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Topological UML Modeling
Topological UML Modeling
An Improved Approach for Domain
Modeling and Software Development

Janis Osis
Uldis Donins
Elsevier
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The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
Copyright r 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
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The following are trademarks of the Object Management Group, Inc., in the United States and/or other
countries: CWM, MDA, MOF, OCL, OMG, UML, XMI.

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DEDICATION

To the centenary of Latvian Republic.

FOREWORD

In the early 1990s, the Object Management Group (OMG) undertook

a worldwide survey. Given the craze at the time for object-oriented
programming, object-oriented databases, object-oriented protocols—
object-oriented anything, in fact—it seemed obvious that the myriad
languages and methodologies for object-oriented analysis and design
ought to be tracked down, compared, and cataloged. OMG started the
process in 1993, and by 1994 had collected and published a useful
guide, Object Oriented Analysis & Design: Description of Methods.
Under the capable leadership of ICL’s Andrew T.F. Hutt, OMG had
moved past its early focus on distributed computing and middleware
standards such as CORBA, focusing on software design methodologies
and notations.

Unfortunately, the hue and cry that resulted from this simple and
abundantly useful catalog was a huge surprise to Dr. Hutt, myself, and
all of the OMG members and staff who participated in the production
of the catalog. We were told that standardization would result in the
freezing of forward momentum in software development methodology.
Research remained fluid, we heard, and the researchers didn’t want to
see development stop in the face of new discoveries.

An important new idea came from the catalog, however: though

development methodologies might have been in constant flux, all of
the methodologies then in use could realize value from a shared lan-
guage for expressing their processes. Language design, after all, was
already well understood by 1994, and the race was then on to provide
a standard language. Major consolidation in the software development
methodology marketplace was just starting as well, which brought
together erstwhile competitors to merge their thoughts and designs.
The result was a new OMG standard, quite outside the middleware
realm, for expressing software design—a key ingredient for any engi-
neering practice after all is a way to express design, like blueprints for
buildings and bridges. Abstract design languages allow analysis of the
design from engineering viewpoints, much as a bridge design is checked
for structural integrity from its blueprint, not after construction.
xii Foreword

As I write this, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is coming

to the end of its first two decades as a world standard for software
modeling. Twenty years have come and gone since, in September 1997,
dozens of organizations came together to complete the first version of
the language. Over the intervening years, newer versions have updated
that first approach, increasing the expressibility of the language and at
the same time simplifying its underpinnings. Though dozens of organi-
zations and likely hundreds of individuals have had their fingers inside
the UML standard, it remains robust and powerful and quite widely
adopted in the software industry.

And, in fact, not just in the software industry—UML has been used
in many other ways, as a way to express business processes, systems
architectures, even electronic circuits. The success of a product (or in
this case a standard) perhaps can be best measured as how broadly it
is used both inside and outside of its intended purpose. UML has also
spawned numerous related languages: the Meta-Object Facility (MOF)
that underlies the UML is now the underpinnings also of other lan-
guages (like the Business Processing Model & Notation (BPMN) and
others); the executable Functional UML (fUML), sufficiently precise
to be directly executed like a programming language itself; UML has
also been extended to explicitly support other modeling regimes like
Systems Engineering (with the Systems Modeling Language, SysML)
and work as of this writing is focusing on product architectures, busi-
ness architectures, and others. UML (and MOF) in 2000 also became
the major underpinning of the Model Driven Architecture (MDA), a
model-based way to develop software, just as modeling and simulation
underlie other engineering disciplines. Itself already approaching
20 years of age, the MDA is becoming a way to express semantics, and
the UML is the key technology that makes that possible.
One weak spot for UML and MDA has always been the
computation-independent model (CIM) layer that captures the design of
a software engineering artifact without regard to how it is implemen-
ted. The CIM is then translated into a platform-independent model and
thus to a platform-specific model which generally means some coding
language, although it might be more complicated than that. Many
methodologies have been developed over the past 20 years for CIM’s
that are sufficiently abstract to express design without regard to plat-
form, but sufficiently precise to specify exactly one process. Solving
 Foreword xiii

that problem would allow another layer of automation—and thus

success—for users of the Model Driven Architecture.

Topological modeling is one approach to capturing design in the

abstract. It is a testament to the flexibility of the UML standard that
topological modeling can actually be integrated directly into the lan-
guage, using the native profiling mechanisms of the UML and its
underlying MOF. This allows complete expression of system design,
from a high-level abstraction, all the way down to low-level implemen-
tation, with a single language. That idea and a complete expression of
the idea are the focus of this book, and an enduring testament to an
OMG standard whose success continues to astound.
Richard Mark Soley, PhD
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
Object Management Group, Inc.,
Lexington, MA, United States
May 6, 2017
PREFACE

The analysis of problem domain and design of desired solution within

software development process has a major impact of the achieved
result—developed software. While the software developer community
uses a set of tools and different techniques to create detailed specifica-
tion of the solution, the proper analysis of problem domain function-
ing is ignored or covered insufficiently. One of such techniques is
object-oriented software analysis and development which states that
there are two fundamental aspects of systems modeling: analysis and
design. The analysis defines what the solution needs to do within the
problem domain to fit the customer’s requirements, and the design
states how the solution will be implemented. The design of object-
oriented software is leaded by the Unified Modeling Language
(UML). UML is an approved standard modeling notation for visualiz-
ing, specifying, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of a soft-
ware intensive system. While the UML has elements for designing
and specifying artifacts of a software system, it lacks the ability to doc-
ument the functioning of a problem domain by using computation
independent constructs. To solve the previously mentioned UML issue,
a new—extended—version of UML is developed—Topological
Unified Modeling Language (Topological UML). Topological UML is
a combination of UML and formalism of Topological Functioning
Model (TFM). It captures system functioning specification in the form
of topological space consisting of functional features and cause-and-
effect relationships among them and is represented in a form of
directed graph.
The main aim of improving UML is by transferring topology and
mathematical formalism of TFM to UML thus strengthening the very
beginning of the software development lifecycle. Sometimes it is very
hard to pay appropriate resources and time at the very beginning of
the software development lifecycle to detect and analyze aspects of
desired software system as much as possible. If we pay appropriate
attention at the beginning of the software development project, we
tend to avoid wasting valuable resources, including time; otherwise it
xvi Preface

could lead to unnecessary reworking or even recoding parts of the sys-

tem or the system as whole. Just like Benjamin Franklin has said:

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

While the UML is a notation and as such its specification does not
contain any guidelines of its application during software development
process, the UML modeling driven methods fulfill this gap.
Unfortunately, not every UML modeling driven method covers all the
software development lifecycle. In addition—usually only a small part
of UML diagrams is used to specify both problem and solution
domains. Due to the partial UML and software development lifecycle
coverage and the fragmentary application of UML diagrams the soft-
ware developers are forced to combine UML with several modeling
methods and techniques (instead of taking UML as a notation and
one UML modeling driven method) thus the application of UML gets
more complicated and incomprehensible. To address this issue the
developed UML extension is provided together with a proper modeling
method—Topological UML modeling.

Topological UML modeling for problem domain modeling and soft-

ware systems designing is a model-driven modeling method. In the con-
text of Model Driven Architecture (MDA), the Topological
Functioning Model (TFM) considers problem domain information sep-
arate from the solution domain information and holistically represents
a complete functionality of the system from the computation indepen-
dent viewpoint while Topological UML has elements for representing
system design at the platform independent viewpoint and platform spe-
cific viewpoint. The Topological UML modeling method covers model-
ing and specification of systems in computation independent and
platform independent viewpoints. Problem domain analysis and soft-
ware system design with Topological UML modeling method consists
of six activities—the first one is problem domain functioning analysis
followed by behavior analysis and design, structure analysis and design,
state change and transition analysis, structuring logical layout of design,
and concluding with components and deployment design.

STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

Part I. Introduction

Takes a broad look at the UML—what it is (see Chapter 1: Unified

Modeling Language—A Standard for Designing a Software), how to use
 Preface xvii

it (see Chapter 2: Software Designing With Unified Modeling Language

Driven Approaches), and how to adjust it to improve software modeling
and design possibilities (see Chapter 3: Adjusting Unified Modeling
Language). If you are familiar with UML and its application in software
design, you can skip this part and go to Part II, Improving Domain
Modeling, or Part III, Topological UML Modeling Explained.

Chapter 1. Unified Modeling Language—A Standard for Designing a

Software

Chapter reviews UML evolution by paying most attention on the dia-

grams included in versions 1.x and 2.x as well as on the formalism
development used to specify the language. Review shows the benefits
and limitations of applying UML within software development life-
cycle, and identifies UML extension mechanisms and scenarios.

Chapter 2. Software Designing With Unified Modeling Language Driven

Approaches

UML is a notation and as such its specification does not contain any
guidelines of software development process. This chapter discusses the
current state of the art of UML-based software development approaches.
Most attention is paid on the artifacts created by using the UML.
Chapter 3. Adjusting Unified Modeling Language

This chapter discusses UML improvement by using the metamodeling

approach and its extensibility mechanism—profile. Since the UML
specification is a specification of a notation and it does not include any
guidelines for profile definition and specification, a set of profiles are
reviewed to define a profile specification template.
Part II. Improving Domain Modeling

Takes a broad look at the Topological UML—what it is (see

Chapter 4: Topological Unified Modeling Language) and how to use it
(see Chapter 5: Topological UML Modeling).

Chapter 4. Topological Unified Modeling Language

Chapter defines Topological Unified Modeling Language (Topological

UML) as a profile of UML thus answering “What it is?” The created
profile provides a UML specific version of the metamodel that can be
incorporated into standard UML modeling tools. Topological UML
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xviii Preface

development is based on two steps: at first extend UML by using pro-

file mechanism, thus creating Topological UML profile (this chapter),
and then define guidelines for using Topological UML in practice,
thus formalizing the way the Topological UML is used (next chapter).
Chapter 5. Topological UML Modeling

Defines method on how to apply Topological UML profile in practice

thus answering “How to use it?” Problem domain analysis and soft-
ware system design with Topological UML modeling method consists
of six activities: (1) problem domain functioning analysis, (2) behavior
analysis and design, (3) structure analysis and design, (4) state change
and transition analysis, (5) structuring logical layout of design, and (6)
components and deployment design.

Part III. Topological UML Modeling Explained

Describes in detail each of the Topological UML modeling activities.
Within the Part III, Topological UML Modeling Explained, we use a
case study of enterprise data synchronization system development. This
part is supplemented with functioning description of enterprise data syn-
chronization, functional requirements, and nonfunctional requirements.

Chapter 6. Problem Domain Functioning Analysis

Problem domain functioning analysis is the first activity within

Topological UML modeling and it states that the analysis of the prob-
lem domain should be performed during which TFM gets developed.
To do so, functioning description and functional requirements are used
as prerequisites. This activity ensures that proper attention is paid at the
very beginning of the software development lifecycle by capturing vari-
ous aspects of the desired system. This part is supplemented with func-
tioning description of enterprise data synchronization, functional
requirements and nonfunctional requirements used throughout Part III,
Topological UML Modeling Explained.
Chapter 7. Behavior Analysis and Design

Behavior Analysis and Design is the next activity within Topological

UML modeling process. This activity is based on the results obtained
within previous Topological UML modeling activity—problem
domain functioning analysis. By basing behavior analysis on TFM,
we are identifying and designing subsystems, use cases, actors, and
 Preface xix

relationships between them (topological use case diagram), messages

and their sequence (sequence diagram), and workflows (activity and
interaction overview diagram).

Chapter 8. Structure Analysis and Design

The main goal of structure analysis and design is to develop a topolog-

ical class diagram which contains classes together with their attributes
and responsibilities. To identify classes and assign the right responsibil-
ity to each one of them a TFM is used—initially TFM is transformed
into communication diagram showing objects and messages they send
each other, afterwards the communication diagram is further trans-
formed into topological class diagram.

Chapter 9. Object State Change and Transition Analysis

This chapter describes object state change and transition analysis based
on the state diagram development. The state changes and transitions
within a system are formally analyzed by using TFM. The functional
features together with topological relationships contain the necessary
information to create state diagram which reflects the state changes
within system.

Chapter 10. Structuring Logical Layout of Software Design

Logical layout of software design is structured in accordance with the

defined subsystems in the behavior analysis and design activity and
classes with their relationships as developed within structure analysis
and design activity. The logical layout is depicted by using package
diagram.
Chapter 11. Components and Deployment Design

Chapter describes components and deployment design activity which

concludes the Topological UML modeling process. Components are
designed in accordance with packages and nonfunctional requirements
and is depicted by using component diagram. Deployment is planned
for the designed components in accordance with nonfunctional require-
ments and is reflected by using deployment diagram.

Janis Osis and Uldis Donins

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Richard M. Soley, Janis V. Barzdins, Janis Grundspenkis,

Marite Kirikova, Dace Donina, Vicente Garcia Diaz, Peter J. Clarke,
Artis Teilans, and Erika Nazaruka for comments and suggestions, and
Lindsay Lawrence, Todd Green, and Punithavathy Govindaradjane
for redactional assistance.
CHAPTER 1
Unified Modeling Language: A Standard
for Designing a Software

INFORMATION IN THIS CHAPTER:

• UML diagrams
• Formalism of UML
• Benefits and disadvantages of applying UML
• UML improvement options

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Unified Modeling Language—abbreviated as UML—is a graphical
language officially defined by Object Management Group (OMG) for
visualizing, specifying, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of a
software system [106]. An artifact in software development is an item
created or collected during the development process (example of arti-
facts includes use cases, requirements, design, code, executable files,
etc.). UML offers a standard way to write system’s blueprints, includ-
ing conceptual things such as business processes and system functions
as well as concrete things such as programming language statements,
database schemas, and reusable software components [37]. Despite that
UML is designed for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and document-
ing software systems, it is not restricted only for software modeling. UML
has been used for modeling hardware, and is used for business process
modeling, systems engineering modeling and representing organizational
structure, among many other domains [125].

The first UML specification (version 1.1) was published by OMG

at 1997. Since then there has been continuously ongoing work to
improve both the language and its corresponding specification.
Additionally, we should admit that UML versions 1.4.2 and 2.4.1 have
been published under International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) [44] and International Electronical Commission (IEC) [43] as a
Topological UML Modeling. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-805476-5.00001-0
© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
4 Topological UML Modeling

standard. In year 2005, the version 1.4.2 was published as ISO/IEC

19501:2005 [46]. Following in year 2012, the version 2.4.1 was pub-
lished as ISO/IEC 19505-1 [47] and ISO/IEC 19505-2 [48]. You should
ask—why there are two separate ISO/IEC standards for single UML
version? The answer hides in fact that beginning with UML version
2.0 its specification was divided in two parts (i.e., two separate
documents)—so-called Infrastructure and Superstructure. Accordingly,
the ISO/IEC standard is based on this separation. But what a
surprise—UML version 2.5 specification [79] again is a single document.
During the two major and a number of revision versions of UML,
the definition of UML is evolving. UML version 2.4.1 specification
[77,78] defines the language as follows: “UML is a visual language for
specifying, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of systems. It is a
general-purpose modeling language that can be used with all major
object and component methods, and that can be applied to all application
domains (e.g., health, finance, telecom, aerospace) and implementation
platforms (e.g., J2EE, .NET).”

The UML originally was developed in middle of 1990s as a combi-

nation of previously competing object-oriented analysis and design
approaches:

• Booch method by Booch [13],

• Object-Modeling Technique (OMT) by Rumbaugh, Blaha,
Premerlani, Eddy, and Lorensen [105],
• Object-Oriented Software Engineering (OOSE) by Jacobson,
Christerson, Jonsson, and Overgaard [49], and
• Other contributions to modeling complex systems, e.g., statecharts
by Harel [41].

The first version of UML (version 1.1) was approved by OMG in

year 1997 [71]; afterwards UML has been revised with several releases
(UML 1.3, 1.5, 2.0, 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4.1, and 2.5 [81]) by fixing
some problems and adding new notational capabilities. The latest stan-
dard released by OMG is UML version 2.5 (UML version 2.0 is a
major rewrite of UML 1.x (“x” denotes the main version and any
subversion of specification) and was released in 2015).

The UML became widely accepted as the standard for object-

oriented analysis and design soon after it was first introduced [54] and
still remains so today [22,103]. Since the release of first UML version a
Exploring the Variety of Random
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mother would hardly have been a bed of roses. She missed sadly
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rooms, up the majestic staircase and then down again to the noblest
room of all. It seemed vast, that particular room; the sense of its
magnitude came out and hit you as you entered. The view from its
great windows was unforgettable, but it was the room itself and the
things it contained that made it so memorable. Tapestries, sofas,
cabinets, chairs, tables, lovely bric-a-brac and candelabra, all were
perfect in their kind and united in ministry to the higher perfection of
which they formed a part.
It was the pictures on the walls that gave perhaps the biggest thrill.
Portraits mostly: Lelys, Knellers and those old johns of the
eighteenth century who knew how to put historical folks upon
canvas. Among the famous guys in steel breastplates and periwigs
and contemporary janes in ruffs and powder and what not, was a
picture of a young man in knee-breeches and silk stockings and a
stiff flounced coat with a sword, who might have been Bill. The
resemblance was astonishing. Had Bill exchanged his modern tailor
for that funny yet superbly picturesque rig that is just how he would
have looked.
Mame was so struck by this likeness that she stopped to gaze at the
words at the foot of the gilt frame:
“William, third marquis of Kidderminster. By Sir Peter Lely.”
Yes, it was the real thing, this picture. But what, after all, was it
compared to the room it was in and the harmony of which it was a
symbol? History, romance, power seemed all around. Again the spirit
of place got Mame thinking.
It was the gentle, low voice of Lady Kidderminster that brought her
slowly back to the present and to her own self. “Shall we rest a
moment, my dear? Here in the sun. This is always my favourite spot;
how one loves a room facing south! There is more real warmth here
than anywhere else in the house.”
As Lady Kidderminster spoke she sat down on a large, high-backed
sofa, very choicely carved, which was placed immediately below
Lely’s third marquis. She made a place beside her for Mame, who
sat down too. There the sun was very pleasant, as it streamed in
through the great window opposite. The trees of the park could be
seen and the deer browsing under them. Not so much as the ticking
of a clock broke the rapt stillness. What a peace there was upon
everything, what order, what a hushed solemnity! It was like being in
a cathedral. The aura of this room in its grandeur and stateliness
was overpowering.
Mame was seldom at a loss for words. But seated on this sofa by the
side of Lady Kidderminster she felt a little shy of the sound of her
own voice. Somehow it didn’t seem to belong. She waited for her
companion to say something. Those sweet and quiet tones went so
much better with the carpets and the pictures and the scene beyond
those windows.
Suddenly Mame grew aware that the hand next hers had taken it in
its clasp. Then very softly and quietly Bill’s mother began to talk. Her
beautiful low voice in its ordered perfection was as much a part of
those surroundings as all the other lovely things of which Mame
could not help being sensible. Yet the words it wove soon began to
press upon her heart.
In a fashion of curious simplicity, which revealed everything in the
most practical and matter-of-fact way, Bill’s mother showed what an
effort she had made to hold on to this inheritance. Everybody had
hoped that he would marry Miss Childwick. She was deeply in love
with him, and there was a time, only a short month or so ago, when it
was thought that he was in love with her. A marriage had been
almost arranged for the early summer, yet for some trivial reason it
had been deferred. And now, and now, the gentle tones deepened
into tragedy, it would never take place, and Bill would have to give up
the last and dearest of his possessions.
Great sacrifices had been made to keep things going against the
time when he should marry. They owed it to him to do that. And he,
dear fellow, owed it, not to those who were proud to make sacrifices,
but to the order of things, so long established, of which he was the
clou, to marry in a direction that would ensure their maintenance.
“You see, my dear,” said Lady Kidderminster, and for the first time a
faint gleam of humour lit that lovely voice of ever-deepening tragedy,
“it is not that we own places like the Towers. They own us. It is Bill’s
duty to those who have made this old house what it is”—she waved
a gentle hand to those solemn assenting walls “to keep it in the state
to which it has pleased providence to call it. I hope you appreciate,
my dear, what a dreadful wrench it is going to be, not only for us, but
for this old house, with so many historical associations, to pass into
other hands.”
Only too well was Mame able to appreciate that. The streak of
imagination in her had never been so uncomfortable as at that
painful moment.
“I simply cannot bear to think of his losing all this,” Bill’s mother went
on. “I simply cannot bear to think of all this losing him. They need
each other; they were created for each other; they can never be as
they were if they are allowed to drift apart. The Childwicks are
excellent people and they have a lien on this house, which may be
exercised if dear Gwendolen does not marry Bill. They will, I am
sure, do the place no dishonour, but I, for one, cannot bear to think
of such a break in a long tradition. The Towers expects the head of
the family to do his duty by it, in the way of his forbears who made it
the thing it is.”
Mame did not speak. Not only was she seeing certain things at a
new angle, she was also seeing the world in general in a new way.
The process was distinctly irksome.
“Any girl who really cares for him,” Lady K. went on with that candour
which to Mame was so surprising, “will understand what life exacts of
him, will understand where his duty lies.”
In the silence that followed these words Mame hardly ventured to
look at the face of the woman who sat by her side. But she saw that
Lady Kidderminster’s eyes were wet. This was a brave woman. It
was impossible not to respect her point of view. Indeed, seated in
that room, with all those associations clustering about it, there
seemed to be only one way of looking at things. And that was the
way of Bill’s mother.
 XLVI
MAME returned to London after an absence of exactly one week.
Seldom had she been more eager for anything than to exchange the
rather dreary stuffiness of the Dower House for the life and bustle of
the town. Yet the Mame Durrance who had left Paddington a week
ago was not the same person who came back to that terminus.
Something had happened to her in the meantime. As yet she did not
quite know what the something was. But there were the beginnings
of a new habit of introspection in her; and from this she learned that
she was in the throes of change.
Life, somehow, was not quite as she had left it. She seemed to see it
with new eyes. Even the buses and the taxis and the faces of the
passers-by were different from what they had been a week ago.
They seemed to strike her in a new way. It was as if the rather trite
and funny old world she had always lived in had become suddenly
enlarged. Everything had grown more complex. The inner nature of
things, about which she was troubling for the first time, was full of
deep and mysterious meaning.
This state of mind did not make for happiness, as Mame soon
discovered. For one thing it was out of harmony with the mentality of
a practical go-getter. But as she expressed the phenomenon to
herself, that old house had put one over on her. It was absurd that a
mere inanimate collection of sticks and stones should have the
power to do anything of the kind, yet it was not a bit of use shirking
the fact that it had done so.
There were two Mame Durrances now. Perhaps there always had
been, but the one the old house in Shropshire had evoked had lain
dormant. And now that it was aroused it promised to become a
mighty inconvenient yoke fellow. Hitherto it had been the go-getter
who had held command of the ship; a common-sensible, up-and-
coming, two-and-two-makes-four sort of unit, who saw its duty a
dead sure thing and went and did it. But the sleeper, whom one
week of Shropshire had awakened, was a very different kind of bird.
No doubt, the new and tiresome entity that had sprung to birth was
what the world meant by an idealist. It appeared to judge by another
standard. There were the things you could do and the things you
couldn’t do. The business part of Mame knew nothing of this. It only
did the things it wanted to do.
A week of the Dower House had rather handed a haymaker to
Mame’s utilitarian world. To such an extent had it mixed its values
that she did not quite know where she stood in it. Yet amid the chaos
she retained in a high degree her natural clearness of vision.
It was nearing the dinner hour when Mame’s taxi deposited her and
her neat luggage at 16b Half Moon Street. Lady Violet, wearing her
smartest evening frock, was on the point of going out. She greeted
Mame with the air of bright cheerfulness that never seemed to desert
her. But the returned traveller had only to glance at the eyes of her
friend to learn that she was not feeling so very bright or so very
cheerful. She surprised that look of never-say-die she had seen in
the eyes of Lady Kidderminster. It was impossible not to respect the
pluck of these women.
“Had a good time?”
“Ye-es.” Mame’s answer was a trifle dubious even if she did her best
not to make it so.
“What did you think of the Towers?”
“Bully!” said Mame. And then she asked, less out of a sense of duty
than from a desire to change the subject, “How’s the work been
getting on?”
“Gerty Smith is splendid. She’s such a worker.” Lady Violet sighed
humorously. “Oh, how I hate work!”
Mame fully believed her. Girls of her special type must long ago have
overlaid the habit. The conviction in Celimene’s voice did not lessen
Mame’s respect for her. She had real grit, this girl, to be able to
buckle to in the way she did.
“There’s a letter for you from New York.” Lady Violet pointed to the
table. “I hope there’s no complaint of the firm. We’ve not been
sending many bonnes bouches in the way of news lately.”
“No, we haven’t,” agreed Mame, as she opened the letter. It merely
contained the monthly cheque.
“That’ll come in very useful.”
“I’ll say yes, honey,” was Mame’s comment to herself.
Lady Violet then went off. She was dining with the Childwicks and
going on with them to Covent Garden to the Russian ballet, and so
did not expect to be home till rather late. Mame was left to a lonely
meal round the corner at the Ladies Imperium. She had made a
certain number of friends there, but she was not in a mood for
promiscuous conversation; therefore she returned to an early bed.
She was very tired, bodily and mentally, but she had a restless and
wakeful night. The go-getter and the idealist seemed to be
quarrelling like fury all through the small hours. If there just wasn’t
the money to keep things going and she really cared for Bill, wasn’t it
her duty to stand aside?
Never heard such bunkum in my life, said the Go-getter.
Depends on how much you care for the boy, said the Idealist.
The Go-getter snorted.
You may snort, said the Idealist. But that’s the case as I see it.
 XLVII
THEY had arranged to meet in the park, the next morning at eleven.
Bill was at the tryst, looking a picture of health with the genial sun of
St. Martin’s summer upon him. He really was good to gaze at; most
girls would have thought so, anyway. There he was in his smart
morning suit; bright as a new pin; and as gaily amusing as ever. He
might not have had a care in the world. Indeed, as he greeted Mame
with a flourish of hat and cane, it was hard to believe that he could
have.
A week’s absence had, if anything, endeared them to each other.
Mame felt immensely proud of Bill as she came upon him by the
railings of the Row, where he stood watching its numerous and
decidedly miscellaneous collection of riders. Yes, he was a picture.
As Mame beheld him, her mind went rather inconveniently back to
the portrait of the third marquis, under which she had sat in that
wonderful room at the Towers.
“Good to see you, Puss.”
Low the voice and so beguiling. There was a tremendous fascination
in this young man. They moved up towards Alexandra Gate and
found two lonely chairs among the trees.
“And now for a good old pow wow.” He began to write her name on
the grass with the tip of his cane. “You’re looking just a wee bit
chippy, aren’t you? Air of Shropshire take some digesting, eh? My
mother is a clinker, isn’t she? And Cousin Mildred. But their young
lives are not exactly a beanfeast, what? And then the friends and
neighbours. Did you meet the friends and neighbours?”
“Bushels.”
At the look on Mame’s shrewd and piquant countenance Bill cried
“What ho!” in a fashion which startled a number of sparrows into
sitting up and taking notice. “Then that funny old Dower House. I
expect it rather gave you the pip.”
As a matter of fact the Dower House had rather given Mame the pip
but it hardly seemed good manners to do so.
“Own up. Honest Injun.” Bill coolly surveyed the expressive
countenance of Mame. “It always does me. But tell me, now, what do
you think of the Towers? That’s a bit of a landmark, isn’t it?”
“Bully!” was Mame’s formula for the Towers. It didn’t quite express
her feelings, but it seemed wise to keep to that inclusive simplicity.
“That’s the word,” Bill agreed.
Suddenly Mame took him up. “Bully isn’t at all the word for a place
like the Towers.” To her own ear her voice grew harsh and strident.
“It wants a better word than that. Doesn’t carry the meaning, that
word. There’s an atmosphere about that place and it gets you.”
“Hadn’t occurred to me.”
“No.” Mame looked at him sideways. She was a shade incredulous.
“If I owned all that, just by right of birth, I’d see that nobody ever took
it from me.”
“Rather depend on your bank-book, wouldn’t it?” Somehow Bill’s
casualness was almost like a blow. “You see the trouble with us as a
family is that we haven’t a bob.”
Mame was fully informed of that. But why not get around and collect
a few? She put the question frankly. To Bill, however, it had the merit
of being new. It had simply never occurred to him.
“Why not?” In Mame’s voice was a certain sternness.
“Haven’t the savvee for one thing.” Bill spoke lightly and easily.
“Enormous brains you must have these days to hustle around. Vi is
the only one of us with any mind at all. If she had been a man I
believe she might have kept the Towers going. But it would have
needed doing, you know. That place swallows money. Not a penny
less than ten thousand a year would have been a bit of use.”
“I’ll say not. But isn’t it worth while, don’t you think, to take off your
coat and go around and see if you can raise it?”
Bill began to whistle merrily. His sense of humour was sharply
touched. “See me raising ten thousand a year with this old think-box.
I’m the utterest ass that ever happened. Why, I can’t even tot up a
row of figures.”
“I guess I’d learn. If my folks had had the Towers for five hundred
years, do you suppose I’d let people like the Childwicks come along
and take it off me?”
“No, I guess you wouldn’t.” Bill gazed in admiration at the determined
face.
“Well, what are you going to do about it?”
To that forcible question Bill seemed quite unable to find an answer.
Mame did not disguise that an answer was called for. “Your Mommer
says that if you marry me you’ll have to quit the Pinks.”
“I know she does.”
“And that you’ll lose the Towers.”
Bill owned ruefully that he knew that too.
“Doesn’t it worry you any?”
Bill was silent a moment, then shook his head and said cheerfully,
no.
“Well, it worries me, I’ll tell the world.”
He frowned a little. Something in the nature of a cloud passed over
his sunny mind. Mame this morning hardly seemed to be quite so
entertaining as usual. “Why worry,” he said, “over things one can’t
help?”
It was Mame’s turn to be silent. The frown that gathered about her
honest face was more portentous than the one upon Bill’s. “Things
have got to be helped, it seems to me.” She spoke slowly. It was as if
the words tore her lips.
“I don’t quite see how at the moment.”
“There’s just one way. I’ve been thinking it out. We mustn’t marry.”
The serious depth of Mame’s tone added detonating power to this
thunderbolt.
“But that’s ridiculous.” Bill was no longer casual.
“As I figure it out, it’ll be more ridiculous if we do.”
“My dear girl, we shall be able to rub along. There’ll be a certain
amount of money, even if the Towers does go and even if I have to
leave the Army.”
Mame shook a stern little head. She certainly was not as amusing
this morning as usual. “Not if you keep your engagement with
Gwendolen Childwick.”
“I’ve never been engaged to Gwendolen Childwick,” he indignantly
broke in.
“Vi says you were as good as engaged to her. And so does your
mother.”
“These meddlesome women!” Bill spoke vexedly. “I see what it is.
You’ve been letting ’em put the wind up.”
A flush of crimson showed this to be a palpable hit.
“I give you my word there’s been no engagement between
Gwendolen and me,” Bill earnestly added.
She knew there had not been. But it did not alter her view that if he
was as sensible as he ought to be, there would be an engagement
between them soon.
“Somebody’s been getting at you.” He was rather startled by the turn
affairs were taking. “You’re not yourself this morning. Tell me, Puss,
don’t you care for me any more?”
He looked into her troubled face with an anxiety which made her feel
that she wanted to cry. In fact she had to bite her lip pretty hard to
save herself from exposing a most regrettable weakness. “It’s
because I care for you so much that I can’t let you make a fool of
yourself.” The quaint voice trembled oddly. “If you marry me it’s ruin
and—and that’s all there is to it.”
He took a little white-gloved paw—she was looking most charmingly
spick and span this morning—into his great brown fist. “Rot! A
promise is a promise. I won’t give you up.”
“Don’t be a fool.” Pain, sheer and exquisite, drove her to speak
bluntly and harshly. “I’d be a cuckoo in the nest. I don’t belong. I
won’t amuse you always. And then you’d be sorry about the Towers.
And you’d curse yourself for quitting the Army.”
“I’ll risk all that.”
Mame had a struggle to keep her lip stiff. But she had enough will to
say, “There’s other folks to think of, you see.”
“Rot! Why let ’em come spoiling the sport?”
“I’d be spoiling the sport. You and Gwendolen were getting on like a
house on fire till I came by.”
“What’s come over you!” This was pure Quixotism. Slow in the
uptake as he was, he knew how she hated Gwendolen.
“You don’t know what a friend Vi has been to me. I owe just
everything to her. If I butted in and spoiled it all, I’d never be able to
look her in the face again. Then there’s your Mommer. She’s been
so sweet to me, I’d just hate to go back on her.”
Bill had to own that such feelings did Mame real credit. But her
attitude seemed to puzzle him a goodish bit; it was rather beyond the
order of nature.
“You’re the nicest and best little girl I’ve met.” He was dogged,
defiant. “And I mean to hold on to you for all I’m worth.”
Mame was horribly near tears, yet she still contrived to keep them in
check. It was the bitterest moment life so far had given her. But this
thing had to be.
 XLVIII
AFTER a painful hour they parted and went their ways. Bill, in
dudgeon, back to barracks; Mame with a heartache to Half Moon
Street. All the way up Piccadilly she was accompanied by two
voices. Mame Durrance you are a blame fool, said one. Stick it, girl,
said the other. You are throwing away the chance of your life, said
the Go-getter. If you really care for the boy, you just can’t marry him,
said the Idealist.
Never had she felt so miserable as when she let herself into the flat.
Luckily Violet was not there. She was able to relieve her overwrought
feelings with a little private howl. Then she felt better. In fact she was
able to sit down and compose a few halting lines to Bill embodying
her final decision and giving her reasons for it. That achieved, she
went to her bedroom and fetched the engagement ring which ten
days ago had given her such joy.
I must have been cuckoo to have accepted it
Not half so cuckoo as you are now, you silly elf.
Miserably she packed it in its neat box and was in the act of
enclosing the farewell letter when Violet came in. She had been
taking the air.
One glance Violet gave to the red and swollen lids and the face of
tragedy. “Why, my dear, dear child!” The vein of kindness in her was
deep and true. Those piteous eyes, that piteous mouth very surely
roused it. “Do tell me.” A naughty, dangerous little witch, but she was
genuinely distressed to see Mame suffer. Something must have hurt
her rather horribly. “Tell me, what is it?”
“I’ve let some of you folks put one over on me.” Mame fiercely
brushed aside new tears.
It was not a moment for a smile. Yet it was hard to resist one at that
whimsical and quaint defiance. Even in the hour of desolation the
minx was like no one else. She had an odd power of attraction. It
was by no means easy to dislike her. After all she had only acted in
strict accordance with her nature.
“What is it? Tell me.”
Mame suddenly handed Celimene the letter she had written.
“You—you are sending back the ring?” There was a note in the voice
of Bill’s sister which suggested that it feared to be other than
incredulous. “You—you are breaking off the engagement?”
“I’ll say yes.”
Perhaps for the first time in their intercourse real emotion flooded the
face of the more accomplished woman of the world. “Dear child!” she
said softly. And then abruptly turning aside as the bleak face of
Mame became more than she could bear, “You—you make one feel
indescribably mean.”
It was perfectly true. She undoubtedly did, the little go-getter. Under
all the surface crudity, which month by month was ceasing to be
anything like as crude as it had been, was something big, vital, true.
Lady Violet was not given to self-depreciation. She knew her power
of displacement only too well, even in the queer muss of a modern
world. She might have been tempted to laugh at this rather pathetic
thing; she might have played her off successfully against certain
pretentious people, yet somehow the minx was riding off with all the
honours. Mame already had taught her a pretty sharp lesson. It was
one she would never forget. Lady Violet for the future would always
remember that the player of unlawful games must keep an eye on
the policeman. And now Mame was teaching her something else.
Seldom had this woman of the world found herself quite so much at
a loss. Face to face with Mame’s heroism, for her self-sacrifice
amounted to that, mere words became an impertinence. The thing to
strike her about this good child when she set eyes on her first was
the extraordinary grit that was in her; and it was that quality which
spoke to her now.
Abruptly she forced a laugh to keep herself from tears. “My dear, you
make one feel like thirty cents.”
It was one of the choicest phrases of the little go-getter, one among
the many that had appealed to her friend. Somehow that phrase
seemed to save the situation. Yet not altogether.
“I guess you don’t, honey.” Mame spoke bitterly. “And I guess you
never will. You and your Mommer and the friends and neighbours
and that old house will see to that. I’m the one to feel like thirty
cents.”
The voice was so desolate that even Lady Violet, who did not care
much for the practice, could not forbear from giving her a kiss. “I
remember your saying that you had come over to pull the big stuff.
Well, I rather think you’ve pulled it.” And her friend laughed again to
keep her courage up.
“I didn’t come to pull this sort of stuff.” Mame snorted as she brushed
her eyes fiercely. “I’ve gone cuckoo. And to-morrow I’ll think so.”
“One has to go cuckoo, as you call it, hasn’t one, to do the things
worth doing? I could no more have let go that foolish bird, had I been
you, than I could have jumped over the moon.”
“No, I guess not. And even now, if you don’t want to lose him you
had better watch the cage.”
“How can we help you to keep your little paws off the foolish
creature?”
“By not letting me see him again.” Mame was stoical. As she spoke
she wrapped up the box containing the ring and the letter she had
written in a piece of brown paper; and then applied red sealing wax.
“And if you are wise you’ll just see that he gets married pretty soon
to—to—” Even her bravery was not quite equal to the task of
pronouncing the hated name. “I think I’ll go to the post office and
send this back in a registered parcel.”
She quitted the room abruptly, leaving her friend to some very sharp-
edged thoughts.
 XLIX
THE days that followed were dark and difficult for Mame. Nor did
Lady Violet find them particularly easy. At heart she was kindly and
honest and she could not help fixing upon herself a good deal of the
blame for what had occurred. She it was who had introduced this
little marauder; she had been wilfully and stupidly blind to the
consequences; and her only excuse was that not for a moment could
she believe that Bill would be so weak. Yet she had deliberately
thrown them together. She had bestowed upon Mame a spurious
eligibility. This bitterly humiliating business was an object lesson in
the sheer folly of playing the fool.
It was decidedly painful all round. First of all, poor Mame really
suffered. The part she had undertaken to play was superhumanly
big. Very few girls could have gone back in that way on their whole
philosophy of life; and to Violet’s good heart it was hateful to have to
ask her to do it. She must have loved Bill, perhaps as no other
woman was likely to do, to nerve herself to a sacrifice so high.
Much diplomacy was called for in the days that followed. Bill could
be a stubborn fellow. His family had always humoured his whims. It
looked at first as if there would be no handling him. Irresponsible, not
to say flabby, as his nature was, had he had the wit to realise clearly
that poor Mame had got a blow over the heart, he would not have
taken the thing lying down.
Violet, hating intensely the rôle her own folly had doomed her to play,
yet proved herself, when fairly put to it, a consummate tactician. Bill
must not guess, must not come near guessing, how much this good
and brave child really cared for him. He must be rather a “dud,” his
sister thought, not to see it for himself. Instinct ought to have told him
how the little brick was steeling her heart. Even while Violet threw
dust in his eyes with a subtlety and a success for which she loathed
herself, she yet clung to the paradoxical view that had Bill been
worthy of Mame he would have been less obtuse. “She can’t bear
your losing the Towers and giving up the Army.” That phrase was
Violet’s strongest weapon. It admitted two interpretations and his
sister was not in the least proud of Bill when he allowed it to suggest
the wrong one. “Of course she considers the gilt will be off the
gingerbread.” That was Machiavellian. The end seemed to justify the
means; at any rate Violet had so persuaded herself; but it really was
rather low down. And she could not, womanlike, help resenting Bill’s
denseness and lack of character which made the unpleasant task of
throwing dust in his eyes so much less difficult than it ought to have
been.
The weeks went by and Mame set herself stoically to forget. There
was pride in her as well as grit. She was determined to stand up to
life and make something of the mighty difficult business of living it. To
stanch her wounds she threw herself into her work with new ardour.
Back of everything was rare common sense. She must have the
strength to bear the self-inflicted blow without flinching.
One morning, however, just before Christmas, an incident occurred
that reopened the closing wounds. Mame and Celimene were
discussing the make-up of the weekly cable to New York, when
Celimene said with an odd change of tone, “There’s one bit of news
that may not be without interest on the other side. It’s not yet
announced, so we shall be the first in the field.”
“What is the news?” asked Mame keenly. Her flair for a choice tit-bit
was not less than of yore.
“A marriage has been arranged, the date of which will be shortly
announced, between the Marquis of Kidderminster and Gwendolen,
the only child of Giles Childwick, Esquire, and Mrs. Childwick,
formerly of Treville, New Jersey.”
“Oh!” Mame gave a little gasp. Celimene saw her turn very white.
“We are none of us worthy of you, my dear. In the end you’ll find
yourself well rid of people like us.” Violet’s tone had a note of pain
that for her was something new. Life had not been exactly a bed of
roses lately. She had discovered, a little late in the day perhaps, that
she had a conscience. A share of the hurt she was inflicting had to
be borne by herself.
When Mame was able to speak she said: “You’d have been good
enough for me. I like you all. You are some of the nicest folks I’ve
met.” The whimsical frankness of this good child brought back the
laugh, if not too readily, to the worldly wise Violet. What a piece of
luck, they both had a sense of humour!
“We owe you more than perhaps you realise.” Violet did not find the
words easy, but they had to be said. “You showed how terribly
dangerous was delay as far as that brother of mine is concerned. He
might have been snapped up by some pretty little prowler, with a
nice taste in dicky birds, who short of death and destruction could
never have been persuaded to unclasp her claws.”
“That’s so,” assented Mame. “And you’re wise to have hustled on
that marriage.” And then whimsically, to ease the aching of her heart:
“Some other little cat might have got that bird.”
She was so real and so true, this brave child, that Violet felt she
would like to have taken her in her arms and hugged her. “My mother
and I both realise that you have done a big thing. She has sent you
all sorts of kind messages. We are going to see that Gwendolen
plays the game so far as you are concerned. And no matter how
long you stay over here you will always have friends.”
“Gwendolen will make him a good wife.”
“Yes, she will. She is a very sensible girl, with a strong will. I am sure
she will keep him on the rails. And she really cares for him.”
“Perhaps he’ll get to care for her after a while.”
“I think he may. Gwendolen is a very good sort. But I’m afraid Bill’s
feelings don’t run deep.” And the note of pain crept again into the
voice of his sister.