Part 110 (2/2)
disinfectink. Now, jist before I took my pail into the pa.s.sage I though it would be pre'aps jest as well if I was to come up 'ere an' ask you what sort of soap you was wishful that I should use on them boards. The yaller soap, miss----”
There was nothing in the speech to have caused the paroxysm of fury that drove the red-haired girl into the middle of the room, almost shouting--”Do you suppose I care what you use? Any kind will do!--any kind!”
The woman fled, and the red-haired girl looked at her own reflection in the gla.s.s for an instant and covered her face with her hands. It was as though she had shouted some shameless secret aloud.
CHAPTER VII
Roses red and roses white Plucked I for my love's delight.
She would none of all my posies,-- Bade me gather her blue roses.
Half the world I wandered through, Seeking where such flowers grew; Half the world unto my quest Answered but with laugh and jest.
It may be beyond the grave She shall find what she would have.
Mine was but an idle quest,-- Roses white and red are best!
----Blue Roses
Indeed the sea had not changed. Its waters were low on the mud-banks, and the Marazion Bell-buoy clanked and swung in the tide-way. On the white beach-sand dried stumps of sea-poppy s.h.i.+vered and chattered.
”I don't see the old breakwater,” said Maisie, under her breath.
”Let's be thankful that we have as much as we have. I don't believe they've mounted a single new gun on the fort since we were here. Come and look.”
They came to the glacis of Fort Keeling, and sat down in a nook sheltered from the wind under the tarred throat of a forty-pounder cannon.
”Now, if Ammoma were only here!” said Maisie.
For a long time both were silent. Then d.i.c.k took Maisie's hand and called her by her name.
She shook her head and looked out to sea.
”Maisie, darling, doesn't it make any difference?”
”No!” between clenched teeth. ”I'd--I'd tell you if it did; but it doesn't. Oh, d.i.c.k, please be sensible.”
”Don't you think that it ever will?”
”No, I'm sure it won't.”
”Why?”
Maisie rested her chin on her hand, and, still regarding the sea, spoke hurriedly--”I know what you want perfectly well, but I can't give it to you, d.i.c.k. It isn't my fault; indeed, it isn't. If I felt that I could care for any one----But I don't feel that I care. I simply don't understand what the feeling means.”
”Is that true, dear?”
”You've been very good to me, d.i.c.kie; and the only way I can pay you back is by speaking the truth. I daren't tell a fib. I despise myself quite enough as it is.”
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