The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1918-06-27

He had assumed the role of dictator.
And she had revolted. That was all.
She was justified.
Eventually she slept. At ten o'clock.
heavy-eyed, suffering On intolerable
headache. she rose and dressed.
Beside her plate lay thick letter
addressed In Bits handwriting. She
drank her coffee and went back to the
bedroom before she opened the en-
velope. By the postmark she saw
that 1t had been mailed on a train.
"Dear Girl: 1 have caught my
breath, so to speak, but doubt If ever
a more forlorn cuss listened ~ the
interminable clicking of car wheels.
1 am tempted at each station to turn
back and try again. 1t seems so un-
real, this parting in hot anger, so mis-
erably unnecessary. But when / stop
to sum it up again, l see no use In
another appeal. 1 could come back
yes. Only the certain knowledge that
giving In like that would send us spin
ming once more in a vicious circle pre-
vents me. / didn't believe 1t possible
that we could get so far apart. MOI
that succession of little things could
cut so weighty a figure In our lives
And perhaps you are very sore ant
resentful at me this morning for be-
ing so precipitate.
II couldn't help it, Hazel. 1t seemed
the only way. 1t seems so yet to me.
There was nothing more to keep me
in Granville-everything to make me
hurry away. If l had weakened and
temporized with you 1t would only
mean the deferring Of just what has
happened. When you declared your
self fatty and repeatedly 1t seemed
hopeless to argue further. / am poor
pleader, perhaps; and l do not believe
in compulsion between us. Whatever
you do you must do of your own voli-
ton, without pressure from me. We
couldn't be happy otherwise. If 1
compelled you to follow me against
your desire we should only drag mis-
cry in our train.
'T couldn't even say good-by. 1
| didn't even want 1t to be good-by. /
| didn't know If / could stick to my
| determination to go unless / went as
1 did. And my reason told me that II
there must be a break it would better
come now than after long-drawn-out
| chickering's and bitterness. If we are
so Numerically opposed where we
thought we stood together we have
made a mistake that no amount OF adj
| justing, nothing but separate roads,
will rectify. Myself l refuse to be-
lieve that we have made such mis-
take. 1 don't think that honestly and
deliberately you prefer an exotic, USE
less, purposeless, parasitic existence
to the normal, wholesome life we hap
PLY planned. But you are obsessed.
lntoxicated-I can't put 1t any better
and nothing but q shock will soper
you. If I'm wrong. If love and Bits
companionship can't lure you away
from these other things-why, / sup
pose you will consider it an ended
chapter. In that case you will not
suffer. The situation as it stands will
be a relief to you. II, on the other
hand, it's merely a stubborn streak,
that won't let you admit that you've
carried your proud little head on an
overstiff neck, do you think it's worth
the price? 1 don't.
"Im not scolding, little PERSON. I'm
sick and sore at the pass we've come
to. No fool pride can close my eyes
to the fact or keep me from admitting
freely that 1 love you just as much
and want you as longingly as l did
the day 1 put you aboard the Stanley
d. at Bella Coda. 1 thought you were
stepping gladly out of my life then
And l let you go freely and without
anything but a dumb protest against
fate, because 1t was your wish. can
step out of your life again-if IL IL
your wish. But i can't imprisOn my
self In your cities. I'm neither an
idler nor can become legalized buc-
cancer. 1 have nothing but contempt
for those who are. Mind you, this is
not so sweeping statement as 1t
sounds. No one has a keener appre-
citation of what civilization means than
1. Out of it has arisen culture and
knowledge, much of what should make
the world better place for us all. But
somehow this doesn't apply to the
mass, and particularly not to the cir.
cles we invaded in Granville. With
here and there a solitary exception
that class is hopeless In its SNUG self
satisfaction-its narrowness of out.
look, and unblushing exploitation of
the less fortunate, repels me.
"And to dabble my hands In their
muck. to settle down and live my life
according to their. bourgeois standards
to have grossness of soft flesh replac~
able sinews, to submerge mentality in
favor of a specious craftiness of mind
which passes in the city for brains
well, I'm on the road. And. oh, girl
girl, wish you were with me.
II must explain this mining deal
that phase of 1t which sent me on thu
rampage in Granville. / should havi
done so before, should have insisted
on making 1t clear TO you. The Other
side had been presented to you rather
cleverly at the right time. And your