The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1917-08-30
I0opyrlsht l9la, Tho Bobbs. Mernll Company,
CHAPTER xxlll.-continued.

lHtic NuS oOiucliiluS D'NullHiig hOt
Tifying 10 him In the exhibition RaA-
aOiph was making of himself. He'd
Beyer in his life taken drink ex-
ecpt convivlally, and then he took as
Httle as would pass muster. Going off
nlone and deliberately fuddllng one
self, as n means of escaping unpleas-
ant realities, struck him as an act of
fhe basest cowardice. But for that
picture of Rose he'd have gone long
1go 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
10 try to help?
He tried, though not very success
fully, to conceal his violent disrelish Of
he 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. 81
have told you" he said. "Hm Eleanor's
aept man. Well kept, oh, yes Beau
fifully kept. I'm nothing but pos
Besslon Of hers A trophy Of sorts, an
ornament. I'm something she's made.
j have n big practice. I'm the most
fashionable doctor in Chicago. They
come here, the women, in shoals.
Thnt's Elennor's doing. I'm n faker,
q fraud pose for them. | play up.
] give them what they want. And
hats her doing They go silly about
ne; fancy they're in love with me.
Il haven't done lick Of honest work
IN the last year. | can't work. She
won't let me work She-smothers me.
Wherever I turn, there she Is, smooth
ing things out, trying to make 1t easy,
irylng to anticipate my wants. I've
gnIy one want. That's to be let alone.
Bhe 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
lniling."
"And why? Do you want to know
Why, AIdrich? That's the cream of the
Shing. Because we're in love with
each other. She wants me TO live on
her love. To have nothing else to live
IN.
! "Do you want to know what my no.
non OF heaven is? 1t would be to go
pff alone, with one suit Of clothes in
q handbag, oh, and fifty or hundred
dollars in my pocket wouldn't mind
mat: don't want to be a tramp-to
Dme mining town, or slum, where /
could start Il general practice; where
dhe things I'd get would be accident
Eases. confinement cases: real things,
urgent things, that night and day are
mn mike to. I'd like to start again and
be poor; get this stink Of easy money
out of my nostrlls. I'd like TO see II
could make good on my own.
, II came back from New York, after
mat look at Rose, meaning to do IL;
meaning to talk II out with Eleanor
Knd tell her why, and then 90. Well, l
talked Talks cheap. But didn't go.
I'll never go. I'll go on getting softer
and more Of n fake; more dependent.
And Eleanor will go on eating me up
until the last thing in me that's me
myself is gone. And then, some day,
sheTl look ut me and see that I'm moth
Ing"
Then, with suddenly thickened speech
ian airectatlon, perhaps), he looked up
at Rodney and demanded:
What are you looking so s-solemn
about? Can't you take a joke? Come
nlong and have another drink"
mo" Rodney said, 'Tm going. And
you'd better get to bed"
Rodney walked home that night like
\ man dazed. The vlvidness of one
blazing idea blinded him. The thing
that Randolph had seen and lacked the
courage to do; the thing Rodney de-
xpised him for a coward for having
failed to do-that thing Rose had done.
Without knowing 1t, yielding to a
blind. unscrutnized instinct, he'd want
nd Rose TO live on his love. He'd tried
10 smooth things out for her, anticipate
her wants. He'd wanted her soft, help
less. dependent. Shed seen, even then'
something he'd been blind to-some-
,hh.s he'd blinded himself to: that
love, by itself, was not enough. That
il could poison rs well as feed.
But she had won, among the rest OF
her spols of victory, the thing she had
originally set out to get His friend
ship and respect. Friendship, he re-
membered her saying, was a thing you
had to earn. When you'd earned 1t, 1t
couldn't be withheld from you. Wen,
II was right she should be todd that;
made to understand 1t to the full. He
couldn't ask her to come back to him.
But she must know that her respect
vas MS necessary now to him as she'd
sace said his was TO her. He must see
her and tell her that.
He stopped abruptly in his walk. His
bones, as the Psalmist said, turned to
ynter. How should he confront that
raze of hers, which knew so much and
understood so deeply-he with the
memory of his two last ignomnious en-
counters with her behind him?
HIADTEP xXIN