Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1917-07-21
fCopyright 1915 The Bobbs- Morrill, Company
CHAPTER XxIII.-Continued.

-1o-
There was something peculiarly hor-
rifying to him in the exhibition Ran
dolph was making of himself. He'd
never in his life taken q drink ex-
cept convivially, and then he took as
little as would pass muster. Going off
alone and deliberately fuddling one
self, as a means Of escaping unpleas-
ant realities, struck him as an act of
the basest cowardice. But for that
picture of Rose he'd have gone long
ago and left Randolph to his bemused
reflections. Only Rose had
asked him to drop in on the doctor for
visit. Did she mean she wanted him
to try to help?
He tried, though not very success
fully, to conceal his violent disrelish of
the task, when he said: Look here,
jim! What is the matter with you?
Are you sober enough to tell me?"
Randolph put down his glass. Il
have told you,' he said. "Fm Eleanor,s
kept man. Well kept, oh, yes! Beau
tifully kept. I'm nothing but pos
session of hers! A trophy Of sorts, an
ornament. I'm something she's made.
| have a big practice. I'm the most
fashionable doctor in Chicago. They
come here, the women, in shoals.
That's Eleanor's doing. I'm a faker,
fraud. 1 pose for them. I play up.
l give them what they want. And
that's her doing They go silly about
me; fancy they're in love with me.
Il haven't done lick of honest work
in the last year. I can't work. She
won't let me work. She-smothers me.
Wherever turn, there she is, smooth
ing things out, trying to make it easy,
trying to anticipate my wants. I've
only one want That's to be let alone.
She can't do that. She's Unsuitable.
There's always something more she's
trying to get, and I'm always trying to
keep something away from her, and
falling"
"And why? Do you want to know
why, Aldrich? That's the cream of the
thing. Because we're in love with
each other. She wants me to live on
her love. To have nothing else to live
on.
do YOU want to know what my no
ton Of heaven is? 1t would be to 60
off alone, with one suit of clothes in
a handbag, oh, and fifty or hundred
dollars in my pocket wouldn't mind
that; don't want to be tramp-tt
some mining town, or slum, where
could start a general practice; where
the things I'd get would be accident
cases, confinement cases: real things
urgent things, that night and day are
all alike to. I'd like to start again anC
be Door; get this stink of easy none!
out of my nostrils. I'd like to see If
could make good on my own.
81 came back from New York, aftel
that look at Rose, meaning to do 1t
meaning to talk 1t out with Eleano
and tell her why, and then go. We'll,
talked. Talks cheap. But didn't 60
I'll never go. I'll go on getting softe
and more Of a fake; more Dependent
And Eleanor will go on eating me u
until the last thing in me that's m
myself is gone. And then, some DAY
SIZE Ill lOOh dt Iuc duu oCO IAAe 49, No~
ing"
Then, with suddenly thickened speec
Gan affectation, perhaps), he looked u
at Rodney and demanded:
"Nhat are you looking so s-solem
about? Can't you take joke? Com
along and have another drink"
mo-" Rodney said, I'm going. An
you'd better get to bed"
Rodney walked home that night liz
q man dazed. The vividness OF on
blazing idea blinded him. The tmn
that Randolph had seen and Lacked tI
courage to do; the thing Rodney q
spised him for a coward for haVln
failed to do-that thing Rose had don
Without knowing it. yielding TO
blind. unscrutinized instinct, he'd wan
ed Rose to live on his love. He'd trle
to smooth things out for her, antlclpa
her wants. He'd wanted her soft, mel
less, dependent. She'd seen, even 5he
something he'd been blind to-som
thing he'd blinded himself to: IN
love, by itself, was not enough. In
# could pOison, as well as feed,