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 Mathematical Biology

Dynamics of Biological Systems

From the spontaneous rapid firing of cortical neurons to the spatial diffusion of
disease epidemics, biological systems exhibit rich dynamic behaviour over a vast
range of time and space scales. Unifying many of these diverse phenomena,
Dynamics of Biological Systems provides the computational and mathematical
platform from which to understand the underlying processes of the phenomena.

Through an extensive tour of various biological systems, the text introduces

computational methods for simulating spatial diffusion processes in excitable
media, such as the human heart, as well as mathematical tools for dealing with
systems of nonlinear ordinary and partial differential equations, such as neuronal
activation and disease diffusion. The mathematical models and computer
simulations offer insight into the dynamics of temporal and spatial biological
systems, including cardiac pacemakers, artificial electrical defibrillation,
pandemics, pattern formation, flocking behaviour, the interaction of autonomous
agents, and hierarchical and structured network topologies. Tools from complex
systems and complex networks are also presented for dealing with real
phenomenological systems.

Features
• Uses complex systems, complex networks, and dynamics to derive models
and computer simulations of various biological systems
• Presents a wide range of models, from ECG signal processing to pandemic
modelling to population dynamics
• Requires no advanced knowledge of mathematics
• Includes exercises as well as computational and research projects at the
end of each chapter

This classroom-tested text shows readers how to apply a variety of mathematical

and computational techniques to model and analyze the temporal and spatial
phenomena of biological systems. MATLAB® implementations of algorithms and
case studies are available on the author’s website. Small

K12463

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 Dynamics of
Biological Systems

K12463_FM.indd 1 7/12/11 11:47 AM

 CHAPMAN & HALL/CRC
Mathematical and Computational Biology Series

Aims and scope:

This series aims to capture new developments and summarize what is known
over the entire spectrum of mathematical and computational biology and
medicine. It seeks to encourage the integration of mathematical, statistical,
and computational methods into biology by publishing a broad range of
textbooks, reference works, and handbooks. The titles included in the
series are meant to appeal to students, researchers, and professionals in the
mathematical, statistical and computational sciences, fundamental biology
and bioengineering, as well as interdisciplinary researchers involved in the
field. The inclusion of concrete examples and applications, and programming
techniques and examples, is highly encouraged.

Series Editors

N. F. Britton
Department of Mathematical Sciences
University of Bath

Xihong Lin
Department of Biostatistics
Harvard University

Hershel M. Safer

Maria Victoria Schneider

European Bioinformatics Institute

Mona Singh
Department of Computer Science
Princeton University

Anna Tramontano
Department of Biochemical Sciences
University of Rome La Sapienza

Proposals for the series should be submitted to one of the series editors above or directly to:
CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group
4th, Floor, Albert House
1-4 Singer Street
London EC2A 4BQ
UK

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 Published Titles
Algorithms in Bioinformatics: A Practical Exactly Solvable Models of Biological
Introduction Invasion
Wing-Kin Sung Sergei V. Petrovskii and Bai-Lian Li
Bioinformatics: A Practical Approach Gene Expression Studies Using
Shui Qing Ye Affymetrix Microarrays
Biological Computation Hinrich Göhlmann and Willem Talloen
Ehud Lamm and Ron Unger Glycome Informatics: Methods and
Biological Sequence Analysis Using Applications
the SeqAn C++ Library Kiyoko F. Aoki-Kinoshita
Andreas Gogol-Döring and Knut Reinert Handbook of Hidden Markov Models
Cancer Modelling and Simulation in Bioinformatics
Luigi Preziosi Martin Gollery

Cancer Systems Biology Introduction to Bioinformatics

Edwin Wang Anna Tramontano

Cell Mechanics: From Single Scale- Introduction to Bio-Ontologies

Based Models to Multiscale Modeling Peter N. Robinson and Sebastian Bauer
Arnaud Chauvière, Luigi Preziosi, Introduction to Computational
and Claude Verdier Proteomics
Clustering in Bioinformatics and Drug Golan Yona
Discovery Introduction to Proteins: Structure,
John D. MacCuish and Norah E. MacCuish Function, and Motion
Combinatorial Pattern Matching Amit Kessel and Nir Ben-Tal
Algorithms in Computational Biology An Introduction to Systems Biology:
Using Perl and R Design Principles of Biological Circuits
Gabriel Valiente Uri Alon
Computational Biology: A Statistical Kinetic Modelling in Systems Biology
Mechanics Perspective Oleg Demin and Igor Goryanin
Ralf Blossey Knowledge Discovery in Proteomics
Computational Hydrodynamics of Igor Jurisica and Dennis Wigle
Capsules and Biological Cells Meta-analysis and Combining
C. Pozrikidis Information in Genetics and Genomics
Computational Neuroscience: Rudy Guerra and Darlene R. Goldstein
A Comprehensive Approach Methods in Medical Informatics:
Jianfeng Feng Fundamentals of Healthcare
Data Analysis Tools for DNA Microarrays Programming in Perl, Python, and Ruby
Sorin Draghici Jules J. Berman
Differential Equations and Mathematical Modeling and Simulation of Capsules
Biology, Second Edition and Biological Cells
D.S. Jones, M.J. Plank, and B.D. Sleeman C. Pozrikidis
Dynamics of Biological Systems Niche Modeling: Predictions from
Michael Small Statistical Distributions
Engineering Genetic Circuits David Stockwell
Chris J. Myers

K12463_FM.indd 3 7/12/11 11:47 AM

 Published Titles (continued)
Normal Mode Analysis: Theory and Spatiotemporal Patterns in Ecology
Applications to Biological and Chemical and Epidemiology: Theory, Models,
Systems and Simulation
Qiang Cui and Ivet Bahar Horst Malchow, Sergei V. Petrovskii, and
Optimal Control Applied to Biological Ezio Venturino
Models Stochastic Modelling for Systems
Suzanne Lenhart and John T. Workman Biology
Pattern Discovery in Bioinformatics: Darren J. Wilkinson
Theory & Algorithms Structural Bioinformatics: An Algorithmic
Laxmi Parida Approach
Python for Bioinformatics Forbes J. Burkowski
Sebastian Bassi The Ten Most Wanted Solutions in
Spatial Ecology Protein Bioinformatics
Stephen Cantrell, Chris Cosner, and Anna Tramontano
Shigui Ruan

K12463_FM.indd 4 7/12/11 11:47 AM

 Dynamics of
Biological Systems

Michael Small

K12463_FM.indd 5 7/12/11 11:47 AM

MATLAB® is a trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. and is used with permission. The MathWorks does not
warrant the accuracy of the text or exercises in this book. This book’s use or discussion of MATLAB® soft-
ware or related products does not constitute endorsement or sponsorship by The MathWorks of a particular
pedagogical approach or particular use of the MATLAB® software.

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 For Sylvia — thanks for reading it.
And for Henry, James and Rupert — you can read it later.
Contents

Preface xiii

1 Biological Systems and Dynamics 1

1.1 In the Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 The Hemodynamic System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Cheyne–Stokes Respiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2 Population Dynamics of a Single Species 19

2.1 Fibonacci, Malthus and Nicholson’s Blowflies . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2 Fixed Points and Stability of a One-Dimensional First-Order
Difference Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3 The Cobweb Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.4 An Example: Prostate Cancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5 Higher-Dimensional Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.6 Period-Doubling Bifurcation in Infant Respiration . . . . . . 40
2.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

3 Observability of Dynamic Variables 49

3.1 Bioelectric Phenomena Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.2 ECG, EEG, EMG, EOG and All That . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.3 Measuring Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.4 Measuring Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.5 Measuring Oxygen Concentration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.6 Biomedical Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.7 The Importance of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

4 Biomedical Signal Processing 77

4.1 Automatic Analysis of Electroencephalograms . . . . . . . . 77
4.2 Electrocardiographic Signal Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.3 Vector Cardiography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.4 Embedology and State Space Representation . . . . . . . . . 91
4.5 Fractals, Chaos and Non-Linear Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.6 Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

ix
x

5 Computational Neurophysiology 113

5.1 The Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.2 Action Potentials and Ion Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.3 Fick’s Law, Ohm’s Law and the Einstein Relation . . . . . . 118
5.4 Cellular Equilibrium: Nernst and Goldman . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.5 Equivalent Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.6 Dendrites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

6 Mathematical Neurodynamics 141

6.1 Hodgkin, Huxley and the Squid Giant Axon . . . . . . . . . 141
6.2 FitzHugh–Nagumo Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.3 Fixed Points and Stability of a One-Dimensional Differential
Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6.4 Nullclines and Phase-Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.5 Pitchfork and Hopf Bifurcations in Two Dimensions . . . . . 150
6.6 Excitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

7 Population Dynamics 165

7.1 Predator–Prey Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7.2 Fixed Points and Stability of Two-Dimensional Differential
Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7.3 Disease Models: SIS, SIR and SEIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7.4 SARS in Hong Kong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

8 Action, Reaction and Diffusion 185

8.1 Black Death and Spatial Disease Transmission . . . . . . . . 185
8.2 Reaction–Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
8.3 Cardiac Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
8.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

9 Autonomous Agents 201

9.1 Flocking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
9.2 Celluloid Penguins and Roosting Starlings . . . . . . . . . . 202
9.3 Evaluating Crowd Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
9.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

10 Complex Networks 213

10.1 Human Networks: Growing Complex Networks . . . . . . . . 213
10.2 Small-World Networks and the Spread of SARS . . . . . . . 226
10.3 Global Spread of Avian Influenza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
10.4 Complex Disease Transmission and Immunisation . . . . . . 241
10.5 Complex Networks Constructed from Musical Composition . 242
 xi

10.6 Interaction of Grazing Herbivores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

10.7 Neuronal Networks Are Complex Networks . . . . . . . . . . 245
10.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

11 Conclusion 251
11.1 Models Are a Reflection of Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Bibliography 255

Index 259
Preface

Biological systems exhibit rich dynamic behaviour over a vast range of time
and space scales: from the spontaneous rapid firing of cortical neurons to
the spatial diffusion of disease epidemics and evolutionary speciation. This
text unifies many of these diverse phenomena and provides the computational
and mathematical platform to understand the underlying processes. Through
an extensive tour of various biological systems, we introduce computational
methods for simulating spatial diffusion processes in excitable media (such as
the human heart), and mathematical tools for dealing with systems of nonlin-
ear ordinary and partial differential equations (necessary to describe neuronal
activation and disease diffusion). We show that even relatively simple math-
ematical descriptions are capable of capturing a wide range of observed bio-
logical behaviour and offering insight into the dynamic system hidden within.
We present mathematical models and computer simulations that can provide
insight into cardiac pacemakers and artificial electrical defibrillation, and can
suggest appropriate control strategies to mediate the effects of past and future
pandemics.
The key concept of this text is the idea of the model: a computational
or mathematical abstraction of a more concrete description. At various lay-
ers, the models we use to describe specific biological systems become more
abstract and hence more manageable. At the same time, the scope of the
model becomes broader. The same basic mathematical description can de-
scribe very different biological phenomena. There is a natural convergence
between models of hormone secretion, respiratory carbon dioxide uptake and
ecological population fluctuations. Starting from each separate biological sys-
tem, we can obtain models that at various levels of abstraction are equivalent.
Consequently, when the models exhibit gradual loss of stability and onset of
chaotic dynamics through a sequence of period doublings, we can begin to
understand the origin of the same characteristic pattern in each of the diverse
biological systems.
Via a range of models, we observe a host of different bifurcations and dy-
namic structures in a wide range of both temporal and spatial systems. Con-
sideration is also given to emerging research areas in complex biological sys-
tems: pattern formation and flocking behaviour, interaction of autonomous
agents, hierarchical and structured network topologies in a range of systems
(from neuronal aggregations in the nematode worm to synchronous behaviour
in herd animals and disease transmission dynamics). Tools from complex sys-
tems and complex networks are introduced and demonstrated to be useful for

xiii
xiv Preface

dealing with a range of real phenomenological systems. Biological systems

exhibit a rich assortment of coherent and emergent behaviour. Biological
systems fluctuate in time and their behaviour changes over time. This text
introduces the necessary mathematical and computational tools to understand
these temporal phenomena.
The target audience for this text is undergraduate students with a basic
mathematical foundation. High-school level or first-year undergraduate cal-
culus should suffice: substantial knowledge or proficiency in differential equa-
tions is not required. Some knowledge of computing programming is helpful,
but not necessary. The material in this text has been used for several years
as the basis of a one-semester bioengineering course taught to electronic en-
gineering undergraduates. One of the main aims of this course has been to
teach a broad range of mathematical and computational modelling skills and
show students the real practical application of these skills. In addition to
undergraduate students with some calculus background, this text will be of
interest to researchers in biological and physiological sciences who need an
overview of contemporary mathematical and computational techniques. Be-
ginning postgraduate students in chaos, complexity and nonlinear dynamics
will benefit from the broad range of techniques and contemporary tools that
are discussed.
Exercises for the reader, as well as computational and research projects, are
suggested at the end of each chapter. The website for this book will provide
additional resources including MATLAB® code and example data sets.

Acknowledgements
During the writing of this book I was provided with financial support from
the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Internal grant G-YG35 and G-U867)
and funding from the General Research Fund of the Hong Kong University
Grants Council (PolyU 5279/08E and PolyU 5300/09E).
MATLAB® is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. For product
information, please contact:
The MathWorks, Inc.
3 Apple Hill Drive
Natick, MA 01760-2098 USA
Tel: 508-647-7000
Fax: 508-647-7001
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.mathworks.com

Finally, the cover illustration is the work of Henry Small (aged 7).
 Preface xv

Feedback
Although the best way to really understand how these techniques work is
to create your own implementation of the necessary computer code, this is
not always possible. Therefore, I have made MATLAB® implementations of
many of the key algorithms and the various case studies, available from my
website (http://small.eie.polyu.edu.hk/). You are most welcome to send me
your comments and feedback ([email protected]).

Michael Small
Hong Kong
Chapter 1
Biological Systems and Dynamics

1.1 In the Beginning

Biological systems change over time; they change over time in two important
and very different ways. First, animals breathe, populations rise and fall and
your heart keeps beating. All these changes are regular and continual. In
each case the output of the system is changing in a rhythmic manner and
past behaviour provides (at least some) indication of what will happen in the
future. This change is the continuous fluctuation that makes up the rhythm
of life, and varies within some acceptable range. The system is in some sort of
balanced equilibrium. Mathematically, the system is said to be stationary, not
because the system is not moving, but because the mathematical description
of the system and the system parameters are not changing.
There is a second type of change in biological systems. This occurs when
the system itself (and by extension, the mathematical description of that
system) changes. For millennia the global climate system has been in a quite
stationary state — certainly there is seasonal variation and longer climatic
cycles , but all this variation is within some natural bounds. Both sorts of
change are illustrated in Fig. 1.1. Relative global warm and cool periods occur
and fluctuation occurs, but the system is stationary. Then, man dramatically
increases the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere to a level which is
unlike anything in natural history and at a speed far faster than nature has
ever managed. This man-made change in the state of one variable in the global
climate system means that the system is now nonstationary. Its behaviour is
entering a regime unlike any that has been seen in the past.
Fig. 1.1 illustrates the change in a system, the human cardiovascular sys-
tem, as a patient suffers a heart attack. Similarly, individual neurons within
your brain are rapidly and spontaneously pulsing. The neurons (and there
are about one thousand billion of them) in your brain are the individual cells
which process information and are collectively responsible for consciousness
and thought. Despite this massive responsibility, the state of each individ-
ual neuron can be fairly well described with a simple set of mathematical
equations. The behaviour of each neuron can be qualitatively predicted with
reasonable accuracy — by qualitative prediction we mean that we are able to
provide a description of the type of predicted behaviour, without predicting

1
2 Dynamics of Biological Systems

4 6
10
6

4
5

t t
20 40 60 80 100 20 40 60 80 100

!2

!5
!4

!6

12 18
20

15
20

10
10
5

t t
20 40 60 80 100 20 40 60 80 100

!5
!10
!10

!20
!15

2
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
t

Figure 1.1: Dynamics of systems. The top four plots show the stable
dy
dynamic behaviour for the theoretical Rössler system ( dxdt = −y − z, dt =
x + 0.1y, and dz
dt = 0.1 + z(x − c)). The horizontal axis is time and in each
case the system changes continuously. For a parameter (c) value of 4, the
system is periodic. However, as we change the value of the parameter, the
behaviour of the system changes. For c = 6 the system is now bi-periodic and
for c = 12 the system becomes period three. Of course, for all intermediate
values of c the system behaviour changes gradually. But for any fixed value
of c, the system will oscillate — changing continuously. Finally, for c =
18, the system behaviour is bounded and not periodic — it exhibits what is
mathematically defined as chaos. The lower panel illustrates a real recording
of the electrocardiogram of a human and shows a second example of the
change in dynamics between (in this case, at least) three states: from a stable
(almost periodic) regular heartbeat on the left, to ventricular tachycardia in
the middle and ventricular fibrillation on the right. This trace illustrates
the progression of onset of a heart attack and in this case the patient (in a
coronary care unit) only recovered after medical intervention. Within each
window, past behaviour provides (some) guide to the future. But when the
system parameter changes, this is not possible because it is not possible to
predict how the system parameter changes.
 Biological Systems and Dynamics 3

Figure 1.2: The hierarchy of models. Specific highly detailed models of

individual species of fish are shown along the bottom. At higher levels, these
are then abstracted to cartoons of general types of fish — each encompassing
multiple species and varieties from the lower level. These cartoons can be
further abstracted to general fish body morphologies (in this illustration one
could also consider the analogous zoological groupings); these morphologies
are then abstracted further into a vague notion of fish shape. At each level
the illustrations take the role of a model — describing certain features of the
things being modeled, while ignoring others. More general models become
simpler as they encompass more varieties — but account for the varieties
with less and less detail. (Note that for clarity, some portions of this diagram
are omitted and shown as dotted lines.)

the precise values of the system (we will see later why such precise numeri-
cal predictions, quantitative predictions, cannot be made). However, as your
attention shifts from this text to the activities of last Friday night (what-
ever they were), delicate chemical signals in your brain change the balance
between different neurotransmitters (the family of chemicals responsible for
the transmission of information between different brain regions, and between
individual neurons) within different regions of the brain and this causes the
activity of these individual neurons to change. The parameters of the mathe-
matical description of each neuron needs to change, and hence the qualitative
behaviour changes.
This book is about both sorts of change: the way in which a biological
system in a stable equilibrium changes, and the way in which systems can
4 Dynamics of Biological Systems

be perturbed from equilibrium and then settle to a new equilibrium. The

main tool we will employ to describe and to study this change will be models.
The models may be mathematical, computational or even biological (in the
case where one systems acts as an archetypal representative for another).
However, models always incur a cost. Each model we use is a simplification
and abstraction from the real system on which we wish to focus. The models
are therefore imperfect. But this imperfection has two great benefits.
First, if we choose the right models, then the model contains all the im-
portant behaviour of the original system, but at the same time it is somehow
simpler (see Fig. 1.2).
Second, and more dramatic, by performing the right simplifications we will
find the same model description in many different systems. We can see the
same principle that governs population dynamics can also be used to describe
hormone secretion and regulation of respiration. Hence, a good description
of the dynamical behaviour of the model, and of how that model’s behaviour
can change, can be applied to a host of different biological systems.
This book is about models and about how the changing dynamical be-
haviour of models can be described. We will begin this introduction with
two examples to illustrate the main principles: the hemodynamic system and
Cheyne–Stokes respiration.

1.2 The Hemodynamic System

The human body contains between five and six litres of blood distributed in
a closed system over a circulatory system consisting of around 100,000 km of
pipes. That is, from the largest blood vessels delivering blood to and from
the heart to the most distant and minute capillaries. Obviously, with these
dimensions, most of the tubing that makes up the circulatory system is very
very tiny. The smallest capillaries are 8 µm in diameter and have walls that
are no more than one cell thick. The reason for this minute scale and vast
length is that, as a consequence, the entire human body is densely packed
with blood vessels. It is estimated that every cell in the body is no more than
0.1 mm from a capillary. Because the capillaries themselves are so thin, and
their walls consist of a layer of single cells, it is easy for carbon dioxide and
oxygen to diffuse through them.
The oxygenated blood is delivered from the heart to the body (refer to Fig.
1.3). The oxygen is provided to the muscle tissue and other organs in the body
and replaced in the blood by carbon dioxide which is pumped back through
the heart to the lungs. Of course, once in the lungs, the carbon dioxide is
dumped from the blood and replaced by oxygen to repeat the entire cycle.
Hence the circulatory system consists of a figure-eight pattern with the heart
 Biological Systems and Dynamics 5

Lungs Veins Body

Left Right
Atrium Atrium
Pulmonary circulation

Systemic circulation
Left Ventricle Right Ventricle

Arteries

Figure 1.3: A model of the human circulatory system. The four

chambers of the heart are represented in the centre and shown to drive oxy-
genated blood to the body and then back to the heart before passing the
now-deoxygenated blood to the lungs where the blood is replenished with
oxygen and returned to the heart.
6 Dynamics of Biological Systems

at the centre. Both oxygenated blood from the lungs on its way to the body
and deoxygenated blood from the body returning to the lungs pass through
the heart. The deoxygenated blood passes through the right chambers of the
heart on the return trip to the lungs and the fresh oxygenated blood passes
through the left chambers. On each side there are two chambers: an atrium
and a ventricle. The left atrium receives the blood from the lungs and passes
it to the left ventricle and then onto the body. The right atrium receives
blood from the body and passes it to the right ventricle before returning to
the lungs. The circulatory system is divided into two sections, one side of the
figure eight, dealing with blood flow to and from the lungs is the pulmonary
circulatory system. The other side of the figure eight is connected to the body
and is known as the systemic circulatory system.
The heart acts as a pump and essentially drives the blood through the body.
Hence, the blood leaving the heart through blood vessels known as arteries
is at high pressure, while the blood returning to the heart through veins is
at low pressure. Within the heart itself, the atria are relatively small upper
chambers of the heart and connected via a valve to the much larger lower
chambers. It is these lower chambers, the ventricles (and in particular the
left ventricle) that do most of the work of the heart. In a healthy human at
rest, the left ventricle pumps about 72 beats/minute and about 70 mL/beat.
In doing so, the left ventricle generates about 1.7 W of mechanical power.
During vigorous exercise, the body’s demand for oxygen increases and the
heart rate can increase to over 160 beats/minute.
indexcirculatory system!heart
Figure 1.3 depicts a simple model of the human circulatory system with
the various nomenclature described previously. In Fig. 1.4 we simplify that
model to another model in which the circulatory system is represented as a
pipe in a figure-eight configuration with a pump at the central crossing point.
Now consider a section of that pipe. Or, consider a major artery leaving the
heart. How is the physical force exerted by the heart to pump blood related
to the physical flow realised in the pipe?
We start our description of this system with another model — represented
in Fig. 1.5. Here we focus on a single cylindrical section of pipe and we apply
the standard mathematical model of fluid flow to describe the movement of
blood in that pipe. The Navier–Stokes equation1 is a second-order partial
differential equation describing the spatial-temporal relationship between the
flow of a fluid u(x, y, z, t), pressure P , fluid density ρ and viscosity ν. Note
that the function u describes the instantaneous velocity as a function of time
and space, and this function satisfies the following differential equation,

∂u ∇P
+ u · ∇u = − + ν∇2 u. (1.1)
∂t ρ

1 The Stokes of Navier–Stokes is not the same as the Stokes of Cheyne–Stokes.

 Biological Systems and Dynamics 7

Lungs

Heart

Body

Figure 1.4: A simplified model. The human circulatory system of Fig.

1.3 is represented here as a more simplified model. In this structure, the heart
is a single pump driving blood flow between the heart and the body. From
this diagram we now simplify things further and focus only on the driving
force and the flow of blood in a single section of the circulatory system — see
Fig. 1.5
8 Dynamics of Biological Systems

Q R Z

C
Figure 1.5: An even more simplified model. Now we consider only one
part of the human circulatory system — the flow of blood in a cylindrical,
permeable and elastic walled pipe. The flow Q is driven by the forcing pressure
P , subject to an end load resistance Z. The pipe itself has some flow resistance
R and the elasticity of the pipe leads to deformation governed by a parameter
C. The meaning of the three parameters R, Z and C and the model variables
P and Q is explained in detail in the text. We see that these five quantities are
sufficient to explain the basic features of cardiovascular dynamics. Moreover,
this system can be represented both as a differential equation model in Eqn.
(1.4) and by an equivalent electronic circuit, Fig. 1.6.

This equation is rather complicated, and probably warrants a little closer

examination before we move on. On the left-hand side we have a term for
how the flow is changing in time ∂u∂t and how the flow is being diffused in space
u · ∇u. Remember that the operator ∇ is the gradient operator and that u,
since it is measuring a velocity, is a vector. Hence, the term u · ∇u measures
how fast the fluid velocity is changing at a given location as a function of
space, but not time. In Cartesian co-ordinates,
 ∂ 
∂x
∂ 
u · ∇u = [ux uy uz ] ·  ∂y [ux uy uz ]
∂
∂z
 ∂u
ux ∂xx + uy ∂u ∂ux

∂y + uz ∂z
x

 ∂uy ∂u ∂u
=  ux ∂x + uy ∂yy + uz ∂zy ,

∂uz ∂uz ∂uz
ux ∂x + uy ∂y + uz ∂z

where u = [ux yy uz ] is the Cartesian representation of the vector u. On the

right-hand side we have one term which is due to the forcing exerted on the
fluid by the change in pressure ∇P , and a second term which is the fluid
diffusion ∇2 u and depends on the viscosity ν. The second term measures
the local smoothing out of the fluid flow. One expects that the velocity of a
fluid must change smoothly in space, and that it should change more or less
smoothly, depending on the fluid viscosity. Again, in Cartesian co-ordinates,
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THE PRICELESS PEARL
 THE PRICELESS
PEARL

BY

ALICE DUER MILLER

AUTHOR OF
"Manslaughter," "Come Out of the Kitchen,"
"Are Parents People?" etc.

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1924

Copyright 1923, 1924

By Alice Duer Miller

Printed in U. S. A.
THE PRICELESS PEARL
 CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I 1
CHAPTER TWO 53
CHAPTER THREE 94
CHAPTER FOUR 141

THE PRICELESS PEARL

 CHAPTER I
"The girl is simply too good-looking," said Bunner, the office
manager, in a high, complaining voice. "She is industrious,
intelligent, punctual and well-mannered, but simply too good-looking
—a disturbing element in the office on account of her appearance. I
made a grave mistake in engaging her."
The president, who had been a professor of botany at a great
university before he resigned in order to become head of The
Universal Encyclopedia of Necessary Knowledge Publishing
Corporation, was a trifle deaf, but had not as yet admitted the fact to
himself; and he inquired with the patient, slightly contemptuous
surprise of the deaf, "But I do not understand why she is crying."
"It is not she who is crying," answered the office manager
regretfully; "it is Mr. Rixon, our third vice president. He is crying
because he has most unfortunately become interested in the young
woman—fallen in love with her—so my stenographer tells me."
The president peered through his bifocal lenses. He did not wish to
be thought one of those unsophisticated scientists who understand
only the plain unpsychological process of plants. He inquired
whether the girl had encouraged the third vice president, whether, in
a word, she had given him to understand that she took a deeper
interest in him than was actually the fact, "the disappointment of the
discovery being the direct cause of the emotional outbreak which
you have just described."
Bunner hesitated. He would have liked to consider that Miss Leavitt
was to blame, for otherwise the responsibility was entirely his own.
In his heart he believed she was, for he was one of those men who
despise women and yet consider them omnipotent.
"I can't say I've ever seen her do more than say good morning to
him," he answered rather crossly. "But I believe there is a way of
avoiding a man—with her appearance. You have probably never
noticed her, sir, but——"
"Oh, I've noticed her," said the president, nodding his old head. "I've
noticed a certain youth and exuberant vitality, and—yes, I may say
beauty—decided beauty."
Bunner sighed.
"A girl like that ought to get married," he said. "They ought not to
be working in offices, making trouble. It's hard on young men of
susceptible natures like Mr. Rixon. You can hardly blame him."
No, they agreed they did not blame him at all; and so they decided
to let the young woman have her salary to the first of the month and
let her go immediately.
"That will be best, Bunner," said the president, and dismissed the
matter from his mind.
But Bunner, who knew that there was a possibility that even a
beautiful young woman might not enjoy losing her job, could not
dismiss the matter from his mind until the interview with her was
over. He decided, therefore, to hold it at once, and withdrew from
the president's room, where, as a directors' meeting was about to
take place, the members of the board were already beginning to
gather.
Bunner was a pale fat man of forty, who was as cold to the excessive
emotion of the third vice president as he was to the inconvenient
beauty which had caused it. He paused beside Miss Leavitt's desk in
the outer office and requested a moment of her time.
She had finished going over the article on Corals and was about to
begin that on Coronach—a Scotch dirge or lamentation for the dead.
She had just been wondering whether any created being would ever
want to know anything about coronach, when Mr. Bunner spoke to
her. If she had followed her first impulse she would have looked up
and beamed at him, for she was of the most friendly and
warmhearted nature; but she remembered that beaming was not
safe where men were concerned—even when they were fat and
forty—so she answered coldly, "Yes, Mr. Bunner," and rose and
followed him to his own little office.
Miss Pearl Leavitt, A. B., Rutland College, was not one of those
beauties who must be pointed out to you before you appreciate their
quality. On the contrary, the eye roving in her neighborhood was
attracted to her as to a luminary. There was nothing finicky or subtle
or fine-drawn about her. Her features were rather large and simple,
like a Greek statue's, though entirely without a statue's immobility.
Her coloring was vivid—a warm brunette complexion, a bright
golden head and a pair of large gray eyes that trembled with their
own light as they fixed themselves upon you, much as the reflection
of the evening star trembles in a quiet pool. But what had always
made her charm, more than her beauty, was her obvious human
desire to be a member of the gang—to enjoy what the crowd
enjoyed and do what was being done. It was agony to her to
assume the icy, impassive demeanor which, since she had been
working in offices, she had found necessary. But she did it. She was
hard up.
When Mr. Bunner had sent away his stenographer and shut the door
he sat down and pressed his small fat hands together.
"Miss Leavitt," he said, "I am sorry to be obliged to tell you that
during the summer months when so many of our heads of
departments are away on their vacations, we shall be obliged to
reduce our office staff; and so, though your work has been most
satisfactory—we have no complaint to make of your work—still I am
sorry to be obliged to tell you that during the summer months, when
so many of our heads of departments——"
He did not know what was the matter; the sentence appeared to be
a circular sentence without exits.
Miss Leavitt folded her arms with a rapid whirling motion. Of course,
since the first three words of his sentence she had known that she
had lost her job.
"Just why is it that I am being sent away?" she said.
Sulky children, before they actually burst into tears, have a way of
almost visibly swelling like a storm cloud. It would be wrong to
suggest that anything as lovely as Pearl Leavitt could swell, and yet
there was something of this effect as she stared down at the office
manager. He did not like her tone, nor yet her look.
He said with a sort of acid smile, "I was about to explain the reason
when you interrupted me. Although your work has been perfectly
satisfactory, we feel that during the summer months——" He
wrenched himself away from that sentence entirely. "It is the wish of
the president," he said, "that you be given your salary to the first of
the month—which I hereby hand you—and be told that it will not be
necessary for you to come here after today. In parting with you, Miss
Leavitt, I wish to assure you that the quality of your work for this
organization has been in every respect——"
"I want to speak to the president," said Miss Leavitt.
She did not raise her voice, but no one could have mistaken that her
tone was threatening. She vibrated her head slightly from side to
side, and spit out her t's in a way actually alarming to Bunner, who
was a man susceptible to fear.
"Our decision is quite final—quite final, I'm sorry to say," he said,
fussing with his papers as a hint that she had better go and leave
him in peace.
"That's why I want to speak to him."
"Quite impossible," answered Bunner. "The board is meeting at
present in his room——"
"What!" cried Pearl. "They're all there together, are they?" And
before the office manager took in her intention she was out of his
office, across the main office and in the board room.
Like so many people destined to succeed in New York, Pearl came
originally from Ohio. She was an orphan, and after her graduation
from an Eastern college she had gone back to her native state,
meaning to make her home with her two aunts. It had not been a
successful summer. Not only was it hot, and there was no swimming
where her aunts lived, and Pearl loved to swim, but two of her
cousins fell in love with her—one from each family—and it became a
question either of their leaving home or of her going. So Pearl very
gladly came East again, and under the guidance of her great friend
Augusta Exeter began to look for a job.
She had come East in September, and it was now July—hardly ten
months—and yet in that time she had had and lost four good jobs
through no fault of her own but wholly on account of her
extraordinary beauty. She was not insulted; no one threatened her
virtue or offered to run away with her. It was simply that, like Helen
of Troy, "Where'er she came she brought calamity."
Her first place had been with a publishing firm, Dixon & Gregory.
When Pearl came to them the business was managed by the two
sons of the original firm; the elder Dixon was dead, and the elder
Gregory, a man of fifty-six or eight, came to the office only once or
twice a week. A desk for her had been put in his private room, as it
was almost always vacant. It ceased, however, to be vacant as soon
as he saw Pearl. He had no idea that he had fallen in love with her—
perhaps he had not. He certainly never troubled, her with attentions;
as far as she knew he was hardly aware of her existence. His
emotion, whatever it was, took the form of quarreling with anyone
who did speak to her—even in the course of necessary business.
When at last one day he met her and the younger Dixon going out
to lunch at the same hour and in the same elevator, but purely by
accident, he made such a violent and inexplicable scene that the two
younger partners, after consultation, decided that the only thing to
do was to get rid of the girl quietly—get her to resign. They were
both very nice about it, and themselves found her another place—as
secretary to a magazine editor—a man of ice, they assured her. She
never saw the elder Mr. Gregory again, and a few months later read
in the papers of his death.
Her new position went well for several months. The editor was, as
represented, a man of ice; but, as Hamlet has observed, being as
pure as snow and as chaste as ice does not protect against calumny,
and the wife of the editor, entering the office one day to find her
husband and his secretary bending over an illegible manuscript,
refused to allow such dangerous beauty so near her husband, and
Pearl lost her second job.
Her next place was with an ambitious young firm which was putting
a new cleaning fluid on the market. At first, in a busy office, Pearl
seemed to pass almost unnoticed. Then one day the two partners,
young men both and heretofore like brothers, came to her together
and asked her if she would do the firm a great favor—sit for her
portrait to a well-known artist so that they might use her picture as
a poster to advertise their product. Pearl consented—she thought it
would be rather good fun. The result was successful. Indeed, the
only criticism of the picture—which represented Pearl in tawny
yellow holding up a saffron-colored robe at which she smiled
brilliantly, with beneath it the caption, Why Does She Smile? Because
Her Old Dress is Made New by—was that it would have been better
to get a real person to sit for the picture, as the public was tired of
these idealized types of female beauty. But the trouble started over
who was to own the original pastel. It developed that each partner
had started the idea from a hidden wish to own a portrait of Pearl.
They quarreled bitterly. The very existence of the firm was
threatened. An old friend of the two families stepped in and effected
a reconciliation, but his decision was that the girl must go. It did not
look well for two boys of their age—just beginning in business—to
have as handsome a woman as that in the office. People might talk.
It was after this—some time after—that Pearl took the place with the
Encyclopedia company. Her record began to tell against her.
Everyone wanted to know why she changed jobs so often. She
thought she had learned her lesson—not to beam, not to be friendly,
not to do anyone favors. She had made up her mind to stay with the
Encyclopedia forever. She had had no hint of danger. She hardly
knew the third vice president by sight—someone in the office had
told her a silly story about his crying one day, but she hadn't even
believed it. And now she had lost another job—and in July, too,
when jobs are hard to find.
Heretofore she had always gone docilely. But now she felt she could
bear it no longer—she must tell someone what she thought.
It was four o'clock on a hot summer afternoon, and round the
board-room table the members were saying "aye" and "no" and "I so
move," while their minds were occupied with the questions that do
occupy the mind at such times—golf and suburban trains, and
whether huckleberry pie in hot weather hadn't been a mistake—
when the glass door opened and a beautiful girl came in like a
hurricane. She had evidently been talking for some seconds when
she entered. She was saying, "——are just terrible. I want to tell you
gentlemen, now that I have you together, that I think men are just
terrible." She had a curious voice, deep and a little rough, more like
a boy's than a woman's, yet a voice which when you once knew
Pearl you remembered with affection. "This is the fourth job I've lost
because men have no self-control. I do my work. I don't even speak
to any of you—I'd like to—I'm human, but I don't dare any more. I
attend to business, there's no fault found with my work—but I've got
to go because some man or other can't work in the office with me.
Why not? Because he has no self-control—and not ashamed of it—
not ashamed, that's what shocks me. Why, if a girl found she
couldn't do her work because there was a good-looking man in the
office, she'd die rather than admit she was so silly. But what does a
man do? He goes whining to the president to get the poor girl
dismissed. There it is! I have to go!"
And so on, and so on. The board was so astonished at her entrance,
at the untrammeled way in which she was striding up and down,
digging her heels into the rug and flinging her arms about as she
talked, that they were like people stunned. They turned their eyes
with relief to Mr. Bunner, who came hurrying in behind her.
"Miss Leavitt has been dropped," he began, but she cut him short.
"I've been dropped," she said, "because——"
"Will you let me speak?" said Mr. Bunner—a rhetorical question. He
meant to speak in any case.
"No," answered Pearl. "Certainly not. Gentlemen, I have been
dismissed—I know—because some man in this office has no self-
control. I can't identify him, but I have my suspicions." And she cast
a dreadful glance at the third vice president. "Why should I go? Why
shouldn't he? Crying! Woof! How absurd!"
"Leave the room, Miss Leavitt," said the president; but he weakened
the effect of his edict by leaning forward with his hand to his ear so
as to catch whatever she was going to say next.
"I haven't shed a tear since my mother died," said Mr. Rixon rather
tearfully to the man next him.
"This is not the time to discuss your grievance, Miss Leavitt," said
the treasurer, wondering why he had never kept in closer touch with
the office; "but if you feel you have a just complaint against the
company come to my office tomorrow afternoon——"
"I'll not go near your office," said Pearl, and she began again to
stride about the room, occasionally stamping her right foot without
losing step. "I shall never again go into any office where men are. I
won't work for men. They're poor sports; they have no self——"
"You said that before," said the treasurer.
"——control," Pearl went on, for people in her frame of mind cannot
be stopped. "Why shouldn't he go? But no, you have to be protected
from a girl like a herd of sheep from a wolf—a girl who hasn't even
looked at you, at that. If I had ever spoken to the man——"
"Leave the room instantly, Miss Leavitt," said the president, and this
time he spoke as if he meant it, for he was afraid the identity of the
third vice president might be revealed. Little it mattered to Pearl
what the old man meant.
"I wouldn't mind so much," she went on, "if you did not all pretend
to be so brave and strong—to protect women. You protect each
other—that's who you protect."
"Come, come," said a member of the board. "This isn't the way to
keep a job, you know."
"I don't want to keep this job. I want you for once to hear what a
woman thinks of the men she works for—a lot of poor sports—and
not industrious—none of you work the way girls work for you. Slack,
that's what I call you, and lacking in self-control."
And she went out as suddenly as she had come in, and slammed the
door so hard behind that those members of the board, sitting near it
ducked their heads into their collars in fear of falling glass.
There was a minute's pause, and then the president said with a
slight smile, "Well, Mr. Bunner, I think we all see what you meant
when you said this young woman was a disturbing element in the
office."
"There has never been anything like this before," said Bunner;
"never anything in the least like this anywhere I have ever been."
"Well," said the treasurer, "I don't suppose we need distress
ourselves about her finding another job."
There was a certain wistful undercurrent in his tone.
"No," said Bunner, slightly misunderstanding his meaning. "She is
competent and industrious."
"She ought to get married, a pretty girl like that—not go about
making trouble in offices," said the president.
"I have always been of the opinion," said the third vice president,
"that it would be much simpler to run the office entirely with men."
"Oh, it would be much better—much better, of course," said Bunner;
"only women are so much more accurate about detail, more
industrious and less expensive."
And as there was no woman present to inquire why then men were
so much more desirable, the question dropped, and the president
recalled the board's attention to the subject of the paper to be used
in their next edition—the topic under consideration when Pearl made
her entrance. It was rather hard to take any interest in it now.
And so Pearl began once again to go the round of agencies, to
interview or be interviewed by office managers, and hear that if she
came back in October there might be a chance. But October was
three months away, and she could not live three months on
something less than a hundred dollars. She even began to scan the
columns of the newspapers—from clerks, through stenographers,
ushers, and finally winders—she never found out what winders were.
If her dear friend and sage adviser, Augusta Exeter, had been in
town she could have shared her room; but Augusta was in Vermont,
visiting the family of the man she was going to marry. At least,
Augusta's last letter had been from Vermont; but as a matter of fact,
three days after Pearl left the Encyclopedia's employ Augusta came
back to New York. She had had a letter from the agency where her
name was registered practically offering a position which sounded
too good to refuse. Besides, Augusta did not really like farm life in
Vermont, and the Baynes family, for some reason which she could
not explain, gave her a composite picture of Horace, her fiancé,
which tended to make her love him less. Even New York in
midsummer was preferable.
Therefore it happened that as Pearl wandered, lonely as a cloud,
from office to office, longing for her friend's wisdom, Augusta herself
was sitting in the outer office of a company, looking for a job.
Though the office was that of the Finlay-Wood Engineering Co., the
position which Miss Augusta Exeter was considering was that of a
governess. She was not at all sure that she wanted the place.
College women are not well disposed toward positions as
governesses; yet as Miss Exeter sat there in the busy outer office
and watched the office boys coming in and out, and the impassive
young woman at the switchboard, enunciating again and again,
"Finlay-Wood Company," "Hold the wire," she went over the
advantages of this offer—a high salary, the two hottest months of
the summer at Southampton, and the fact that as she was to be
married in October, she could not take a long-time position in any
case.
Mr. Wood's secretary, with whom so far all the negotiations had been
carried on, had impressed upon her the necessity of being punctual
—"eleven precisely," he had said, for it seemed Mr. Wood was going
to Mexico that afternoon. And so Augusta, who was punctual by
nature, had found herself in the office ten minutes ahead of time.
She sat listening to the telephone girl and watching a door which
bore the simple inscription, "Mr. Wood." And just behind that door a
tall sunburned man in the neighborhood of thirty was standing,
slapping the pockets of his blue serge clothes and saying, "Griggs, I
have a feeling I've forgotten something. What is it I've forgotten,
Griggs?"
The desk was as bare as a desk ought to be when its owner is going
away for two months. Griggs ran his eye proudly over it.
"No, Mr. Wood," he said. "I don't think anything has been forgotten.
Nothing was left except the letter to the President, the Spanish
dictionary and the Mexican currency. All that has been attended to."
He consulted a list held in the palm of his hand.
"It was something of my own," said Wood, and he eyed his secretary
with an air that might have appeared stern but was merely
concentrated, when the door opened and the office boy came in and
said, "Miss Stone says she's notified him that there's a lady there to
see him, and will we let her in to him?"
"A lady?" said Griggs severely.
"That's it," said Wood. "It's the governess for my sister. Think of my
nearly forgetting that!"
"You ought not be worried about such things," said Griggs, as if he
were very bitter about it, "with all your responsibilities."
Wood smiled. It wasn't true, but it was the way one's secretary
ought to feel.
"I'd have a lot more to worry me," he said, "if I were married
myself."
"You certainly would," answered Griggs, who was married.
"But will we let her in to him?" said the office boy, who clung to this
formula, although the head clerk was trying to break him of it.
"You may let her come in," said Griggs, as if he would perish rather
than allow his chief to hold verbal communication with anything so
low as an office boy, and as he spoke he silently gave Wood a pale-
blue card—one of a dozen on which in beautiful block letters he had
written down the names, degrees, past experience, with notes on
personal appearance, of all the candidates for position of governess
in the household of Wood's sister, Mrs. Conway.
"This is the best of them?" said Wood, and he ran his eye rapidly
over the card, which read:
"Augusta Exeter, A. B. Rutland College; Ph. D., Columbia University,
specialized in mathematics and household management."
He looked up. "Queer combination, isn't it?"
"I thought it was just what you wanted," answered Griggs
reproachfully.
"Nothing queerer than that," said Wood, and went on: "Six-month
dietary expert—one year training—appearance, pleasing." He
glanced at his secretary. It amused him to think of the discreet
Griggs appraising the appearance of these young women. "What
system did you mark them on, Griggs?" he asked, but got no further,
for the door opened and Miss Exeter entered, and Griggs, with his
unfailing discretion, left.
Wood looked at her and saw that Griggs as usual had been exactly
right—she was neither more nor less than pleasing—a small, slim,
pale girl, whose unremarkable brown eyes radiated a steady
intelligence.
Wood had employed labor in many parts of the world, from Chile to
China, and he had a routine about it—a preliminary intelligence test,
which he applied.
"Sit down, Miss Exeter," he said. "I think it will save us both time if
you will tell me all that you know about this position"—this was the
test—"and then I'll fill in."
Augusta sat down. She found herself a trifle nervous. This man
impressed her, for since her childhood she had cherished a secret
romantic admiration for men who exercised any form of power—
kings and generals and men of great affairs. It was a feeling that
had nothing to do with real life and represented no disloyalty to her
fiancé, Horace Bayne, who exercised no power of any kind.
One reason why it had had no relation to life was that she had not
met any men of this type. Even in the outer office she had been
impressed by the sense of a man waited on and protected by
secretaries and office boys as an Eastern princess is waited upon by
slaves. And now when she saw him she saw that he had exactly the
type of looks she admired most—tall, a little too thin, his face tanned
to that shade of café au lait that the blond Anglo-Saxon acquires
under the sun—those piercing bright-blue eyes—that large
handsome hand, which, with the thumb in his waistcoat pocket, was
so clearly outlined against the blue serge of his clothes.
She said rather uncertainly, "I know that Mrs. Conway is a widow
with three children——"
Even this much was wrong.
"Not, a widow," he said; "divorced."
"——with three children," Augusta went on; "a girl of seventeen, a
boy of fifteen and a little girl of eleven. I know that during your
absence you want someone to take the care and responsibility of the
children off your sister's shoulders."
He smiled—his teeth seemed to have the extraordinary whiteness
that is the compensation of a dark skin.
"I see," he said, "that Griggs has been discreet again." He glanced at
his watch. "I'm going to Mexico in a few hours, Miss Exeter. I have
just twenty-five minutes. If in that time I am not thoroughly
indiscreet I can't look to you for any help. The situation is this: My
sister married Gordon Conway when she was very young—eighteen;
he turned out to be a gambler. I don't know whether you've ever
known any gamblers"—Miss Exeter never had—"but they are a
peculiar breed—the real ones—charming—friendly—gay—open-
handed when they are winning; they become the most inhuman
devils in the world when they are losing. Never get tied up to a
gambler. During my poor sister's romance and marriage Conway was
winning—large sums—on the races. But that stopped a month or so
after their marriage, and ever since then, as far as I know, he has
lost—in stocks, at Monte Carlo, and finally at every little gambling
casino in Europe. After about six years of it we managed to get her a
divorce. She has entire control of the children, of course. Conway
has sunk out of sight. Oh, once in a while he turns up and tries to
get a little money from her, but fortunately what little she inherited
from my father came to her after her divorce, or otherwise he'd have
managed to get it away from her. She's very generous—weak—
whichever you call it. One of the things I'm going to ask you to do is
to prevent her seeing him at all, and certainly prevent her letting
him have any money. Though it isn't likely to happen. I believe he's
abroad.
"The great point is the children. I'm sorry to say that it seems to me
my sister is ruining three naturally fine children as rapidly as a
devoted mother can. Of course, many parents are over indulgent,
but my sister not only indulges her children but gives them at the
same time the conviction that they are such interesting and special
types that none of the ordinary rules apply to them. The elder girl,
Dorothy, is a pretty, commonplace American girl—no fault to find
with her except that her mother treats her as if she were an
empress. If, for instance, her mother keeps her waiting five minutes
she behaves as if she were an exiled queen faced by treachery
among her dependents—won't speak to her mother perhaps for a
day. And if I say—which I oughtn't to do, for it's no use—'Isn't
Dorothy a trifle insolent?' my sister answers, 'I'm so delighted to see
that she isn't growing up with the inferiority complex that I had as a
girl.' The boy is a perfectly straight manly boy, but he smokes
constantly—at fifteen—and when I criticize him my sister says before
him, 'Well, Anthony, you know you smoke yourself. I can't very well
tell Durland it's a crime. Besides, I have the theory that if he smokes
enough now he'll be tired of it by the time he grows up.'"
"But that isn't sound," said Miss Exeter, quite shocked at the sketch
she was hearing. "Habits formed in youth——"
"Of course it isn't sound," said Wood. "And as a matter of fact, my
sister never thought of it until I objected. She evolves these theories
merely for the sake of protecting her children. Oddly enough, she
not only doesn't want to change them herself but she doesn't want
any one else to change them. Three years ago I engaged in a life-
and-death struggle with her to get Durland—the boy—to boarding
school. She advanced the following arguments against it: First, that
he was a perfectly normal, manly boy and did not need to go;
second, that he was of a peculiar, artistic, sensitive temperament
and would be wrecked by being made to conform to boarding-school
standards; third, that none of the successful men of the country had
gone to boarding school; fourth, that success was the last thing she
desired for any son of hers; fifth, that she did not wish to remove
him from the benefits of my daily influence; and sixth, that I was a
person of no judgment and absolutely wrong about its being wise for
a boy to go to school."
"And is he at school?" Miss Exeter inquired politely.
"Oh, yes," answered Wood, without seeing anything amusing in her
question. "Although my sister does a good deal to counteract the
effect—by making fun of the teachers and the rules, and always
bringing him, when she goes to visit him, whatever is specially
forbidden, like candy and cigarettes and extra pocket money. You
see, that's where it's going to be hard for you. She not only doesn't
want to discipline them herself but she's against any person or
institution that tries to do it for her. As soon as you begin to
accomplish anything with the children—as I'm sure you will do—
she'll be against you; she'll want you to go."
"That makes it pretty hopeless, doesn't it?" said Miss Exeter.
He shook his head briskly.
"No," he said; "for I have made her promise that she won't send you
away, no matter what happens, until I get back. I know what was in
her mind when she gave the promise—that she could make it so
unpleasant for you that you'd go of your own accord. So, Miss
Exeter, I want you to promise me that you won't go, no matter how
disagreeable she makes it——"
"Oh, Mr. Wood, I couldn't do that," said Augusta.
"There's no use in going at all otherwise," he said. "Oh, come, be a
sport! I'll make it worth while. I'll give you a bonus of five hundred
dollars if you're still on the job when I get back—or I'll bring you a
turquoise—I'm going down to inspect the best mine in the world.
You see, I feel this means the whole future of those children—to be
with a woman like you. I know you could do with them just what I
want done."
"You may be mistaken about that, Mr. Wood."
"I may be, but I'm not."
The blue eyes fixed themselves on her. She said to herself that it
was the five hundred dollars—so desirable for a trousseau—that
turned the scale, but the blue eyes and the compliment had
something to do with her decision.
"It seems a reckless thing to promise," she murmured with a weak
laugh.
"No, not at all. I wouldn't let you do anything reckless." He spoke as
a kindly grandfather might speak. "And now we have ten minutes
left, and I want to talk to you about the little one—Antonia." His face
softened, and after a slight struggle he yielded to a smile. "The truth
is," he said, "that she's much my favorite. She's intelligent and
honest, and the justest person of any age or sex that I ever knew in
my life." He paused a second. "Perhaps it is because I'm fonder of
her than of the other two, but it seems to me my sister is
particularly unwise about Antonia."
His mind went back to his parting the evening before with this small
niece. He and his sister had been sitting on the piazza of the house
they had taken at Southampton—at least she had taken it and he
had paid for it. Only a few yards away the Atlantic, in one of its
placid lakelike moods, was hissing slowly up and down on the sand.
The struggle about a governess had been going on for several
weeks. So far Mrs. Conway had won, for this was his last evening
and none had been engaged. She had a wonderful method for
dealing with her brother—a method to be commended to all weak
people trying to get the maximum of interest and the minimum of
control from stronger natures. She listened to everything he said as
if she were wholly convinced by his words and intended to follow his
advice to the last detail, and then she went away and did just what
she had always meant to do. If he reproached her she looked at him
wonderingly and said: "But, Anthony dear, I did agree with you at
the time; but afterward, when I came to think——" Oh, how well he
knew that dread phrase, "afterward, when I came to think!"
By these methods she had managed to fend off action for three
weeks, agreeing with him most cordially that the children ought to
have a governess, but thinking, after he had gone to New York for
the week, that it would be nice for them to take French lessons with
that charming French lady in the village, or that perhaps the
Abernathys' governess would come over for an hour a day——
And now on his last evening he had outmaneuvered her by
announcing that he was interviewing candidates the next morning
before he took his train, and would send her the best.
"I'm sure it's very kind of you to take all this trouble, Tony," she said.
"Don't send me anyone too hideous, will you?"
"Griggs describes the young woman I have in mind as of pleasing
appearance."
"That means perfectly hideous."
"You wouldn't want a prize beauty, would you?"
"Certainly I would. I like to have lovely things about me. I suppose
you think that's idiotic."
He assured her that he never thought her idiotic—at least not
unintentionally—and went on to obtain the famous pledge—the
promise that she would keep the governess he sent her until his
return in September. She agreed finally, partly because it was getting
late and she was sleepy, partly because she reflected that there
were more ways of getting rid of governesses than by sending them
away.
"I'm so sleepy," she said, yawning, "and yet I don't quite like to go
to bed until Antonia comes in."
"Antonia?" said Wood. "I thought she went to bed at nine."
It appeared that Antonia had formed the habit lately of sleeping on
the beach—at least for the earlier part of the night—just digging a
hole and curling up there. Her mother thought it an interesting,
primitive, healthy sort of instinct.
"And yet," she added thoughtfully, as if she knew she were a little
finicky, "I don't like to lock up the house until she comes in."
"I think you're right," said her brother. These were the things that
terrified him so—a little girl out in the blackness of that beach in her
pajamas. How could he go to Mexico and leave her? He rose and
went to the edge of the piazza, which rested on the dunes.
He could see nothing but the stars.
"Shall I call her?" he said.
"I hate to wake her; but—yes, just give a call."
He shouted, and in a few seconds a faint, cheerful hullo reached
them, and a little figure appeared over the dunes.
"Were you asleep, darling?" said her mother.
"No, I was swimming," said Antonia. She stepped within the circle of
light from the windows, and Wood could see that her dark curly hair
was plastered to her head, and her pajamas clung to her like tissue
paper. "I love to swim at night," she said. "It makes you feel like a
spirit."
She shared her more important thoughts with her uncle. Then,
turning to her mother, she advanced toward her with outstretched
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