"It's no use, Poole. I've fought and fought. Father helped me. And I

promised Con. And I thought that my love for Leila would make me

strong. But there's no use trying. I'll be beaten. It is in the

blood. I had an uncle who drank himself to death. And back of him

there was a grandfather."

They had been together for two days. Barry had agreed to Roger's plans

for a trip to the country, and now they were under the trees on the

banks of one of the little brackish rivers which flow into the

Chesapeake. They had fished a little in the early morning, then had

brought their boat in, for Barry had grown tired of the sport. He

wanted to talk about himself.

"It's no use," he said again; "it's in the blood."

Roger was propped against a tree, his hat off, his dark hair blown back

from his fine thin face.

"Our lives," he said, "are our own. Not what our ancestors make them."

"I don't believe it," Barry said, flatly. "I've fought a good fight,

no one can say that I haven't. And I've lost. After this do you

suppose that Mary will let me marry Leila? Do you suppose the General

will let me marry her?"

"Will you let yourself marry her?"

Barry's face flamed. "Then you think I'm not worthy?"

"It is what you think, Ballard, not what I think."

Barry pulled up a handful of grass and threw it away, pulled up another

handful and threw it away. Then he said, doggedly, "I'm going to marry

her, Poole; no one shall take her away from me."

"And you call that love?"

"Yes. I can't live without her."

Roger with his eyes on the dark water which slipped by the banks,

taking its shadows from the darkness of the thick branches which bent

above it said quietly, "Love to me has always seemed something bigger

than that--it has seemed as if love--great love took into consideration

first the welfare of the beloved."

There was a long silence, out of which Barry said tempestuously, "It

will break her heart if anything comes between us. I'm not saying that

because am a conceited donkey. But she is such a constant little

thing."

Roger nodded. "That's all the more reason why you've got to pull up

now, Ballard."

"But I've tried."

"I knew a man who tried--and won."




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024