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(Download PDF) Perspectives On International Relations Power Institutions and Ideas 5th Edition Nau Test Bank Full Chapter
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Chapter 07: Identity Perspectives on Today’s World: Democracy, Religion, Ethnicity,
and Human Rights
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which level of analysis describes the identity argument that since the Cold War, the ideas of democracy
have won out over the ideas of communism?
a. The individual level of analysis
b. The domestic level of analysis
c. The systemic structural level of analysis
d. The systemic process level of analysis
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 305
OBJ: 7-3 COG: Analysis
2. What type of actor might the identity perspective focus on as primary in international struggles for
power?
a. States
b. Institutions
c. Ethnic groups
d. Civilizations
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 305
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
4. Which level of analysis describes the identity argument that multiculturalism and civic identities that
embrace tolerance and diversity are contributing to the emergence of a global civilization?
a. The individual level of analysis
b. The domestic level of analysis
c. The systemic structural level of analysis
d. The systemic process level of analysis
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 305
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Analysis
5. The idea of democracy revolves around all of the following features EXCEPT this one:
a. Opposing political parties rotate peacefully in power through free and fair elections.
b. All institutions in the government are subject to the control of elected officials.
c. The military is not subject to civilian control.
d. Individuals have fundamental protections of their civil rights.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: pp. 306–307
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Analysis
6. What does the “end of history” refer to?
a. Conflict will no longer occur.
b. Religion and ethnicity are no longer important in international relations.
c. The spread of democracy brought an end to the violent struggle among nations for
equal recognition.
d. The state is no longer the primary actor in international relations.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 307
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
7. Francis Fukuyama drew heavily from which political theorist’s nonmaterial account of history?
a. Immanuel Kant
b. Georg W. F. Hegel
c. Karl Marx
d. Friedrich Nietzsche
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 307
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Knowledge
8. According to Francis Fukuyama, democracy ended the struggle for recognition because . . .
a. It emphasized religion as the ultimate source of identity
b. It was based on universal and equal recognition of all humans and states
c. It was based on a few strong states
d. It highlighted personal freedoms as the ultimate driver of history
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 308
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
9. Which of the following statements would a scholar of the identity perspective most likely agree with?
a. Institutions shape ideas.
b. Power shapes ideas.
c. Ideas shape institutions.
d. Wealth shapes ideas.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 306
OBJ: 7-3 COG: Analysis
10. What was the mission of U.S. President George W. Bush’s Greater Middle East Democracy Initiative?
a. To force political regimes in the Arab and Muslim worlds to adopt democracy
b. To encourage the expansion of democracy and political rights and participation in the Arab
and Muslim worlds
c. To enforce a democratic realism in the Arab and Muslim worlds
d. To set up democratic institutions in Afghanistan and Iraq following the wars
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 311
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
11. In contrast to U.S. President George W. Bush, what idea did U.S. President Barack Obama emphasize as
key to developing mutual understanding among states?
a. American exceptionalism
b. Political rights
c. Democracy
d. Human rights
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 312
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Knowledge
12. Which perspective would most likely emphasize authoritarian statecraft, or the patterns and institutions
by which authoritarian regimes manage their politics, as the principal obstacle to democracy?
a. The realist perspective
b. The liberal perspective
c. The identity perspective
d. The critical theory perspective
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 314
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Analysis
13. Which level of analysis describes the identity argument that democracy in the Arab world has been
influenced by the interactions among moderates and radicals in countries affected by the Arab Spring?
a. The individual level of analysis
b. The domestic level of analysis
c. The systemic structural level of analysis
d. The systemic process level of analysis
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 319
OBJ: 7-3 COG: Analysis
14. Which of the following explanations contends that past and future global conflicts take place
along the fault lines between nine major world civilizations?
a. The End of History
b. The Coming Anarchy
c. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
d. The Clash of Civilizations
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 319
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
15. Samuel Huntington warned against the possibility of cooperation between which two civilizations
against the United States?
a. African and Islamic
b. Orthodox and Confucian (or Sinic)
c. Orthodox and Islamic
d. Confucian (or Sinic) and Islamic
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 320
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
16. Which perspective best describes Samuel Huntington’s argument about the clash of civilizations, which
suggests that despite the makeup of states and identities, anarchy will persist and drive power
competition?
a. The realist perspective
b. The liberal perspective
c. The identity perspective
d. The critical theory perspective
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 320
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Analysis
17. Which of the following would Fareed Zakaria classify as an illiberal democracy?
a. A state that holds elections but has neither an active civil society nor independent courts to
ensure real competitive political processes
b. A state that has democratic institutions, but they are based on traditional, native, or
non-Western sources
c. A state that has democratic institutions but is not allies with the United States or Western
European states
d. A state that has democratic institutions but is located in the developing world
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 322
OBJ: 7-2 COG: Comprehension
18. Which of the following is NOT one of the five pillars of Islam?
a. Prayer
b. Jihad
c. Pilgrimage
d. Alms
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 323
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Knowledge
19. Which perspective would most likely emphasize Western imperialism as the reason why the Islamic
world faded in the fifteenth century and Christian Europe rose?
a. The realist perspective
b. The liberal perspective
c. The identity perspective
d. The critical theory perspective
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 323
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Analysis
20. Which of the following represents a rigid and puritanical form of Islam originating in the eighteenth
century?
a. Salafism
b. Wahhabism
c. Sufism
d. Quranism
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 324
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
21. Which of the following, an Egyptian writer and former government official who studied in the United
States, is considered the “prophet of contemporary Islamic fundamentalism”?
a. Osama bin Laden
b. Sayyid Qutb
c. Ayman al-Zawahiri
d. Omar Rahman
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 324
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Knowledge
22. The militant group Moro National Liberation Front operates in which country?
a. Nigeria
b. Somalia
c. Saudi Arabia
d. The Philippines
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 325
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Knowledge
23. Which level of analysis describes the identity argument that the Muslim Brotherhood exerts
influence on international outcomes by expanding Islam abroad and ending military rule at
home?
a. The individual level of analysis
b. The domestic level of analysis
c. The foreign policy level of analysis
d. The systemic level of analysis
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 328
OBJ: 7-2 COG: Analysis
25. Which of the following norms is centered on a state’s freedom from interference in internal affairs by
other states?
a. Collective security
b. Territorial integrity
c. The responsibility to protect
d. Sovereignty
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 333
OBJ: 7-3 COG: Comprehension
26. The transition from norms of state sovereignty to norms of human rights reflects which of the following
trends?
a. A shift from the rights of states to the rights of individuals
b. A shift from the rights of individuals to the rights of states
c. A shift from the rights of states to the rights of multinational corporations
d. A shift from the rights of states to the rights of nongovernmental organizations
ANS: A PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 333
OBJ: 7-2 COG: Comprehension
27. Which of the following documents, approved by the UN in 1948, prescribes the obligations of states to
individuals, rather than of individuals to states?
a. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
b. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
c. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
d. The Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man
ANS: B PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 334
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
28. Which institution was the traditional center of UN diplomacy on human rights until it was replaced by
the UN Human Rights Council?
a. The UN Economic and Social Council
b. The UN Universal Human Rights Council
c. The UN Convention on Human Rights
d. The UN Human Rights Commission
ANS: D PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 335
OBJ: 7-2 COG: Comprehension
29. Which organization was founded in 1949 to promote human rights in Europe?
a. The European Court of Human Rights
b. The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
c. The Council of Europe
d. The European Union
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 339
OBJ: 7-3 COG: Comprehension
30. Which of the following is an innovation of the European Court of Human Rights?
a. It specifically protects women and children.
b. It only allows governments to petition the court.
c. It allows private parties as well as governments to petition the court.
d. It does not hear cases from its member states or their citizens.
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 339
OBJ: 7-3 COG: Comprehension
32. Which level of analysis describes the identity argument that Russia resists international human rights
interventions for fear of implications for domestic separatist movements?
a. The individual level of analysis
b. The domestic level of analysis
c. The foreign policy level of analysis
d. The systemic level of analysis
ANS: C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 343
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Analysis
MULTIPLE RESPONSE
33. The Community of Democracies is an institution that aims to strengthen civil societies and encourage
cooperation among democratic countries in the UN and other organizations at which two levels of
analysis?
a. The individual level of analysis
b. The domestic level of analysis
c. The systemic structural level of analysis
d. The systemic process level of analysis
ANS: B, D PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 310
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Analysis
34. According to the identity perspective, what are the primary sources of terrorism? (Choose all that apply.)
a. Poverty and disease
b. Unemployment
c. Oppressive regimes
d. Denial of political opportunity
ANS: C, D PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 311
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
35. As of 2015, which of the following Muslim-majority countries are the only two countries currently
living under “free” regimes?
a. Tunisia
b. Mali
c. Egypt
d. Senegal
ANS: A, D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 314
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Knowledge
36. Which of the following are true of Sunni Muslims? (Choose all that apply.)
a. They identify with a renegade group from the seventh century that advocated divine
succession.
b. They represent the majority of Muslims.
c. They identify with the caliphs, or the elected successors of Muhammad.
d. They represent a minority sect of Muslims.
ANS: B, C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 323
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
37. Where is the historical center of Sunni Islam, located in the territories once ruled by the Ummayad and
Abbasid dynasties? (Choose all that apply.)
a. Iran
b. Iraq
c. Syria
d. Turkey
ANS: B, C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 323
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Knowledge
38. The concept of nationhood relies on which of the following? (Choose all that apply.)
a. The ability of the state to consolidate ethnic and religious identities
b. The ability of the state to protect its borders
c. The ability of the state to command the loyalty of its citizens
d. The ability of the state to force groups to coexist
ANS: B, C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 329
OBJ: 7-3 COG: Comprehension
39. Which of the following rights are included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? (Choose all
that apply.)
a. Political participation and civic freedom
b. Entitlements to adequate food, clothing, shelter, and health care
c. Freedom from fear of bodily harm
d. Freedom of women and children
ANS: A, B, C PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 334
OBJ: 7-1 COG: Comprehension
40. Which of the following states abstained from voting on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
(Choose all that apply.)
a. The Soviet Union
b. South Africa
c. Saudi Arabia
d. The United States
ANS: A, B, C PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 334
OBJ: 7-2 COG: Knowledge
41. The Council of Europe has passed other human rights conventions, including which of the
following? (Choose all that apply.)
a. The European Social Charter
b. The European Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man
c. The European Convention on the Rights of Women
d. The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment
ANS: A, D PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: pp. 340–341
OBJ: 7-3 COG: Comprehension
42. Which of the following organizations created human rights regimes in the Islamic world? (Choose all
that apply.)
a. The Arab League
b. The Arab Union
c. The Muslim Brotherhood
d. The Organization of the Islamic Conference
ANS: A, D PTS: 1 DIF: Easy REF: p. 344
OBJ: 7-3 COG: Knowledge
TRUE/FALSE
43. Some identity perspectives emphasize common human rights, rather than democratization, as a
means of promoting peace.
44. One of the risks of promoting democracy is that it may create the opportunity for radicals to win
elections and then consolidate power, such as in Egypt and Pakistan.
45. Since 2005, authoritarianism has declined while democracy has increased, especially in Russia and
China.
ANS: F PTS: 1 DIF: Medium REF: p. 316
OBJ: 7-2 COG: Comprehension
46. Most Muslims are Shiite, identifying with a seventh-century group that advocated divine, rather than
elective, succession.
47. The Muslim Brotherhood advocates a return to the Koran and sharia as the basis of a proper Muslim
society.
48. According to the identity perspective, when identities diverge and conflict, anarchy tends to
create a struggle for resources and survival.
49. Civic identity refers to the identity constructed when people are willing to submit to the laws of
a common government.
50. Legitimate authority to make and enforce the law is a key determinant of civic identities.
51. Afghanistan and Pakistan are sometimes referred to as AfPak in recognition of the
commonalities in their struggle with al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
53. The concept of sovereignty historically guaranteed the rights of states, not the rights of
individuals or universal human rights.
54. States agree on which social, economic, and political rights of individuals are basic or
fundamental.
55. The American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, dating from 1948, is the world’s first
human rights instrument of a general nature.
COMPLETION
56. For over four hundred years, the norm of ________ has identified states as the primary actors in
international relations.
ANS: sovereignty
57. Francis Fukuyama argued that ________, unlike communism and fascism, supplied a sense of equal
recognition among individuals and groups that ended the historical quest for domination.
ANS: democracy
58. A basic feature of democracy is that opposing political parties rotate peacefully into and out of power
through ________ elections.
59. Samuel Huntington listed nine major world ________ (including Western, Orthodox, Confucian or
Sinic, and Islamic) that were the most basic divisions of human culture.
ANS: civilizations
60. The Arab Spring highlighted the new role of ________ in domestic and international politics.
61. ________ Muslims represent the majority branch of Islam, while ________ Muslims represent a
minority sect.
62. ________ is a term that refers to war waged for holy or religious reasons.
ANS: Jihad
63. Ayaan Hirsi Ali draws a distinction between ________ Muslims, who are fanatics about
religion, and ________ Muslims, who wrestle with maintaining their religious commitments in
a modernizing society that challenges their traditions.
64. ________ describes a status acquired by states strong enough to protect their borders and command the
loyalty of their citizens.
ANS: Nationhood
65. A ________ is constructed when people are willing to submit to the laws of a common government
rather than those of separate ethnic or religious groups.
66. In 1968, Iraq fell under the rule of the ________, an Arab Sunni group that advocated secular
nationalism.
67. The process through which ethnic groups evolve toward nationhood is better known as ________.
69. The ________ is a 1979 UN convention that broadly prohibits all discrimination against
women.
70. The ________ was adopted by the Council of Europe in 1950 to protect citizens’ rights to due
process and political participation.
71. The ________ is an international human rights instrument adopted by the nations of the Americas in
1969.
72. The ________ is the first human rights commission to be established in Asia in 2009.
SHORT ANSWER
ANS:
Varies. There are three basic features of democracy: (1) opposing political parties rotate peacefully into
and out of power through free and fair elections; (2) all institutions in the government, including the
military, are subject to the control of elected officials; and (3) individuals have fundamental protections
of their civil rights.
ANS:
Varies. The clash of civilizations is a thesis advanced by Samuel Huntington that past and future global
conflicts can be traced along the fault lines among nine major world civilizations. Though Huntington
suggests that civilizations were more hardwired in people than the ideological differences that
characterized the Cold War or the cultural and nation-state differences that had divided Europe earlier,
ostensibly an identity argument, the clash of civilizations remains a realist argument because it focuses
on anarchy and the struggle for power as the foundational driver of international outcomes, while
identities and states may change throughout time.
75. According to Fareed Zakaria, what are illiberal democracies, and how does he advise the United States
to go forth in promoting democracy globally?
ANS:
Varies. According to Fareed Zakaria, illiberal democracies are those states that support elections but do
not have civil societies that protect individual rights and nurture basic institutions of a free press and
independent courts to ensure real competitive political processes, as in the Middle East and the third
world. Hence, democracy in these countries is unstable and easily reversed. Zakaria cautions the United
States to go more slowly in promoting democracy; instead of focusing on democratization in new
countries, the United States should work to consolidate democracy in these countries where democracy
has taken hold and support the gradual development of constitutional liberalism globally.
76. What are the key differences between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims?
ANS:
Varies. Sunni Muslims are members of the majority branch of Islam that identifies with the caliphs, the
elected successors of Muhammad dating back to the seventh century, while Shiite Muslims are members
of the minority sect of Islam that identifies with a seventh-century renegade group that advocated divine,
rather than elective, succession.
77. What are the key elements of the UN human rights regime?
ANS:
Varies. The traditional center of UN diplomacy on human rights was the UN Human Rights
Commission, which was prominent in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by
the UN in 1948. However, the commission was disbanded and replaced by the UN Human Rights
Council in 2006. Members of the Human Rights Council are elected by a majority of UN members,
voting by secret ballot, on a basis of their contribution to promoting and protecting human rights. The
General Assembly can suspend membership in the Human Rights Council with a two-thirds vote if a
state commits gross and systematic violations of human rights. In addition to the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, the UN human rights regime includes other important treaties, such as the UN
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child.
78. What are the key elements of the European human rights regime?
ANS:
Varies. The European human rights regime is centered on the European Convention on Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by the Council of Europe in 1950. This convention not only
focuses on human rights but also rights to political participation. The convention is enforced by the
Council of Ministers and by the European Court of Human Rights.
Language: English
NEW YORK
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
1920
Copyright, 1920, by
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America
THE WILD FAWN
THE WILD FAWN
I
Mrs. Carter looked up from her breakfast and glanced anxiously at
the clock.
“I wonder where that postman can be!” she exclaimed fretfully. “He’s
always late nowadays.”
“Nonsense!” retorted her husband, unfolding his newspaper. “It’s
because you want a letter from William. The postman will be along
all right.”
Mrs. Carter sighed. She could not understand the gap in her son’s
correspondence. William was her eldest and the pride of her heart.
At twenty-seven he had been a success in business. He had
dominated the family, advising his stout, deliberate father,
overwhelming his lame brother Daniel, and bossing the two younger
children, Leigh and Emily, until, goaded to frenzy, first one and then
the other of the worms turned. As the only girl in the family, Emily
reached the limit of her endurance long before Leigh came into the
battle as a feeble second.
But not even Emily could stem the tide of Mrs. Carter’s devotion to
her first-born. It had cost her many a sleepless night when, more
than a year ago, William Henry Carter had been selected by a well-
known mercantile firm to go to Japan. It had been a crowning
opportunity for William; to his mother it was a source of mingled
pride and anguish. She packed his trunk with unnumbered socks
and collar-buttons—she was sure he couldn’t get them in Japan—
and she smuggled in some jars of strawberry jam, “the kind that dear
Willie always loved.”
Afterward her only solace had been his letters. She overlooked his
ungrateful wrath when the jam jars broke into the socks, and fell
back on her pride in his continuing success, and on the fact that he
had been permitted to come home via the Mediterranean, and was
to act for his firm in Paris.
Now, after an absence of fourteen months, he might be home at any
moment; but there had been a gap in the correspondence—no
letters for more than two months. The maternal anxiety would have
communicated itself to the family, if it had not been that William’s
company had heard from the young man in the interim, and could
assure the anxious Mr. Carter that his son was well and doing
business with eminent talent and success. Mr. Payson, the head of
the establishment, lived in town, and he was liberal in his praise.
Mrs. Carter’s mind dwelt upon this with a feeling of maternal pride,
still tempered with anxiety, when she became aware that Emily and
Leigh were quarreling openly because of the latter’s unfeeling
remark that a girl with a snub nose and freckles should never do her
hair in a Greek knot.
“It’s enough to make a cat laugh,” said Leigh. “What have you got to
balance that knob on the back of your head?”
“Leigh, dear, don’t plague sister so,” Mrs. Carter remonstrated mildly.
“As if a boy like Leigh knew anything about a girl’s hair!” cried Emily
indignantly. “It’s a psyche-knot.”
Leigh laughed derisively; but at this moment, when the quarrel had
become noisy enough to disturb Mr. Carter, it was interrupted by the
entrance of the morning mail. Miranda, the colored maid of all work,
appeared with a replenished coffee-pot and a letter for Mrs. Carter.
The anxious mother gave a cry of joy.
“My goodness—it’s from Willie!”
The interest became general, and five pairs of expectant eyes
focussed on Mrs. Carter as she opened the envelope, her fingers
shaking with eagerness. Miranda, to whom the fifth pair of eyes
belonged, became unusually attentive to Daniel, and insisted on
replenishing his coffee-cup.
“This was written in Paris,” Mrs. Carter exclaimed eagerly, “and—and
posted in New York! I wonder! ‘Dear mother,’” she began reading
aloud, her voice tremulous with joy, “‘I’m coming home on the
Britannic, and I’m bringing you the—the——’”
She stopped short, her mouth open like a fish’s, and a look of horror
glazing the rapture in her eyes.
There was a profound and expectant pause. Daniel, the least
interested member of the group, managed to drink his hot coffee with
apparent relish, and sixteen-year-old Emily ate a biscuit, but Mr.
Carter, who had laid down his newspaper to listen, became
impatient.
“What’s the matter, mama?” he asked peevishly. “You look scared. Is
William going to bring you a crocodile from the Nile?”
Mrs. Carter rallied.
“N-no, not exactly—that is——” She looked absently at the maid.
“Miranda, go down to the ice-box and look it through. Let me know
just what’s left over. I’ve got to ’phone to the market immediately.”
“Yes’m.”
Miranda, descrying a sensation from afar, retired reluctantly. She
couldn’t hear quite as well in the kitchen entry when all the windows
were open.
Mrs. Carter waited until the pantry door closed behind the maid; then
she turned her horrified eyes upon her family.
“William’s married!” she gasped.
“Married?” echoed Mr. Carter angrily. “You’re crazy! William’s got too
much sense. You haven’t read it straight. Give me that letter!”
He stretched out a fiercely impatient hand, but Mrs. Carter ignored
his order.
“Listen! I did read it right. I know my own boy’s writing. I’ll read it
aloud—listen!”
Mr. Carter thumped the table.
“Why in thunder don’t you read it, then? We’re listening! Of all the
crazy notions! Married—you’ll find it’s ‘meandered.’ Go ahead!”
Mrs. Carter rallied her forces again, aware that Daniel and Leigh and
Emily were gaping in amazed incredulity. She turned the letter over
to the first page, caught her breath, and began.
“‘Dear mother,’” she read again, unsteadily this time, “‘I’m coming
home on the Britannic, and I’m bringing you the sweetest daughter-
in-law in the whole world. Her name is Fanchon la Fare, and she’s
the cleverest, the dearest, the most devoted girl in France. I can’t tell
you how beautiful she is, but you’ll fall in love with her at first sight—
just as I did. She’s small, “just as high as my heart,” mother, and
she’s got the eyes of a wild fawn——’”
“Wild fawn—thunder!” ejaculated Mr. Carter, unable to restrain
himself. “Give me that letter!”
This time Mrs. Carter surrendered it. She passed it down via Daniel,
who was looking unusually pale. His face startled her, and, while Mr.
Carter was reading the letter, she met her second son’s eyes. They
gave her another shock.
“Dan,” she whispered in an awe-struck voice, “I—do you think he
was engaged to—to——”
She mouthed a name, unable to finish her sentence under the young
man’s look. Daniel frowned, his white lips closing in a sharp line, but
Emily spoke up unabashed.
“Willie’s engaged to Virginia Denbigh. She’s got his ring. I’ve seen it
on her finger.”
“Oh, Emily!” her mother sank back in her chair, feeling weaker than
ever. Her boy, her Willie! She couldn’t believe that he would do
anything like that. She shook her head indignantly at Emily. “Hush!”
she whispered.
“He is, too!” her daughter insisted. “Why, mama, you know he is!”
Mrs. Carter cast a miserable glance at her husband, who was still
reading the letter. He was a big, broad-shouldered man, with a ruddy
face and bristling gray hair. Although usually a man of fairly equable
temperament, his expression at the moment was almost ferocious.
He had grown very red, and his eyebrows were bushed out over the
bridge of his nose in a scowl that transformed him.
Leigh nudged the unsympathetic Emily under the table.
“Gee, look at father!” he murmured.
Emily, who had resumed her breakfast, nodded with her mouth full.
She had played the trump card, and she was quietly observing
Daniel. He was as white as a sheet, she thought, and those big eyes
of his had a way of smoldering.
“It’s because he’s had a bad night, I suppose,” Emily mused, “or else
——”
She speculated, gazing at him; but she did not arrive at any
conclusion. She was interrupted by a furious sound from the foot of
the table. It was fortunately smothered, but it had the rumble of an
approaching tornado.
“The young donkey!” Mr. Carter exclaimed aloud. “My word, I thought
William Carter had sense!”
Mrs. Carter’s amiable, distressed face emerged a little from behind
the big silver hot-water urn which had descended in the family, along
with a Revolutionary sword and the copper warming-pans.
“Can you find out anything, Johnson?” she asked faintly. “I—I can’t!
He doesn’t even say where they were married or—or anything.”
“Married in a lunatic asylum, I suppose,” Mr. Carter returned fiercely.
“He says—as plain as can be—that he hasn’t known the creature
three months!”
“Good gracious! I didn’t get as far as that, I——”
William’s mother stopped short; she was afraid of making matters
worse. Emily, who had stopped eating to listen, came suddenly to
the surface.
“Listen, mama! She’s French, isn’t she?”
“I—I suppose so, dear.” Mrs. Carter shuddered slightly. “I’m afraid
she is.”
“Then I don’t see how Willie did it in three months. I read somewhere
—in a magazine, I think—that it took months and months to court a
French girl, and both parents have to say ‘yes,’ and you’ve got to
have birth certificates, and the banns have to be posted for three
weeks, and even then you can’t do it in a hurry; you’ve got to have a
civil marriage and a religious marriage, and—and everything!”
“Good Lord, Emmy! How does a fellow run away with his best girl?”
Leigh asked.
“He can’t!” Emily, having the floor, held it proudly. “He just can’t! It
wouldn’t be legal; he’s got to have his birth certificate.”
“Humph!” Mr. Carter glared over the top of William’s letter at his wife.
“William didn’t happen to carry his birth certificate hung around his
neck, did he?”
Mrs. Carter shook her head, her eyes fixed on Emily. For the first
time she felt it was to be her portion to hear wisdom from the mouths
of babes and sucklings.
“Emmy, are you sure you read all that?” she inquired anxiously.
“Of course she did, mother,” said Daniel, speaking for the first time,
his low, deep voice breaking in on the shrill excitement of the family
clamor. “It’s French law.”
That settled it. Daniel had studied law in old Judge Jessup’s office,
and there was nothing in law, domestic and international, that Judge
Jessup didn’t know. Mr. Carter turned his distorted countenance
upon his second son.
“Is that really a fact, Dan?”
Dan nodded. He was not eating. He had thrust aside an almost
untouched breakfast. The hand that he stretched out now for a glass
of water was a little unsteady, but his father did not notice it. Mr.
Carter was scowling at the letter again.
“It’s as plain as day here, he’s known her less than three months.
Take three weeks for the banns out of that, and you get seven or
eight weeks. The young donkey! Where were her people, I’d like to
know?”
Mrs. Carter gasped. Horrible thoughts had been assailing her from
the first, and she could no longer suppress them.
“D-do you think she can be respectable?” she quavered tearfully.
Mr. Carter was mute. He had no adequate language in which to
express his own views upon that point, but his gloomy look was
eloquent.
There was a horrible pause. Leigh and Emily exchanged glances.
There was a little satisfaction in hers; she had exploded a bombshell
second only to William’s letter, and now she interrupted her father’s
forty-second perusal of that document.
“Papa,” she said in her solemn young voice, “Willie was engaged to
Virginia Denbigh, and I don’t believe she’s broken it off at all!”
“Hush up, Emmy!” cried Daniel angrily. “Leave Virginia Denbigh out
of it. You’ve no right to talk about her. William’s married!”
“I guess I’ve got a right to tell the truth!” Emily flared up. “Willie was
engaged to Virginia Denbigh up to last week—and I know it!”
But, to her surprise, it was Leigh who broke out suddenly.
“What does it matter?” he cried. “If William’s fallen in love at first
sight, he can’t help it, can he? It’s too much for a fellow, isn’t it?
When a man sees a woman he loves at first sight—it’s—it’s like a
tornado, it bowls him over!”
“Eh?”
Mr. Carter turned and stared at his youngest son. So did his mother.
Leigh was a high-school boy preparing for college. Emily, blond and
snub-nosed and honest, had missed beauty by the proverbial inch
that’s as good as a mile, but Leigh was a handsome boy. He had the
eyes of a girl, too.
“Love at first sight?” bellowed Mr. Carter, getting his breath. “What
d’you know about it, you—you young idiot?”
Leigh reddened, but he held his ground.
“I know—how I’d feel,” he replied hotly.
“Oh, Leigh!” his mother smiled indulgently. “You’re such a child!”
“I’m not!” he retorted with spirit. “I’m eighteen—I’m a man!”
Emily giggled provokingly, and Mr. Carter struck the table with his
fist.
“Shut up!” he roared. “I’ve got one donkey—I don’t want another!
What did you say, Emily?”
“I said Willie was engaged to Virginia Denbigh and——”
Daniel, with a suppressed groan of anger, rose from the table; but
his father stopped him.
“Wait!” he said sharply. “I want to get the stuffing out of this. What do
you mean, Emily?”
“I mean just exactly what I say, papa,” cried his daughter, giving
Daniel a look of triumph. “Virginia’s got Willie’s ring on the third finger
of her left hand, and he wrote her letters—love-letters—from Japan. I
guess I know; I saw her reading one. I guess any girl could tell that!”
“You’re nothing but a child!” Mr. Carter exclaimed angrily, but he was
searching back in his own mind. He had always planned this match
between his favorite son and Virginia Denbigh, and Emily’s words
went home. He reddened. “Dan, do you know anything about this?”
he demanded, turning on his son.
Daniel, who was standing with his hand on the back of his chair, just
as he had risen, averted his eyes.
“I’d rather not say anything about it, father,” he replied after a
moment. “It’s—it’s not fair to Miss Denbigh, is it, to discuss it?”
His father, who had been observing him narrowly, thrust William’s
letter into his pocket.
“I see it’s true,” he remarked dryly, “Emily’s got more candor than you
have, that’s all.”
Daniel made no reply to this. He reached for his cane and moved
silently toward the door, aware of Emily’s cryptic gaze.
Mr. Carter, meanwhile, broke out stormily again, striking the edge of
the table.
“I’m ashamed of William!” he growled. “My son—and no sense of
honor! I—I’d like to thrash him!”
No one replied to this. Daniel opened the door, went out, and closed
it gently behind him. In the pause they heard his slow, slightly halting
tread as he went across the hall to the front porch and descended
the steps. As the last echo of his footsteps died away, Emily turned
to her father.
“Why, papa, didn’t you know why Dan wouldn’t tell about Willie and
Virginia?” she asked wisely.
Her father cast a startled look at her, his eyes still clouded with wrath
and mortification.
“No. Why?”
Emily smiled across at Leigh.
“Dan’s in love with Virginia himself, and Willie cut him out. That’s
why!”
Mr. Carter stared at her with exasperation. She was going a little too
far, and her annihilation was impending when Mrs. Carter suddenly
uttered a cry of horror. She had picked up the newspaper. It was
local, but it often copied bits from the New York dailies, when the bits
were likely to interest the town.
“Oh, good gracious, here’s a marriage notice from a New York
paper!” she cried, pointing it out with a shaking forefinger: “‘William
Henry Carter and Fanchon la Fare.’ Papa, they weren’t married until
they got to New York—the very day Willie posted that letter!”
Mr. Carter snatched the paper from her hand and read the notice;
then he slammed it down on the table with a violence that made all
the dishes rattle. He was fairly choking with rage now.
“Came over on the steamer with him, of course!” he shouted. “You
get the idea, mama? A French girl! Came over on the same steamer
—seven—nine days at sea—and got married in New York. My word!”
he fairly bellowed. “What kind of a daughter-in-law d’you think we’ve
got? I ask you that!”
“Oh, papa—sh!” gasped his wife weakly. “Think of these children
——”
“Sh?” he shouted. “Sh? With this thing out in black and white? D’you
think people haven’t got eyes? The whole town’ll read it—trust ’em
for that! French laws—birth certificates—banns—chaperons—I’d like
to see ’em—wow!”
There was a crash of china, and Mrs. Carter rose and fairly thrust
Leigh and Emily out of the room. For the first time in her experience
with him, Mr. Carter had become volcanic.
II
Daniel Carter, having left the family conclave so abruptly,
descended the steps to the garden-path and walked slowly—almost
painfully, it appeared—to the gate.
He was a tall young man of twenty-five, thin from long suffering, and
a little angular, and he was lame. He was not using a crutch now. Dr.
Barbour had succeeded in alleviating the old trouble and Daniel
could do very well with a walking-stick. But his face, pale and hollow-
cheeked, showed the lines of old suffering, and to-day there were
dark rings around his fine eyes. The fact was that, at that moment,
his heart was beating so heavily that its clamor seemed to fill his
ears. A strange thing had befallen him. He had been stricken with
horror and anguish at an insult to one he loved, and—almost at the
same instant—he had felt a wild, unreasoning relief. It would not do,
he must not let his mind dwell upon it. The habit of repression, the
habit of endurance, the older habit of suffering, came to his aid. He
set his teeth and walked straight out of the front gate and down to
the end of the street. Then he paused almost unconsciously,
because this spot, at the side of a hill, gave him a wide view of the
town, and he often stopped here a moment on his way to and from
Judge Jessup’s office, just to catch this glimpse of his native hills.
The poet in Daniel loved this view.
The sun was on the hills to-day, except where the shadow of a
passing cloud moved across the wide vista like a pillar of smoke to
guide the wayfarers toward the Promised Land. The sun shone, too,
on the roofs of the houses that clustered at Daniel’s feet, and it
caught the gilt on a cross-crowned spire and flashed it against the
background of the trees. The only vivid thing, it seemed, in the whole
scene, where the gray of old shingled roofs and the sober tints of the
time-worn houses blended with the greens and browns of nature. For
it’s an old town, nestled in the hills, at the southern edge of one of
the Middle States. A State, by the way, that is a good deal more