Part 18 (2/2)

Algarcife shrugged his shoulders.

”It is no use,” he said; ”I can't believe, and I wouldn't if I could.”

So he had gone from Father Speares into the world. Virile, strenuous, and possessed with intellectual pa.s.sion, he had closed the doors of his mind upon commonplaces, and with the improvidence from which mental stamina failed to redeem him had wedded himself to poverty and science.

Five years after leaving Father Speares's roof he returned with Mariana at his side.

”We have come to be married,” he announced.

Father Speares gasped and suggested prudence. ”It is unwise,” he remonstrated--”it is utterly unwise.”

”I agree with you,” admitted Anthony. ”It is unwise, and we know it; but there is nothing else to be done--is there, Mariana?”

Mariana looked into Father Speares's face and smiled.

”Of course you are right,” she said, ”and we are very foolish, but--but there really isn't anything else to do.”

And Father Speares was silenced. He looked at the license a little ruefully, read the service, and sent them off with a benediction.

”G.o.d knows, I wish you happiness,” he a.s.sured Mariana when she kissed him.

Several months later, meeting Algarcife on Broadway, he repeated the words.

”I am happy,” returned Algarcife, emphatically. ”Mariana is an angel.”

”I am glad to hear it,” said Father Speares, and he sighed irrelevantly.

”A good woman is a jewel of rare value.”

The term ”good woman,” applied to Mariana, gave Anthony a sense of unfitness. Mariana was certainly a jewel, but, somehow, it had never occurred to him to look upon her as a ”good woman.”

”She is very charming,” he remarked, quietly.

Father Speares was regarding him critically. ”You are not looking well,”

he said. ”Is it work or worry?”

Algarcife shook his head impatiently. ”I--oh, I am all right,” he rejoined. ”A little extra work, that's all.”

”Your book?”

Algarcife's face contracted, and the hara.s.sed expression about his mouth deepened.

”No, not my book,” he answered, hastily. ”I've put that aside for a while. I am trying a hand at bread-winning.”

”With satisfactory results, I hope.”

Anthony's laugh was slightly constrained.

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