Part 79 (1/2)

”Dudley told me, dear. I have been thinking of you so much.”

Then Dudley stepped up to them, and in his face, too, was this subdued gladness.

Hal looked from one to the other.

”Have you?...” she began, and paused uncertainly.

”Yes, dear”; and Ethel blushed charmingly. ”I am going to be your sister, so I thought you would let me begin at once, and come to meet you, and try to comfort you a little.”

”Oh,” said Hal, drawing a deep breath; ”and I thought I was never going to be glad about anything again.”

CHAPTER XLVI

It is necessary to take but a cursory glance at the events that followed. Life flowed smoothly enough in its way, but it flowed towards higher and greater achievements for some, and that can only mean a story of obstacles, and drawbacks and difficulties st.u.r.dily overcome.

For the three inmates of the Cromwell Road flat it held many prizes.

Alymer Hermon's career continued to advance by leaps and bounds. The ”taking up” by Sir Philip Hall became quickly an actual fact, and he was soon easily first among the juniors. What he lacked in years and experience his striking presence and personal charm supplied, and his calm gravity and self-possession went far to counteract his youthful appearance.

d.i.c.k Bruce finished his great novel, and though it was not quite the jumble about vegetables and babies he had prophesied, it was considered the most original book of the year, and brought him instantaneous recognition and fame.

Quin inherited some money, and built a wonderful East End Club House that is all his own, and is as the apple of his eye.

If the great solution of life is to find one's true environment, he has at any rate found his; and in finding it knows a happiness, even amid the squalid poverty of Sh.o.r.editch, such as is found by few.

In the meantime Hal continued to work and be independent. When Ethel and Dudley married, they tried hard to persuade her to live with them, but she had already bespoken a smaller sitting-room with her old landlady, Mrs. Carr, and made up her mind to live there.

Later, when Dudley began to add to his income, they begged her to give up her work, but she was obdurate, again expressing certain views on the boon of steady occupation they could not gainsay.

”It is so boring sometimes,” Ethel remonstrated, and she answered:

”Not so boring as idleness in the long run, and having to make up your mind each day what you are going to do next. The girls who only enjoy themselves without work little know what they miss in never waking up in the morning to say, 'Hurray! this is a holiday.' No! give me my work and my play well balanced, and I'll turn them into happiness.”

It was months before Alymer dared to speak to her of love. It had taken him long to win her to the old fooling again; and in a sudden gladness at some little remark or touch that seemed to show him he was truly forgiven for his own sake, he told her the story of his love, and his long waiting.

Hal was very taken aback, and a little unhappy, but when she had convinced him it was really quite hopeless, he forced himself back to the old comrades.h.i.+p, and took up his self-imposed burden of waiting once more.

Then followed a period of rapid successes, during which Hal told him seriously he must now make a choice among the bevy of beauty, wealth, and lineage at his disposal.

”You really ought, you know,” she said, ”out of consideration for all the poor things left hoping against hope, and the numbers that are yearly added to them!”

”I have made my choice,” he answered; ”it is not my fault about the vain hopes. It is the obstinacy of one woman, who is keeping the others in the unfortunate condition you describe.”

But she only smiled lightly, and put him off again, concluding with:

”I should be frightened out of my life at possessing anything so beauteous and attractive in the way of a husband.”

So Hermon worked on, and waited, believing in his star.