Part 35 (1/2)

Gone, without even saying good-by!

CHAPTER xxxI

A LETTER FROM BILL

All through the long night she lay awake, struggling with the incredible fact that Bill had left her; trying to absolve herself fro attitude, even while she was sorely conscious that she herself had been stubbornly unyielding

If he had truly loved her, she reiterated, he would never have made it an issue between the onis, she reasserted

She recapitulated it all Through the winter he had consistently withdrawn into his shell For her friends and for most of her pleasures he had at best exhibited only tolerance And he had ended by outraging both them and her, and on top of that demanded that she turn her back at twenty-four hours' notice, on Granville and all its associations and follow hiht to her resente were not her feelings and desires entitled to equal consideration? He had assumed the role of dictator And she had revolted That was all She was justified

Eventually she slept At ten o'clock, heavy-eyed, suffering an intolerable headache, she rose and dressed

Beside her plate lay a thick letter addressed in Bill's handwriting

She drank her coffee and went back to the bedroom before she opened the envelope By the postmark she saw that it had been ht my breath, so to speak, but I doubt if ever aof car wheels

I aain It seeer, so ain, I see no use in another appeal I could co in like that would send us spinning once more in a vicious circle prevents et so far apart Nor that a succession of little things could cut so weighty a figure in our lives

And perhaps you are very sore and resentful atso precipitate

I couldn't help it, Hazel It seeto make me hurry away If I had weakened and te of just what has happened When you declared yourself flatly and repeatedly it seeue further I am a poor pleader, perhaps; and I do not believe in compulsion between us Whatever you do you must do of your own volition, without pressure from me We couldn't be happy otherwise If I coainst your desire we should only drag ood-by I didn't want it to be good-by I didn't know if I could stick to o unless I went as I did

And my reason told me that if there -drawn-out bickerings and bitterness If we are so diaether we havebut separate roads, will rectify Myself I refuse to believe that we have made such a mistake I don't think that honestly and deliberately you prefer an exotic, useless, purposeless, parasitic existence to the normal, wholesome life we happily planned But you are obsessed, intoxicated--I can't put it any better--and nothing but a shock will sober you If I', if love and Bill's cos--why, I suppose you will consider it an ended chapter In that case you will not suffer The situation as it stands will be a relief to you If, on the other hand, it's merely a stubborn streak, that won't let you admit that you've carried your proud little head on an over-stiff neck, do you think it's worth the price? I don't I', little person I'm sick and sore at the pass we've come to No damn-fool pride can closefreely that I love you just as ly as I did the day I put you aboard the _Stanley D_ at Bella Coola I thought you were stepping gladly out ofbut a duainst fate, because it was your wish I can step out of your life again--if it is your wish But I can't imprison myself in your cities

I can't pretend, even for your sake, to play the game they call business I'alized buccaneer

I have nothing but conte a statement as it sounds No one has a keener appreciation of what civilization e, much of what should make the world a better place for us all But somehow this doesn't apply to the mass, and particularly not to the circles we invaded in Granville With here and there a solitary exception that class is hopeless in its s self-satisfaction--its narrowness of outlook, and unblushi+ng exploitation of the less fortunate, repels me

And to dabble my hands in their eois standards, to have grossness of soft flesh replace able sinews, to sube mentality in favor of a specious craftiness of mind which passes in the ”city” for brains--well, I'irl, I wish you ithdeal--that phase of it which sent e in Granville I should have done so before, should have insisted onit clear to you But a fellow doesn't always do the proper thing at the proper time All too frequently we are doment It was so with me The other side had been presented to you rather cleverly at the right tiered me beyond bounds You were prejudiced It stirred me to a perfect fury to think you couldn't be absolutely loyal to your pal When you took that position I simply couldn't attempt explanations Do you think I'd ever have taken the other fellow's side against you, right or wrong?

Anyway, here it is: You got the essentials, up to a certain point, from Brooks But he didn't tell it all--his kind never does, not by a long shot They, the four of the as soon as I shi+pped out that gold and put through that stock-selling scheiti a hopeless minority of one Their chief object, however, was to let two or three friends in on the ground floor of a good thing; also, they wanted each a good bundle of that stock while it was cheap--figuring that with the prospects I had opened up it would sell high So they had it on the anize with a capitalization of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars This all cut and dried before I got there Now, as it originally stood, the five of us would each have ood But with a quarter of a ht for the felloith a big block

But you can see where I would get off with a five-thousand-dollar interest To be sure, a certain proportion of the money derived frooes into the treasury, and they had it arranged to keep it in the treasury, as a fund for operations, with the They had already indicated their bent by voting an annual stipend of ten thousand and six thousand dollars to Lorimer and Brooks as president and secretary respectively

Me, they proposed to quiet with a ot on the ground and began to get my back up

Free Gold would have been a splendid Stock Exchange possibility They had it all doped out how they could make sundry clean-ups irrespective of thethat aht have let it go at that, seeing it was their gaet fleeced at I didn't approve of it, you understand It was their game

But they capped the climax hat I must cold-bloodedly characterize as the baldest atteall to try and make me a party to it To make this clear youas the coo in and stake those claie with these fiveeach should receive five thousand dollars in stock for assigning their claies while the claims were operated

They surely earned it You knohat the North is in the dead of winter They bucked their way through a hell of frost and snow and staked the claims If ever men were entitled to as due theain, even though they were taking out weekly as iven their word, and they hite men They took et as coave me in the company's name clear title to every claim I put those titles on record in Hazleton, and came home