohammed—eh?...” He
paused to chuckle. “Very uppity young woman. Wouldn’t come when
I sent for you—so had to come to you. What’s he doing here?” he
asked, pointing a sudden, pudgy finger at Evan Pell.
“Mr. Pell is working for the paper.”
“Writing more letters?” He did not pause for an answer. “Mistake,
grave mistake—printing letters like that. Quiet, friendly town—
Gibeon. Everybody friends here.... Stir up trouble. It hurt me.”
Carmel saw no reason to reply.
“Came to advise you. Friendly advice.... I’m interested in this paper
—er—from the viewpoint of a citizen and—er—financially. Start right,
Miss Lee. Start right. Catch more flies with honey than with
vinegar.... You commenced with vinegar. Nobody likes it. Can’t make
a living with vinegar. To run a paper in Gibeon you must be
diplomatic—diplomatic. Can’t expect me to support financially a
paper which isn’t diplomatic, can you? Now can you?”
“What do you mean by being diplomatic?”
“Why—er taking advice—yes, taking advice.”
“From whom?”
His little eyes opened round as if in great astonishment.
“From me,” he said. “People in Gibeon—er—repose great
confidence in my judgment. Great confidence.”
“What sort of advice?”
“All sorts,” he said, “but principally about what you print about
different things.... Now, I should have advised you against printing
this young man’s letter.”
“Would you have advised me against printing anything about the
threatening note I found on my desk?”
“Ah—sense of humor, miss. Boyish prank.... Jokers in Gibeon.
Town’s full of ’em.... Best-natured folks in the world, but they love to
joke and to talk. Love to talk better than to joke. Um!... Mountains out
of molehills—that’s Gibeon’s specialty. Mean no harm, Lord love you,
not a particle—but they’ll tell you anything. Not lying—exactly. Just
talk.”
“Is Sheriff Churchill’s disappearance just talk?”
“Um!... Sheriff Churchill—to be sure. Disappeared. Um!... Gabble,
gabble, gabble.”
“Talk of murder is not gabble,” said Carmel.
“Ugly word.... Shouldn’t use it. Makes me shiver.” He shivered like a
gelatin dessert. “Forget such talk. My advice—straight from the
heart.... Stirs things up—things best forgot. Best let rest for the sake
of wife and children.... Paper can’t live here without my support.
Can’t be done. Can’t conscientiously support a paper that stirs up
things.”
“Is that a threat, Mr. Fownes.”
“Goodness, no! Gracious, no! Just want to help.... Kind heart, Miss
Lee. Always think of me as a kind heart. Love to do things for folks....
Love to do things for you.”
“Thank you, Mr. Fownes. You hold a chattel mortgage on this plant.”
“Don’t think of it. Not a breath of worry—cancel it if you say so—
cancel it this minute.”
“In consideration of what?”
“Why—you put it so sharplike, so direct. I wasn’t thinking of
consideration. Just being friendly and helpful.... Public-spirited gift to
Gibeon. Newspaper a wonderful benefit to a town—the right kind of
a newspaper.”
“That’s it, of course. The right kind of a newspaper.
“Naturally you wouldn’t make so munificent a gift to the wrong kind of
newspaper. Is this the right kind?”
“It always has been,” said Mr. Fownes.
“What made it the right kind?”
“Your uncle—the former proprietor—relied on my advice. Consulted
with me daily.... During many years his paper made few mistakes.”
“So, if I consult with you—daily—and act upon your advice, I’m sure
to have the right kind of a paper, too?... And in that case you would
cancel the chattel mortgage?”
“To be sure—exactly.”
“But if, on the contrary, I should decide to run this paper myself, as I
see fit, without taking advice from anybody, and printing what I think
should be printed?”
Mr. Fownes pondered this briefly. “Then,” he said, “I should have to
wait—and determine how sound your judgment is.... I fear your
sympathies—natural sympathies for a young woman—sway you....
Er ... as in the instance of this young man. His letter was not kindly,
not considerate. It hurt people’s feelings. Then, it appears, you have
hired him.... I hope that step may be reconsidered.... Gibeon—found
this young man unsatisfactory.”
“Would that have anything to do with—the chattel mortgage?”
“It might—it might.”
“My uncle always followed your advice?”
“Ah ... implicitly.”
“He did not grow rich,” said Carmel.
“He lived,” said Mr. Fownes, and blinked his little eyes as he turned
his placid gaze full upon her.
“I think you have made yourself clear, Mr. Fownes. I shall think over
what you have said—and you will know my decision.”
“Consider well—er—from all angles.... Mountain came to
Mohammed....”
He commenced to warp himself away from the railing, and slowly,
ponderously, testing the security of each foot before he trusted his
weight to it, he moved toward the door. There he paused, turned his
bulk, the whole of him, for it was quite impossible for him to turn his
head without his shoulders going along with it, and smiled the most
placid smile Carmel ever saw. “Er—I am a widower,” he said....
Carmel remained standing, her eyes following him as he turned up
the street. “What’s underneath it all?” she said, aloud. “What’s it all
about?”
Evan Pell turned in his chair and said, sharply, “Textbooks have this
merit at least—they can instruct in the simplest rules of logic.”
“The fatuous idiot,” said Carmel.
“It must be a great satisfaction,” said Evan, dryly, “to understand
human beings so thoroughly.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was admiring,” said Evan, “the unerring certainty with which you
arrived at Mr. Fownes’s true character.”
She peered at him, searching for a trace of irony, but his face was
innocent, bland.
“Why does a wealthy man like Mr. Fownes—a powerful man—give a
thought to so insignificant a thing as this paper?”
“An interesting speculation—provided your premises are true.”
“What premises?”
“Your major premise, so to speak—wealth.”
“Why, is he not rich?”
“All the indications bear you out.”
“He owns mills, and miles of timberland.”
“Um!... Am I to remain in your employ—or shall you accept the—
advice—of Mr. Fownes?”
“This is my paper. So long as it is mine I’m going to try to run it. And
if that man thinks he can threaten me with his old chattel mortgage,
he’s going to wake up one bright morning to find his mistake. Maybe
he can take this paper away from me, but until he does it’s mine....
You are working for me, Mr. Pell.”
“Very gratifying.... In which case, if you mean what you say, and if I,
with so many years wasted upon books, as you say, may offer a
word of advice, this would be it: Find out who owns the Lakeside
Hotel.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Protracted study of the various sciences
may be folly, but it does train the mind to correct observation and in
the ability to arrange and classify the data observed. It teaches how
to move from cause to effect. It teaches that things which equal the
same thing are equal to each other.”
“What is the Lakeside Hotel?”
“A resort of sordid reputation some three miles from town.”
“And who owns it?”
“Jonathan Bangs, colloquially known as Peewee, is the reputed
owner.”
“And what has that to do with Abner Fownes?”
“That,” he said, “is a matter which has aroused my curiosity for some
time.”
CHAPTER V
CARMEL was not long in discovering Gibeon’s attitude toward
advertising. The local merchants regarded it much as they did taxes,
the dull season, so called (for in Gibeon’s business world there were
only two seasons, the dull and the busy) and inventory sales. All
were inevitable, in the course of nature, and things which always had
and always would happen. One advertised, not with enthusiasm and
in expectancy of results, but because men in business did advertise.
Smith Brothers’ grocery bore reluctantly the expense of a four-inch
double-column display which was as unchanging as the laws of the
Medes and Persians. It stated, year in and year out, that Smith
Brothers were the headquarters for staple and fancy groceries. The
advertisement was as much a part of their business as the counter.
The Busy Big Store was more energetic; its copy was changed every
year on the 1st of January. Seven years before, Miss Gammidge let
it be known through the columns of the Free Press that she was
willing to sell to the public millinery and fancy goods, and that
statement appeared every week thereafter without change of
punctuation mark. The idea that one attracted business by means of
advertising was one which had not penetrated Gibeon, advertising
was a business rite, just as singing the Doxology was an
indispensable item in the service of the local Presbyterian church. It
was done, as cheaply and inconspicuously as possible, and there
was an end of it.
As for subscribers, they were hereditary. Just as red hair ran in
certain families, subscribing to the paper ran in others. It is doubtful if
anybody took in the paper because he wanted it; but it was tradition
for some to have the Free Press, and therefore they subscribed. It
was useful for shelf covering. Red hair is the exception rather than
the rule; so were subscribing families.
Carmel pondered deeply over these facts. If, she said to herself, all
the merchants advertised as they should advertise, and if all the
inhabitants who should subscribe did subscribe, then the Free Press
could be made a satisfactorily profitable enterprise. How might these
desirable results be obtained? She was certain subscribers might be
gotten by making the paper so interesting that nobody could endure
to wait and borrow his neighbor’s copy; but how to induce merchants
to advertise she had not the remotest idea.
There was the bazaar, for instance, which did not advertise at all; the
bank did not advertise; the two photographers did not advertise; the
bakery did not advertise. She discussed the matter with Tubal and
Simmy, who were not of the least assistance, though very eager.
She did not discuss it with Prof. Evan Bartholomew Pell because that
member of the staff was engaged in writing a snappy, heart-gripping
article on the subject of “Myths and Fables Common to Peoples of
Aryan Derivation.” It was his idea of up-to-date journalism, and
because Carmel could think of nothing else to set him to work at, she
permitted him to continue.
“Advertising pays,” she said to Tubal. “How can I prove it to these
people?”
“Gawd knows, Lady. Jest go tell ’em. Mebby they’ll believe you.”
“They won’t b’lieve nothin’ that costs,” said Simmy, with finality.
“I’m going out to solicit advertising,” she said, “and I’m not coming
back until I get something.”
“Um!... G’-by, Lady. Hope we see you ag’in.”
In front of the office Carmel hesitated, then turned to the left. The
first place of business in that direction was identified by a small
black-and-gold sign protruding over the sidewalk, making it known
that here one might obtain the handiwork of Lancelot Bangs,
Photographer. In glass cases about the doors were numerous
specimens of Lancelot’s art, mostly of cabinet size, mounted on gilt-
edged cards. Mr. Bangs, it would appear, had few ideas as to the
posturing of his patrons. Gentlemen, photographed alone, were
invariably seated in a huge chair, the left hand gripping the arm,
inexorably, the right elbow leaning upon the other arm, and the head
turned slightly to one side as if the sitter were thinking deep thoughts
of a solemn nature. Ladies stood, one foot advanced, hands clasped
upon the stomach in order that the wedding ring might show plainly;
with chins dipped a trifle downward and eyes lifted coyly, which, in
dowagers of sixty, with embonpoints and steel-rimmed spectacles,
gave a highly desirable effect.
Carmel studied these works of art briefly and then climbed the
uncarpeted stairs. Each step bore upon its tread a printed cardboard
sign informative of some business or profession carried on in the
rooms above, such as Jenkins & Hopper, Fire Insurance; Warren P.
Bauer, D.D.S., and the like. The first door at the top, curtained within,
was labeled Photographic Studio, and this Carmel entered with
some trepidation, for it was her first business call. As the door swung
inward a bell sounded in the distance. Carmel stood waiting.
Almost instantly a youngish man appeared from behind a screen
depicting a grayish-blue forest practically lost to view in a dense fog.
At sight of Carmel he halted abruptly and altered his bearing and
expression to one of elegant hospitality. He settled his vest
cautiously, and passed his hand over his sleek hair daintily to
reassure himself of its perfect sleekness. Then he bowed.
“A-aa-ah.... Good morning!” he said, tentatively.
“Mr. Bangs?”
“The same.”
“I am Miss Lee, proprietor of the Free Press.”
“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Lee, though, of course, I
knew who you were right off. I guess everybody in town does,” he
added. “We don’t have many move here that would photograph as
well as you would—bust or full length.... What kin I do for you?”
“I came to talk to you about advertising in the Free Press.”
“Advertising!” Manifestly he was taken aback. “Why, I haven’t ever
advertised. Haven’t anythin’ to advertise. I just take pictures.”
“Couldn’t you advertise that?”
“Why—everybody knows I take pictures. Be kind of funny to tell folks
what everybody knows.” He laughed at the humor of it in a very
genteel way.
“You would like to take more pictures than you do, wouldn’t you? To
attract more business.”
“Can’t be done.”
“Why?”
“Wa-al, folks don’t get their pictures taken like they buy flour. Uh-
uh!... They got to have a reason to have ’em taken—like a weddin’,
or an engagement, or gettin’ to be sixty year old, or suthin’ sim’lar.
No. Folks in Gibeon don’t just go off and get photographed on the
spur of the moment, like you might say. They hain’t got any reason
to.”
“There are lots of people here who have never been photographed,
aren’t there?”
“Snags of ’em.”
“Then why not induce them to do it at once?”
“Can’t be done, no more’n you can induce a man to have a weddin’
anniversary when he hain’t got one.”
“I believe it could. I think we could put the idea into their heads and
then offer them inducements to do it right off.”
He shook his head stubbornly and glanced down at the crease in his
trousers. Carmel’s eyes twinkled as she regarded him, for he was
quite the dressiest person she had seen in Gibeon. He was
painstakingly dressed, laboriously dressed. He was so much
dressed that you became aware of his clothes before you became
aware of him.
“Mr. Bangs,” she said, “you look to me like a man who is up to the
minute—like a man who would never let a chance slip past him.”
“Folks do give me credit for keepin’ my eyes open.”
“Then I believe I can make you a proposition you can’t refuse. I just
want to prove to you what advertising can do for your business. Now,
if you will let me write an ad for you, and print it, I can show you, and
I know it. How much are your best cabinet photographs?”
“Twelve dollars a dozen.”
“Would there be a profit at ten dollars?”
“Some—some.”
“Then let me advertise that for a week you will sell your twelve-dollar
pictures for ten. The advertisement will cost five dollars. If my
advertisement brings you enough business so your profit will be
double that amount, you are to pay for the ad. If it is less, you
needn’t pay.... But if it does bring in so many customers, you must
agree to run your ad every week for three months.... Now, I—I dare
you to take a chance.”
Now there was one thing upon which Lancelot Bangs prided himself,
and that was his willingness to take a chance. He had been known to
play cards for money, and the horse races of the vicinity might
always count upon him as a patron. Beside that, he had a natural
wish to impress favorably this very pretty girl whose manner and
clothes and bearing coincided with his ideal of a “lady.”
“I’ll jest go you once,” he said.
“Thank you,” she said, and was turning toward the door when
Lancelot arrested her.
“Er—I wonder if I could get your opinion?” he said. “You come from
where folks know what’s what.... This suit, now.” He turned
completely around so she might view it from all sides. “How does it
stand up alongside the best dressers where you come from?”
“It—it is very impressive, Mr. Bangs.”
“Kind of figgered it would be. Had it made to order. Got a reputation
to keep up, even though there’s them that tries to undermine it. Folks
calls me the best-dressed man in Gibeon, and I feel it’s my duty to
live up to it.... Well, I ain’t vain. Jest kind of public duty. Now George,
he’s set out to be the best-dressed man, and so’s Luke. That’s why I
got this suit and this shirt and tie. I aim to show ’em.”
“I should say you were doing it,” said Carmel. “And who are Luke
and George?”
“George Bogardus is the undertaker, and Luke Smiley clerks in the
bank.”
“I haven’t seen them,” said Carmel, “but I’m certain you haven’t the
least cause for worry.”
“Would you call this suit genteel?”
“That’s the word. It is exactly the word. It—it’s the most genteel suit I
ever saw.”
She was about to leave when a rapping on the back door of the
studio attracted Mr. Bangs’s attention, and attracted it so peculiarly
that Carmel could not but remark it with something more than
curiosity. If one can have suspicion of an individual one does not
know, with whose life and its ramifications she is utterly unaware,
Carmel was suspicious of Mr. Bangs. It was not an active suspicion
—it was a vague suspicion. It resembled those vague odors which
sometimes are abroad in the air, odors too faint to be identified, so
adumbrant one cannot be sure there is an odor at all.... Mr. Bangs,
who had been the picture of self-satisfaction, became furtive. For the
first time one ceased to be aware of his clothes and focused upon
his eyes....
“Er—pardon me a moment,” he said, in a changed voice, and made
overrapid progress to answer the knock. It was inevitable that
Carmel’s ears should become alert.
She heard a door opened and the entrance of a man who spoke in
an attempted whisper, but not a successful whisper. It was as if a
Holstein bull had essayed to whisper.
“Sh-sssh!” warned Mr. Bangs.
“It’s here,” said the whisper. “Back your jitney into the first tote road
this side of the hotel, and then mosey off and take a nap.
Everything’ll be fixed when you git back.”
“Sh-sssh!” Mr. Bangs warned a second time.
Carmel heard the door open and close again, and Mr. Bangs
returned.
“Express Parcel,” he said, with that guilty air which always
accompanies the unskillful lie.
The zest for selling advertising space had left Carmel; she wanted to
think, to be alone and to consider various matters. She felt a vague
apprehension, not as to herself, but of something malign, molelike,
stealthy, which dwelt in the atmosphere surrounding Gibeon.
Perfunctorily she took her leave, and, instead of pursuing her quest,
returned to her desk and sat there staring at the picture above her
head.
Gibeon! She was thinking about Gibeon. The town had ceased to be
a more or less thriving rural community, peopled by simple souls who
went about their simple, humdrum round of life pleasantly, if stodgily.
Rather the town and its people became a protective covering, a sort
of camouflage to conceal the real thing which enacted itself invisibly.
She wondered if Gibeon itself realized. It seemed not to. It laughed
and worked and went to church and quarreled about line fences and
dogs and gossiped about its neighbors as any other town did....
Perhaps, unaccustomed to the life, excited by new environment, she
had given too great freedom to her imagination.... She did not
believe so. No. Something was going on; some powerful evil
influence was at work, ruthless, malevolent. Its face was hidden and
it left no footprints. It was capable of murder!... What was this thing?
What was its purpose? What activity could include the doing away
with a sheriff and the services of a rural fop like Lancelot Bangs?...
Carmel was young. She was dainty, lovely. Always she had been
shielded and protected and petted—which, fortunately, had not
impaired the fiber of her character.... Now, for the first time, she
found herself staring into the white, night eyes of one of life’s grim
realities; knew herself to be touched by it—and the knowledge
frightened her....
Evan Bartholomew Pell stayed her unpleasant thoughts, and she
was grateful to him.
“Miss Lee—I have—ah—been engaged upon a computation of some
interest—academically. It is, of course, based upon an arbitrary
hypothesis—nevertheless it is instructive.”
“Yes,” said Carmel, wearily.
“We take for our hypothesis,” said Evan, “the existence of a number
of men willing to evade or break the law for profit. Having assumed
the existence of such an association, we arrive upon more certain
ground.... Our known facts are these. Intoxicating liquor is prohibited
in the United States. Second, intoxicants may be bought freely over
the Canadian line. Third, the national boundary is some twenty miles
distant. Fourth, whisky, gin, et cetera, command exceedingly high
prices in the United States. I am informed liquor of excellent quality
commands as much as a hundred dollars per dozen bottles, and less
desirable stock up to fifty and seventy-five dollars. Fifth, these same
liquors may be bought for a fraction of that cost across the line. Now,
we arrive at one of our conclusions. The hypothetical association of
lawless men, provided they could smuggle liquor into this country,
would realize a remarkable percentage of profit. Deducting various
costs, I estimate the average profit per dozen bottles would
approximate thirty-five dollars. I fancy this is low rather than
excessive. One thousand cases would fetch a profit of thirty-five
thousand dollars.... Let us suppose an efficient company engaged in
the traffic. They would smuggle into the country a thousand cases a
month.... In that case their earnings would total three hundred and
fifty thousand dollars.... Ahem!... Interesting, is it not?”
“Yes,” said Carmel, “but what set you thinking about it?”
Evan peered at her gravely through his spectacles, as he might peer
at some minute zoological specimen through a microscope, and was
long in replying.
“I—er—was merely wondering,” he said, “if a life of lawlessness
could not offer greater rewards than—ah—respectable journalism.”
“Are you proposing that I become a—rum runner?”
“Not exactly,” said Evan Bartholomew, “not precisely. I was, so to
speak, offering you an opportunity to exercise your reason.... If
exercise is salubrious for the body, why not for the mind?” He
cleared his throat and turned his back upon her abruptly.
“The various sciences you have studied,” she said, sharply, “did not
include good manners.”
“As I understand it,” said Evan, “our relations are not social, but
purely of a business nature. If I am in error, I beg you to correct me.”
Carmel smiled. What a strange, self-centered, egotistical little
creature he was! So this was what became of infant prodigies....
They dried up into dusty intellect, lived for intellect alone; became a
species of hermit living in social poverty in the cave of their own
skulls!
“I cannot,” she said, “fancy you in any relation which remotely
approximated social.”
“H’m!” said Professor Pell.
CHAPTER VI
IT was on the morning following the issuance of the second
publication of the Free Press under Carmel’s editorship that she
became uneasily aware of a marked scrutiny of herself by Evan
Bartholomew Pell. There was nothing covert about his study of her; it
was open and patent and unabashed. He stared at her. He watched
her every movement, and his puckered eyes, wearing their most
studious expression, followed her every movement. It was the first
sign of direct interest he had manifested in her as a human being—
as distinct from an employer—and she wondered at it even while it
discomfited her. Even a young woman confident in no mean
possession of comeliness may be discomfited by a persistent stare.
It was not an admiring stare; rather it was a researchful stare, a sort
of anatomical stare. Being a direct young person, Carmel was about
to ask him what he meant by it, when he spared her the trouble.
“Er—as I was approaching the office this morning,” he said, in an
especially dry and scholarly voice, “I chanced to overhear a young
man make the following remark, namely: ‘Mary Jenkins is a pretty
girl.’... Now it is possible I have encountered that expression on
numerous occasions, but this is the first time I have become
conscious of it, and curious concerning it.”
“Curious?”
“Precisely.... As to its significance and—er—its causes. I have been
giving consideration to it. It is not without interest.”
“Pretty girls,” said Carmel, somewhat flippantly, “are always
supposed to be of interest to men.”
“Um!... I have not found them so. That is not the point. What arrested
my thought was this: What constitutes prettiness? Why is one girl
pretty and another not pretty? You follow me?”
“I think so.”

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