Part 25 (1/2)

On my honour as a soldier this explanation of my early solicitude for Mary was one that had never struck me, but the more I pondered it now--.

I raised her hand and touched it with my lips, as we whimsical old fellows do when some gracious girl makes us to hear the key in the lock of long ago. ”Why, ma'am,” I said, ”it is a pretty notion, and there may be something in it. Let us leave it at that.”

But there was still that accursed dedication, lying, you remember, beneath the blotting-pad. I had no longer any desire to crush her with it. I wished that she had succeeded in writing the book on which her longings had been so set.

”If only you had been less ambitious,” I said, much troubled that she should be disappointed in her heart's desire.

”I wanted all the dear delicious things,” she admitted contritely.

”It was unreasonable,” I said eagerly, appealing to her intellect.

”Especially this last thing.”

”Yes,” she agreed frankly, ”I know.” And then to my amazement she added triumphantly, ”But I got it.”

I suppose my look admonished her, for she continued apologetically but still as if she really thought hers had been a romantic career, ”I know I have not deserved it, but I got it.”

”Oh, ma'am,” I cried reproachfully, ”reflect. You have not got the great thing.” I saw her counting the great things in her mind, her wondrous husband and his obscure success, David, Barbara, and the other trifling contents of her jewel-box.

”I think I have,” said she.

”Come, madam,” I cried a little nettled, ”you know that there is lacking the one thing you craved for most of all.”

Will you believe me that I had to tell her what it was? And when I had told her she exclaimed with extraordinary callousness, ”The book? I had forgotten all about the book!” And then after reflection she added, ”Pooh!” Had she not added Pooh I might have spared her, but as it was I raised the blotting-pad rather haughtily and presented her with the sheet beneath it.

”What is this?” she asked.

”Ma'am,” said I, swelling, ”it is a Dedication,” and I walked majestically to the window.

There is no doubt that presently I heard an unexpected sound. Yet if indeed it had been a laugh she clipped it short, for in almost the same moment she was looking large-eyed at me and tapping my sleeve impulsively with her fingers, just as David does when he suddenly likes you.

”How characteristic of you,” she said at the window.

”Characteristic,” I echoed uneasily. ”Ha!”

”And how kind.”

”Did you say kind, ma'am?”

”But it is I who have the substance and you who have the shadow, as you know very well,” said she.

Yes, I had always known that this was the one flaw in my dedication, but how could I have expected her to have the wit to see it? I was very depressed.

”And there is another mistake,” said she.