The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1917-09-21


had turned into the park at Sixty-sixtf
street, and were halfway over to the
Fifth avenue corner at Fifty-ninth, be-
fore he spoke out.
"On a day like this" he said, ste
have sat there for two or three mortal
hours arguing about stale ideas-when
we might have been out here, being
alive! But it must have seemed nat
ural to you to hear me going on like
that" And then with burst, before
she could speak:
"You must remember me as the most
blindly opinionated fool in the world p
She caught her breath, then said
very quietly, with a warm little laugh
in her voice: "That's not how I re-
member you, Roddy."
She declined to help him when he
tried to scramble back to the safe
shores of conventional conversation.
That sort of thing had lasted long
enough. And when they stopped and
faced each other in the gray brick en-
trance to the building where Roses
apartment was, it was at the end of
tliiC VI iDOiC VI dDsOlultiy
silence. And facing each other there,
all that was said between them was
her:
you'll come in, won't you?" and his
'Yes."
But the gravity with which she'd
uttered the invitation and the tense
ness of his acceptance of it, the square
hot hot oil
an end of something and the begin
ming of something new.
She left him in her sitting room
while she went into her room to take
off her hat and jacket and take q
glance into her mirror. When she
came back she found him standing
at her window, looking out. He didn't
turn when she came in, but almost
Immediately he began speaking. She
went rather limp at the sound of his
voice and dropped down on an otto
man in front of the fireplace, and
squeezed her hands together between
her knees.
~ don't know how much you will
lave understood" he began; "prob-
ably a good deal. What I hope you
will have guessed is that I wouldn't
have come except that I'd something to
tell you-something I felt you were en-
titled to be told. But I felt-this is
what you won't have understoOd-I felt |
that hadn't any right to speak to you
at all, about anything vital, until I'd |
given you some sort of guaranty until |
I'd Chnyrn xyn1 hot a ~ |
was possible to deal reasonably with"
She smiled, then pressed her hands
suddenly to her eyes. 81 understood"
she said
well then :" But he didn't
at once go on. Stood there a while
longer at the window, then crossed
the room and brought up before her
bookshelves, staring blindly at the IT,
ties. He hadn't looked at her even as
he crossed the room.
"Oh, it's presumptuous thing to try
70 say" he broke out at last, "a pitiful-
~ unnecessary thing to say, because
you must know it without my telling
you. But when you went away you said
you said it was because you hadn't
ny-friendship You said that was the
thing you wanted, and that you were
going to try and earn it. And you told
ne that I'd never be able to see that
he thing you were doing there was a
inc thing, worth doing, entitled to my
'espect. But what I've come down here
% say isis that now, at last-I do
zee it,"
hn hav 40 oh 10 |
Gould have commanded her voice, and
Is it was, the sound she made con-
Keyed her intention to him, for he
urned upon her quickly as if to inter-
upt the unspoken words, and went on
With an almost savage bitterness:
"Oh, I'm under no illusions about it.
had my chance to see, when seeing
would have meant something to YOU
lelped you. When anyone but the
lindest sort of fool would have seen. c
didn't. Now, when the thing is pat
Mt for the world to see-now that r
ou've won your fight without any d
'elp from me :. Without any help
q spite of every hindrance that my S
1iocy could put in your wayl Now, t
fter ALL come and tell you that
ou've earned the thing you've set out v
D get" Il
There was little silence after that. t.
he got up and took the post he had Il
bandoned at the window. h
why did you do it, Roddy?" she IL
sked. Il mean, why did you want to
Dme and tell me?' g,
"Why, in the first place." he said, lie
wanted to get back little of my
/ couldn't get that until
d told you.'
This time the silence was longer.
What else did you want?" she
sked. "What-in the second placer" di
II want to earn your friendship. m
IS the biggest thing i can hope 81
". But I've no idea that you can tie
md 1t out to me ready-made. / be- XXI
eve you'd do 1t If you could. But gr
~ said once, yourself, that 1t wasn't su
thing that could be given. 1t was a tn