Part 34 (1/2)
”Good Lord!” exclaimed Peter. ”You consider such things?”
”I've always tried to stay normal,” answered Monte uneasily.
”Yet you said you're married?”
”Even so, is n't it possible for a man to keep his head?” demanded Monte.
”I don't understand,” replied Peter.
”Look here--I don't want to intrude in your affairs, but I don't suppose you are talking merely abstractedly. You have some one definite in mind?”
”Yes.”
”Then you ought to understand; you've kept steady.”
”I wouldn't be like this if I had,” answered Peter.
”You mean your eyes.”
”I tried to forget her because she wasn't ready to listen. I turned to my work, and put in twenty hours a day. It was a fool thing to do.
And yet--”
Monte held his breath.
”From the depths I saw the heights, I saw the wonderful beauty of the peaks.”
”And still see them?”
”Clearer than ever now.”
”Then you aren't sorry she came into your life?”
”Sorry, man?” exclaimed Peter. ”Even at this price--even if there were no hope ahead, I'd still have my visions.”
”But there is hope?”
”I have one chance in a thousand. It's more than anything I 've had up to now.”
”One in a thousand is a fighting chance,” Monte returned.
”You speak as if that were more than you had.”
”It was.”
”Yet you won out.”
”How?” demanded Monte.
”She married you.”