THE INDISCREET LETTER

by

ELEANOR HALLOWELL ABBOTT

Author of _Molly Make Believe_, _The Sick-A-Bed Lady_, etc. , etc. 

New YorkThe Century Co. 

1915

THE INDISCREET LETTER

The Railroad Journey was very long and slow. The Traveling Salesmanwas rather short and quick. And the Young Electrician who lolledacross the car aisle was neither one length nor another, but mostinordinately flexible, like a suit of chain armor. 

More than being short and quick, the Traveling Salesman was distinctlyfat and unmistakably dressy in an ostentatiously new and pure-lookingbuff-colored suit, and across the top of the shiny black sample-casethat spanned his knees he sorted and re-sorted with infiniteearnestness a large and varied consignment of "Ladies' Pink and BlueRibbed Undervests. " Surely no other man in the whole southward-boundCanadian train could have been at once so ingenuous and so nonchalant. 

There was nothing dressy, however, about the Young Electrician. Fromhis huge cowhide boots to the lead smouch that ran from his rough, square chin to the very edge of his astonishingly blond curls, he wasone delicious mess of toil and old clothes and smiling, blue-eyedindifference. And every time that he shrugged his shoulders or crossedhis knees he jingled and jangled incongruously among his coil-boxesand insulators, like some splendid young Viking of old, half blackedup for a modern minstrel show. 

More than being absurdly blond and absurdly messy, the YoungElectrician had one of those extraordinarily sweet, extraordinarilyvital, strangely mysterious, utterly unexplainable masculine facesthat fill your senses with an odd, impersonal disquietude, an itchingunrest, like the hazy, teasing reminder of some previous existence ina prehistoric cave, or, more tormenting still, with the tingling, psychic prophecy of some amazing emotional experience yet to come. Thesort of face, in fact, that almost inevitably flares up into a woman'sstartled vision at the one crucial moment in her life when she is notsupposed to be considering alien features. 

Out from the servient shoulders of some smooth-tongued Waiter itstares, into the scared dilating pupils of the White Satin Bride withher pledged hand clutching her Bridegroom's sleeve. Up from thegravelly, pick-and-shovel labor of the new-made grave it lifts itsweirdly magnetic eyes to the Widow's tears. Down from some pettedPrinceling's silver-trimmed saddle horse it smiles its electrifying, wistful smile into the Peasant's sodden weariness. Across the slenderwhite rail of an always _out-going_ steamer it stings back into yourgray, land-locked consciousness like the tang of a scarlet spray. Andthe secret of the face, of course, is "Lure"; but to save your soulyou could not decide in any specific case whether the lure is the lureof personality, or the lure of physiognomy--a mere accidental, coincidental, haphazard harmony of forehead and cheek-bone andtwittering facial muscles. 

Something, indeed, in the peculiar set of the Young Electrician's jawwarned you quite definitely that if you should ever even so much ashint the small, sentimental word "lure" to him he would most certainly"swat" you on first impulse for a maniac, and on second impulse for aliar--smiling at you all the while in the strange little wrinklytissue round his eyes. 

The voice of the Railroad Journey was a dull, vague, conglomerate, cinder-scented babble of grinding wheels and shuddering window frames;but the voices of the Traveling Salesman and the Young Electricianwere shrill, gruff, poignant, inert, eternally variant, after themanner of human voices which are discussing the affairs of theuniverse. 

"Every man, " affirmed the Traveling Salesman sententiously--"every manhas written one indiscreet letter during his lifetime!"

"Only one?" scoffed the Young Electrician with startling distinctnessabove even the loudest roar and rumble of the train. 

With a rather faint, rather gaspy chuckle of amusement the YoungishGirl in the seat just behind the Traveling Salesman reached forwardthen and touched him very gently on the shoulder. 

"Oh, please, may I listen?" she asked quite frankly. 

With a smile as benevolent as it was surprised, the Traveling Salesmanturned half-way around in his seat and eyed her quizzically across thegold rim of his spectacles. 

"Why, sure you can listen!" he said. 

The Traveling Salesman was no fool. People as well as lisle threadwere a specialty of his. Even in his very first smiling estimate ofthe Youngish Girl's face, neither vivid blond hair nor luxuriantlyornate furs misled him for an instant. Just as a Preacher's highwaistcoat passes him, like an official badge of dignity and honor, into any conceivable kind of a situation, so also does a woman's highforehead usher her with delicious impunity into many conversationalexperiences that would hardly be wise for her lower-browed sister. 

With an extra touch of manners the Salesman took off his neat brownderby hat and placed it carefully on the vacant seat in front of him. Then, shifting his sample-case adroitly to suit his new twistedposition, he began to stick cruel little prickly price marks throughalternate meshes of pink and blue lisle. 

"Why, sure you can listen!" he repeated benignly. "Traveling alone'sawful stupid, ain't it? I reckon you were glad when the busted heatingapparatus in the sleeper gave you a chance to come in here and size upa few new faces. Sure you can listen! Though, bless your heart, weweren't talking about anything so very specially interesting, " heexplained conscientiously. "You see, I was merely arguing with myyoung friend here that if a woman really loves you, she'll follow youthrough any kind of blame or disgrace--follow you anywheres, Isaid--anywheres!"

"Not anywheres, " protested the Young Electrician with a grin. "'Not upa telegraph pole!'" he requoted sheepishly. 

"Y-e-s--I heard that, " acknowledged the Youngish Girl with blitheshamelessness. 

"Follow you '_anywheres_, ' was what I said, " persisted the TravelingSalesman almost irritably. "Follow you '_anywheres_'! Run! Walk! Crawlon her hands and knees if it's really necessary. And yet--" Like ashaggy brown line drawn across the bottom of a column of figures, hiseyebrows narrowed to their final calculation. "And yet--" he estimatedcautiously, "and yet--there's times when I ain't so almighty surethat her following you is any more specially flattering to you than ifyou was a burglar. She don't follow you so much, I reckon, because you_are_ her love as because you've _got_ her love. God knows it ain'tjust you, yourself, she's afraid of losing. It's what she's alreadyinvested in you that's worrying her! All her pinky-posy, cunningkid-dreams about loving and marrying, maybe; and the pretty-muchgrown-up winter she fought out the whisky question with you, perhaps;and the summer you had the typhoid, likelier than not; and the springthe youngster was born--oh, sure, the spring the youngster was born!Gee! If by swallowing just one more yarn you tell her, she can onlykeep on holding down all the old yarns you ever told her--if, byforgiving you just one more forgive-you, she can only hang on, as itwere, to the original worth-whileness of the whole darnedbusiness--if by--"

"Oh, that's what you meant by the 'whole darned business, ' was it?"cried the Youngish Girl suddenly, edging away out to the front of herseat. Along the curve of her cheeks an almost mischievous smile beganto quicken. "Oh, yes! I heard that, too!" she confessed cheerfully. "But what was the beginning of it all? The very beginning? What wasthe first thing you said? What started you talking about it? Oh, please, excuse me for hearing anything at all, " she finished abruptly;"but I've been traveling alone now for five dreadful days, all the waydown from British Columbia, and--if--you--will--persist--in--sayinginteresting things--in trains--you must take the consequences!"

There was no possible tinge of patronage or condescension in hervoice, but rather, instead, a bumpy, naive sort of friendliness, aslonesome Royalty sliding temporarily down from its throne mightreasonably contend with each bump, "A King may look at a cat! He may!He may!"

Along the edge of the Young Electrician's cheek-bones the red began toflush furiously. He seemed to have a funny little way of blushing justbefore he spoke, and the physical mannerism gave an absurdlyitalicized sort of emphasis to even the most trivial thing that hesaid. 

"I guess you'll have to go ahead and tell her about 'Rosie, '" hesuggested grinningly to the Traveling Salesman. 

"Yes! Oh, do tell me about 'Rosie, '" begged the Youngish Girl withwhimsical eagerness. "Who in creation was 'Rosie'?" she persistedlaughingly. "I've been utterly mad about 'Rosie' for the lasthalf-hour!"

"Why, 'Rosie' is nobody at all--probably, " said the Traveling Salesmana trifle wryly. 

"Oh, pshaw!" flushed the Young Electrician, crinkling up all thelittle smile-tissue around his blue eyes. "Oh, pshaw! Go ahead andtell her about 'Rosie. '"

"Why, I tell you it wasn't anything so specially interesting, "protested the Traveling Salesman diffidently. "We simply got jollyinga bit in the first place about the amount of perfectly senseless, no-account truck that'll collect in a fellow's pockets; and then somesort of a scorched piece of paper he had, or something, got himtelling me about a nasty, sizzling close call he had to-day with alive wire; and then I got telling him here about a friend ofmine--and a mighty good fellow, too--who dropped dead on the streetone day last summer with an unaddressed, typewritten letter in hispocket that began 'Dearest Little Rosie, ' called her a 'Honey' and a'Dolly Girl' and a 'Pink-Fingered Precious, ' made a rather foolishdinner appointment for Thursday in New Haven, and was signed--in theLord's own time--at the end of four pages, 'Yours forever, and thensome. TOM. '--Now the wife of the deceased was named--Martha. "

Quite against all intention, the Youngish Girl's laughter rippled outexplosively and caught up the latent amusement in the YoungElectrician's face. Then, just as unexpectedly, she wilted back alittle into her seat. 

"I don't call that an 'indiscreet letter'!" she protested almostresentfully. "You might call it a knavish letter. Or a foolish letter. Because either a knave or a fool surely wrote it! But 'indiscreet'?U-m-m, No!"

"Well, for heaven's sake!" said the Traveling Salesman. "If--you--don't--call--that--an--indiscreet letter, what would youcall one?"

"Yes, sure, " gasped the Young Electrician, "what would you call one?"The way his lips mouthed the question gave an almost tragical purportto it. 

"What would I call an 'indiscreet letter'?" mused the Youngish Girlslowly. "Why--why--I think I'd call an 'indiscreet letter' a letterthat was pretty much--of a gamble perhaps, but a letter that wasperfectly, absolutely legitimate for you to send, because it would beyour own interests and your own life that you were gambling with, notthe happiness of your wife or the honor of your husband. A letter, perhaps, that might be a trifle risky--but a letter, I mean, that isabsolutely on the square!"

"But if it's absolutely 'on the square, '" protested the TravelingSalesman, worriedly, "then where in creation does the 'indiscreet'come in?"

The Youngish Girl's jaw dropped. "Why, the 'indiscreet' part comesin, " she argued, "because you're not able to prove in advance, youknow, that the stakes you're gambling for are absolutely 'on thesquare. ' I don't know exactly how to express it, but it seems somehowas though only the very little things of Life are offered in openpackages--that all the big things come sealed very tight. You can pokethem a little and make a guess at the shape, and you can rattle them alittle and make a guess at the size, but you can't ever open them andprove them--until the money is paid down and gone forever from yourhands. But goodness me!" she cried, brightening perceptibly; "if youwere to put an advertisement in the biggest newspaper in the biggestcity in the world, saying: 'Every person who has ever written anindiscreet letter in his life is hereby invited to attend amass-meeting'--and if people would really go--you'd see the mostdistinguished public gathering that you ever saw in your life! Bishopsand Judges and Statesmen and Beautiful Society Women and Little OldWhite-Haired Mothers--everybody, in fact, who had ever had red bloodenough at least once in his life to write down in cold black and whitethe one vital, quivering, questioning fact that happened to mean themost to him at that moment! But your 'Honey' and your 'Dolly Girl' andyour 'Pink-Fingered Precious' nonsense! Why, it isn't real! Why, itdoesn't even _make sense_!"

Again the Youngish Girl's laughter rang out in light, joyous, utterlysuperficial appreciation. 

Even the serious Traveling Salesman succumbed at last. 

"Oh, yes, I know it sounds comic, " he acknowledged wryly. "Sounds likesomething out of a summer vaudeville show or a cheap Sundaysupplement. But I don't suppose it sounded so specially blamed comicto the widow. I reckon she found it plenty-heap indiscreet enough tosuit her. Oh, of course, " he added hastily, "I know, and Martha knowsthat Thomkins wasn't at all that kind of a fool. And yet, afterall--when you really settle right down to think about it, Thomkins'name was easily 'Tommy, ' and Thursday sure enough was his day in NewHaven, and it was a yard of red flannel that Martha had asked him tobring home to her--not the scarlet automobile veil that they found inhis pocket. But 'Martha, ' I says, of course, 'Martha, it sure doesbeat all how we fellows that travel round so much in cars and trainsare always and forever picking up automobile veils--dozens of them, _dozens_--red, blue, pink, yellow--why, I wouldn't wonder if my wifehad as many as thirty-four tucked away in her top bureau drawer!'--'Iwouldn't wonder, ' says Martha, stooping lower and lower overThomkins's blue cotton shirt that she's trying to cut down intorompers for the baby. 'And, Martha, ' I says, 'that letter is just ajoke. One of the boys sure put it up on him!'--'Why, of course, ' saysMartha, with her mouth all puckered up crooked, as though a kid hadstitched it on the machine. 'Why, of course! How dared you think--'"

Forking one bushy eyebrow, the Salesman turned and stared quizzicallyoff into space. 

"But all the samey, just between you and I, " he continued judicially, "all the samey, I'll wager you anything you name that it ain't justdeath that's pulling Martha down day by day, and night by night, limper and lanker and clumsier-footed. Martha's got a sore thought. That's what ails her. And God help the crittur with a sore thought!God help anybody who's got any one single, solitary sick idea thatkeeps thinking on top of itself, over and over and over, boring intothe past, bumping into the future, fussing, fretting, eternallyfestering. Gee! Compared to it, a tight shoe is easy slippers, andwater dropping on your head is perfect peace!--Look close at Martha, I say. Every night when the blowsy old moon shines like courtingtime, every day when the butcher's bill comes home as big as a swollenelephant, when the crippled stepson tries to cut his throat again, when the youngest kid sneezes funny like his father--'WHO WASROSIE? WHO WAS ROSIE?'"

"Well, who was Rosie?" persisted the Youngish Girl absent-mindedly. 

"Why, Rosie was _nothing_!" snapped the Traveling Salesman; "nothingat all--probably. " Altogether in spite of himself, his voice trailedoff into a suspiciously minor key. "But all the same, " he continuedmore vehemently, "all the same--it's just that little darned word'probably' that's making all the mess and bother of it--because, asfar as I can reckon, a woman can stand absolutely anything under God'sheaven that she knows; but she just up and can't stand the littlest, teeniest, no-account sort of thing that she ain't sure of. Answers maykill 'em dead enough, but it's questions that eats 'em alive. "

For a long, speculative moment the Salesman's gold-rimmed eyes wentfrowning off across the snow-covered landscape. Then he ripped off hisglasses and fogged them very gently with his breath. 

"Now--I--ain't--any--saint, " mused the Traveling Salesmanmeditatively, "and I--ain't very much to look at, and being on theroad ain't a business that would exactly enhance my valuation in theeyes of a lady who was actually looking out for some safe place tobank her affections; but I've never yet reckoned on running with anyfirm that didn't keep up to its advertising promises, and if a man'scourtship ain't his own particular, personal advertisingproposition--then I don't know anything about--_anything_! So if Ishould croak sudden any time in a railroad accident or a hotel fire ora scrap in a saloon, I ain't calculating on leaving my wife any verylarge amount of 'sore thoughts. ' When a man wants his memory keptgreen, he don't mean--gangrene!

"Oh, of course, " the Salesman continued more cheerfully, "a suddencroaking leaves any fellow's affairs at pretty raw ends--lots ofqueer, bitter-tasting things that would probably have been all rightenough if they'd only had time to get ripe. Lots of things, I haven'ta doubt, that would make my wife kind of mad, but nothing, I'mcalculating, that she wouldn't understand. There'd be no questionscoming in from the office, I mean, and no fresh talk from the roadthat she ain't got the information on hand to meet. Life insuranceain't by any means, in my mind, the only kind of protection that aman owes his widow. Provide for her Future--if you can!--That's mymotto!--But a man's just a plain bum who don't provide for his ownPast! She may have plenty of trouble in the years to come settling herown bills, but she ain't going to have any worry settling any of mine. I tell you, there'll be no ladies swelling round in crape at myfuneral that my wife don't know by their first names!"

With a sudden startling guffaw the Traveling Salesman's mirth rangjoyously out above the roar of the car. 

"Tell me about your wife, " said the Youngish Girl a little wistfully. 

Around the Traveling Salesman's generous mouth the loud laughflickered down to a schoolboy's bashful grin. 

"My wife?" he repeated. "Tell you about my wife? Why, there isn'tmuch to tell. She's little. And young. And was a school-teacher. And Imarried her four years ago. "

"And were happy--ever--after, " mused the Youngish Girl teasingly. 

"No!" contradicted the Traveling Salesman quite frankly. "No! Wedidn't find out how to be happy at all until the last three years!"

Again his laughter rang out through the car. 

"Heavens! Look at me!" he said at last. "And then think ofher!--Little, young, a school-teacher, too, and taking poetry to readon the train same as you or I would take a newspaper! Gee! What wouldyou expect?" Again his mouth began to twitch a little. "And I thoughtit was her fault--'most all of the first year, " he confesseddelightedly. "And then, all of a sudden, " he continued eagerly, "allof a sudden, one day, more mischievous-spiteful than anything else, Isays to her, 'We don't seem to be getting on so very well, do we?' Andshe shakes her head kind of slow. 'No, we don't!' she says. --'Maybeyou think I don't treat you quite right?' I quizzed, just a bitmad. --'No, you don't! That is, not--exactly right, ' she says, and cameburrowing her head in my shoulder as cozy as could be. --'Maybe youcould show me how to treat you--righter, ' I says, a little bitpleasanter. --'I'm perfectly sure I could!' she says, half laughing andhalf crying. 'All you'll have to do, ' she says, 'is just to watchme!'--'Just watch what _you_ do?' I said, bristling just a bitagain. --'No, ' she says, all pretty and soft-like; 'all I want you todo is to watch what I _don't_ do!'"

With slightly nervous fingers the Traveling Salesman reached up andtugged at his necktie as though his collar were choking him suddenly. 

"So that's how I learned my table manners, " he grinned, "and that'show I learned to quit cussing when I was mad round the house, andthat's how I learned--oh, a great many things--and that's how Ilearned--" grinning broader and broader--"that's how I learned not tocome home and talk all the time about the 'peach' whom I saw on thetrain or the street. My wife, you see, she's got a little scar on herface--it don't show any, but she's awful sensitive about it, and'Johnny, ' she says, 'don't you never notice that I don't ever rushhome and tell _you_ about the wonderful _slim_ fellow who sat next tome at the theater, or the simply elegant _grammar_ that I heard at thelecture? I can recognize a slim fellow when I see him, Johnny, ' shesays, 'and I like nice grammar as well as the next one, but praising'em to you, dear, don't seem to me so awfully polite. Bragging abouthandsome women to a plain wife, Johnny, ' she says, 'is just about asraw as bragging about rich men to a husband who's broke. '

"Oh, I tell you a fellow's a fool, " mused the Traveling Salesmanjudicially, "a fellow's a fool when he marries who don't go to workdeliberately to study and understand his wife. Women are awfullyunderstandable if you only go at it right. Why, the only thing thatriles them in the whole wide world is the fear that the man they'vemarried ain't quite bright. Why, when I was first married I used tothink that my wife was awful snippety about other women. But, Lord!when you point a girl out in the car and say, 'Well, ain't that girlgot the most gorgeous head of hair you ever saw in your life?' andyour wife says: 'Yes--Jordan is selling them puffs six for a dollarseventy-five this winter, ' she ain't intending to be snippety at all. No!--It's only, I tell you, that it makes a woman feel just plainsilly to think that her husband don't even know as much as she does. Why, Lord! she don't care how much you praise the grocer's daughter'sstyle, or your stenographer's spelling, as long as you'll only showthat you're _equally wise_ to the fact that the grocer's daughter surehas a nasty temper, and that the stenographer's spelling is mightynear the best thing about her. 

"Why, a man will go out and pay every cent he's got for a good huntingdog--and then snub his wife for being the finest untrained retrieverin the world. Yes, sir, that's what she is--a retriever; faithful, clever, absolutely unscarable, with no other object in life except totrack down and fetch to her husband every possible interesting fact inthe world that he don't already know. And then she's so excited andpleased with what she's got in her mouth that it 'most breaks herheart if her man don't seem to care about it. Now, the secret oftraining her lies in the fact that she won't never trouble to hunt outand fetch you any news that she sees you already know. And just assoon as a man once appreciates all this--then Joy is come to the Home!

"Now there's Ella, for instance, " continued the Traveling Salesmanthoughtfully. "Ella's a traveling man, too. Sells shotguns up throughthe Aroostook. Yes, shotguns! Funny, ain't it, and me sellingundervests? Ella's an awful smart girl. Good as gold. But cheeky? Oh, my!--Well, once I would have brought her down to the house for Sunday, and advertised her as a 'peach, ' and a 'dandy good fellow, ' andpraised her eyes, and bragged about her cleverness, and generallydone my best to smooth over all her little deficiencies with as muchpalaver as I could. And that little retriever of mine would have gonestraight to work and ferreted out every single, solitary, uncomplimentary thing about Ella that she could find, and 'a' fetched'em to me as pleased and proud as a puppy, expecting, for all theworld, to be petted and patted for her astonishing shrewdness. Andthere would sure have been gloom in the Sabbath. 

"But now--now--what I say now is: 'Wife, I'm going to bring Ella downfor Sunday. You've never seen her, and you sure will hate her. She'sbig, and showy, and just a little bit rough sometimes, and she rougesher cheeks too much, and she's likelier than not to chuck me under thechin. But it would help your old man a lot in a business way if you'dbe pretty nice to her. And I'm going to send her down here Friday, aday ahead of me. '--And oh, gee!--I ain't any more than jumped off thecar Saturday night when there's my little wife out on the streetcorner with her sweater tied over her head, prancing up and down firston one foot and then on the other--she's so excited, to slip her handin mine and tell me all about it. 'And Johnny, ' she says--even beforeI've got my glove off--'Johnny, ' she says, 'really, do you know, Ithink you've done Ella an injustice. Yes, truly I do. Why, she's _justas kind_! And she's shown me how to cut my last year's coat over intothe nicest sort of a little spring jacket! And she's made us achocolate cake as big as a dish-pan. Yes, she has! And Johnny, don'tyou dare tell her that I told you--but do you know she's putting herbrother's boy through Dartmouth? And you old Johnny Clifford, I don'tcare a darn whether she rouges a little bit or not--and you oughtn'tto care--either! So there!'"

With sudden tardy contrition the Salesman's amused eyes wandered tothe open book on the Youngish Girl's lap. 

"I sure talk too much, " he muttered. "I guess maybe you'd like half achance to read your story. "

The expression on the Youngish Girl's face was a curious mixture ofhumor and seriousness. "There's no special object in reading, " shesaid, "when you can hear a bright man talk!"

As unappreciatingly as a duck might shake champagne from its back, theTraveling Salesman shrugged the compliment from his shoulders. 

"Oh, I'm bright enough, " he grumbled, "but I ain't refined. " Slowlyto the tips of his ears mounted a dark red flush of realmortification. 

"Now, there's some traveling men, " he mourned, "who are as slick andfine as any college president you ever saw. But me? I'd look coarsesipping warm milk out of a gold-lined spoon. I haven't had anyeducation. And I'm fat, besides!" Almost plaintively he turned andstared for a second from the Young Electrician's embarrassed grin tothe Youngish Girl's more subtle smile. "Why, I'm nearly fifty yearsold, " he said, "and since I was fifteen the only learning I've evergot was what I picked up in trains talking to whoever sits nearest tome. Sometimes it's hens I learn about. Sometimes it's nationalpolitics. Once a young Canuck farmer sitting up all night with mecoming down from St. John learned me all about the French Revolution. And now and then high school kids will give me a point or two onastronomy. And in this very seat I'm sitting in now, I guess, ared-kerchiefed Dago woman, who worked on a pansy farm just outside ofBoston, used to ride in town with me every night for a month, and shecoached me quite a bit on Dago talk, and I paid her five dollars forthat. "

"Oh, dear me!" said the Youngish Girl, with unmistakable sincerity. "I'm afraid you haven't learned anything at all from me!"

"Oh, yes, I have too!" cried the Traveling Salesman, his whole roundface lighting up suddenly with real pleasure. "I've learned about anentirely new kind of lady to go home and tell my wife about. And I'llbet you a hundred dollars that you're a good deal more of a 'lady'than you'd even be willing to tell us. There ain't any provincial--'Don't-you-dare-speak-to-me--this-is-the-first-time-I-ever-was-on-a-trainair about you! I'll bet you've traveled a lot--all round theworld--froze your eyes on icebergs and scorched 'em some on tropics. "

"Y-e-s, " laughed the Youngish Girl. 

"And I'll bet you've met the Governor-General at least once in yourlife. "

"Yes, " said the Girl, still laughing. "He dined at my house with me aweek ago yesterday. "

"And I'll bet you, most of anything, " said the Traveling Salesmanshrewdly, "that you're haughtier than haughty with folks of your ownkind. But with people like us--me and the Electrician, or thesoldier's widow from South Africa who does your washing, or the Eskimoman at the circus--you're as simple as a kitten. All your own kind offolks are nothing but grown-up people to you, and you treat 'em likegrown-ups all right--a hundred cents to the dollar--but all our kindof folks are _playmates_ to you, and you take us as easy and pleasantas you'd slide down on the floor and play with any other kind of akid. Oh, you can tackle the other proposition all right--dances andballs and general gold lace glories; but it ain't fine loafers sittinground in parlors talking about the weather that's going to hold youvery long, when all the time your heart's up and over the back fencewith the kids who are playing the games. And, oh, say!" he broke offabruptly--"would you think it awfully impertinent of me if I asked youhow you do your hair like that? 'Cause, surer than smoke, after I gethome and supper is over and the dishes are washed and I've just got tosleep, that little wife of mine will wake me up and say: 'Oh, justone thing more. How did that lady in the train do her hair?'"

With her chin lifting suddenly in a burst of softly uproariousdelight, the Youngish Girl turned her head half-way around and raisedher narrow, black-gloved hands to push a tortoise-shell pin intoplace. 

"Why, it's perfectly simple, " she explained. "It's just three puffs, and two curls, and then a twist. "

"And then a twist?" quizzed the Traveling Salesman earnestly, jottingdown the memorandum very carefully on the shiny black surface of hissample-case. "Oh, I hope I ain't been too familiar, " he added, withsudden contriteness. "Maybe I ought to have introduced myself first. My name's Clifford. I'm a drummer for Sayles & Sayles. Maine and theMaritime Provinces--that's my route. Boston's the home office. Everbeen in Halifax?" he quizzed a trifle proudly. "Do an awful bigbusiness in Halifax! Happen to know the Emporium store? The London, Liverpool, and Halifax Emporium?"

The Youngish Girl bit her lip for a second before she answered. Then, very quietly, "Y-e-s, " she said, "I know the Emporium--slightly. Thatis--I--own the block that the Emporium is in. "

"Gee!" said the Traveling Salesman. "Oh, gee! Now I _know_ I talk toomuch!"

In nervously apologetic acquiescence the Young Electrician reached upa lean, clever, mechanical hand and smouched one more streak of blackacross his forehead in a desperate effort to reduce his tousled yellowhair to the particular smoothness that befitted the presence of alady who owned a business block in any city whatsoever. 

"My father owned a store in Malden, once, " he stammered, just a triflewistfully, "but it burnt down, and there wasn't any insurance. Wealways were a powerfully unlucky family. Nothing much ever came ourway!"

Even as he spoke, a toddling youngster from an overcrowded seat at thefront end of the car came adventuring along the aisle after theswaying, clutching manner of tired, fretty children on trains. Hesitating a moment, she stared up utterly unsmilingly into theSalesman's beaming face, ignored the Youngish Girl's inviting hand, and with a sudden little chuckling sigh of contentment, climbed upclumsily into the empty place beside the Young Electrician, rummagedbustlingly around with its hands and feet for an instant, in apetulant effort to make a comfortable nest for itself, and thensnuggled down at last, lolling half-way across the Young Electrician'sperfectly strange knees, and drowsed off to sleep with all thedelicious, friendly, unconcerned sang-froid of a tired puppy. Almostunconsciously the Young Electrician reached out and unfastened thechoky collar of the heavy, sweltering little overcoat; yet not aglance from his face had either lured or caressed the strange childfor a single second. Just for a moment, then, his smiling eyesreassured the jaded, jabbering French-Canadian mother, who turnedround with craning neck from the front of the car. 

"She's all right here. Let her alone!" he signaled gesticulatinglyfrom child to mother. 

Then, turning to the Traveling Salesman, he mused reminiscently:"Talking's--all--right. But where in creation do you get the time to_think_? Got any kids?" he asked abruptly. 

"N-o, " said the Traveling Salesman. "My wife, I guess, is kid enoughfor me. "

Around the Young Electrician's eyes the whimsical smile-wrinklesdeepened with amazing vividness. "Huh!" he said. "I've got six. "

"Gee!" chuckled the Salesman. "Boys?"

The Young Electrician's eyebrows lifted in astonishment. "Sure they'reboys!" he said. "Why, of course!"

The Traveling Salesman looked out far away through the window andwhistled a long, breathy whistle. "How in the deuce are you ever goingto take care of 'em?" he asked. Then his face sobered suddenly. "Therewas only two of us fellows at home--just Daniel and me--and evenso--there weren't ever quite enough of anything to go all the wayround. "

For just an instant the Youngish Girl gazed a bit skeptically at theTraveling Salesman's general rotund air of prosperity. 

"You don't look--exactly like a man who's never had enough, " she saidsmilingly. 

"Food?" said the Traveling Salesman. "Oh, shucks! It wasn't food I wasthinking of. It was education. Oh, of course, " he addedconscientiously, "of course, when the crops weren't either too heavyor too blooming light, Pa usually managed some way or other to getDaniel and me to school. And schooling was just nuts to me, and not asingle nut so hard or so green that I wouldn't have chawed and bittenmy way clear into it. But Daniel--Daniel somehow couldn't seem to seejust how to enter a mushy Bartlett pear without a knife or a fork--insome other person's fingers. He was all right, you know--but he justcouldn't seem to find his own way alone into anything. So when thetime came--" the grin on the Traveling Salesman's mouth grew just alittle bit wry at one corner--"and so when the time came--it was anawful nice, sweet-smelling June night, I remember, and I'd come homeearly--I walked into the kitchen as nice as pie, where Pa was sittingdozing in the cat's rocking-chair, in his gray stocking feet, and Ithrew down before him my full year's school report. It was pink, Iremember, which was supposed to be the rosy color of success in ourschool; and I says: 'Pa! There's my report! And Pa, ' I says, as boldand stuck-up as a brass weathercock on a new church, 'Pa! Teacher saysthat one of your boys has got to go to college!' And I was grinningall the while, I remember, worse than any Chessy cat. 

"And Pa he took my report in both his horny old hands and he spelt itall out real careful and slow and respectful, like as though it hadbeen a lace valentine, and 'Good boy!' he says, and 'Bully boy!' and'So Teacher says that one of my boys has got to go to college? One ofmy boys? Well, which one? Go fetch me Daniel's report. ' So I went andfetched him Daniel's report. It was gray, I remember--the supposedcolor of failure in our school--and I stood with the grin still halffrozen on my face while Pa spelt out the dingy record of poor Daniel'syear. And then, 'Oh, gorry!' says Pa. 'Run away and g'long to bed. I've got to think. But first, ' he says, all suddenly cautious andthrifty, 'how much does it cost to go to college?' And just about asdelicate and casual as a missionary hinting for a new chapel, Iblurted out loud as a bull: 'Well, if I go up state to our owncollege, and get a chance to work for part of my board, it will costme just $255 a year, or maybe--maybe, ' I stammered, 'maybe, if I'mextra careful, only $245. 50, say. For four years that's only $982, ' Ifinished triumphantly. 

"'_G-a-w-d!_' says Pa. Nothing at all except just, '_G-a-w-d!_'

"When I came down to breakfast the next morning, he was still sittingthere in the cat's rocking-chair, with his face as gray as his socks, and all the rest of him--blue jeans. And my pink school report, Iremember, had slipped down under the stove, and the tortoise-shell catwas lashing it with her tail; but Daniel's report, gray as his face, was still clutched up in Pa's horny old hand. For just a second weeyed each other sort of dumb-like, and then for the first time, I tellyou, I seen tears in his eyes. 

"'Johnny, ' he says, 'it's Daniel that'll have to go to college. Bright men, ' he says, 'don't need no education. '"

Even after thirty years the Traveling Salesman's hand shook slightlywith the memory, and his joggled mind drove him with unwontedcarelessness to pin price mark after price mark in the same soft, flimsy mesh of pink lisle. But the grin on his lips did not altogetherfalter. 

"I'd had pains before in my stomach, " he acknowledged good-naturedly, "but that morning with Pa was the first time in my life that I everhad any pain in my plans!--So we mortgaged the house and the cow-barnand the maple-sugar trees, " he continued, more and more cheerfully, "and Daniel finished his schooling--in the Lord's own time--and wentto college. "

With another sudden, loud guffaw of mirth all the color came flushingback again into his heavy face. 

"Well, Daniel has sure needed all the education he could get, " heaffirmed heartily. "He's a Methodist minister now somewhere down inGeorgia--and, educated 'way up to the top notch, he don't make no morethan $650 a year. $650!--oh, glory! Why, Daniel's piazza on his newhouse cost him $175, and his wife's last hospital bill was $250, andjust one dentist alone gaffed him sixty-five dollars for straighteninghis oldest girl's teeth!"

"Not sixty-five?" gasped the Young Electrician in acute dismay. "Why, two of my kids have got to have it done! Oh, come now--you'rejoshing!"

"I'm not either joshing, " cried the Traveling Salesman. "Sure it wassixty-five dollars. Here's the receipted bill for it right here in mypocket. " Brusquely he reached out and snatched the paper back again. "Oh, no, I beg your pardon. That's the receipt for the piazza. --What?It isn't? For the hospital bill then?--Oh, hang! Well, never mind. It_was_ sixty-five dollars. I tell you I've got it somewhere. "

"Oh--you--paid--for--them--all, did you?" quizzed the Youngish Girlbefore she had time to think. 

"No, indeed!" lied the Traveling Salesman loyally. "But $650 a year?What can a family man do with that? Why, I earned that much before Iwas twenty-one! Why, there wasn't a moment after I quit school andwent to work that I wasn't earning real money! From the first night Istood on a street corner with a gasoline torch, hawking rasin-seeders, up to last night when I got an eight-hundred-dollar raise in mysalary, there ain't been a single moment in my life when I couldn'thave sold you my boots; and if you'd buncoed my boots away from me I'dhave sold you my stockings; and if you'd buncoed my stockings awayfrom me I'd have rented you the privilege of jumping on my bare toes. And I ain't never missed a meal yet--though once in my life I wasforty-eight hours late for one!--Oh, I'm bright enough, " he mourned, "but I tell you I ain't refined. "

With the sudden stopping of the train the little child in the YoungElectrician's lap woke fretfully. Then, as the bumpy cars switchedlaboriously into a siding, and the engine went puffing off alone onsome noncommittal errand of its own, the Young Electrician rose andstretched himself and peered out of the window into the acres andacres of snow, and bent down suddenly and swung the child to hisshoulder, then, sauntering down the aisle to the door, jumped offinto the snow and started to explore the edge of a little, snow-smothered pond which a score of red-mittened children were tryingfrantically to clear with huge yellow brooms. Out from the crowd ofloafers that hung about the station a lean yellow hound came nosingaimlessly forward, and then suddenly, with much fawning and manycapers, annexed itself to the Young Electrician's heels like a dogthat has just rediscovered its long-lost master. Halfway up the carthe French Canadian mother and her brood of children crowded theirfaces close to the window--and thought they were watching the snow. 

And suddenly the car seemed very empty. The Youngish Girl thought itwas her book that had grown so astonishingly devoid of interest. Onlythe Traveling Salesman seemed to know just exactly what was thematter. Craning his neck till his ears reddened, he surveyed andresurveyed the car, complaining: "What's become of all the folks?"

A little nervously the Youngish Girl began to laugh. "Nobody hasgone, " she said, "except--the Young Electrician. "

With a grunt of disbelief the Traveling Salesman edged over to thewindow and peered out through the deepening frost on the pane. Inquisitively the Youngish Girl followed his gaze. Already across thecold, white, monotonous, snow-smothered landscape the pale afternoonlight was beginning to wane, and against the lowering red and purplestreaks of the wintry sunset the Young Electrician's figure, with thelittle huddling pack on its shoulder, was silhouetted vaguely, with analmost startling mysticism, like the figure of an unearthly Travelerstarting forth upon an unearthly journey into an unearthly West. 

"Ain't he the nice boy!" exclaimed the Traveling Salesman with almostpassionate vehemence. 

"Why, I'm sure I don't know!" said the Youngish Girl a trifle coldly. "Why--it would take me quite a long time--to decide just how--nice hewas. But--" with a quick softening of her voice--"but he certainlymakes one think of--nice things--Blue Mountains, and Green Forests, and Brown Pine Needles, and a Long, Hard Trail, shoulder toshoulder--with a chance to warm one's heart at last at ahearth-fire--bigger than a sunset!"

Altogether unconsciously her small hands went gripping out to the edgeof her seat, as though just a grip on plush could hold herimagination back from soaring into a miraculous, unfamiliar worldwhere women did not idle all day long on carpets waiting for men whocame on--pavements. 

"Oh, my God!" she cried out with sudden passion. "I wish I could havelived just one day when the world was new. I wish--I wish I could havereaped just one single, solitary, big Emotion before the world hadcaught it and--appraised it--and taxed it--and licensed it--and_staled_ it!"

"Oh-ho!" said the Traveling Salesman with a little sharp indrawing ofhis breath. "Oh-ho!--So that's what the--Young Electrician makes youthink of, is it?"

For just an instant the Traveling Salesman thought that the YoungishGirl was going to strike him. 

"I wasn't thinking of the Young Electrician at all!" she assertedangrily. "I was thinking of something altogether--different. "

"Yes. That's just it, " murmured the Traveling Salesman placidly. "Something--altogether--different. Every time I look at him it's thedarnedest thing! Every time I look at him I--forget all about him. Myhead begins to wag and my foot begins to tap--and I find myself tryingto--_hum_ him--as though he was the words of a tune I used to know. "

When the Traveling Salesman looked round again, there were tears inthe Youngish Girl's eyes, and an instant after that her shoulders wentplunging forward till her forehead rested on the back of the TravelingSalesman's seat. 

But it was not until the Young Electrician had come striding back tohis seat, and wrapped himself up in the fold of a big newspaper, andnot until the train had started on again and had ground out anothernoisy mile or so, that the Traveling Salesman spoke again--and thistime it was just a little bit surreptitiously. 

"What--you--crying--for?" he asked with incredible gentleness. 

"I don't know, I'm sure, " confessed the Youngish Girl, snuffingly. "Iguess I must be tired. "

"U-m-m, " said the Traveling Salesman. 

After a moment or two he heard the sharp little click of a watch. 

"Oh, dear me!" fretted the Youngish Girl's somewhat smothered voice. "I didn't realize we were almost two hours late. Why, it will be dark, won't it, when we get into Boston?"

"Yes, sure it will be dark, " said the Traveling Salesman. 

After another moment the Youngish Girl raised her forehead just themerest trifle from the back of the Traveling Salesman's seat, so thather voice sounded distinctly more definite and cheerful. "I've--never--been--to--Boston--before, " she drawled a littlecasually. 

"What!" exclaimed the Traveling Salesman. "Been all around theworld--and never been to Boston?--Oh, I see, " he added hurriedly, "you're afraid your friends won't meet you!"

Out of the Youngish Girl's erstwhile disconsolate mouth a mostsurprising laugh issued. "No! I'm afraid they _will_ meet me, " shesaid dryly. 

Just as a soldier's foot turns from his heel alone, so the TravelingSalesman's whole face seemed to swing out suddenly from his chin, tillhis surprised eyes stared direct into the Girl's surprised eyes. 

"My heavens!" he said. "You don't mean that _you've_--been writingan--'indiscreet letter'?"

"Y-e-s--I'm afraid that I have, " said the Youngish Girl quite blandly. She sat up very straight now and narrowed her eyes just a triflestubbornly toward the Traveling Salesman's very visible astonishment. "And what's more, " she continued, clicking at her watch-caseagain--"and what's more, I'm on my way now to meet the consequences ofsaid indiscreet letter. '"

"Alone?" gasped the Traveling Salesman. 

The twinkle in the Youngish Girl's eyes brightened perceptibly, butthe firmness did not falter from her mouth. 

"Are people apt to go in--crowds to--meet consequences?" she asked, perfectly pleasantly. 

"Oh--come, now!" said the Traveling Salesman's most persuasive voice. "You don't want to go and get mixed up in any sensational nonsenseand have your picture stuck in the Sunday paper, do you?"

The Youngish Girl's manner stiffened a little. "Do I look like aperson who gets mixed up in sensational nonsense?" she demanded rathersternly. 

"N-o-o, " acknowledged the Traveling Salesman conscientiously. "N-o-o;but then there's never any telling what you calm, quiet-looking, still-waters sort of people will go ahead and do--once you getstarted. " Anxiously he took out his watch, and then began hurriedly topack his samples back into his case. "It's only twenty-five minutesmore, " he argued earnestly. "Oh, I say now, don't you go off and doanything foolish! My wife will be down at the station to meet me. You'd like my wife. You'd like her fine!--Oh, I say now, you comehome with us for Sunday, and think things over a bit. "

As delightedly as when the Traveling Salesman had asked her how shefixed her hair, the Youngish Girl's hectic nervousness broke intogenuine laughter. "Yes, " she teased, "I can see just how pleased yourwife would be to have you bring home a perfectly strange lady forSunday!"

"My wife is only a kid, " said the Traveling Salesman gravely, "but shelikes what I like--all right--and she'd give you the shrewdest, eagerest little 'helping hand' that you ever got in your life--if you'donly give her a chance to help you out--with whatever your troubleis. "

"But I haven't any 'trouble, '" persisted the Youngish Girl with briskcheerfulness. "Why, I haven't any trouble at all! Why, I don't knowbut what I'd just as soon tell you all about it. Maybe I really oughtto tell somebody about it. Maybe--anyway, it's a good deal easier totell a stranger than a friend. Maybe it would really do me good tohear how it sounds out loud. You see, I've never done anything butwhisper it--just to myself--before. Do you remember the wreck on theCanadian Pacific Road last year? Do you? Well--I was in it!"

"Gee!" said the Traveling Salesman. "'Twas up on just the edge ofCanada, wasn't it? And three of the passenger coaches went off thetrack? And the sleeper went clear over the bridge? And fell into anawful gully? And caught fire besides?"

"Yes, " said the Youngish Girl. "I was in the sleeper. "

Even without seeming to look at her at all, the Traveling Salesmancould see quite distinctly that the Youngish Girl's knees were fairlyknocking together and that the flesh around her mouth was suddenlygray and drawn, like an old person's. But the little persistent desireto laugh off everything still flickered about the corners of her lips. 

"Yes, " she said, "I was in the sleeper, and the two people right infront of me were killed; and it took almost three hours, I think, before they got any of us out. And while I was lying there in thedarkness and mess and everything, I cried--and cried--and cried. Itwasn't nice of me, I know, nor brave, nor anything, but I couldn'tseem to help it--underneath all that pile of broken seats and racksand beams and things. 

"And pretty soon a man's voice--just a voice, no face or anything, youknow, but just a voice from somewhere quite near me, spoke right outand said: 'What in creation are you crying so about? Are you awfullyhurt?' And I said--though I didn't mean to say it at all, but it cameright out--'N-o, I don't think I'm hurt, but I don't like having allthese seats and windows piled on top of me, ' and I began crying allover again. 'But no one else is crying, ' reproached the Voice. --'Andthere's a perfectly good reason why not, ' I said. 'They're alldead!'--'O--h, ' said the Voice, and then I began to cry harder thanever, and principally this time, I think, I cried because the horrid, old red plush cushions smelt so stale and dusty, jammed against mynose. 

"And then after a long time the Voice spoke again and it said, 'IfI'll sing you a little song, will you stop crying?' And I said, 'N-o, I don't think I could!' And after a long time the Voice spoke again, and it said, 'Well, if I'll tell you a story will you stop crying?'And I considered it a long time, and finally I said, 'Well, if you'lltell me a perfectly true story--a story that's never, never been toldto any one before--_I'll try and stop!_'

"So the Voice gave a funny little laugh almost like a woman'shysterics, and I stopped crying right off short, and the Voice said, just a little bit mockingly: 'But the only perfectly true story that Iknow--the only story that's never--never been told to anybody beforeis the story of my life. ' 'Very well, then, ' I said, 'tell me that! Ofcourse I was planning to live to be very old and learn a little abouta great many things; but as long as apparently I'm not going to liveto even reach my twenty-ninth birthday--to-morrow--you don't know howunutterably it would comfort me to think that at least I knew_everything_ about some one thing!'

"And then the Voice choked again, just a little bit, and said:'Well--here goes, then. Once upon a time--but first, can you move yourright hand? Turn it just a little bit more this way. There! Cuddle itdown! Now, you see, I've made a little home for it in mine. Ouch!Don't press down too hard! I think my wrist is broken. All ready, then? You won't cry another cry? Promise? All right then. Here goes. Once upon a time--'

"Never mind about the story, " said the Youngish Girl tersely. "Itbegan about the first thing in all his life that he rememberedseeing--something funny about a grandmother's brown wig hung over theedge of a white piazza railing--and he told me his name and address, and all about his people, and all about his business, and what bankshis money was in, and something about some land down in the Panhandle, and all the bad things that he'd ever done in his life, and all thegood things, that he wished there'd been more of, and all the thingsthat no one would dream of telling you if he ever, ever expected tosee Daylight again--things so intimate--things so--

"But it wasn't, of course, about his story that I wanted to tell you. It was about the 'home, ' as he called it, that his broken hand madefor my--frightened one. I don't know how to express it; I can'texactly think, even, of any words to explain it. Why, I've been allover the world, I tell you, and fairly loafed and lolled in everyconceivable sort of ease and luxury, but the Soul of me--the wild, restless, breathless, discontented _soul_ of me--_never sat downbefore in all its life_--I say, until my frightened hand cuddled intohis broken one. I tell you I don't pretend to explain it, I don'tpretend to account for it; all I know is--that smothering there underall that horrible wreckage and everything--the instant my hand wenthome to his, the most absolute sense of serenity and contentment wentover me. Did you ever see young white horses straying through awhite-birch wood in the springtime? Well, it felt the way that_looks_!--Did you ever hear an alto voice singing in the candle-light?Well, it felt the way that _sounds_! The last vision you would like toglut your eyes on before blindness smote you! The last sound you wouldlike to glut your ears on before deafness dulled you! The lasttouch--before Intangibility! Something final, complete, supreme--ineffably satisfying!

"And then people came along and rescued us, and I was sick in thehospital for several weeks. And then after that I went to Persia. Iknow it sounds silly, but it seemed to me as though just the smell ofPersia would be able to drive away even the memory of red plush dustand scorching woodwork. And there was a man on the steamer whom I usedto know at home--a man who's almost always wanted to marry me. Andthere was a man who joined our party at Teheran--who liked me alittle. And the land was like silk and silver and attar of roses. Butall the time I couldn't seem to think about anything except howperfectly awful it was that a _stranger_ like me should be runninground loose in the world, carrying all the big, scary secrets of a manwho didn't even know where I was. And then it came to me all of asudden, one rather worrisome day, that no woman who knew as much abouta man as I did was exactly a 'stranger' to him. And then, twice assuddenly, to great, grown-up, cool-blooded, money-staled, book-tamed_me_--it swept over me like a cyclone that I should never be able todecide anything more in all my life--not the width of a tinsel ribbon, not the goal of a journey, not the worth of a lover--until I'd seenthe Face that belonged to the Voice in the railroad wreck. 

"And I sat down--and wrote the man a letter--I had his name andaddress, you know. And there--in a rather maddening moonlight night onthe Caspian Sea--all the horrors and terrors of that other--Canadiannight came back to me and swamped completely all the arid timidityand sleek conventionality that women like me are hidebound withall their lives, and I wrote him--that unknown, unvisualized, unimagined--MAN--the utterly free, utterly frank, utterlyhonest sort of letter that any brave soul would write any other bravesoul--every day of the world--if there wasn't any flesh. It wasn't alove letter. It wasn't even a sentimental letter. Never mind what Itold him. Never mind anything except that there, in that tropicalnight on a moonlit sea, I asked him to meet me here, in Boston, eightmonths afterward--on the same Boston-bound Canadian train--onthis--the anniversary of our other tragic meeting. "

"And you think he'll be at the station?" gasped the TravelingSalesman. 

The Youngish Girl's answer was astonishingly tranquil. "I don't know, I'm sure, " she said. "That part of it isn't my business. All I know isthat I wrote the letter--and mailed it. It's Fate's move next. "

"But maybe he never got the letter!" protested the TravelingSalesman, buckling frantically at the straps of his sample-case. 

"Very likely, " the Youngish Girl answered calmly. "And if he never gotit, then Fate has surely settled everything perfectly definitely forme--that way. The only trouble with that would be, " she addedwhimsically, "that an unanswered letter is always pretty much like anunhooked hook. Any kind of a gap is apt to be awkward, and the hookthat doesn't catch in its own intended tissue is mighty apt to tearlater at something you didn't want torn. "

"I don't know anything about that, " persisted the Traveling Salesman, brushing nervously at the cinders on his hat. "All I say is--maybe he'smarried. "

"Well, that's all right, " smiled the Youngish Girl. "Then Fate wouldhave settled it all for me perfectly satisfactorily _that_ way. Iwouldn't mind at all his not being at the station. And I wouldn'tmind at all his being married. And I wouldn't mind at all his turningout to be very, very old. None of those things, you see, wouldinterfere in the slightest with the memory of the--Voice orthe--chivalry of the broken hand. THE ONLY THING I'D MIND, I TELLYOU, WOULD BE TO THINK THAT HE REALLY AND TRULY WAS THE MAN WHO WASMADE FOR ME--AND I MISSED FINDING IT OUT!--Oh, of course, I'veworried myself sick these past few months thinking of the audacity ofwhat I've done. I've got such a 'Sore Thought, ' as you call it, thatI'm almost ready to scream if anybody mentions the word 'indiscreet'in my presence. And yet, and yet--after all, it isn't as though I werereaching out into the darkness after an indefinite object. What I'mreaching out for is a _light_, so that I can tell exactly just whatobject is there. And, anyway, " she quoted a little waveringly:

 "He either fears his fate too much, Or his, deserts are small, Who dares not put it to the touch To gain or lose it all!"

"Ain't you scared just a little bit?" probed the Traveling Salesman. 

All around them the people began bustling suddenly with their coatsand bags. With a gesture of impatience the Youngish Girl jumped up andstarted to fasten her furs. The eyes that turned to answer theTraveling Salesman's question were brimming wet with tears. 

"Yes--I'm--scared to death!" she smiled incongruously. 

Almost authoritatively the Salesman reached out his empty hand for hertraveling-bag. "What you going to do if he ain't there?" he asked. 

The Girl's eyebrows lifted. "Why, just what I'm going to do if he _is_there, " she answered quite definitely. "I'm going right back toMontreal to-night. There's a train out again, I think, ateight-thirty. Even late as we are, that will give me an hour and ahalf at the station. "

"Gee!" said the Traveling Salesman. "And you've traveled five daysjust to see what a man looks like--for an hour and a half?"

"I'd have traveled twice five days, " she whispered, "just to see whathe looked like--for a--second and a half!"

"But how in thunder are you going to recognize him?" fussed theTraveling Salesman. "And how in thunder is he going to recognize you?"

"Maybe I won't recognize him, " acknowledged the Youngish Girl, "andlikelier than not he won't recognize me; but don't you see?--can't youunderstand?--that all the audacity of it, all the worry of it--isabsolutely nothing compared to the one little chance in ten thousandthat we _will_ recognize each other?"

"Well, anyway, " said the Traveling Salesman stubbornly, "I'm going towalk out slow behind you and see you through this thing all right. "

"Oh, no, you're not!" exclaimed the Youngish Girl. "Oh, no, you'renot! Can't you see that if he's there, I wouldn't mind you so much;but if he doesn't come, can't you understand that maybe I'd just assoon you didn't know about it?"

"O-h, " said the Traveling Salesman. 

A little impatiently he turned and routed the Young Electrician outof his sprawling nap. "Don't you know Boston when you see it?" hecried a trifle testily. 

For an instant the Young Electrician's sleepy eyes stared dully intothe Girl's excited face. Then he stumbled up a bit awkwardly andreached out for all his coil-boxes and insulators. 

"Good-night to you. Much obliged to you, " he nodded amiably. 

A moment later he and the Traveling Salesman were forging their wayahead through the crowded aisle. Like the transient, impersonal, altogether mysterious stimulant of a strain of martial music, theYoung Electrician vanished into space. But just at the edge of the carsteps the Traveling Salesman dallied a second to wait for the YoungishGirl. 

"Say, " he said, "say, can I tell my wife what you've told me?"

"Y-e-s, " nodded the Youngish Girl soberly. 

"And say, " said the Traveling Salesman, "say, I don't exactly like togo off this way and never know at all how it all came out. " Casuallyhis eyes fell on the big lynx muff in the Youngish Girl's hand. "Say, "he said, "if I promise, honest-Injun, to go 'way off to the other endof the station, couldn't you just lift your muff up high, once, ifeverything comes out the way you want it?"

"Y-e-s, " whispered the Youngish Girl almost inaudibly. 

Then the Traveling Salesman went hurrying on to join the YoungElectrician, and the Youngish Girl lagged along on the rear edge ofthe crowd like a bashful child dragging on the skirts of its mother. 

Out of the groups of impatient people that flanked the track she sawa dozen little pecking reunions, where some one dashed wildly into thelong, narrow stream of travelers and yanked out his special friend orrelative, like a good-natured bird of prey. She saw a tired, worn, patient-looking woman step forward with four noisy little boys, andthen stand dully waiting while the Young Electrician gathered hisriotous offspring to his breast. She saw the Traveling Salesman grinlike a bashful school-boy, just as a red-cloaked girl came running tohim and bore him off triumphantly toward the street. 

And then suddenly, out of the blur, and the dust, and the dizziness, and the half-blinding glare of lights, the figure of a Man loomed updirectly and indomitably across the Youngish Girl's path--a Manstanding bare-headed and faintly smiling as one who welcomes amuch-reverenced guest--a Man tall, stalwart, sober-eyed, with a touchof gray at his temples, a Man whom any woman would be proud to havewaiting for her at the end of any journey. And right there before allthat hurrying, scurrying, self-centered, unseeing crowd, he reachedout his hands to her and gathered her frightened fingers close intohis. 

"You've--kept--me--waiting--a--long--time, " he reproached her. 

"Yes!" she stammered. "Yes! Yes! The train was two hours late!"

"It wasn't the hours that I was thinking about, " said the Man veryquietly. "It was the--_year_!"

And then, just as suddenly, the Youngish Girl felt a tug at her coat, and, turning round quickly, found herself staring with dazed eyesinto the eager, childish face of the Traveling Salesman's red-cloakedwife. Not thirty feet away from her the Traveling Salesman'sshameless, stolid-looking back seemed to be blocking up the main exitto the street. 

"Oh, are you the lady from British Columbia?" queried the excitedlittle voice. Perplexity, amusement, yet a divine sort of maritalconfidence were in the question. 

"Yes, surely I am, " said the Youngish Girl softly. 

Across the little wife's face a great rushing, flushing wave oftenderness blocked out for a second all trace of the cruel, slim scarthat marred the perfect contour of one cheek. 

"Oh, I don't know at all what it's all about, " laughed the littlewife, "but my husband asked me to come back and kiss you!"