Dangerous Days

"I'm sorry, Clay. I know. I am just reckless to-day. You know I am

reckless. It's my vice. But sometimes--we'd better talk about the mill."

But he could not talk about the mill just then. They walked along in

silence, and after a little he felt her touch his arm.

"Wouldn't it be better just to have it out?" she asked, wistfully. "That

wouldn't hurt anybody, would it?"

"I'm afraid, Audrey."

"I'm not," she said proudly. "I sometimes think--oh, I think such a lot

these days--that if we talked these things over, I'd recover my--friend.

I've lost him now, you see. And I'm so horribly lonely, Clay."

"Lost him!"

"Lost him," she repeated. "I've lost my friend, and I haven't gained

anything. It didn't hurt anybody for us to meet now and then, Clay. You

know that. I wish you would understand," she added impatiently. "I only

want to go back to things as they were. I want you to come in now and

then. We used to talk about all sorts of things, and I miss that.

Plenty of people come, but that's different. It's only your occasional

companionship I want. I don't want you to come and make love to me."

"You say you have missed the companionship," he said rather unsteadily.

"I wonder if you think I haven't?"

"I know you have, my dear. And that is why I want you to come. To come

without being afraid that I expect or want anything else. Surely we can

manage that."

He smiled down at her, rather wryly, at her straight courageous figure,

her brave eyes, meeting his so directly. How like her it all was, the

straightforwardness of it, the absence of coquetry. And once again he

knew, not only that he loved her with all the depths of him, of his

strong body and his vigorous mind, but that she was his woman. The one

woman in the world for him. It was as though all his life he had been

searching for her, and he had found her, and it was too late. She knew

it, too. It was in her very eyes.

"I have wanted to come, terribly," he said finally. And when she held

out her hand to him, he bent down and kissed it.

"Then that's settled," she said, in a matter-of-fact tone. "And now I'll

tell you about Clare. I'm rather proud of her."

"Clare?"

The tension had been so great that he had forgotten the blonde girl

entirely.