Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-11

Bless you for that! l thought you d be
afraid to face the world from the beginning"
He glanced round the room. "You can
have no yachts, Dear"
Il don't want them"
"Nor racing machines"
I'm content"
"Nor Greek baths"
Il don't care" But she looked up at him
anxiously. will the Grange have to go,
do you Think"
II don't know. I'm afraid the income
may not be enough"
ut doesn't matter" she broke in; but
the short catch in her breath did not escape
him.
eff the town house is sole" he added, we
might manage"
Il don't want the town house; want
only the Grange and YOU" She paused as
a brilliant idea came to her. 1--WE could
close the wing and the stable and discharge
everybody but Bradley. l can make beds
beautifully"
Eyes" slowly; "but you won't. You're
darling. l haven't doubt thu you could
do anything in the world you wanted to.
The future doesn't alarm me now, and it
mustn't alarm you. We shall have enough,
more than enough; only buy things that are
important. Do you understand? That is
how life was meant to be"
something is required of me- l want to take
my half, my share of your troubles, to be
part of something useful. All my life has
been spent in destroying what other people
have created. Can't help?" she pleaded.
Il want so to help!"
He kissed her tenderly. "You are helping
now, the way only a woman can help. If
you believe in me, everyone else must"
She smoothed the hair anxiously back
from his brow. "You look very tired and
pale. have worried you terribly, and you
are anxious about things"
mo" he said happily. "Not now-1-"
he hesitated and looked round the ROOM"
what is it, Brooke?"
"Wil1 you be angry? I think that"
"What?"
"That what most need is something to
eat. l haven't touched morsel since
breakfast
"Oh!" She fled from his arms to the pam
try and kitchen, where she found the remains
of her supper. In little while she was.
sitting beside him while he ate as hungry
man should. Over his glass he pledged her:
My woman-my wife!'
She remembered the quotation and un-y
derstood.
They were as much alone in the linen
shrouded house as though in mid ocean, and
the rest of the universe was curiously i'm
palpable. So their phrases were fragmen-
tary and had to do with nothing in the world
but themselves
and the Bolted Door," he was
saying. p" used to sit very often late at night
and look at tit was so cold and white, SO
cruel to be there where l had to look at it
and wonder why the world was so unkind.
did your Perhaps, after all, it had
meaning, who knows? l loved you then,
Brooke,-not so much as now; but loved
you. You were the only man who had ever
kissed me. That seemed to give you kind
of tragic dignity even then. 1 used to get
the odor of your tobacco in the corridor, and
sometimes" she blushed divinely, Il used
to leave the inner door open so could hear
the sound of your footsteps. 1t made me
happy to think you were so near me"
"And yet you tried to make me unhap-
py!" he asked in wonder.
Eyes. / was so afraid you might learn
that 1 cared for you"
but you're glad now?"
"This is different" she smiled. There
are no complications, no money, no future,
no anything but just u.s.
He drew her closer to him and she sank
lower in his arms On that her Inns were i,,ct