Tamea, the bewitching queen of the South Sea isle of Riva, kissed Dan twice within 5 minutes of meeting him. Maisie, on the other hand, Dan's reliable and steadfast girlfriend from America, permitted Dan to kiss her just once in twelve years.
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| by Dean Cornwell, from Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1923 |
In the story, Never The Twain Shall Meet by Peter Kyne, Dan is torn between his passion for Tamea and his loyalty to the virtuous Maisie.
In the end, Tamea makes the choice for Dan. She loves him, but nobly sends him back to Maisie because she knows he'd never be happy for long with the free life on her tropical island. He grew up in a life of restraint, control and Christian values. The cultures were just too different, and "never the twain shall meet."
When Tamea rejects Dan and sends him back to Maisie, he breaks down sobbing:
At the end of of the story, we witness Dan sailing back to America with Maisie, but staring thoughtfully back to Tamea and Riva as they disappear in the distance:
Here's the story behind the story: the illustrator Dean Cornwell married Miss Mildred Kirkham in 1918. The couple had cultural differences of their own. For one thing, Mildred was morally opposed to drinking alcohol. For another, Mildred didn't enjoy traveling; while Cornwell loved the great outdoors and exploring the American West, Mildred preferred to stay close to home in NewYork city. Soon Cornwell was working overseas, and was known to have had romantic relationships with other women.
After Cornwell's illustrations for Never The Twain Shall Meet were published, the canvases were returned to his studio. Cornwell looked at his painting of Dan and Maisie sailing away and decided to change outcome. He painted over the face of Maisie with the face of his own mistress.
In this way, art permitted Cornwell a tiny rebellion against suffering the fate of the fictional character, Dan.
