Barriers of Society
Summary
On a pewter dawn along the granite lip of the Atlantic, Westie Phillips—Quaker by nurture, vagabond by destiny—drags a silk-clad heiress from the maw of the tide; the salt water etches her silhouette onto the pallid wall of his memory like a silver daguerreotype that will never fade. Years later, Martha Gorham—whose laughter once rang over lawn-tennis courts bankrolled by her robber-baron father—has reduced that rescue to a conversational curio, a polite anecdote swapped between flutes of champagne. Yet the Fates, those inveterate dramaturges, keep folding the map until the same two names share a single meridian: Harry Arnold, urbane predator in bespoke white, schemes to maroon her on an unmapped speck of jungle so that isolation will erode refusal; Westie, now shanghaied, flogged, and spit out onto a Honolulu pier, signs the articles of the very yacht that carries both predator and prey toward the trap. When the engine dies and the long boats drop like black spiders onto a chartless atoll, the social lattice that once separated scullery from salon is scythed away by palms and parrots; corsets rot, money burns, and the only currency left is the percussion of two hearts learning that rescue is not a moment but a vocation.
Synopsis
Westie Phillips, the son of poor and simple Quaker folk, notices a woman marooned on a rock with the tide rising. He rescues her and ever this memory of her remains with him. To Martha Gorham, the daughter of a millionaire, it is only an incident to be remembered for a short time with gratitude toward the boy. In love with Martha Gorham is Harry Arnold, a man considerably older, whose one aim in life now seems to be the winning of her, despite her refusal. Her father, Silas Gorham, is fond of Arnold and favors his suit, although he does not urge his daughter to marry. Arnold invites Martha and her father to go on a cruise with him on his yacht and she consents. Arnold has arranged with his captain to have it appear that the yacht is wrecked near an uncharted island, so he can take Martha to this spot alone and after a month or so the captain is to return and pick them up. About the same time Westie Phillips decides to go out into the world and make his way. He is shanghaied aboard a vessel bound for the Orient and meets with such severe treatment that he manages to escape in Honolulu. It so happens that the Arnold yacht is in the vicinity, and one of the men becoming troublesome, the captain decides to put him ashore. Fate again brings Westie and Martha together, for he secures the sailor's place on board the yacht. He recognizes Martha, but she does not know him. Westie scents that Martha is in danger, and it is with a great deal of satisfaction that he sees Martha repulse the advances of Arnold. Then comes the time when the yacht is in the vicinity of the island. Arnold's plans work out nicely, as he gets Martha in a boat away from her father, but Westie, though he does not know exactly what is happening, senses that there is danger for the woman he loves and insists upon accompanying Arnold. The captain fells him with a blow. Gorham and the others take to the boats and Arnold and Martha are in a boat by themselves. Westie secures a boat and rows for the island. He hears a woman's screams and again comes to Martha's rescue. Then the three take up their life as they find it on the island. Arnold becomes almost crazed when he finds his plans foiled and offers Westie any amount of money if he will but move to the other side of the island. One night Arnold tries to kill the girl, and Westie again saves her. One day Westie and Martha sight a ship and manage to attract it. Before the boat arrives Westie and Martha recognize their love for each other, and their destiny is fulfilled.
