Part 22 (2/2)

Harry Renway was the kind of man that people refer to as ”a simple soul.” He might feel deeply, but he did not think that way. As a matter of fact, it was stretching things a little to call him a man, for he was hardly more than a boy-a youth in years, but a boy in everything else.

Nevertheless, it is worth recording that he was a reasonably thrifty boy, although his earning capacity had not permitted him to put aside anything resembling a fortune.

Love, however, visits the poor as well as the wealthy, the simple as well as the wise. Indeed, sometimes it seems as if Love rather avoids the wealthy and wise and chooses the companions.h.i.+p of less-favored mortals. So, perhaps, it is not at all extraordinary that Harry Renway was in love, and the object of his affections was one of the most tantalizing specimens of femininity that ever annoyed and delighted man.

She said frankly that she was mercenary, but it is probable she exaggerated. She had been poor all her life, but she had no dreams of great wealth and no ambition for it: she merely wanted to be a.s.sured reasonable comfort-that is, what seemed to her reasonable comfort. A really mercenary girl would have deemed it poverty and hards.h.i.+p.

Somehow, when one has been poor and has suffered some privations, one learns to give some thought to worldly affairs, and it is to the credit of Alice Jennings that she did not grade men more exactly by the money standard. Harry's modest salary would be sufficient to meet her requirements, but Harry had nothing but his salary. A larger salary might give something of luxury, in addition to comfort, but, a.s.sured the comfort and freedom from privation, she would be guided by the inclinations of her heart. So, perhaps, she was wise rather than mercenary. Love needs a little of the fostering care of money, although too much of this tends to idleness and scandal.

”But if anything should happen to you,” argued Alice, when Harry tried to tell her how hard he would work for her.

”What's going to happen to me?” he demanded.

”I don't know,” she answered lightly. ”You're a dear, good boy, Harry, and I like you, but I've had all the poverty I want.”

”Who's talking about poverty?” persisted Harry stoutly. ”I've got more than two hundred dollars saved up, and I'll have a bigger salary pretty soon.”

”What's two hundred dollars!” she returned. ”We'd use that to begin housekeeping. Then, if anything should happen to you-Why, Harry, I'd be worse off than I am now. I don't want much, but I've learned to look ahead-a little. I've neither the disposition nor the training to be a wage-earner, and I'll never go back home after I marry. Dad has a hard enough time of it, anyhow.” There was raillery in her tone, but there was also something of earnestness in it. ”Now, Tom Nelson has over two thousand dollars,” she added.

”Oh, if you're going to sell yourself!” exclaimed Harry bitterly.

”I didn't say I'd marry him,” she retorted teasingly, ”but, if I did and anything happened to him-”

”You'd probably find he'd lost it in some scheme,” put in Harry.

”He might,” admitted Alice thoughtfully, ”but he's pretty careful.”

”And too old for you,” added Harry angrily. ”Still, if it's only money-”

”It isn't,” she interrupted more seriously; ”it's caution. I've had enough to make me just a little cautious. You don't know how hard it has been, Harry, or you'd understand. If you knew more of the disappointments and heartaches of some of the girls who are deemed mercenary, you wouldn't blame them for sacrificing sentiment to a certain degree of worldliness. 'I just want to be sure I'll never have to go through this again,' says the girl, and she tries to make sure. It isn't a question of the amount of money she can get by marriage, nor of silks or satins, but rather of peace and security after some years of privation and anxiety. She learns to think of the future, if only in a modest way-that is, some girls do. I'm one of them. What could I do-alone?”

”Then you won't marry me?”

”I didn't say that.”

”Then you will marry me?”

”I didn't say that, either. There's no hurry.”

Thus she tantalized him always. It was unfair, of course-unless she intended to accept him eventually. In that case, it was merely unwise.

It is accepted as a girl's privilege to be thus perverse and inconsistent in her treatment of the man she intends to marry, but sometimes she goes too far and loses him. However, Alice Jennings was herself uncertain. She had known Harry a long time, and she liked him.

She had known Tom Nelson a shorter time, and she liked him also. It may be said, however, that she did not love either of them. Love is self-sacrificing and gives no thought to worldly affairs. Alice Jennings might have been capable of love, if she could have afforded the luxury, but circ.u.mstances had convinced her that she could not afford it, so she did not try. She would not sell herself solely for money, and her standard of comfort was not high, but she was trying hard to ”like” the most promising man well enough to marry him. As far as possible, she was disposed to follow the advice of the man who said, ”Marry for love, my son, marry for love and not for money, but, if you can love a girl with money, for heaven's sake do so.”

As a natural result of her desire to make sure of escaping for all time the thraldom of poverty that was so galling to her, she was irresolute and capricious. She dressed unusually well for a girl in her position, but this was because she had taste and had learned to make her own clothes, so the money available for her gowns could be put almost entirely into the material alone. She was a capable housekeeper, because necessity had compelled her to give a good deal of time to housework in her own home. She had no thought of escaping all these duties, irksome as they were, but she did not wish to be bound down to them. A comfortable flat, with a maid-of-all-work to do the cooking and cleaning, and a sewing girl for a week once or twice a year, was her idea of luxury. This, even though there was still much for her to do, would give her freedom, and this, with reasonably careful management, either of the men could give her. But she looked beyond, and hesitated; she had schooled herself to go rather deeply into the future.

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