Part 21 (1/2)
”You'll find me quite a fairy-G.o.dmother if you're good. Besides,” she added with calm audacity, ”I wanted you to myself.”
”Why?” he asked, amused and intrigued.
”Curiosity. My besetting sin. You're a phenomenon.”
”An ambiguous term. It may mean merely a freak.”
”A new young man in Worthington,” she informed him, ”is a phenomenon, a social phenomenon. Of course he may be a freak, also,” she added judicially.
”Newness is a charm that soon wears off.”
”Then you're going to settle down here?”
”Yes. I've joined the laboring cla.s.ses.”
”What kind of labor?”
”Journalism. I've just started in, to-day.”
”Really! Which paper?”
”The 'Clarion.'”
Her expressive face changed. ”Oh,” she said, a little blankly.
”You don't like the 'Clarion'?”
”I almost never see it. So I don't know. And you're going to begin at the bottom? That's quite brave of you.”
”No; I'm going to begin at the top. That's braver. Anyway, it's more reckless. I've bought the paper.”
”Have you! I hadn't heard of it.”
”n.o.body's heard of it yet. No outsider. You're the first.”
”How delightful!” She leaned closer and looked into his face with s.h.i.+ning eyes. ”Tell me more. What are you going to do with it?”
”Learn something about it, first.”
”It's rather yellow, isn't it?”
”Putting it mildly, yes. That's one of the things I want to change.”
”Oh, I wish I owned a newspaper!”
”Do you? Why?”
”For the power of it. To say what you please and make thousands listen.”
The pink in her cheeks deepened. ”There's nothing in the world like the thrill of that sense of power. It's the one reason why I'd be almost willing to be a man.”