Contrary Mary

It was Cousin Patty who had suggested sending for Roger. "He can look

after me, Mary. If you won't let me go home, I don't want you to have

the thought of me to burden you."

"You couldn't be a burden. And I don't know what Aunt Isabelle and I

should have done without you."

She began to cry weakly, and Cousin Patty, comforting her, said in her

heart, "There is no one but Roger who can say the right things to her."

As yet no one had said the right things. It seemed to Mary that she

carried a wound too deep for healing. Gordon had softened the truth as

much as possible, but he could not hide it from her. She knew that

Barry, her boy Barry, had gone out of the world defeated.

It was Roger who helped her.

He came first upon her as she sat alone in the garden by the fountain.

It was a sultry spring day, and heavy clouds hung low on the horizon.

Thin and frail in her black frock, she rose to meet him, the ghost of

the girl who had once bloomed like a flower in her scarlet wrap.

Roger took her hands in his.

"You poor little child," he said; "you poor little child."

She did not cry. She simply looked up at him, frozen-white. "Oh, it

wasn't fair for him to go--that way. He tried so hard. He tried so

hard."

"I know. And it was a great fight he put up, you must remember that."

"But to fail--at the last."

"You mustn't think of that. Somehow I can see Barry still fighting,

and winning. One of a glorious company."

"A glorious company--Barry?"

"Yes. Why not? We are judged by the fight we make, not by our

victory."

She drew a long breath. "Everybody else has been sorry. Nobody else

could seem to understand."

"Perhaps I understand," he said, "because I know what it is to

fight--and fail."

"But you are winning now." The color swept into her pale cheeks.

"Cousin Patty told me."

"Yes. You showed me the way--I have tried to follow it."

"Oh, how ignorant I was," she cried, tempestuously, "when I talked to

you of life. I thought I knew everything."

"You knew enough to help me. If I can help you a little now it will be

only a fair exchange."

It helped her merely to have him there. "You spoke of Barry's still

fighting and winning. Do you think that one goes on fighting?"