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The Day Of The Beast

by

Zane Grey

DEDICATION

Herein is 具体的に表現するd my 尊敬の印 to the American
men who gave themselves to the service in the 広大な／多数の／重要な
war, and my sleepless and eternal 感謝 for
what they did for me.
ZANE GREY.

Contents

CHAPTER I

His native land! Home!

The ship glided slowly up the 狭くするs; and from its deck Daren 小道／航路 saw the noble 黒人／ボイコット 輪郭（を描く） of the Statue of Liberty limned against the （疑いを）晴らす gold of sunset. A familiar old pang in his breast—longing and homesickness and agony, together with the physical 燃やす of ガス／無駄話d 肺s—seemed to swell into a 深遠な 圧倒的な emotion.

"My own—my native land!" he whispered, 努力する／競うing to wipe the dimness from his 注目する，もくろむs. Was it only two years or twenty since he had left his country to go to war? A sense of strangeness 夜明けd upon him. His home-coming, so ceaselessly dreamed of by night and longed for by day, was not going to be what his hopes had created. But at that moment his joy was too 広大な／多数の／重要な to harbor strange 疑惑s. How impossible for any one to understand his feelings then, except perhaps the comrades who had 生き残るd the same ordeal!

The 大型船 glided on. A fresh 冷静な／正味の spring 微風 with a scent of land fanned 小道／航路's hot brow. It bore tidings from home. Almost he thought he smelled the blossoms in the orchard, and the damp newly 骨折って進むd earth, and the smoke from the 支持を得ようと努めるd 解雇する／砲火／射撃 his mother used to bake over. A hundred clamoring thoughts strove for dominance over his mind—to enter and flash by and fade. His sight, however, except for the blur that returned again and again, held 急速な／放蕩な to the 入り口ing and thrilling scene—the 幅の広い 微光ing sun-跡をつける of gold in the rippling channel, 主要な his 注目する，もくろむ to the grand 本体，大部分／ばら積みの of America's symbol of freedom, and to the stately expanse of the Hudson River, dotted by moving フェリー（で運ぶ）-boats and 強く引っ張るs, and to the magnificent broken sky-line of New York City, with its 抱擁する dark structures ぼんやり現れるing and its thousands of windows 反映するing the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of the sun.

It was indeed a 深遠な and stirring moment for Daren 小道／航路, but not やめる 十分な, not all-満足させるing. The 広大な／多数の／重要な city seemed to frown. The low line of hills in the west shone dull gray and 冷淡な. Where were the 叫び声をあげるing サイレン／魅惑的な whistles, the gay streaming 旗s, the boats （人が）群がるd with waving people, that should have welcomed 無能にするd 兵士s who had fought for their country? 小道／航路 hoped he had long passed by bitterness, but yet something rankled in the unhealed 負傷させる of his heart.

Some one put a 手渡す in の近くに clasp upon his arm. Then 小道／航路 heard the 捨てる of a crutch on the deck, and knew who stood beside him.

"井戸／弁護士席, Dare, old boy, does it look good to you?" asked a husky 発言する／表明する.

"Yes, Blair, but somehow not just what I 推定する／予想するd," replied 小道／航路, turning to his comrade.

"Uhuh, I get you."

Blair Maynard stood 築く with the 援助（する） of a crutch. There was even a hint of pride in the 宙に浮く of his 暴露するd 長，率いる. And for once 小道／航路 saw the thin white 直面する 軟化するing and glowing. Maynard's big brown 注目する，もくろむs were 十分な of 涙／ほころびs.

"Guess I left my 神経 同様に as my 脚 over there," he said.

"Blair, it's so good to get 支援する that we're off color," returned 小道／航路. "On the level, I could 叫び声をあげる like a madman."

"I'd like to weep," replied the other, with a half laugh.

"Where's Red? He oughtn't 行方不明になる this."

"Poor devil! He こそこそ動くd off from me somewhere," 再結合させるd Maynard. "Red's in pretty bad 形態／調整 again. The voyage has been hard on him. I hope he'll be 井戸／弁護士席 enough to get his 発射する／解雇する when we land. I'll take him home to Middleville."

"Middleville!" echoed 小道／航路, musingly. "Home!... Blair, does it 攻撃する，衝突する you—肉親，親類d of queer? Do you long, yet dread to get home?"

Maynard had no reply for that query, but his look was expressive.

"I've not heard from Helen for over a year," went on 小道／航路, more as if speaking to himself.

"My God, Dare!" exclaimed his companion, with sudden 解雇する／砲火／射撃. "Are you still thinking of her?"

"We—we are engaged," returned 小道／航路, slowly. "At least we were. But I've had no word that she——"

"Dare, your childlike 約束 is 予定 for a jar," interrupted his comrade, with bitter 軽蔑（する）. "Come 負かす／撃墜する to earth. You're a 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd 兵士—coming home—and damn lucky at that."

"Blair, what do you know—that I do not know? For long I've 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd you're wise to—to things at home. You know I 港／避難所't heard much in all these long months. My mother wrote but seldom. Lorna, my kid sister, forgot me, I guess... Helen always was a poor 特派員. Dal answered my letters, but she never told me anything about home. When we first got to フラン I heard often from Margie Henderson and Mel Iden—crazy 肉親，親類d of letters—love-sick over 兵士s... But nothing for a long time now."

"At first they wrote! Ha! Ha!" burst out Maynard. "Sure, they wrote love-sick letters. They sent socks and cigarettes and candy and 調書をとる／予約するs. And they all 手配中の，お尋ね者 us to hurry 支援する to marry them... Then—when the months had gone by and the novelty had worn off—when we went against the hell of real war—sick or worn out, sleepless and 哀れな, 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd or half demented with terror and dread and longing for home—then, by God, they やめる!"

"Oh, no, Blair—not all of them," remonstrated 小道／航路, unsteadily.

"井戸／弁護士席, old man, I'm sore, and you're about the only guy I can let out on," explained Maynard, ひどく. "One thing I'm glad of—we'll 直面する it together. Daren, we were kids together—do you remember?—playing on the ありふれたs—またがるing the old water-gates over the brooks—stealing cider from the country 圧力（をかける）s—barefoot boys going to school together. We played 地位，任命する-Office with the girls and Indians with the boys. We made puppy love to Dal and Mel and Helen and Margie—all of them... Then, somehow the happy thoughtless years of 青年 passed... It seems strange and sudden now—but the war （機の）カム. We enlisted. We had the same ideal—you and I.—We went to フラン—and you know what we did there together... Now we're on this ship—getting into port of the good old U.S.—good as bad as she is!—going home together. Thank God for that. I want to be buried in Woodlawn... Home! Home?... We feel its meaning. But, Dare, we'll have no home—no place... We are old—we are through—we have served—we are done... What we dreamed of as glory will be 冷淡な ashes to our lips, bitter as gall... You always were a dreamer, an idealist, a 信奉者 in God, truth, hope and womanhood. In spite of the war these somehow 生き残る in you... But Dare, old friend, steel yourself now against 失望 and disillusion."

Used as 小道／航路 was to his comrade's 爆発s, this one struck singularly home to 小道／航路's heart and made him mute. The 冷気／寒がらせる of his earlier 疑惑 returned, augmented by a strange uneasiness, a premonition of the unknown and dreadful 未来. But he threw it off. 約束 would not die in 小道／航路. It could not die utterly because of what he felt in himself. Yet—what was in 蓄える／店 for him? Why was his hope so unquenchable? There could be no resurgam for Daren 小道／航路. 辞職 should have brought him peace—peace—when every 神経 in his 爆撃する-shocked 団体／死体 racked him—when he could not subdue a 開始するing hope that all would be 井戸／弁護士席 at home—when he quivered at thought of mother, sister, sweetheart!

The ship glided on under the 影をつくる／尾行する of America's emblem—a bronze woman of noble 割合s, 持つ／拘留するing out a light to ships that （機の）カム in the night—a welcome to all the world. Daren 小道／航路 held to his maimed comrade while they stood 明らかにする-長，率いるd and 築く for that moment when the, ship passed the statue. 小道／航路 knew what Blair felt. But nothing of what that feeling was could ever be spoken. The deck of the ship was now （人が）群がるd with 乗客s, yet they were seemingly dead to anything more than a 安全な arrival at their 目的地. They were not 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd American 兵士s. Except these two there were 非，不，無 in service uniforms. There across the 風の強い space of water ぼんやり現れるd the many-注目する，もくろむd buildings, suggestive of the 広大な／多数の／重要な city. A low roar of traffic （機の）カム on the 微風. 乗客s and 乗組員 of the liner were glad to ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる before dark. They took no notice of the rigid, 築く 兵士s. 小道／航路, arm in arm with Blair, 直面する to the 前線, stood 吸収するd in his sense of a nameless sublimity for them while passing the Statue of Liberty. The spirit of the first man who ever breathed of freedom for the human race 燃やすd as a white 炎上 in the heart of 小道／航路 and his comrade. But it was not so much that spirit which held them 築く, aloof, proud. It was a 最高の consciousness of immeasurable sacrifice for an ideal that 存在するd only in the breasts of men and women kindred to them—an unutterable and never-to-be-spoken glory of the 義務 done for others, but that they 借りがあるd themselves. They had 支えるd 巨大な loss of health and happiness; the 未来 seemed like the gray, 冷淡な, 暗い／優うつな expanse of the river; and there could never be any reward except this white 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of their souls. Nameless! But it was the 増加するing 目的 that ran through the ages.

The ship ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れるd at dark. 小道／航路 left Blair at the rail, gloomily gazing 負かす／撃墜する at the 混乱 and bustle on the wharf, and went below to search for their comrade, Red Payson. He 設立する him in his 特別室, half crouched on the 寝台／地位, 明らかに oblivious to the important moment. It 要求するd a little 成果／努力 to rouse Payson. He was a slight boy, not over twenty-two, sallow-直面するd and freckled, with hair that gave him the only 指名する his comrades knew him by. 小道／航路 packed the boy's few 所有／入手s and talked 熱心に all the time. Red を締めるd up, ready to go, but he had little to say and that with the 疲れた／うんざりした nonchalance habitual with him. 小道／航路 helped him up on deck, and the exertion, slight as it was, brought home to 小道／航路 that he needed help himself. They 設立する Maynard waiting.

"井戸／弁護士席, here we are—the Three Musketeers," said 小道／航路, in a 発言する／表明する he tried to make cheerful.

"Where's the 禁止（する）d?" 問い合わせd Maynard, sardonically.

"Gay old New York—and me broke!" exclaimed Red Payson, as if to himself.

Then the three stood by the rail, at the gangplank, waiting for the hurried stream of 乗客s to disembark. 負かす／撃墜する on the wharf under the glaring white lights, 群れているd a （人が）群がる from which rose a babel of 発言する／表明するs. A whistle blew はっきりと at intervals. The whirr and honk of taxicabs, and the jangle of trolley cars, sounded beyond the wide dark portal of the ドッキングする／減らす／ドックに入れる-house. The murky water below splashed between ship and pier. 深い 発言する／表明するs rang out, and merry laughs, and shrill glad cries of welcome. The 有望な light shone 負かす／撃墜する upon a motley, dark-garbed 集まり, moving slowly. The spirit of the occasion was manifest.

When the three 無能にするd 兵士s, the last 乗客s to disembark, slowly and laboriously descended to the wharf, no one 申し込む／申し出d to help them, no one waited with a smile and 手渡す-clasp of welcome. No one saw them, except a burly policeman, who evidently had 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of the traffic at the door. He poked his club into the ribs of the one-legged, slowly shuffling Maynard and said with cheerful gruffness: "Step lively, Buddy, step lively!"

小道／航路, with his two comrades, spent three days at a 兵舎-hospital for 兵士s in Bedford Park. It was a long flimsy structure, 明らかにする except for 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of cots along each 塀で囲む, and stoves at middle, and each end. The place was overcrowded with 無能にするd service men, all worse off than 小道／航路 and his comrades. 小道／航路 felt that he really was keeping a sicker man than himself from what attention the hospital afforded. So he was glad, at the end of the third day, to find they could be 発射する／解雇するd from the army.

This 施行するd stay, when he knew he was on his way home, had seemed almost unbearable to 小道／航路. He felt that he had the strength to get home, and that was about all. He began to expectorate 血—no unusual thing for him—but this time to such extent that he 恐れるd the return of hemorrhage. The nights seemed sleepless, 燃やすing, 黒人／ボイコット 無効のs; and the days were hideous with noise and distraction. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to think about the fact that he was home—an astounding and unbelievable thing. Once he went 負かす／撃墜する to the city and walked on Broadway and Fifth Avenue, 税金ing his endurance to the 限界. But he had become used to 苦痛 and exhaustion. So long as he could keep up he did not mind.

That day three powerful impressions were 軍隊d upon 小道／航路, never to be effaced. First he 設立する that the change in him was 広大な and incalculable and vague. He could divine but not understand. Secondly, the men of the service, 無能にするd or not, were old stories to New Yorkers. 小道／航路 saw 兵士s begging from 歩行者s. He muttered to himself: "By God, I'll 餓死する to death before I ever do that!" He could not （悪事，秘密などを）発見する any aloofness on the part of passers-by. They were just inattentive. 小道／航路 remembered with sudden shock how 異なって 兵士s had been regarded two or three years ago. He had read 非常に長い newspaper accounts of the wild and magnificent welcome （許可，名誉などを）与えるd to the first 兵士s to return to New York. How strange the contrast! But that was long ago—past history—buried under the 巨大な and hurried and inscrutable changes of a nation. 小道／航路 divined that, as he felt the mighty resistless throb of the 広大な／多数の／重要な city. His third and strongest impression 関心d the women he met and passed on the streets. Their lips and cheeks were 紅d. Their dresses were 削減（する） too low at the neck. But even this fashion was not nearly so striking as the short skirts, 削減（する） off at the 膝s, and in many 事例／患者s above. At first this roused a strange amaze in 小道／航路. "What's the idea, I wonder?" he mused. But in the end it disgusted him. He 反映するd that for two swift years he had been out of the 跡をつける of events, away from 中心s of 全住民. Paris itself had held no attraction for him. Dreamer and brooder, he had failed to see the 構成要素 things. But this third impression troubled him more than the other two and stirred thoughts he tried to 追い散らす. Returning to the 兵舎 he learned that he and his friends would be 解放する／自由な on the morrow; and long into the night he rejoiced in the knowledge. 解放する／自由な! The grinding, 理解できない Juggernaut and himself were at the parting of the ways. Before he went to sleep he remembered a forgotten 祈り his mother had taught him. His ordeal was over. What had happened did not 事柄. The Hell was past and he must bury memory. Whether or not he had a month or a year to live it must be lived without memories of his ordeal.

Next day, at the 鉄道／強行採決する 駅／配置する, even at the moment of 出発, 小道／航路 and Blair Maynard had their problem with Red Payson. He did not want to go to Blair's home.

"But hell, Red, you 港／避難所't any home—any place to go," blurted out Maynard.

So they argued with him, and implored him, and 推論する／理由d with him. Since his 発射する／解雇する from the hospital in フラン Payson had always been 冷静な／正味の, 疲れた／うんざりした, abstracted, difficult to reach. And here at the last he grew strangely aloof and stubborn. Every word that bore relation to his own 福利事業 seemed only to 疎遠にする him the more. 小道／航路 sensed this.

"See here, Red," he said, "hasn't it occurred to you that Blair and I need you?"

"Need me? What!" he exclaimed, with perceptible change of トン, though it was incredulous.

"Sure," interposed Blair.

"Red—listen," continued 小道／航路, speaking low and with difficulty. "Blair and I have been through the—the whole show together... And we've been in the hospitals with you for months... We've all got—sort of to rely on each other... Let's stick it out to the end. I guess—you know—we may not have a long time..."

小道／航路's 発言する／表明する 追跡するd off. Then the stony 直面する of the listener changed for a (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing second.

"Boys, I'll go over with you," he said.

And then the maimed Blair, ぎこちない with his crutch and 捕らえる、獲得する, 主張するd on helping 小道／航路 get Red 船内に the train. Red could just about walk. Sombrely they clambered up the steps into the Pullman.

Middleville was a 繁栄する and 栄えるing inland town of twenty thousand inhabitants, 同一の with many towns of about the same size in the middle and eastern 部隊d 明言する／公表するs.

小道／航路 had been born there and had lived there all his life, seldom having been away up to the advent of the war. So that the memories of home and town and place, which he carried away from America with him, had never had any chance, up to the time of his 出発, to change from the vivid, 誇張するd image of boyhood. Since he had left Middleville he had seen 広大な／多数の／重要な cities, palaces, 城s, edifices, he had crossed 広大な／多数の／重要な rivers, he had traveled thousands of miles, he had looked 負かす／撃墜する some of the famous thoroughfares of the world.

Was this then the 推論する／理由 that Middleville, upon his arrival, seemed so strange, sordid, shrunken, so vastly changed? He 星／主役にするd, even while he helped Payson off the train—星／主役にするd at the little brick 駅／配置する at once so familiar and yet so strange, that had held a place of dignity in the picture of his memory. The moment was one of shock.

Then he was distracted from his pondering by tearful and joyful cries, and deeper 発言する／表明するs of men. He looked up to 認める Blair's mother, father, sister; and men and women whose 直面するs appeared familiar, but whose 指名するs he could not 解任する. His 激烈な／緊急の faculty of perception took quick 公式文書，認める of a change in Blair's mother. 小道／航路 turned his gaze away. The agony of joy and 悲しみ—the light of her 直面する—was more than 小道／航路 could stand. He looked at the sister Margaret—a tall, fair girl. She had paint on her cheeks. She did not see 小道／航路. Her 緊張するd gaze held a beautiful and piercing intentness. Then her 注目する，もくろむs opened wide, her 手渡す went to cover her mouth, and she cried out: "Oh Blair!—poor boy! Brother!"

Only 小道／航路 heard her. The others were crying out themselves as Blair's gray-haired mother received him into her 武器. She seemed a proud woman, broken and unsteady. Red Payson's 支配する on 小道／航路's arm told what that scene meant to him. How pitiful the vain 成果／努力 of Blair's people to hide their horror! Presently mother and sister and women 親族s fell aside to let the 兵士 boy 会合，会う his father. This was something that rang the bells in 小道／航路's heart. Men were different, and Blair 直面するd his father 異なって. The wild boy had come home—the scapegoat of many Middleville escapades had returned—the ne'er-do-井戸／弁護士席 sought his father's house. He had come home to die. It was there in Blair's white 直面する—the dreadful truth. He wore a 略章 on his breast and he leaned on a crutch. For the instant, as father and son 直面するd each other, there was something in Blair's 宙に浮く, his look of an eagle, that carried home a poignant sense of his greatness. 小道／航路 thrilled with it and a lump constricted his throat. Then with Blair's （犯罪の）一味ing "Dad!" and the father's 深い and broken: "My son! My son!" the two embraced.

In a stifling moment more it seemed, attention turned on Red Payson, who stood nearest. Blair's folk were eager, 肉親，親類d, soft-spoken and warm in their welcome.

Then it （機の）カム 小道／航路's turn, and what they said or did he scarcely knew, until Margaret kissed him. "Oh, Dare! I'm so glad to see you home." 涙／ほころびs were standing in her （疑いを）晴らす blue 注目する，もくろむs. "You're changed, but—not—not so much as Blair."

小道／航路 答える／応じるd as best he could, and presently he 設立する himself standing at the 抑制（する）, watching the car move away.

"Come out to-morrow," called 支援する Blair.

The Maynard's car was carrying his comrades away. His first feeling was one of gladness—the next of 救済. He could be alone now—alone to find out what had happened to him, and to this strange Middleville. An old negro wearing a blue uniform accosted 小道／航路, shook 手渡すs with him, asked him if he had any baggage. "Yas sir, I sho knowed you, Mistah Dare 小道／航路. But you looks powerful bad."

小道／航路 crossed the 駅／配置する 壇・綱領・公約, and the 鉄道／強行採決する yard and 跡をつけるs, to make a short 削減（する） in the direction of his home. He shrank from 会合 any one. He had not sent word just when he would arrive, though he had written his mother from New York that it would be soon, He was glad that no one belonging to him had been at the 駅／配置する. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to see his mother in his home. Walking 急速な／放蕩な exhausted him, and he had to 残り／休憩（する）. How dead his 脚s felt! In fact he felt queer all over. The old 燃やす and gnaw in his breast had 拡大するd to a 激しい, 十分な, 窒息させるing sensation. Yet his 血 seemed to race. Suddenly an 圧倒的な emotion of rapture flooded over him. Home at last! He did not think of any one. He was walking across the 鉄道／強行採決する yards where as a boy he had been wont to steal rides on freight trains. Soon he reached the 橋（渡しをする）. In the 集会 twilight he 停止（させる）d to clutch at the railing and look out across where the waters met—where Sycamore Creek flowed into Middleville River. The roar of water 落ちるing over the dam （機の）カム melodiously and stirringly to his ears. And as he looked again he was 攻撃する，非難するd by that strange sense of littleness, of shrunkenness, which had struck him so 強制的に at the 駅／配置する. He listened to the murmur of running water. Then, while the sweetness of joy pervaded him, there seemed to rise from below or across the river or from somewhere the same strange 疑惑, a keener dread, a 冷気／寒がらせる that was not in the 空気／公表する, a 致命的な portent of the 未来. Why should this come to mock him at such a sacred and beautiful moment?

Passers-by 星／主役にするd at 小道／航路, and some of them whispered, and one hesitated, as if impelled to speak. Wheeling away 小道／航路 crossed the 橋（渡しをする）, turned up River Street, soon turned off again into a darker street, and reaching High School Park he sat 負かす／撃墜する to 残り／休憩（する） again. He was almost spent. The park was 静かな and lonely. The 明らかにする trees showed their 骸骨／概要 輪郭（を描く）s against the 冷淡な sky. It was March and the 空気／公表する was raw and chilly. This park that had once been a wonderful place now appeared so small. Everything he saw was familiar yet grotesque in the way it had become dwarfed. Across the street from where he sat lights shone in the windows of a house. He knew the place. Who lived there? One of the girls—he had forgotten which. From somewhere the discordance of a Victrola jarred on 小道／航路's 極度の慎重さを要する ears.

解除するing his 捕らえる、獲得する he proceeded on his way, 停止（させる）ing every little while to catch his breath. When he turned a corner into a 味方する street, 認めるing every tree and gate and house, there （機の）カム a 集会 and swelling of his emotions and he began to 弱める and shake. He was afraid he could not make it half way up the street. But he kept on. The 拷問 now was more a mingled rapture and grief than the physical 抗議する of his racked 団体／死体. At last he saw the modest little house—and then he stood at the gate, quivering. Home! A light in the window of his old room! A terrible and tremendous 嵐／襲撃する of feeling 軍隊d him to lean on the gate. How many endless hours had the pictured memory of that house haunted him? There was the beloved room where he had lived and slept and read, and 心にいだくd over his 調書をとる／予約するs and over his compositions a secret hope and ambition to make of himself an author. How strange to remember that! But it was true. His day labor at Manton's office, for all the years since he had 卒業生（する）d from High School, had been only a means to an end. No one had dreamed of his dream. Then the war had come and now his hope, if not his 約束, was dead. Never before had the 現実化 been so galling, so bitter. Endlessly and eternally he must be 関心d with himself. He had driven that habit of thought away a million times, but it would return. All he had prayed for was to get home—only to reach home alive—to see his mother, and his sister Lorna—and Helen—and then... But he was here now and all that 祈り was falsehood. Just to get home was not enough.. He had been cheated of career, love, happiness.

It 要求するd extreme 成果／努力 to cross the little yard, to 開始する the porch. In a moment more he would see his mother. He heard her within, somewhere at the 支援する of the house. Wherefore he tip-toed 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to the kitchen door. Here he paused, 地震ing. A 冷淡な sweat broke out all over him. Why was this return so dreadful? He 圧力（をかける）d a shaking を引き渡す his heart. How surely he knew he could not deceive his mother! The moment she saw him, after the first flash of joy, she would see the 難破させる of the boy she had let go to war. 小道／航路 choked over his emotion, but he could not spare her. 開始 the door he entered.

There she stood at the stove and she looked up at the sound he made. Yes! but stranger than all other changes was the change in her. She was not the mother of his boyhood. Nor was the change alone age or grief or wasted cheek. The moment tore cruelly at 小道／航路's heart. She did not 認める him 速く. But when she did...

"Oh God!... Daren! My boy!" she whispered.

"Mother!"

CHAPTER II

His mother divined what he knew. And her embrace was so の近くに, almost 猛烈な／残忍な in its tenderness, her 発言する／表明する so broken, that 小道／航路 could only hide his 直面する over her, and shut his 注目する，もくろむs, and shudder in an ecstasy. God alone had omniscience to tell what his soul needed, but something of it was 具体的に表現するd in home and mother.

That first 激烈な／緊急の moment past, he 解放（する）d her, and she clung to his 手渡すs, her 直面する 上昇傾向d, her 注目する，もくろむs 十分な of 苦痛 and joy, and woman's searching 力／強力にする, while she broke into almost incoherent speech; and he 答える／応じるd in feeling, though he caught little of the content of her words, and scarcely knew what he was 説.

Then he reeled a little and the kitchen dimmed in his sight. 沈むing into a 議長，司会を務める and leaning on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する he fought his 証拠不十分. He （機の）カム の近くに to fainting. But he held on to his sense, aware of his mother ぱたぱたするing over him. 徐々に the （一定の）期間 passed.

"Mother—maybe I'm 餓死するd," he said, smiling at her.

That practical speech 解放（する）d the 緊張する and 奮起させるd his mother to 活動／戦闘. She began to bustle 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the kitchen, talking all the while. 小道／航路 watched her and listened, and spoke occasionally. Once he asked about his sister Lorna, but his mother either did not hear or chose not to reply. All she said was music to his ears, yet not やめる what his heart longed for. He began to 不信 this strange longing. There was something wrong with his mind. His faculties seemed too 極度の慎重さを要する. Every word his mother uttered was news, surprising, unusual, as if it emanated from a home-world that had changed. And presently she dropped into （民事の）告訴 at the hard times and the cost of everything.

"Mother," he interrupted, "I didn't blow my money. I've saved nearly a year's 支払う／賃金. It's yours."

"But, Daren, you'll need money," she 抗議するd.

"Not much. And maybe—I'll be strong enough to go to work—presently," he said, hopefully. "Do you think Manton will take me 支援する—half days at first?"

"I have my 疑問s, Daren," she replied, soberly. "Hattie Wilson has your old 職業. And I hear they're pleased with her. Few of the boys got their places 支援する."

"Hattie Wilson!" exclaimed 小道／航路. "Why, she was a kid in the eighth grade when I left home."

"Yes, my son. But that was nearly three years ago. And the children have sprung up like 少しのd. Wild 少しのd!"

"井戸／弁護士席! That tousle-長，率いるd Wilson kid!" mused 小道／航路. An uneasy 有罪の判決 of having been forgotten 夜明けd upon 小道／航路. He remembered Blair Maynard's bitter prophecy, which he had been unable to 受託する.

"Anyway, Daren, are you able to work?" asked his mother.

"Sure," he replied, lying cheerfully, with a smile on his 直面する. "Not hard work, just yet, but I can do something."

His mother did not 株 his enthusiasm. She went on 準備するing the supper.

"How do you manage to get along?" 問い合わせd 小道／航路.

"Lord only knows," she replied, sombrely. "It has been very hard. When you left home I had only the 利益／興味 on your father's life 保険. I sold the farm—"

"Oh, no!" exclaimed 小道／航路, with a 急ぐ of boyhood memories.

"I had to," she went on. "I made that money help out for a long time. Then I—I mortgaged this place... Things cost so terribly. And Lorna had to have so much more... But she's just left school and gone to work. That helps."

"Lorna left school!" ejaculated 小道／航路, incredulously. "Why, mother, she was only a child. Thirteen years old when I left! She'll 行方不明になる her education. I'll send her 支援する."

"井戸／弁護士席, son, I 疑問 if you can make Lorna do anything she doesn't want to do," returned his mother. "She 手配中の，お尋ね者 to やめる school—to earn money. Whatever she was when you left home she's grown up now. You'll not know her."

"Know Lorna! Why, mother dear, I carried Lorna's picture all through the war."

"You won't know her," returned Mrs. 小道／航路, 前向きに／確かに. "My boy, these years so short to you have been ages here at home. You will find your sister—different from the little girl you left. You'll find all the girls you knew changed—changed. I have given up trying to understand what's come over the world."

"How—about Helen?" 問い合わせd 小道／航路, with strange 不本意 and shyness.

"Helen who?" asked his mother.

"Helen Wrapp, of course," replied 小道／航路, quickly in his surprise. "The girl I was engaged to when I left."

"Oh!—I had forgotten," she sighed.

"Hasn't Helen been here to see you?"

"Let me see—井戸／弁護士席, now you 税金 me—I think she did come once—権利 after you left."

"Do you—ever see her?" he asked, with slow heave of breast.

"Yes, now and then, as she rides by in an automobile. But she never sees me... Daren, I don't know what your—your—that 約束／交戦 means to you, but I must tell you—Helen Wrapp doesn't 行為／行う herself as if she were engaged. Still, I don't know what's in the 長，率いるs of girls to-day. I can only compare the 現在の with the past."

小道／航路 did not 問い合わせ その上の and his mother did not 申し込む／申し出 more comment. At the moment he heard a モーター car out in 前線 of the house, a girl's shrill 発言する／表明する in laughter, the slamming of a car-door—then light, quick footsteps on the porch. 小道／航路 could look from where he sat to the 前線 door—only a few yards 負かす／撃墜する the short hall. The door opened. A girl entered.

"That's Lorna," said 小道／航路's mother. He grew aware that she bent a curious gaze upon his 直面する.

小道／航路 rose to his feet with his heart 続けざまに猛撃するing, and a strange sense of 見込み. His little sister! Never during the endless months of drudgery, 争い and 衝突, and agony, had he forgotten Lorna. Not 義務, nor patriotism, had 軍隊d him to enlist in the army before the 草案. It had been an ideal which he imagined he 株d with the millions of American boys who entered the service. Too 深い ever to be spoken of! The barbarous and simian Hun, with his 黒人／ボイコット 記録，記録的な／記録する against ベルギー, and French women, should never 始める，決める foot on American 国／地域.

In the lamplight 小道／航路 saw this sister throw coat and hat on the banister, come 負かす／撃墜する the hall and enter the kitchen. She seemed tall, but her short skirt 中和する／阻止するd that 影響. Her bobbed hair, curly and 反抗的な, of a rich brown-red color, でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd a pretty 直面する 小道／航路 surely remembered. But yet not the same! He had carried away memory of a child's 直面する and this was a woman's. It was 有望な, piquant, with darkly ちらりと見ることing 注目する，もくろむs, and vivid cheeks, and carmine lips.

"Oh, hot dog! if it isn't Dare!" she squealed, and with radiant look she ran into his 武器.

The moment, or moments, of that 会合 between brother and sister passed, leaving 小道／航路 conscious of hearty welcome and a sense of unreality. He could not at once adjust his mental faculties to an 理解できない difference 影響する／感情ing everything.

They sat 負かす／撃墜する to supper, and 小道／航路, sick, dazed, weak, 設立する eating his first meal at home as different as everything else from what he had 推定する／予想するd. There had been no 欠如（する） of warmth or love in Lorna's welcome, but he 苦しむd 失望. Again for the hundredth time he put it aside and 非難するd his morbid 条件. Nothing must inhibit his gladness.

Lorna gave 小道／航路 no chance to question her. She was eager, voluble, curious, and most disconcertingly oblivious of a possible sensitiveness in 小道／航路.

"Dare, you look like a dead one," she said. "Did you get 発射, bayoneted, ガス／無駄話d, 爆撃する-shocked and all the 残り／休憩（する）? Did you go over the 最高の，を越す? Did you kill any Germans? Gee! did you get to ride in a war-計画（する）? Come across, now, and tell me."

"I guess about—everything happened to me—except going west," returned 小道／航路. "But I don't want to talk about that. I'm too glad to be home."

"What's that on your breast?" she queried, suddenly, pointing at the Croix de Guerre he wore.

"That? Lorna, that's my メダル."

"Gee! Let me see." She got up and （機の）カム 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to peer 負かす／撃墜する closely, to finger the decoration. "French! I never saw one before... Daren, 港／避難所't you an American メダル too?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"My dear sister, that's hard to say. Because I didn't deserve it, most likely."

She leaned 支援する to gaze more thoughtfully at him.

"What did you get this for?"

"It's a long story. Some day I'll tell you."

"Are you proud of it?"

For answer he only smiled at her.

"It's so long since the war I've forgotten so many things," she said, wonderingly. Then she smiled sweetly. "Dare, I'm proud of you."

That was a moment in which his former emotion seemed to 動かす for her. Evidently she had lost 跡をつける of something once memorable. She was groping 支援する for childish impressions. It was the only 指示，表示する物 of softness he had felt in her. How impossible to believe Lorna was only fifteen! He could form no 永久の conception of her. But in that moment he sensed something akin to a sister's sympathy, some vague and indefinable thought in her, too big for her to しっかり掴む. He never felt it again. The serious 甘い mood 消えるd.

"Hot dog! I've a brother with the Croix de Guerre. I'll swell up over that. I'll crow over some of these Janes."

Thus she talked on while eating her supper. And 小道／航路 tried to eat while he watched her. Presently he moved his 議長，司会を務める 近づく to the stove. Lorna did not wait upon her mother. It was the mother who did the waiting, as silently she moved from （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する to stove.

Lorna's waist was 削減（する） so low that it showed the swell of her breast. The red color of her cheeks, high up 近づく her 寺s, was not altogether the rosy line of health and 青年. Her eyebrows were only faint, thin, curved lines, oriental in 影響. She appeared to be 異常に 井戸／弁護士席-developed in 団体／死体 for so young a girl. And the 空気／公表する of sophistication, of experience that seemed a part of her manner 完全に mystified 小道／航路. If it had not been for the slangy speech, and the 誤った color in her 直面する, he would have been amused at what he might have 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語d his little sister's 提起する／ポーズをとるing as a woman of the world. But in the light of these he grew doubtful of his impression. Lastly, he saw that she wore her stockings rolled below her 膝s and that the 辛勝する／優位 of her short skirt permitted several インチs of her 明らかにする 脚s to be seen. And at that he did not know what to think. He was stunned.

"Daren, you served a while under Captain Thesel in the war," she said.

"Yes, I guess I did," replied 小道／航路, with sombre memory resurging.

"Do you know he lives here?"

"I knew him here in Middleville several years before the war."

"He's danced with me at the Armory. Some swell ダンサー! He and 刑事 Swann and Hardy MacLean いつかs 減少（する） in at the Armory on Saturday nights. Captain Thesel is chasing Mrs. Clemhorn now. They're always together... Daren, did he ever have it in for you?"

"He never liked me. We never got along here in Middleville. And 自然に in the service when he was a captain and I only a 私的な—we didn't get along any better."

"井戸／弁護士席, I've heard Captain Thesel was to 非難する for—for what was said about you last summer when he （機の）カム home."

"And what was that, Lorna?" queried 小道／航路, curiously puzzled at her, and darkly conscious of the ill omen that had に先行するd him home.

"You'll not hear it from me," 宣言するd Lorna, spiritedly. "But that Croix de Guerre doesn't agree with it, I'll tell the world."

A little frown puckered her smooth brow and there was a gleam in her 注目する，もくろむ.

"Seems to me I heard some of the kids talking last summer," she mused, ponderingly. "先頭 Thesel was stuck on Mel Iden and Dot Dalrymple both before the war. Dot 手渡すd him a lemon. He's still trying to 急ぐ Dot, and the gossip is he'd go after Mel even now on the sly, if she'd stand for it."

"Why on the sly?" 問い合わせd 小道／航路. "Before I left home Mel Iden was about the prettiest and most popular girl in Middleville. Her people were poor, and ordinary, perhaps, but she was the equal of any one."

"Thesel couldn't 急ぐ Mel now and get away with it, unless on the q-t," replied Lorna. "港／避難所't you heard about Mel?"

"No, you see the fact is, my few 特派員s rather neglected to send me news," said 小道／航路.

The significance of this was lost upon his sister. She giggled. "Hot dog! You've got some kicks coming, I'll say!"

"Is that so," returned 小道／航路, with irritation. "A few more or いっそう少なく won't 事柄... Lorna, do you know Helen Wrapp?"

"That red-長，率いるd dame!" burst out Lorna, with heat. "I should smile I do. She's one who doesn't shake a shimmy on tea, believe me."

小道／航路 was somewhat at a loss to understand his sister's intimation, but as it was vulgarly inimical, and seemed to 持つ／拘留する some subtle personal 軽蔑（する） or jealousy, he shrank from 尋問 her. This talk with his sister was the most unreal happening he had ever experienced. He could not adjust himself to its verity.

"Helen Wrapp is nutty about 刑事 Swann," went on Lorna. "She 運動s 負かす／撃墜する to the office after——"

"Lorna, do you know Helen and I are engaged?" interrupted 小道／航路.

"Hot dog!" was that young lady's 解説，博覧会 of utter amaze. She 星／主役にするd at her brother.

"We were engaged," continued 小道／航路. "She wore my （犯罪の）一味. When I enlisted she 手配中の，お尋ね者 me to marry her before I left. But I wouldn't do that."

Lorna 敏速に 回復するd from her amaze. "井戸／弁護士席, it's a damn lucky thing you didn't take her up on that marriage stuff."

There was a glint of dark youthful passion in Lorna's 直面する. 小道／航路 felt rise in him a 願望（する） to 企て，努力，提案 her はっきりと to omit slang and profanity from the conversation. But the 願望（する） faded before his bewilderment. All had 苦しむd change. What had he come home to? There was no （疑いを）晴らす answer. But whatever it was, he felt it to be enormous and staggering. And he meant to find out. 疲れた／うんざりした as was his mind, it しっかり掴むd peculiar significances and 深い portents.

"Lorna, where do you work?" he began, 転換ing his 利益／興味.

"At Swann's," she replied.

"In the office—at the foundry?" he asked.

"No. Mr. Swann's at the 長，率いる of the leather 作品."

"What do you do?"

"I type letters," she answered, and rose to make him a little 屈服する that held the movement and the suggestion of a ダンサー.

"You've learned stenography?" he asked, in surprise.

"I'm learning shorthand," replied Lorna. "You see I had only a few weeks in 商売／仕事 school before 刑事 got me the 職業."

"刑事 Swann? Do you work for him?"

"No. For the superintendent, Mr. Fryer. But I go to 刑事's office to do letters for him some of the time."

She appeared frank and nonchalant, evidently a little proud of her important position. She 提起する／ポーズをとるd before 小道／航路 and pirouetted with fancy little steps.

"Say, Dare, won't you teach me a new dance—権利 from Paris?" she interposed. "Something that will put the shimmy and toddle out of biz?"

"Lorna, I don't know what the shimmy and toddle are. I've only heard of them."

"Buried alive, I'll say," she retorted.

小道／航路 bit his tongue to keep 支援する a hot けん責（する），戒告. He looked at his mother, who was （疑いを）晴らすing off the supper （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. She looked sad. The light had left her worn 直面する. 小道／航路 did not feel sure of his ground here. So he controlled his feelings and directed his 利益／興味 toward more news.

"Of course 刑事 Swann was in the service?" he asked.

"No. He didn't go," replied Lorna.

The （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） struck 小道／航路 singularly. 刑事 Swann had always been a 目だつ 人物／姿／数字 in the Middleville 殴打／砲列, in those seemingly long past years since before the war.

"Why didn't 刑事 go into the service? Why didn't the 草案 get him?"

"He had poor eyesight, and his father needed him at the アイロンをかける 作品."

"Poor eyesight!" ejaculated 小道／航路. "He was the best 発射 in the 殴打／砲列—the best hunter の中で the boys. 井戸／弁護士席, that's funny."

"Daren, there are people who called 刑事 Swann a slacker," returned Lorna, as if 軍隊d to give this （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）. "But I never saw that it 傷つける him. He's rich now. His uncle left him a million, and his father will leave him another. And I'll say it's the money people want these days."

The materialism so 妊娠している in Lorna's half bitter reply checked 小道／航路's その上の 尋問. He 辛勝する／優位d closer to the stove, feeling a little 冷淡な. A 影をつくる／尾行する drifted across the warmth and glow of his mind. At home now he was to be 直面するd with a monstrous and insupportable truth—the craven cowardice of the man who had been 適格の to service in army or 海軍, and who had 避けるd it. In （軍の）野営地，陣営 and ざん壕 and dug-out he had heard of the army of slackers. And of all the vile and stark profanity which the war gave birth to on the lips of 哀れな and maimed 兵士s, that flung on the slackers was the worst.

"I've got a date to go to the movies," said Lorna, and she bounced out of the kitchen into the hall singing:

"Oh by heck
You never saw a 難破させる
Like the 難破させる she made of me."

She went upstairs, while 小道／航路 sat there trying to adapt himself to a new and unintelligible 環境. His mother began washing the dishes. 小道／航路 felt her gaze upon his 直面する, and he struggled against all the 証拠不十分s that beset him.

"Mother, doesn't Lorna help you with the house work?" he asked.

"She used to. But not any more."

"Do you let her go out at night to the movies—dances, and all that?"

Mrs. 小道／航路 made a gesture of helplessness. "Lorna goes out all the time. She's never here. She stays out until midnight—one o'clock—later. She's popular with the boys. I couldn't stop her even if I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to. Girls can't be stopped these days. I do all I can for her—make her dresses—slave for her—hoping she'll find a good husband. But the young men are not marrying."

"Good Heavens, are you already looking for a husband for Lorna?" broke out 小道／航路.

"You don't understand, Dare. You've been away so long. Wait till you've seen what girls—are nowadays. Then you'll not wonder that I'd like to see Lorna settled."

"Mother, you're 権利," he said, 厳粛に. "I've been away so—long. But I'm 支援する home now. I'll soon get on to things. And I'll help you. I'll take Lorna in 手渡す. I'll relieve you of a whole lot."

"You were always a good boy, Daren, to me and Lorna," murmured Mrs. 小道／航路, almost in 涙／ほころびs. "It's 元気づけるd me to get you home, yet... Oh, if you were 井戸／弁護士席 and strong!"

"Never mind, mother. I'll get better," he replied, rising to （問題を）取り上げる his 捕らえる、獲得する. "I guess now I'd better go to bed. I'm just about all in... Wonder how Blair and Red are."

His mother followed him up the 狭くする stairway, talking, trying to pretend she did not see his dragging steps, his clutch on the banisters.

"Your room's just as you left it," she said, 開始 the door. Then on the threshold she kissed him. "My son, I thank God you have come home alive. You give me hope in—in spite of all... If you need me, call. Good night."

小道／航路 was alone in the little room that had lived in waking and dreaming thought. Except to appear strangely smaller, it had not changed. His bed and desk—the old bureau—the few pictures—the bookcase he had built himself—these were 同一の with images in his memory.

A 甘い and wonderful emotion of peace pervaded his soul—fulfilment at last of the 兵士's endless longing for home, bed, 静かな, 残り／休憩（する）.

"If I have to die—I can do it now without hate of all around me," he whispered, in the passion of his spirit.

But as he sat upon his bed, trying with shaking and clumsy 手渡すs to undress himself, that exalted mood flashed by. Some of the dearest memories of his life were associated with this little room. Here he had dreamed; here he had read and 熟考する／考慮するd; here he had fought out some of the poignant 戦う／戦いs of 青年. So much of life seemed behind him. At last he got undressed, and 消滅させるing the light, he はうd into bed.

The 不明瞭 was welcome, and the 静かな was exquisitely soothing. He lay there, 星／主役にするing into the blackness, feeling his 団体／死体 沈む slowly as if 負わせるd. How 冷静な／正味の and soft the touch of sheets! Then, the river of throbbing 解雇する／砲火／射撃 that was his 血, seemed to move again. And the dull ache, 深い in the bones, 所有するd his 神経s. In his breast there began a vibrating, as if thousands of tiny 泡s were 存在 pricked to bursting in his 肺s. And the itch to cough （機の）カム 支援する to his throat. And all his flesh seemed in 論争 with a slowly ebbing 軍隊. Sleep might come perhaps after 苦痛 had なぎd. His heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 unsteadily and weakly, いつかs with a strange little ぱたぱたする. How many 疲れた／うんざりした interminable hours had he 耐えるd! But to-night he was too far spent, too far gone for long wakefulness. He drifted away and sank as if into 黒人／ボイコット oblivion where there sounded the dreadful roll of 派手に宣伝するs, and images moved under gray clouds, and men were running like phantoms. He awoke from nightmares, wet with 冷淡な sweat, and lay 星／主役にするing again at the blackness, once more alive to 頻発する 苦痛. 苦痛 that was an old, old story, yet ever 激烈な／緊急の and insistent and merciless.

The night wore on, hour by hour. The courthouse clock rang out one 選び出す／独身 深い mellow clang. One o'clock! 小道／航路 thrilled to the sound. It brought 支援する the school days, the vacation days, the Indian summer days when the hills were golden and the purple 煙霧 hung over the land—the days that were to be no more for Daren 小道／航路.

In the distance somewhere a モーター-car hummed, and （機の）カム closer, louder 負かす／撃墜する the street, to slow its sound with 事情に応じて変わる creak and jar outside in 前線 of the house. 小道／航路 heard laughter and 発言する／表明するs of a party of young people. Footsteps, 激しい and light, （機の）カム up the walk, and on to the porch. Lorna was returning rather late from the 動議-picture, thought 小道／航路, and he raised his 長，率いる from the pillow, to lean toward the open window, listening.

"Come across, kiddo," said a boy's 発言する／表明する, husky and low.

小道／航路 heard a kiss—then another.

"Cheese it, you boob!"

"Gee, your gettin' snippy. Say, will you ride out to Flesher's to-morrow night?"

"Nothing doing, I've got a date. Good night."

The hall door below opened and shut. Footsteps 強くたたくd off the porch and out to the street. 小道／航路 heard the giggle of girls, the snap of a car-door, the creaking of wheels, and then a low hum, dying away.

Lorna （機の）カム slowly up stairs to enter her room, moving 静かに. And 小道／航路 lay on his bed, wide-注目する，もくろむd, 星／主役にするing into the blackness. "My little sister," he whispered to himself. And the words that had meant so much seemed a mockery.

CHAPTER III

小道／航路 saw the casement of his window grow gray with the 微光ing light of 夜明け. After that he slept several hours. When he awoke it was nine o'clock. The long night with its morbid dreams and thoughts had passed, and in the 日光 of day he saw things 異なって.

To move, to get up was not an 平易な 仕事. It took 厳しい will, and all the strength of muscle he had left, and when he finally 達成するd it there was a clammy dew of 苦痛 upon his 直面する. With slow guarded movements he began to dress himself. Any sudden or violent 活動／戦闘 might burst the delicate ガス／無駄話d 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs in his 肺s or throw out of place one of the lower vertebrae of his spine. The former meant death, and the latter bent his 団体／死体 like a letter S and 原因（となる）d such excruciating agony that it was worse than death. These were his two ever-現在の 危険，危なくするs. The other aches and 苦痛s he could 耐える.

He shaved and put on clean things, and his best coat, and 調査するd himself in the little mirror. He saw a thin 直面する, white as marble, but he was not ashamed of it. His story was there to read, if any one had 肉親，親類d enough 注目する，もくろむs to see. What would Helen think of him—and Margaret Maynard—and Dal—and Mel Iden? Bitter curiosity seemed his strongest feeling 関心ing his fiancee. He would 持つ／拘留する her as engaged to him until she 知らせるd him she was not. As for the others, thought of them quickened his 利益／興味, 特に in Mel. What had happened to her.

It was going to be wonderful to 会合，会う them—and to 会合，会う everybody he had once known. Wonderful because he would see what the war had done to them and they would see what it had done to him. A peculiar significance lay between his sister and Helen—all these girls, and the fact of his having gone to war.

"They may not think of it, but I know," he muttered to himself. And he sat 負かす／撃墜する upon his bed to 計画（する） how best to 会合，会う them, and others. He did not know what he was going to 遭遇（する）, but he 防備を堅める／強化するd himself against calamity. Strange portent of this had crossed the sea to haunt him. As soon as he was sure of what had happened in Middleville, of the 態度 people would have toward a 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd 兵士, and of what he could do with the month or year that might be left him to live, then he would know his own mind. All he sensed now was that there had been some monstrous inexplicable alteration in hope, love, life. His ordeal of physical 争い, loneliness, longing was now over, for he was 支援する home. But he divined that his greater ordeal lay before him, here in this little house, and out there in Middleville. All the subtlety, 知能, and bitter 見通し developed by the war sharpened here to 直面する him with terrible 可能性s. Had his countrymen, his people, his friends, his sweetheart, all failed him? Was there 司法（官） in Blair Maynard's 軽蔑（する）? 小道／航路's 約束 cried out in 反乱. He augmented all possible 大災害, and then could not believe that he had sacrificed himself in vain. He knew himself. In him was 具体的に表現するd all the potentiality for hope of the 未来. And it was with the 前線 and stride of a 兵士, 直面するing the mystery, the ingratitude, the ignorance and hell of war, that he left his room and went 負かす／撃墜する stairs to 会合，会う the evils in 蓄える／店.

His mother was not in the kitchen. The door stood open. He heard her outside talking to a neighbor woman, over the 盗品故買者.

"—Daren looks dreadful," his mother was 説 in low 発言する／表明する. "He could hardly walk... It breaks my heart. I'm glad to have him along—but to see him waste away, day by day, like Mary Dean's boy—" she broke off.

"Too bad! It's a pity," replied the neighbor. "Sad—now it comes home to us. My son Ted （機の）カム in last night and said he'd talked with a boy who'd seen young Maynard and the strange 兵士 who was with him. They must be worse off than Daren—Blair Maynard with only one 脚 and—"

"Mother, where are you? I'm hungry," called 小道／航路, interrupting that conversation.

She （機の）カム hurriedly in, at once fearful he might have heard, and solicitous for his 福利事業.

"Daren, you look better in daylight—not so white," she said. "You sit 負かす／撃墜する now, and let me get your breakfast."

小道／航路 managed to eat a little this morning, which fact delighted his mother.

"I'm going to see Dr. Bronson," said 小道／航路, presently. "Then I'll go to Manton's, and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する town a little. And if I don't tire out I'll call on Helen. Of course Lorna has gone to work?"

"Oh yes, she leaves at half after eight."

"Mother, I was awake last night when she got home," went on 小道／航路, 本気で. "It was one o'clock. She （機の）カム in a car. I heard girls tittering. And some boy （機の）カム up on the porch with Lorna and kissed her. 井戸／弁護士席, that might not mean much—but something about their talk, the way it was done—makes me pretty sick. Did you know this sort of thing was going on?"

"Yes. And I've talked with mothers who have girls Lorna's age. They've all run wild the last year or so. Dances and rides! Last summer I was worried half to death. But we mothers don't think the girls are really bad. They're just crazy for fun, excitement, boys. Times and 楽しみs have changed. The girls say the mothers don't understand. Maybe we don't. I try to be 患者. I 信用 Lorna. I can't see through it all."

"Don't worry, mother," said 小道／航路, patting her 手渡す. "I'll see through it for you. And if Lorna is—井戸／弁護士席, running too much—wild as you said—I'll stop her."

His mother shook her 長，率いる.

"One thing we mothers all agree on. These girls, of this 世代, say fourteen to sixteen, can't be stopped."

"Then that is a serious 事柄. It must be a peculiarity of the day. Maybe the war left this 条件."

"The war changed all things, my son," replied his mother, sadly.

小道／航路 walked thoughtfully 負かす／撃墜する the street toward Doctor Bronson's office. As long as he walked slowly he managed not to give any hint of his 証拠不十分. The sun was 向こうずねing with steely brightness and the March 勝利，勝つd was living up to its fame. He longed for summer and hot days in 静かな 支持を得ようと努めるd or fields where daisies bloomed. Would he live to see the Indian summer days, the smoky 煙霧, the purple asters?

小道／航路 was 認める at once into the office of Doctor Bronson, a little, gray, slight man with shrewd, 肉親，親類d 注目する，もくろむs and a thoughtful brow. For years he had been a friend 同様に as 内科医 to the 小道／航路s, and he had always liked Daren. His surprise was 広大な／多数の／重要な and his welcome warm. But a moment later he gazed at 小道／航路 with piercing 注目する，もくろむs.

"Look here, boy, did you go to the bad over there?" he 需要・要求するd.

"How do you mean, Doctor?"

"Did you let 負かす／撃墜する—debase yourself morally?"

"No. But I went to the bad 肉体的に and spiritually."

"I see that. I don't like the color of your 直面する... 井戸／弁護士席, 井戸／弁護士席, Daren. It was hell, wasn't it? Did you kill a couple of Huns for me?"

Questions like this latter one always 疎遠にするd 小道／航路 in some unaccountable way. It must have been 明らかにする／漏らすd in his 直面する.

"Never mind, Daren. I see that you did... I'm glad you're 支援する alive. Now what can I do for you?"

"I've been 発射する／解雇するd from three hospitals in the last two months—not because I was 井戸／弁護士席, but because I was in better 形態／調整 than some other poor devil. Those doctors in the service grew hard—they had to be hard—but they saw the worst, the agony of the war. I always felt sorry for them. They never seemed to eat or sleep or 残り／休憩（する）. They had no time to save a man. It was 削減（する） him up or tie him up—then on to the next... Now, Doc, I want you to look me over and—井戸／弁護士席—tell me what to 推定する／予想する."

"All 権利," replied Doctor Bronson, gruffly.

"And I want you to 約束 not to tell mother or any one. Will you?"

"Yes, I 約束. Now come in here and get off some of your 着せる／賦与するs."

"Doctor, it's pretty 堅い on me to get in and out of my 着せる／賦与するs."

"I'll help you. Now tell me what the Germans did to you."

小道／航路 laughed grimly. "Doctor, do you remember I was in your Sunday School class?"

"Yes, I remember that. What's it got to do with Germans?"

"Nothing. It struck me funny, that's all... 井戸／弁護士席, to get it over. I was 負傷させるd several times at the training （軍の）野営地，陣営."

"Anything serious?"

"No, I guess not. Anyway I forgot about them. Doctor, I was 発射 four times, once （疑いを）晴らす through. I'll show you. Got a bad bayonet jab that doesn't seem to 傷をいやす／和解させる 井戸／弁護士席. Then I had a dose of both gases—chlorine and 情熱—and both all but killed me. Last I've a weak place in my spine. There's a vertebra that slips out of place occasionally. The least movement may do it. I can't guard against it. The last time it slipped out I was washing my teeth. I'm in mortal dread of this. For it 新たな展開s me out of 形態／調整 and 傷つけるs horribly. I'm afraid it'll give me paralysis."

"Humph! It would. But it can be 直す／買収する，八百長をするd... So that's all they did to you?"

Underneath the 乾燥した，日照りの humor of the little doctor, 小道／航路 thought he （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd something akin to 怒り／怒る.

"Yes, that's all they did to my 団体／死体," replied 小道／航路.

Doctor Bronson, during a careful and 徹底的な examination of 小道／航路's heart, 肺s, 血 圧力, and 復部の 地域, did not speak once. But when he turned him over, to see and feel the 穴を開ける in 小道／航路's 支援する, he exclaimed: "My God, boy, what made this—a 爆撃する? I can put my 握りこぶし in it."

"That's the bayonet jab."

Doctor Bronson 悪口を言う／悪態d in a most undignified and unprofessional manner. Then without その上の comment he went on and 完全にするd the examination.

"That'll do," he said, and lent a 手渡す while 小道／航路 put on his 着せる／賦与するs. It was then he noticed 小道／航路's メダル.

"Ha! The Croix de Guerre!... Daren, I was a friend of your father's. I know how that メダル would have made him feel. Tell me what you did to get it?"

"Nothing much," replied 小道／航路, stirred. "It was in the Argonne, when we took to open fighting. In fact I got most of my 傷つけるs there... I carried a 不正に 負傷させるd French officer 支援する off the field. He was a 激しい man. That's where I 負傷させるd my spine. I had to run with him. And worse luck, he was dead when I got him 支援する. But I didn't know that."

"So the French decorated you, hey?" asked the doctor, leaning 支援する with 手渡すs on hips, and 熱心に 注目する，もくろむing 小道／航路.

"Yes."

"Why did not the American Army give you equal 栄誉（を受ける）?"

"井戸／弁護士席, for one thing it was never 報告（する）／憶測d. And besides, it wasn't anything any other fellow wouldn't do."

Doctor Bronson dropped his 長，率いる and paced to and fro. Then the door-bell rang in the 歓迎会 room.

"Daren 小道／航路," began the doctor, suddenly stopping before 小道／航路, "I'd hesitate to ask most men if they 手配中の，お尋ね者 the truth. To many men I'd 嘘（をつく）. But I know a few words from me can't faze you."

"No, Doctor, one way or another it is all the same to me."

"井戸／弁護士席, boy, I can 直す／買収する，八百長をする up that vertebra so it won't slip out again... But, if there's anything in the world to save your life, I don't know what it is."

"Thank you, Doctor. It's—something to know—what to 推定する／予想する," returned 小道／航路, with a smile.

"You might live a year—and you might not... You might 改善する. God only knows. 奇蹟s do happen. Anyway, come 支援する to see me."

小道／航路 shook 手渡すs with him and went out, passing another 患者 in the 歓迎会 room. Then as 小道／航路 opened the door and stepped out upon the porch he almost 衝突する／食い違うd with a girl who evidently had been about to come in.

"I beg your——" he began, and stopped. He knew this girl, but the 緊張するd 悲劇の 影をつくる／尾行する of her 注目する，もくろむs was strikingly unfamiliar. The transparent white 肌 let the blue tracery of veins show. On the instant her lips trembled and parted.

"Oh, Daren—don't you know me?" she asked.

"Mel Iden!" he burst out. "Know you? I should smile I do. But it—it was so sudden. And you're older—different somehow. Mel, you're sweeter—why you're beautiful."

He clasped her 手渡すs and held on to them, until he felt her rather nervously trying to 身を引く them.

"Oh, Daren, I'm glad to see you home—alive—whole," she said, almost in a whisper. "Are you—井戸／弁護士席?"

"No, Mel. I'm in pretty bad 形態／調整," he replied. "Lucky to get home alive—to see you all."

"I'm sorry. You're so white. You're wonderfully changed, Daren."

"So are you. But I'll say I'm happy it's not painted 直面する and plucked eyebrows... Mel, what's happened to you?"

She suddenly 遠くに見つけるd the decoration on his coat. The 血 rose and stained her （疑いを）晴らす cheek. With a gesture of exquisite grace and sensibility that thrilled 小道／航路 she touched the メダル. "Oh! The Croix de Guerre... Daren, you were a hero."

"No, Mel, just a 兵士."

She looked up into his 直面する with 注目する，もくろむs that fascinated 小道／航路, so beautiful were they—the blue of corn-flowers—and lighted then with strange rapt glow.

"Just a 兵士!" she murmured. But 小道／航路 heard in that all the sweetness and understanding possible for any woman's heart. She amazed him—held him spellbound. Here was the sympathy—and something else—a nameless need—for which he yearned. The moment was fraught with 理解できない 軍隊s. 小道／航路's sore heart 答える／応じるd to her rapt look, to the sudden strange passion of her pale 直面する. 速く he divined that Mel Iden gloried in the presence of a maimed and proven 兵士.

"Mel, I'll come to see you," he said, breaking the （一定の）期間. "Do you still live out on the Hill road? I remember the four big white oaks."

"No, Daren, I've left home," she said, with slow change, as if his words 解任するd something she had forgotten. All the radiance 消えるd, leaving her singularly white.

"Left home! What for?" he asked, bluntly.

"Father turned me out," she replied, with 直面する 回避するd. The soft roundness of her throat swelled. 小道／航路 saw her 十分な breast heave under her coat.

"What're you 説, Mel Iden?" he 需要・要求するd, as quickly as he could find his 発言する／表明する.

Then she turned bravely to 会合，会う his gaze, and 小道／航路 had never seen as sad 注目する，もくろむs as looked into his.

"Daren, 港／避難所't you heard—about me?" she asked, with tremulous lips.

"No. What's wrong?"

"I—I can't let you call on me."

"Why not? Are you married—jealous husband?"

"No, I'm not married—but I—I have a baby," she whispered.

"Mel!" gasped 小道／航路. "A war baby?"

"Yes."

小道／航路 was so shocked he could not collect his scattered wits, let alone think of the 権利 thing to say, if there were any 権利 thing. "Mel, this is a—a terrible surprise. Oh, I'm sorry... How the war played hell with all of us! But for you—Mel Iden—I can't believe it."

"Daren, so terribly true," she said. "Don't I look it?"

"Mel, you look—oh—heartbroken."

"Yes, I am broken-hearted," she replied, and drooped her 長，率いる.

"許す me, Mel. I hardly know what I'm 説... But listen—I'm coming to see you."

"No," she said.

That trenchant word was thought-刺激するing. A 微光 of understanding began to 夜明け in 小道／航路. Already an 巨大な pity had flooded his soul, and a 深遠な sense of the mystery and 悲劇 of Mel Iden. She had always been unusual, aloof, proud, unattainable, a girl with a heart of golden 解雇する／砲火／射撃. And now she had a nameless child and was an outcast from her father's house. The fact, the fatality of it, stunned 小道／航路.

"Daren, I must go in to see Dr. Bronson," she said. "I'm glad you're home. I'm proud of you. I'm happy for your mother and Lorna. You must watch Lorna—try to 抑制する her. She's going wrong. All the young girls are going wrong. Oh, it's a more dreadful time now than before or during the war. The let-負かす／撃墜する has been terrible... Good-bye, Daren."

In other days Manton's building on Main Street had appeared a pretentious one to 小道／航路's untraveled 注目する，もくろむs. It was an old three-story red-brick-前線 edifice, squatted between higher and more modern structures. When he climbed the dirty dark stairway up to the second 床に打ち倒す a throng of memories returned with the sensations of creaky steps, musty smell, and 薄暗い light. When he 押し進めるd open a door on which MANTON & CO. showed in 黒人／ボイコット letters he caught his breath. Long—long past! Was it possible that he had been penned up for three years in this stifling place?

Manton carried on さまざまな lines of 商売／仕事, and for Middleville, he was held to be something of a merchant and 仲買人. 小道／航路 was wholly familiar with the halls, the several lettered doors, the large unpartitioned office at the 支援する of the building. Here his slow 進歩 was 迎撃するd by a slip of a girl who asked him what he 手配中の，お尋ね者. Before answering, 小道／航路 took 在庫／株 of the girl. She might have been all of fifteen—no older. She had curly bobbed hair, and a 直面する that would have been comely but for the 砕く and 紅. She was chewing gum, and she ogled 小道／航路.

"I want to see Mr. Manton," 小道／航路 said.

"What 指名する, please."

"Daren 小道／航路."

She tripped off toward the door 主要な to Manton's 私的な offices, and 小道／航路's gaze, curiously に引き続いて her, 設立する her 衣装 to be startling even to his expectant 注目する，もくろむs. Then she disappeared. 小道／航路's gaze sought the corner and desk that once upon a time had been his. A blond young lady, also with bobbed hair, was operating a typewriter at his desk. She ちらりと見ることd up, and 遠くに見つけるing 小道／航路, she suddenly stopped her work. She 認めるd him. But, if she were Hattie Wilson, it was 確かな that 小道／航路 did not 認める her. Then the office girl returned.

"Step this way, please. Mr. Smith will see you."

How singularly it struck 小道／航路 that not once in three years had he thought of Smith. But when he saw him, the 介入するing months were as nothing. Lean, spare, pallid, with baggy 注目する，もくろむs, and the nose of a drinker, Smith had not changed.

"How do, 小道／航路. So you're 支援する? Welcome to our city," he said, 延長するing a nerveless 手渡す that felt to 小道／航路 like a dead fish.

"Hello, Mr. Smith. Yes, I'm 支援する," returned 小道／航路, taking the 議長，司会を務める Smith 示すd. And then he met the 必然的な questions as best he could in order not to appear curt or uncivil.

"I'd like to see Mr. Manton to ask for my old 職業," interposed 小道／航路, presently.

"He's busy now, 小道／航路, but maybe he'll see you. I'll find out."

Smith got up and went out. 小道／航路 sat there with a vague sense of absurdity in the 状況／情勢. The click of a typewriter sounded from behind him. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to hurry out. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to think of other things, and twice he drove away memory of the girl he had just left at Doctor Bronson's office. Presently Smith returned, slipping along in his shiny 黒人／ボイコット 控訴, flat-footed and わずかに 屈服するd, with his 始める，決める dull 表現.

"小道／航路, Mr. Manton asks you to please excuse him. He's 極端に busy," said Smith. "I told him that you 手配中の，お尋ね者 your old 職業 支援する. And he 教えるd me to tell you he had been put to the trouble of breaking in a girl to take your place. She now does the work you used to have—very satisfactorily, Mr. Manton thinks, and at いっそう少なく 支払う／賃金. So, of course, a change is impossible."

"I see," returned 小道／航路, slowly, as he rose to go. "I had an idea that might be the 事例／患者. I'm finding things—a little different."

"No 疑問, 小道／航路. You fellows who went away left us to make the best of it."

"Yes, Smith, we fellows 'went away,'" replied 小道／航路, with satire, "and I'm finding out the fact wasn't 大いに 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がるd. Good day."

On the way out the little office girl opened the door for him and ogled him again, and stood a moment on the threshold. Ponderingly, 小道／航路 made his way 負かす／撃墜する to the street. A 急ぐ of 冷静な／正味の spring 空気／公表する seemed to refresh him, and with it （機の）カム a 現実化 that he never would have been able to stay 閉じ込める／刑務所d up in Manton's place. Even if his services had been 大いに 願望（する）d he could not have given them for long. He could not have stood that place. This was a new 段階 of his mental 条件. Work almost anywhere in Middleville would be like that in Manton's. Could he stand work at all, not only in a physical sense, but in 使用／適用 of mind? He began to worry about that.

Some one あられ／賞賛するd 小道／航路, and he turned to 認める an old 知識—Matt Jones. They walked along the street together, 会合 other men who knew 小道／航路, some of whom 迎える／歓迎するd him heartily. Then, during an 続いて起こるing hour, he went into familiar 蓄える／店s and the postoffice, the hotel and finally the Bradford Inn, 会合 many people whom he had known 井戸／弁護士席. The sum of all their greetings left him in 冷淡な amaze. At length 小道／航路 しっかり掴むd the subtle 輸入する—that people were tired of any one or anything which reminded them of the war. He tried to 運動 that thought from lodgment in his mind. But it stuck. And slowly he gathered the 軍隊s of his spirit to make good the 解決する with which he had 直面するd this day—to withstand an appalling truth.

At the inn he sat before an 射撃を開始する and pondered between 簡潔な／要約する conversations of men who accosted him. On the one 手渡す it was 極端に trying, and on the other a fascinating and grim 熟考する／考慮する—to 会合，会う people, and find that he could read their minds. Had the war given him some 魔法 sixth sense, some clairvoyant 力／強力にする, some gift of 見通し? He could not tell yet what had come to him, but there was something.

商売／仕事 men, 停止（させる）ing to 雑談（する） with 小道／航路 a few moments, helped along his readjustment to the truth of the strange 現在の. Almost all 肉親，親類d of 商売／仕事 were にわか景気ing. Most people had money to spend. And there was a multitude, made rich by the war, who were throwing money to the four 勝利，勝つd. Prices of every 商品／必需品 were at their highest 頂点（に達する）, and 供給（する） could not equal 需要・要求する. An orgy of spending was in 十分な swing, and all men in 商売／仕事, 特に the profiteers, were making the most of the 前例のない 適切な時期.

After he had 残り／休憩（する）d, 小道／航路 boarded a street car and 棒 out to the 郊外s of Middleville where the Maynards lived. Although they had lost their money they still lived in the 相当な mansion that was all which was left them of 繁栄する days. House and grounds now appeared sadly run 負かす／撃墜する.

A maid answered 小道／航路's （犯罪の）一味, and let him in. 小道／航路 設立する himself rather nervously 推定する／予想するing to see Mrs. Maynard. The old house brought 支援する to him the fact that he had never liked her. But he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to see Margaret. It turned out, however, that mother and daughter were out.

"Come up, old 最高の，を越す," called Blair's 発言する／表明する from the hall above.

So 小道／航路 went up to Blair's room, which he remembered almost 同様に as his own, though now it was in disorder. Blair was in his shirt sleeves. He looked both gay and spent. Red Payson was in bed, and his 直面する bore the hectic 紅潮／摘発する of fever.

"Aw, he's only had too much to eat," 宣言するd Blair, in answer to 小道／航路's solicitation.

"How's that, Red?" asked 小道／航路, sitting 負かす／撃墜する on the bed beside Payson.

"It's nothing, Dare... I'm just all in," replied Red, with a 疲れた／うんざりした smile.

"I telephoned Doc Bronson to come out," said Blair, "and look us over. That made Red as sore as a pup. Isn't he the 限界? By 雷鳴, you can't do anything for some people."

Blair's トン and words of 明らかな vexation were at variance with the 親切 of his 注目する，もくろむs as they 残り／休憩（する）d upon his sick comrade.

"I just （機の）カム from Bronson's," 観察するd 小道／航路. "He's been our doctor for as long as I can remember."

Both 小道／航路's comrades searched his 直面する with 尋問 注目する，もくろむs, and while 小道／航路 returned that gaze there was a little constrained silence.

"Bronson 診察するd me—and said I'd live to be eighty," 追加するd 小道／航路, with 乾燥した，日照りの humor.

"You're a liar!" burst out Blair.

On Red Payson's worn 直面する a faint smile appeared. "Carry on, Dare."

Then Blair fell to 尋問 小道／航路 as to all the news he had heard, and people he had met.

"So Manton turned you 負かす／撃墜する 冷淡な," said Blair, ponderingly.

"I didn't get to see him," replied 小道／航路. "He sent out word that my old 職業 was held by a girl who did my work better and at いっそう少なく 支払う／賃金."

The 血 leaped to Blair's white cheek.

"What'd you say?" he queried.

"Nothing much. I just 追跡するd out... But the truth is, Blair—I couldn't have stood that place—not for a day."

"I get you," 再結合させるd Blair. "That isn't the point, though. I always wondered if we'd find our old 職業s open to us. Of course, I couldn't fill 地雷 now. It was an outside 職業—lots of walking."

So the conversation see-sawed 支援する and 前へ／外へ, with Red Payson listening in languid 利益／興味.

"Have you seen any of the girls?" asked Blair.

"I met Mel Iden," replied 小道／航路.

"You did? What did she—"

"Mel told me what explained some of your hints."

"Ahuh! Poor Mel! How'd she look?"

"大いに changed," replied 小道／航路, thoughtfully. "How do you remember Mel?"

"井戸／弁護士席, she was pretty—soulful 直面する—wonderful smile—that sort of thing."

"She's beautiful now, and sad."

"I shouldn't wonder. And she told you 権利 out about the baby?"

"No. That （機の）カム out when she said I couldn't call on her, and I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know why."

"But you'll go anyhow?"

"Yes."

"So will I," returned Blair, with spirit. "Dare, I've known for over a year about Mel's 不名誉. You used to like her, and I hated to tell you. If it had been Helen I'd have told you in a minute. But Mel ... 井戸／弁護士席, I suppose we must 推定する／予想する queer things. I got a 揺さぶる this morning. I was pumping my sister Margie about everybody, and, of course, Mel's 指名する （機の）カム up. You remember Margie and Mel were as 厚い as two peas in a pod. Looks like Mel's 落ちる has 傷つける Margie. But I don't just get Margie yet. She might be another fellow's sister—for all the strangeness of her."

"I hardly knew my kid sister," 答える／応じるd 小道／航路.

"Ahuh! The 陰謀（を企てる） thickens... 井戸／弁護士席, I couldn't get much out of Marg. She used to babble everything. But what little she told me made up in—in shock for what it 欠如（する）d in 容積／容量."

"Tell me," said 小道／航路, as his friend paused.

"Nothing doing." ... And turning to the sick boy on the bed, he 発言／述べるd, "Red, you needn't let this—this gab of ours bother you. This is home talk between a couple of boobs who're burying their illusions in the 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な. You didn't leave a sister or a lot of old schoolgirl sweethearts behind to——"

"What the hell do you know about whom I left behind?" retorted Red, with a swift 炎 of strange passion.

"Oh, say, Red—I—I beg your 容赦, I was only kidding," 答える／応じるd Blair, in surprise and contrition. "You never told me a word about yourself."

For answer Red Payson rolled over wearily and turned his 支援する.

"Blair, I'll （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it, and let Red go to sleep," said 小道／航路, taking up his hat. "Red, good-bye this time. I hope you'll be better soon."

"I'm—sorry, 小道／航路," （機の）カム in muffled トンs from Payson.

"削減（する） that out, boy. You've nothing to be sorry for. Forget it and 元気づける up."

Blair hobbled downstairs after 小道／航路. "Don't go just yet, Dare."

They 設立する seats in the parlor that appeared to be the same shabby genteel place where 小道／航路 had used to call upon Blair's sister.

"What ails Red?" queried 小道／航路, bluntly.

"Lord only knows. He's a queer duck. Once in a while he lets out a 割れ目 like that. There's a lot to Red."

"Blair, his heart is broken," said 小道／航路, tragically.

"井戸／弁護士席!" exclaimed Blair, with quick almost haughty uplift of 長，率いる. He seemed to resent 小道／航路's surprise and intimation. It was a rebuke that made 小道／航路 縮む.

"I never thought of Red's 存在 傷つける—you know—or as having lost... Oh, he just seemed like so many other boys 廃虚d in health. I——"

"All 権利. 削減（する） the 感情," interrupted Blair. "The fact is Red is more of a problem than we had any idea he'd be... And Dare, listen to this—I'm ashamed to have to tell you. Mother raised old Harry with me this morning for fetching Red home. She couldn't see it my way. She said there were hospitals for sick 兵士s who hadn't homes. I lost my temper and I said: 'The hell of it, mother, is that there's nothing of the 肉親，親類d.' ... She said we couldn't keep him here. I tried to 説得する her... Margie helped, but nothing doing."

Blair had spoken hurriedly with again a stain of red in his white cheek, and a break in his 発言する／表明する.

"That's—堅い," replied 小道／航路, haltingly. He could choke 支援する speech, but not the something in his 発言する／表明する he would rather not have heard. "I'll tell you what. As soon as Red is 井戸／弁護士席 enough we'll move him over to my house. I'm sure mother will let him 株 my room. There's only Lorna—and I'll 支払う／賃金 Red's board... You have やめる a family—"

"Hell, Dare—don't わびる to me for my mother," burst out Blair, 激しく.

"Blair, I believe you realize what we are up against—and I don't," 再結合させるd 小道／航路, with level gaze upon his friend.

"Dare, can't you see we're up against worse than the Argonne?—worse, because 支援する here at home—that beautiful, glorious thought—idea—spirit we had is gone. Dead!"

"No, I can't see," returned 小道／航路, stubbornly.

"井戸／弁護士席, I guess that's one 推論する／理由 we all loved you, Dare—you couldn't see... But I'll bet you my crutch Helen makes you see. Her father made a pile out of the war. She's a war-rich snob now. And going the pace!"

"Blair, she may make me see her faithlessness—and perhaps some strange 不安—some change that's seemed to come over everything. But she can't 証明する to me the death of anything outside of herself. She can't 証明する that any more than Mel Iden's 自白 証明するd her a wanton. It didn't. Not to me. Why, when Mel put her 手渡す on my breast—on this メダル—and looked at me—I had such a thrill as I never had before in all my life. Never!... Blair, it's not dead. That beautiful thing you について言及するd—that spirit—that 解雇する／砲火／射撃 which 燃やすd so gloriously—it is not dead."

"Not in you—old pard," replied Blair, unsteadily. "I'm always ashamed before your 約束. And, by God, I'll say you're my only 錨，総合司会者."

"Blair, let's play the game out to the end," said 小道／航路.

"I get you, Dare... For Margie, for Lorna, for Mel—even if they have—"

"Yes," answered 小道／航路, as Blair 滞るd.

CHAPTER IV

As 小道／航路 sped out Elm Street in a taxicab he remembered that his last ride in such a conveyance had been with Helen when he took her home from a party. She was then about seventeen years old. And that night she had 説得するd him to marry her before he left to go to war. Had her feminine instinct been infallibly 権利? Would marrying her have saved her from what Blair had so 強制的に 示唆するd?

Elm Street was a newly developed part of Middleville, high on one of its hills, and manifestly a 制限するd section. 小道／航路 had 設立する the number of Helen's home in the telephone 調書をとる／予約する. When the chauffeur stopped before a new and 課すing pile of red brick, 小道／航路 understood an 知識's 言及／関連 to the war rich. It was a mansion, but somehow not a home. It flaunted something indefinable.

小道／航路 教えるd the driver to wait a few moments, and, if he did not come out, to go 支援する to town and return in about an hour. The house stood rather far from the street, and as 小道／航路 機動力のある the terrace he 観察するd four モーター cars parked in the driveway. Also his 極度の慎重さを要する ears caught the sound of a phonograph.

A maid answered his （犯罪の）一味. 小道／航路 asked for both Mrs. Wrapp and Helen. They were at home, the maid 知らせるd him, and 勧めるd 小道／航路 into a gray and silver 歓迎会 room. 小道／航路 had no card, but gave his 指名する. As he gazed around the room he tried to fit the delicate decorative 計画／陰謀 to Mrs. Wrapp. He smiled at the idea. But he remembered that she had always liked him in spite of the fact that she did not 好意 his attention to Helen. Like many mothers of girls, she 手配中の，お尋ね者 a rich marriage for her daughter. Manifestly now she had money. But had happiness come with 繁栄?

Then Mrs. Wrapp （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する. Rising, he turned to see a large woman, elaborately gowned. She had a 激しい, rather good-natured 直面する on which was a smile of 迎える／歓迎するing.

"Daren 小道／航路!" she exclaimed, with fervor, and to his surprise, she kissed him. There was no 疑問 of her 楽しみ. 小道／航路's thin armor melted. He had not 心配するd such welcome. "Oh, I'm glad to see you, 兵士 boy. But you're a man now. Daren, you're white and thin. Handsomer, though!... Sit 負かす／撃墜する and talk to me a little."

Her 親切 made his 仕事 平易な.

"I've called to 支払う／賃金 my 尊敬（する）・点s to you—and to see Helen," he said.

"Of course. But talk to me first," she returned, with a smile. "You'll find me better company than that （人が）群がる upstairs. Tell me about yourself... Oh, I know 兵士s hate to talk about themselves and the war. Never mind the war. Are you 井戸／弁護士席? Did you get 傷つける? You look so—so frail, Daren."

There was something simple and motherly about her, that became her, and warmed 小道／航路's 冷淡な heart. He remembered that she had always preferred boys to girls, and regretted she had not been the mother of boys. So 小道／航路 talked to her, glad to find that the most ordinary news of the service and his comrades 利益／興味d her very much. The instant she 遠くに見つけるd his Croix de Guerre he seemed 解除するd higher in her estimation. Yet she had the delicacy not to question him about that. In fact, after ten minutes with her, 小道／航路 had to reproach himself for the 敵意 with which he had come. At length she rose with evident 不本意.

"You want to see Helen. Shall I send her 負かす／撃墜する here or will you go up to her studio?"

"I think I'd like to go up," replied 小道／航路.

"If I were you, I would," advised Mrs. Wrapp. "I'd like your opinion—of, 井戸／弁護士席, what you'll see. Since you left home, Daren, we've been turned topsy-turvy. I'm old-fashioned. I can't get used to these goings-on. These young people 'get my goat,' as Helen 表明するs it."

"I'm hopelessly behind the times, I've seen that already," 再結合させるd 小道／航路.

"Daren, I 尊敬（する）・点 you for it. There was a time when I 反対するd to your 法廷，裁判所ing Helen. But I couldn't see into the 未来. I'm sorry now she broke her 約束／交戦 to you."

"I—thank you, Mrs. Wrapp," said 小道／航路, with agitation. "But of course Helen was 権利. She was too young... And even if she had been—been true to me—I would have 解放する／自由なd her upon my return."

"Indeed. And why, Daren?"

"Because I'll never be 井戸／弁護士席 again," he replied sadly.

"Boy, don't say that!" she 控訴，上告d, with a 手渡す going to his shoulder.

In the poignancy of the moment 小道／航路 lost his reserve and told her the truth of his 条件, even going so far as to place her 手渡す so she felt the 広大な／多数の／重要な bayonet 穴を開ける in his 支援する. Her silence then was more expressive than any speech. She had the look of a woman in whom 良心 was a reality. And 小道／航路 divined that she felt she and her daughter, and all other women of this distraught land, 借りがあるd him and his comrades a 負債 which could never be paid. For once she 表明するd dignity and sweetness and 本物の 悲しみ.

"You shock me, Daren. But words are useless. I hope and pray you're wrong. But 権利 or wrong—you're a real American—like our splendid forefathers. Thank God that spirit still 生き残るs. It is our only hope."

小道／航路 crossed to the window and looked out, slowly conscious of resurging self-支配（する）／統制する. It was 井戸／弁護士席 that he had met Mrs. Wrapp first, for she gave him what he needed. His bleeding vanity, his pride trampled in the dirt, his betrayed 約束, his unquenchable spirit of hope for some far-未来 good—these were not secrets he could hide from every one.

"Daren," said Mrs. Wrapp, as he again turned to her, "if I were in my daughter's place I'd beg you to take me 支援する. And if you would, I'd never leave your 味方する for an hour until you were 井戸／弁護士席 or—or gone. ... But girls now are 所有するd of some infernal frenzy... God only knows how far they go, but I'm one mother who is no fool. I see little 調印する of real love in Helen or any of her friends... And the men who lounge around after her! Walk upstairs—支援する to the end of the long hall—open the door and go in. You'll find Helen and some of her associates. You'll find the men, young, sleek, soft, 井戸／弁護士席-fed—without any of the scars or 荒廃させるs of war. They didn't go to war!... They live for their 団体／死体s. And I hate these slackers. So does Helen's father. And for three years our house has been a rendezvous for them. We've 栄えるd, but that has been bitter fruit."

Strong elemental passions 小道／航路 had seen and felt in people during the short twenty-four hours since his return home. All of them had stung and astounded him, flung into his 直面する the hard 残虐な facts of the materialism of the 現在の. Surely it was an 異常な 条件. And yet from the last ４半期/4分の1 where he might have 推定する／予想するd to find uplift, and the crystallizing of his 態度 toward the world, and the sharpening of his 知能—from the hard, grim mother of the girl who had jilted him, these had come. It was in keeping with all the other mystery.

"On second thought, I'll go up with you," continued Mrs. Wrapp, as he moved in the direction she had 示すd. "Come."

The wide hall, the winding stairway with its soft carpet, the narrower hallway above—these made a long 旅行 for 小道／航路. But at the end, when Mrs. Wrapp stopped with 手渡す on the farthest door, 小道／航路 felt knit like 冷淡な steel.

The discordant music and the soft shuffling of feet 中止するd. Laughter and murmur of 発言する／表明するs began.

"Come, Daren," whispered Mrs. Wrapp, as if thrilled. Certainly her 注目する，もくろむs gleamed. Then quickly she threw the door open wide and called out:

"Helen, here's Daren 小道／航路 home from the war, wearing the Croix de Guerre."

Mrs. Wrapp 押し進めるd 小道／航路 今後, and stood there a moment in the sudden silence, then stepping 支援する, she went out and の近くにd the door.

小道／航路 saw a large 井戸／弁護士席-lighted room, with colorful bizarre decorations and a 明らかにする shiny 床に打ち倒す. The first person his ちらりと見ること 遭遇（する）d was a young girl, strikingly beautiful, 直面するing him with red lips parted. She had violet 注目する，もくろむs that seemed to have a startled 表現 as they met 小道／航路's. Next 小道／航路 saw a わずかな／ほっそりした young man standing の近くに to this girl, in the 行為／法令／行動する of 身を引くing his arm from around her waist. 明らかに with his 解放する／自由な 手渡す he had either been lowering a smoking cigarette from her lips or had been raising it there. This 手渡す, too, dropped 負かす／撃墜する. 小道／航路 did not 認める the fellow's smooth, smug 直面する, with its tiny curled mustache and its heated swollen lines.

"Look who's here," shouted a gay, vibrant 発言する／表明する. "If it isn't old Dare 小道／航路!"

That 発言する／表明する drew 小道／航路's 直す／買収する，八百長をするd gaze, and he saw a group in the far corner of the room. One man was standing, another was sitting beside a lounge, upon which lay a young woman まっただ中に a pile of pillows. She rose lazily, and as she slid off the lounge 小道／航路 saw her skirt come 負かす／撃墜する and cover her 明らかにする 膝s. Her red hair, bobbed and curly, 示すd her for 承認. It was Helen. But 小道／航路 疑問d if he would have at once 認めるd any other feature. The handsome insolence of her 直面する was belied by a singularly eager and curious 表現. Her 注目する，もくろむs, almost green in line, swept 小道／航路 up and 負かす／撃墜する, and （機の）カム 支援する to his 直面する, while she 延長するd her 手渡すs in 迎える／歓迎するing.

"Helen, how are you?" said 小道／航路, with a 冷静な／正味の 意図 mastery of himself, 屈服するing over her 手渡すs. "Surprised to see me?"

"井戸／弁護士席, I'll say so! Daren, you've changed," she replied, and the latter part of her speech flashed 速く.

"Rather," he said, laconically. "What would you 推定する／予想する? So have you changed."

There （機の）カム a moment's pause. Helen was not embarrassed or agitated, but something about 小道／航路 or the 状況／情勢 明らかに made her slow or stiff.

"Daren, you—of course you remember Hardy Mackay and 刑事 Swann," she said.

小道／航路 turned to 迎える／歓迎する one-time schoolmates and 競争相手s of his. Mackay was tall, homely, with a 直面する that 欠如（する）d 軍隊, light blue 注目する，もくろむs and 厚い sandy hair, 小衝突d high. Swann was slight, elegant, faultlessly groomed and he had a dark, sallow 直面する, 激しい lips, 激しい eyelids, 注目する，もくろむs rather 目だつ and of a ワイン-dark hue. To 小道／航路 he did not have a clean, virile look.

In their greetings 小道／航路 sensed some indefinable 質 of surprise or suspense. Swann rather awkwardly put out his 手渡す, but 小道／航路 ignored it. The 血 stained Swann's sallow 直面する and he drew himself up.

"And Daren, here are other friends of 地雷," said Helen, and she turned him 一連の会議、交渉／完成する. "Bessy, this is Daren 小道／航路... 行方不明になる Bessy Bell." As 小道／航路 定評のある the introduction he felt that he was looking at the prettiest girl he had ever seen—the girl whose violet 注目する，もくろむs had met his when he entered the room.

"Mr. Daren 小道／航路, I'm very happy to 会合，会う some one from 'over there,'" she said, with the 緩和する and self-所有／入手 of a woman of the world. But when she smiled a beautiful, wonderful light seemed to 向こうずね from 注目する，もくろむs and 直面する and lips—a smile of 青年.

Helen introduced her companion as Roy Vancey. Then she led 小道／航路 to the far corner, to another couple, manifestly 乱すd from their rather の近くに and familiar position in a window seat. These also were strangers to 小道／航路. They did not get up, and they were not 利益／興味d. In fact, 小道／航路 was quick to catch an impression from all, かもしれない excepting 行方不明になる Bell, that the 儀礼 of 製図／抽選 rooms, such as he had been familiar with as a young man, was wanting in this atmosphere. 小道／航路 wondered if it was antagonism toward him. Helen drew 小道／航路 支援する toward her other friends, to the lounge where she seated herself. If the 状況／情勢 had 乱すd her equilibrium in the least, the moment had passed. She did not care what 小道／航路 thought of her guests or what they thought of him. But she seemed curious about him. Bessy Bell （機の）カム and sat beside her, watching 小道／航路.

"Daren, do you dance?" queried Helen. "You used to be good. But dancing is not the same. It's all fox-trot, toddle, shimmy nowadays."

"I'm afraid my dancing days are over," replied 小道／航路.

"How so? I see you （機の）カム 支援する with two 脚s and 武器."

"Yes. But I was 発射 twice through one 脚—it's about all I can do to walk now."

に引き続いて his 平易な laugh, a little silence 続いて起こるd. Helen's green 注目する，もくろむs seemed to 狭くする and concentrate on 小道／航路. 刑事 Swann 吸い込むd a 深い draught of his cigarette, then let the smoke curl up from his lips to enter his nostrils. Mackay rather uneasily 転換d his feet. And Bessy Bell gazed with wonderful violet 注目する，もくろむs at 小道／航路.

"Oh! You were 発射!" she whispered.

"Yes," replied 小道／航路, and looked 直接／まっすぐに at her, 誘発するd by her singular トン. A ちらりと見ること was enough to show 小道／航路 that this very young girl was an 完全に new type to him. She seemed to vibrate with intensity. All the graceful lines of her 団体／死体 seemed strangely instinct with pulsing life. She was 瓶／封じ込めるd 雷. In a flash 小道／航路 sensed what made her different from the fifteen-year-olds he remembered before the war. It was what made his sister Lorna different. He felt it in Helen's scrutiny of him, in the 憶測 of her 注目する，もくろむs. Then Bessy Bell leaned toward 小道／航路, and softly, reverently touched the メダル upon his breast.

"The Croix de Guerre," she said, in awe. "That's the French badge of 栄誉（を受ける）... It means you must have done something 広大な／多数の／重要な... You must have—killed Germans!"

Bessy sank 支援する upon the lounge, clasping her 手渡すs, and her 注目する，もくろむs appeared to darken, to turn purple with 生き返らせる thought and emotion. Her exclamation brought the third girl of the party over to the lounge. She was all 注目する，もくろむs. Her apathy had 消えるd. She did not see the sulky young fellow who had followed her.

小道／航路 could have laughed aloud. He read the shallow souls of these older girls. They could not help their instincts and he had learned that it was 直感的に with women to become emotional over 兵士s. Bessy Bell was a child. Hero-worship shone from her speaking 注目する，もくろむs. Whatever other young men might be to her, no one of them could compare with a 兵士.

The 状況／情勢 had its pathos, its 悲劇, and its gratification for 小道／航路. He saw 明確に, and felt with the acuteness of a woman. Helen had jilted him for such young men as these. So in the feeling of the moment it cost him nothing to thrill and fascinate these girls with the story of how he had been 発射 through the 脚. It pleased him to see Helen's green 注目する，もくろむs dilate, to see Bessy Bell shudder. Presently 小道／航路 turned to speak to the supercilious Swann.

"I didn't have the luck to run across you in フラン!" he queried.

"No. I didn't go," replied Swann.

"How was that? Didn't the 草案 get you?"

"Yes. But my 注目する，もくろむs were bad. And my father needed me at the 作品. We had a big army 契約 in steel."

"Oh, I see," returned 小道／航路, with a subtle alteration of manner he could not, did not want to 支配（する）／統制する. But it was unmistakable in its detachment. Next his gaze on Mackay did not 要求する the accompaniment of a query.

"I was under 負わせる. They wouldn't 受託する me," he explained.

Bessy Bell looked at Mackay disdainfully. "Why didn't you drink a bucketful of water—same as Billy Means did? He got in."

Helen laughed gayly. "What! Mac drink water? He'd be ill... Come, let's dance. 刑事 put on that new one. Daren, you can watch us dance."

Swann did as he was bidden, and as a loud, violent discordance blared out of the machine he threw away his cigarette, and turned to Helen. She seemed to leap at him. She had a pantherish grace. Swann drew her closely to him, with his arm all the way 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her, while her arm encircled his neck. They began a 急速な／放蕩な swaying walk, in which Swann appeared to be 軍隊ing the girl over backwards. They swayed, and turned, and glided; they made strange abrupt movements in 一致 with the jerky tune; they 停止（させる）d at the end of a walk to make little steps 今後 and 支援する; then they began to bounce and sway together in a 動議 that 小道／航路 即時に 認めるd as a toddle. 小道／航路 remembered the one-step, the fox-trot and other new dances of an earlier day, when the craze for new dancing had become general, but this sort of gyration was vastly something else. It disgusted 小道／航路. He felt the 血 殺到する to his 直面する. He watched Helen Wrapp in the 武器 of Swann, and he realized, whatever had been the 明言する／公表する of his heart on his return home, he did not love her now. Even if the war had not 混乱に陥れる／中断させるd his mind in an unaccountable way, even if he had loved Helen Wrapp 権利 up to that moment, such singular abandonment to a distorted strange music, to the の近くに and unmistakably sensual embrace of a man—that spectacle would have killed his love.

小道／航路 turned his gaze away. The young fellow Vancey was pulling at Bessy Bell, and she shook his 手渡す off. "No, Roy, I don't want to dance." 小道／航路 heard above the jarring, stringing 公式文書，認めるs. Mackay was smoking, and looked on as if bored. In a moment more the Victrola rasped out its last 公式文書，認める.

Helen's 直面する was 紅潮／摘発するd and moist. Her bosom heaved. Her gown hung closely to her lissom and rather 十分な form. A singular 表現 of excitement, of titillation, almost wild, a softer 表現 almost dreamy, died out of her 直面する. 小道／航路 saw Swann lead Helen up to a small （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する beside the Victrola. Here stood a large 投手 of lemonade, and a number of glasses. Swann filled a glass half 十分な, from the 投手, and then, deliberately pulling a silver flask from his hip pocket he 注ぐd some of its dark red contents into the glass. Helen took it from him, and turned to 小道／航路 with a half-mocking ちらりと見ること.

"Daren, I remember you never drank," she said. "Maybe the war made a man of you!... Will you have a sip of lemonade with a 発射 in it?"

"No, thank you," replied 小道／航路.

"Didn't you drink over there?" she queried.

"Only when I had to," he 再結合させるd, すぐに.

All of the four ダンサーs partook of a drink of lemonade, 強化するd by something from Swann's flask. 小道／航路 was quick to 観察する that when it was 圧力（をかける）d upon Bessy Bell she 辞退するd to take it: "I hate booze," she said, with a grimace. His その上の impression of Bessy Bell, then, was that she had just fallen in with this older （人が）群がる, and sophisticated though she was, had not yet been corrupted. The divination of this 高くする，増すd his 利益／興味.

"井戸／弁護士席, Daren, you old prune, what'd you think of the toddle?" asked Helen, as she took a cigarette 申し込む／申し出d by Swann and tipped it between her red lips.

"Is that what you danced?"

"I'll say so. And 刑事 and I are considered pretty spiffy."

"I don't think much of it, Helen," replied 小道／航路, deliberately. "If you care to—to do that sort of thing I'd imagine you'd rather do it alone."

"Oh Lord, you talk like mother," she exclaimed.

"小道／航路, you're out of date," said Swann, with a little sneer.

小道／航路 took a long, 安定した ちらりと見ること at Swann, but did not reply.

"Daren, everybody has been dancing jazz. It's the 激怒（する）. The old dances were slow. The new ones have pep and snap."

"So I see. They have more than that," returned 小道／航路. "But pray, never mind me. I'm out of date. Go ahead and dance... If you'd rather, I'll leave and call on you some other time."

"No, you stay," she replied. "I'll chase this bunch pretty soon."

"井戸／弁護士席, you won't chase me. I'll go," spoke up Swann, sullenly, with a fling of his cigarette.

"You needn't 傷つける yourself," returned Helen, sarcastically.

"So long, people," said Swann to the others. But it was perfectly obvious that he did not 含む 小道／航路. It was also obvious, at least to 小道／航路, that Swann showed something of intolerance and mastery in the dark, sullen ちらりと見ること he bestowed upon Helen. She followed him across the room and out into the hall, from whence her guarded 発言する／表明する sounded unintelligibly. But 小道／航路's keen ear, にもかかわらず the starting of the Victrola, caught Swann's 平等に low, yet clearer reply. "You can't kid me. I'm on. You'll vamp 小道／航路 if he lets you. Go to it!"

As Helen （機の）カム 支援する into the room Mackay ran for her, and locking her in the same embrace—even a tighter one than Swann's—he fell into the strange steps that had so shocked 小道／航路. Moreover, he was manifestly a skilful ダンサー, and showed the thin, lithe, supple 団体／死体 of one trained 負かす／撃墜する by this or some other violent 演習.

小道／航路 did not watch the ダンサーs this time. Again Bessy Bell 辞退するd to get up from the lounge. The 青年 was insistent. He pawed at her. And manifestly she did not like that, for her 直面する 炎上d, and she snapped: "Stop it—you bonehead! Can't you see I want to sit here by Mr. 小道／航路?"

The 青年 slouched away ガス／煙ing to himself.

その結果 小道／航路 got up, and seated himself beside Bessy so that he need not shout to be heard.

"That was nice of you, 行方不明になる Bell—but rather hard on the youngster," said 小道／航路.

"He makes me sick. All he wants to do is lolly-gag... Besides, after what you said to Helen about the jazz I wouldn't dance in 前線 of you on a bet."

She was 強烈な, frank, naive. She was impressed by his nearness; but 小道／航路 saw that it was the fact of his 存在 a 兵士 with a 記録，記録的な／記録する, not his mere physical propinquity that 影響する／感情d her. She seemed both bold and shy. But she did not show any modesty. Her short skirt （機の）カム above her 明らかにする 膝s, and she did not try to hide them from 小道／航路's sight. At fifteen, like his sister Lorna, this girl had the 開発 of a young woman. She breathed health, and something elusive that 小道／航路 could not catch. If it had not been for her 明らかな 欠如（する） of shame, and her 紅d lips and cheeks, and her plucked eyebrows, she would have been exceedingly alluring. But no beauty, however striking, could under these circumstances, 動かす 小道／航路's heart. He was fascinated, puzzled, intensely curious.

"Why wouldn't you dance jazz in 前線 of me?" he 問い合わせd, with a smile.

"井戸／弁護士席, for one thing I'm not stuck on it, and for another I'll say you said a mouthful."

"Is that all?" he asked, as if disappointed.

"No. I'd 尊敬（する）・点 what you said—because of where you've been and what you've done."

It was a reply that surprised 小道／航路.

"I'm out of date, you know."

She put a finger on the メダル on his breast and said: "You could never be out of date."

The music and the 事情に応じて変わる shuffle 中止するd.

"Now （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it," said Helen. "I want to talk to Daren." She gayly 押すd the young people ahead of her in a 集まり, and called to Bessy: "Here, you kid vamp, lay off Daren."

Bessy leaned to whisper in his ear: "Make a date with me, quick!"

"Surely, I'll 追跡（する） you up. Good-bye."

She was the only one who made any pretension of 説 good-bye to 小道／航路. They all （人が）群がるd out before Helen, with Mackay in the 後部. From the hall 小道／航路 heard him say to Helen: "刑事'll sure go to the mat with you for this."

Presently Helen returned to shut the door behind her; and her walk toward 小道／航路 had a suggestion of the oriental ダンサー. For 小道／航路 her 直面する was a 熟考する／考慮する. This seemed a woman beyond his comprehension. She was the Helen Wrapp he had known and loved, 加える an age of change, a measureless experience. With that swaying, sinuous, pantherish grace, with her green 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするd and gleaming, half mocking, half serious, she glided up to him, の近くに, closer until she 圧力（をかける）d against him, and her 直面する was uplifted under his. Then she waited with her 注目する，もくろむs gazing into his. Slumberous green depths, slowly lighting, they seemed to 小道／航路. Her presence thus, her brazen challenge, 影響する／感情d him powerfully, but he had no thrill.

"Aren't you going to kiss me?" she asked.

"Helen, why didn't you 令状 me you had broken our 約束／交戦?" he 反対する-queried.

The question disconcerted her somewhat. 製図／抽選 支援する from の近くに 接触する with him she took 持つ／拘留する of his sleeves, and assumed a naive 空気／公表する of groping in memory. She used her 注目する，もくろむs in a way that 小道／航路 could not associate with the past he knew. She was a flirt—not above trying her arts on the man she had jilted.

"Why, didn't I 令状 you? Of course I did."

"井戸／弁護士席, if you did I never got the letter. And if you were on the level you'd 収容する／認める you never wrote."

"How'd you find out then?" she 問い合わせd curiously.

"I never knew for sure until your mother 立証するd it."

"Are you curious to know why I did break it off?"

"Not in the least."

This reply 発射 the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 into her 直面する, yet she still 固執するd in the 表現 of her sentimental 動機. She began to finger the メダル on his breast.

"So, Mr. 兵士 Hero, you didn't care?"

"No—not after I had been here ten minutes," he replied, bluntly.

She whirled from him, 速く, her 団体／死体 instinct with passion, her 表現 one of surprise and fury.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing I care to explain, except I discovered my love for you was dead—perhaps had been dead for a long time."

"But you never discovered it until you saw me—here—with Swann—dancing, drinking, smoking?"

"No. To be honest, the shock of that enlightened me."

"Daren 小道／航路, I'm just what you men have made me," she burst out, passionately.

"You are mistaken. I beg to be 除外するd from any complicity in the—in whatever you've been made," he said, 激しく. "I have been true to you in 行為 and in thought all this time."

"You must be a queer 兵士!" she exclaimed, incredulously.

"I 人物／姿／数字 there were a couple of million 兵士s like me, queer or not," he retorted.

She gazed at him with something akin to hate in her 注目する，もくろむs. Then putting her 手渡すs to her 十分な hips she began that swaying, dancing walk to and fro before the window. She was 深く，強烈に 傷つける. 小道／航路 had meant to get under her 肌 with a few just words of 軽蔑（する）, and he had imagined his insinuation as to the change in her had 傷つける her feelings. Suddenly he divined it was not that at all—he had only 負傷させるd her vanity.

"Helen, let's not talk of the past," he said. "It's over. Even if you had been true to me, and I loved you still—I would have been compelled to break our 約束／交戦."

"You would! And why?"

"I am a physical 難破させる—and a mental one, too, I 恐れる... Helen, I've come home to die."

"Daren!" she cried, poignantly.

Then he told her in 簡潔な／要約する, 残虐な words of the 負傷させるs and 荒廃させるs war had dealt him, and what Doctor Bronson's 判決 had been. 小道／航路 felt shame in 存在 so little as to want to shock and 傷つける her, if that were possible.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she burst out. "Your mother—your sister... Oh, that damned horrible war! What has it not done to us?... Daren, you looked white and weak, but I never thought you were—going to die... How dreadful!"

Something of her girlishness returned to her in this moment of 誠実. The past was not wholly dead. Memories ぐずぐず残るd. She looked at 小道／航路, wide-注目する，もくろむd, in 苦しめる, caught between strange long-forgotten emotions.

"Helen, it's not dreadful to have to die," replied 小道／航路. "That is not the dreadful part in coming home."

"What is dreadful, then?" she asked, very low.

小道／航路 felt a 広大な／多数の／重要な heave of his breast—the irrepressible reaction of a 深遠な and terrible emotion, always held in （一時的）停止 until now. And a 猛烈な／残忍な pang, that was physical 同様に as emotional, tore through him. His throat constricted and ached to a familiar sensation—the 井戸／弁護士席ing up of 血 from his 肺s. The handkerchief he put to his lips （機の）カム away stained red. Helen saw it, and with dilated 注目する，もくろむs, moved instinctively as if to touch him, 持つ／拘留する him in her pity.

"Never mind, Helen," he said, huskily. "That's nothing... 井戸／弁護士席, I was about to tell you what is so dreadful—for me... It's to reach home 感謝する to God I was spared to get home—辞職するd to the 廃虚 of my life—content to die for whom I fought—my mother, my sister, you, and all our women (for I fought for nothing else)—and find my mother 老年の and bewildered and sad, my sister a painted little hussy—and you—a strange creature I despise... And all, everybody, everything changed—changed in some horrible way which 証明するs my sacrifice in vain... It is not death that is dreadful, but the uselessness, the hopelessness of the ideal I 心にいだくd."

Helen fell on the couch, and burying her 直面する in the pillows she began to sob. 小道／航路 looked 負かす／撃墜する at her, at her glistening auburn hair, and slender, white, （犯罪の）一味d 手渡す clutching the cushions, at her lissom shaking form, at the shapely 脚s in the rolled-負かす／撃墜する silk stockings—and he felt a melancholy happiness in the proof that he had reached her shallow heart, and in the fact that this was the moment of loss.

"Good-bye—Helen," he said.

"Daren—don't—go," she begged.

But he had to go, for other 推論する／理由s beside the one that this was the end of all intimate relation between him and Helen. He had 重税をかけるd his strength, and the 燃やすing pang in his breast was one he must 注意する. On the hall stairway a dizzy （一定の）期間 （機の）カム over him. He held on to the banister until the 証拠不十分 passed. Fortunately there was no one to 観察する him. Somehow the sumptuous spacious hall seemed drearily empty. Was this a home for that twenty-year-old girl upstairs? 小道／航路 opened the door and went out. He was relieved to find the taxi waiting. To the driver he gave the 演説（する）／住所 of his home and said: "Go slow and don't give me a jar!"

But 小道／航路 reached home, and got into the house, where he sat at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する with his mother and Lorna, making a pretense of eating, and went upstairs and into his bed without any 再発 of the symptoms that had alarmed him. In the 不明瞭 of his room he 徐々に relaxed to 残り／休憩（する）. And 残り／休憩（する） was the only 薬／医学 for him. It had put off hour by hour and day by day the 必然的な.

"If it comes—all 権利—I'm ready," he whispered to himself. "But in spite of all I've been through—and have come home to—I don't want to die."

There was no use in trying to sleep. But in this hour he did not want oblivion. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 endless time to think. And slowly, with infinite care and infallible memory, he went over every 詳細（に述べる） of what he had seen and heard since his arrival home. In the headlong stream of consciousness of the past hours he met with circumstances that he ぐずぐず残るd over, and tried to understand, to no avail. Yet when all lay 明確に before his mental gaze he felt a sad and tremendous fascination in the spectacle.

For many weeks he had lived on the fancy of getting home, of 存在 栄誉（を受ける）d and loved, of 存在 given some little meed of 賞賛する and 感謝 in the short while he had to live. 式のs! this fancy had been a dream of his egotism. His old world was gone. There was nothing left. The day of the 兵士 had passed—until some 未来 need of him stirred the emotions of a selfish people. This new world moved on unmindful, through its travail and incalculable change, to unknown ends. He, Daren 小道／航路, had been left alone on the 広大な and naked shores of Lethe.

小道／航路 made not one 熱烈な 抗議する at the 不正 of his 運命／宿命. Labor, agony, war had taught him 知恵 and 見通し. He began to realize that no greater change could there be than this of his mind, his soul. But in the 不明瞭 there an irresistible grief 攻撃する，非難するd him. He wept as never before in all his life. And he tasted the bitter salt of his own 涙／ほころびs. He wept for his mother, 老年の and 屈服するd by trouble, bewildered, ready to give up the struggle—his little sister now 軍隊d into erotic girlhood, blind, wilful, bold, on the wrong path, doomed beyond his 力／強力にする or any earthly 力／強力にする—the men he had met, warped by the war, materialistic, lost in the maze of self-保護 and self-aggrandizement, dead to chivalry and the 栄誉（を受ける） of women—Mel Iden, strangest and saddest of mysteries—a girl who had been noble, aloof, proud, with a heart of golden 解雇する／砲火／射撃, now 不名誉d, 廃虚d, the mother of a war-baby, and yet, strangest of all, not vile, not bad, not lost, but groping like he was 負かす／撃墜する those 広大な and naked shores of life. He wept for the hard-直面するd Mrs. Wrapp, whose ideal had been wealth and who had 設立する 繁栄 bitter ashes at her lips, yet who 保存するd in this modern maelstrom some sense of its falseness, its baseness. He wept for Helen, playmate of the years never to return, sweetheart of his 青年, betrayer of his manhood, the young woman of the 現在の, blase, unsexed, 捜し出すing, 挑発的な, all perhaps, as she had said, that men had made her—a travesty on splendid girlhood. He wept for her friends, 具体的に表現するing in them all of their class—for little Bessy Bell, with her exquisite golden beauty, her wonderful smile that was a light of joy—a child of fifteen with character and mind, not yet sullied, not yet wholly 犠牲者 to the 安定性のない spirit of the day.

And traveling in this army that seemed to march before 小道／航路's 注目する，もくろむs were the slackers, like Mackay and Swann, 代表者／国会議員 of that horde of cowards who in one way or another had 避けるd the service—the young men who put 慰安, 緩和する, safety, 楽しみ before all else—who had no ideal of womanhood—who could not have 保護するd women—who would not fight to save women from the apish Huns—who remained behind to 落ちる in the 難破させる of the war's degeneration, and to dance, to drink, to smoke, to ride the women to their debasement.

And for the first and the last time 小道／航路 wept for himself, pitifully as a child lost and helpless, as a strong man 直面するing irreparable loss, as a boy who had dreamed beautiful dreams, who had loved and given and 信用d, who had 苦しむd insupportable agonies of 団体／死体 and soul, who had fought like a lion for what he 代表するd to himself, who had killed and killed—and whose reward was change, 無関心／冷淡, betrayal and death.

That dark hour passed. 小道／航路 lay spent in the blackness of his room. His heart had broken. But his spirit was as unquenchable as the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of the sun. If he had a year, a month, a week, a day longer to live he could never live it untrue to himself. Life had 示すd him to be a 苦しんでいる人, a 犠牲者. But nothing could kill his soul. And his soul was his 約束—something he understood as 約束 in God or nature or life—in the 推論する／理由 for his 存在—in his 見通し of the 未来.

How then to spend this last 残余 of his life! No one would guess what passed through his lonely soul. No one would care. But out of the 苦しむing that now seemed to give him spirit and 知恵 and charity there 夜明けd a longing to help, to save. He would return good for evil. All had failed him, but he would fail no one.

Then he had a strange 激しい 願望（する） to understand the 現在の. Only a day home—and what colossal enigma! The war had been 大混乱. Was this its 影響? Had people been 激しく揺するd on their 創立／基礎s? What were they doing—how living—how changing? He would see, and be 感謝する for a little time to 証明する his 約束. He knew he would find the same thing in others that 存在するd in himself.

He would help his mother, and 元気づける her, and try to 生き返らせる something of hope in her. He would bend a keen and 患者 注目する，もくろむ upon Lorna, and take the place of her father, and be 肉親，親類d, loving, yet blunt to her, and show her the 必然的な end of this dancing, dallying road. Perhaps he could 影響（力） Helen. He would see the little 兵士-worshipping Bessy Bell, and if by talking hours and hours, by telling the whole of his awful experience of war, he could （問題を）取り上げる some of the time so fraught with 危険，危なくする for her, he would welcome the ordeal of memory. And Mel Iden—how thought of her seemed tinged with strange 悔いる! Once she and he had been dear friends, and because of a falsehood told by Helen that friendship had not been what it might have been. Suppose Mel, instead of Helen, had loved him and been engaged to him! Would he have been jilted and would Mel have been lost? No! It was a subtle thing—that answer of his spirit. It did not agree with Mel Iden's frank 自白.

It might be difficult, he 反映するd, to approach Mel. But he would find a way. He would 残り／休憩（する） a few days—then find where she lived and go to see her. Could he help her? And he had an infinite exaltation in his 力／強力にする to help any one who had 苦しむd. 小道／航路 解任するd Mel's pale 甘い 直面する, the 影をつくる／尾行するd 注目する，もくろむs, the sad tremulous lips. And this image of her seemed the most 継続している of the impressions of the day.

CHAPTER V

The arbiters of social 運命／宿命 in Middleville 組み立てる／集結するd at Mrs. Maynard's on a Monday afternoon, 推定では to partake of tea. Seldom, however, did they 会合，会う without 追加するing zest to the occasion by a pricking 負かす／撃墜する of 指名するs.

Mrs. Wrapp was the 主要な spirit of this self-任命するd 法廷—a circumstance of 拡大するing, 憤慨 to Mrs. Maynard, who had once held the reins with aristocratic 手渡すs. Mrs. Kingsley, the third member of the 広大な／多数の／重要な triangle, （人命などを）奪う，主張するd an ancestor on the Mayflower, which was in her estimation a guerdon of blue 血. Her (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する and 排除的 entertainments could never be rivalled by those of Mrs. Wrapp. She was a 未亡人 with one child, the daughter Elinor, a girl of nineteen.

Mrs. Maynard was tall, pale, and worldly. Traces of lost beauty flashed in her rare smiles. When Frank Maynard had failed in 商売／仕事 she had shrouded her soul in bitterness; and she saw the slow cruel years whiten his 長，率いる and bend his shoulders with the 冷淡な 注目する，もくろむ of a woman who had no forgiveness for 失敗. After Mr. Maynard's 逆転する, all that kept the pair together were the son Blair, and the 甘い, fair-haired, delicate Margaret, a girl of eighteen, whom the father loved, and for whom the mother had large ambitions. They still managed, in ways mysterious to the curious, to keep their 罰金 住居 in the River Park 郊外 of Middleville.

On this April afternoon the tea was neglected in the cups, and there was nothing of the usual 穏やかな gossip. The discussion 伴う／関わるd Daren 小道／航路, and when two of those social arbiters settled 支援する in their 議長，司会を務めるs the open sesame of Middleville's select 事件／事情／状勢s had been 否定するd to him.

"Why did he do it?" asked Mrs. Kingsley.

"He must have been under the 影響（力） of アルコール飲料," replied Mrs. Maynard, who had her own 推論する／理由s for 存在 relieved at the 不名誉 of Daren 小道／航路.

"No, Jane, you're wrong," spoke up Mrs. Wrapp, who, whatever else she might be, was blunt and fair-minded. "小道／航路 wasn't drunk. He never drank before the war. I knew him 井戸／弁護士席. He and Helen had a puppy-love 事件／事情／状勢—they were engaged before 小道／航路 went to war. 井戸／弁護士席, the day after his return he called on us. And if I never liked him before I liked him then. He's come 支援する to die! He was ill for two weeks—and then he はうd out of bed again. I met him 負かす／撃墜する town one day. He really looked better, and told me with a sad smile that he had 'his ups and 負かす／撃墜するs'... No, 小道／航路 wasn't drunk at Fanchon Smith's dance the other night. I was there, and I was with Mrs. Smith when 小道／航路 （機の）カム up to us. If ever I saw a 冷静な／正味の, smooth, handsome devil it was 小道／航路... 井戸／弁護士席, he said what he said. I thought Mrs. Smith would faint. It is my idea 小道／航路 had a 深い 動機 支援する of his 発言／述べる about Fanchon's dress and her dancing. The fact is 小道／航路 was sick at what he saw—sick and angry. And he 手配中の，お尋ね者 Fanchon's mother and me to know what he thought."

"It was an 侮辱," 宣言するd Mrs. Maynard, 熱心に.

"It made Mrs. Smith ill," 追加するd Mrs. Kingsley. "She told me Fanchon tormented the life out of her, trying to learn what 小道／航路 said. Mrs. Smith would not tell. But Fanchon （機の）カム to me and I told her. Such a perfectly furious girl! She'll not wear that dress or dance that dance very soon again. The story is all over town."

"Friends, there are two 味方するs to every question," interposed the 強烈な Mrs. Wrapp. "If 小道／航路 cared to be popular he would have used more tact. But I don't think his 発言／述べる was an 侮辱. It was pretty raw, I 収容する／認める. But the dress was indecent and the dance was rotten. Helen told me Fanchon was half 発射. So how could she be 侮辱d?"

Mrs. Maynard and Mrs. Kingsley, as usual, received Mrs. Wrapp's caustic and rather 天然のまま opinions with as good grace as they could 召集（する）. Plain it was that they felt themselves a shade 除去するd from this younger and newer member of society. But they could not show direct antagonism to her 影響（力） any more than they could understand the ありふれた sense and 司法（官） of her arguments.

"No one will ever 招待する him again," 宣言するd Mrs. Maynard.

"He's done in Middleville," echoed Mrs. Kingsley. And that perhaps was a gauntlet thrown.

"Rot!" exclaimed Mrs. Wrapp, with more 軍隊 than elegance. "I'll 招待する Daren 小道／航路 to my house... You women don't get the point. Daren 小道／航路 is a 兵士 come home to die. He gave himself. And he returns to find all—all this sickening—oh, what shall I call it? What does he care whether or not we 招待する him? Can't you see that?"

"There's a good 取引，協定 in what you say," returned Mrs. Kingsley, 影響（力）d by the stronger spirit. "Maybe 小道／航路 hated the new styles. I don't 非難する him much. There's something wrong with our young people. The girls are crazy. The boys are wild. Few of them are marrying—or even getting engaged. They'll do anything. The times are different. And we mothers don't know our daughters."

"井戸／弁護士席, I know 地雷" returned Mrs. Maynard, loftily. "What you say may be true 一般に, but there are exceptions. My daughter has been too 井戸／弁護士席 brought up."

"Yes, Margie is 井戸／弁護士席-bred," retorted Mrs. Wrapp. "We'll 収容する／認める she hasn't gone to extremes, as most of our girls have. But I want to 観察する to you that she has been a 塀で囲む-flower for a year."

"It certainly is a problem," sighed Mrs. Kingsley. "I feel helpless—out of it. Elinor does 正確に what she wants to do. She wears outlandish 着せる／賦与するs. She smokes and—I'm afraid drinks. And dances—dreadfully. Just like the other girls—no better, no worse. But with all that I think she's good. I feel the same as Jane feels about that. In spite of this—this modern stuff I believe all the girls are fundamentally the same as ten years ago."

"井戸／弁護士席, that's where you mothers get in wrong," 宣言するd Mrs. Wrapp with her vigorous bluntness. "It's your pride. Just because they're your daughters they are above reproach... What have you to say about the war babies in town? Did you ever hear of that ten years ago? You bet you didn't. These girls are a 迅速な 始める，決める. Some of them are just wild for the sake of wildness. Most of them have to stand for things, or be left out altogether."

"What in the world can we do?" queried Mrs. Maynard, divided between 苦しめる and chagrin.

"The good Lord only knows," 答える／応じるd Mrs. Wrapp, herein losing her 保証／確信. "Marriage would save most of them. But Helen doesn't want to marry. She wants to paint pictures and be 解放する／自由な."

"Perhaps marriage is a 解答," 再結合させるd Mrs. Maynard thoughtfully.

"Whom on earth can we marry them to?" asked Mrs. Kingsley. "Most of the older men, the bachelors who're 適格の 港／避難所't any use for these girls except to play with them. True, these young boys only think of little but dances, car-rides, and こそこそ動くing off alone to spoon—they get engaged to this girl and that one. But nothing comes of it."

"You're wrong. Never in my time have I seen girls find lovers and husbands as easily as now," 宣言するd Mrs. Wrapp. "Nor get rid of them so quickly... Jane, you can marry Margaret. She's pretty and 甘い even if you have spoiled her. The years are slipping by. Margaret せねばならない marry. She's not strong enough to work. Marriage for her would make things so much easier for you."

With that parting dig Mrs. Wrapp rose to go. その結果 she and Mrs. Kingsley, with gracious words of 招待 and 別れの（言葉，会）, took themselves off leaving Mrs. Maynard 競うing with an 乱暴／暴力を加えるd spirit. 確かな terse 発言／述べるs of the 天然のまま and practical Mrs. Wrapp had 軍隊d to her mind a question that of late had assumed 枢機けい／主要な importance, and now had been brought to an 問題／発行する by a 提案 for Margaret's 手渡す. Her daughter was a 広大な／多数の／重要な expense, really more than could longer be borne in these times of enormous prices and shrunken income. A husband had been 設立する for Margaret, and the 事柄 could be adjusted easily enough, if the girl did not 会合，会う it with the 理解できない obstinacy peculiar to her of late.

Mrs. Maynard 設立する the fair 反対する of her hopes seated in the middle of her room with the 有望な contents of 非常に／多数の boxes and drawers strewn in glittering heaps around her.

"Margaret, what on earth are you doing there?" she 需要・要求するd.

"I'm looking for a little picture Holt Dalrymple gave me when we went to school together," 答える／応じるd Margaret.

"Aren't you ever going to grow up? You'll be 追跡（する）ing for your dolls next."

"I will if I like," said the daughter, in a トン that did not manifest a seraphic mood.

"Don't you feel 井戸／弁護士席?" 問い合わせd the mother, solicitously. Margaret was frail and 支配する to 頭痛s that made her violent.

"Oh, I'm 井戸／弁護士席 enough."

"My dear," 再結合させるd Mrs. Maynard, changing the topic. "I'm sorry to tell you Daren 小道／航路 has lost his standing in Middleville."

The hum and the honk of a モーター-car sounded in the street.

"Poor Daren! What's he done?... Any old day he'll care!"

Mrs. Maynard was looking out of the window. "Here comes a （人が）群がる of girls... Helen Wrapp has a new 控訴. 井戸／弁護士席, I'll go 負かす／撃墜する. And after they leave I want a serious talk with you."

"Not if I see you first!" muttered Margaret, under her breath, as her mother walked out.

Presently, に引き続いて gay talk and laughter 負かす／撃墜する stairs, a bevy of Margaret's friends entered her boudoir.

"Hello, old socks!" was Helen's 迎える／歓迎するing. "You look punk."

"Marg, where's the doll? Your mother tipped us off," was Elinor's 迎える／歓迎するing.

"Where's the eats?" was Flossie Dickerson's 迎える／歓迎するing. She was a 有望な-注目する，もくろむd girl, with freckles on her smiling 直面する, and the 表現 of a daring, vivacious and happy spirit—and 定評のある to be the best ダンサー and most popular girl in Middleville. Her dress, while not to be compared with her friends' 衣装s in costliness, yet was extreme in the 勝つ／広く一帯に広がるing style.

"Glad to see you, old dear," was dark-注目する，もくろむd, dark-haired Dorothy Dalrymple's 迎える／歓迎するing. Her rich color bore no hint of the 人工的な. She sank 負かす／撃墜する on her 膝s beside Margaret.

The other girls draped themselves comfortably 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the room; and Flossie with a 'Yum Yum' began to dig into a box of candy on Margaret's couch. They all talked at once. "Hear the 最新の, Marg?"

"Look at Helen's spiffy 控訴!"

"Oh, money, money, what it will buy!"

"Money'll never buy me, I'll say."

"Marg, who's been fermentin' 一連の会議、交渉／完成する lately? Girls, get wise to the flowers."

"Hot dog! See Marg blush! That comes from 存在 so pale. What are 紅 and lip-stick and 砕く for but to hide truth from our masculine pursuers?"

"Floss, you 港／避難所't blushed for a million years."

It was Dorothy Dalrymple who silenced the idle badinage.

"Marg, you rummaging in the past?" she cried.

"Yes, and I love it," replied Margaret. "I 港／避難所't looked over this stuff for years. Just to remember the things I did!... Here, Dal, is a picture you once drew of our old teacher, 行方不明になる Hill."

Dorothy, whom the girls 愛称d "Dal," gazed at the 製図／抽選 with amaze and 悔いる.

"She was a terror," continued Margaret. "But Dal, you never had any 推論する／理由 to draw such a horrible picture of her. You were her pet."

"I wasn't," 宣言するd Dorothy.

"Maybe you never knew 行方不明になる Hill adored you, Dal," interposed Elinor. "She was always 持つ／拘留するing you up as a paragon. Not in your lessons—for you were a bonehead—but for deportment you were the class!"

"Dal, you were too good for this earth then, let alone these days," said Margaret.

"行方不明になる Hill," mused Elinor, gazing at the caricature. "That's not a bad 製図／抽選. I remember 行方不明になる Hill never had any use for me. Small wonder. She was an honest-to-God teacher. I think she 手配中の，お尋ね者 us to be good... Wonder how she got along with the kids that （機の）カム after us."

"I saw Amanda Hill the other day," spoke up Flossie. "She looked worn out. She was nice to me. I'll bet my shirt she'd like to have us 支援する, bad as we were... These kids of to-day! My Gawd! they're the 限界. They 麻ひさせる me. I thought I was pretty 急速な／放蕩な. But compared to these youngsters I'm tied to a 地位，任命する. My kid sister Joyce—Rose Clymer—Bessy Bell!... Some kids, believe me. And take it from me, girls, these dimple-膝d chickens are vamping the older boys."

"They're all stuck on Bessy," said Helen.

Margaret squealed in delight. "Girls, look here. Valentines! Did you ever?... Look at them... And what's this?... 'Wonders of Nature—composition by Margaret Maynard.' Heavens! Did I 令状 that? And what's this sear and yellow 文書?"

A slivery peal of laughter burst from Margaret.

"Dal, here's one of your masterpieces, composed when you were thirteen, and mooney over Daren 小道／航路."

"I? Never! I didn't 令状 it," 否定するd Dorothy, with color in her dark cheeks.

"Yes you did. It's 調印するd—'Yours forever Dot Dalrymple.' ... Besides I remember now Daren gave it to me. Said he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 証明する he could have other girls if he couldn't have me."

"How chivalrous!" exclaimed Dorothy, joining in the laugh.

"Ah! here's what I've been 追跡（する）ing," 宣言するd Margaret, waving aloft a small picture. "It's a photograph of Holt, taken five years ago. Only the other evening he swore I hadn't kept it—dared me to produce it. He'll want it now—for some other girl. But 拒む，否認する, it's 地雷... Dal, isn't he a handsome boy here?"

With sisterly 公平さ Dorothy 宣言するd she could not in the wildest flight of her imagination see her brother as handsome.

"Holt used to be good-looking," said she. "But he outgrew it. That South Carolina training （軍の）野営地，陣営 and the flu changed his looks 同様に as his disposition."

"Holt is changed," mused Margaret, gazing 負かす／撃墜する at the picture, and the glow faded from her 直面する.

"Dare 小道／航路 is handsome, even if he is a 難破させる," said Elinor, with sudden enthusiasm. "Friday night when he （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it from Fanchon's party he sure looked splendid."

Elinor was a 信頼できる admirer of 小道／航路's and she was the inveterate torment of her girl friends. She gave Helen a sly ちらりと見ること. Helen's green 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするd and gleamed.

"Yes, Dare's handsomer than ever," she said. "And to give the devil his 予定 he's finer than ever. Too damn 罰金 for this （人が）群がる!... But what's the use—" she broke off.

"Yes, poor Dare 小道／航路!" sighed Elinor. "Dare deserves much from all of us, not to について言及する you. He has made me think. Thank Heaven, I 設立する I hadn't forgotten how."

"El, no one would notice it," returned Helen, sarcastically.

"It's 平易な to see where you get off," retorted Elinor.

Then a silence 続いて起こるd, strange in 見解（をとる） of the late banter and quick sallies; a silence breathing of 抑制. The color died wholly from Margaret's 直面する, and a subtle, indefinable, almost imperceptible change （機の）カム over Dorothy.

"You bet Dare is handsome," spoke up Flossie, as if to break the 当惑. "He's so white since he （機の）カム home. His 注目する，もくろむs are so dark and flashing. Then the way he 持つ／拘留するs his 長，率いる—the look of him... No wonder these damned slackers seem cheap compared to him... I'd 落ちる for Dare 小道／航路 in a minute, even if he is half dead."

The 抑制 passed, and when Floss Dickerson （機の）カム out with eulogy for any man his status was settled for good and all. Margaret 急落（する），激減（する）d once more into her treasures of 早期に schooldays. Floss and Elinor made merry over some 詩（を作る）s Margaret had 手渡すd up with a blush. Helen 明らかに lapsed into a brooding abstraction. And presently Dorothy excused herself, and kissing Margaret good-bye, left for home.

The instant she had gone Margaret's gay and reminiscent mood underwent a change.

"Girls, I want to know what Daren 小道／航路 did or said on Friday night at Fanchon's," spoke up Margaret. "You know mother dragged me home. Said I was tired. But I wasn't. It was only because I'm a 塀で囲む-flower... So I 行方不明になるd what happened. But I've heard talk enough to make me crazy to know about this スキャンダル. 道具 Benson was here and she hinted things. I met Bessy Bell. She asked me if I knew. She's wild about Daren. That yellow-legged broiler! He doesn't even know her... My brother Blair would not tell me anything. He's strong for Daren. But mother told me Daren had lost his standing in Middleville. She always hated Daren. Afraid I'd 落ちる in love with him. The idea! I liked him, and I like him better now—poor fellow!... And last, when El について言及するd Daren, did you see Dal's 直面する? I never saw Dal look like that."

"Neither did I," replied Elinor.

"井戸／弁護士席, I have," spoke up Helen, with all of her mother's bluntness. "Dal always was love-sick over Daren, when she was a mere kid. She never got over it and never will."

"Still water runs 深い," sapiently 発言／述べるd Elinor. "There's a good 取引，協定 in Dal. She's 罰金 as silk. Of course we all remember how jealous she was of other girls when Daren went with her. But I think now it's because she's sorry for Daren. So am I. He was such a fool. Fanchon 断言するs no nice girl in Middleville will ever dance that new camel-walk dance in public again."

"What did Daren say?" 需要・要求するd Margaret, with 注目する，もくろむs lighting.

"I was standing with Helen, and Fanchon when Daren （機の）カム up. He looked—I don't know how—just wonderful. We all knew something was doing. Daren 屈服するd to Fanchon and said to her in a perfectly （疑いを）晴らす 発言する／表明する that everybody heard: 'I'd like to try your camel-walk. I'm out of practice and not strong, but I can go once around, I'm sure. Will you?'"

"You're on, Dare," replied Fanchon.

"Then he asked. 'Do you like it?'"

"'I'll say so, Dare—crazy about it.'"

"Of course you know why it's danced—and how it's 解釈する／通訳するd by men," said Daren.

"What do you mean?" asked Fanchon, growing red and flustered.

"Then Daren said: 'I'll tell your mother. If she lets you dance with that understanding—all 権利.' He bent over Mrs. Smith and said something. Mrs. Wrapp heard it. And so did Mrs. Mackay, who looked pretty sick. Mrs. Smith nearly fainted!... but she 回復するd enough to order Daren to leave."

"Do you know what Daren said?" 需要・要求するd Margaret, in a frenzy of excitement.

"No. 非，不，無 of the girls know. We can only imagine. That makes it worse. If Fanchon knows she won't tell. But it is gossip all over town. We'll hear it soon. All the girls in town are imagining. It's spread like wildfire. And what do you think, Margie? In church—on Sunday—Doctor Wallace spoke of it. He について言及するd no 指名するs. But he said that as the indecent dress and obscene dance of the young women could no longer be 影響（力）d by the home or the church it was 井戸／弁護士席 that one young man had the daring to fling the truth into the 直面するs of their mothers."

"Oh, it was rotten of Daren," replied Margaret, with 涙／ほころびs in her 注目する，もくろむs. She was ashamed, indignant, incredulous. "For him to do a thing like that! He's always been the very prince of gentlemen. What on earth 所有するd him? Heaven knows the dances are vile, but that doesn't excuse Daren 小道／航路. What do I care what Doctor Wallace said? Never in a thousand years will Mrs. Smith or mother or any one 許す him. Fanchon Smith is a little snob. I always hated her. She's spiteful and catty. She's a flirt all the way. She would dance any old thing. But that's not the point. Daren's 不名誉d himself. It was rotten—of him. And—I'll never—許す—him, either."

"Don't cry, Margie," said Elinor. "It always makes your 注目する，もくろむs red and gives you a 頭痛. Poor Daren made a 失敗. But some of us will stick to him. Don't take it so 不正に."

"Margie, it was rotten of Daren, one way you look at it—our way," 追加するd Flossie. "But you have to 手渡す it to him for that stunt."

Helen Wrapp 保存するd her sombre mood, silent and brooding.

"Margie," went on Elinor, "there's a lot 支援する of this. If Dare 小道／航路 could do that there must be some 推論する／理由 for it. Maybe we all needed a 揺さぶる. 井戸／弁護士席, we've got it. Let's stand by Daren. I will. Helen will. Floss will. You will. And surely Dal will."

"If you ask me I'll say Dare 小道／航路 せねばならない 手渡す something to the men!" burst out Floss Dickerson, with 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in her 注目する，もくろむs.

"You said a mouthful, kiddo," 答える／応じるd Helen, with her 狭くする 契約d gaze upon Margaret. "Daren gave me the once over—and then the icepick!"

"Wonder what he gave poor Mel—when he heard about her," murmured Elinor, thoughtfully.

"Mel Iden せねばならない be roasted," retorted Helen. "She was always so darned superior. And all the time ..."

"Helen, don't you say a word against Mel Iden," burst out Margaret, hotly. "She was my dearest friend. She was lovely. Her 廃虚 was a horrible shock. But it wasn't because she was bad... Mel had some fanatical notion about 兵士s giving all—going away to be 虐殺（する）d. She said to me, 'A woman's 団体／死体 is so little to give,'"

"Yes, I know Mel was 割れ目d," replied Helen. "But she needn't have been a damn fool. She didn't need to have had that baby!"

"Helen, your idea of sin is to be 設立する out," said Elinor, with satire.

Again Floss Dickerson dropped her trenchant personality into the 違反.

"Aw, come off!" she ejaculated. "Let somebody roast the men once, will you? I'm the little Jane that knows, believe me. All this talk about the girls going to hell makes me sick. We may be going—and going in リムジンs—but it's the men who're stepping on the gas."

"Floss, I love to hear you elocute," drawled Helen. "Go to it! For God's sake, roast the men."

"You always have to horn in," retorted Floss. "Let me get this off my chest, will you?... We girls are getting talked about. There's no use 否定するing it. Any but a blind girl could see it. And it's because we do what the men want. Every girl wants to go out—to be attractive—to have fellows. But the price is getting high. They say in Middleville that I'm 急ぐd more than any other girl. 井戸／弁護士席, if I am I know what it costs... If I didn't 'pet'—if I didn't mush, if I didn't park my corsets at dances—if I didn't drink and smoke, and wiggle like a jelly-fish, I'd be a dead one—an egg, and don't you overlook that. If any one says I want to do these things he's a fool. But I do love to have good times, and little by little I've been drawn on and on... I've had my troubles 突き破るing off these fellows. Most of them get half drunk. Some of the girls do, too. I never went that far. I always kept my 長，率いる. I never went the 限界. But you can bet your 甘い life it wasn't their fault I didn't 落ちる for them... I'll say I've had to walk home from more than one 自動車 ride. There's something in the gag, 'I know she's a good girl because I met her walking home from an 自動車 ride.' That's one thing I ーするつもりである to 削減（する） out this summer—the 自動車 rides. Nothing doing for little Flossie!"

"Oh, can't we talk of something else!" complained Margaret, wearily, with her 手渡すs 圧力（をかける）ing against her 寺s.

CHAPTER VI

Mrs. Maynard slowly went upstairs and along the hall to her daughter's room. Margaret sat listlessly by a window. The girls had gone.

"You were going for a long walk," said Mrs. Maynard.

"I'm tired," replied Margaret. There was a 影をつくる／尾行する in her 注目する，もくろむs.

The mother had never understood her daughter. And of late a subtle change in Margaret had made her more of a puzzle.

"Margaret, I want to talk 本気で with you," she began.

"井戸／弁護士席?"

"Didn't I tell you I 手配中の，お尋ね者 you to break off your—your friendship with Holt Dalrymple?"

"Yes," replied Margaret, with a 紅潮／摘発する. "I did not—want to."

"井戸／弁護士席, the thing which 関心s you now is—he can't be regarded as a 可能性 for you."

"可能性?" echoed Margaret.

"Just that, 正確に／まさに. I'm not sure of your thoughts on the 事柄, but it's time I knew them. Holt is a ne'er-do-井戸／弁護士席. He's gone to the bad, like so many of these army boys. No nice girl will ever associate with him again."

"Then I'm not nice, for I will," 宣言するd Margaret, spiritedly.

"You will 固執する in your friendship for him in the 直面する of my 反対?"

"Certainly I will if I have any say about it. But I know Holt. I—I guess he has taken to drink—and carrying on. So you needn't worry much about our friendship."

Mrs. Maynard hesitated. She had become accustomed to Margaret's little bursts of fury and she 推定する／予想するd one here. But 非，不，無 （機の）カム; Margaret appeared unnaturally 静める; she sat still with her 直面する turned to the window. Mrs. Maynard was a little afraid of this 冷淡な, 静かな girl.

"Margaret, you can't help seeing now that your mother's judgment was 権利. Holt Dalrymple once may have been very 利益／興味ing and attractive for a friend, but as a 見込みのある husband he was impossible. The worst I hear of him is that he drinks and 賭事s. I know you liked him and I don't want to be 不正な. But he has kept other and better young men away from you."

Margaret's 手渡す clenched and her 直面する sank against the window-pane.

"We need say no more about him," went on Mrs. Maynard. "Margaret, you've been brought up in 高級な. If your father happened to die now—he's far from 井戸／弁護士席—we'd be left penniless. We've lived up every dollar... We have our poor 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd Blair to care for. You know you must marry 井戸／弁護士席. I've brought you up with that end in 見解（をとる）. And it's imperative you marry soon."

"Why must a girl marry?" murmured Margaret, wistfulness in her 発言する／表明する. "I'd rather go to work." "Margaret, you are a Maynard," replied her mother, haughtily. "Pray spare me any of this new woman talk about liberty—equal 権利s—careers and all that. Life hasn't changed for the 保守的な families of 血... Try to understand, Margaret, that you must marry and marry 井戸／弁護士席. You're nobody without money. In society there are hundreds of girls like you, though few so attractive. That's all the more 推論する／理由 you should take the best chance you have, before it's lost. If you don't marry people will say you can't. They'll say you're fading, growing old, even if you grow prettier every day of your life, and in the end they'll make you a 哀れな old maid. Then you'll be glad to marry anybody. If you marry now you can help your father, who needs help 不正に enough. You can help poor Blair... You can be a leader in society; you can have a house here, a cottage at the seashore and one in the mountains; everything a girl's heart yearns for—servants, horses, 自動車s, gowns, diamonds——"

"Everything except love," interrupted Margaret, 激しく.

Mrs. Maynard 現実に 紅潮／摘発するd, but she kept her temper.

"It's 望ましい that you love your husband. Any sensible woman can learn to care for a man. Love, as you dream about it is 単に a—a dream. If women waited for that they would never get married."

"Which would be より望ましい to living without love."

"But Margaret, what would become of the world? If there were より小数の marriages—Heaven knows they're few enough nowadays—there would be より小数の families—and in the end より小数の children—いっそう少なく and いっそう少なく——"

"They'd be better children," said Margaret, calmly.

"結局 the race would die out."

"And that'd be a good thing—if the people can't love each other."

"How silly—exasperating!" ejaculated Mrs. Maynard. "You don't mean such nonsense. What any girl wants is a home of her own, a man to fuss over. I didn't marry for love, as you dream it. My husband …に出席するd to his 商売／仕事 and I've looked after his 世帯. You've had every advantage. I flatter myself our marriage has been a success."

Margaret's 注目する，もくろむs gleamed like pointed 炎上s.

"I 異なる with you. Your married life hasn't been successful any more than it's been happy. You never cared for father. You 港／避難所't been 肉親，親類d to him since his 失敗."

Mrs. Maynard waved her 手渡す imperiously in angry amaze.

"I won't stop. I'm not a baby or a doll," went on Margaret, passionately. "If I'm old enough to marry I'm old enough to talk. I can think, can't I? You never told me anything, but I could see. Ever since I can remember you and father have had one continual 口論する人 about money—法案s—expenses. Perhaps I'd have been better off without all the advantages and 高級な. It's because of these things you want to throw me at some man. I'd far rather go to work the same as Blaid did, instead of college."

"Whatever on earth has come over you?" gasped Mrs. Maynard, bewildered by the 反乱 of this once meek daughter.

"Maybe I'm learning a little sense. Maybe I got some of it from Daren 小道／航路," flashed 支援する Margaret.

"Mother, whatever I've learned lately has been learned away from home. You've no more idea what's going on in the world to-day than if you were 現実に dead. I never was 有望な like Mel Iden, but I'm no fool. I see and hear and I read. Girls aren't pieces of furniture to be 手渡すd out to some rich men. Girls are waking up. They can do things. They can be 独立した・無所属. And 存在 独立した・無所属 doesn't mean a girl's not going to marry. For she can wait—wait for the 権利 man—for love... You say I dream. 井戸／弁護士席, why didn't you wake me up long ago—with the truth? I had my dreams about love and marriage. And I've learned that love and marriage are vastly different from what most mothers make them out to be, or let a girl think."

"Margaret, I'll not have you talk in this strange way. You 借りがある me 尊敬（する）・点 if not obedience," said Mrs. Maynard, her 発言する／表明する trembling.

"Oh, 井戸／弁護士席, I won't say any more," replied Margaret, "But can't you spare me? Couldn't we live within our means?"

"After all these years—to skimp along! I couldn't 耐える it."

"Whom have you in mind for me to—to marry?" asked the girl, coldly curious.

"Mr. Swann has asked your 手渡す in marriage for his son Richard. He wants Richard to settle 負かす／撃墜する. Richard is wild, like all these young men. And I have—井戸／弁護士席, I encouraged the 計画（する）."

"Mother!" cried Margaret, springing up.

"Margaret, you will see"

"I despise 刑事 Swann."

"Why?" asked her mother.

"I just do. I never liked him in school. He used to do such mean things. He's selfish. He let Holt and Daren 苦しむ for his tricks."

"Margaret, you talk like a child."

"Listen, mother." She threw her 武器 一連の会議、交渉／完成する Mrs. Maynard and kissed her and spoke pleadingly. "Oh, don't make me hate myself. It seems I've grown so much older in the last year or so—and lately since this marriage talk （機の）カム up. I've thought of things as never before because I've—I've learned about them. I see so 異なって. I can't—can't love 刑事 Swann. I can't 耐える to have him touch me. He's rude. He takes liberties... He's too 解放する／自由な with his 手渡すs! Why, it'd be wrong to marry him. What difference can a marriage service make in a girl's feelings... Mother, let me say no."

"Lord spare me from bringing up another girl!" exclaimed Mrs. Maynard. "Margaret, I can't make you marry Richard Swann. I'm 簡単に trying to tell you what any sensible girl would see she had to do. You think it over—both 味方するs of the question—before you 絶対 decide."

Mrs. Maynard was glad to end the discussion and to get away. In Margaret's 控訴，上告 she heard a 産する／生じるing, a final obedience to her wish. And she thought she had better let 井戸／弁護士席 enough alone. The look in Margaret's （疑いを）晴らす blue 注目する，もくろむs made her 縮む; it would haunt her. But she felt no 悔恨. Any mother would have done the same. There was always the danger of that old love 事件／事情／状勢; there was new danger in these strange wild fancies of modern girls; there was never any telling what Margaret might do. But once married she would be 安全な and her position 保証するd.

CHAPTER VII

Daren 小道／航路 left Riverside Park, and walked in the meadows until he （機の）カム to a 玉石 under a 抱擁する chestnut tree. Here he sat 負かす／撃墜する. He could not walk far these days. Many a time in the Indian summers long past he had gathered chestnuts there with Dal, with Mel Iden, with Helen. He would never do it again.

The April day had been warm and fresh with the 開始 of a late spring. The sun was now gold—rimming the low hills in the west; the sky was pale blue; the spring flowers whitened the meadow. Twilight began to 深くする; the evening 星／主役にする twinkled out of the sky; the hush of the gloaming hour stole over the land.

"Four weeks home—and nothing done. So little time left!" he muttered.

Two weeks of that period he had been unable to leave his bed. The 残り／休憩（する） of the time he had dragged himself around, trying to live up to his 解決する, to get at the meaning of the 現在の, to turn his sister Lorna from the path of dalliance. And he had failed in all.

His sister 現在のd the problem that most 苦しめるd 小道／航路. She had her good 質s, and through them could be reached. But she was thoughtless, vacillating, and wilful. She had made him 約束s only to break them. 小道／航路 had caught her in falsehoods. And upon 存在 called to account she had told him that if he didn't like it he could "lump" it. Of late she had grown away from what affection she had shown at first. She could not 耐える 干渉，妨害 with her 楽しみs, and seemed uncontrollable. 小道／航路 felt baffled. This thing was a Juggernaut impossible to stop.

小道／航路 had 捨てるd 知識 with Harry Hale, one of Lorna's admirers, a boy of eighteen, who lived with his 未亡人d mother on the 辛勝する／優位 of the town. He appeared to be an industrious, intelligent, 静かな fellow, not much given to the 勝つ／広く一帯に広がるing habits of the young people. In his humble worship of Lorna he was like a dog. Lorna went to the 動議 pictures with him occasionally, when she had no other 適切な時期 for excitement. 小道／航路 gathered that Lorna really liked this boy, and when with him seemed more natural, more what a fifteen-year-old girl used to be. And somehow it was upon this boy that 小道／航路 placed a forlorn hope.

No more automobiles honked in 前線 of the home to call Lorna out. She met her friends away from the house, and returning at night she walked the last few 封鎖するs. It was this fact that awoke 小道／航路's serious 疑惑s.

Another problem lay upon 小道／航路's heart; if not so 苦しめるing as Lorna's, still one that 追加するd to his 悲しみ and his perplexity. He had gone once to call on Mel Iden. Mel Iden was all soul. Whatever had been the facts of her downfall—and reflection on that 傷つける 小道／航路 so strangely he could not 耐える it—it had not been on her part a 事柄 of sex. She was far above wantonness.

Through long hours in the dark of night, when 小道／航路's 苦痛 kept him sleepless, he had pondered over the mystery of Mel Iden until it （疑いを）晴らすd. She typified the mother of the race. In all periods of the 進歩 of the race, war had brought out this instinct in women—to give themselves for the 未来. It was a 準備／条項 of nature, inscrutable and terrible. How immeasurable the distance between Mel Iden and those women who practised birth 支配（する）／統制する! As the war had brought out hideous greed and baseness, so had it propelled 今後 and 上向き the noblest せいにするs of life. Mel Iden was a 建設業者, not a 破壊者. She had been sexless and selfless. Unconsciously during the fever and emotion of the training of American men for service abroad, and the poignancy of their 出発, to fight, and perhaps never return, Mel Iden had answered to this mysterious instinct of nature. Then, with the emotion past, and 直面する to 直面する with staggering consequences, she had 反応するd to conscious instincts. She had 証明するd the 潔白 of her 降伏する. She was all mother. And 小道／航路 began to see her moving in a 水晶, beautiful light.

For what seemed a long time 小道／航路 remained motionless there in the silence of the meadow. Then at length he arose and retraced his slow steps 支援する to town. 不明瞭 overtook him on the 橋（渡しをする） that spanned Middleville River. He leaned over the railing and peered 負かす／撃墜する into the 影をつくる／尾行するs. A soft murmur of 急ぐing water （機の）カム up. How like strange distant 発言する／表明するs calling him to go 支援する or go on, or 警告 him, or giving mystic portent of something that would happen to him there! A 冷淡な 冷気／寒がらせる crept over him and he seemed enveloped in a sombre menace of the 未来. But he shook it off. He had many 戦う／戦いs to fight, not the least of which was with morbid imagination.

When he reached the 中心 of town he entered the ロビー of the Bradford Inn. He hoped to 会合，会う Blair Maynard there. A company of 井戸／弁護士席-dressed 青年s and men filled the place, most of whom appeared to be making a merry uproar.

小道／航路 観察するd two men who evidently were the 焦点（を合わせる） of attention. One was a stranger, very likely a traveling man, and at the moment he 現在のd a picture of mingled びっくり仰天 and 怒り／怒る. He was 小衝突ing off his 着せる／賦与するs while glaring at a little, stout, red-直面するd man who appeared about to be stricken by apoplexy. This latter was a 陸軍大佐 Pepper, whose 知識 小道／航路 had recently made. He was fond of cards and sport, and appeared to be a favorite with the young men about town. Moreover he had made himself 特に agreeable to 小道／航路, in fact to the extent of 小道／航路's 当惑. At this moment the stranger lost his びっくり仰天 wholly in wrath, and made a 脅すing movement toward Pepper. 小道／航路 stepped between them just in time to save Pepper a blow.

"I know what he's done. I わびる for him," said 小道／航路, to the stranger. "He's made a good many people 犠牲者s of the same 侮辱／冷遇. It's a 証拠不十分—a 病気. He can't help himself. Pray overlook it."

The stranger appeared impressed with 小道／航路's presence, probably with his uniform, and slowly shook himself and fell 支援する, to glower at Pepper, and 悪口を言う／悪態 under his breath, still uncertain of himself.

小道／航路 しっかり掴むd 陸軍大佐 Pepper and led him out of the ロビー.

"Pepper, you're going to get in an awful mess with that stunt of yours," he 宣言するd, 厳しく. "If you can't help it you ought at least 選ぶ on your friends, or the town people—not strangers."

"Have—a—drink," sputtered Pepper, with his 手渡す at his hip.

"No, thanks."

"Have—a—cigar."

小道／航路 laughed. He had been 知らせるd that 陸軍大佐 Pepper's failing always took this form of 悔恨, and certainly he would have tried it upon his 最新の 犠牲者 had not 小道／航路 干渉するd.

"陸軍大佐, you're hopeless," said 小道／航路, as they walked out. "I hope somebody will always be around to 保護する you. I'd carry a 団体／死体 guard... Say, have you seen Blair Maynard or Holt Dalrymple to-night?"

"Not Blair, but Holt was here 早期に with the boys," replied Pepper. "They've gone to the club rooms to have a little game. I'm going to sit in. Lately I had to put up a holler. If the boys やめる cards how'm I to make a living?"

"Had Holt been drinking?"

"Not to-night. But he's been hitting the 瓶／封じ込める pretty hard of late."

Suddenly 小道／航路 buttonholed the little man and peered 負かす／撃墜する 真面目に at him. "Pepper, I've been trying to straighten Holt up. He's going to the bad. But he's a good kid. It's only the company... The fact is—this's 厳密に confidential, mind you—Holt's sister begged me to try to stop his drinking and 賭事ing. I think I can do it, too, with a little help. Now, Pepper, I'm asking you to help me."

"Ahuh! 井戸／弁護士席, let's go in the 令状ing room, where we can talk," said the other, and he took 持つ／拘留する of 小道／航路's arm. When they were seated in a secluded corner he lighted a cigar, and 直面するd 小道／航路 with shrewd, kindly 注目する，もくろむs. "Son, I like you and Blair 同様に as I hate these slackers Swann and Mackay, and their （人が）群がる. I could tell you a heap, and maybe help you, though I think young Holt is not a bad egg... Is his sister the dark one who steps so straight and 持つ／拘留するs herself so 井戸／弁護士席?"

"Yes, that sounds like Dorothy," replied 小道／航路.

"She's about the only one I know who doesn't paint her 直面する and I never saw her at—井戸／弁護士席, never mind where. But the fact I mean makes her stand out in this Middleville （人が）群がる like a light in the dark... 小道／航路, have you got on yet to the 速度(を上げる） of the young people of this old burg?"

"I'm getting on, to my 悲しみ," said 小道／航路.

"Ahuh! You mean you're getting wise to your kid sister?"

"Yes, I'm sorry to say. What do you know, Pepper?"

"Now, son, wait. I'm coming to that, maybe. But I want to know some things first. Is it true—what I hear about your health, bad 形態／調整, you know—all 削減（する） up in the war? Worse than young Maynard?"

Pepper's 手渡す was の近くに on 小道／航路's. He had forgotten his cigar. His 注目する，もくろむs were earnest.

"True?" laughed 小道／航路, grimly. "Yes, it's true... I won't last long, Pepper, によれば Doctor Bronson. That's why I want to make hay while the sun 向こうずねs."

"Ahuh!" Pepper （疑いを）晴らすd his throat. "許す this, boy... Is it also true you were engaged to marry that Helen Wrapp—and she threw you 負かす／撃墜する, while you were over there?"

"Yes, that's perfectly true," replied 小道／航路, soberly.

"God, I guess maybe the 兵士 wasn't up against it!" ejaculated Pepper, with a gesture of mingled awe and wonder and 軽蔑（する）.

"What was the 兵士 up against, Pepper?" queried 小道／航路. "率直に, I don't know."

"小道／航路, the 政府 jollied and 軍隊d the boys into the army," replied Pepper. "The country went wild with patriotism. The 兵士s were heroes. The women threw themselves away on anything inside a uniform. Make the world 安全な for 僕主主義—負かす／撃墜する the Hun—save フラン and England—ideals, freedom, God's country, and all that! 井戸／弁護士席, the first few 兵士s to return from フラン got a grand 歓迎会, were made heroes of. They were lucky to get 支援する while the 感情 was hot. But that didn't last... Now, a year and more after the war, where does the 兵士 get off? 小道／航路, there're over six hundred thousand of you 無能にするd 退役軍人s, and for all I can read and find out the 政府 has done next to nothing. New York is 十分な of begging 兵士s—on the streets. Think of it! And the poor devils are dying everywhere. My God! think of what's in the mind of one 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd 兵士, let alone over half a million. I just have a 薄暗い idea of what I'd felt. You must know, or you will know, 小道／航路, for you seem a thoughtful, lofty sort of chap. Just the 肉親，親類d to make a good 兵士, because you had ideals and 神経!... 井戸／弁護士席, a selfish and weak 行政 could hardly be 推定する／予想するd to keep extravagant 約束s to 愛国者s. But that the American public, as a 団体／死体, should now be sick of the sight of a 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd 兵士—and that his sweetheart should turn him 負かす／撃墜する!—this is the hideous blot, the ineradicable shame, the stinking truth, the damned mystery!"

When Pepper ended his speech, which grew more vehement toward the の近くに, 小道／航路 could only 星／主役にする at him in amaze.

"See here, 小道／航路," 追加するd the other あわてて, "容赦 me for blowing up. I just couldn't help it. I took a 向こうずね to you—and to see you like this—brings 支援する the 憤慨 I've had all along. I'm blunt, but it's just 同様に for you to be put wise quick. You'll find friends, like me, who will stand by you, if you let them. But you'll also find that most of this rotten world has gone 支援する on you..."

Then Pepper made a sharp, 熱烈な gesture that broke his cigar against the arm of his 議長，司会を務める, and he 悪口を言う／悪態d low and 深い. Presently he 演説（する）／住所d 小道／航路 again. "Whatever comes of any 公表，暴露s I make—whatever you do—you'll not give me away?"

"Certainly not. You can 信用 me, Pepper," returned 小道／航路.

"Son, I'm a wise old guy. There's not much that goes on in Middleville I don't get on to. And I'll make your hair curl. But I'll 限定する myself to what comes closest home to you. I get you, 小道／航路. You're game. You're through. You have come 支援する from war to find a hell of a mess. Your own sister—your sweetheart—your friend's brother and your 兵士 pard's sister—on the primrose path! And you with your last breath trying to turn them 支援する! I'll say it's a damn 罰金 stunt. I'm an old gambler, 小道／航路. I've lived in many towns and mixed in 堅い （人が）群がるs of crooked men and rotten women. But I'm here to 自白する that this after-the-war stuff of Middleville's better class has knocked out about all the 約束 I had left in human nature... Then you （機の）カム along to teach me a lesson."

"井戸／弁護士席, Pepper, that's strong talk," returned 小道／航路. "But 削減（する） it, and hurry to—to what comes home to me. What's the 事柄 with these Middleville girls?"

"小道／航路, any intelligent man, who knows things, and who can think for himself, will tell you this—that to 裁判官 from the dress, dance, talk, 行為／行う of these young girls—most of them have 明らかに gone wrong."

"You 含む our nice girls—from what we used to call Middleville's best families?"

"I don't only 含む them. I throw the 強調 on them. The girls you know best."

小道／航路 straightened up, to look at his companion. Pepper certainly was not drunk.

"Do you know—anything about Lorna?"

"Nothing 特に to 証明する anything. She's in the 厚い of this thing in Middleville. Only a few nights ago I saw her at a roadhouse, out on the 明言する／公表する Road, with a （人が）群がる of youngsters. They were having a high old time, I'll say. They danced jazz, and I saw Lorna drink lemonade into which アルコール飲料 had been 注ぐd from a hip-pocket flask."

小道／航路 put his 長，率いる on his 手渡すs, as if to 残り／休憩（する） it, or still the throbbing there.

"Who took Lorna to this place?" he asked, presently, breathing ひどく.

"I don't know. But it was 刑事 Swann who 注ぐd the drink out of the flask. Between you and me, 小道／航路, that young millionaire is going a pace hereabouts. Listen," he went on, lowering his 発言する／表明する, and ちらりと見ることing 一連の会議、交渉／完成する to see there was no one to overhear him, "there's a 賭事ing club in Middleville. I go there. My rooms are in the same building. I've made a peep-穴を開ける through the attic 床に打ち倒す next to my room. Do I see more things than cards and 瓶／封じ込めるs? Do I! If the fathers of Middleville could see what I've seen they'd go out to the 亡命... I'm not supposed to know it's more than a place to 賭事. And nobody knows I know. 刑事 Swann and Hardy Mackay are at the 長，率いる of this club. Swann is the genius and the support of it. He's rich, and a high roller if I ever saw one... の中で themselves these young gentlemen call it the Strong Arm Club. 熟考する／考慮する over that, 小道／航路. Do you get it? I know you do, and that saves me talking until I see red."

"Pepper, have you seen my sister—there?" queried 小道／航路, tensely.

"Yes."

"With whom?"

"I'll not say, 小道／航路. There's no need for that. I'll give you a 重要な to my rooms, and you can go there—in the afternoons—and paste yourself to my peep-穴を開ける, and watch... Honest to God, I believe it means 流血／虐殺. But I can't help that. Something must be done. I'm not much good, but I can see that."

陸軍大佐 Pepper wiped his moist 直面する. He was now やめる pale and his 手渡すs shook.

"I never had a wife, or a sweetheart," he went on. "But once I had a little sister. Thank Heaven she didn't live her girlhood in times like these."

小道／航路 again 屈服するd his 長，率いる on his 手渡すs, and 格闘するd with the might of reality.

"I'm going to take you to these club-rooms to-night," went on Pepper. "It'll 原因（となる） a hell of a 列／漕ぐ／騒動. But once you get in, there'll be no help for them. Swann and his chums will have to stand for it."

"Did you ever take an 部外者 in?" asked 小道／航路.

"Several times. Traveling men I met here. Good fellows that liked a game of cards. Swann made no kick at that. He's keen to 賭事. And when he's drinking the sky's the 限界."

"Wouldn't it be wiser just to show me these rooms, and let me watch from your place—until I find my sister there?" queried 小道／航路.

"I don't know," replied Pepper, thoughtfully. "I think if I were you I'd butt in to-night with me. You can drag young Dalrymple home before he gets drunk".

"Pepper, I'll break up this—this club," 宣言するd 小道／航路.

"I'll say you will. And I'm for you strong. If it was only the booze and cards I'd not have squealed. That's my living. But by God, I can't stand for the—the other stuff any longer!... Come on now. And I'll put you on to a 悪賢い stunt that'll take your breath away."

He led the way out of the hotel, in his excitement walking rather 急速な／放蕩な.

"Go slow, Pepper," said 小道／航路. "We're not going over the 最高の，を越す."

Pepper gave him a quick, comprehending look.

"Good Lord, 小道／航路, you're not as—as bad as all that!"

小道／航路 nodded. Then at slower pace they went out and 負かす／撃墜する the 有望な Main Street for two 封鎖するs, and then to the 権利 on West Street, which was やめる 類似の to the other thoroughfare as a 商売／仕事 地区. At the end of the street the buildings were the oldest in Middleville, and 完全に familiar to 小道／航路.

"Give White's the once over," said Pepper, 示すing a brightly lighted 蓄える／店 across the street. "That place is new to you, isn't it?"

"Yes, I don't remember White, or that there was a confectionery den along here."

"Den is 権利. It's some den, believe me... White's a newcomer—a young sport, 厚い with Swann. For all I know Swann is 支援 him. Anyway he has a swell 共同の and a good 貿易（する）. People kick about his high prices. Ice cream, candy, soda, soft drinks, and all that rot. But if he knows who you are you can get a 発射. It'll strike you funny later to see he waits on the 顧客s himself. But when you get wise it'll not be so funny. He's got a tea parlor upstairs—and they say it's some swell place, with a 残り／休憩（する） room or ladies' dressing room 支援する. Now from this 支援する room the girls can get into the club-rooms of the boys, and go out on the other 味方する of the 封鎖する. In one way and out the other—at night. Not necessary in the afternoon... Come on now, 井戸／弁護士席 go 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 封鎖する."

A short walk 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 封鎖する brought them into a shaded, wide street with one of Middleville's parks on the left. A 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of luxuriant elm trees helped the 影響 of gloom. The nearest electric light was across on the far corner, with trees obscuring it to some extent. At the corner where Pepper 停止（させる）d there was an outside stairway running up the old-fashioned building. The ground 床に打ち倒す shops bore the 調印するs of a florist and a milliner; above was a photograph gallery; and the two upper stories were 明らかに unoccupied. To the left of the two 蓄える／店s another stairway led up into the 中心 of the building. Pepper led 小道／航路 up this stairway, a long, dark climb of three stories that 税金d 小道／航路's endurance.

"Sure is a junk heap, this old 封鎖する," 観察するd Pepper, as he fumbled in the 薄暗い light with his 重要なs. At length he opened a door, turned on a light and led 小道／航路 into his apartment. "I have three rooms here, and the 支援する one opens into a 肉親，親類d of areaway from which I get into an abandoned storeroom, or I guess it's an attic. To-morrow afternoon about three you 会合，会う me here and I'll take you in there and let you have a look through the peep-穴を開ける I made. It's no use to-night, because there'll be only boys at the club, and I'm going to take you 権利 in."

He switched off the light, drew 小道／航路 out and locked the door. "I'm the only person who lives on this 床に打ち倒す. There're three 穴を開けるs to this burrow and one of them is at the end of this hall. The 出口 where the girls slip out is on the 床に打ち倒す below, through a hallway to that outside stairs. Oh, I'll say it's a Coney Island maze, this building! But just what these young rakes want... Come on, and be careful. It'll be dark and the stairs are 法外な."

At the end of the short hall Pepper opened a door, and led 小道／航路 負かす／撃墜する 法外な steps in 厚い 不明瞭, to another hall, dimly lighted by a window 開始 upon the street.

"You'll have to make a bluff at playing poker, unless my butting in with you 原因（となる）s a 列／漕ぐ／騒動," said Pepper, as he walked along. Presently he （機の）カム to a door upon which he knocked several times. But before it was opened footsteps and 発言する／表明するs sounded 負かす／撃墜する the hall in the opposite direction from which Pepper had 護衛するd 小道／航路.

"Guess they're just coming. Hard luck," said Pepper. "'Fraid you'll not get in now."

小道／航路 counted five dark forms against the background of 薄暗い light. He saw the red glow of a cigarette. Then the door upon which Pepper had knocked opened to let out a ゆらめく. Pepper gave 小道／航路 a 押す across the threshold and followed him. 小道／航路 did not 認める the young man who had opened the door. The room was large, with old 塀で囲むs and high 天井, a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する with 議長，司会を務めるs and a sideboard. It had no windows. The door on the other 味方する was の近くにd.

"Pepper, who's this you're ringin' in on me?" 需要・要求するd the young fellow.

"A pard of 地雷. Now don't be peeved, Sammy," replied Pepper. "If there's any kick I'll take the 非難する. What's got into you that you can 賭事 and drink' with slackers?"

Dalrymple jammed his hat on and stepped toward the door. "Dare, you said a lot. I'll （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it with you—and I'll never come 支援する."

"You bet your 甘い life you won't," shouted Swann.

"持つ／拘留する on there, Dalrymple," interposed Mackay, stepping out. "Come across with that eighty-six bucks you 借りがある me."

"I—I 港／避難所't got it, Mackay," 再結合させるd the boy, 紅潮／摘発するing 深く，強烈に.

小道／航路 ripped open his coat and jerked out his pocket-調書をとる／予約する and tore 法案s out of it. "There, Hardy Mackay," he said, with 審議する／熟考する 軽蔑（する）, throwing the money on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. "There are your eighty-six dollars—earned in フラン... I should think it'd 燃やす your fingers."

He drew Holt out into the hall, where Pepper waited. Some one slammed the door and began to 悪口を言う／悪態.

"That ends that," said 陸軍大佐 Pepper, as the three moved 負かす／撃墜する the 薄暗い hall.

"It ends us, Pepper, but you couldn't stop those guys with a crowbar," retorted Dalrymple.

小道／航路 linked 武器 with the boy and changed the conversation while they walked 支援する to the inn. Here 陸軍大佐 Pepper left them, and 小道／航路 talked to Holt for an hour. The more he questioned Holt the better he liked him, and yet the more surprised was he at the sordid fact of the boy's inclination toward loose living. There was something perhaps that Holt would not 自白する. His health had been impaired in the rich coloring, but his 直面する wore a shade of sullen 不景気. The other two young men 小道／航路 had seen in Middleville, but they were unknown to him.

"Pepper, you （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it with your new pard," snarled Swann. "And you'll not get in here again, take that from me."

The 委任統治（領） nettled Pepper, who evidently felt more 深く，強烈に over this 状況／情勢 than had appeared on the surface.

"Sure, I'll （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it," returned he, resentfully. "But see here, Swann. Be careful how you shoot off your dirty mouth. It's not beyond me to 手渡す a little tip to my friend 長，指導者 of Police Bell."

"You damned squealer!" shouted Swann. "Go ahead—do your worst. You'll find I pull a 一打／打撃... Now get out of here."

With a violent 活動／戦闘 he 押すd the little man out into the hall. Then turning to 小道／航路 he pointed with shaking 手渡す to the door.

"小道／航路, you couldn't be a guest of 地雷."

"Swann, I certainly wouldn't be," retorted 小道／航路, in トンs that rang. "Pepper didn't tell me you were the proprietor of this—this 共同の."

"Get out of here or I'll throw you out!" yelled Swann, now beside himself with 激怒（する）. And he made a 脅すing move toward 小道／航路.

"Don't lay a 手渡す on me," replied 小道／航路. "I don't want my uniform 国／地域d."

With that 小道／航路 turned to Dalrymple, and said 静かに: "Holt, I （機の）カム here to find you, not to play cards. That was a 立ち往生させる. Come away with me. You were not 削減（する） out for a card sharp or a booze 闘士，戦闘機. What's got into you that you can 賭事 and drink' with slackers?"

Dalrymple jammed his hat on and stepped toward the door. "Dare, you said a lot. I'll （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it with you—and I'll never come 支援する."

"You bet your 甘い life you won't," shouted Swann.

"持つ／拘留する on there, Dalrymple," interposed Mackay, stepping out. "Come across with that eighty-six bucks you 借りがある me."

"I—I 港／避難所't got it, Mackay," 再結合させるd the boy, 紅潮／摘発するing 深く，強烈に.

小道／航路 ripped open his coat and jerked out his pocket-調書をとる／予約する and tore 法案s out of it. "There, Hardy Mackay," he said, with 審議する／熟考する 軽蔑（する）, throwing the money on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. "There are your eighty-six dollars—earned in フラン... I should think it'd 燃やす your fingers."

He drew Holt out into the hall, where Pepper waited. Some one slammed the door and began to 悪口を言う／悪態.

"That ends that," said 陸軍大佐 Pepper, as the three moved 負かす／撃墜する the 薄暗い hall.

"It ends us, Pepper, but you couldn't stop those guys with a crowbar," retorted Dalrymple.

小道／航路 linked 武器 with the boy and changed the conversation while they walked 支援する to the inn. Here 陸軍大佐 Pepper left them, and 小道／航路 talked to Holt for an hour. The more he questioned Holt the better he liked him, and yet the more surprised was he at the sordid fact of the boy's inclination toward loose living. There was something perhaps that Holt would not 自白する. His health had been impaired in the service, but not 本気で. He was getting stronger all the time. His old 職業 was waiting for him. His mother and sister had enough to live on, but if he had been working he could have helped them in a way to afford him 広大な／多数の／重要な satisfaction.

"Holt, listen," finally said 小道／航路, with more earnestness. "We're friends—all boys of the service are friends. We might even become 広大な／多数の／重要な pards, if we had time."

"What's time got to do with it?" queried the younger man. "I'm sure I'd like it—and know it'd help me."

"I'm 発射 to pieces, Holt... I won't last long..."

"Aw, 小道／航路, don't say that!"

"It's true. And if I'm to help you at all it must be now... You 港／避難所't told me everything, boy—now have you?"

Holt dropped his 長，率いる.

"I'll say—I 港／避難所't," he replied, haltingly. "小道／航路—the trouble is—I'm clean gone on Margie Maynard. But her mother hates the sight of me. She won't stand for me."

"Oho! So that's it?" ejaculated 小道／航路, a light breaking in upon him. "井戸／弁護士席, I'll be darned. It is serious, Holt... Does Margie love you?"

"Sure she does. We've always cared. Don't you remember how Margie and I and Dal and you used to go to school together? And come home together? And play on Saturdays?... Ever since then!... But lately Margie and I are—we got—pretty 不正に mixed up."

"Yes, I remember those days," replied 小道／航路, dreamily, and suddenly he 解任するd Dal's dark 注目する，もくろむs, somehow haunting. He had to make an 成果／努力 to get 支援する to the 問題／発行する at 手渡す.

"If Margie loves you—why it's all 権利. Go 支援する to work and marry her."

"小道／航路, it can't be all 権利. Mrs. Maynard has 手渡すd me the mitt," replied Holt, 激しく. "And Margie hasn't the courage to run off with me... Her mother is throwing Margie at Swann—because he's rich."

"Oh Lord, no—Holt—you can't mean it!" exclaimed 小道／航路, aghast.

"I'll say I do mean it. I know it," returned Holt, moodily. "So I let go—fell into the 捨てるs—didn't care a d—— what became of me."

小道／航路 was genuinely shocked. What a 絡まる he had fallen upon! Once again there seemed to 直面する him a colossal Juggernaut, a moving, 鎮圧するing, intangible thing, beyond his 力／強力にする to 対処する with.

"Now, what can I do?" queried Holt, in sudden hope his friend might see a way out.

Despairingly, 小道／航路 racked his brain for some word of advice or 保証／確信, if not of 解答. But he 設立する 非，不，無. Then his spirit 機動力のある, and with it passion.

"Holt, don't be a 哀れな coward," he began, in 猛烈な／残忍な 軽蔑（する）. "You're a 兵士, man, and you've got your life to live!... The sun will rise—the days will be long and pleasant—you can work—do something. You can fish the streams in summer and climb the hills in autumn. You can enjoy. Bah! don't tell me one shallow girl means the world. If Margie hasn't courage enough to run off and marry you—let her go! But you can never tell. Maybe Margie will stick to you. I'll help you. Margie and I have always been friends and I'll try to 影響（力） her. Then think of your mother and sister. Work for them. Forget yourself—your little, 哀れな, selfish 願望（する）s... My God, boy, but it's a strange life the war's left us to 直面する. I hate it. So do you hate it. Swann and Mackay giving nothing and getting all! ... So it looks... But it's 誤った—誤った. God did not ーするつもりである men to live 単独で for their 団体／死体s. A balance must be struck. They have got to 支払う／賃金. Their time will come... As for you, the harder this 職業 is the fiercer you should be. I've got to die, Holt. But if I could live I'd show these slackers, these fickle wild girls, what they're doing... You can do it, Holt. It's the greatest part any man could be called upon to play. It will 証明する the difference between you and them..."

Holt Dalrymple 鎮圧するd 小道／航路's 手渡す in both his own. On his 直面する was a glow—his dark 注目する，もくろむs flashed: "小道／航路—that'll be about all," he burst out with a 肉親，親類d of breathlessness. Then his 長，率いる high, he stalked out.

The next day was bad. 小道／航路 苦しむd from both over-exertion and intensity of emotion. He remained at home all day, in bed most of the time. At supper time he went downstairs to find Lorna pirouetting in a new dress, more abbreviated at 最高の，を越す and 底（に届く） than any 衣装 he had seen her wear. The 影響 struck him at an inopportune time. He told her きっぱりと that she looked like a French grisette of the music halls, and せねばならない be ashamed to be seen in such attire.

"Daren, I don't think you're a good 裁判官 of 着せる／賦与するs these days," she 観察するd, complacently. "The boys will say I look spiffy in this."

So many times Lorna's trenchant 発言／述べるs silenced 小道／航路. She 攻撃する，衝突する the nail on the 長，率いる. Practical, 論理（学）の, 必然的な were some of her speeches. She knew what men 手配中の，お尋ね者. That was the pith of her meaning. What else 事柄d?

"But Lorna, suppose you don't look nice?" he questioned.

"I do look nice," she retorted.

"You don't look anything of the 肉親，親類d."

"What's nice? It's only a word. It doesn't mean much in my young life."

"Where are you going to-night?" he asked, sitting 負かす／撃墜する to the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.

"To the armory—basketball game—and dance afterward."

"With whom?"

"With Harry. I suppose that pleases you, big brother?"

"Yes, it does. I like him. I wish he'd take you out oftener."

"Take me! Hot dog! He'd kill himself to take me all the time. But Harry's slow. He bores me. Then he hasn't got a car."

"Lorna, you may 同様に know now that I'm going to stop your car rides," said 小道／航路, losing his patience.

"You are not," she retorted, and in the glint of the 注目する，もくろむs 会合 his, 小道／航路 saw his 敗北・負かす. His patience was exhausted, his 恐れる almost 立証するd. He did not mince words. With his mother standing open-mouthed and shocked, 小道／航路 gave his sister to understand what he thought of automobile rides, and that as far as she was 関心d they had to be stopped. If she would not stop them out of 尊敬（する）・点 to her mother and to him, then he would 訴える手段／行楽地 to other 対策. Lorna bounced up in a fury, and in the sharp quarrel that followed, 小道／航路 realized he was 取引，協定ing with flint 十分な of 解雇する／砲火／射撃. Lorna left without finishing her supper.

"Daren, that's not the way," said his mother, shaking her 長，率いる.

"What is the way, mother?" he asked, throwing up his 手渡すs.

"I don't know, unless it's to see her way," 答える／応じるd the mother. "いつかs I feel so—so old-fashioned and ignorant before Lorna. Maybe she is 権利. How can we tell? What makes all the young girls like that?"

What indeed, wondered 小道／航路! The question had been 大打撃を与えるing at his mind for over a month. He went 支援する to bed, 疲れた／うんざりした and dejected, 苦しむing spasms of 苦痛, like blades, through his 肺s, and 感謝する for the 不明瞭. Almost he wished it was all over—this ordeal. How puny his 成果／努力s! Relentlessly life marched on. At midnight he was still fighting his pangs, still unconquered. In the night his dark room was not empty. There were 直面するs, 影をつくる／尾行するs, moving images and pictures, scenes of the war limned against the blackness. At last he 残り／休憩（する）d, grew as 解放する／自由な from 苦痛 as he ever grew, and slept. In the morning it was another day, and the past was as if it were not.

May the first 夜明けd ideally springlike, warm, fresh, fragrant, with birds singing, sky a （疑いを）晴らす blue, and trees budding green and white.

小道／航路 産する／生じるd to an impulse that had grown stronger of late. His steps drew him to the little 淡褐色 house where Mel Iden lived with her aunt. On the way, which led past a hedge, 小道／航路 gathered a bunch of violets.

"'In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,'" he mused. "It's good, even for me, to be alive this morning... These violets, the birds, the fresh smells, the bursting green! Oh, 井戸／弁護士席, 悔いるs are idle. But just to think—I had to go through all I've known—権利 負かす／撃墜する to this moment—to realize how stingingly 甘い life is..."

Mel answered his knock, and sight of her 直面する seemed to 解除する his heart with an unwonted throb. Had he unconsciously needed that? The thought made his 迎える／歓迎するing, and the tender of the violets, ぎこちない for him.

"Violets! Oh, and spring! Daren, it was good of you to gather them for me. I remember... But I told you not to come again."

"Yes, I know you did," he replied. "But I've disobeyed you. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to see you, Mel... I didn't know how 不正に until I got here."

"You should not want to see me at all. People will talk."

"So you care what people say of you?" he questioned, feigning surprise.

"Of me? No. I was thinking of you."

"You 恐れる the 毒（薬） tongues for me? 井戸／弁護士席, they cannot 害（を与える） me. I'm beyond tongues or minds like those."

She regarded him 真面目に, with serious gravity and slowly 夜明けing 逮捕; then, turning to arrange the violets in a tiny vase, she shook her 長，率いる.

"Daren, you're beyond me, too. I feel a—a change in you. Have you had another sick （一定の）期間?"

"Only for a day off and on. I'm really pretty 井戸／弁護士席 to-day. But I have changed. I feel that, yet I don't know how."

小道／航路 could talk to her. She stirred him, drew him out of himself. He felt a strange 願望（する） for her sympathy, and a keen curiosity 関心ing her opinions.

"I thought maybe you'd been ill again or perhaps upset by the consequences of your—your 活動／戦闘 at Fanchon Smith's party."

"Who told you of that?" he asked in surprise.

"Dal. She was here yesterday. She will come in spite of me."

"So will I," interposed 小道／航路.

She shook her 長，率いる. "No, it's different for a man... I've 行方不明になるd the girls. No one but Dal ever comes. I thought Margie would be true to me—no 事柄 what had befallen... Dal comes, and oh, Daren, she is good. She helps me so... She told me what you did at Fanchon's party."

"She did! 井戸／弁護士席, what's your 判決?" he queried, grimly. "That break queered me in Middleville."

"I agree with what Doctor Wallace said to his congregation," returned Mel.

As 小道／航路 met the blue 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of her 注目する，もくろむs he experienced another singularly 深い and 深遠な thrill, as if the very depths of him had been stirred. He seemed to have suddenly discovered Mel Iden.

"Doctor Wallace did 支援する me up," said 小道／航路, with a smile. "But no one else did."

"Don't be so sure of that. 厳しい 条件s 要求する 厳しい 対策. Dal said you killed the camel-walk dance in Middleville."

"It surely was a disgusting sight," returned 小道／航路, with a grimace. "Mel, I just saw red that night."

"Daren," she asked wistfully, に引き続いて her own train of thought, "do you know that most of the girls consider me an outcast? Fanchon rides past me with her 長，率いる up in the 空気／公表する. Helen Wrapp 削減（する）s me. Margie looks to see if her mother is watching when she 屈服するs to me. Isn't it strange, Daren, how things turn out? Maybe my old friends are 権利. But I don't feel that I am what they think I am... I would do what I did—over and over."

Her 注目する，もくろむs darkened under his gaze, and a slow crimson tide stained her white 直面する.

"I understand you, Mel," he said, 速く. "You must 許す me that I didn't understand at once... And I think you are infinitely better, finer, purer than these selfsame girls who 軽蔑（する） you."

"Daren! You—understand?" she 滞るd.

And just as 速く he told her the 発覚 that thinking had brought to him.

When he had finished she looked at him for a long while. "Yes, Daren," she finally said, "you understand, and you have made me understand. I always felt"—and her 手渡す went to her heart—"but my mind did not しっかり掴む... Oh, Daren, how I thank you!" and she held her 手渡すs out to him.

小道／航路 しっかり掴むd the outstretched 手渡すs, and loosed the leaping thought her words and 活動／戦闘 created.

"Mel, let me give your boy a father—a 指名する."

No blow could have made her 縮む so palpably. It passed—that shame. Her lips parted, and other emotions （人命などを）奪う，主張するd her.

"Daren—you would—marry me?" she gasped.

"I am asking you to be my wife for your child's sake," he replied.

Her 長，率いる 屈服するd. She sank against him, trembling. Her 手渡すs clung tightly to his. 小道／航路 divined something of her agitation from the feel of her slender form. And then again that 深い and 深遠な thrill ran over him. It was followed by an instinct to 包む her in his 武器, to 持つ／拘留する her, to 株 her trouble and to 保護する her.

Strong reserve 軍隊 suddenly （機の）カム to Mel. She drew away from 小道／航路, still quivering, but composed.

"Daren, all my life I'll thank you and bless you for that 申し込む／申し出," she said, very low. "But, of course it is impossible."

She 解放する／撤去させるd her 手渡すs, and, turning away, looked out of the window. 小道／航路 rather weakly sat 負かす／撃墜する. What had come over him? His 血 seemed bursting in his veins. Then he gazed 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the dingy little parlor and at this girl of twenty, whose beauty did not 調和させる with her surroundings. Fair-haired, white-直面するd, violet-注目する，もくろむd, she emanated 悲劇. He watched her profile, （疑いを）晴らす 削減（する） as a cameo, 罰金 brow, straight nose, 極度の慎重さを要する lips, strong chin. She was biting those tremulous lips. And when she turned again to him they were red. The short-屈服するd upper lip, 十分な and 甘い, the lower, with its 極度の慎重さを要する droop at the corner, eloquent of 悲しみ—all at once 小道／航路 realized he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to kiss that mouth more than he had ever 手配中の，お尋ね者 anything. The moment was sudden and terrible, for it meant love—love such as he had never known.

"Daren," she said, turning, "tell me how you got the Croix de Guerre."

By the look of her and the 手渡す that moved toward his breast, 小道／航路 felt his 力／強力にする over her. He began his story and it was as if he heard some one else talking. When he had finished, she asked, "The French Army 栄誉（を受ける）d you, why not the American?"

"It was never 報告（する）／憶測d."

"How strange! Who was your officer?"

"You'll laugh when you hear," he replied, without hint of laugh himself. "Heavens, how things come about! My officer was from Middleville."

"Daren! Who?" she asked, quickly, her 注目する，もくろむs darkening with thought.

"Captain 先頭 Thesel."

How singular to 小道／航路 the fact she did not laugh! She only 星／主役にするd. Then it seemed part of her warmth and glow, her subtle 返答 to his emotion, slowly receded. He felt what he could not see.

"Oh! He. 先頭 Thesel," she said, without wonder or surprise or displeasure, or any 表現 小道／航路 心配するd.

Her strange detachment stirred a hideous thought—could Thesel have been... But 小道／航路 killed the culmination of that thought. Not, however, before dark, fiery jealousy touched him with fangs new to his endurance.

To 運動 it away, 小道／航路 開始する，打ち上げるd into more narrative of the war. And as he talked he 徐々に forgot himself. It might be hateful to rake up the 燃やすing threads of memory for the curious and the soulless, but to tell Mel Iden it was a keen, strange delight. He watched the changes of her 表現. He learned to bring out the horror, sadness, glory that がまんするd in her heart. And at last he 削減（する） himself off 突然の: "But I must save something for another day."

That broke the （一定の）期間.

"No, you must never come 支援する."

He 選ぶd up his hat and his stick.

"Mel, would you shut the door in my 直面する?"

"No, Daren—but I'll not open it," she replied resolutely.

"Why?"

"You must not come."

"For my sake—or yours?"

"Both our sakes."

He 支援するd out on the little porch, and looked at her as she stood there. Beyond him, indeed, were his emotions then. Sad as she seemed, he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to make her 苦しむ more—an inexplicable and shameful 願望（する）.

"Mel, you and I are alike," he said.

"Oh, no, Daren; you are noble and I am..."

"Mel, in my dreams I see myself standing—plodding along the dark shores of a river—that river of 涙／ほころびs which runs 負かす／撃墜する the 広大な naked stretch of our inner lives... I see you now, on the opposite shore. Let us reach our 手渡すs across—for the baby's sake."

"Daren, it is a beautiful thought, but it—it can't be," she whispered.

"Then let me come to see you when I need—when I'm 負かす／撃墜する," he begged.

"No."

"Mel, what 害（を与える） can it do—just to let me come?"

"No—don't ask me. Daren, I am no 石／投石する."

"You'll be sorry when I'm out there in—Woodlawn... That won't be long."

That broke her courage and her 抑制.

"Come, then," she whispered, in 涙／ほころびs.

CHAPTER VIII

小道／航路's 意向s and his spirit were too 広大な／多数の／重要な for his endurance. It was some time before he got downtown again. And upon entering the inn he was told some one had just called him on the telephone.

"Hello, this is 小道／航路," he answered. "Who called me?"

"It's Blair," （機の）カム the reply. "How are you, old 最高の，を越す?"

"Not so 井戸／弁護士席. I've been 負かす／撃墜する and out."

"Sorry. Suppose that's why you 港／避難所't called me up for so long?"

"井戸／弁護士席, Buddy, I can't lay it all to that... And how're you?"

The answer did not come. So 小道／航路 repeated his query.

"井戸／弁護士席, I'm still hobbling 一連の会議、交渉／完成する on one 脚," replied Blair.

"That's good. Tell me about Reddie."

Again the reply was long in coming...

"港／避難所't you heard—about Red?"

"No."

"港／避難所't seen the newspapers lately?"

"I never read the papers, Blair."

"権利-o. But I had to... Buck up, now, Dare!"

"All 権利. Shoot it quick," returned 小道／航路, feeling his breast 契約 and his 肌 強化する with a 冷気／寒がらせる.

"Red Payson has gone west."

"Blair! You don't mean—dead?" exclaimed 小道／航路.

"Yes, Reddie's gone—and I guess it's just 同様に, poor devil!"

"How? When?"

"Two days ago, によれば papers... He died in Washington, D.C. Fell 負かす／撃墜する in the vestibule of one of the 政府 offices—where he was waiting... fell with another hemorrhage—and died 権利 there—on the 床に打ち倒す—quick."

"My—God!" gasped 小道／航路.

"Yes, it's 堅い. You see, Dare, I couldn't keep Reddie here. Heaven knows I tried, but he wouldn't stay... I'm afraid he heard my mother complaining. Say, Dare, suppose I have somebody 運動 me in town to see you."

"I'd like that, Blair."

"You're on. And say, I've another idea. Tonight's the Junior Prom—did you know that?"

"No, I didn't."

"井戸／弁護士席, it is. Suppose we go up? My sister can get me cards... I tell you, Dare, I'd like to see what's going on in that bunch. I've heard a lot and seen some things."

"Did you hear how I mussed up Fanchon Smith's party?"

"You bet I did. That's one 推論する／理由 I want to see some of this dancing. Will you go?"

"Yes, I can stand it if you can."

"All 権利, Buddy, I'll 会合，会う you at the inn—eight o'clock."

小道／航路 slowly made his way to a secluded corner of the ロビー, where he sat 負かす／撃墜する. Red Payson dead! 小道／航路 felt that he should not have been surprised or shocked. But he was both. The strange, 冷淡な sensation 徐々に wore away and with it the slight trembling of his 四肢s. A mournful 行列 of thoughts and images returned to his mind and he sat and brooded.

At the hour of his 任命 with his friend, 小道／航路 went to the 前線 of the ロビー. Blair was on time. He hobbled in, 築く and 戦争の of 耐えるing にもかかわらず the crutch, and his dark 国民's 控訴 強調するd the whiteness of his 直面する. 存在 home had 軟化するd Blair a little. Yet the pride and 悲劇の bitterness were there. But when Blair 遠くに見つけるd 小道／航路 a warmth 燃やすd out of the havoc in his 直面する. 小道／航路's 良心 gave him a twinge. It 夜明けd upon him that neither his （一定の）期間s of illness, nor his 苦しめる over his sister Lorna, nor his obsession to see and understand what the young people were doing could 持つ／拘留する him wholly excusable for having neglected his comrade.

Their 手渡す-clasp was の近くに, almost 猛烈な／残忍な, and neither spoke at once. But they looked intently into each other's 直面するs. Emotion 嵐／襲撃するd 小道／航路's heart. He realized that Blair loved him and that he loved Blair—and that between them was a measureless 社債, a something only 分離 could make 有形の. But little of what they felt （機の）カム out in their greetings.

"Dare, why the devil don't you can that uniform," 需要・要求するd Blair, cheerfully. "People might 認める you've been 'over there.'"

"井戸／弁護士席, Blair, I 推定する／予想するd you'd have a cork 脚 by this time," said 小道／航路.

"Nothing doing," returned the other. "I want to be perpetually reminded that I was in the war. This 'forget the war' 宣伝 we see and hear all over 行為／法令／行動するs 肉親，親類d of queer on a 兵士... Let's find a （法廷の）裁判 away from these people."

After they were comfortably seated Blair went on: "Do you know, Dare, I don't 行方不明になる my 脚 so much when I'm crutching around. But when I try to sit 負かす／撃墜する or get up! By heck, いつかs I forget it's gone. And いつかs I want to scratch my lost foot. Isn't that hell?"

"I'll say so, Buddy," returned 小道／航路, with a laugh.

"Read this," said Blair, taking a paper from his pocket, and 示すing a column.

その結果 小道／航路 read a 簡潔な／要約する Associated 圧力（をかける） 派遣（する） from Washington, D.C., 明言する／公表するing that one Payson, 無能にするd 兵士 of twenty-five, 苦しむing with tuberculosis 原因（となる）d by ガス／無駄話d 肺s, had come to Washington to make in person a 抗議する and 控訴，上告 that had been unanswered in letters. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 money from the 政府 to enable him to travel west to a 乾燥した，日照りの 気候, where doctors 保証するd him he might get 井戸／弁護士席. He made his 声明 to several clerks and 公式の／役人s, and waited all day in the vestibule of the department. Suddenly he was 掴むd with a hemorrhage, and, 落ちるing on the 床に打ち倒す, died before 援助（する） could be 召喚するd.

Without a word 小道／航路 手渡すd the paper 支援する to his friend.

"Red was a queer duck," said Blair, rather hoarsely. "You remember when I 'phoned you last over two weeks ago?... 井戸／弁護士席, just after that Red got bad on my 手渡すs. He wouldn't 受託する charity, he said. And he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it. He got wise to my mother. He wouldn't give up trying to get money from the 政府—支援する money 借りがあるd him, he swore—and the idea of 存在 turned 負かす／撃墜する at home seemed to obsess him. I talked and cussed myself weak. No good! Red （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it soon after that—（警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it from Middleville on a freight train. And I never heard a word from him... Not a word..."

"Blair, can't you see it Red's way?" queried 小道／航路, sadly.

"Yes, I can," 答える／応じるd Blair, "but hell! he might have gotten 井戸／弁護士席. Doc Bronson said Red had a chance. I could have borrowed enough money to get him out west. Red wouldn't take it."

"And he ran off—exposed himself to 冷淡な and 餓死—over-exertion and 怒り／怒る," 追加するd 小道／航路.

"正確に／まさに. Brought on that hemorrhage and croaked. All for nothing!"

"No, Blair. All for a 原則," 観察するd 小道／航路. "Red was 解雇する／砲火／射撃d out of the hospital without a dollar. There was something terribly wrong."

"Wrong?... God Almighty!" burst out Blair, with hard passion. "Let me read you something in this same paper." With shaking 手渡すs he 広げるd it, searched until he 設立する what he 手配中の，お尋ね者, and began to read:

"'If the actual needs of 無能にするd 退役軍人s 要求する the 支出 of much money, then unquestionably a 大多数 of the taxpayers of the country will 好意 spending it. にもかかわらず the insistent 需要・要求する for economy in Washington that is arising from every part of the country, no member of House or 上院 will have occasion to 恐れる that he is running 反対する to popular opinion when 結局 he 投票（する）s to take generous care of 無能にするd 兵士s.'"

Blair's trembling 発言する／表明する 中止するd, and then 新たな展開ing the newspaper into a rope, he turned to 小道／航路. "Dare, can you understand that?... Red Payson was a bull-長，率いるd boy, not over 有望な. But you and I have some 知能, I hope. We can 許す for the 巨大な 混乱 at Washington—the senselessness of red tape—the callosity of 政治家，政治屋s. But when we remember the eloquent calls to us boys—the wonderfully worded 控訴，上告s to our patriotism, love of country and home—the painted posters 耐えるing the picture of a beautiful American girl—or a young mother with a baby—remembering these 深い, 熱烈な calls to the best in us, can you understand that sort of talk now?"

"Blair, I think I can," replied 小道／航路. "Then—before and after the 草案—the whole country was at a white heat of all that the approach of war rouses. 恐れる, self-保護, love of country, hate of the Huns, 奮起させるd patriotism, and in most everybody the will to fight and to sacrifice... The war was a long, hideous, soul-racking, 神経-destroying time. When it ended, and the wild period of joy and 救済 had its run, then all that 付随するd to the war sickened and 疲れた／うんざりしたd and disgusted the 大多数 of people. It's 'forget the war.' You and Payson and I got home a year too late."

"Then—it's just—monstrous," said Blair, ひどく.

"That's all, Blair. Just monstrous. But we can't （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 our spirits out against this 塀で囲む. No one can understand us—how alone we are. Let's forget that—this 塀で囲む—this thing called 政府. Shall we spend what time we have to live always in a thunderous atmosphere of mind—hating, pondering, bitter?"

"No. I'll make a compact with you," returned Blair, with flashing 注目する，もくろむs. "Never to speak again of that—so long as we live!"

"Never to a living soul," 再結合させるd 小道／航路, with a （犯罪の）一味 in his 発言する／表明する.

They shook 手渡すs much the same as when they had met half an hour earlier.

"So!" exclaimed Blair, with a 深い breath. "And now, Dare, tell me how you made out with Helen. You 削減（する） me short over the 'phone."

"Blair, that day coming into New York on the ship, you didn't put it half strong enough," replied 小道／航路. Then he told Blair about the call he had made upon Helen, and what had transpired at her studio.

Blair did not 発言する／表明する the 軽蔑（する） that his 注目する，もくろむs 表明するd. And, in fact, most of his talking was 限定するd to asking questions. 小道／航路 設立する it 平易な enough to unburden himself, though he did not について言及する his calls on Mel Iden, or 陸軍大佐 Pepper's 公表，暴露s.

"井戸／弁護士席, I guess it's high time we were meandering up to the hall," said Blair, 協議するing his watch. "I'm curious about this Prom. Think we're in for a 揺さぶる. It's four years since I went to a Prom. Now, both of us, Dare, have a sister who'll be there, besides all our old friends... And we're not dancing! But I want to look on. They've got an out-of-town orchestra coming—a jazz orchestra. There'll probably be a hot time in the old town to-night."

"Lorna did not tell me," replied 小道／航路, as they got up to go. "But I suppose she'd rather I didn't know. We've 衝突／不一致d a good 取引，協定 lately."

"Dare, I hear lots of talk," said Blair. "Margaret is chummy with me, and some of her friends are always out at the house. I hear 刑事 Swann is 急ぐing Lorna. Think he's doing it on the q-t."

"I know he is, Blair, but I can't catch them together," returned 小道／航路. "Lorna is working now. Swann got her the 職業."

"Looks bad to me," replied Blair, soberly. "Swann is cutting a 列. I hear his old man is sore on him... I'd take Lorna out of that office quick."

"Maybe you would," 宣言するd 小道／航路, grimly. "For all the 影響（力） or 力／強力にする I have over Lorna I might 同様に not 存在する."

They walked silently along the street for a little while. 小道／航路 had to 融通する his step to the slower movement of his 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd friend. Blair's crutch tapped over the 石／投石する pavement and clicked over the 抑制（する）s. They crossed the 鉄道／強行採決する 跡をつけるs and turned off the main street to go 負かす／撃墜する a couple of 封鎖するs.

"Shades of the past!" exclaimed Blair, as they reached a big brick building, 井戸／弁護士席-lighted in 前線 by a sizzling electric lamp. The night was rather warm and clouds of insects were wheeling 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the light. "The moths and the 炎上!" 追加するd Blair, satirically. "井戸／弁護士席, Dare, old bunkie, を締める up and we'll go over the 最高の，を越す. This せねばならない be fun for us."

"I don't see it," replied 小道／航路. "I'll be about as welcome as a bull in a 磁器 shop."

"Oh, I didn't mean any one would throw fits over us," 答える／応じるd Blair. "But we せねばならない get some fun out of the fact."

"What fact?" queried 小道／航路, puzzled.

"Rather far-fetched, maybe. But I'll get a kick out of looking on—watching these swell slackers with the girls we fought for."

"Wonder why they didn't give the dance at the armory, where they'd not have to climb stairs, and have more room?" queried 小道／航路, as they went in under the big light.

"Dare, you're far 支援する in the past," said Blair, sardonically. "The armory is on the ground 床に打ち倒す—one big hall—open, you know. The 議会 Hall is a 正規の／正選手 maze for rooms and stairways."

Blair labored up the stairway with 小道／航路's help. At last they reached the 床に打ち倒す from which had blared the 緊張するs of jazz. Wide doors were open, through which 小道／航路 caught the flash of many colors. Blair produced his tickets at the door. There did not appear to be any one to take them.

小道／航路 experienced an indefinable thrill at the scene. The 空気／公表する seemed to reek with a mixed perfume and cigarette smoke—to resound with high-重要なd youthful laughter, wild and 甘い and 空いている above the strange, discordant music. Then the flashing, changing, whirling colors of the ダンサーs struck 小道／航路 as oriental, erotic, bizarre—gorgeous golds and greens and reds （土地などの）細長い一片d by the 従来の 黒人／ボイコット. Suddenly the blare 中止するd, and the shrill, trilling laughter had dominance. The 早い circling of forms （機の）カム to a sudden stop, and the ダンサーs streamed in all directions over the 床に打ち倒す.

"Dare, they've called time," said Blair. "Let's get inside the ropes so we can see better."

The hall was not large, but it was long, and 形態／調整d like a letter L with 中心存在s running 負かす／撃墜する the 中心. Countless threads of many-colored strings of paper had been stretched from 中心存在s to 塀で囲むs, hanging 負かす／撃墜する almost within reach of the ダンサーs. 旗s and gay bunting helped in the riotous 影響 of decoration. The 黒人／ボイコット-直面するd orchestra held 前へ／外へ on a raised 壇・綱領・公約 at the point where the hall looked two ways. 休会s, alcoves and open doors to other rooms, which the young couples were piling over each other to reach, gave 小道／航路 some inkling of what Blair had hinted.

"Now we're out in the limelight," 発表するd Blair, as he 停止（させる）d. "Let's stand here and run the gauntlet until the next dance—then we can find seats."

Almost at once a stream of gay couples enveloped them in passing. 有望な, flashing, vivid 直面するs and 明らかにする shoulders, 武器 and breasts appeared above the short bodices of the girls. Few of them were gowned in white. The colors seemed too garish for anything but musical comedy. But the freshness, the vividness of these girls seemed exhilarating. The murmur, the merriment touched a forgotten chord in 小道／航路's heart. For a moment it seemed 甘い to be there, once more in a 集会 where 楽しみ was the 追跡. It breathed of what seemed long ago, in a past that was infinitely more precious to remember because he had no 未来 of hope or of ambition or dream. Something had happened to him that now made the sensations of the moment stingingly bitter-甘い. The freshness and fragrance, the color and excitement, the beauty and gayety were not for him. 青年 was dead. He could never enter the 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）s with these young men, many no younger than he, for the 好意 and smile of a girl. 辞職 had not been so difficult in the spiritual moment of 現実化 and 解決する, but to be 現在のd with one 固める／コンクリート and 素晴らしい actuality after another, each with its mocking might-have-been, had grown to be a terrible ordeal.

小道／航路 looked for 直面するs he knew. On each 味方する of the 中心存在 where he and Blair stood the stream of color and gayety flowed. Helen and Margaret Maynard went by on the far 辛勝する／優位 of that stream. Across the hall he caught a glimpse of the flashing golden beauty of Bessy Bell. Then 近づく at 手渡す he 認めるd Fanchon Smith, a petite, smug-直面するd little brunette, with naked shoulders bulging out of a piebald gown. She 遠くに見つけるd 小道／航路 and her 直面する froze. Then there were familiar 直面するs 近づく and far, to which 小道／航路 could not attach 指名するs.

All at once he became aware that other of his senses besides sight were 存在 刺激するd. He had been 審理，公聴会 without distinguishing what he heard. And curiously he listened, still with that strange knock of memory at his heart. Everybody was talking, some low, some high, all in the spirit of the hour. And in one moment he had heard that which killed the 誤った enchantment.

"Not a chance! ..."

"Hot dog—she's some Jane!"

"Now to the clinch—"

"What'll we do till the next spiel—"

"Have a 発射?——"

"Boys, it's only the shank of the evening. Leave something peppy for the finish."

"Mame, you look like a million dollars in that rag."

"She shakes a mean shimmy, believe me..."

"That egg! Not on your life!"

"削減（する） the next with Ned. We'll こそこそ動く 負かす／撃墜する and take a ride in my car..."

"Oh, spiffy!"

小道／航路's acutely 緊張するd attention was コースを変えるd by Blair's 発言する／表明する.

"Look who's with my sister Margie."

小道／航路 turned to look through an open space in the 分散させるing stream. Blair's sister was passing with 刑事 Swann. Elegantly and fastidiously attired, the young millionaire appeared to be attentive to his partner. Margaret stood out rather strikingly from the other girls 近づく her by 推論する／理由 of the 簡単 and modesty of her dress. She did not look so much bored as discontented. 小道／航路 saw her 注目する，もくろむs rove to and fro from the 入り口 of the hall. When she 遠くに見つけるd 小道／航路 she nodded and spoke with a smile and made an evident move toward him, but was 抑制するd by Swann. He led her past 小道／航路 and Blair without so much as ちらりと見ることing in their direction. 小道／航路 heard Blair 断言する.

"Dare, if my mother throws Marg at that—slacker, I'll 封鎖する the 取引，協定 if it's the last thing I ever do," he 宣言するd, violently.

"And I'll help you," replied 小道／航路, 即時に.

"I know Margie hates him."

"Blair, your sister is in love with Holt Dalrymple."

"No! Not really? Thought that was only a boy-and-girl 事件／事情／状勢... Aha! the nigger music again! Let's find a seat, Dare."

Saxophone, trombone, piccolo, snare-派手に宣伝する and other 野蛮な 器具s opened with a brazen 反抗 of music, and a vibrant 保証／確信 of quick, raw, strong sounds. 小道／航路 himself felt the stirring 影響 upon his 神経s. He had difficulty in keeping still. From the lines of 議長，司会を務めるs along the 塀で囲むs and from doors and alcoves 急ぐd the gay-colored throng to leap, to の近くに, to step, to 激しく揺する and sway, until the 床に打ち倒す was 十分な of a moving 集まり of life.

The first half-dozen couples 小道／航路 熟考する／考慮するd all danced more or いっそう少なく as Helen and Swann had, that day in Helen's studio. Then, by way of a remarkable contrast, there passed two young people who danced decently. 小道／航路 descried his sister Lorna in the throng, and when she and her partner （機の）カム 一連の会議、交渉／完成する in the giddy circle, 小道／航路 saw that she wiggled and toddled like the others. 小道／航路, as she passed him, caught a ちらりと見ること of her 注目する，もくろむs, flashing, reproachful, furious, directed at some one across her partner's shoulder. 小道／航路 followed that ちらりと見ること and saw Swann. 明らかに he did not notice Lorna, and was 吸収するd in the dance with his own partner, Helen Wrapp. This byplay その上の excited 小道／航路's curiosity. On the whole, it was an ungraceful, violent 暴徒, almost 全く 欠如（する）ing in 抑制, whirling, kicking, swaying, clasping, instinctively physical, 天然のまま, vulgar and wild. 負かす／撃墜する the line of 議長，司会を務めるs from his position, 小道／航路 saw the chaperones of the Prom, no 疑問 mothers of some of these girls. 小道／航路 wondered at them with sincere and 執拗な amaze. If they were respectable, and had even a slight degree of 知能, how could they look on at this dance with complacence? Perhaps after all the young people were not wholly to 非難する for an 異常な 表現 of 直感的に 活動／戦闘.

That dance had its several encores and finally ended.

Margaret and Holt made their way up to 小道／航路 and Blair. The girl was now radiant. It took no second ちらりと見ること for 小道／航路 to see how 事柄s stood with her at that moment.

"Say, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it, you two," suddenly spoke up Blair. "There comes Swann. He's looking for you. Chase yourselves, now, Marg—Holt. Leave that slacker to us!"

Margaret gave a start, a gasp. She looked hard at her brother. Blair wore a 冷静な／正味の smile, underneath which there was sterner hidden meaning. Then Margaret looked at 小道／航路 with slow, 深い blush, making her really beautiful.

"Margie, we're for you two, strong," said 小道／航路, with a smile. "Go hide from Swann."

"But I—I （機の）カム with him," she 滞るd.

"Then let him find you—in other words, let him get you... 'All's fair in love and war.'"

小道／航路 had his reward in the 甘い amaze and 混乱 of her 直面する, as she turned away. Holt 急ぐd her off まっただ中に the straggling couples.

"Dare, you're a wiz," 宣言するd Blair. "Margie's strong for Holt—I'm glad. If we could only put Swann out of the running."

"It's a cinch," returned 小道／航路, with sudden heat.

"Pard, you don't know my mother. If she has 選ぶd out Swann for Margie—all I've got to say is—good night!"

"Even if we 証明する Swann——"

"No 事柄 what we 証明する," interrupted Blair. "No 事柄 what, so long as he's out of 刑務所，拘置所. My mother is money mad. She'd sell Margie to the devil himself for gold, position—the means to queen it over these other mothers of girls."

"Blair, you're—you're a little off your nut, aren't you?"

"Not on your life. That talk four years ago might have been irrational. But now—not on your life... The world has come to an end... Oh, Lord, look who's coming! 小道／航路, did you ever in your life see such a peach as that?"

Bessy Bell had appeared, coming toward them with a callow 青年 近づく her own age. Her dress was some soft, pale blue 構成要素 that was neither gaudy nor fantastical. But it was far from modest. 小道／航路 had to echo Blair's eulogy of this young 見本／標本 of the new America. She 簡単に 立証するd and 安定させるd the 主張 that 肉体的に the newer 世代s of girls were markedly more beautiful than those of any 世代 before.

Bessy either forgot to introduce her 護衛する or did not care to. She nodded a 解雇／（訴訟の）却下 to him, spoke sweetly to Blair, and then took the empty 議長，司会を務める next to 小道／航路.

"You're having a rotten time," she said, leaning の近くに to him. She seemed all fragrance and airy grace and impelling life.

小道／航路 had to smile. "How do you know?"

"I can tell by your 直面する. Now aren't you?"

"井戸／弁護士席, to be honest, 行方不明になる Bessy"

"For tripe's sake, don't be so formal," she interrupted. "Call me Bessy."

"Oh, very 井戸／弁護士席, Bessy. There's no use to 嘘（をつく） to you. I'm not very happy at what I see here."

"What's the 事柄 with it—with us?" she queried, quickly. "Everybody's doing it."

"That is no excuse. Besides, that's not so. Everybody is not—not——"

"井戸／弁護士席, not what?"

"Not doing it, whatever you meant by that," returned 小道／航路, with a laugh.

"Tell me straight out what you think of us," she 発射 at 小道／航路, with a purple flash of her 注目する，もくろむs.

She irritated 小道／航路. Stirred him somehow, yet she seemed wholesome, 十分な of quick 返答. She was daring, sophisticated, 挑発的な. Therefore 小道／航路 retorted in 簡潔な／要約する, blunt speech what he thought of the 大多数 of the girls 現在の.

Bessy Bell did not look 侮辱d. She did not blush. She did not show shame. Her 注目する，もくろむs darkened. Her rosy mouth lost something of its soft curves.

"Daren 小道／航路, we're not all rotten," she said.

"I did not say or 暗示する you all were," he replied.

She gazed up at him thoughtfully, 真面目に, with an unconscious frank 利益／興味, curiosity, and reverence.

"You strike me funny," she mused. "I never met a 兵士 like you."

"Bessy, how many 兵士s have you met who have come 支援する from フラン?"

"Not many, only Blair and you, and Captain Thesel, though I really didn't 会合，会う him. He （機の）カム up to me at the armory and spoke to me. And to-night he 削減（する） in on Roy's dance. Roy was sore."

"Three. 井戸／弁護士席, that's not many," replied 小道／航路. "Not enough to get a line on two million, is it?"

"Captain Thesel is just like all the other fellows... But you're not a bit like them."

"Is that a compliment or さもなければ?"

"I'll say it's a compliment," she replied, with arch 注目する，もくろむs on his.

"Thank you."

"井戸／弁護士席, you don't deserve it... You 約束d to make a date with me. Why 港／避難所't you?"

"Why child, I—I don't know what to say," returned 小道／航路, utterly disconcerted. Yet he liked this amazing girl. "I suppose I forgot. But I've been ill, for one 推論する／理由."

"I'm sorry," she said, giving his arm a squeeze. "I heard you were 不正に 傷つける. Won't you tell me about your—your 傷つけるs?"

"Some day, if 適切な時期 affords. I can't here, that's 確かな ."

"適切な時期! What do you want? 港／避難所't I 手渡すd myself out on a silver platter?"

小道／航路 could find no ready retort for this query. He gazed at her, marveling at the 明らかに measureless distance between her exquisite physical beauty and the spiritual beauty that should have been harmonious with it. Still he felt baffled by this young girl. She seemed to 似ている Lorna, yet was different in a way he could not しっかり掴む. Lorna had coarsened in fibre. This girl was 罰金, にもかかわらず her coarse speech. She did not repel.

"Mr. 小道／航路, will you dance with me?" she asked, almost wistfully. She liked him, and was not ashamed of it. But she seemed pondering over what to make of him—how far to go.

"Bessy, I dare not 発揮する myself to that extent," he replied, gently. "You forget I am a 無能にするd 兵士."

"Forget that? Not a chance," she flashed. "But I hoped you might dance with me once—just a little."

"No. I might keel over."

She shivered and her 注目する，もくろむs dilated. "You mean it as a joke. But it's no joke... I read about your comrade—that poor Red Payson!" ... Then both devil of humor and woman of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 shone in her ちらりと見ること. "Daren, if you did keel over—you'd die in my 武器—not on the 床に打ち倒す!"

Then another partner （機の）カム up to （人命などを）奪う，主張する her. As the orchestra blurted 前へ／外へ and Bessy leaned to the ダンサー's clasp she shouted audaciously at 小道／航路: "Don't forget that silver platter!"

小道／航路 turned to Blair to find that worthy shaking his handsome 長，率いる.

"Did you hear what she said?" asked 小道／航路, の近くに to Blair's ear.

"Every word," replied Blair. "Some kid!... She's like the girl in the 動議-pictures. She comes along. She 会合，会うs the fellow. She looks at him—she says 'good day'—then Wham, into his 武器... My God! ... 小道／航路, is that kid good or bad?"

"Good!" exclaimed 小道／航路, 即時に.

"Bah!"

"Good—still," returned 小道／航路. "But 式のs! She is brazen, unconscious of it. But she's no fool, that kid. Lorna is an 絶対の silly bull-長，率いるd fool. I wish Bessy Bell was my sister—or I mean that Lorna was like her."

"Here comes Swann without Margie. Looks sore as a pup. The——"

"Shut up, Blair. I want to listen to this jazz."

小道／航路 shut his 注目する，もくろむs during the next number and listened without the disconcerting spectacle in his sight. He put all the intensity of which he was 有能な into his attention. His knowledge of music was not 広範囲にわたる, but on the other 手渡す it was enough to enable him to 分析する this jazz. Neither music nor ragtime, it seemed utterly barbarian in character. It 控訴，上告d only to 原始の, physical, sensual instincts. It could not be danced to sanely and gracefully. When he opened his 注目する，もくろむs again, to see once more the disorder of ダンサーs in spirit and 活動／戦闘, he seemed to have his 分析 絶対 立証するd.

These dances were short, the encores very 簡潔な／要約する, and the intermissions long. Perhaps the ダンサーs needed to get their breath and 配列し直す their apparel.

After this number, 小道／航路 left Blair talking to friends, and made his way across the hall to where he 遠くに見つけるd Lorna. She did not see him. She looked ashamed, 傷つける, almost sullen. Her young friend, Harry, was bending over talking 真面目に. 小道／航路 caught the words: "Lorna dear, that Swann's only stringing you—急ぐing you on the sly. He won't dance with you here—not while he's with that swell （人が）群がる."

"It's a 嘘（をつく）," burst out Lorna. She was almost in 涙／ほころびs.

小道／航路 took her arm, making her start.

"井戸／弁護士席, kids, you're having some time, aren't you," he said, cheerfully.

"Sure—are," gulped Harry.

Lorna repressed her grief, but not her sullen 憤慨.

小道／航路 pretended not to notice anything unusual, and after a few casual 発言／述べるs and queries he left them. Strolling from place to place, mingling with the gay groups, in the more secluded alcoves and 休会s where couples appeared, oblivious to 注目する，もくろむs, in the check room where a 調印する read: "check your corsets," out in the wide 上陸 where the stairway （機の）カム up, 小道／航路 passed, 行方不明の little that might have been seen or heard. He did not mind that two of the chaperones 星／主役にするd at him in supercilious curiosity, as if 推測するing on a possible faux pas of his at this dance. Both boys and girls he had met since his return to Middleville, and some he had known before, 遭遇（する）d him 直面する to 直面する, and 削減（する） him dead. He heard sarcastic 発言／述べるs. He was an 部外者, a "dead one," a "has been" and a "lemon." But Margaret was gracious to him, and Flossie Dickerson made no bones of her regard. Dorothy, he was relieved and glad to see, was not 現在の.

小道／航路 had no particular 反対する in mind. He just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to rub 肘s with this throng of young people. This was the joy of life he had imagined he had 行方不明になるd while in フラン. How much vain longing! He had 行方不明になるd nothing. He had boundlessly 伸び（る）d.

Out on this 床に打ち倒す a railing ran 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the curve of the stairway. Girls were sitting on it, smoking cigarettes, and kicking their slipper-shod feet. Their partners were lounging の近くに. 小道／航路 passed by, and walking to a window in the 影をつくる／尾行する he stood there. Presently one of the boys threw away his cigarette and said: "Come on, Ironsides. I gotta dance. You're a rotten ダンサー, but I love you."

They ran 支援する into the hall. The young fellow who was left indolently 試みる／企てるd to kiss his partner, who blew smoke in his 直面する. Then at a louder 爆破 of jazz they bounced away. The next moment a third couple appeared, probably from another door 負かす／撃墜する the hall. They did not 観察する 小道／航路. The girl was わずかな／ほっそりした, dainty, gorgeously arrayed, and her keen, fair 直面する bore traces of paint wet by perspiration. Her companion was Captain 先頭 Thesel, in 国民's garb, 井戸／弁護士席-built, ruddy-直面するd, with tiny curled moustache.

"Hurry, kid," he said, breathlessly, as he pulled at her. "We'll run 負かす／撃墜する and take a spin."

"Spiffy! But let's wait till after the next," she replied. "It's Harold's and I （機の）カム with him."

"Tell him it was up to him to find you."

"But he might get wise to a car ride."

"He'd do the same. Come on," returned Thesel, who all the time was 主要な her 負かす／撃墜する the stairway step by step.

They disappeared. From the open window 小道／航路 saw them go 負かす／撃墜する the street and get into a car and ride away. He ちらりと見ることd at his watch, muttering. "This is a new stunt for dances. I just wonder." He watched, broodingly and sombrely. It was not his sister, but it might just as 井戸／弁護士席 have been. Two dances and a long intermission ended before 小道／航路 saw the big 自動車 return. He watched the couple get out, and hurry up, to disappear at the 入り口. Then 小道／航路 changed his position, and stood 直接／まっすぐに at the 長，率いる of the stairway under the light. He had no 利益／興味 in Captain 先頭 Thesel. He just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get a の近くに look at the girl.

Presently he heard steps, 激しい and light, and a man's 深い 発言する／表明する, a girl's low thrill of laughter. They turned the curve in the stairway and did not see 小道／航路 until they had 機動力のある to the 最高の，を越す.

With 冷静な／正味の 安定した gaze 小道／航路 熟考する／考慮するd the girl. Her （疑いを）晴らす 注目する，もくろむs met his. If there was anything unmistakable in 小道／航路's look at her, it was not from any deception on his part. He tried to look into her soul. Her smile—a strange indolent little smile, 残余 of excitement—faded from her 直面する. She 星／主役にするd, and she put an 直感的に 手渡す up to her somewhat dishevelled hair. Then she passed on with her companion.

"Of all the 神経!" she exclaimed. "Who's that 兵士 boob?"

小道／航路 could not catch the low reply. He ぐずぐず残るd there a while longer, and then returned to the hall, much surprised to find it so dark he could scarcely distinguish the ダンサーs. The lights had been lowered. If the dance had been violent and strange before this 手続き, it was now a 暴動. In the 半分-不明瞭 the ダンサーs 削減（する） loose. The paper strings had been 緩和するd and had fallen 負かす／撃墜する to become 絡まるd with the 飛行機で行くing feet and 脚s. Confetti 群れているd like dark snowdrops in the hot 空気／公表する. 小道／航路 現実に smelled the heat of 団体／死体s—a strangely stirring and yet noxious sensation. A 急ぐing, murmuring, shrill sound—発言する／表明するs, laughter, cries, and the 事情に応じて変わる of feet and 小衝突ing of gowns—filled the hall—ominous to 小道／航路's over-極度の慎重さを要する faculties, swelling unnaturally, the 表現 of unrestrained physical abandon. 小道／航路 walked along the 辛勝する／優位 of this circling, 格闘するing melee, 負かす／撃墜する to the corner where the orchestra held 前へ／外へ. They seemed actuated by the same frenzy which 所有するd the ダンサーs. The piccolo player lay on his 支援する on 最高の，を越す of the piano, 麻薬を吸うing his shrill 公式文書，認めるs at the 天井. And 小道／航路 made sure this player was drunk. On the moment then the jazz （機の）カム to an end with a 衝突，墜落. The lights flashed up. The ダンサーs clapped and stamped their 楽しみ.

小道／航路 負傷させる his way 支援する to Blair.

"I've had enough, Blair," he said. "I'm all in. Let's go."

"権利-o," replied Blair, with evident 救済. He reached a 手渡す to 小道／航路 to raise himself, an 活動／戦闘 he rarely 訴える手段／行楽地d to, and awkwardly got his crutch in place. They started out, with 小道／航路 融通するing his pace to his 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd comrade. Thus it happened that the two ran a gauntlet with watching young people on each 味方する, out to the open part of the hall. There 直接／まっすぐに in 前線 they 遭遇（する）d Captain 先頭 Thesel, with Helen Wrapp on his arm. Her red hair, her green 注目する，もくろむs, and carmined lips, the white of her voluptuous neck and 武器, 部隊d in a singular 影響 of allurement that 小道／航路 felt with 軽蔑（する） and melancholy.

Helen nodded to Blair and 小道／航路, and evidently dragged at her 護衛する's arm to 持つ／拘留する him from passing on.

"Look who's here! Daren, old boy—and Blair," she called, and she held the officer 支援する. The malice in her green ちらりと見ること did not escape 小道／航路, as he 屈服するd to her. She gloried in that 状況／情勢. Captain Thesel had to 直面する them.

It was Blair's 手渡す that 強化するd 小道／航路. They 停止（させる）d, 築く, like statues, with 注目する，もくろむs that failed to see Thesel. He did not 存在する for them. With a 紅潮／摘発する of annoyance he spoke, and breaking from Helen, passed on. A sudden silence in the groups nearby gave 証拠 that the 出来事/事件 had been 観察するd. Then whispers rose.

"Boys, aren't you dancing?" asked Helen, with a mocking sweetness. "Let me teach you the new steps."

"Thanks, Helen," replied 小道／航路, in sudden weariness. "But I couldn't go it."

"Why did you come? To blow us up again? Lose your 神経?"

"Yes, I lost it to-night—and something more."

"Blair, you shouldn't have left one of your 脚s in フラン," she said, turning to Blair. She had always hated Blair, a fact omnipresent now in her green 注目する，もくろむs.

Blair had left 儀礼 and endurance in フラン, as was evinced by the way he bent closer to Helen, to speak low, with terrible passion.

"If I had it to do over again—I'd see you and your 肉親，親類d—your dirt-cheap （人が）群がる of painted hussies where you belong—in the clutch of the Huns!"

CHAPTER IX

行方不明になる Amanda Hill, teacher in the Middleville High School, sat wearily at her desk. She was tired, as tired as she had ever been on any day of the fifteen long years in which she had 格闘するd with the problems of school life. Her hair was アイロンをかける gray and she bent a worn, sad, 厳しい 直面する over a 集まり of 公式文書，認めるs before her.

At that moment she was laboring under a perplexing question that was not by any means a new one. Only this time it had 現在のd itself in a いっそう少なく insidious manner than usual, leaving no （法などの）抜け穴 for charitable imagination. Presently she looked up and rapped on her desk.

"These young ladies will remain after school is 解任するd," she said, in her 権威のある 発言する／表明する: "Bessy Bell—Rose Clymer—Gail Matthews—Helen Tremaine—Ruth Winthrop... Also any other girls who are honest enough to 収容する／認める knowledge of the 公式文書，認めるs 設立する in Rose Clymer's desk."

The hush that fell over the schoolroom was broken by the gong in the main hall, sounding throughout the building. Then followed the noise of shutting 調書をとる／予約するs and の近くにing desks, and the bustle and shuffling of 心配するd 解雇／（訴訟の）却下.

In a 前線 seat sat a girl who did not arise with the others, and as one by one several girls passed her desk with hurried step and embarrassed snicker she looked at them with purple, 炎ing 注目する，もくろむs.

行方不明になる Hill …に出席するd to her usual 仕事 with the papers of the day's lessons and the 場内取引員／株価 of the morrow's work before she ちらりと見ることd up at the five girls she had 拘留するd. They sat in 広範囲にわたって separated sections of the room. Rose Clymer, pretty, 壊れやすい, curly-haired, 占領するd the 前線 seat of the end 列／漕ぐ／騒動. Her 直面する had no color and her small mouth was 始める，決める in painful lines. Four seats across from her Bessy Bell leaned on her desk, with 反抗的な calmness, and traces of 軽蔑（する） still in her expressive 注目する，もくろむs. Gail Matthews looked 脅すd and Helen Tremaine was crying. Ruth Winthrop bent 今後 with her 直面する buried in her 武器.

"Girls," began 行方不明になる Hill, presently. "I know you regard me as a cross old schoolteacher."

She had spoken impulsively, a rare thing with her, and occasioned in this instance by the painful consciousness of how she was 裁判官d, when she was really so kindly 性質の／したい気がして toward the wayward girls.

"Girls, I've tried to get into の近くに touch with you, to sympathize, to be lenient; but somehow, I've failed," she went on. "Certainly I have failed to stop this 公式文書，認める-令状ing. And lately it has become—beyond me to understand. Now won't you help me to get at the 底（に届く） of the 事柄? Helen, it was you who told me these 公式文書，認めるs were in Rose's desk. Have you any knowledge of more?"

"Ye—s—m," said Helen, raising her red 直面する. "I've—I've one—I—was afraid to g—give up."

"Bring it to me."

Helen rose and （機の）カム 今後 with an expressive little 握りこぶし and 開始 it laid a crumpled paper upon 行方不明になる Hill's desk. As Helen returned to her seat she met Bessy Bell's fiery ちらりと見ること and it seemed to wither her.

The teacher smoothed out the paper and began to read. "Good Heavens!" she breathed, in amaze and 苦痛. Then she turned to Helen. "This 詩（を作る） is in your handwriting."

"Yes'm—but I—I only copied it," 答える／応じるd the 犯人.

"Who gave you the 初めの?"

"Rose."

"Where did she get it?"

"I—I don't know—行方不明になる Hill. Really and tru—truly I don't," 滞るd Helen, beginning to cry again.

Gail and Ruth also disclaimed any knowledge of the 詩（を作る）, except that it had been put into their 手渡すs by Rose. They had read it, copied it, written 公式文書，認めるs about it and discussed it.

"You three girls may go home now," said 行方不明になる Hill, sadly.

The girls あわてて とじ込み／提出するd out and passed the scornful Bessy Bell with 回避するd 長，率いるs.

"Rose, can you explain the 公式文書，認めるs 設立する in your 所有／入手?" asked the teacher.

"Yes, 行方不明になる Hill. They were written to me by different boys and girls," replied Rose.

"Why do you seem to have all these writings 演説（する）／住所d to you?"

"I didn't get any more than any other girl. But I wasn't afraid to keep 地雷."

"Do you know where these 詩（を作る）s （機の）カム from, before Helen had them?"

"Yes, 行方不明になる Hill."

"Then you know who wrote them?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"I won't tell," replied Rose, deliberately. She looked straight into her teacher's 注目する，もくろむs.

"You 辞退する when I've 保証するd you I'll be lenient?" 需要・要求するd 行方不明になる Hill.

"I'm no tattletale." Rose's answer was sullen.

"Rose, I ask you again. A 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 depends on your answer. Will you tell me?"

The girl's lip curled. Then she laughed in a way that made 行方不明になる Hill think of her as older. But she kept silent.

"Rose, you're expelled until その上の notice." 行方不明になる Hill's 発言する／表明する trembled with 失望 and 怒り／怒る. "You may go now."

Rose gathered up her 調書をとる／予約するs and went into the cloakroom. The door in the outer hall opened and の近くにd.

"行方不明になる Hill, it wasn't fair!" exclaimed Bessy Bell, hotly. "It wasn't fair. Rose is no worse than the other girls. She's not as bad, for she isn't sly and deceitful. There were a dozen girls who lied when they went out. Helen lied. Ruth lied. Gail lied. But Rose told the truth so far as she went. And she wouldn't tell all because she 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 保護物，者 me."

"Why did she want to 保護物，者 you?"

"Because I wrote the 詩（を作る）s."

"You mean you copied them?"

"I composed them," Bessy replied coolly. Her blue 注目する，もくろむs fearlessly met 行方不明になる Hill's gaze.

"Bessy Bell!" ejaculated the teacher.

The girl stood before her desk and from the tip of her dainty boot to the 栄冠を与える of her golden hair breathed 前へ／外へ a strange, wilful and 反抗的な 解雇する／砲火／射撃.

行方不明になる Hill's lips でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd to ask a 確かな question of Bessy, but she 差し控えるd and 代用品，人d another.

"Bessy, how old are you?"

"Fifteen last April."

"Have you any intelligent idea of—do you know—Bessy, how did you 令状 those 詩（を作る）s?" asked 行方不明になる Hill, in bewilderment.

"I know a good 取引，協定 and I've imagination," replied Bessy, candidly.

"That's evident," returned the teacher. "How long has this 公式文書，認める-and 詩（を作る）-令状ing been going on?"

"For a year, at least, の中で us."

"Then you caught the habit from girls gone higher up?"

"Certainly."

Bessy's trenchant brevity was not lost upon 行方不明になる Hill.

"We've always gotten along—you and I," said 行方不明になる Hill, feeling her way with this strange girl.

"It's because you're 肉親，親類d and square, and I like you."

Something told the teacher she had never been paid a higher compliment.

"Bessy, how much will you tell me?"

"行方不明になる Hill, I'm in for it and I'll tell you everything, if only you won't punish Rose," replied the girl, impulsively. "Rose's my best friend. Her father's a mean, drunken brute. I'm afraid of what he'll do if he finds out. Rose has a hard time."

"You say Rose is no more 有罪の than the other girls?"

"Rose Clymer never had an idea of her own. She's just 甘い and willing. I hate deceitful girls. Every one of them wrote 公式文書，認めるs to the boys—the same 肉親，親類d of 公式文書，認めるs—and some of them tried to 令状 poetry. Most of them had a copy of the piece I wrote. They had 広大な／多数の／重要な fun over it—getting the boys to guess what girl wrote it. I've written a dozen pieces before this and they've all had them."

"井戸／弁護士席, that explains the 詩（を作る）s... Now I read in these 公式文書，認めるs about 会合s with the boys?"

"That 言及するs to mornings before school, and after school, and evenings when it's nice 天候. And the literary society."

"You mean the Girl's Literary Guild, with rooms at the Atheneum?"

"Yes. But, 行方不明になる Hill, the literary part of it is bunk. We 会合，会う there to dance. The boys bring the girls cigarettes. They smoke, and いつかs the boys have something with them to drink."

"These—these girls—hardly in their teens—smoke and drink?" gasped 行方不明になる Hill.

"I'll say they do," replied Bessy Bell.

"What—does the 'Bell-garter' mean?" went on the teacher, presently.

"One of the boys stole my garter and fastened a little bell to it. Now it's going the 一連の会議、交渉／完成するs. Every girl who could has worn it."

"What's the 'Old （法廷の）裁判'?"

"負かす／撃墜する in the 地階 here at school there's a （法廷の）裁判 under the stairway in the dark. The boys and girls have signals. One boy will get 許可 to go out at a 確かな time, and a girl from his room, or another room, will go out too. It's all arranged beforehand. They 会合，会う 負かす／撃墜する on the Old （法廷の）裁判."

"What for?"

"They 会合，会う to spoon."

"I find the 指名するs Hardy Mackay, Captain Thesel, 刑事 Swann の中で these 公式文書，認めるs. What can these young society men be to my pupils?"

"Some of the jealous girls have been tattling to each other and について言及するing 指名するs."

"Bessy! Do you 暗示する these girls who talk have had the—the 利益／興味 or attention of these young gentlemen 指名するd?"

"Yes."

"In what way?"

"I mean they've had dates to 会合，会う in the park—and other places. Then they go joy riding."

"Bessy, have you?"

"Yes—but only just lately."

"Thank you Bessy, for your—your frankness," replied 行方不明になる Hill, 製図／抽選 a long breath. "I'll have another talk with you, after I see your mother. You may go now."

It was an 指示，表示する物 of 行方不明になる Hill's mental perturbation that for once she broke her methodical 決まりきった仕事. For many years she had carried a lunch-basket to and from school; for so many in fact that now on Saturdays when she went to town without it she carried her left 手渡す 今後 in the same position that had grown habitual to her while 持つ／拘留するing it. But this afternoon, as she went out, she forgot the basket 完全に.

"I'll go to Mrs. Bell," soliloquized the worried schoolteacher. "But how to explain what I can't understand! Some people would call this thing just natural depravity. But I love these girls. As I think 支援する, every year, in the 早期に summer, I've always had something of this sort of thing to puzzle over. But the last few years it's grown worse. The war made a difference. And since the war—how strange the girls are! They seem to feel more. They're bolder. They 勃発する oftener. They dress so immodestly. Yet they're いっそう少なく deceitful. They have no shame. I can blind myself no longer to that. And this last is damning proof of—of wildness. Some of them have taken the 致命的な step! ... Yet—yet I seem to feel somehow Bessy Bell isn't bad. I wonder if my hope isn't 責任がある that feeling. I'm old-fashioned. This modern girl is beyond me. How 明確に she spoke! She's a wonderful, fearless, terrible girl. I never saw a girl so alive. I can't—can't understand her."

In the swift swinging from one consideration of the perplexing question to another 行方不明になる Hill's mind 自然に 逆戻りするd to her errand, and to her possible 歓迎会. Mrs. Bell was a proud woman. She had married against the wishes of her blue-血d family, so 噂する had it, and her husband was now 長，指導者 of Police in Middleville. Mrs. Bell had some money of her own and was slowly 回復するing her old position in society.

It was not without 疑惑s that 行方不明になる Hill 現在のd herself at Mrs. Bell's door and gave her card to a servant. The teacher had often made thankless and misunderstood calls upon the mothers of her pupils. She was 認める and shown to a living room where a woman of fair features and noble 割合s 迎える／歓迎するd her.

"Bessy's teacher, I 推定する?" she queried, graciously, yet with just that slight touch of hauteur which made 行方不明になる Hill feel her position.

"I am Bessy's teacher," she replied, with dignity. "Can you spare me a few minutes?"

"Assuredly. Please be seated. I've heard Bessy speak of you. By the way, the child hasn't come home yet. How late she always is!"

行方不明になる Hill realized, with a 抗議する at the unfairness of the 状況／情勢, that to 直面する this elegant lady, so smiling, so suave, so worldly, so graciously superior, and to tell her some unpleasant truths about her daughter, was a 仕事 by no means 平易な, and one almost sure to 証明する futile. But 行方不明になる Hill never shirked her 義務, and after all, her 動機 was a hope to help Bessy.

"Mrs. Bell, I've come on a 事柄 of importance," began 行方不明になる Hill. "But it is so delicate a one I don't know how to broach it. I believe plain speaking best."

Here 行方不明になる Hill went into 詳細（に述べる）, sparing not to call a spade a spade. But she held 支援する the 指名するs of the young society gentlemen について言及するd in the 公式文書，認めるs. 行方不明になる Hill was not sure of her ground there and her 発覚 was 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な enough for any intelligent mother.

"Really, 行方不明になる Hill, you amaze me!" exclaimed Mrs. Bell. "Bessie has fallen into bad company. Oh, these public schools! I never …に出席するd one, but I've heard what they are."

"The public schools are not to 非難する," replied 行方不明になる Hill, bluntly.

Mrs. Bell gave her 訪問者 a rather supercilious 星／主役にする.

"May I ask you to explain?"

"I'm afraid I can't explain," replied 行方不明になる Hill, conscious of a little heat. "I've proofs of the 条件. But as I can't understand it, how can I explain? I have my own peculiar ideas, only, lately, I've begun to 疑問 them. A year or so ago I would have said girls had their own way too much—too much time to themselves—too much freedom. But now I seem to feel life isn't like what it was a few years ago. Girls are bound to learn. And they never learn at home, that's sure. The last thing a mother will do is to tell her daughter what she ought to know. There's always been a 影をつくる／尾行する between most mothers and daughters. And in these days of jazz it has become a 塀で囲む. Perhaps that's why girls don't confide in their mothers... Mrs. Bell, I considered it my 義務 to 熟知させる you with the truth about these 詩（を作る）s and 公式文書，認めるs, and what they 暗示する. Would you care to read some of them?"

"Thank you, but they wouldn't 利益／興味 me in the least," replied Mrs. Bell, coldly. "I wouldn't 侮辱 Bessy or her girl friends. I imagine it's all some risque suggestion overheard and made much of or a few 詩（を作る）s mischievously plagiarized. I'm no prude, 行方不明になる Hill. I know enough not to be strict, which is 明らかに the fault of the school system. As for my own daughter I understand her perfectly and 信用 her 暗黙に. I know the 血 in her. And I shall 除去する her from public school and place her in a 私的な 会・原則 under a 教える, where she'll no longer be exposed to 汚染するing 影響（力）s... I thank you for your 意向, which I'm sure is 肉親，親類d—and, will you please excuse me? I must dress for my 橋（渡しをする） party. Good afternoon, 行方不明になる Hill."

The schoolteacher plodded homeward, her 注目する，もくろむs downcast and sad. The 無視する，冷たく断わる given her by the mother had not 傷つける her as had the 失敗 to help the daughter.

"I knew it—I knew it. I'll never try again. That woman's mind is a wilderness where her girl is 関心d. How brainless these mothers are!... Yet if I'd ever had a girl—I wonder—would I have been blind? One's own 血—that must be the 推論する／理由. Pride. Could I have believed of my girl what I 認める of hers? Perhaps not till too late. That would be so human. But, oh! the mystery—the sadness of it—the fatality!"

Rose Clymer left the High School with the settled, indifferent bitterness of one used to trouble. Every 願望（する） she followed, turn what way she would, every impulse reaching to しっかり掴む some girlish gleam of happiness, resulted in the 必然的な rebuke. And this time it had been 不名誉. But Rose felt she did not care if she could only deceive her father. No cheerful 仕事 was it to 直面する him. Shivering at the thought she 解決するd to elude the 罰 he was sure to （打撃，刑罰などを）与える if he learned why she had been expelled.

She had no twinge of 良心. She was used to slights and unkindness, and did not now 反映する upon the 司法（官） of her 解雇／（訴訟の）却下. What little 楽しみ she got （機の）カム from friendships with boys, and these her father had forbidden her to have. In the bitter web of her thought ran the threads that if she had pretty 着せる／賦与するs like Helen, and a rich mother like Bessy, and a father who was not a drunkard, her lot in life would have been happy.

Rose lived with her stepfather in three dingy rooms in the mill section of Middleville. She never left the wide avenues and lawns and stately 住居s, which she had to pass on her way to and from school, without contrasting them with the dirty alleys and grimy 塀で囲むs and squalid ４半期/4分の1s of the working-class. She had grown up in that class, but in her mind there was always a faint vague recollection of a time when her surroundings had been 有望な and cheerful, where there had been a mother who had taught her to love beautiful things. To-day she climbed the rickety stairs to her home and 押し進めるd open the latchless door with a 反乱 brooding in her mind.

A man in his shirt sleeves sat by the little window.

"Why father—home so 早期に?" she asked.

"Yes lass, home 早期に," he replied wearily. "I'm losing my place again."

He had straggling gray hair, bleared 注目する，もくろむs with an opaque, glazy look and a bluish cast of countenance. His chin was buried in the collar of his open shirt; his shoulders sagged, and he breathed ひどく.

One ちらりと見ること 保証するd Rose her father was not very much under the 影響（力） of drink. And 恐れる left her. When even half-sober he was 肉親，親類d.

"So you've lost your place?" she asked.

"Yes. Old Swann is layin' off."

This was an untruth, Rose knew, because the mills had never been so 十分な, and men never so in 需要・要求する. Besides her father was an 専門家 at his 貿易（する） and could always have work.

"I'm sorry," she said, slowly. "I've been thinking lately that I'll give up school and go to work. In an office uptown or a department 蓄える／店."

"Rose, that'd be good of you," he replied. "You could help along a lot. I don't do my work so 井戸／弁護士席 no more. But your poor mother won't 残り／休憩（する） in her 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な. She was so proud of you, always dreamin'."

The lamp Rose lighted showed comfortless rooms, with but few articles of furniture. It was with the deft fingers of long practice that the girl spread the faded （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する-cloth, laid the dishes, ground the coffee, peeled the potatoes, and 削減（する） the bread. Then presently she called her father to the meal. He ate in silence, having relapsed once more into the dull gloom natural to him. When he had finished he took up his hat and with slow steps left the room.

"No more 熟考する／考慮する for me," mused Rose, and she felt both glad and sorry. "What will Bessy say? She won't like it. I wonder what old Hill did to her. Let her off 平易な. I won't get to see Bessy so much now. No more afternoons in the park. But I'll have the evenings. Best of all, some nice 着せる／賦与するs to wear. I might some day have a lovely gown like that 行方不明になる Maynard wore the night of the Prom."

Rose washed and 乾燥した，日照りのd the dishes, put them away, and cleaned up the little kitchen in a way that spoke 井戸／弁護士席 for her. And she did it cheerfully, for in the 利益／興味 of this new idea of work she forgot her trouble and discontent. Taking up the lamp she went to her room. It 含む／封じ込めるd a 狭くする bed, a bureau, a small wardrobe and a rug. The 塀で囲むs held several pictures, and some touches of color in the way of 略章s, 有望な posters, and an orange-and-blue 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道する. A photograph of Bessy Bell stood on the bureau and the girl's beauty seemed like a light in the dingy room.

Rose looked in the mirror and smiled and 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd her curly 長，率いる. She 熟考する／考慮するd the oval 直面する でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd in its 集まり of curls, the 安定した gray-blue 注目する，もくろむs, the soft, wistful, tenderly curved lips. "Yes, I'm pretty," she said. "And I'm going to buy nice things to wear."

Suddenly she heard a pattering on the roof.

"Rain! What do you know about that? I've got to stay in. If I spoil that 遺物 of a hat I'll never have the 神経 to go ask for a 職業."

She 用意が出来ている for bed, and placing the lamp on the 辛勝する／優位 of the bureau, she lay 負かす／撃墜する to become 吸収するd in a paper-支援するd novel. The mill-clock was striking ten when she finished. There was a dreamy light in her 注目する，もくろむs and a glow upon her 直面する.

"How grand to be as beautiful as she was and turn out to be an heiress with blue 血, and a lovely mother, and handsome lovers dying for her!"

Then she flung the novel against the 塀で囲む.

"It's only a 調書をとる／予約する. It's not true."

Rose blew out the lamp and went to sleep.

During the night she dreamed that the 主要な／長／主犯 of the High School had called to see her father, and she awoke trembling.

The room was dark as pitch; the rain pattered on the roof; the 勝利，勝つd moaned softly under the eaves. A ネズミ somewhere in the 塀で囲む made a creaking noise. Rose hated to awaken in the middle of the night. She listened for her father's breathing, and failing to hear it, knew he had not yet come home. Often she was left alone until 夜明け. She tried bravely to go to sleep again but 設立する it impossible; she lay there listening, 極度の慎重さを要する to every little sound. The silence was almost more dreadful than the stealthy unknown noises of the night. Vague 形態／調整s seemed to hover over her bed. Somehow to-night she dreaded them more. She was sixteen years old, yet there がまんするd with her the terror of the child in the dark.

She cried out in her heart—why was she alone? It was so dark, so silent. Mother! Mother!... She would never—never say her 祈りs again!

The brazen-tongued mill clock clanged the hour of two, when shuffling uncertain footsteps sounded on the hollow stairs. Rose raised her 長，率いる to listen. With slow, 疲れた／うんざりした, dragging steps her father （機の）カム in. Then she lay 支援する on the pillow with a sigh of 救済.

CHAPTER X

In the に引き続いて week Rose learned that work was not to be had for the asking. Her love of pretty things and a 願望（する） to be 独立した・無所属 of her father had 占領するd her mind to the 除外 of a consideration of what might be 需要・要求するd of a girl 捜し出すing a position. She had no knowledge of stenography or bookkeeping; her handwriting was poor. Moreover, 言及／関連s from former 雇用者s were 要求するd and as she had never been 雇うd, she was asked for 推薦s from the 主要な／長／主犯 of her school. These, of course, she could not 供給（する）. The 蓄える／店s of the better class had nothing to 申し込む／申し出 her except to put her 指名する on the waiting-名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）.

Finally Rose 安全な・保証するd a place in a second-率 設立 on Main Street. The work was hard; it necessitated long hours and continual standing on her feet. Rose was not rugged enough to accustom herself to the work all at once, and she was 発射する／解雇するd. This disheartened her, but she kept on trying to find other 雇用.

One day in the shopping 地区, some one accosted her. She looked up to see a young man, わずかな／ほっそりした, elegant, with a curl of his lips she remembered. He raised his hat.

"How do you do, Mr. Swann," she answered.

"Rose, are you on the way home?"

"Yes."

"Let's go 負かす／撃墜する this 味方する street," he said, throwing away his cigarette. "I've been looking for you."

They turned the corner. Rose felt strange to be walking alone with him, but she was not embarrassed. He had danced with her once. And she knew his friend Hardy Mackay.

"What're you crying about?" he said.

"I'm not."

"You have been then. What for?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Come, tell me."

"I—I've been disappointed."

"What about?" He was 執拗な, and Rose felt that he must be used to having his own way.

"It was about a 職業 I didn't get," replied Rose, trying to laugh.

"So you're looking for a 職業. Heard you'd been 解雇する／砲火／射撃d by old Hill. Gail told me. I had her out last night in my new car."

"I could go 支援する to school. 行方不明になる Hill sent for me... Was Bessy with you and Gail?"

"No. Gail and I were alone. We had a dandy time... Rose, will you 会合，会う me some night and take a ride? It'll be 罰金 and 冷静な／正味の."

"Thank you, Mr. Swann. It's very 肉親，親類d of you to ask me."

"井戸／弁護士席, will you go?" he queried, impatiently.

"No," she replied, 簡単に.

"Why not?"

"I don't want to."

"井戸／弁護士席, that's plain enough," he said, changing his トン. "Say, Rose, you're in Clark's 蓄える／店, aren't you?"

"I was. But I lost the place."

"How's that?"

"I couldn't stand on my feet all day. I fainted. Then he 解雇する／砲火／射撃d me."

"So you're 追跡（する）ing for another 職業?" 問い合わせd Swann, thoughtfully.

"Yes."

"Sorry. It's too bad a 甘い kid like you has to work. You're not strong, Rose... 井戸／弁護士席, I'll turn off at this corner. You won't 会合，会う me to-night?"

"No, thanks."

Swann pulled a gold 事例／患者 from his pocket, and 抽出するing a cigarette, 攻撃するd it in his lips as he struck a match. His 直面する wore a careless smile Rose did not like. He was amiable, but he seemed so sure, so 満足させるd, almost as if he believed she would change her mind.

"Rose, you're turning me 負かす／撃墜する 冷淡な, then?"

"Take it any way you like, Mr. Swann," she replied. "Good day."

Rose forgot him almost the instant her 支援する was turned. He had only annoyed her. And she had her stepfather to 直面する, with news of her 発射する／解雇する from the 蓄える／店. Her 恐れるs were 立証するd; he 扱う／治療するd her 残酷に. Next day Rose went to work in a laundry.

And then, very soon it seemed, her school days, the merry times with the boys, and Bessy—all were far 支援する in the past. She did not 会合，会う any one who knew her, nor hear from any one. They had forgotten her. At night, after coming home from the laundry and doing the 家事, she was so tired that she was glad to はう into bed.

But one night a boy brought her a 公式文書，認める. It was from 刑事 Swann. He asked her to go to Mendleson's Hall to see the moving-pictures. She could 会合，会う him uptown at the 入り口. Rose told the boy to tell Swann she would not come.

This 招待 made her thoughtful. If Swann had been ashamed to be seen with her he would not have 招待するd her to go there. Mendleson's was a nice place; all the nice people of Middleville went there. Rose 設立する herself thinking of the lights, the music, the 井戸／弁護士席-dressed （人が）群がる, and then the pictures. She loved moving-pictures, 特に those with swift horses and cowboys and a girl who could ride. All at once a wave of the old thrilling excitement 急ぐd over her. Almost she regretted having sent 支援する a 拒絶. But she would not go with Swann. And it was not because she knew what 肉親，親類d of a young man he was—what he 手配中の，お尋ね者. Rose 辞退するd from dislike, not scruples.

Then （機の）カム a Saturday night which seemed a 最高潮 of her troubles. She was told not to come 支援する to work until その上の notice, and that was as bad as 存在 発射する／解雇するd. How could she tell her stepfather? Of late he had been hard with her. She dared not tell him. The money she earned was little enough, but during his idleness it had served to keep them.

Rose had scarcely gone a 封鎖する when she 遭遇（する）d 刑事 Swann. He stopped her—turned to walk with her. It was a melancholy gift of Rose's that she could tell when men were even in the slightest under the 影響（力） of drink. Swann was not careless now or indifferent. He seemed excited and gay.

"Rose, you're just the girl I'm looking for," he said. "I really was going to your home. Got that 職業 yet?"

"No," she replied.

"I've got one for you. It's at the Telephone 交流. They need an 操作者. My dad owns the telephone company. I've got a pull. I'll get you the place. You can learn it 平易な. Nice 職業—short hours—you sit 負かす／撃墜する all the time—good 支払う／賃金. What do you say, Rose?"

"I—I don't know—what to say," she 滞るd. "Thanks for thinking of me."

"I've had you in mind for a month. Rose, you take this 職業. Take it whether you've any use for me or not. I'm not rotten enough to put this in your way just to make you under 義務s to me."

"I'll think about it. I—I do need a place. My father's out of work. And he's—he's not 平易な to get along with."

"I tell you what, Rose. You 会合，会う me to-night. We'll take a spin in my car. It'll be 罰金 負かす／撃墜する the river road. Then we can talk it over. Will you?"

Rose looked at him, and thought how strange it was that she did not like him any better, now when she せねばならない.

"Why have you tried to—to 急ぐ me?" she asked.

"I like you, Rose."

"But you don't want me to 会合，会う you—go with you, when I—I can't feel as you do?"

"Sure, I want you to, Rose. Nobody ever likes me 権利 off. Maybe you will, after you know me. The 職業 is yours. Don't make any date with me for that. I say here's your chance to have a ride, to 勝利，勝つ a friend. Take it or not. It's up to you. I won't say another word."

Rose's hungry, lonely heart warmed toward Swann. He seemed like a ray of light in the gloom.

"I'll 会合，会う you," she said.

They arranged the hour and then she went on her way home.

The big car sped through River Park. Rose shivered a little as she peered into the 不明瞭 of the grove. Then the car 発射 under the last electric light, out into the country, with the level road white in the moonlight, and the river gleaming below. There was a 安定した, even 急ぐ of 勝利，勝つd. The car hummed and droned and sang. And mingled with the 乾燥した，日照りの scent of dust was the 甘い fragrance of new-mown hay. Far off a light twinkled or it might have been a 星／主役にする.

Swann put his arm around Rose. She did not 縮む—she did not 撃退する him—she did not move. Something strange happened in her mind or heart. It was that moment she fell.

And she fell wide-注目する，もくろむd, knowing what she was doing, not in a fervor of excitement, without 楽しみ or passion, 激しく sure that it was better to be with some one she could not like than to be alone forever. The wrong to herself lay only in the fact that she could not care.

CHAPTER XI

Toward the end of June, 小道／航路's long 徹夜 of watchfulness from the vantage-point at 陸軍大佐 Pepper's apartment resulted in a 確定／確認 of his worst 恐れるs.

One afternoon and evening of a warm, の近くに day in 早期に summer he lay and crouched on the attic 床に打ち倒す above the club-rooms from three o'clock until one the next morning. From time to time he had changed his position to 残り／休憩（する）. But at the 満期 of that 長引いた period of 秘かに調査するing he was so exhausted from the physical 緊張する and mental shock that he was unable to go home. All the 残り／休憩（する） of the night he lay upon 陸軍大佐 Pepper's couch, wide awake, 消費するd by 苦痛 and 苦しめる. About daylight he fell into a sleep, fitful and 十分な of nightmares, to be awakened around nine o'clock by Pepper. The old gambler evinced かなりの alarm until 小道／航路 explained how he happened to be there; and then his feeling changed to solicitude.

"小道／航路, you look awful," he said.

"If I look the way I feel it's no wonder you're shocked," returned 小道／航路.

"Ahuh! What'd you see?" queried the other, curiously.

"When?"

"Why, you numskull, while you were peepin' all that time."

小道／航路 sombrely shook his 長，率いる. "I couldn't tell—what I saw. I want to forget... Maybe in twenty-four hours I'll believe it was a nightmare."

"Humph! 井戸／弁護士席, I'm here to tell you what I've seen wasn't any nightmare," returned Pepper, with his shrewd gaze on 小道／航路. "But we needn't discuss that. If it made an old bum like me sick what might not it do to a 極度の慎重さを要する high-minded chap like you... The question is are you going to 破産した／（警察が）手入れする up that club."

"I am," 宣言するd 小道／航路, grimly.

"Good! But how—when? What's the sense in lettin' them carry on any longer?"

"I had to fight myself last night to keep from breaking in on them... But I want to catch this fellow Swann with my sister. She wasn't there."

"小道／航路, don't wait for that," returned Pepper, nervously. "You might never catch him... And if you did..."

His little plump 井戸／弁護士席-cared-for 手渡す shook as he 延長するd it.

"I don't know what I'll do... I don't know," said 小道／航路, darkly, more to himself.

"小道／航路, this—this worry will knock you out."

"No 事柄. All I ask is to stand up—long enough—to do what I want to do."

"Go home and get some breakfast—and take care of yourself," replied Pepper, gruffly. "Damn me if I'm not sorry I gave Swann's secret away."

"Oh no, you're not," said 小道／航路, quickly. "But I'd have 設立する it out by this time."

Pepper paced up and 負かす／撃墜する the faded carpet, his 手渡すs behind his 支援する, a plodding, 重荷（を負わせる）d 人物／姿／数字.

"Have you any—疑問s left?" he asked, suddenly.

"疑問s!" echoed 小道／航路, ばく然と.

"Yes—疑問s. You're like most of these mothers and fathers... You couldn't believe. You made excuses for the smoke—説 there was no 解雇する／砲火／射撃."

"No more 疑問s, 式のs!... My God! I saw," burst out 小道／航路.

"All 権利. Buck up now. It's something to be sure... You've overdone your strength. You look..."

"Pepper, do me a 好意," interposed 小道／航路, as he made for the door. "Get me an axe and leave it here in your rooms. In 事例／患者 I want to break in on those fellows some time—quick—I'll have it ready."

"Sure, I'll get you anything. And I want to be around when you butt in on them."

"That's up to you. Good-bye now. I'll run in to-morrow if I'm up to it."

小道／航路 went home, his mind in a tumult. His mother had just discovered that he had not slept in his bed, and was 大いに relieved to see him. Breakfast was waiting, and after partaking of it 小道／航路 felt somewhat better. His mother appeared more than usually sombre. Worry was 殺人，大当り her.

"Lorna did not sleep at home last night," she said, presently, as if reluctantly 軍隊d to impart this （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）.

"Where was she?" he queried, blankly.

"She said she would stay with a friend."

"What friend?"

"Some girl. Oh, it's all 権利 I suppose. She's stayed away before with girl friends... But what worried me..."

"井戸／弁護士席," queried 小道／航路, as she paused.

"Lorna was angry again last night. And she told me if you didn't stop your nagging she'd go away from home and stay. Said she could afford to 支払う／賃金 her board."

"She told me that, too," replied 小道／航路, slowly. "And—I'm afraid she meant it."

"Leave her alone, Daren."

"Poor mother! I'm afraid I'm a—a worry to you 同様に as Lorna," he said, gently, with a 手渡す going to her worn cheek. She said nothing, although her ちらりと見ること 残り／休憩（する）d upon him with sad affection.

小道／航路 clambered wearily up to his little room. It had always been a 避難. He leaned a moment against the 塀で囲む, and felt in his extremity like an animal in a 罠（にかける）. A thousand pricking, 急ぐing sensations seemed to be on the way to his 長，率いる. That 混乱, that sensation as if his 血 大型船s would burst, 産する／生じるd to his will. He sat 負かす／撃墜する on his bed. Only the physical 苦痛s and weariness, and the heartsickness がまんするd with him. These had been nothing to daunt his spirit. But to-day was different. The dark, vivid, terrible picture in his mind unrolled like a page. Yesterday was different. To-day he seemed a changed man, 直面するd by imperious 需要・要求するs. Time was 運動ing onward 急速な／放蕩な.

As if impelled by a dark and 悪意のある 軍隊, he slowly leaned 負かす／撃墜する to pull his 捕らえる、獲得する from under the bed. He opened it, and drew out his Colt's (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 gun. Though the June day was warm this big worn metal 武器 had a 冷淡な touch. He did not feel that he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 扱う it, but he did. It seemed 激しい, a thing of subtle, latent energy, with singular fascination for him. It brought up a dark flowing tide of memory. 小道／航路 shut his 注目する，もくろむs, and saw the tide flow by with its 衝突 and horror. The feel of his gun, and the 解任する of what it had meant to him in terrible hours, drove away a wavering of will, and a still 発言する／表明する that tried to pierce his consciousness. It 直す／買収する，八百長をするd his 悪意のある 意向. He threw the gun on the bed, and rising began to pace the 床に打ち倒す.

"If I told what I saw—no 陪審／陪審員団 on earth would 罪人／有罪を宣告する me," he soliloquized. "But I'll kill him—and keep my mouth shut."

計画（する） after 計画（する） he had pondered in mind—and talked over with Blair—something to 妨害する Richard Swann—to give Margaret the chance for happiness and love her heart craved—to put out of Lorna's way the evil 影響（力） that had 脅すd her. Now the 解答 （機の）カム to him. Sooner or later he would catch Swann with his sister in an automobile, or at the club rooms, or at some other 疑わしい place. He knew Lorna was 会合 Swann. He had tried to find them, all to no avail. What he might have done heretofore was no longer 重要な; he knew what he meant to do now.

But all at once 小道／航路 was 直面するd with remembrance of another thing he had 解決するd upon—平等に as strong as his 決意 to save Lorna—and it was his 意向 to 説得する Mel Iden to marry him.

He loved his sister, but not as he loved Mel Iden. Whatever had happened to Lorna or might happen, she would be equal to it. She had the boldness, the 冷静な／正味の, calculating selfishness of the general run of modern girls. Her reactions were vastly different 前線 Mel Iden's. 小道／航路 had lost hope of saving Lorna's soul. He meant only to 除去する a baneful 力／強力にする from her path, so that she might lean to the boy who 手配中の，お尋ね者 to marry her. When in his 悪意のある 意図 he divined the 熱烈な hate of the 兵士 for the slacker he 辞退するd to listen to his 良心. The way out in Lorna's 事例／患者 he had discovered. But what relation had this new factor of his 窮地 to Mel Iden? He could never marry her after he had killed Swann.

小道／航路 went to bed, and when he 残り／休憩（する）d his spent 団体／死体, he pondered over every 段階 of the 事例／患者. 推論する／理由 and 知能 had their say. He knew he had become morbid, sick, rancorous, base, obsessed with this iniquity and his passion to stamp on it, as if it were a venomous serpent. He would have liked to do some magnificent and awful 行為, that would show this little, 狭くする, sordid world at home the truth, and 燃やす forever on their memories the spirit of a 兵士. He had made a sacrifice that few understood. He had no reward except a consciousness that grew more luminous and glorious in its lonely light as time went on. He had 耐えるd the uttermost agonies of hell, a thousand times worse than death, and he had come home with love, with his 約束 still true. To what had he returned?

No need for 推論する／理由 or 知能 to knock at the gates of his passion! The war had left havoc. The physical, the sensual, the violent, the simian—these instincts, engendering the Day of the Beast, had come to 支配する the people he had fought for. Why not go out and deliberately kill a man, a libertine, a slacker? He would still be 事実上の／代理 on the same 原則 that imbued him during the war.

His thoughts drifted to Mel Iden. Strange how he loved her! Why? Because she was a lonely soul like himself—because she was true to her womanhood—because she had fallen for the same 原則 for which he had sacrificed all—because she had been abandoned by family and friends—because she had become beautiful, strange, mystic, 悲劇の. Because にもかかわらず the 無名の child, the scarlet letter upon her breast, she seemed to him infinitely purer than the girl who had jilted him.

小道／航路 now 降伏するd to the enchantment of emotion 具体的に表現するd in the very 指名する of Mel Iden. He had long resisted a 甘い, melancholy 現在の. He had driven Mel from his mind by bitter reflection on the 行為／行う of the people who had ostracized her. Thought of her now, of what he meant to do, of the 開始するing love he had so strangely come to feel for her, was his only source of happiness. She would never know his secret love; he could never tell her that. But it was something to 持つ／拘留する to his heart, besides that unquenchable 約束 in himself, in some unseen genius for far-off good.

The next day 小道／航路, having ascertained where Joshua Iden was 雇うd, betook himself that way just at the noon hour. Iden, like so many other Middleville 国民s, 伸び（る）d a 暮らし by working for the rich Swann. In his best days he had been a master mechanic of the 鉄道／強行採決する shops; at sixty he was foreman of one of the steel mills.

As it chanced, Iden had finished his noonday meal and was 残り／休憩（する）ing in the shade, apart from other 労働者s there. 小道／航路 remembered him, in spite of the fact that the three years had 老年の and 屈服するd him, and lined his 直面する.

"Mr. Iden, do you remember me?" asked 小道／航路. He caught the slight 回避するing of Iden's 注目する，もくろむs from his uniform, and divined how the father of Mel Iden hated 兵士s. But nothing could daunt 小道／航路.

"Yes, 小道／航路, I remember you," returned Iden. He returned 小道／航路's 手渡す-clasp, but not cordially.

小道／航路 had mapped out in his mind this little interview. Taking off his hat, he carefully lowered himself until his 支援する was propped against the tree, and looked 率直に at Iden.

"It's warm. And I tire so easily. The damned Huns 削減（する） me to pieces... Not much like I was when I used to call on Mel!"

Iden lowered his 影をつくる／尾行するd 直面する. After a moment he said: "No, you're changed, 小道／航路... I heard you were ガス／無駄話d, too."

"Oh, everything （機の）カム my way, Mr. Iden... And the finish isn't far off."

Iden 転換d his 脚s uneasily, then sat more 築く, and for the first time really looked at 小道／航路. It was the ちらりと見ること of a man who had strong aversion to the class 小道／航路 代表するd, but who was fair-minded and just, and not without sympathy.

"That's too bad, 小道／航路. You're a young man... The war 攻撃する，衝突する us all, I guess," he said, and at the last, sighed ひどく.

"It's been a long pull—Blair Maynard and I were the first to enlist, and we left Middleville almost すぐに," went on 小道／航路.

He 願望（する）d to 工場／植物 in Iden's mind the fact that he had left Middleville long before the wild 時代 of 兵士-and-girl attraction which had created such havoc. Acutely 極度の慎重さを要する as 小道／航路 was, he could not be sure of an alteration in Iden's aloofness, yet there was some slight change. Then he talked 率直に about 明確な／細部 段階s of the war. Finally, when he saw that he had won 利益／興味 and sympathy from Iden he 突然の 開始する，打ち上げるd his 目的.

"Mr. Iden, I （機の）カム to ask if you will give your 同意 to my marrying Mel."

The older man shrank 支援する as if he had been struck. He 星／主役にするd. His lower jaw dropped. A dark 紅潮／摘発する reddened his cheek.

"What!... 小道／航路, you must be drunk," he ejaculated, thickly.

"No. I never was more earnest in my life. I want to marry Mel Iden."

"Why?" rasped out the father, hoarsely.

"I understand Mel," replied 小道／航路, and 速く he told his 有罪の判決s as to the meaning and 原因（となる） of her sacrifice. "Mel is good. She never was bad. These rotten people who see dishonor and 不名誉 in her have no minds, no hearts. Mel is far above these painted, 明らかにする-膝d girls who 軽蔑（する） her... And I want to show them what I think of her. I want to give her boy a 指名する—so he'll have a chance in the world. I'll not live long. This is just a little thing I can do to make it easier for Mel."

"小道／航路, you can't be the father of her child," burst out Iden.

"No. I wish I were. I was never anything to Mel but a friend. She was only a girl—seventeen when I left home."

"So help me God!" muttered Iden, and he covered his 直面する with his 手渡すs.

"Say yes, Mr. Iden, and I'll go to Mel this afternoon."

"No, let me think... 小道／航路, if you're not drunk, you're crazy."

"Not at all. Why, Mr. Iden, I'm perfectly 合理的な／理性的な. Why, I'd glory in making that splendid girl a little happier, if it's possible."

"I drove my—my girl from her mother—her home," said Iden, slowly.

"Yes, and it was a hard, cruel 行為／法令／行動する," replied 小道／航路, はっきりと. "You were wrong. You—"

The mill whistle 削減（する） short 小道／航路's その上の speech. When its shrill clarion ended, Iden got up, and shook himself as if to reestablish himself in the 現在の.

"小道／航路, you come to my house to-night," he said. "I've got to go 支援する to work... But I'll think—and we can talk it over. I still live where you used to come as a boy... How strange life is!... Good day, 小道／航路."

小道／航路 felt more than 満足させるd with the result of that interview. Joshua Iden would go home and tell Mel's mother, and that would surely make the victory easier. She would be touched in her mother's heart; she would understand Mel now, and divine 小道／航路's 使節団; and she would 嘆願d with her husband to 同意, and to bring Mel 支援する home. 小道／航路 was counting on that. He must never even hint such a hope, but にもかかわらず he had it, he believed in it. Joshua Iden would have the 規模s torn from his 注目する，もくろむs. He would never have it said that a dying 兵士, who 借りがあるd neither him nor his daughter anything, had shown more charity than he.

Therefore, 小道／航路 went 早期に to the Iden homestead, a picturesque cottage across the river from Riverside Park. The only change 小道／航路 公式文書，認めるd was a larger growth of trees and a fuller foliage. It was warm twilight. The frogs had begun to trill, 甘い and melodious sound to 小道／航路, striking melancholy chords of memory. Joshua Iden was walking on his lawn, his coat off, his gray 長，率いる 暴露するd. Mrs. Iden sat on the low-roofed porch. 小道／航路 推定する／予想するd to see a sad change in her, something the same as he had 設立する in his own mother. But he was hardly 用意が出来ている for the frail, white-haired woman unlike the image he carried in his mind.

"Daren 小道／航路! You should have come to see me long ago," was her 迎える／歓迎するing, and in her 発言する／表明する, so like Mel's, 小道／航路 認めるd her. Some fitting reply （機の）カム to him, and presently the moment seemed easier for all. She asked about his mother and Lorna, and then about Blair Maynard. But she did not speak of his own health or 条件. And presently 小道／航路 thought it best to come to the 問題／発行する at 手渡す.

"Mr. Iden, have you made up your mind to—to give me what I want?"

"Yes, I have, 小道／航路," replied Iden, 簡単に. "You've made me see what Mel's mother always believed, though she couldn't make it （疑いを）晴らす to me... I have much to 許す that girl. Yet, if you, who 借りがある her nothing—who have wasted your life in vain sacrifice—if you can ask her to be your wife, I can ask her to come 支援する home."

That was a splendid, all-満足させるing moment for 小道／航路. By his own grief he 手段d his reward. What had counted with Joshua Iden had been his 約束 in Mel's innate goodness. Then 小道／航路 turned to the mother. In the dusk he could see the working of her sad 直面する.

"God bless you, my boy!" she said. "You feel with a woman's heart. I thank you... Joshua has already sent word for Mel to come home. She will be 支援する to-morrow... You must come here to see her. But, Daren, she will never marry you."

"She will," replied 小道／航路.

"You do not know Mel. Even if you had only a day to live she would not let you wrong yourself."

"But when she learns how much it means to me? The army 廃虚d Mel, as it 廃虚d hundreds of thousands of other girls. She will let one 兵士 make it up to her. She will let me go to my death with いっそう少なく bitterness."

"Oh, my poor boy, I don't know—I can't tell," she replied, brokenly. "By God's goodness you have brought about one 奇蹟. Who knows? You might change Mel. For you have brought something 広大な／多数の／重要な 支援する from the war."

"Mrs. Iden, I will 説得する her to marry me," said 小道／航路. "And then, Mr. Iden, we must see what is best for her and the boy—in the 未来."

"Aye, son. One lesson learned makes other lessons 平易な. I will take Mel and her mother far away from Middleville—where no one ever heard of us."

"Good! You can all touch happiness again... And now, if you and Mrs. Iden will excuse me—I will go."

小道／航路 bade the couple good night, and slowly, as might have a lame man, he made his way through the gloaming, out to the road, and 負かす／撃墜する to the 橋（渡しをする）, where as always he ぐずぐず残るd to catch the mystic whispers of the river waters, meant only for his ear. Stronger to-night! He was closer to that nameless thing. The 影をつくる／尾行するs of dusk, the dark murmuring river, held an account with him, いつか to be paid. How blessed to 落ちる, to float 負かす／撃墜する to that 慈悲の oblivion.

CHAPTER XII

Several days passed before 小道／航路 felt himself equal to the momentous interview with Mel Iden. After his call upon Mel's father and mother he was 打ち勝つ by one of his sick, weak （一定の）期間s, that happily had been infrequent of late. This one 限定するd him to his room. He had about fought and won it out, when the old 傷害 at the base of his spine reminded him that misfortunes did not come singly. やめる 突然に, as he bent over with いっそう少なく than his usual 警告を与える, the vertebra slipped out; and 小道／航路 設立する his 団体／死体 新たな展開d like a letter S. And the old 苦痛 was no いっそう少なく terrible for its familiarity.

He got 支援する to his bed and called his mother. She sent for Doctor Bronson. He （機の）カム at once, and though solicitous and 肉親，親類d he lectured 小道／航路 for neglecting the osteopathic 治療 he had advised. And he sent his chauffeur for an osteopath.

"小道／航路," said the little 内科医, peering 厳しく 負かす／撃墜する upon him, "I didn't think you'd last as long as this."

"I'm 堅い, Doctor—hard to kill," returned 小道／航路, making a wry 直面する. "But I couldn't stand this 苦痛 long."

"It'll be easier presently. We can 直す／買収する，八百長をする that spine. Some good 治療s to 強化する ligaments, and a を締める to wear—we can 直す／買収する，八百長をする that... 小道／航路, you've wonderful vitality."

"A doctor in フラン told me that."

"Except for your mental 条件, you're in better 形態／調整 now than when you （機の）カム home." Doctor Bronson peered at 小道／航路 from under his shaggy brows, walked to the window, looked out, and returned, evidently 深い in thought.

"Boy, what's on your mind?" he queried, suddenly.

"Oh, Lord! listen to him," sighed 小道／航路. Then he laughed. "My dear Doctor, I have nothing on my mind—絶対 nothing... This world is a beautiful place. Middleville is 罰金, clean, 進歩／革新的な. People are 肉親，親類d—thoughtful—good. What could I have on my mind?"

"You can't fool me. You think the opposite of what you say... 小道／航路, your heart is breaking."

"No, Doctor. It broke long ago."

"You believe so, but it didn't. You can't give up... 小道／航路, I want to tell you something. I'm a prohibitionist myself, and I 尊敬（する）・点 the 法律. But there are rare 事例／患者s where whiskey will 影響 a cure. I say that as a 内科医. And I am 納得させるd now that your 事例／患者 is one where whiskey might give you a fighting chance."

"Doctor! What're you 説?" ejaculated 小道／航路, wide-注目する，もくろむd with incredulity.

Doctor Bronson 大きくするd upon and 強調するd his 声明.

"I might live!" whispered 小道／航路. "My God!... But that is ridiculous. I'm 発射 to pieces. I'm really tired of living. And I certainly wouldn't become a drunkard to save my life."

At this juncture the osteopath entered, putting an end to that intimate conversation. Doctor Bronson explained the 事例／患者 to his 同僚. And fifteen minutes later 小道／航路's 団体／死体 was again straight. Also he was wringing wet with 冷淡な sweat and quivering in every muscle.

"Gentlemen—your cure is—worse than—the 病気," he panted.

Manifestly Doctor Branson's 利益／興味 in 小道／航路 had 前進するd beyond the professional. His トン was one of friendship when he said, "Boy, it （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s hell what you can stand. I don't know about you. Stop your worry now. Isn't there something you care for?"

"Yes," replied 小道／航路.

"Think of that, or it, or her, then to the 除外 of all else. And give nature a chance."

"Doctor, I can't 支配（する）／統制する my thoughts."

"A fellow like you can do anything," snapped Bronson. "There are such men, now and then. Human nature is strange and manifold. All 広大な／多数の／重要な men do not have statues 築くd in their 栄誉（を受ける）. Most of them are unknown, unsung... 小道／航路, you could do anything—do you hear me?—anything."

小道／航路 felt surprise at the 軍隊 and passion of the practical little 内科医. But he was not 大いに impressed. And he was glad when the two men went away. He felt the insidious approach of one of his 明言する／公表するs of 不景気—the 黒人／ボイコット mood—the hopeless despair—the hell on earth. This （一定の）期間 had not visited him often of late, and now manifestly meant to （不足などを）補う for that forbearance. 小道／航路 put 前へ／外へ his 知能, his courage, his spirit—all in vain. The 猛攻撃 of gloom and anguish was irresistible. Then thought of Mel Iden 支えるd him—held 支援する this madness for the moment.

Every hour he lived made her dearer, yet さらに先に away. It was the unattainableness of her, the impossibility of a fruition of love that slowly and surely 除去するd her. On the other 手渡す, the image of her 甘い 直面する, of her form, of her beauty, of her movements—every 解任する of these physical things 高めるd her charm, and his love. He had 心にいだくd a delusion that it was Mel Iden's spirit alone, the wonderful soul of her, that had 嵐／襲撃するd his heart and won it. But he 設立する to his びっくり仰天 that however he 深い尊敬の念を抱くd her soul, it was the woman also who now allured him. That moment of 発覚 to 小道／航路 was a 大災害. Was there no peace on earth for him? What had he done to be so 拷問d? He had a secret he must hide from Mel Iden. He was human, he was alone, he needed love, but this seemed madness. And at the moment of 十分な 現実化 Doctor Bronson's strange words of 可能性 returned to haunt and flay him. He might live! A 猛烈な／残忍な thrill like a 炎上 leaped from his heart, along his veins. And a shudder, 冷淡な as ice, followed it. Love would kill his 辞職. Love would 追加する to his despair. Mel Iden could never love him. He did not want her love. And yet, to live on and on, with such love as would swell and 開始する from his agony, with the 障壁 between them growing more terrible every day, was more than he cared to 直面する. He would rather die.

And so, at length, 小道／航路's 黒人／ボイコット demon of despair overthrew even his thoughts of Mel, and fettered him there, in 不明瞭 and 争い of soul. He was an 原子 under the grinding, monstrous wheels of his morbid mood.

いつか, after endless moments or hours of lying there, with 鎮圧するd breast, with locked thoughts hideous and forlorn, with slow 燃やす of pang and （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 of heart, 小道／航路 heard a 激しい 強くたたく on the porch outside, on the hall inside, on the stairs. 強くたたく—強くたたく, slow and 激しい! It roused him. It drove away the drowsy, 厚い and thunderous atmosphere of mind. It had a familiar sound. Blair's crutch!

Presently there was a knock on the door of his room and Blair entered. Blair, as always, 有望な of 注目する，もくろむ, smiling of lip, 築く, proud, self-十分な, inscrutable and sure. 小道／航路's 黒人／ボイコット demon stole away. 小道／航路 saw that Blair was whiter, thinner, frailer, a little さらに先に on that road from which there could be no turning.

"Hello, old scout," 迎える／歓迎するd Blair, as he sat 負かす／撃墜する on the bed beside 小道／航路. "I need you more than any one—but it kills me to see you."

"Same here, Blair," replied 小道／航路, comprehendingly.

"Gosh! we oughtn't be so finicky about each other's looks," exclaimed Blair, with a smile.

But neither 小道／航路 nor Blair made その上の 言及／関連 to the 支配する.

Each from the other assimilated some 軍隊, from 発言する／表明する and look and presence, something wanting in their 接触する with others. These two had 手段d all emotions, spanned in little time the extremes of life, plumbed the depths, and now saw each other on the 高さs. In the presence of Blair, 小道／航路 felt an exaltation. The more Blair seemed to fade away from life, the more luminous and beautiful the light of his countenance. For 小道／航路 the 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd and dying Blair was a 行為 of valor done, a wrong expiated for the sake of others, a magnificent nobility in contrast to the baseness and greed and cowardice of the self-保護 that had doomed him. 小道／航路 had only to look at Blair to feel something elevating in himself, to know beyond all 疑問 that the goodness, the truth, the 進歩 of man in nature, and of God in his soul, must grow on forever.

Mel Iden had been in her home four days when 小道／航路 first saw her there.

It was a day late in June when the rich, 厚い, amber light of afternoon seemed to float in the 空気／公表する. Warm summer lay on the land. The bees were humming in the rose vines over the porch. Mrs. Iden, who evidently heard 小道／航路's step, appeared in the path, and nodding her gladness at sight of him, she pointed to the open door.

小道／航路 停止（させる）d on the threshold. The golden light of the day seemed to have entered the room and 設立する Mel. It warmed the pallor of her 肌 and the whiteness of her dress. When he had seen her before she had worn something plain and dark. Could a white gown and the golden glow of June 影響 such 変形? She （機の）カム slowly toward him and took his 手渡す.

"Daren, I am home," was all she could say.

Long hours before 小道／航路 had を締めるd himself for this ordeal. It was himself he had 恐れるd, not Mel. He played the part he had created for her imagination. Behind his composure, his 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な, 肉親，親類d earnestness, hid the subdued and 軽蔑（する）d and unwelcome love that had come to him. He held it 負かす／撃墜する, surrounded, encompassed, clamped, so that he dared look into her 注目する，もくろむs, listen to her 発言する／表明する, watch the 甘い and 悲劇の tremulousness of her lips.

"Yes, Mel, where you should be," replied 小道／航路.

"It was you—your 申し込む／申し出 to marry me—that melted father's heart."

"Mel, all he needed was to be made think," returned 小道／航路. "And that was how I made him do it."

"Oh, Daren, I thank you, for mother's sake, for 地雷—I can't tell you how much."

"Mel, please don't thank me," he answered. "You understand, and that's enough. Now say you'll marry me, Mel."

Mel did not answer, but in the look of her 注目する，もくろむs, dark, 湿気の多い, with mysterious depths below the 隠す, 小道／航路 saw the truth; he felt it in the clasp of her 手渡すs, he divined it in all that so subtly emanated from the womanliness of her. Mel had come to love him.

And all that he had 耐えるd seemed to rise and envelop heart and soul in a strange, 冷淡な stillness.

"Mel, will you marry me?" he repeated, almost dully.

Slowly Mel withdrew her 手渡すs. The query seemed to make her mistress of herself.

"No, Daren, I cannot," she replied, and turned away to look out of a window with unseeing 注目する，もくろむs. "Let us talk of other things... My father says he will move away—taking me and—and—all of us—as soon as he sells the home."

"No, Mel, if you'll 許す me, we'll not talk of something else," 小道／航路 知らせるd her. "We can argue without quarreling. Come over here and sit 負かす／撃墜する."

She （機の）カム slowly, as if impelled, and she stood before him. To 小道／航路 it seemed as if she were both supplicating and inexorable.

"Do you remember the last time we sat together on this couch?" she asked.

"No, Mel, I don't."

"It was four years ago—and more. I was sixteen. You tried to kiss me and were angry because I wouldn't let you."

"井戸／弁護士席, wasn't I rude!" he exclaimed, facetiously. Then he grew serious. "Mel, do you remember it was Helen's lying that （機の）カム between you and me—as boy and girl friends?"

"I never knew. Helen Wrapp! What was it?"

"It's not 価値（がある） 解任するing and would 傷つける you—now," he replied. "But it served to draw me Helen's way. We were engaged when she was seventeen... Then （機の）カム the war. And the other night she laughed in my 直面する because I was a 難破させる... Mel, it's beyond understanding how things work out. Helen has chosen the fleshpots of Egypt. You have chosen a lonelier and higher path... And here I am in your little parlor asking you to marry me."

"No, no, no! Daren, don't, I beg of you—don't talk to me this way," she besought him.

"Mel, it's a difference of opinion that makes arguments, wars and other things," he said, with a cruelty in strange antithesis to the pity and tenderness he likewise felt. He could 傷つける her. He had 力／強力にする over her. What a pang 発射 through his heart! There would be an irresistible delight in playing on the emotions of this woman. He could no more help it than the shame that 殺到するd over him at consciousness of his littleness. He already loved her, she was all he had left to love, he would end in a day or a week or a month by worshipping her. Through her he was going to 苦しむ. Peace would now never がまんする in his soul.

"Daren, you were never like this—as a boy," she said, in wondering 苦しめる.

"Like what?"

"You're hard. You used to be so—so gentle and nice."

"Hard! I? Yes, Mel, perhaps I am—hard as war, hard as modern life, hard as my old friends, my little sister——" he broke off.

"Daren, do not mock me," she entreated. "I should not have said hard. But you're strange to me—a something terrible flashes from you. Yet it's only in glimpses... 許す me, Daren, I didn't mean hard."

小道／航路 drew her 負かす／撃墜する upon the couch so that she 直面するd him, and he did not 解放（する） her 手渡す.

"Mel, I'm softer than a jelly-fish," he said. "I've no bone, no 繊維, no stamina, no 実体. I'm more 安定性のない than water. I'm so soft I'm weak. I can't stand 苦痛. I 嘘（をつく） awake in the dead hours of night and I cry like a baby, like a fool. I weep for myself, for my mother, for Lorna, for you..."

"Hush!" She put a soft を引き渡す his lips.

"Very 井戸／弁護士席, I'll not be bitter," he went on, with 開始するing pulse, with thrill and 急ぐ of inexplicable feeling, as if at last had come the person who would not be deaf to his 発言する／表明する. "Mel, I'm still the boy, your schoolmate, who used to pull the 屈服する off your braid... I am that boy still in heart, with all the war upon my 長，率いる, with the years between then and now. I'm young and old... I've lived the whole gamut—the fresh call of war to 青年, glorious, but God! as 誤った as stairs of sand—the change of 血, hard, long, 残虐な, debasing labor of 手渡すs, of 団体／死体, of mind to learn to kill—to 生き残る and kill—and go on to kill... I've seen the marching of thousands of 兵士s—the long strange tramp, tramp, tramp, the （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域, the roll of 派手に宣伝するs, the call of bugles, the にわか景気 of 大砲 in the dark, the 雷s of hell ゆらめくing across the midnight skies, the 雷鳴 and 大混乱 and 拷問 and death and pestilence and decay—the hell of war. It is not sublime. There is no glory. The sublimity is in man's 受託 of war, not for hate or 伸び（る）, but love. Love of country, home, family—love of women—I fought for women—for Helen, whom I imagined my ideal, breaking her heart over me on the 戦場. Not that Helen failed me, but failed the ideal for which I fought!... My little sister Lorna! I fought for her, and I fought for a dream that 存在するd only in my heart. Lorna—式のs!... I fought for other women, all women—and you, Mel Iden. And in you, in your sacrifice and your strength to 耐える, I find something 傷をいやす／和解させるing to my sore heart. I find my ideal 具体的に表現するd in you. I find hope and 約束 for the 未来 具体的に表現するd in you. I find—"

"Oh Daren, you shame me utterly," she 抗議するd, 解放する／自由なing her 手渡すs in gesture of entreaty. "I am outcast."

"To a 誤った and rotten society, yes—you are," he returned. "But Mel, that society is a 集まり of maggots. It is such women as you, such men as Blair, who carry the spirit onward... So much for that. I have spoken to try to show you where I 持つ／拘留する you. I do not call your—your trouble a 失敗, or downfall, or dishonor. I call it a misfortune because—because—"

"Because there was not love," she 補足（する）d, as he 停止（させる）d at fault. "Yes, that is where I wronged myself, my soul. I obeyed nature and nature is strong, raw, 必然的な. She 捜し出すs only her end, which is 関心d with the 種類. For nature the individual 死なせる／死ぬs. Nature cannot be God. For God has created a soul in woman. And through the ages woman has 前進するd to 持つ／拘留する her womanhood sacred. But ever the 原始の lurks in the 血, and the 原始の is nature. Soul and nature are not 両立できる. A woman's soul 許可／制裁s only love. That is the only 進歩 there ever was in life. Nature and war made me 反逆者 to my soul."

"Yes, yes, Mel, it's true—and cruel, what you say," returned 小道／航路. "All the more 推論する／理由 why you should do what I ask. I am home after the war. All that was vain is vain. I forget it when I can. I have—not a 広大な／多数の／重要な while left. There are a few things even I can do before that time. One of them—the biggest to me—関心s you. You are in trouble. You have a boy who can be spared much unhappiness in life. If you were married—if the boy had my 指名する—how different the 未来! Perhaps there can be some 手段 of happiness for you. For him there is every hope. You will leave Middleville. You will go far away somewhere. You are young. You have a good education. You can teach school, or help your parents while the boy is growing up. Time is 肉親，親類d. You will forget... Marry me, Mel, for his sake."

She had both 手渡すs 圧力（をかける）d to her breast as if to stay an uncontrollable feeling. Her 注目する，もくろむs, dilated and wide, 表明するd a blending of emotions.

"No, no, no!" she cried.

小道／航路 went on just the same with other words, in other vein, 繰り返し言うing the same importunity. It was a 悲劇の game, in which he divined he must lose. But the playing of it had inexplicably bitter-甘い 苦痛. He knew now that Mel loved him. No greater proof needed he than the perception of her reaction to one word on his lips—wife. She quivered to that like a tautly strung lyre touched by a skilful 手渡す. It fascinated her. But the 誘惑 to 受託する his 申し込む／申し出 for the sake of her boy's 未来 was 中和する／阻止するd by the very strength of her feeling for 小道／航路. She would not marry him, because she loved him.

小道／航路 read this truth, and it wrung a deeper reverence from him. And he saw, too, the one way in which he could break her spirit, make her 降伏する, if he could stoop to it. If he could take her in his 武器, and 持つ／拘留する her tight, and kiss her dumb and blind, and make her understand his own love for her, his need of her, she would accede with the wondrous generosity of a woman's heart. But he could not do it.

In the end, out of sheer pity that overcame the strange delight he had in 拷問ing her, he desisted in his 控訴，上告s and 需要・要求するs and subtle arguments. The long 緊張する left him spent. And with the sudden let-負かす／撃墜する of his energy, the 降伏する to her stronger will, he fell prey at once to the sadness that more and more was encompassing him. He felt an old and broken man.

To this sudden change in 小道／航路 Mel 答える／応じるd with mute 苦悩 and 恐れる. The alteration of his spirit stunned her. As he bade her good-bye she clung to him.

"Daren, 許す me," she implored. "You don't understand... Oh, it's hard."

"Never mind, Mel. I guess it was just one of my dreams. Don't cry... Good-bye."

"But you'll come again?" she entreated, almost wildly.

小道／航路 shook his 長，率いる. He did not 信用 himself to look at her then.

"Daren, you can't mean that," she cried. "It's too late for me. I—I—Oh! You... To uplift me—then to cast me 負かす／撃墜する! Daren, come 支援する."

In his heart he did not 否定する that cry of hers. He knew he would come 支援する, knew it with stinging shame, but he could not tell her. It had all turned out so 異なって from what he had dreamed. If he had not loved her he would not have felt 敗北・負かす. To have made her his wife would have been to 保護する her, to 所有する her even after he was dead.

At the last she let him go. He felt her watching him, and he carried her ぐずぐず残る clasp away with him, to 燃やす and to thrill and to haunt, and yet to 慰安 him in lonely hours.

But the next day the old spirit resurged もう一度, and unreconciled to 敗北・負かす, he turned to what was left him. Foolish and futile hopes! To bank on the 選び出す／独身 穀物 of good in his wayward sister's heart! To 信用 the might of his spirit—to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 負かす／撃墜する the 影響（力） of an intolerant and depraved young millionaire—verily he was mad. Yet he believed. And as a final 訴える手段／行楽地 he held death in his 手渡す. Richard Swann swaggered by 小道／航路 that night in the billiard room of the Bradford Inn and 星／主役にするd sneeringly at him.

"I've got a date," he gayly said to his sycophantic friends, in a トン that would reach 小道／航路's ears.

The summer night （機の）カム when 小道／航路 drove a 雇うd car out the river road, keeping ever in sight a red light in 前線 of him. He broke the 法律 and 危うくするd his life by traveling with darkened lamps.

There was a 三日月 moon, （疑いを）晴らす and exquisitely delicate in the darkening blue sky. The gleaming river shone winding away under the dusky wooded hills. The white road stretched ahead, dimming in the distance. A night for romance and love—for a maiden at a stile and a lover who hung rapt and humble upon her whispers! But that red 注目する，もくろむ before him held no romance. It leered as the luxurious sedan swayed from 味方する to 味方する, a diabolical thing with 速度(を上げる）.

小道／航路 was 運動ing out the 明言する／公表する 主要道路, mile after mile. He calculated that in いっそう少なく than ten minutes Swann had taken a girl from a bustling corner of Middleville out into the open country. In pleasant 天候, when the roads were good, cars like Swann's swerved off into the bypaths, into the 辛勝する／優位 of 支持を得ようと努めるd. In bad 天候 they parked along the 主要道路, darkened their lights and pulled their blinds. For this, 広大な／多数の／重要な factories turned out automobiles. And there might have pealed out to a nation, and to God, the dolorous cry of a hundred thousand 廃虚d girls! But who would hear? And on the lips of girls of the 現在の there was only the wild cry for excitement, for the nameless and unknown! There was a girl in Swann's car and 小道／航路 believed it was his sister. Night after night he had watched. Once he had 現実に seen Lorna ride off with Swann. And to-night from a vantage point under the maples, when he had a car ready to follow, he had made sure he had seen them again.

The red 注目する，もくろむ squared off at 権利 angles to the 主要道路, and disappeared. 小道／航路 （機の）カム to a byroad, a 小道／航路 lined with trees. He stopped his car and got out. It did not appear that he would have to walk far. And he was 権利, for presently a 黒人／ボイコット 反対する ぼんやり現れるd against the gray obscurity. It was an automobile, without lights, in the 影をつくる／尾行する of trees.

小道／航路 停止（させる）d. He carried a flash-light in his left 手渡す, his gun in his 権利. For a moment he 審議する／熟考するd. This 存在 abroad in the dark on an errand fraught with 危険，危なくする for some one had a familiar and deadly 強い味. He was at home in this atmosphere. Hell itself had yawned at his feet many and many a time. He was a different man here. He 審議する／熟考するd because it was wise to forestall events. He did not want to kill Swann then, unless in self-弁護. He waited until that peculiarly quick and tight and 冷淡な settling of his 神経s told of brain 支配（する）／統制する over heart. Yet he was conscious of subdued hate, of a righteous and terrible wrath held in （一時的）停止 for the sake of his sister's 指名する. And he regretted that he had imperiously 需要・要求するd of himself this 保証／確信 of Lorna's wantonness.

Then he stole 今後, closer and closer. He heard a low 発言する／表明する of dalliance, a titter, high-pitched and 甘い—甘い and wild. That was not Lorna's laugh. The car was not Swann's.

小道／航路 swerved to the left, and in the gloom of trees, passed by noiselessly. Soon he 遭遇（する）d another car—an open car with 保護物，者s up—as silent as if empty. But the very silence of it was potent of life. It cried out to the night and to 小道／航路. But it was not the car he had followed.

Again he slipped by, stealthily, yet scornful of his 警告を与える. Who cared? He might have shouted his 使節団 to the heavens. 小道／航路 passed on. All he caught from the second car was a faint fragrance of smoke, wafted on the gentle summer 微風.

Another 黒人／ボイコット 反対する ぼんやり現れるd up—a larger car—the sedan 小道／航路 認めるd. He did not bolt or hurry. His footsteps made no sound. Crouching a little he slipped 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the car to one 味方する. At the instant he reached for the 扱う of the door, a pang shook him. 式のs, that he should be compelled to 秘かに調査する on Lorna! His little sister! He saw her as a curly-長，率いるd child, adoring him. Perhaps it might not be Lorna after all. But it was for her sake that he was doing this. The softer moment passed and the 兵士 介入するd.

With one swift turn and jerk he opened the door—then flashed his light. A 叫び声をあげる rent the 空気／公表する. In the glaring circle of light 小道／航路 saw red hair—green 注目する，もくろむs transfixed in 恐れる—white shoulders—white 武器—white （犯罪の）一味d 手渡すs suddenly flung 上向き. Helen! The 血 left his heart in a 急ぐ. Swann blinked in the light, bewildered and startled.

"Swann, you'll have to excuse me," said 小道／航路, coolly. "I thought you had my sister with you. I've spotted her twice with you in this car... It may not 利益／興味 you or your—your guest, but I'll 追加する that you're damned lucky not to have Lorna here to-night."

Then he snapped off his flash-light, and slamming the car door, he wheeled away.

CHAPTER XIII

小道／航路 left his room and went into the shady 支持を得ようと努めるd, where he thought the July heat would be いっそう少なく unendurable, where the fever in his 血 might abate. But though it was 冷静な／正味の and pleasant there he experienced no 救済. Wherever he went he carried the 重荷（を負わせる） of his pangs. And his grim 巨大（な） of 不安 trod in his 影をつくる／尾行する.

He could not stay long in the 支持を得ようと努めるd. He betook himself to the hills and meadows. 活動／戦闘 was 有益な for him, though he soon exhausted himself. He would have liked to fight out his 戦う／戦い that day. Should he go on spending his days and nights in a slowly 増加するing torment? The longer he fought the いっそう少なく chance he had of victory. Victory! There could be 非，不，無. What victory could be won over a strange ineradicable susceptibility to the sweetness, charm, mystery of a woman? He plodded the fragrant fields with bent 長，率いる, in despair. Loneliness 傷つける him as much as anything. And a new pang, the fiercest and most insupportable, had been 追加するd to his 悲惨s. Jealousy! Thought of the father of Mel Iden's child haunted him, flayed him, made him feel himself ignoble and base. There was no help for that. And this fiend of jealousy 追加するd 燃料 to his love. Only long 熱烈な iteration of his 保証／確信 of 原則 and generosity subdued that frenzy and at length gave him composure. Perhaps this had some 外見 to victory.

小道／航路 returned to town 女性 in one way than when he had left, yet stronger in another. Upon the 郊外s of Middleville he crossed the river road and sat 負かす／撃墜する upon a 石／投石する 塀で囲む. The afternoon was far spent and the sun 炎ing red. 小道／航路 wiped his moist 直面する and fanned himself with his hat. Behind him the shade of a wooded garden or park looked 招待するing. 支援する in the foliage he 遠くに見つけるd the vine-covered roof of an old summer house.

A fresh young 発言する／表明する burst upon his meditations. "Hello, Daren 小道／航路."

小道／航路 turned in surprise to behold a girl in white, standing in the shade of trees beyond the 塀で囲む. Somewhere he had seen that beautiful golden 長，率いる, the dark blue, almost purple 注目する，もくろむs.

"Good afternoon. You startled me," said 小道／航路.

"I called you twice."

"Indeed? I beg 容赦. I didn't hear."

"Don't you remember me?" Her トン was one of pique and 疑問.

Then he remembered her. "Oh, of course. Bessy Bell! You must 許す me. I've been ill and upset lately. These bad （一定の）期間s of 地雷 magnify time. It seems long since the Junior Prom."

"Oh, you're ill," she returned, compassionately. "You do look pale and—won't you come in? It's dusty and hot there. Come. I'll take you where it's nice and 冷静な／正味の."

"Thank you. I'll be glad to."

She led him to a green, fragrant nook, where a （法廷の）裁判 with cushions stood half-hidden under 激しい foliage. 小道／航路 caught a glimpse of a winding flagged path, and in the distance a cottage の中で the trees.

"Bessy, do you live here?" he asked. "It's pretty."

"Yes, this is my home. It's too damn far from town, I'll say. I'm buried alive," she replied, passionately.

The bald speech struck 小道／航路 強制的に. All at once he remembered Bessy Bell and his former 利益／興味. She was a type of the heretofore inexplicable modern girl. 小道／航路 looked at her, seeing her suddenly with a clearer 見通し. Bessy Bell had a physical perfection, a loveliness that needed neither spirit nor 活気／アニメーション. But life had given this girl so much more than beauty. A softness of light seemed to 向こうずね 一連の会議、交渉／完成する her golden 長，率いる; smiles played in secret behind her red lips ready to break 前へ／外へ, and there was a haunting hint of a dimple in her 一連の会議、交渉／完成する cheek; on her lay the sweetness of 青年 subtly 夜明けing into womanhood; the flashing 注目する，もくろむs were keen with intellect, with 解雇する／砲火／射撃, 十分な of 約束 and mystic charm; and her beautiful, supple 団体／死体, so plainly 明白な, seemed quivering with sheer, restless joy of movement and feeling. A trace of 人工的な color on her 直面する and the indelicacy of her dress but わずかに 中和する／阻止するd 小道／航路's first impression.

"You 約束d to call me up and make a date," she said, and sat 負かす／撃墜する の近くに to him.

"Yes. I meant it too. But Bessy, I was ill, and then I forgot. You didn't 行方不明になる much."

"Hot dog! Hear the man. Daren, I'd throw the whole bunch 負かす／撃墜する to be with you," she exclaimed.

At the end of that speech she paled わずかに and her breath （機の）カム quickly. She looked bold, 挑発的な, expectant, yet sincere. Child or woman, she had to be taken 本気で. Here indeed was the mystery that had baffled 小道／航路. He realized his 適切な時期, like a flash all his former thought and conjecture about this girl returned to him.

"You would. 井戸／弁護士席, I'm 高度に flattered. Why, may I ask?"

"Because I've fallen for you," she replied, leaning の近くに to him. "That's the main 推論する／理由, I guess... But another is, I want you to tell me all about yourself—in the war, you know."

"I'd be glad to—if we get to be real friends," he said, thoughtfully. "I don't understand you."

"And I'll say I don't just get you," she retorted. "What do you want? Have you forgotten the silver platter?"

She turned away with a restless quivering. She had shown no shyness. She was bold, 激しい, 絶対 without 恐れる; and however 刺激するing or attractive the 状況／情勢 evidently was, it was neither new nor novel to her. Some strange leaven worked 深い in her. 小道／航路 could put no other 解釈／通訳 on her words and 活動／戦闘s than that she 推定する／予想するd him to kiss her.

"Bessy Bell, look at me," said 小道／航路, 真面目に. "You've said a mouthful, as the slang word goes. I'm sort of surprised, you remember. Bessy, you're not a girl whose 長，率いる is 十分な of excelsior. You've got brains. You can think... Now, if you really like me—and I believe you—try to understand this. I've been away so long. All is changed. I don't know how to take girls. I'm ill—and unhappy. But if I could be your friend and could help you a little—please you—why it'd be good for me."

"Daren, they tell me you're going to die," she returned, breathlessly. Her ちらりと見ること was brooding, dark, 妊娠している with purple 解雇する／砲火／射撃.

"Bessy, don't believe all you hear. I'm not—not so far gone yet."

"They say you're game, too."

"I hope so, Bessy."

"Oh, you make me think. You must believe me a pill. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 you to—to 落ちる for me hard... That bunch of sapheads have spoiled me, I'll say. Daren, I'm sick of them. All they want to do is mush. I like tennis, riding, ゴルフ. I want to do things. But it's too hot, or this, or that. Yet they'll break their necks to carry a girl off to some roadhouse, and dance—dance till you're melted. Then they stop along the river to go bathing. I've been twice. You see, I have to こそこそ動く away, or 嘘（をつく） to mother and say I've gone to Gail's or somewhere."

"Bathing, at night?" queried 小道／航路, curiously.

"Sure thing. It's spiffy, in the dark."

"Of course you took your bathing 控訴s?"

"Hot dog! That would be telling."

小道／航路 dropped his 長，率いる and 熟考する／考慮するd the dust at his feet. His heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 厚い and 激しい. Through this girl the truth was going to be 明らかにする／漏らすd to him. It seemed on the moment that he could not look into her 注目する，もくろむs. She scattered his wits. He tried to erase from his mind every impression of her, so that he might begin もう一度 to understand her. And the very first, 後継するing this erasure, was a singular idea that she was the opposite of romantic.

"Bessy, can you understand that it is hard for a 兵士 to talk of what has happened to him?"

"I'll say I can," she replied.

"You're sorry for me?" he went on, gently.

"Sorry!... Give me a chance to 証明する what I am, Daren 小道／航路."

"Very 井戸／弁護士席, then. I will. We'll make a fifty-fifty 取引. Do you regard a 約束 sacred?"

"I think I do. Some of the girls quarrel with me because I get sore, and 断言する they're not square, as I try to be. I hate a liar and a quitter."

"Come then—shake 手渡すs on our 取引."

She seemed thrilled, excited. The clasp of her little 手渡す showed 軍隊 of character. She looked wonderingly up at him. Her 控訴，上告 then was one of exquisite 青年 and beauty. Something of the baffling suggestion of an amorous 期待 and 返答 left her. This child would give what she received.

"First, then, it's for me to know a lot about you," went on 小道／航路. "Will you tell me?"

"Sure. I'd 信用 you with anything," she replied, impulsively.

"How long have you been going with boys?"

"Oh, for two years, I guess. I had a 熱烈な love 事件／事情／状勢 when I was thirteen," she replied, with the nonchalance and sophistication of experience.

It was impossible for 小道／航路 to take this latter 発言／述べる for anything but the glib boldness of an erotic child. But he was not making any 保証／確信s to himself that he was 権利. Bessy Bell was fifteen years old, によれば time. But she had the physical 開発 of eighteen, and a mental 範囲 beyond his ken. The lawlessness 抑えるのをやめるd by the war seemed 具体的に表現するd in this girl.

"With an older boy?" queried 小道／航路.

"No. He was a kid of my own age. I guess I outgrew Ted," she replied, dreamily. "But he still tries to 急ぐ me."

"With whom do you go to the secret club-rooms—above White's ice cream parlor?" asked 小道／航路, 突然の.

Bessy never flicked an eyelash. "Hot dog! So you're wise to that? I thought it was a secret. I told Rose Clymer those fellows weren't on the level. Who told you I was there? Your sister Lorna?"

"No. No one told me. Never mind that. Who took you there? You needn't be afraid to 信用 me. I'm going to ゆだねる my secrets to you by and bye."

"I went with Roy Vancey, the boy who was with me at Helen's the day I met you."

"Bessy, how often have you been to those club-rooms?"

"Three times."

"Were you ever there alone without any girls?"

"No. I had my chance. 刑事 Swann tried his damnedest to get me to go. But I've no use for him."

"Why?"

"I just don't like him, Daren," she replied, evasively. "I love to have fun. But I 港／避難所't yet been so hard up I had to go out with some one I didn't like."

"Has Swann had my sister Lorna at the club?"

Her replies had been 誘発する and frank. At this sudden query she seemed checked. 小道／航路 read in Bessy Bell then more of the truth of her than he had yet divined. Falsehood was 自然に abhorrent to her. To 嘘（をつく） to her parents or teachers savored of fun, and was part of the game. She did not want to 嘘（をつく） to 小道／航路, but in her code she could not betray another girl, 特に to that girl's brother.

"Daren, I 約束d I'd tell you all about myself," she said.

"I shouldn't have asked you to give away one of your friends," he returned. "Some other time I'll talk to you about Lorna. Tell you what I know, and ask you to help me save her——"

"Save her! What do you mean, Daren?" she interrupted, with surprise.

"Bessy, I've paid you the compliment of believing you have 知能. Hasn't it occurred to you that Lorna—or other of her friends or yours—might be going straight to 廃虚?"

"廃虚! No, that hadn't occurred to me. I heard Doctor Wallace make a 割れ目 like yours. Mother 運ぶ／漁獲高d me to church the Sunday after you broke up Fanchon Smith's dance. Doctor Wallace didn't impress me. These old people make me sick anyhow. They don't understand... But Daren, I think I get your drift. So snow some more."

All in a moment, it seemed to 小道／航路, this girl passed from surprise to gravity, then to contempt, and finally to humor. She was fascinating.

"To go 支援する to the club," 再開するd 小道／航路. "Bessy, what did you do there?"

"Oh, we toddled and shimmied. 削減（する） up! Had an 巨大な time, I'll say."

"What do you mean by 削減（する） up?"

"Why, we just ran wild, you know. Fool stunts!... Once Roy was sore because I kicked cigarettes out of （頭が）ひょいと動く's mouth. But the boob was tickled stiff when I kicked for him. Jealous! It's all 権利 with any one of the boys what you do for him. But if you do the same for another boy—good night!"

Bessy had no divination of the fact that her words for 小道／航路 had a 明らかにするing significance.

"I suppose you played what we used to call kissing games?" queried 小道／航路.

A 甘い, high trill of laughter escaped Bessy's red lips.

"Daren, you are funny. Those games are as dead as Caesar... This bunch of boys and girls paired off by themselves to spoon... As for myself, I don't mind spooning if I like the fellow—and he hasn't been drinking. But さもなければ I hate it. All the same I got what was coming to me from some of the boys of the Strong Arm Club."

"Why do they give it that 指名する?" asked 小道／航路, remembering 陸軍大佐 Pepper's 発言／述べるs.

"Why, if a girl doesn't come across she gets the strong arm... I had to fight like the devil that last afternoon I went there."

"Did you fight, Bessy?"

"I'll say I did... Roy Vancey is sore as a pup. He hasn't been 近づく me or called me up since."

"Bessy, will you 約束 to stay away from that place—and not to go joy-riding with any of those boys—day or night—if I 会合，会う you, and tell you all about my experience in the war? I'll do my best to keep the time you spend with me from 存在 tedious."

"It's another 取引," she returned deliberately, "if you just don't spend enough time with me to make me stuck on you—then throw me 負かす／撃墜する. On the level, now, Daren?"

"I'll 会合，会う you as often as you want. And I'll be your friend as long as you 証明する to me I can be of any help, or 楽しみ, or good to you."

"Hot dog, but you're taking some 職業, Daren. Won't it be just spiffy? We'll 会合，会う here, afternoons, and evenings when mother's out. She's nutty on 橋（渡しをする）. She makes me 約束 I won't leave the yard. So I'll not have to 嘘（をつく） to 会合，会う you... Daren, that day at Helen's, the minute I saw you I knew you were going to have something to do with my 未来."

"Bessy, a little while ago I made sure you had no romance in you," replied 小道／航路, with a smile. "Now as we've gotten serious, let's think hard about the 未来. What do you want most? Do you care for 熟考する／考慮する, for 調書をとる／予約するs? Have you any gift for music? Do you ever think of fitting yourself for useful work?... Or is your mind 十分な of this jazz stuff? Do you just want to go from day to day, like a バタフライ from flower to flower? Just this boy and that one—not caring much which—all this frivolity you hinted of, and worse, living this precious time of your 青年 all for excitement? What is it you want most?"

She 答える／応じるd with a thoughtfulness that 奮起させるd 小道／航路's hope for her. This girl could be reached. She was like Lorna in many ways, but different in mentality. Bessy watched the gyrations of her shapely little foot. She could not keep still even in abstraction.

"A girl must have a good time," she replied presently. "I've done things I hated because I couldn't 耐える to be left out of the fun... But I like most to read and dream. Music makes me strange inside, and to want to do 広大な／多数の／重要な things. Only there are no 広大な／多数の／重要な things to do. I've never been nutty about a career, like Helen is. And I always hated work... I guess—to tell on the level—what I want most is to be loved."

With that she raised her 注目する，もくろむs to 小道／航路's. He tried to read her mind, and realized that if he failed it was not because she was not 明らかにするing it. Dropping his own gaze, he pondered. The girl's 返答 to his earnestness was intensely thought-刺激するing. No 事柄 how immodestly she was dressed, or what she had 自白するd to, or whether she had really 推定する／予想するd and 願望（する）d dalliance on his part—here was the truth as to her hidden yearning. The seething and terrible Renaissance of the modern girl seemed remarkably exemplified in Bessy Bell, yet underneath it all hid the 根底となる instinct of all women of all ages. Bessy 手配中の，お尋ね者 most to be loved. Was that the secret of her 出発 from the old-fashioned canons of modesty and reserve?

"Bessy," went on 小道／航路, presently. "I've heard my sister speak of Rose Clymer. Is she a friend of yours, too?"

"You bet. And she's the square kid."

"Lorna told me she'd been expelled from school."

"Yes. She 辞退するd to tattle."

"Tattle what?"

"I wrote some 詩（を作る）s which one of the girls copied. 行方不明になる Hill 設立する them and raised the roof. She kept us all in after school. She let some of the girls off. But she expelled Rose and sent me home. Then she called on mama. I don't know what she said, but mama didn't let me go 支援する. I've had a hateful old 教える for a month. In the 落ちる I'm going to 私的な school."

"And Rose?"

"Rose went to work. She had a hard time. I never heard from her for weeks. But she's a telephone 操作者 at the 交流 now. She called me up one day lately and told me. I hope to see her soon."

"About those 詩（を作る）s, Bessy. How did 行方不明になる Hill find out who wrote them?"

"I told her. Then she sent me home."

"Have you any more 詩（を作る）s you wrote?"

"Yes, a lot of them. If you lend me your pencil, I'll 令状 out the 詩（を作る） that gave 行方不明になる Hill heart 病気."

Bessy took up a 調書をとる／予約する that had been lying on the seat, and 涙／ほころびing out the 飛行機で行く-leaf, she began to 令状. Her わずかな／ほっそりした, shapely 手渡す flew. It fascinated 小道／航路.

"There!" she said, ending with a 繁栄する and a smile.

But 小道／航路, foreshadowing the 輸入する of the 詩（を作る）, took the page with 不本意. Then he read it. 詩（を作る）s of this significance were new to him. 救済 （機の）カム to 小道／航路 in the divination that Bessy could not have had experience of what she had written. There was worldliness in the 詩（を作る）, but innocence in her 注目する，もくろむs.

"井戸／弁護士席, Bessy, my heart isn't much stronger than 行方不明になる Hill's," he said, finally.

Her merry laughter rang out.

"Bessy, what will you do for me?"

"Anything."

"Bring me every 捨てる of 詩（を作る） you have, every 公式文書，認める you've got from boys and girls."

"Shall I get them now?"

"Yes, if it's 安全な. Of course, you've hidden them."

"Mama's out. I won't be a minute."

Away she flew under the trees, out through the rose bushes, a white, graceful, flitting 人物／姿／数字. She 消えるd. Presently she （機の）カム bounding into sight again and 手渡すd 小道／航路 a bundle of 公式文書，認めるs.

"Did you keep 支援する any?" he asked, as he tried to find pockets enough for the collection.

"Not one."

"I'll go home and read them all. Then I'll 会合，会う you here to-night at eight o'clock."

"But—I've a date. I'll break it, though."

"With whom?"

"Gail and a couple of boys—kids."

"Does your mother know?"

"I'd tell her about Gail, but that's all. We go for ice cream—then 会合，会う the boys and take a walk."

"Bessy, you're not going to do that sort of thing any more."

小道／航路 bent over her, took her 手渡すs. She instinctively rebelled, then slowly 産する／生じるd.

"That's part of our 取引?" she asked.

"Yes, it certainly is."

"Then I won't ever again."

"Bessy, I 信用 you. Do you understand me?"

"I—I think so."

"Daren, will you care for me—if I'm—if I do as you want me to?"

"I do now," he replied. "And I'll care a thousand times more when you 証明する you're really above these things... Bessy, I'll care for you as a friend—as a brother—as a man who has almost lost his 約束 and who sees in you some hope to keep his spirit alive. I'm unhappy, Bessy. Perhaps you can help me—make me a little happier... Anyway, I 信用 you. Good-bye now. To-night, at eight o'clock."

小道／航路 went home to his room and 真面目に gave himself up to the perusal of the writings Bessy Bell had given him. He experienced shocks of 苦痛 and wonder, between which he had to laugh. All the fiendish wit of youthful ingenuity flashed 前へ／外へ from this 詩（を作る）. There was a parody on Tennyson's "Break, Break, Break," featuring 陸軍大佐 Pepper's famous and deplorable habit. 行方不明になる Hill （機の）カム in for a 広大な／多数の／重要な 株 of opprobrium. One 詩（を作る）, if it had ever come under the 注目する，もくろむs of the good schoolteacher, would have broken her heart.

小道／航路 read all Bessy's 詩（を作る）s, and then the packet of 公式文書，認めるs written by Bessy's girl friends. The truth was unbelievable. Yet here were the proofs. Over Bessy and her friends 小道／航路 saw the 薄暗い dark 形態／調整 of a 恐ろしい phantom, reaching out, enfolding, clutching. He went downstairs to the kitchen and here he 燃やすd the writings.

"It せねばならない be told," he muttered. "But who's going to tell it? Who'd believe me? The truth would not be comprehended by the mothers of Middleville... And who's to 非難する?"

It would not do, 小道／航路 反映するd, to place the 非難する wholly upon blind fathers and mothers, though indeed they were culpable. And in consideration of the 支配する, 小道／航路 除外するd all except the better class of Middleville. It was no difficult 仕事 to understand 欠如（する） of moral sense in children who were poor and unfortunate, who had to work, and get what 楽しみs they had in the streets. But how about the best families, where there were luxurious homes, 調書をとる／予約するs, education, amusement, 親切, love—all the supposed stimuli needed for the proper 指導／手引 of changeful 浮浪者 minds? These good 影響（力）s had failed. There was a greater moral abandonment than would ever be known.

Before the war Bessy Bell would have 現在のd the perfect type of the beautiful, 高度に 極度の慎重さを要する, delicately 組織するd girl so peculiarly and distinctively American. She would have ripened before her time. Perhaps she would not have been 大いに different in feeling from the old-fashioned girl: only different in that she had 抑制, no deceit.

But after the war—now—what was Bessy Bell? What actuated her? What was the secret spring of her 異常な 傾向s? Were they 異常な? Bessy was wild to abandon herself to she knew not what. Some glint of 知能, some 軍隊 of character as exceptional in her as it was wanting in Lorna, some 遺産 of innate sacredness of person, had kept Bessy from the abyss. She had 吸収するd in mind all the impurities of the day, but had miraculously escaped them in 団体／死体. If her parents could have known Bessy as 小道／航路 now realized her they would have been horrified. But 小道／航路's horror was fading. Bessy was illuminating the 不明瞭 of his mind.

To understand more 明確に what the war had done to Bessy Bell, and to the millions of American girls like her, it was necessary for 小道／航路 to understand what the war had done to 兵士s, to men, and to the world.

小道／航路 could しっかり掴む some infinitesimal truth of the sublime and horrible change war had wrought in the souls of 兵士s. That change was too 広大な／多数の／重要な for any mind but the omniscient to しっかり掴む in its entirety. War had killed in some 兵士s a belief in Christ: in others it had created one. War had 抑えるのをやめるd the old hidden 原始の instincts of manhood: likewise it had 解雇する／砲火／射撃d hearts to hate of hate and love of love, to the 最高の ideal consciousness could conceive. War had brought out the monstrous in men and 同様に the godlike. Some 兵士s had become cowards; others, heroes. There were thousands of 兵士s who became lions to fight, hyenas to snarl, beasts to debase, hogs to wallow. There were 平等に as many who were 軍隊d to fight, who could not kill, whose gentleness augmented under the 残虐な orders of their officers. There were those who ran toward the 前線, 長，率いるs up, singing at the 最高の，を越す of their 肺s. There were those who slunk 支援する. 兵士s became 冷淡な, hard, materialistic, bitter, rancorous: and 質s antithetic to these developed in their comrades.

小道／航路 exhausted his 資源s of memory and searched in his 公式文書，認めるs for a clipping he had torn from a magazine. He reread it, in the light of his crystallizing knowledge:

"Had I not been afraid of the 軽蔑（する） of my brother officers and the scoffs of my men, I would have fled to the 後部," 自白するs a Wisconsin officer, 令状ing of a 戦う／戦い.

"I see war as a horrible, しっかり掴むing octopus with hundreds of poisonous, death-取引，協定ing tentacle that squeeze out the culture and refinement of a man," 令状s a 退役軍人.

A regimental sergeant-major: "I considered myself hardboiled, and 行為／法令／行動するd the part with everybody, 含むing my wife. I scoffed at 宗教 as unworthy of a real man and a 示す of the sissy and weakling." Before going over the 最高の，を越す for the first time he tried to pray, but had even forgotten the Lord's 祈り.

"If I get out of this, I will never be unhappy again," 反映するd one of the contestants under 爆撃する-解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the Argonne Forest. To-day he is "not afraid of dead men any more and is not in the least afraid to die."

"I went into the army a conscientious objector, a 過激な, and a recluse... I （機の）カム out of it with the knowledge of men and the philosophy of beauty," says another.

"My moral 繊維 has been coarsened. The war has blunted my sensitiveness to human 苦しむing. In 1914 I wept 涙／ほころびs of 苦しめる over a rabbit which I had 発射. I could go out now at the 命令（する） of my 政府 in 冷淡な-血d fashion and commit all the 野蛮／未開s of twentieth-century 合法化するd 殺人," 令状s a Chicago man.

A Denver man entered the war, lost himself and God, and 設立する manhood. "I played poker in the box-car which carried me to the 前線 and read the Testament in the hospital train which took me to the 後部," he tells us.

"To 公表する／暴露する it all would take the genius and the understanding of a god. I learned to talk from the 味方する of my mouth and drink and 悪口を言う／悪態 with the 残り／休憩（する） of our 'noble 改革運動家s.' 当局 infuriated me and the first 疑惑 of an order made me sullen and dangerous... Each man in his crudeness and lewdness nauseated me," 令状s a service man.

"When our boy （機の）カム 支援する," complains a mother, "we could hardly 認める for our strong, impulsive, loving son whom we had 貸付金d to Uncle Sam this irritable, restless, nervous man with 欠陥のある 審理，公聴会 from 爆撃するs 爆発するing all about him, and 四肢s aching and twitching from 緊張する and （危険などに）さらす, and with that 必然的な companion of all returned oversea boys, the 棺-nail, between his teeth."

"In the army I 設立する that hard drinkers and 急速な／放蕩な 肝臓s and profane-tongued men often 証明するd to be the kindest-hearted, squarest friends one could ever have," one mother 報告（する）／憶測s.

So then the war brought to the souls of 兵士s an extremity of debasement and uplift, a 変形 理解できない to the mind of man.

Upon men outside the service the war 圧力（をかける）d its materialism. The spiritual 進歩 of a thousand years seemed in a day to have been destroyed. Self-保護 was the first 法律 of nature. And all the 基準s of life were abased. に引き続いて the terrible fever of patriotism and sacrifice and 恐れる （機の）カム the 必然的な selfishness and greed and frenzy. The 原始の in man stalked 前へ／外へ. The world became a place of 争い.

What then, 反映するd 小道／航路, could have been the 影響 of war upon women? The mothers of the race, of men! The creatures whom emotions 治める／統治するd! The 存在s who had the sex of tigresses! "The 女性（の） of the 種類!" What had the war done to the 世代 of its period—to Helen, to Mel Iden, to Lorna, to Bessy Bell? Had it made them what men 手配中の，お尋ね者?

At eight o'clock that night 小道／航路 kept his tryst with Bessy. The serene, mellow light of the moon shone 負かす／撃墜する upon the garden. The shade appeared spotted with patches of moonlight; the summer 微風 rustled the leaves; the insects murmured their night song. Romance and beauty still lived. No war could kill them. Bessy （機の）カム gliding under the trees, white and graceful like a nymph, fearless, 十分な of her dream, 熟した to be made what a man would make of her.

小道／航路 talked to Bessy of the war. Words （機の）カム like 魔法 to his lips. He told her of the 雷鳴 and 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and 血 and heroism, of fight and agony and death. He told her of himself—of his service in the hours that tried his soul. Bessy passed from fascinated intensity to rapture and terror. She clung to 小道／航路. She kissed him. She wept.

He told her how his ideal had been to fight for Helen, for Lorna, for her, and all American girls. And then he talked about what he had come home to—of the shock—the 現実化—the 失望 and grief. He spoke of his sister Lorna—how he had tried so hard to make her see, and had failed. He importuned Bessy to help him as only a girl could. And lastly, he brought the conversation 支援する to her and told her bluntly what he thought of the vile 詩（を作る）s, how she dragged her girlhood pride in the filth and made of herself a byword for vicious boys. He told her the truth of what real men thought and felt of women. Every man had a mother. No war, no 不安, no style, no fad, no let-負かす／撃墜する of morals could change the truth. From the dark ages women had climbed on the slow 現実化 of freedom, 栄誉（を受ける）, chastity. As the 未来 of nations depended upon women, so did their 救済. Women could never again be barbarians. All this modern license was a parody of love. It must 必然的に end in the degradation and unhappiness of those of the 世代 who 固執するd on that downward path. Hard indeed it would be to 遭遇（する） the ridicule of girls and the 無関心／冷淡 of boys. But only through the 知能 and courage of one could there ever be any hope for the many.

小道／航路 sat there under the moonlit maples and talked until he was hoarse. He could not rouse a sense of shame in Bessy, because that had been atrophied, but as he closely watched her, he realized that his victory would come through the emotion he was able to 誘発する in her, and the ultimate 控訴，上告 to the （疑いを）晴らす logic of her mind.

When the time （機の）カム for him to go she stood before him in the （疑いを）晴らす moonlight.

"I've never been so excited, so 脅すd and sick, so 哀れな and thoughtful in all my life before," she said. "Daren, I know now what a 兵士 is. What you've seen—what you've done. Oh! it was grand! ... And you're going to be my—my friend... Daren, I thought it was 広大な／多数の／重要な to be bad. I thought men liked a girl to be bad. The girls 愛称d me Angel Bell, but not because I was an angel, I'll tell the world... Now I'm going to try to be the girl you want me to be."

CHAPTER XIV

The time （機の）カム when Daren had to make a painful choice. His sister Lorna grew 疲れた／うんざりした of his importunities and distrustful of his スパイ. One night she became violent and きっぱりと told him she would not stay in the house another day with him in it. Then she ran out, slamming the door behind her. 小道／航路 remained awake all night, in the hope that she would return. But she did not. And then he knew he must make a choice.

He made it. Lorna must not be driven from her home. 小道／航路 divided his money with his mother and packed his few 影響s. Mrs. 小道／航路 was distracted over the 状況／情勢. She tried to 納得させる 小道／航路 there was some 肉親，親類d of a 法律 to keep a young girl home. She pleaded and begged him to remain. She dwelt on his ill health. But 小道／航路 was obdurate; and not the least of his 傷つけるs was the last one—a divination that in spite of his mother's 苦しめる there was a feeling of 救済 of which she was unconscious. He 保証するd her that he would come to see her often during the afternoons and would care as best he could for his health. Then he left, 説 he would send an expressman for the things he had packed.

Broodingly 小道／航路 plodded 負かす／撃墜する the street. He had 恐れるd that sooner or later he would be 軍隊d to leave home, and he had shrunk from the ordeal. But now, that it was over, he felt a 肉親，親類d of 救済, and told himself that it was of no consequence what happened to him. All that 事柄d was for him to 達成する the few 仕事s he had 始める，決める himself.

Then he thought of Mel Iden. She had been driven from home and would know what it meant to him. The longing to see her 増加するd. Every 失望 left him more in need of sympathy. And now, it seemed, he would be ashamed to go to Mel Iden or Blair Maynard. Such news could not long be kept from them. Middleville was a beehive of gossips. 小道／航路 had a moment of blank despair, a feeling of utter, sick, dazed wonder at life and human nature. Then he 解除するd his 長，率いる and went on.

小道／航路's first impulse was to ask 陸軍大佐 Pepper if he could 株 his lodgings, but upon reflection he decided さもなければ. He engaged a small room in a 搭乗 house; his meals, which did not seem of much importance, he could get anywhere.

This change of 住居 brought 小道／航路 downtown, and 自然に 増加するd his activities. He did not husband his strength as before, nor have the leisure for bad （一定の）期間s. Home had been a place of 残り／休憩（する）. He could not 残り／休憩（する） in a 淡褐色 little 明らかにする room he now 占領するd.

He became a 選挙立会人, except during the stolen hours with Bessy Bell. Then he tried to be a teacher. But he learned more than he thought. He no longer concentrated his vigilance on his sister. Having failed to 軍隊 that 問題／発行する, he 企て，努力，提案d his time, sensing with melancholy portent the certainty that he would soon be 直面するd with the stark and hateful actuality. Thus he wore somewhat away from his grim 解決する to kill Swann. That adventure on the country road, when he had discovered Swann with Helen instead of Lorna, had somehow been a boon. にもかかわらず he 秘かに調査するd upon Lorna in the summer evenings when it was possible to follow her, and he dogged Swann's winding and devious path as far as possible. 明らかに Swann had checked his 不正行為s as far as Lorna was 関心d. Still 小道／航路 信用d nothing. He became an almost impassive 運命 with the アイロンをかける consequences in his 手渡すs.

Days passed. Every other afternoon and night he spent hours with Bessy Bell, and 設立する a 開始するing happiness in the change in her, a 深い and ever deeper insight into the 原因（となる）s that had developed her. The balance of his waking hours, which were many, he passed on the streets, in the ice cream parlors and confectionery dens, at the 動議-picture theatres. He went many and 半端物 times to 陸軍大佐 Pepper's apartment, and took a peep into the club-rooms. Some of these visits were 実りの多い／有益な, but he did not see whom he 推定する／予想するd to see there. At night he haunted the parks, watching and listening. Often he 雇うd a cheap car and drove it 負かす／撃墜する the river 主要道路, where he would 公式文書，認める the cars he passed or met. いつかs he would stop to get out and make one of his scouting detours, or he would follow a car to some distant roadhouse, or go to the 辺ぴな summer pavilions where popular dances were given. More than once, late at night, he was an unseen and unbidden guest at one of the gay bathing parties. Strange and startling 出来事/事件s seemed to gravitate toward 小道／航路. He might have been predestined for this accumulation of facts. How vain it seethed for wild young men and women to think they hid their 跡をつけるs! Some 追跡するs could not be hidden.

Toward the end of that 長引いた period of 監視, 小道／航路 knew that he had become 悪名高い in the 注目する，もくろむs of most of that younger 始める，決める. He had been seen too often, alone, watching, with no 明らかな excuse for his presence. And from here and there, through Bessy and 陸軍大佐 Pepper, and Blair, who faithfully 追跡（する）d him up, 小道／航路 learned of the unfavorable light in which he was held. Society, in the persons of the younger matrons, took exception to 小道／航路's queer 行為／行う and hinted of mental unbalance. The young rakes and libertines 避けるd him, and there was not a slacker の中で them who could 会合，会う his 注目する，もくろむ across cafe or billiard room.

Yet にもかかわらず the peculiar 種類 of ignominy and 不名誉 that Middleville gossips heaped upon 小道／航路's 長，率いる and the slow, 安定した 拒絶する／低下する of his speaking 知識 with the エリート, there were some who always 迎える／歓迎するd him and spoke if he gave them a chance. Helen Wrapp never failed of a green flashing ちらりと見ること of mockery and enticement. She smiled, she beckoned, she once called him to her car and asked him to ride with her, to come to see her. Margaret Maynard rose above dread of her mother and 迎える／歓迎するd 小道／航路 graciously when occasion 申し込む／申し出d. Dorothy Dalrymple and Elinor always evinced such unhesitating 意向 of friendship that 小道／航路 grew to 避ける 会合 them. And twice, when he had come 直面する to 直面する with Mel Iden, her look, her smile had been such that he had 急落（する），激減（する）d away somewhere, throbbing and thrilling, to grow blind and sick and numb. It was the 失敗 of his hopes, and the 苦しむing he 耐えるd, and the vain longings she 奮起させるd that 高くする，増すd his love. She wrote him after the last time they had passed on the street—a 公式文書，認める that 嵐／襲撃するd 小道／航路's heart. He did not answer. He divined that his 増加するing loneliness, and the sure slow 拒絶する／低下する of his health, and the heartless intolerance of the same class that had ostracized her were 追加するd 重荷（を負わせる）s to Mel Iden's faithful heart. He had seen it in her 直面する, read it in her 公式文書，認める. And the time would come, sooner or later, when he could go to her and make her marry him.

CHAPTER XV

To be a mystery is overpoweringly 甘い to any girl and Bessy Bell was 存在 that. Her sudden 願望（する） for 孤独 had worried her mother, and her distant 優越 had 刺激するd the vexation of her friends. When they 発揮するd themselves to 勝利，勝つ Bessy 支援する to her old self she looked dreamily beyond them and became more aloof. Doctor Bronson, in reply to Mrs. Bell's 控訴，上告 to him, looked the young woman over, asked her a few questions, marveled at the imperious artifice with which she 避けるd him, and throwing up his 手渡すs said Bessy was beyond him. The dark fever, rising from the school yards and the playgrounds and the streets, subtly 毒（薬）ing the 血 of Bessy Bell, slowly lost its heat and 力／強力にする for the time 存在. Bessy lived in the 十分な secret 表現 of her girlish adoration. She was worshipping a hero; she was glorifying in her sacrifice; she was faithful to a man; she was 存在 a woman. At first she grew pale, 緊張した, 静かな, and seemed to be going into a 拒絶する／低下する. Then that 行う／開催する／段階 passed; and the roseleaf 紅潮／摘発する returned to her cheeks, the purple 解雇する／砲火／射撃 深くするd in her 注目する，もくろむs, the quivering life in all her supple young 団体／死体. Night after night loneliness had no 恐れるs for her. If she heard a whistle on the avenue, the honk of a car—the familiar old signals of the boys and girls, she smiled her disdain, and curling comfortably in her 広大な／多数の／重要な 議長，司会を務める, bent her lovely 長，率いる over her 調書をとる／予約するs.

In the beginning her dreams were all of Daren 小道／航路, of the strangeness and glory of this 兵士 who spent so many secret hours with her. And when the time （機の）カム that she did not see him so often her dreams were just as 十分な. But 徐々に, as the days went by, other 人物／姿／数字s than 小道／航路's were limned upon her fancy—vague 人物／姿／数字s of heroes, knights, 兵士s. He still 支配するd her romances, though いっそう少なく 本人自身で. She built around him. Every day brought her new strange 願望（する）s.

One evening in August when Bessy sat alone the telephone bell rang はっきりと. She ran to take 負かす／撃墜する the receiver.

"Hello, hello, that you, Bessy?" （機の）カム the hurried call in a girl's 発言する／表明する.

"Rose! Oh, how are you?"

"罰金. But say, Angel, I can't take time to talk. Something doing. Are you alone?"

"Yes, all alone, old girl."

"Listen, then, and get this... I'm here, you know, telephone girl at the 交流. Just heard your father on the wire. Some one has betrayed the secret of the club. There's a 令状 out for the 逮捕（する） of the boys. For 賭事ing. You know there's a political 副／悪徳行為 運動 on. Some time to-night they'll be （警察の）手入れ，急襲d... But 早期に. Bess, are you getting this?"

"Sure. Hurry—hurry," replied Bessy, in excitement.

"I tried to get 刑事 on the wire, but couldn't. Same with two more of the boys. But I did get wise to this. Gail and Lorna have a date at the club to-night... Never mind how I 設立する out. 刑事 has thrown me 負かす／撃墜する for Gail. I'm sore as a pup. But I don't want your father to pinch those girls... Now, Bess, I'm tied here. But you get a move on. Don't waste time. You can save them. You must. Do something. If you can't find somebody, go straight to the club. You know where the 重要な for the outside 入り口 is kept. Hurry and it'll be 安全な. Good-bye."

Bessy stood statue-like for a moment, her big 注目する，もくろむs glowing, changing, darkening with 早い thought, then she flew upstairs to her room, snatched a 隠す and a soft hat, and putting these on as she went, she flew out of the house without putting out the lights or locking the door.

It was a dark 風の強い night, わずかに 冷静な／正味の for August, and a 罰金 misty rain was blowing. Bessy's footsteps pattered softly as she ran 封鎖する after 封鎖する, and she did not slacken her pace till she reached the house where Daren 小道／航路 had his room. In answer to her （犯罪の）一味 a woman appeared, who told her Mr. 小道／航路 was out.

This was a 厳しい 失望 to Bessy, and left her an 代案／選択肢 that 要求するd more than courage, but she did not vacillate. She sped 速く on in the dark, for the electric lights were few and far between, until the 黒人／ボイコット of the 暗い／優うつな building, where the boys had their club, ぼんやり現れるd up. On the corner Bessy saw a man standing with his 支援する to a telegraph 政治家. This occasioned her much 関心; perhaps he might be watching the building. But he had not seen her, of that she was 確かな . The 可能性 that he might be a 秘かに調査する made her 仕事 all the harder.

Bessy returned the way she come, crossed at the next corner, hurried 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 封鎖する and up to the outside stairway that was her 客観的な point.

By feeling along the brick 塀で囲む she brought up, with a sudden bump, at the 支援する of the stairway. Then she 審議する／熟考するd. If she went around to the 前線 so as to get 接近 to the steps, she might pass in 範囲 of the loiterer whom she 不信d. That 危険 she would not 背負い込む. 診察するing the 塀で囲む that enclosed the box-like stairway as best she could in the dark, she 設立する it rickety, 十分な of 穴を開けるs and 割れ目s, and she decided she would climb it. A sheer perpendicular board 塀で囲む, some twelve or fifteen feet high, shrouded in pitchy 不明瞭 and 明らかに within earshot of a police 秘かに調査する, did not daunt Bessy Bell. Slipping her strong fingers in crevices and her わずかな／ほっそりした toes in 割れ目s, she climbed up and up, till she got 持つ／拘留する of the railing 地位，任命する on the first 壇・綱領・公約. Here she had 広大な／多数の／重要な difficulty to keep from 落ちるing, but 解除するing and squirming her supple 団体／死体, by a desperate 成果／努力 she got her 膝s on the 壇・綱領・公約, and then pulled herself to safety. Once on the stairs she ran up the remaining few steps to the 上陸, where she 残り／休憩（する）d panting and 勝利を得た.

As she was about to go on she heard footsteps, which froze her. A man was crossing the street. He （機の）カム from the direction of the corner where she had seen the supposed 秘かに調査する. Presently she saw him stop under one of the trees to scratch a match, and in the 一連の会議、交渉／完成する glow of light she saw him puff at a cigar. Then he passed on with uncertain steps, as of one わずかに under the 影響（力） of drink.

Bessy's heart warmed to life and began to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 again. Then she sought for the 重要な. She had been told where it was, but did not remember. Slipping her 手渡す under the railing, の近くに to the 塀で囲む, she felt a string, and, pulling at it suddenly, 設立する the 重要な in her 手渡す. She glided into the 薄暗い hall, feeling along the 塀で囲む for a door, until she 設立する it. With trembling fingers she 挿入するd the 重要な in the lock, and the door swung inward silently. Bessy went in, leaving the 重要な on the outside.

Dark as it had been without, it was light compared to the ebon blackness within. Bessy felt ice form in the 骨髄 of her bones. The 不明瞭 was 有形の; it seemed to envelop her in 激しい 倍のs. The sudden natural impulse to 飛行機で行く out of the 厚い creeping gloom, 負かす／撃墜する the stairway to the light, strung her muscles for instant 活動／戦闘, but checked by the 速く に引き続いて thought of her 目的, they relaxed, and she took not a backward step.

"Rose did her part and I'll do 地雷," she cogitated. "I've got to save them. But what to do—I may have to wait. I know—in the big room—the closet behind the curtain! I can find that even in this dark, and once in there I won't be afraid."

Bessy, 解雇する／砲火／射撃d by this inspiration, groped along the 塀で囲む through the room to the large 議会, つまずくd over 議長，司会を務めるs and a couch and at last got her 手渡すs on the drapery. She readily 設立する the knob, turned it, opened the door and stepped in.

"I hope they won't be long," she thought. "I hope the girls come first. I don't want to burst into a room 十分な of boys. Won't Daren be surprised when I tell him—maybe angry! But it's bound to come out all 権利, and father will never know."

CHAPTER XVI

早期に one August evening 小道／航路 went out to find a 冷静な／正味の misty rain blowing 負かす／撃墜する from the hills. At the inn he 遭遇（する）d 陸軍大佐 Pepper, who wore a most woebegone and ludicrous 表現. He pounced at once upon 小道／航路.

"Daren, what do you think?" he wailed, miserably.

"I don't think. I know. You've gone and done it—pulled that stunt of yours again," returned 小道／航路.

"Yes—but oh, so much worse this time."

"Worse! How could it be worse, unless you mean some one punched your 長，率いる."

"No. That would have been nothing... Daren, this—this time I—it was a lady!" gasped Pepper.

"Oh, say now, Pepper—not really?" queried 小道／航路, incredulously.

"It was. And a lady I—I admire very much."

"Who?"

"行方不明になる Amanda Hill."

"The schoolteacher? Nice little woman like that! Pepper, why couldn't you 選ぶ on one of these Middleville gossips or society dames?"

"Lord—I didn't know who she was—until after—and I couldn't have helped it anyway," he replied, mopping his red 直面する. "When—I saw her—and she 認めるd me—I nearly died... It was at White's Confectionery Den. And I'm afraid some people saw me."

"井戸／弁護士席. You old duffer! And you say you admire this lady very much?"

"Indeed I do. I call on her."

"陸軍大佐, your 指名する is Dennis," replied 小道／航路, with merciless humor. "It serves you 権利."

The little man evidently 設立する 救済 in his 自白 and in 小道／航路's 非難.

"I'm cured forever," he 宣言するd 熱心に. "And say, 小道／航路, I've been looking for you. Have you been at my rooms lately—you know—to take a peep?"

"I have not," replied 小道／航路, turning はっきりと. A slight 冷気／寒がらせる went over him. "I thought that club stuff was off."

"Off—nothing," whispered 陸軍大佐 Pepper, 製図／抽選 小道／航路 aside. "Swann and his strong-arm ギャング（団） just got foxy. They やめる for a while. Now they're 急ぐing the girls in there—say from four to five—and in the evenings a little while, not too late. Oh, they're the 悪賢い bunch, 選ぶing out the ice cream soda hour when everybody's downtown... You run up to my rooms 権利 now. And I'll 賭事——"

"I'll go," interrupted 小道／航路, grimly.

Not fifteen minutes before he had seen his sister Lorna and a chum, Gail Williams, go into White's place. 小道／航路's pulse quickened. As he started to go he ran into Blair Maynard who しっかり掴むd at him: "What's hurry, old scout?"

"Blair, I'm never in a hurry if you want me. But the fact is I've got rather 緊急の 商売／仕事. How about to-morrow?"

"Sure. 会合，会う you here. I just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 荷を降ろす on you, Dare. Looks as if my mother has hatched it up between Margie and our esteemed 同国人, Richard Swann."

It was not often that 小道／航路 悪口を言う／悪態d, but he did so now.

"But Blair, didn't you tell your mother what this fellow is?" remonstrated 小道／航路.

"井戸／弁護士席, I'll say I did," replied Blair, sardonically. "削減（する） no ice whatever. She didn't believe. She didn't care for any proofs. All rich young men had their 不正行為s!... Good God! Doesn't it make you sick?"

"But how about Holt Dalrymple?"

"Holt's turned over a new leaf. He's working hard, and I think he has taken a 宙返り／暴落する to himself. Listen to this. He met Margie with 刑事 Swann out at one of the lake dances—Watkins' Lake. And he 削減（する） her dead. I'm sorry for Margie. She sure is 階級 毒（薬） these days... 井戸／弁護士席, speak of the devil!"

Holt Dalrymple 衝突する／食い違うd with them at the 入り口 of the inn. The haggard, sullen, heated look that had characterized him was gone. He was sunburned, and his dark 注目する，もくろむs were 有望な. He 迎える／歓迎するd his friends 温かく. They chatted for a moment. Then 小道／航路 grew thoughtful, all the while gazing at Holt.

"What's the idea?" queried that worthy, presently. "Anything wrong with me?"

"Boy, you're just 広大な／多数の／重要な. Seeing you has done me good... You ask what's the idea. Holt, would you do me a 好意?"

"Would I? Listen to the guy," returned young Dalrymple. "Daren, I'd do any old thing for you."

"Do you happen to know Bessy Bell?" went on 小道／航路.

Dalrymple quickened with surprise. "Yes, I know her. Some little peach!... I almost ran into her 負かす／撃墜する on West Street a few minutes ago. She wore a white 隠す. She didn't see me, or 認める me. But I sure knew her. She was almost running. I bet a million to myself she had a date at the club."

"You lose, Holt," replied 小道／航路, すぐに. "Bessy Bell is one Middleville kid who has come clean through this mess."

"Say Dare, I like to hear you talk," 答える／応じるd Blair, half in jest and half in earnest. "But aren't you getting a trifle unbalanced? That's how my mother わびるs for me."

"削減（する） the joshing, boys. Listen," returned 小道／航路. "And don't ever tell this to a soul. I 利益／興味d myself in Bessy Bell. I've met her more times than I can count. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to see if it was possible to turn one of these girls around. I failed on my sister Lorna. But Bessy Bell is true blue. She had all this modern tommyrot. She had everything else too. Brains, sweetness, ありふれた sense, romance. All I tried to do was to make her forget the tommyrot. And I think I did."

"井戸／弁護士席, I'll be darned!" ejaculated Blair. "Dare, that was ripping 罰金 of you... What'll you do next, I wonder."

"Come on with your 好意," 追加するd Holt, with a keen 有望な smile.

"Would you be willing to see Bessy occasionally—and sort of be nice to her—you know?" asked 小道／航路, 真面目に. "I can't keep up my attention to her much longer. She might 行方不明になる me. Take it from me, Holt, 支援する of all this modern stuff—深い in Bessy, and in every girl who has not been debased—is the simple and good 願望（する） to be liked."

"Daren, I'll do that little thing, believe me," returned Holt, 温かく.

Shaking 手渡すs with his friends, 小道／航路 left them, and went on his way. White's place was 十分な as a beehive. As he passed, 小道／航路 設立する himself looking for Bessy Bell's golden 長，率いる, though he knew he would not see it. He wondered if Holt had really met her, 隠すd and in a hurry. That had a strange look. But no 影をつくる／尾行する of 不信 of Bessy （機の）カム to 小道／航路. In a few moments he reached the dark stairway 主要な to 陸軍大佐 Pepper's apartment. 小道／航路 forgot he was weak. But at the 最高の，を越す, with his breast laboring, he remembered 井戸／弁護士席 enough. He went into the 陸軍大佐's rooms and through them without making a light. And when he reached the place where he had 秘かに調査するd upon the club he was wet with sweat and shaking with excitement. Carefully, so as not to make noise, he stole to the peep-穴を開ける and 適用するd his 注目する，もくろむ.

He saw a gleam of light on shiny waxed 床に打ち倒す, and then, moving to get the 限界 of his 狭くする 見通し, he descried Swann, evidently just arrived. With him was Gail Williams, a slip of a child not over fifteen—looking up at him as if excited and pleased. Next 小道／航路 遠くに見つけるd his sister Lorna with a tall, 井戸／弁護士席-built man. Although his 支援する was toward 小道／航路, he could not mistake the soldierly 耐えるing of Captain 先頭 Thesel! Lorna looked perturbed and sulky, and once, turning her 直面する toward Swann, she seemed resentful. Captain Thesel had his 手渡す at her 肘 and appeared to be talking 真面目に.

小道／航路 left his 地位，任命する, taking care to make no noise. But once 支援する in the 陸軍大佐's rooms, he hurried. Feeling in the dark corner where he had kept the axe ready for just such an 緊急 as this, he しっかり掴むd it and 急ぐd out. Tiptoeing 負かす／撃墜する the hall, he 設立する the 狭くする door, stole 負かす／撃墜する the 黒人／ボイコット stairway and entered the main hall. Here he paused, suddenly checked in his hurry.

"This won't do," he thought, and shook his 長，率いる. "Much as I'd like to kill those two dogs I can't—I can't... I'll 粉砕する their 直面するs, though—and if I ever catch..."

Breaking the thought off 突然の, he passed 負かす／撃墜する the 薄暗い hallway to the door of the club-rooms. He raised the axe and was about to 粉砕する the lock when he 遠くに見つけるd a 重要な in the keyhole. The door was not locked. 小道／航路 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する the axe and noiselessly turned the knob and peeped in. The first room was dark, but the door on the opposite 味方する was ajar, and through it 小道／航路 saw the larger lighted room and the shiny 床に打ち倒す. Moving 人物／姿／数字s crossed the space. 除去するing the 重要な, 小道／航路 slipped inside the room and locked the door. Then he tip-toed to the opposite door.

Thesel and Lorna were now so の近くに that 小道／航路 could hear them.

"But I thought I had a date with 刑事," 抗議するd Lorna. Her 直面する was red and she stamped her foot.

"See here, kiddo. If you're as 厚い as that I'll have to put you wise," answered Thesel, good-humoredly, as he 攻撃するd 支援する his cigarette to blow smoke at the 天井. "刑事 is through with you."

"Oh, is he?" choked Lorna.

"Say, Cap, I heard a noise," suddenly called out Swann, rather nervously.

There was a moment's silence. 小道／航路, too, had heard a noise, but could not be sure whether it was inside the building or not.

Swann hurried over to join Thesel. They looked blankly at each other. The 空気／公表する might have been 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d. Both girls showed alarm.

Then 小道／航路, with his 手渡す on the gun in his pocket, strode out to 直面する them.

"Oh—h!" gasped Lorna, as if appalled at sight of her brother's 直面する.

"Fellows, I'll have to break up your little party," said 小道／航路, coolly.

Thesel turned 恐ろしい white, while Swann grew livid with 激怒（する）. He seemed to 拡大する. His 手渡す went 支援する to his 権利 hip.

When 小道／航路 got within six feet of them, Swann drew a small (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 ピストル. But before he could raise it, 小道／航路 had leaped into startling activity. With terrific swing he brought his gun 負かす／撃墜する on Swann's 直面する. Then as 速く he turned on Thesel. Swann had hardly 攻撃する，衝突する the 床に打ち倒す, a sodden heap, when Thesel, with 血まみれの visage, reeled and fell like a スピードを出す／記録につける. 小道／航路 bent over them, ready to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 either 支援する. But both were unconscious.

"Daren—for God's sake—don't 殺人 them!" whispered Lorna, hoarsely.

小道／航路's humanity was in （一時的）停止 then, but his self-支配（する）／統制する did not 砂漠 him.

"You girls must hurry out of here," he ordered.

"Oh, Gail is fainting," cried Lorna.

The little Williams girl was indeed swaying and 沈むing 負かす／撃墜する. 小道／航路 しっかり掴むd her and shook her. "を締める up. If you keel over now, you'll be 設立する out sure... It's all 権利. You'll not be 傷つける. There——"

A 激しい 強くたたくing on the door by which 小道／航路 had entered and a loud 権威のある 発言する／表明する from the hall silenced him.

"Open up here! You're pinched!"

That 発言する／表明する 小道／航路 認めるd as belonging to 長，指導者 of Police Bell. For a moment, fraught with suspense, 小道／航路 was at a loss to know what to do.

"Open up! We've got the place surrounded... Open up, or we'll 粉砕する the door in!"

小道／航路 whispered to the girls: "Is there a place to hide you?"

The Williams girl was beyond answering, but Lorna, にもかかわらず her terror, had not lost her wits.

"Yes—there's a closet—hid by a curtain—here," she whispered, pointing.

小道／航路 half carried Gail. Lorna 小衝突d aside a 激しい curtain and opened a door. 小道／航路 押し進めるd both girls into the 黒人／ボイコット 無効の and の近くにd the door after them.

"Once more—open up!" bellowed the officer in the hall, …を伴ってing his 需要・要求する with a 強くたたく on the door. 小道／航路 made sure some one had 設立する his axe. He did not care how much 粉砕するing the policemen did. All that 関心d 小道／航路 then was how to 回避する 発見 from the girls. It looked hopeless. Then, as there （機の）カム sudden 後援ing blows on the door, 小道／航路 遠くに見つけるd Swann's cigarettes and matches on the music box. 小道／航路 seldom smoked. But while the officers were breaking in the door, 小道／航路 leisurely lighted a cigarette; and when two of them （機の）カム in he 直面するd them coolly.

The first was 長，指導者 Bell, a large handsome man, in blue uniform. The second one was a 巡査. Neither carried a 武器 in sight. Bell swept the big room in one flashing blue ちらりと見ること—took in 小道／航路 and the 傾向がある 人物／姿／数字s on the 床に打ち倒す.

"井戸／弁護士席, I'll be damned," he ejaculated. "What am I up against?"

"Hello, 長，指導者," replied 小道／航路, coolly. "Don't get fussed up now. This is no 殺人 事例／患者."

"小道／航路, what's this mean?" burst out Bell.

小道／航路 was rather 井戸／弁護士席 熟知させるd with 長，指導者 Bell, and in a way there was friendship between them. Bell, for one, had always been sturdily loyal to the 兵士s.

"井戸／弁護士席, 長，指導者, I was having a little friendly game with Mr. Swann and Captain Thesel," drawled 小道／航路. "We got into an argument. And as both were such ferocious 闘士，戦闘機s I grew afraid they'd 傷つける me bad—so I had to soak them."

"Don't kid me," spoke up Bell, derisively. "Little game—hell! Where's the cards, 半導体素子s, （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する?"

"長，指導者, I didn't say we played the game to-night."

"小道／航路, you're a liar," replied Bell, thoughtfully. "I'm sure of that. But you've got me buffaloed." He knelt on the 床に打ち倒す beside the fallen men and 診察するd each. Swann's shirt 同様に as 直面する was 血まみれの. "For a 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd 兵士 you've got some punch left. What'd you 攻撃する，衝突する them with?"

"I'll tell you 長，指導者. I fetched an axe with me to do the dirty 職業, but I decided I should use a dangerous 武器 only on men. So I soaked them with a lollypop."

"小道／航路, are you really nutty?" 需要・要求するd Bell, curiously.

"No more than you. I 攻撃する，衝突する them with something hard, so it would leave a 示す."

"You left one, I'll say. Thesel will lose that 注目する，もくろむ—it's gone now—and Swann is also disfigured for life. What a damned shame!"

"長，指導者, are you sure it's any 肉親，親類d of a shame?"

小道／航路's query appeared to 刺激する thought. Bell 取って代わるd the little (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 ピストル he had 選ぶd up beside Swann, and rising he looked at 小道／航路.

"Swann was a slacker. Thesel was your Captain in the war. Have these facts anything to do with your 動機?"

"No, 長，指導者," replied 小道／航路, in sarcasm. "But when I got into 活動／戦闘 I think the facts you について言及するd sort of 若返らせるd a 無能にするd 兵士."

"小道／航路, you （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 me," 宣言するd Bell, shaking his 長，率いる. "Why, I had you 人物／姿／数字d as a pretty good chap... But you've done some queer things in Middleville."

"長，指導者, if you're an honest officer you'll 収容する／認める Middleville needs some queer things done."

Bell gazed doubtfully at 小道／航路.

"Smith, search the rooms," he ordered, 演説（する）／住所ing his 巡査.

"We were alone here," spoke up 小道／航路. "And I advise you to hurry those 負傷させるd 退役軍人s to a hospital in the 後部."

Swann showed 調印するs of 回復するing consciousness. Bell bent over him a moment. 小道／航路 had only one hope—that the 巡査 would 行方不明になる the door. But he 小衝突d aside the curtain. Then he grunted.

"See here, 長，指導者—a door—and somebody's 持つ／拘留するing it from the inside," he 宣言するd.

"Wait, Smith," ordered Bell, striding 今後. But before he got half-way across the room the door opened. A girl stepped out and shut it 支援する of her. 小道／航路 支えるd a singular shock. That girl was Bessy Bell.

"Hello, Dad—it's Bessy," she said, 明確に. She was pale, but did not seem 脅すd.

長，指導者 Bell 停止（させる）d in the middle of a stride and staggered a little as his foot （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する. A low 悪口を言う／悪態 of utter amaze escaped his lips. Suddenly he became tensely animated.

"How'd you come here?" he 需要・要求するd, 非常に高い over her.

"I walked."

"What'd you come for?"

"To 警告する Daren 小道／航路 that you were going to （警察の）手入れ，急襲 these club-rooms to-night."

"Who told you?"

"I won't tell. I got it over the 'phone." I ran over here. I knew where the 重要な was. I've been here before—afternoons—dancing... I let myself in... But when they—they （機の）カム I got 脅すd and hid in the closet."

長，指導者 Bell seemed about to give way to passion, but he controlled it. After that moment he changed subtly.

"Is Daren 小道／航路 your friend?" he 需要・要求するd.

"Yes. The best and truest any girl ever had... Dad, you know mother told you I had changed lately. I have. And it's through Daren."

"Where'd you see him?"

"He has been coming out to the house in the afternoons."

"井戸／弁護士席, I'm damned," muttered the 長，指導者, and wheeled away. Sight of his gaping 巡査 seemed to galvanize him into その上の 現実化 of the 状況／情勢. "Smith, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it out and draw the other men 一連の会議、交渉／完成する in 前線. Give me time enough to get Bessy out. Send hurry call for 救急車... And Smith, keep your mouth shut. I'll make it all 権利. If Mrs. Bell hears of this my life will be a hell on earth."

"Mum's the word, 長，指導者. I'm a married man myself," he replied, and hurried out.

小道／航路 was watching Bessy. What a wonderful girl! Modern 傾向s might have corrupted the girls of the day, but for sheer 神経, wit and courage they were immeasurably superior to those of former 世代s. Bessy 直面するd her father calmly, lied magnificently, gazed 負かす／撃墜する at the 恐ろしい, 血まみれの 直面するs with scarcely a shudder, and gave 小道／航路 a smile from her purple 注目する，もくろむs, as if to 元気づける him, to 保証する him she could save the 状況／情勢. It struck 小道／航路 that 長，指導者 Bell looked as if he might be に引き続いて a 類似の line of thought.

"Bessy, put on your hat," ordered Bell. "And here ... tuck that 隠す around. There, now you （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it for home. 小道／航路, go with her to the stairs. Take a good look in the street. Bessy, go home the 支援する way. And 小道／航路, you hurry 支援する."

小道／航路 followed Bessy out and caught up with her in the hall. She clasped his arm.

"Some adventure, I'll say!" she burst out, in breathless whisper. "It was 広大な／多数の／重要な until I 認めるd your 発言する／表明する. Then all inside me went flooey."

"Bessy, you're the finest little girl in the world," returned 小道／航路, stirred to emotion.

"Here, Daren, 削減（する） that. You didn't raise me on soft soap and mush. If you get to 賞賛するing me I'll 落ちる so far I'll never light... Now, Dare, go 支援する and fool Dad. You must save the girls. It doesn't 事柄 about me. He's my Dad."

"I'll do my best," replied 小道／航路.

They reached the 上陸 of the outside stairway. Peering 負かす／撃墜する, 小道／航路 did not see any one.

"I guess the coast is （疑いを）晴らす. Now, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it, Bessy."

She 解除するd the white 隠す and raised her 直面する. In the 薄暗い gray light 小道／航路 saw it as never before.

"Kiss me, Daren," she whispered.

小道／航路 had never kissed her. For an instant he was 混乱させるd.

"Why—little girl!" he exclaimed.

"Hurry!" she whispered, imperiously.

Some instinct beyond 小道／航路's ken 誘発するd him to do what she asked.

"Good-bye, my little Princess," he whispered. "Don't ever forget me."

"Never, Daren. Good-bye." She slipped 負かす／撃墜する the stairway and in a moment more 消えるd in the gray gloom of the misty night.

Only then did 小道／航路 understand what she, with her woman's intuition, had divined—that they would never be together again. The 現実化 gave him a pang. Bessy was his only victory.

Slowly 小道／航路 made his way 支援する to the club-rooms. He had begun to 弱める under the 緊張する and felt the approach of something akin to 崩壊（する）. When he reached the large room he 設立する Swann half conscious and Thesel showing 調印するs of coming to.

"小道／航路, come here," said the 長，指導者, 製図／抽選 小道／航路 away from the writhing forms on the 床に打ち倒す. "You're under 逮捕（する）."

"Yes, sir. What's the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金?"

"Let's see. That's the puzzler," replied the 長，指導者, scratching his 長，率いる. "Suppose we say 賭事ing and fighting."

"罰金!" 認めるd 小道／航路, with a smile.

"When the 救急車 comes you get out of sight until we pack these fellows out. I'll leave the door open—so if there's any 推論する／理由 you want to come 支援する—why—"

長，指導者 Bell half 回避するd his 直面する, seemingly not embarrassed, but rather pondering in thought. "Thanks, 長，指導者. You understand me perfectly," 答える／応じるd 小道／航路. "I'll appear at police （警察，軍隊などの）本部 in half an hour."

The officer laughed, and returning to the 負傷させるd men he knelt beside them. Swann sat up moaning. 血 had blinded his sight. He did not see 小道／航路 pass. Sounds of an 救急車 bell had caught 小道／航路's quick ear. Finding the washroom, he went in and, locking the door, leaned there to wait. In a very few moments the 負傷させるd Swann and Thesel had been carried out. 小道／航路 waited five minutes after the sound of wheels had died away. Then he hurried out and opened the door of the closet.

Lorna almost fell over him in her 切望. If she had been 脅すd, she had 回復するd. Gail staggered out, pale and sick looking.

"Oh, Daren, can you get us out?" whispered Lorna, breathlessly.

"Hurry, and don't talk," replied 小道／航路.

He led them out into the hall and 負かす／撃墜する to the stairway where he had taken Bessy. As before, all appeared 静かな below.

"I guess it's 安全な... Girls, let this be a lesson to you."

"Never any more for 地雷," whimpered Gail.

But Lorna was of more tempered metal.

"Believe me, Daren, I'm glad you knocked the lamps out of those swell boobs," she whispered, passionately. "刑事 Swann used me like dirt. The next guy like him who tries to get gay with me will have some 落ちる, I'll tell the world... Me for Harry! There's nothing in this q-t stuff... And say, what do you know about Bessy Bell? She （機の）カム here to save us... Hot dog, but she's a peach!"

小道／航路 admonished the girls to hurry and watched them until they reached the street and turned the corner out of sight.

CHAPTER XVII

The reaction from that night landed 小道／航路 in the hospital, where, during long weeks when he did have a lucid interval, he saw that his life was despaired of and felt that he was glad of it.

But he did not die. As before, the weak places in his 肺s 傷をいやす／和解させるd over and he began to mend, and 徐々に his periods of rationality 増加するd until he wholly 伸び（る）d his mental 宙に浮く. It was, however, a long time before he was strong enough to leave the hospital.

During the worst of his illness his mother （機の）カム often to see him; after he grew better she （機の）カム but seldom. Blair and 陸軍大佐 Pepper were the only others who visited 小道／航路. And as soon as his memory returned and 利益／興味 生き返らせるd he learned much peculiarly 重要な to him.

The secret of the club-rooms, so far as girls were 関心d, never became fully known to Middleville gossips. Strange and contrary 噂するs were rife for a long time, but the real truth never 漏れるd out. There was never any 令状 sworn for 小道／航路's 逮捕（する）. What the general public had heard and believed was the story concocted by Thesel and Swann, who （人命などを）奪う，主張するd that 小道／航路, over a 賭事ing （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, had been 掴むd by one of the frenzied fits ありふれた to deranged 兵士s, and had attacked them. Thesel lost his left 注目する，もくろむ and Swann carried a hideous red scar from brow to cheek. Neither the club-room スキャンダル nor his disfigurement for life in any wise 妨げるd Mrs. Maynard from 発表するing the 約束／交戦 of her daughter Margaret to Richard Swann. The most amazing news was to hear that Helen Wrapp had married a rich young 政治家，政治屋 指名するd Hartley, who was running for the office of 治安判事. によれば Blair, Daren 小道／航路 had divided Middleville into two dissenting 派閥s, a large one who banned him in 不名誉, and a small one who 解除するd their 発言する／表明するs in his に代わって. Of all the endless bits of news, little and big, the one that broke happily on 小道／航路's ears was the word of a nurse, who told him that during his 厳しい illness a girl had called on the telephone every day to 問い合わせ for him. She never gave her 指名する. But 小道／航路 knew it was Mel and the mere thought of her made him quiver.

By the time 小道／航路 was strong enough to leave the hospital an 早期に winter had 始める，決める in. The hospital expenses had 減ずるd his 財政／金融s so materially that he could not afford the lodgings he had 占領するd before his illness. He realized fully that he should leave Middleville for a 乾燥した，日照りの warm 気候, if he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to live a while longer. But he was not 大いに 関心d about this. There would be time enough to consider the 未来 after he had 実行するd the one hope and ambition he had left.

Rooms were at a 賞与金. 小道／航路 was 軍隊d to 適用する in the sordid ４半期/4分の1 of Middleville, and the place he 結局 設立する was a small, 明らかにする hall bedroom, in a large, ramshackle old house, of 疑わしい repute. But beggars could not be choosers. There was no heat in this room, and 小道／航路 decided that what time he spent in it must be in bed. He would not give any one his 演説（する）／住所.

Once 任命する／導入するd here, 小道／航路 waited only a few days to 保証する himself that he was strong enough to carry out the 計画（する） upon which he had 始める，決める his heart.

Late that afternoon he went to the town hall and had a marriage license made out for himself and Mel Iden. Upon returning, he 設立する that snow had begun to 落ちる ひどく. Already the streets were white. Suddenly the thought of the nearness of Christmas shocked him. How time sped by!

That night he dressed himself carefully, wearing the service uniform he had so 井戸／弁護士席 保存するd, and sallied 前へ／外へ to the most 流行の／上流の restaurant in Middleville, where in the glare and gayety he had his dinner. 小道／航路 認めるd many of the dining, dancing throng, but showed no 調印する of it. He became aware that his presence had excited comment. How remote he seemed to feel himself from that eating, drinking, dancing （人が）群がる! So far 除去するd that even the jazz music no longer affronted him. Rather surprised he was to find he really enjoyed his dinner. From the restaurant he engaged a taxi.

The 有望な lights, the 落ちるing snow, the mantle of white on everything, with their 約束 of the holiday season, pleased 小道／航路 with the memory of what 広大な／多数の／重要な fun he used to have at Christmas-time.

When he arrived at Mel's home the snow was 落ちるing thickly in 激しい flakes. Through the 棺／かげり he caught a faint light, which grew brighter as he plodded toward the cottage. He stamped on the porch and flapped his 武器 to 除去する the generous covering of snow that had 固執するd to him. And as he was about to knock, the door opened, and Mel stood in the sudden brightness.

"Hello, Mel, how are you?—some snow, eh?" was his cheery 迎える／歓迎するing, and he went in and shut the door behind him.

"Why, Daren—you—you—"

"I—what! Aren't you glad to see me?"

小道／航路 had not 用意が出来ている himself for anything. He knew he could 勝利，勝つ now, and all he had 許すd himself was gladness. But 存在 直面する to 直面する with Mel made it different. It had been long since he last saw her. That interval had been generous. To look at her now no one could have guessed her story. Warmth and richness of color had come 支援する to her; and vividly they 表明するd her joy at sight of him.

"Glad?—I've been living—on my hopes—that you—"

Her 滞るing speech 追跡するd off here, as 小道／航路 took one long stride toward her.

小道／航路 put a 会社／堅い 手渡す to each of her cheeks, and 攻撃するing a suddenly rosy 直面する, he kissed her 十分な on the lips. Then he turned away without looking at her and stepped to the little open grate, where a small red 解雇する／砲火／射撃 glowed. Mel gasped there behind him and then became perfectly still.

"Nice 解雇する／砲火／射撃, Mel," he spoke out, 自然に, as if nothing unusual had happened. But the thin 手渡すs he 延長するd to the warmth of the coals trembled like aspen leaves in the 勝利，勝つd. How silent she was! It thrilled him. What strange 甘い revel in the moment.

When he turned it seemed he saw her 注目する，もくろむs, her lips, her whole 直面する luminous. The next instant she （機の）カム out of her （一定の）期間; and 小道／航路 divined if he let her wholly 回復する, he would have a woman to を取り引きする.

"Daren, what's wrong with you?" she 問い合わせd.

"Why, Mel!" he ejaculated, in feigned reproach.

"You don't look irrational, but you 行為／法令／行動する so," she said, 熟考する／考慮するing him more closely. The 手渡す that had been 圧力（をかける）d to her breast dropped 負かす／撃墜する.

"Had my last crazy （一定の）期間 two weeks ago," he replied.

"Until to-night."

"You mean my kissing you? 井戸／弁護士席, I 辞退する to わびる. You see I was not 用意が出来ている to find you so 改善するd. Why, Mel, you're changed. You're just—just lovely."

Again the rich color stained her cheeks.

"Thank you, Daren," she said. "I have changed. You did it... I've gotten 井戸／弁護士席, and—almost happy... But let's not talk of myself. You—there's so much—"

"Mel, I don't want to talk about myself, either," he 宣言するd. "When a man's got only a day or so longer—"

"Hush!—Or—Or—," she 脅すd, with a slight distension of nostrils and a paling of cheek.

"Or what?" 需要・要求するd 小道／航路.

"Or I'll do to you what you did to me."

"Oh, you'd kiss me to shut my lips?"

"Yes, I would."

"罰金, Mel. Come on. But you'd have to keep 刻々と busy all evening. For I've come to talk." Mel （機の）カム closer to him, with a catch in her breathing, a loving radiance in her 注目する，もくろむs. "Daren, you're strange—not like your old self. You're too gay—too happy. Oh, I'd be glad if you were sincere. But you have something on your mind."

小道／航路 knew when to unmask a 殴打／砲列.

"No, it's in my pocket," he flashed, and with a quick 動議 he tore out the marriage license and thrust it upon her. As her dark 注目する，もくろむs took in the meaning of the paper, and her 表現 changed, 小道／航路 gazed 負かす／撃墜する upon her with a commingling of emotions.

"Oh, Daren—No—No!" she cried, in a wildness of amaze and 苦痛.

Then 小道／航路 clasped her の近くに, with a 軍隊 too sudden to be gentle, and with his 解放する／自由な 手渡す he 解除するd her 直面する.

"Look here. Look at me," he said 厳しく. "Every time you say no or shake your 長，率いる—I'll do this."

And he kissed her twice, as he had upon his 入り口.

Mel raised her 長，率いる and gazed up at him, wide-注目する，もくろむd, open-mouthed, as if both appalled and enthralled.

"Daren. I—I don't understand you," she said, unsteadily. "You 脅す me. Let me go—please, Daren. This is—so—so unlike you. You 侮辱 me."

"Mel, I can't see it that way," he replied. "I'm only asking you to come out and marry me to-night."

That galvanized her, and she tried to slip from his embrace.

"I told you no—no—no," she cried 猛烈に.

"That's three," said 小道／航路, and he took them mercilessly. "You will marry me," he said 厳しく.

"Oh, Daren, I can't—I dare not... Ah!—"

"You will go 権利 now—marry me to-night."

"Please be 肉親，親類d, Daren... I don't know how you—"

"Mel, where're your coat, and hat, and overshoes?" he questioned, 緊急に.

"I told you—no!" she flashed, passionately.

小道／航路 made good his 脅し, and this last 猛攻撃 left her spent and white.

"You must like my kisses, Mel Iden," he said.

"I implore you—Daren"

"I implore you to marry me."

"Dear friend, listen to 推論する／理由," she begged. "You don't love me. You've just a chivalrous notion you can help me—and my boy—by giving us your 指名する. It's noble, Daren, thank you. But—"

"Take care," 警告するd 小道／航路, bending low over her. "I can make good my word all night."

"Boy, you've gone crazy," she whispered, sadly.

"井戸／弁護士席, now you may be talking sense," he laughed. "But that's neither here nor there... Mel, I may die any day now!"

"Oh, my God!—don't say that," she cried, as if pierced by a blade.

"Yes. Mel, make me happy just for that little while."

"Happy?" she whispered.

"Yes. I've failed here in every way. I've lost all. And this thing would make the bitterness endurable."

"I'd die for you," she returned. "But marry you!—Daren—dearest—it will make you the laughing-在庫／株 of Middleville."

"Whatever it makes me, I shall be proud."

"Oh, I cannot, I dare not," she burst out.

"You seem to forget the 刑罰，罰則 for these unflattering 消極的なs of yours," he returned, coolly, bending to her lips.

This time she did not writhe or quiver or breathe. 小道／航路 felt 降伏する in her, and when he 解除するd his 直面する from hers he was sure. にもかかわらず the fact that he had inflexibly clamped his will to one 目的, 持つ／拘留するing his emotion in （一時的）停止, that 簡潔な／要約する instant seemed to be the fullest of his life.

"Mel, put your arm 一連の会議、交渉／完成する my neck," he 命令（する）d.

Mel obeyed.

"Now the other."

Again she 従うd.

"解除する your 直面する—look at me."

She essayed to do this also, but failed. Her 長，率いる sank on his breast. He had won. 小道／航路 held her a moment closely. And then a 広大な／多数の／重要な and 圧倒的な pity and tenderness, his first emotions, flooded his soul. He の近くにd his 注目する，もくろむs. Dimly, ばく然と, they seemed to create 見通し of long 未来 time; and he divined that good and happiness would come to Mel Iden some day through the 苦痛 he had given her.

"Where did you say your things are?" he asked. "It's a bad night."

"They're in—the hall," （機の）カム in muffled トンs from his shoulder. "I'll get them."

But she made no 成果／努力 to 除去する her 武器 from 一連の会議、交渉／完成する his neck or to 解除する her 長，率いる from his breast. 小道／航路 had lost now that singular exaltation of will, and 力／強力にする to 持つ／拘留する 負かす／撃墜する his emotions. Her nearness 嵐／襲撃するd his heart. His 実験（する） （機の）カム then, when he 否定するd utterance to the love that answered hers.

"No—Mel—you stay here," he said, 解放する／自由なing himself. "I'll get them."

開始 the hall door he saw the hat-rack where as a boy he had hung his cap. It now held 衣料品s over which 小道／航路 fumbled. Mel （機の）カム into the hall.

"Daren, you'll not know which are 地雷," she said.

小道／航路 watched her. How the shapely 手渡すs trembled. Her 直面する shone white against her dark furs. 小道／航路 helped her put on the overshoes.

"Now—just a word to mother," she said.

小道／航路 caught her 手渡す and held it, に引き続いて her to the end of the hall, where she opened a door and peeped into the sitting-room.

"Mother, is dad home?" she asked.

"No—he's out, and such a bad night! Who's with you, Mel?"

"Daren 小道／航路."

"Oh, is he up again? I'm glad. Bring him in... Why, Mel, you've your hat and coat on!"

"Yes, mother dear. We're going out for a while."

"On such a night! What for?"

"Daren and I are going to—to be married... Good-bye. No more till we come 支援する."

As one in a dream, 小道／航路 led Mel out in the whirling white 棺／かげり of snow. It seemed to envelop them. It was mysterious and friendly, and silent.

They crossed the 橋（渡しをする）, and 小道／航路 again listened for the river 発言する／表明するs that always haunted here. Were they only murmurings of swift waters? Beyond the 橋（渡しをする） lay the 鉄道／強行採決する 駅／配置する. A few 薄暗い lights shone through the white gloom. 小道／航路 設立する a taxi.

They were silent during the ride through the lonely streets. When the taxi stopped at the 演説（する）／住所 given the driver, 小道／航路 whispered a word to Mel, jumped out and ran up the steps of a house and rang the bell.

"Is Doctor McCullen at home?" he 問い合わせd of the maid who answered the （犯罪の）一味. He was 知らせるd the 大臣 had just gone to his room.

"Will you ask him to come 負かす／撃墜する upon a 事柄 of importance?"

The maid 招待するd him inside. In a few moments a tall, 厳しい-looking man wearing a long dressing-coat entered the parlor.

"Doctor McCullen, I 悔いる 乱すing you, but my 商売／仕事 is 緊急の. I want to be married at once. The lady is outside in a car. May I bring her in?"

"Ah! I seem to remember you. Isn't your 指名する 小道／航路?"

"Yes."

"Who is the woman you want to marry?"

"行方不明になる Iden."

"行方不明になる Iden! You mean Joshua Iden's daughter?"

"I do."

The 大臣 showed a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な surprise. "Aren't you rather late in making 修正するs? No, I will not marry you until I 調査／捜査する the 事柄," he replied, coldly.

"You need not trouble yourself," replied 小道／航路 curtly, and went out.

The instant 対立 刺激するd 小道／航路, and he asked the driver, "John, do you know where we can find a preacher?" "Yis, sor. Mr. Peters of the Methodist Church lives 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the corner," answered the man.

"運動 on, then."

小道／航路 got inside the taxi and slammed the door. "Mel, he 辞退するd to marry us."

Mel was silent, but the 圧力 of her 手渡す answered him.

"Daren, the car has stopped," said Mel, presently.

小道／航路 got out, walked up the steps, and pulled the bell. He was 認める. He had no better luck here. 小道／航路 felt that his lips shut tight, and his 直面する 始める，決める. Mel said nothing and sat by him, very 静かな. The taxi rolled on and stopped again, and 小道／航路 had audience with another 大臣. He was 撃退するd here also.

"We're trying a 治安判事," said 小道／航路, when the car stopped again.

"But, Daren. This is where Gerald Hartley lives. Not him, Daren. Surely you wouldn't go to him?"

"Why not?" 問い合わせd 小道／航路.

"It hasn't been two months since he married Helen Wrapp. Hadn't you heard?"

"I'd forgotten," said 小道／航路.

"Besides, Daren, he—he once asked me to marry him—before the war."

小道／航路 hesitated. Yes, he now remembered that in the days before the war the young lawyer had been Mel's 執拗な admirer. But a 無謀な mood had begun to manifest itself in 小道／航路 during the last hour, and it must have communicated its spirit to Mel, for she made no その上の 抗議する. The world was against them. They were 運動ing to the home of the man she had 辞退するd to marry, who had 結局 married a girl who had jilted 小道／航路. In an ordinary moment they would never have 試みる／企てるd such a thing. The mansion before which the car stopped was 井戸／弁護士席 lighted; music and laughter （機の）カム faintly through the 有望な windows.

A maid opened the door to 小道／航路 and showed him into a 製図／抽選-room. In a library beyond he saw women and men playing cards, laughing and talking. Several old ladies were sitting の近くに together, whispering and nodding their 長，率いるs. A young fair-haired girl was playing the piano. 小道／航路 saw the maid 前進する and speak to a sharp-featured man whom he 認めるd as Hartley. 小道／航路 手配中の，お尋ね者 to run out of the house. But he clenched his teeth and swore he would go through with it.

"Mr. Hartley," began 小道／航路, as the 治安判事 （機の）カム through the curtained doorway, "I hope you'll 容赦 my 侵入占拠. My errand is important. I've come to ask you to marry me to a lady who is waiting outside."

When Hartley 認めるd his 訪問者 he started 支援する in astonishment. Then he laughed and looked more closely at 小道／航路. It was a look that made 小道／航路 wince, for he understood it to relate to his mental 条件.

"小道／航路! 井戸／弁護士席, by Jove!" he exclaimed. "Going to get married! You 栄誉（を受ける） me. The 正規の／正選手 料金, which in my 公式の／役人 capacity I must 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, is one dollar. If you can 支払う／賃金 that I will marry you."

"I can 支払う／賃金," replied 小道／航路, 静かに, and his level 安定した gaze disconcerted Hartley.

"Where's the woman?"

"She's outside in a taxi."

"Is she over eighteen?"

"Yes."

小道／航路 推定する／予想するd the question as to who the woman was. It was singular that the 治安判事 neglected to ask this, the first query 申し込む／申し出d by every 大臣 小道／航路 has visited.

"Fetch her in," he said.

小道／航路 went outside and hesitated at the car door, for he had an intuitive flash which made him doubtful. But what if Hartley did make a show of this marriage? The marriage itself was the 決定的な thing. 小道／航路 helped Mel out of the car and led her up the icy steps. The maid again opened the door.

"Mr. 小道／航路, walk 権利 in," said Hartley. "Of course, it's natural for the lady to be a little shy, but then if she wants to be married at this hour she must not mind my family and guests. They can be 証言，証人／目撃するs."

He spoke in a 発言する／表明する in which 小道／航路's ears （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd insincerity. "Be seated, and wait until I get my 調書をとる／予約する," he continued, and left the room.

Hartley had hardly ちらりと見ることd at Mel, and her 隠す had hidden her features. He had gone toward his 熟考する／考慮する rubbing his 手渡すs in a peculiar manner which 小道／航路 remembered and which 解任するd the man as he had looked many a time in the Bradford billiard room when a good joke was going the 一連の会議、交渉／完成するs. 小道／航路 saw him hurry from his 熟考する／考慮する with pleasant words of 招待 to his guests, a mysterious 空気／公表する about him, a light upon his 直面する. The ladies and gentlemen rose from their （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs and 前進するd from the library to the door of the 製図／抽選-room. A girl of striking 人物／姿／数字 掴むd Hartley's arm and gesticulated almost wildly. It was Helen Wrapp. Her husband laughed at her and waved a 手渡す toward the 製図／抽選-room and his guests. Turning 速く with tigerish grace, she bent upon 小道／航路 広大な／多数の／重要な green 注目する，もくろむs whose strange 表現 he could not fathom. What passionately curious 注目する，もくろむs did she now fasten on his 見込みのある bride!

小道／航路 gripped Mel's 手渡す. He felt the horror of what might be coming. What a 失敗 he had made!

"Will the lady kindly 除去する her 隠す?" Hartley's 発言する／表明する sounded queer. His smile had 消えるd.

As Mel untied and thrust 支援する the 隠す her fingers trembled. The 活動／戦闘 公表する／暴露するd a lovely 直面する as white as snow.

"Mel Iden!" burst from the 治安判事. For a moment there was an 激しい silence. Then, "I'll not marry you," cried Hartley vindictively.

"Why not? You said you would," 需要・要求するd 小道／航路.

"Not to save your worthless lives," Hartley returned, 直面するing them with a dark meaning in his 注目する，もくろむs.

小道／航路 turned to Mel and led her from the house and 負かす／撃墜する to the 抑制（する） without speaking once.

Once more they went out into the blinding snow-嵐／襲撃する. 小道／航路 threw 支援する his 長，率いる and breathed the 冷淡な 空気／公表する. What a 救済 to get out of that stifling room!

"Mel, I'm afraid it's no use," he said, finally.

"We are finding what the world thinks of us," replied Mel. "Tell the man to 運動 to 204 Locust Street."

Once more the driver 長，率いるd his humming car into the white 嵐／襲撃する.

Once more 小道／航路 sat silent, with his heart 激怒（する）ing. Once more Mel peered out into the white 騒動 of gloom.

"Daren, we're going to Dr. Wallace, my old 大臣. He'll marry us," she said, presently.

"Why didn't I think of him?"

"I did," answered Mel, in a low 発言する／表明する. "I know he would marry us. He baptized me; he has known and loved me all my life. I used to sing in his choir and taught his Sunday School for years."

"Yet you let me go to those others. Why?"

"Because I shrank from going to him."

Once more the car lurched into the gutter, and this time they both got out and 機動力のある the high steps. 小道／航路 knocked. They waited what appeared a long time before they heard some one fumbling with the lock. Just then the bell in the church tower nearby began chiming the midnight hour. The door opened, and Doctor Wallace himself 認める them.

"井戸／弁護士席! Who's this?... Why, if it's not Mel Iden! What a night to be out in!" he exclaimed. He led them into a room, evidently his 熟考する／考慮する, where a cheerful 支持を得ようと努めるd 解雇する／砲火／射撃 炎d. There he took both her 手渡すs and looked from her to 小道／航路. "You look so white and 苦しめるd. This late hour—this young man whom I know. What has happened? Why do you come to me—the first time in so many months?"

"To ask you to marry us," answered Mel.

"To marry you?... Is this the 兵士 who wronged you?"

"No. This is Daren 小道／航路... He wants to marry me to give my boy a 指名する... Somehow he finally made me 同意."

"井戸／弁護士席, 井戸／弁護士席, here is a story. Come, take off this 雪の降る，雪の多い cloak and get nearer the 解雇する／砲火／射撃. Your 手渡すs are like ice." His 発言する／表明する was very 静める and 肉親，親類d. It soothed 小道／航路's 緊張するd 神経s. With what 切望 did he scrutinize the old 大臣's 直面する. He knew the 侵入するing 注目する，もくろむ, the lofty brow and white hair, the serious lined 直面する, sad in a noble 緊縮. But the lips were 肉親，親類d with that softness and sweetness which comes from gentle words and たびたび（訪れる） smiles. 小道／航路's 誘発するd antagonism 消えるd in the old man's presence.

"Doctor Wallace," went on Mel. "We have been to several 大臣s, and to Mr. Hartley, the 治安判事. All 辞退するd to marry us. So I （機の）カム to my old friend. You've known me all my life. Daren has at last 納得させるd me—broke 負かす／撃墜する my 抵抗. So—I ask—will you marry us?"

Doctor Wallace was silent for many moments while he gazed into the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and 一打／打撃d her 手渡す. Suddenly a smile broke over his 罰金 直面する.

"You say you asked Hartley to marry you?"

"Yes, we went to him. It was a 無謀な thing to do. I'm sorry."

"To say the least, it was 初めの." The old 大臣 seemed to have difficulty in 抑制するing a laugh. Then for a moment he pondered.

"My friends, I am very old," he said at length, "but you have taught me something. I will marry you."

It was a strange marriage. Behind Mel and Daren stood the red-直面するd, grinning driver, his coarse long coat covered with snow, and the simpering housemaid, respectful, yet glorifying in her 株 in this midnight romance. The old 大臣 with his striking 直面する and white hair, 厳粛に turned the leaves of his 調書をとる／予約する. No bridegroom ever wore such a 厳しい, haggard countenance. The bride's 直面する might have been a happier one, but it could not have been more beautiful.

Doctor Wallace's 発言する／表明する was low and 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な; it quavered here and there in passages. 小道／航路's was hardly audible. Mel's rang 深い and 十分な.

The 証言，証人／目撃するs 調印するd their 指名するs; husband and wife wrote theirs; the 大臣 filled out the license, and the 儀式 was over.

Then Doctor Wallace took a 手渡す of each.

"Mel and Daren," he said. "No human can read the secret ways of God. But it seems there is divinity in you both. You have been sacrificed to the war. You are 建設業者s, not 破壊者s. You are Christians, not pagans. You have a 見通し limned against the mystery of the 未来. Mammon seems now to 支配する. Civilization 激しく揺するs on its 創立／基礎s. But the world will go on growing better. Peace on earth, good will to men! That is the ultimate. It was Christ's teaching... You two give me greater 約束... Go now and 直面する the world with 長，率いるs 築く—whatever you do, Mel—and however long you live, Daren. Who can tell what will happen? But time 証明するs all things, and the blindness of people does not last forever... You both belong to the Kingdom of God."

But few words were spoken by 小道／航路 or Mel on the ride home. Mel seemed lost in a trance. She had one 手渡す slipped under 小道／航路's arm, the other clasped over it. As for 小道／航路, he had 過大評価するd his strength. A deadly numbness attacked his 神経s, and he had almost lost the sense of touch. When they arrived at Mel's home the snow-嵐／襲撃する had abated somewhat, and the lighted windows of the cottage shone brightly.

小道／航路 helped Mel wade through the 深い snow, or he pretended to help her, for in reality he needed her support more than she needed his. They entered the warm little parlor. Some one had 補充するd the 解雇する／砲火／射撃. The clock pointed to the hour of one. 小道／航路 laid the marriage 証明書 on the open 調書をとる／予約する Mel had been reading. Mel threw off hat, coat, overshoes and gloves. Her hair was wet with melted snow.

"Now, Daren 小道／航路," she said softly. "Now that you have made me your wife—!"

Up until then 小道／航路 had been master of the 状況／情勢. He had thought no さらに先に than this moment. And now he 弱めるd. Was this beautiful woman, with 長，率いる uplifted and 注目する，もくろむs 十分な of 解雇する／砲火／射撃, the Mel Iden of his school days? Now that he had made her his wife—.

"Mel, there's no now for me," he replied, with a sad finality. "From this moment, I'll live in the past. I have no 未来... Thank God, you let me do what I could. I'll try to come again soon. But I must go now. I'm afraid—I 重税をかけるd my strength."

"Oh, you look so—so," she 滞るd. "Stay, Daren—and let me nurse you... We have a little spare room, warm, cozy. I'll wait on you, Daren. Oh, it would mean so much to me—now I am your wife."

The look of her, the トンs of her 発言する／表明する, made him weak. Then he thought of his 冷淡な, sordid lodgings, and he realized that one more moment here alone with Mel Iden would make him a coward in his own 注目する，もくろむs. He thanked her, and told her how impossible it was for him to stay, and bidding her good night he reeled out into the white gloom. At the gate he was already tired; at the 橋（渡しをする） he needed 残り／休憩（する）. Once more, then, he heard the imagined 発言する／表明するs of the waters calling to him.

CHAPTER XVIII

Seldom did Blair Maynard ever 信用 himself any more in the presence of his mother's guests. Since Mrs. Maynard had 発表するd the 約束／交戦 of his sister Margaret to Richard Swann, she had changed remarkably. Blair did not love her any the better for the change. All his life, as long as he could remember, he and Margaret had hated pretension, and the littleness of living beyond their means. But now, with this one クーデター d'etat, his mother had 回復するd her position as the leader of Middleville society. Haughty, proud, forever 吸収するd in the 構成要素 味方する of everything, she moved in a self-created atmosphere Blair could not がまんする. He went hungry many a time rather than sit at （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する with guests such as Mrs. Maynard delighted to 栄誉（を受ける）.

Blair and Margaret had become estranged, and Blair spent most of his time alone, reading or dreaming, but mostly sleeping. He knew he grew 女性 every day and his 証拠不十分 appeared to induce slumber.

On New Year's day, after dinner, he fell asleep in a big 議長，司会を務める, across the hall from the 製図／抽選-room. And when he awoke the 製図／抽選-room was 十分な of people making New Year's calls. If there was anything Blair hated it was to 強くたたく on his crutch past curious, 冷淡な-注目する，もくろむd persons. So he remained where he was, hoping not to be seen. But unfortunately for him, he had exceedingly keen ears and exceedingly 極度の慎重さを要する feelings.

Some of the guests he knew very 井戸／弁護士席 without having to see them. The Swanns, and Fanchon Smith, with her brother and mother, Gerald Hartley and his bride, Helen Wrapp, and a number of others 目だつ as Middleville's elect were recognizable by their 発言する／表明するs. While he was sitting there, trying not to hear what he could not help 審理，公聴会, a number more arrived.

They talked. It 徐々に 夜明けd on Blair that some gossip was rife anent a midnight marriage between his friend Daren 小道／航路 and Mel Iden. Blair was 深く，強烈に shocked. Then his emotions, never 静める, grew poignant. He listened. What he heard spoken of Daren and Mel made his 血 boil. 甘い 発言する／表明するs, low-pitched, 井戸／弁護士席-modulated, with the intonation of culture, made witty and scarcely 隠すd 発言／述べるs of a suggestiveness that gave rise to laughter. 発言する／表明するs of men, bland, blase, deriding Daren 小道／航路! Blair listened, and slowly his passion 機動力のある to a white heat. And then it seemed, 運命／宿命 fully, in a なぎ of the conversation, some one 発言／述べるd graciously to Mrs. Maynard that it was a pity that Blair had lost a 脚 in the war.

Blair 強くたたくd up on his crutch, and 強くたたくd across the hall to 直面する this 議会.

"Ladies and gentlemen, pray 容赦 me," he said, in his high-pitched tenor, 冷淡な now, and under perfect 支配（する）／統制する. "I could not help 審理，公聴会 your conversation. And I cannot help illuminating your minds. It seems exceedingly strange to me that people of 知能 should make the 失敗s they do. So strange that in the 未来 I ーするつもりである to take such as you have made as nothing but the plain 冷淡な fact of perversion of human nature! Daren 小道／航路 is so far above your comprehension that it seems useless to defend him. I have never done it before. He would not thank me. But this once I will speak... In our group of service men—so few of whom （機の）カム home—he was a hero. We all loved him. And for 兵士s at war that 尊敬の印 is the greatest. If there was a dirty 職業 to be done, Daren 小道／航路 volunteered for it. If there was a comrade to be helped, Daren 小道／航路 was the first to see it. He never thought of himself. The dregs of war did not （海，煙などが）飲み込む him as they did so many of us. He was true to his ideal. He would have been 前進するd for 栄誉（を受ける）s many a time but for the 敵意 of our captain. He won the Croix de Guerre by as splendid a feat as I saw during the war... Thank God, we had some officers who 扱う／治療するd us like men—who were men themselves. But for the 大多数 we ありふれた 兵士s were 単に beasts of 重荷（を負わせる）, dogs to 運動. This captain of whom I speak was a padded 形態／調整—shirker from the 前線 line—a parader of his uniform before women. And he is that to-day—a chaser of women—girls—girls of fifteen... Yet he has the adulation of Middleville while Daren 小道／航路 is an outcast... My God, is there no 司法（官）? At home here Daren 小道／航路 has not done one thing that was not 権利. Some of the gossip about him is as 誤った as hell. He has tried to do noble things. If he married Mel Iden, as you say, it was in some exalted mood to help her, or to give his 指名する to her poor little nameless boy."

Blair paused a moment in a 審議する／熟考する speech that toward the end had grown breathless. The 直面するs before him seemed swaying in a もや.

"As for myself," he continued in 熱烈な hurry, "I did not lose my 脚!... I sacrificed it. I gave my career, my 青年, my health, my 団体／死体—and I will soon have given my life—for my country and my people. I was proud to do it. Never for a moment have I regretted it... What I lost—Ah! what I lost was 尊敬（する）・点 for"—Blair choked—"for the 会・原則 that had deluded me. What I lost was not my 脚 but my 約束 in God, in my country, in the 感謝 of men left at home, in the 栄誉（を受ける） of women."

Friday, the tenth of January, 夜明けd 冷淡な, dark, dreary, and all day a dull clouded sky 約束d rain or snow. From a bride's point of 見解（をとる） it was not a propitious day for a wedding. A half hour before five o'clock a stream of carriages began to flow toward St. 示すs and 敏速に at five the door of the church shut upon a large and 流行の／上流の 議会.

The swelling music of the wedding march pealed out. The bridal party とじ込み／提出するd into the church. The 組織／臓器 peals hushed. The resonant 発言する／表明する of a 大臣, with sing-song solemnity, began the marriage service.

Margaret Maynard knew she stood there in the flesh, yet the shimmering white satin, the flowing 隠す, covered some one who was a stranger to her.

And this other, this strange 存在 who 支配するd her movements, stood passively and willingly by, while her despairing and truer self saw the shame and truth. She was a 嘘（をつく）. The guests, friends, attendants, bridesmaids, the 大臣, the father, mother, groom—all were lies. They 表明するd nothing of their true feelings.

The unwelcomed curious, who had （人が）群がるd into the 支援する of the church, were the sincerest, for in their 注目する，もくろむs, covetousness was 率直に 明かすd. The guests and friends wore the 従来の shallow smiles of guests and friends. They whispered to one another—a beautiful wedding—a gorgeous gown—a perfect bride—a handsome groom; and exclaimed in their hearts: How sad the father! How lofty, proud, exultant the mother! How like her to move heaven and earth to make this marriage! The attendants 提起する／ポーズをとるd awkwardly, a personification of the uselessness of their 状況／情勢, and they pitied the bride while they envied him for whose friendship they stood. The bridesmaids graced their position and gloried in it, and serenely smiled, and thought that to be 開始する，打ち上げるd in life in such dazzling manner might be 補償（金） for the loss of much. He of the flowing 式服, of the saintly 表現, of the trained earnestness, the 大臣 who had 力／強力にする to 部隊 these lives, saw nothing behind that white 隠す, saw only his 流行の／上流の audience, while his resonant 発言する／表明する rolled 負かす／撃墜する the aisles of the church: "Who gives this woman to be wedded to this man?" The father answered and straightway the years rolled 支援する to his 青年, to hope, to himself as he stood at the altar with love and 信用, and then again to the 現在の, to the 失敗 of health and love and life, to the unalterable 運命 （許可，名誉などを）与えるd him, to the one shame of an honest if 不成功の life—the countenancing of this marriage. The worldly mother had, for once, a 十分な and swelling heart. For her this was the 栄冠を与えるing moment. In one sense this 流行の／上流の （人が）群がる had been pitted against her and she had won. What to her had been the pleading of a daughter, the importunity of a father, the 推論する／理由ing of a few old-fashioned friends? The groom, who 代表するd so much and so little in this 儀式, had entered the church with 長，率いる held high, had 直面するd his bride with gratified smile and the altar with serene unconsciousness.

Margaret Maynard saw all this; saw even the bride, with her splendidly 正規の／正選手 loveliness; and then, out of heaven, it seemed there 雷鳴d an awful 命令（する）, rolling the dream away, striking terror to her heart.

"If any man can show just 原因（となる） why they may not 合法の be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever 持つ／拘留する his peace!"

One long, silent, terrible moment! Would not an angel appear, with 炎上ing sword, to smite her dead? But the sing-song 発言する／表明する went on, like flowing silk.

The last guest at Mrs. Maynard's 歓迎会 had gone, reluctantly, out into the snow, and the hostess sat in her 製図／抽選-room, まっただ中に the 廃虚s of flowers and palms. She was alone with her 勝利. Mr. Maynard and Mr. Swann were smoking in the library. 借りがあるing to the 嵐／襲撃する and delicate health of the bride the wedding 旅行 had been 延期するd.

Margaret was left alone, at length, in the little blue-and-white room which had known her as a child and maiden, where she now sat as wife. For weeks past she had been emotionless. To-night, with that trenchant 命令（する）, unanswered except in her heart, a spasm of 苦痛 had broken the serenity of her 静める, and had left her quivering.

"It is done," she whispered.

The endless stream of congratulations, meaningless and abhorrent to her, the (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する refreshments, the warm embraces of old friends had 大いに 疲労，（軍の）雑役d her. But she could not 残り／休憩（する）. She paced the little room; she passed the beautiful white bridal finery, so neatly 倍のd by the bridesmaids, and she 回避するd her 注目する，もくろむs. She seemed not to hate her mother, nor love her father; she had no 利益／興味 in her husband. She was slipping 支援する again into that creature apart from her real self.

The house became very 静かな; the snow 小衝突d softly against the windows.

A step in the hall made Margaret pause like a listening deer; a tap sounded lightly on her door; a 発言する／表明する awoke her at last to life and to 拷問.

"Margaret, may I come in?"

It was Swann's 発言する／表明する, a little softer than usual, with a subtle 切望.

"No" answered Margaret, involuntarily.

"I beg your 容赦. I'll wait." Swann's footsteps died away in the direction of the library.

The spring of a panther was in Margaret's 活動／戦闘 as she began to repace the room. All her 血 quickened to the thought 示唆するd by her husband's soft 発言する／表明する. In the mirror she saw a crimsoned 直面する and shamed 注目する，もくろむs from which she turned away.

All the 苦痛 and repression, the fight and bitter 辞職 and trained 無関心／冷淡 of the past months were as if they had never been. This was her hour of real agony; now was the time to 支払う／賃金 the price. Pride, 栄誉（を受ける）, love never smothered, reserve rooted in the very 核心 of a 極度の慎重さを要する woman's heart, availed nothing. Once again catching sight of her reflection in the mirror she stopped before it, and crossing her 手渡すs on her heaving breast, she regarded herself with 軽蔑（する）. She was 誤った to her love, she was 誤った to herself, 誤った to the man to whom she had sold herself. "Oh! Why did I 産する／生じる!" she cried. She was a coward; she belonged to the luxurious class that would 苦しむ anything rather than lose position. Fallen had she as low as any of them; gold had been the price of her soul. To keep her position she must marry one man when she loved another. She cried out in her wretchedness; she felt in her whole 存在 a bitter humiliation; she felt 動かす in her a terrible tumult.

Margaret wondered how many thousands of girls had been 類似して placed, and pitied them. She thought of the atmosphere in which she lived, where it seemed to her every mother was 所有するd singularly and 完全に of one 目的（とする）, to marry her daughter as soon as possible to a man as rich as possible. Marrying 井戸／弁護士席 簡単に meant marrying money. Only a few days before her mother had come to her and said: "Mrs. Fisher called and she was telling me about her daughter Alice. It seems Alice is growing very pretty and very popular. She said she was afraid Alice had taken, a liking to that Brandeth fellow, who's only a clerk. So Mrs. Fisher ーするつもりであるs taking Alice to the seashore this summer, to an 排除的 訴える手段／行楽地, of course, but one where there will be excitement and plenty of young gentlemen."

At the remembrance Margaret gave a little contemptuous laugh. A year ago she would not have divined the real 趣旨 of her mother's words. How 平易な that was now! Mrs. Fisher had decided that as Alice was eighteen it was time a suitable husband was 設立する for her. Poor Alice! Balls, parties, 歓迎会s there would be, and trips to the seashore and all the other society manoeuvers, made 表面上は to introduce Alice to the world; but if the truth were told in 冷淡な 血 all this was 簡単に a parading of the girl before a number of rich and marriageable men. Poor Harry Brandeth!

She 解任するd many marriages of friends and 知識s. With strange intensity of 目的 she brought each one to mind, and thought 分かれて and 真面目に over her. What melancholy facts this 演習 明らかにする／漏らすd! She could not 解任する one girl who was happy, perfectly happy, unless it was Jane Silvey who ran off with and married a telegraph 操作者. Jane was still 有望な-注目する，もくろむd and fresh, happy no 疑問 in her little house with her work and her baby, even though her people passed her by as if she were a stranger. Then Margaret remembered with a little shock there was another friend, a bride who had been 設立する on her wedding night wandering in the fields. There had been some talk, quickly hushed, of a drunken husband, but it had never definitely transpired what had made her run out into the dark night. Margaret recollected the time she had seen this girl's husband, when he was drunk, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 his dog 残酷に. Then Margaret 反映するd on the gossip she never 手配中の，お尋ね者 to hear, yet could not 避ける 審理，公聴会, over her mother's tea-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する; on the intimations and 関わりあい／含蓄s. Many things she would not さもなければ have thought of again, but they now recurred and 追加するd their significance to her awakening mind. She was not keen nor analytical; she 所有するd only an ordinary 知能; she could not trace her way through a 迷宮／迷路 of perplexing problems; still, 苦しむing had opened her 注目する，もくろむs and she saw something terribly wrong in her mother's world.

Once more she stopped pacing her room, for a step in the hall 逮捕（する）d her, and made her stand quivering, as if under the 攻撃する.

"I won't!" she breathed intensely. 速く and lightly she sped across her room, opened a door 主要な to the balcony and went out, の近くにing the door behind her softly.

Mr. Maynard sat before the library 解雇する／砲火／射撃 with a neglected cigar between his fingers. The events of the day had stirred him 深く，強烈に. The 冷淡な shock he had felt when he touched his daughter's cheek in the accustomed good-night kiss remained with him, still 冷気／寒がらせるd his lips. For an hour he sat there motionless, with his 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on the dying 解雇する／砲火／射撃, and in his mind hope, 疑問 and 悔恨 strangely mingled. Hope 説得するd him that Margaret was only a girl, still sentimental and unpoised. Unquestionably she had made a good marriage. Her girlish notions about romance and love must give way to sane 受託 of real human life. After all money meant a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定. She would come around to a sensible 見解（をとる）, and get that strange look out of her 注目する，もくろむs, that 緊張するd blighted look which 傷つける him. Then he writhed in his self-contempt; 疑問 大勝するd all his hope, and 悔恨 made him 哀れな.

A hurried step on the stairs 誘発するd Mr. Maynard. Swann （機の）カム running into the library. He was white; his sharp featured 直面する wore a combination of 表現s; alarm, incredulity, wonder were all 明白な there, but the most striking was mortification.

"Mr. Maynard, Margaret has left her room. I can't find her anywhere."

The father 星／主役にするd blankly at his son-in-法律.

Swann repeated his 声明.

"What!" All at once Mr. Maynard sank helplessly into his 議長，司会を務める. In that moment certainty made him an old broken man.

"She's gone!" said Swann, in a shaken 発言する／表明する. "She has run off from me. I knew she would; I knew she'd do something. I've never been able to kiss her—only last night we quarreled about it. I tell you it's—"

"Pray do not get excited," interrupted Mr. Maynard, を締めるing up. "I'm sure you 誇張する. Tell me what you know."

"I went to her room an hour, two hours ago, and knocked. She was there but 辞退するd me admittance. She spoke はっきりと—as if—as if she was afraid. I went and knocked again long after. She didn't answer. I knocked again and again. Then I tried her door. It was not locked. I opened it. She was not in the room. I waited, but she didn't come. I—I am afraid something is—wrong."

"She might be with her mother," 滞るd Mr. Maynard.

"No, I'm sure not," 主張するd Swann. "Not to-night of all nights. Margaret has grown—somewhat 冷淡な toward her mother. Besides Mrs. Maynard retired hours ago."

The father and the husband stole noiselessly up the stairs and entered Margaret's room. The light was turned on 十分な. The room was somewhat disordered; bridal finery lay littered about; a rug was crumpled; a wicker basket overturned. The father's instinct was true. His first move was to open the door 主要な out upon the balcony. In the thin snow drifted upon this porch were the imprints of little feet.

Something gleamed pale blue in the light of the open door. Mr. Maynard 選ぶd it up, and with a sigh that was a groan held it out to Swann. It was a blue satin slipper.

"Heavens!" exclaimed Swann. "She's run out in the snow—she might 同様に be barefooted."

"S-sh-h!" 警告するd Mr. Maynard. Unhappy and excited as he was he did not forget Mrs. Maynard. "Let us not alarm any one."

"There! See, her footsteps 負かす／撃墜する the stairs," whispered Swann. "I can see them （疑いを）晴らす to the ground."

"You stay here, Swann, so in 事例／患者 Mrs. Maynard or the servants awake you can 妨げる alarm. We must think of that. I'll bring her 支援する."

Mr. Maynard descended the 狭くする stairway to the lower porch and went out into the yard. The 嵐／襲撃する had 中止するd. A few インチs of snow had fallen and in places was deeper in drifts. The moon was out and shone 負かす／撃墜する on a white world. It was 冷淡な and 静かな. When Mr. Maynard had 追跡するd the footsteps across his wide lawn and saw them lead out into the street toward the park, he fell against a tree, unable, for a moment, to 命令（する） himself. Hope he had 非，不，無 left, nor a 疑問. On the other 味方する of the park, hardly a ４半期/4分の1 of a mile away, was the river. Margaret had gone straight toward it.

Outside in the middle of the street he 設立する her other slipper. She had not even stockings on now; he could tell by the impressions of her feet in the snow. He remembered やめる mournfully how small Margaret's feet were, how perfectly 形態／調整d. He hurried into the park, but was careful to obliterate every 痕跡 of her 追跡する by walking in the soft snow 直接／まっすぐに over her 足跡s. A hope that she might have fainted before she could carry out her 決意 arose in him and gave him strength. He kept on. Her 追跡する led straight across the park, in the short 削減（する） she had learned and run over hundreds of times when a little girl. It was 急いでing her now to her death.

At first her footsteps were （疑いを）晴らす-削減（する）, 際立った and wide apart. Soon they began to show 証拠s of weariness; the stride 縮めるd; the imprints dragged. Here a 広大な／多数の／重要な 鎮圧するing in a snow drift showed where she had fallen.

Mr. Maynard's hope 生き返らせるd; he redoubled his 成果／努力s. She could not be far. How she dragged along! Then with a leap of his heart, and a sob of thankfulness he 設立する her, with disheveled hair, and 直面する white as the snow where it 残り／休憩（する）d, sad and still in the moonlight.

CHAPTER XIX

Middleville was 公式文書，認めるd for its 厳しい winters, but this year the 無 天候 held off until late in January. 小道／航路 was peculiarly susceptible to the 冷淡な and he 設立する himself 直面するing a 不快 he knew he could not long 耐える. Every day he felt more and more that he should go to a warm and 乾燥した，日照りの 気候; and yet he could not 決定する to leave Middleville. Something held him.

The warmth of 有望な hotel ロビーs and theatres and restaurants uptown was no longer 利用できる for 小道／航路. His money had dwindled beyond the 可能性 of 高級な, and besides he shrank now from 会合 any one who knew him. His life was empty, dreary and comfortless.

One wintry afternoon 小道／航路 did not wander 一連の会議、交渉／完成する as long as usual, for the 推論する／理由 that his endurance was 少なくなるing. He returned 早期に to his new ４半期/4分の1s, and in the 薄暗い hallway he passed a slight pale girl who looked at him. She seemed familiar, but 小道／航路 could not place her. Evidently she had a room in the building. 小道／航路 hated the big barn-like house, and 特に the 明らかにする 冷淡な room where he had to 捜し出す 残り／休憩（する）. Of late he had not eaten any dinner. He usually remained in bed as long as he could, and made a midday meal answer all 必要物／必要条件s. Appetite, like many other things, was failing him. This day he sat upon his bed, in the abstraction of the lonely and unhappy, until the 冷淡な 軍隊d him to get under the covers.

His 疲れた／うんざりした eyelids had just の近くにd when he was awakened. The 混乱させるd sense of 存在 torn from slumber gave way to a perception of a 発言する／表明する in the room next to his. It was a man's 発言する／表明する, rough with the huskiness 小道／航路 認めるd as peculiar to drunkards. And the reply to it seemed to be a low-トンd 控訴，上告 from a woman.

"Playin' off sick, eh? You don't want to work. But you'll get me some money, girl, d'ye hear?"

A door slammed, 動揺させるing the thin partition between the two rooms, and 激しい footsteps dragged in the hall and on the stairway.

Sleep 辞退するd to come 支援する to 小道／航路. As he lay there he was surprised at the many sounds he heard. The ramshackle old structure, which he had supposed almost 空いている, was busy with life. Stealthy footfalls in the hallways passed and repassed; a piano drummed somewhere; a man's loud 発言する／表明する rang out, and a woman's laugh faint, hollow and far away, like the ghost of laughter, returned in echo. The musical clinking of glasses, the （犯罪の）一味 of a cash 登録（する）, the 動揺させるing click of pool balls, （機の）カム up from below.

Presently 小道／航路 remembered the nature of the place. It was a house of night. In daylight it was silent; its inmates were asleep. But as the 不明瞭 広げるd a cloak over it, all the hidden springs of its obscure humanity began to flow. Lying there with the woman's 控訴，上告 haunting him and all those sounds in his ears he thought of their meaning. The drunkard with his lust for money; his moaning 犠牲者; the discordant piano; the man with the 空いている laugh; the lost hope and 青年 in the woman's that echoed it; the stealing, slipping feet of those who must tread softly—all 伝えるd to 小道／航路 that he had awakened in another world, a world which shunned sunlight.

Toward morning he dozed off into a fitful sleep which lasted until ten o'clock when he arose and dressed. As he was about to go out a knock on the door of the room next to his 解任するd the 出来事/事件 of the night. He listened. Another knock followed, somewhat louder, but no 返答 （機の）カム from within.

"Say, you in there," cried a 発言する／表明する 小道／航路 認めるd as the landlady's. She 動揺させるd the door-knob.

A girl's 発言する／表明する answered weakly: "Come in."

小道／航路 heard the door open.

"I wants my room rent. I can't get a dollar out of your drunken father. Will you 支払う／賃金? It's four weeks 延滞の."

"I have no money."

"Then get out an' leave me the room." The landlady spoke 怒って.

"I'm ill. I can't get up." The answer was faint.

小道／航路 opened his door quickly, and 直面するd the 幅の広い person of the landlady.

"How much does the woman 借りがある?" he asked, 静かに.

"Ah-huh!" the exclamation was trenchant with meaning. "Twenty dollars, if it's anything to you."

"I'll 支払う／賃金 it. I think I heard the woman say she was ill."

"She says she is."

"May I be of any 援助?"

"Ask her."

小道／航路 ちらりと見ることd into the little room, a 相当するもの of his. But it was so dark he could see nothing distinctly.

"May I come in? Let me raise the blind. There, the sun is 罰金 this morning. Now, may I not—-"

He looked 負かす／撃墜する at a curly 長，率いる and a 甘い pretty 直面する that he knew.

"I know you," he said, groping の中で past 協会s.

"I am Rose Clymer," she whispered, and a momentary color （機の）カム into her 病弱な cheeks.

"Rose Clymer! Bessy Bell's friend!"

"Yes, Mr. 小道／航路. I'm not so surprised as you. I 認めるd you last night."

"Then it was you who passed me in the hall?"

"Yes."

"井戸／弁護士席! And you're ill? What is the 事柄? Ah! Last night—it was your—your father—I heard?"

"Yes," she answered. "I've not been 井戸／弁護士席 since—for a long time, and I gave out last night."

"Here I am talking when I might be of some use," said 小道／航路, and he hurried out of the room. The landlady had 慎重に retired to the other end of the hall. He thrust some money into her 手渡すs.

"She seems pretty sick. Do all you can for her, be 肉親，親類d to her. I'll 支払う／賃金. I'm going for a doctor."

He telephoned for Doctor Bronson.

An hour later 小道／航路, coming upstairs from his meal, met the 内科医 at Rose's door. He looked strangely at 小道／航路 and shook his 長，率いる.

"Daren, how is it I find you here in this place?"

"Beggars can't be choosers," answered 小道／航路, with his old frank smile.

"Humph!" exclaimed the doctor, gruffly.

"How about the girl?" asked 小道／航路.

"She's in bad 形態／調整," replied Bronson... "小道／航路, are you aware of her 条件?"

"Why, she's ill—that's all I know," replied 小道／航路, slowly. "Rose didn't tell me what ailed her. I just 設立する out she was here."

Doctor Bronson looked at 小道／航路. "Too bad you didn't find out sooner. I'll call again to-day and see her... And say, Daren, you look all in yourself."

"Never mind me, Doctor. It's mighty good of you to look after Rose. I know you've more 患者s than you can take care of. Rose has nothing and her father's a poor devil. But I'll 支払う／賃金 you."

"Never mind about money," 再結合させるd Bronson, turning to go.

小道／航路 could learn little from Rose. Questions seemed to make her 縮む, so 小道／航路 差し控えるd from them and tried to 元気づける her. The landlady had taken a sudden liking to 小道／航路 which evinced itself in her change of 態度 toward Rose, and she was communicative. She 知らせるd 小道／航路 that the girl had been there about two months; that her father had made her work till she dropped. Old Clymer had often brought men to the hotel to drink and 賭事, and to the girl's credit she had 避けるd them.

For several days Doctor Bronson （機の）カム twice daily to see Rose. He made little comment upon her 条件, except to 明言する／公表する that she had developed peritonitis, and he was not 希望に満ちた. Soon Rose took a turn for the worse. The doctor （機の）カム to 小道／航路's room and told him the girl would not have the strength to go through with her ordeal. 小道／航路 was so shocked he could not speak. Dr. Bronson's shoulders sagged a little, an unusual thing for him. "I'm sorry, Daren," he said. "I know you 手配中の，お尋ね者 to help the poor girl out of this. But too late. I can 緩和する her 苦痛, and that's all."

Strangely shaken and 脅すd 小道／航路 lay 負かす／撃墜する in the dark. The partition between his room and Rose's might 同様に have been paper for all the sound it deadened. He could have escaped that, but he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be 近づく her... And he listened to Rose's moans in the 不明瞭. 小道／航路 shuddered there, helpless, 苦しむing, realizing. Then the foreboding silence became more dreadful than any sound... It was terrible for 小道／航路. That strange 冷淡な knot in his breast, that coil of panic, seemed to spring and 涙／ほころび, quivering through all his 団体／死体. What had he known of 拷問, of sacrifice, of divine selflessness? He understood now how the loved and guarded woman went 負かす／撃墜する into the Valley of the 影をつくる／尾行する for the sake of a man. Likewise, he knew the infinite 悲劇 of a 廃虚d girl who lay in agony, gripped by relentless nature.

小道／航路 was called into the hall by Mrs. O'Brien. She was weeping. Bronson met him at the door.

"She's dying," he whispered. "You'd better come in. I've 'phoned to Doctor Wallace."

小道／航路 went in, almost blinded. The light seemed 薄暗い. Yet he saw Rose with a luminous glow radiating from her white 直面する.

"I feel—so light," she said, with a 病弱な smile.

小道／航路 sat by the bed, but he could not speak. The moments dragged. He had a feeling of their slow but remorseless certainty.

Then there were soft steps outside—Mrs. O'Brien opened the door—and Doctor Wallace entered the room.

"My child," he 厳粛に began, bending over her.

Rose's big 注目する，もくろむs with their 緊張するd 尋問 gaze sought his 直面する and Doctor Bronson's and 小道／航路's.

"Rose—are you—in 苦痛?"

"The 燃やすing's gone," she said.

"My child," began Doctor Wallace, again. "Your 苦痛 is almost over. Will you not pray with me?"

"No. I never was two-直面するd," replied Rose, with a 疲れた／うんざりした shake of the 絡まるd curls. "I won't show yellow now."

小道／航路 turned away blindly. It was terrible to think of her dying bitter, unrepentant.

"Oh! if I could hope!" murmured Rose. "To see my mother!"

Then there were shuffling steps outside and 発言する／表明するs. The door was opened by Mrs. O'Brien. Old Clymer crossed the threshold. He was sober, haggard, grieved. He had been told. No one spoke as he approached Rose's 病人の枕元.

"Lass—lass—" he began, brokenly.

Then he sought from the men 確定／確認 of a 恐れる borne by a ちらりと見ること into Rose's white still 直面する. And silence answered him.

"Lass, if you're goin'—tell me—who was to 非難する?"

"No one—but myself—father," she replied.

"Tell me, who was to 非難する?" 需要・要求するd Clymer, 厳しく.

Her pale lips curled a little 激しく, and suddenly, as a change seemed to come over her, they 始める，決める that way. She looked up at 小道／航路 with a different light in her 注目する，もくろむs. Then she turned her 直面する to the 塀で囲む.

小道／航路 left the room, to pace up and 負かす／撃墜する the hall outside. His thoughts seemed 行き詰まるd. By and bye, Doctor Bronson （機の）カム out with Doctor Wallace, who was evidently leaving.

"She is unconscious and dying," said Doctor Bronson to 小道／航路, and then bade the 大臣 good-bye and returned to the room.

"How strangely bitter she was!" exclaimed Doctor Wallace to 小道／航路. "Yet she seemed such a frank honest girl. Her 態度 was an acknowledgment of sin. But she did not believe it herself. She seemed to have a terrible 憤慨. Not against one man, or many persons, but perhaps life itself! She was beyond me. A modern girl—a pagan! But such a 勇敢に立ち向かう, loyal, generous little soul. What a pity! I find my 宗教 at fault because it can 遂行する nothing these days."

CHAPTER XX

小道／航路 took Rose's death to heart as if she had been his sister or sweetheart. The exhaustion and （危険などに）さらす he was 支配するd to during these days dragged him さらに先に 負かす／撃墜する.

One bitter February day he took 避難 in the 鉄道／強行採決する 駅／配置する. The old negro porter who had known 小道／航路 since he was a boy evidently read the truth of 小道／航路's 条件, for he contrived to lead him 支援する into a corner of the 不規律な room. It was an obscure corner, rather hidden by a supporting 中心存在 and the 事業／計画（する）ing end of a news 反対する. This seat was 直接／まっすぐに over the furnace in the cellar. Several 麻薬を吸うs, too hot to touch, （機の）カム up through the 床に打ち倒す. It was the warmest place 小道／航路 had 設立する, and he sat there for hours. He could see the people passing to and fro through the 駅／配置する, arriving and leaving on trains, without himself 存在 seen. That afternoon was good for him, and he went 支援する next day.

But before he could get to the coveted seat he was accosted by Blair Maynard. 小道／航路 winced under Blair's piercing gaze; and the haggard 直面する of his friend 新たにするd 小道／航路's deadened pangs. 小道／航路 led Blair to the warm corner, and they sat 負かす／撃墜する. It had been many weeks since they had seen each other. Blair talked in one 連続する flow for an hour, and so the life of the people 小道／航路 had given up was once again open to him. It was like the 得点する／非難する／２０ing of an old 負傷させる. Then 小道／航路 told what little there was to tell about himself. And the things he omitted Blair divined. After that they sat silent for a while.

"Of course you knew Mel's boy died," said Blair, presently.

"Oh—No!" exclaimed 小道／航路.

"Hadn't you heard? I thought—of course you—... Yes, he died some time ago. Croup or flu, I forget."

"Dead!" whispered 小道／航路, and he leaned 今後 to cover his 直面する with his 手渡すs. He had seemed so numb to feeling. But now a 嵐／襲撃する shook him.

"Dare, it's better for him—and Mel too," said Blair, with a 手渡す going to his friend's shoulder. "That idea never occurred to me until day before yesterday when I ran into Mel. She looked—Oh, I can't tell you how. But I got that strange impression."

"Did—did she ask about me?" queried 小道／航路, hoarsely, as he 暴露するd his 直面する, and sat 支援する.

"She certainly did," replied Blair, 温かく. "And I lied like a 州警察官，騎馬警官. I didn't know where you were or how you were, but I pretended you were O.K."

"And then—" asked 小道／航路, breathlessly.

"She said, 'Tell Daren I must see him.' I 約束d and 始める，決める out to find you. I was pretty lucky to run into you... And now, old sport, let me get personal, will you?"

"Go as far as you like," replied 小道／航路, in muffled 発言する／表明する.

"井戸／弁護士席, I think Mel loves you," went on Blair, in hurried softness. "I always thought so—even when we were kids. And now I know it... And Lord! Dare you just せねばならない see her now. She's lovely. And she's your wife."

"What if she is—both lovely—and my wife?" queried 小道／航路, 激しく.

"If I were you I'd go to her. I'd sure let her take care of me... Dare, the way you're living is horrible. I have a home, such as it is. My room is warm and clean, and I can stay in it. But you—Dare, it 傷つけるs me to see you—as you are——"

"No!" interrupted 小道／航路, passionately. The 誘惑 Blair 示唆するd was not to be borne.

小道／航路 met Blair the next afternoon at the 駅／配置する, and again on the next. That 設立するd a habit in which both 設立する much 慰安 and some happiness. Thereafter they met every day at the same hour. Often for long they sat silent, each 占領するd with his own thoughts. Occasionally Blair would bring a 一括 which 含む／封じ込めるd food he had ransacked from the larder at home. Together they would 落ちる upon it like two schoolboys. But what 小道／航路 was most 感謝する for was just Blair's presence.

It was 苦しめるing then, after these 会合s had 延長するd over a period of two weeks, to be 直面するd one afternoon by a new 駅／配置する スパイ／執行官 who called Blair and 小道／航路 bums and ordered them out of the place.

Blair raised his crutch to knock the man 負かす／撃墜する. But 小道／航路 迎撃するd it, and got his friend out of the 駅／配置する. It was late afternoon with the sun going 負かす／撃墜する over the hill across the 鉄道／強行採決する yards. Blair stood a moment 明らかにする-長，率いるd, with the light on his handsome haggard 直面する. How frail he seemed—too frail of 団体／死体 for the magnificent spirit so flashing in his 注目する，もくろむs, so scathing on his bitter lips. 小道／航路 bade him good-bye and turned away, with a strange intimation that this was the last time he would ever see Blair alive.

Wretched and desperate, 小道／航路 bought drink and took it to his room with him. On that dark winter night he sat by the window of his room. Insensible now to the 冷淡な, to the 勝利，勝つd moaning outside, to the snow whirling against the pane, he lived with phantoms. To and fro, to and fro glided the wraith-forms, 消えるing and appearing. The soft rustling sound of the snow was the rustle of their movements. Across the gleam of light, streaking coldly through the pane, flickering fitfully on the 塀で囲む, floated 影をつくる／尾行するs and 直面するs.

He did not know when he succumbed to drowsy 証拠不十分. But he awoke at daylight, lying on the 床に打ち倒す, stiff with 冷淡な. Drink helped him to drag through that day. Then something happened to him, and time meant nothing. Night and day were the same. He did not eat. When he lay 支援する upon his bed he became irrational, yet seemed to be conscious of it. When he sat up his senses slowly 権利d. But he preferred the （一定の）期間s of aberration. いつかs he was 所有するd by hideous nightmares, out of which he awoke with the terror of a child. Then he would have to sit up in the dark, in a 冷淡な sweat, and wait, and wait, until he dared to 嘘（をつく） 支援する again.

In the daytime delusions grew upon him. One was that he was always 審理，公聴会 the strange 発言する／表明するs of the river, and another that he was 存在 追求するd by an old woman 覆う？ in a flowing 黒人／ボイコット mantle, with a hood on her 長，率いる and a crooked staff in her 手渡す. The 発言する／表明するs and apparition （機の）カム to him, now in his waking hours; they （機の）カム suddenly without any 序幕 or 警告. He explained them as 半端物 fancies resulting from strong drink; they grew on him until his 厳しい laugh could not shake them off. He managed occasionally to drag himself out of the house. In the streets he felt this old 黒人／ボイコット hag に引き続いて him; but later she （機の）カム to him in the lonely silence of his room. He never noticed her unless he ちらりと見ることd behind him, and he was 権力のない to resist that impulse. At length the dreary old woman, who seemed to grow more gaunt and ghostly every day, took the form in 小道／航路's disordered fancy of the misfortune that war had put upon him.

小道／航路 dreamed once that it was a gray winter afternoon; dark lowering clouds hung over the 淡褐色-colored hills, and a 冷気／寒がらせる north 勝利，勝つd scurried over the 明らかにする meadows, sending the dead leaves rustling over the ヒース／荒れ地 and moaning through the leafless oaks. What a sad day it was, he thought, as he 直面するd the biting 勝利，勝つd: sad as was his life and a fitting one for the 行為 on which he had 決定するd! Long since he had left the city and was on the country road. He 上がるd a 法外な hill. From its highest point he looked 支援する toward the city he was leaving forever. Faint it lay in the distance, only a few of its white spires 向こうずねing out dimly from the purple 煙霧.

What was that dark 影をつくる／尾行する? Far 負かす／撃墜する the winding road he discerned an 反対する moving slowly up the hill. Closer he looked, and trembled. An old woman with flowing 黒人／ボイコット 式服s was laboriously climbing the hill. Whirling, he placed his 手渡す on his breast, 堅固に しっかり掴むd something there, and then strode onward. Soon he ちらりと見ることd over his shoulder. Yes, there she （機の）カム, hobbling over the crest, her bent form and long crooked staff 明確に silhouetted against the gray background. She raised the long staff and pointed it at him.

Now it seemed the day was 病弱なing; 深い 影をつくる／尾行するs lay in the valleys, and night already enveloped the forest. Through rents in the broken clouds a few pale 星／主役にするs twinkled fitfully. Soon dark cloud curtains scurried across these spaces shutting out the light.

He 急落（する），激減（する）d into the forest. His footsteps made no sound on the soft moss as he glided through wooded aisles and under 巨大（な） trees. Once 井戸／弁護士席 into the 深い 支持を得ようと努めるd, he turned to look behind him. He saw a 影をつくる／尾行する, blacker than the forest-gloom, stealthily slipping from tree to tree. He looked no more. For hours he traveled on and on, never stopping, never looking backward, never listening, 意図 only on placing a 広大な／多数の／重要な distance between him and his pursuer.

He （機の）カム upon a 押し寄せる／沼地 where his feet sank in the soft earth, and through all the night, with tireless strength and fateful 解決する, he toiled into this dreamy waste of 支持を得ようと努めるd and waters, until at length a 抱擁する 黒人／ボイコット 激しく揺する ぼんやり現れるd up in his way. He 上がるd to its 首脳会議 and looked beyond.

It seemed now that he had reached his 目的地. 支持を得ようと努めるd spirits and phantoms of night would 嘆く／悼む over him, but they would keep his secret. He peered across a 向こうずねing lake, and tried to pierce the gloom. No living thing moved before his 見通し. Silver rippling waves shimmered under that starlit sky; tall weird pines waved gently in the night 微風; slender cedars, 似ているing spectres, 後部d their 長，率いるs toward the blue-黒人／ボイコット 丸天井 of heaven. He listened intently. There was a faint rustling of the few leaves left upon the oaks. The strange 発言する／表明するs that had always haunted him, the murmuring of river waters, or whispering of maidens, or muttering of women were now （疑いを）晴らす.

Suddenly two white forms （機の）カム gliding across the waters. The 直面する of one was that of a young girl. Golden hair clustered 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 直面する and over the fair brow. The lips smiled with mournful sweetness. The other form seemed instinct with life. The 直面する was that of a living, breathing girl, soulful, 熱烈な, her 武器 outstretched, her 注目する，もくろむs 向こうずねing with a strange 希望に満ちた light.

負かす／撃墜する, 負かす／撃墜する, 負かす／撃墜する he fell and sank through 冷気／寒がらせる depths, 落ちるing slowly, 落ちるing softly. The 冷静な／正味の waters passed; he floated through misty, shadowy space. An infinitude of silence enclosed him. Then a 薄暗い and sullen roar of waters （機の）カム to his ears, borne faintly, then stronger, on a 微風 that was not of earth. Anguish and despair tinged that sodden 勝利，勝つd. Weird and terrible （機の）カム a cry. Steaming, boiling, 燃やすing, rumbling 大混乱—a fearful 急ぐing sullen water! Then a flash of light like a 落ちるing 星／主役にする sped out of the dark clouds.

小道／航路 設立する himself sitting up in bed, wet and shaking. The room was dark. Some one was 続けざまに猛撃するing on the door.

"Hello, 小道／航路, are you there?" called a man's 深い 発言する／表明する.

"Yes. What's 手配中の，お尋ね者?" answered 小道／航路.

The door opened wide, impelled by a powerful arm. Light from the hallway streamed in over the burly form of a man in a 激しい coat. He stood in the doorway evidently trying to see.

"Sick in bed, hey?" he queried, with gruff 肉親，親類d 発言する／表明する.

"I guess I am. Who're you?"

"I'm Joshua Iden and I've come to pack you out of here," he said.

"No!" 抗議するd 小道／航路, faintly.

"Your wife is downstairs in a taxi waiting," went on his strange 訪問者.

"My wife!" whispered 小道／航路.

"Yes. Mel Iden, my daughter. You've forgotten maybe, but she hasn't. She learned to-day from Doctor Bronson how ill you were. And so she's come to take you home."

Mel Iden! The 指名する seemed a part of the past. This was only another dream, thought 小道／航路, and slowly fell 支援する upon his bed.

"Say, aren't you able to sit up?" queried this 訪問者 小道／航路 took for the spectre of a dream. He 前進するd into the room. He しっかり掴むd 小道／航路 with 会社／堅い 手渡す. And then 小道／航路 realized this was no nightmare. He began to shake.

"Sit up?" he echoed, ばく然と. "Sure I can... You're Mel's father?"

"Yes," replied the other. "Come, get out of this... 井戸／弁護士席, you 港／避難所't much dressing to do. And that's good... 安定した there."

As he rose, 小道／航路 would have fallen but for a quick move of Iden's.

"Only shoes and coat," said 小道／航路, fumbling around. "They're somewhere."

"Here you are... Let me help... There. Have you an overcoat?"

"No," replied 小道／航路.

"井戸／弁護士席, there's a 式服 in the taxi. Come on now. I'll come 支援する and pack your 所持品."

He put an arm under 小道／航路's and led him out into the hall and 負かす／撃墜する the 薄暗い stairway to the street. Under the yellow light 小道／航路 saw a cab, toward which Iden 勧めるd him. 小道／航路 knew that he moved, but he seemed not to have any feeling in his 脚s. The cabman put a 手渡す 支援する to open the door.

"Mel, here he is," called out Iden, cheerfully.

小道／航路 felt himself 存在 押し進めるd into the cab. His 膝s failed and he sank 今後, even as he saw Mel's 直面する.

"Daren!" she cried, and caught him.

Then all went 黒人／ボイコット.

CHAPTER XXI

小道／航路's return to consciousness was an awakening into what seemed as unreal and unbelievable as any of his morbid dreams.

But he knew that his mind was （疑いを）晴らす. It did not take him a moment to realize from the feel of his 団体／死体 and the fact that he could not 解除する his 手渡す that he had been prostrate a long time.

The room he lay in was strange to him. It had a neatness and cleanliness that spoke of a woman's care. It had two small windows, one of which was open. 日光 flooded in, and the twitter of swallows and hum of bees filled the 空気／公表する outside. 小道／航路 could scarcely believe his senses. A warm fragrance floated in. Spring! What struck 小道／航路 then most singularly was the fact of the silence. There were no city sounds. This was not the Iden home. Presently he heard soft footfalls downstairs, and a low 発言する／表明する, as of some one humming a tune. What then had happened?

As if in answer to his query there （機の）カム from below a sound of 激しい footfalls on a porch, the 開始 and の近くにing of a door, a man's cheery 発言する／表明する, and then steps on the stairs. The door opened and Doctor Bronson entered.

"Hello, Doc," said 小道／航路, in a very faint 発言する／表明する.

"井戸／弁護士席, you son of a gun!" ejaculated the doctor, in delight. Then he called 負かす／撃墜する the stairs. "Mel, come up here quick."

Then （機の）カム a low cry and a 飛行機で行くing patter of light feet. Mel ran past the doctor into the room. To 小道／航路 she seemed to have grown along with the enchantments his old memories had invoked. With parted lips, eager-注目する，もくろむd, she flashed a look from 小道／航路 to Doctor Bronson and 支援する again. Then she fell upon her 膝s by the bed.

"Do you know me?" she asked, her 発言する／表明する tremulous.

"Sure. You're the wife—of a poor sick 兵士—Daren 小道／航路."

"Oh, Doctor, he has come to," cried Mel, in rapture.

"罰金. I've been 推定する／予想するing it every day," said Doctor Bronson, rubbing his 手渡すs. "Now, Daren, you can listen all you want. But don't try to talk. You've really been 改善するing ever since we got you out here to the country. For a while I was worried about your mind. Lately, though, you showed 調印するs of rationality. And now all's O.K. In a few days we'll have you sitting up."

Doctor Bronson's prophecy was more than 実行するd. From the hour of 小道／航路's return to consciousness, he made 早い 改良. Most of the time he slept and, upon awakening, he seemed to feel stronger. 小道／航路 had been ill often during the last eighteen months, but after this illness there was a difference, inasmuch as he began to make surprising strides toward 回復. Doctor Bronson was nonplussed, and elated. Mel seemed mute in her 感謝. 小道／航路 could have told them the 推論する／理由 for his 改良, but it was a secret he hid in his heart.

In いっそう少なく than a week he was up, walking 一連の会議、交渉／完成する his little room, peering out of the windows.

Mel had told 小道／航路 the circumstances …に出席するing his illness. It had been late in February when she and her father had called for him at his lodgings. He had 崩壊（する）d in the cab. They took him to the Iden home where he was 厳しく ill during March. In April he began to 改善する, although he did not come to his senses. One day Mr. Iden brought Jacob 小道／航路, an uncle of 小道／航路's, to see him. 小道／航路's uncle had been at 半端物s with the family for many years. There had been a time when he had cared much for his 甥 Daren. The visit had evidently 生き返らせるd the old man's affection, for the result was that Jacob 小道／航路 申し込む／申し出d Daren the use of a cottage and several acres of land on Sycamore River, just out of town. Joshua Iden had seen to the 精密検査するing of the cottage; and as soon as the 天候 got warm, Doctor Bronson had 同意d to 小道／航路's 除去 to the country. And in a few days after his arrival at the cottage, 小道／航路 回復するd consciousness.

"井戸／弁護士席, this （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s me," said 小道／航路, for the hundredth time. "Uncle Jake letting us have this farm. I thought he hated us all."

"Daren, it was your going to war—and coming 支援する—that you were ill and fell to so sad a 苦境. I think if your uncle had known, he'd have helped you."

"Mel, I couldn't ask anybody for help," said 小道／航路. "Don't you understand that?"

"You were a stubborn fellow," mused Mel.

"Me? Never. I'm the meekest of mortals... Mel, I know every 激しく揺する along the river here. This is just above where at flood time the Sycamore 削減（する）s across that rocky flat below, and makes a bad 早い. There's a creek above and a big 支持を得ようと努めるd. I used to fish and 追跡（する） there a good 取引，協定."

Two weeks passed by and Daren felt himself slowly but surely getting stronger. Every morning when he （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する to breakfast he felt a little better, had a little more color in his pale cheeks. At first he could not eat, but as the days went by he 回復するd an appetite which, to Mel's delight, manifestly grew stronger. No woman could have been brighter and merrier. She laughed at the 表現 on his 直面する when he saw her 手渡すs red from hot dish-water, and she would not 許す him to help her. The 誇る she had made to him of her housekeeping abilities had not been an idle one. She 用意が出来ている the meals and kept the cottage tidy, and went about other 義務s in a manner that showed she was 完全に conversant with them.

The way in which she had 絶対 put aside the past, her witty sallies and her innocent humor, her habit of singing while at work, the depth of her earnest conversation; in all, the 甘い wholesome strength and beauty of her nature had a remarkable 影響 on 小道／航路. He began to live again. It was 簡単に impossible to be morbid in her presence. While he was with her he escaped from himself.

The day （機の）カム when he felt strong enough to take a walk. He labored up the hillside toward a 支持を得ようと努めるd. Thereafter he went every day and walked さらに先に every time.

With his returning strength there crept into his mind the 夜明けing of a hope that he might get 井戸／弁護士席. At first he 否定するd it, 否定するd even the 有罪の判決 that he wished to live. But not long. The hope grew, and soon he 設立する himself deliberately trying to build up his health. Every day he put a greater 実験（する） upon himself, and as summer drew on he felt his strength 徐々に 増加するing. Against Doctor Bronson's advice, he got an axe and 始める，決める to work on the 支持を得ようと努めるd pile, very 慎重に at first.

Every day he （権力などを）行使するd the axe until from sheer exhaustion he could not 解除する it. Then he would sit on a スピードを出す／記録につける and pant and 軽蔑（する） his 証拠不十分. What a poor man it was who could not chop 支持を得ようと努めるd for ten minutes without getting out of breath! This pile of スピードを出す／記録につけるs became to him a serious and meaning 障害. Every morning he went at it doggedly. His 支援する grew lame, his 武器 sore, his 手渡すs raw and blistered. But he did not give up.

Mel seemed happy to see him so 占領するd, and was loath to call him even when it was necessary. After lunch it was his habit to walk in the 支持を得ようと努めるd. Unmindful of 天候, every day he climbed the hill, 急落（する），激減（する）d into the 支持を得ようと努めるd, and tramped until late in the afternoon. Returning, he usually slept until Mel called him to dinner. Afterward they spent the evening in the little library. The past seemed buried. 小道／航路's curiosity as to family and friends had not reawakened.

Mel 所有するd a rich contralto 発言する／表明する which had been carefully cultivated. Every evening in the twilight, with only the flickering of the 支持を得ようと努めるd 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the room, she would sit at the piano and sing. 小道／航路 would の近くに his 注目する，もくろむs and let the mellow 発言する／表明する charm his every sense. It called up his highest feelings; it ぐずぐず残るd in his soul, thrilled along his heart and played on the chords of love and hope. It dispelled the 激しい gloom that so often 圧力（をかける）d 負かす／撃墜する upon him; it vanquished the 不景気 that was the forerunner of his old terrible 黒人／ボイコット mood.

It （機の）カム about that 小道／航路 spent most of his time outdoors, in the fields, along the river, on the wooded hills. The morbid brooding lost its 持つ／拘留する on his mind, and in its place （機の）カム memories, dreams, imaginations. He walked those hills with phantoms of the past and phantoms of his fancy.

The birds sang, the leaves ぱたぱたするd, the 勝利，勝つd rustled through the 支店s. White clouds sailed across the blue sky, a crow cawed from a 丘の頂上, a 強硬派 screeched from above, the roar of the river 早いs （機の）カム faintly 上向き. And 小道／航路 saw 注目する，もくろむs gazing dreamily downward, thoughtful at a word, looking into life, trying to pierce the 隠す. It was all so beautiful—so terrible.

The peeping of frogs roused in 小道／航路 sensations thrilling and strange. The quick sharp 公式文書，認めるs were suggestive of 冷静な／正味の nights, of flooded streams and marshy places. How often 小道／航路 wandered in the dusk along the shore to listen to this chorus!

At that hour twilight stole 負かす／撃墜する; the dark hills rose to the pale blue sky; there was a fair 星／主役にする and a wisp of purple cloud; and the shadowy waters gleamed. Breaking into the trill of the frogs （機の）カム the song of a lonely whippoorwill.

小道／航路 felt a better spirit resurging. He felt the silence, the beauty, the mystery, the eternal that was there. All that was small and frail was passing from him. There （機の）カム a regurgitation of physical strength—a change of 血.

The に引き続いて morning while 小道／航路 was laboring over his 支持を得ようと努めるd pile, he thought he heard 発言する／表明するs in the 前線 yard, and presently Mel （機の）カム around the walk …を伴ってd by Doctor Wallace and Doctor Bronson.

"井戸／弁護士席, 小道／航路, glad to see you," said Doctor Bronson, in his hearty トンs. "Doctor Wallace and I are on our way to the Grange and thought we'd stop off a minute."

"How are you, Mr. 小道／航路? I see you're taking work 本気で," put in Doctor Wallace, in his kindly way.

"Oh, I'm coming 一連の会議、交渉／完成する all 権利," replied 小道／航路.

He stood there with his shirt sleeves rolled up, his 直面する bronzed a little and now warm and moist from the 演習, with something proven about him, with a suggestion of a new 軍隊 which made him different.

There was an unmistakable kindliness in the regard of both men and a scarcely 隠すd 恐れる 小道／航路 was quick to read. Both men were afraid they would not find him as they had hoped to.

"Mel, you've chosen a charming 場所 for a home," 観察するd Doctor Wallace.

When Mel was showing her old teacher and friend the garden and flowerbeds the practical Doctor Bronson asked 小道／航路: "Did you chop all that 支持を得ようと努めるd?"

The doctor pointed to three long piles of 支持を得ようと努めるd, composed of short pieces 定期的に stacked one upon another.

"I did."

"How long did it take you?"

"I've been weeks at it. That's a long time, but you know, Doctor, I was in pretty poor 条件. I had to go slow."

"井戸／弁護士席, you've done wonders. I want to tell you that. I hardly knew you. You're still thin, but you're 伸び（る）ing. I won't say now what I think. Be careful of sudden or violent exertion. That's all. You've done more than doctors can do."

CHAPTER XXII

"Mel, come here," called 小道／航路 from the 支援する porch, "who the ジュース are those people coming 負かす／撃墜する the hill?"

Mel shaded her 注目する，もくろむs from the glare of the 有望な morning sun. "The lady is 行方不明になる Hill, my old schoolteacher. I'd know her as far as I could see her. Look how she carries her left arm. This is Saturday, for she has neither a lunch basket nor a 祈り 調書をとる／予約する in that outstretched 手渡す. If you see 行方不明になる Hill without either you can be 確かな it's Saturday. As to the gentleman—Daren, can it かもしれない be 陸軍大佐 Pepper?"

"That's the 陸軍大佐, sure as you're alive," 宣言するd 小道／航路, with alacrity. "They must be coming here. Where else could they be making for? But Mel, for them to be together! Why, the 陸軍大佐's an old sport, and she—Mel—you know 行方不明になる Hill!"

その結果 Mel 熟知させるd Daren with the circumstances of a romance between 行方不明になる Hill and the gallant 陸軍大佐.

"井戸／弁護士席—of all things!" gasped 小道／航路, and straightway became speechless.

"You're 権利, Daren; they are coming in. Isn't that nice of them? Now, don't you dare show I told you anything. 行方不明になる Hill is so easily embarrassed. She's the most 極度の慎重さを要する woman I ever knew."

小道／航路 回復するd in time to go through the cottage to the 前線 porch and to hear 行方不明になる Hill 迎える／歓迎する Mel affectionately, and 発表する with the トン of a society woman that she had 遭遇（する）d 陸軍大佐 Pepper on the way and had brought him along. 小道／航路 had met the little schoolteacher, but did not remember her as she appeared now, for she was no longer plain, and there was life and color in her 直面する. And as for 当惑, not a trace of it was evident in her 耐えるing. （許可，名誉などを）与えるing to Mel, the mere sight of man, much いっそう少なく of one of such repute as 陸軍大佐 Pepper, would once have been 十分な to 減ずる 行方不明になる Hill to a trembling 影をつくる／尾行する.

But the 陸軍大佐! 非，不，無 of his courage manifested an 外見 now. To 小道／航路's hearty welcome he mumbled some incoherent reply and mopped his moist red 直面する. He was wonderfully and gorgeously arrayed in a new 控訴 of light check, 特許 leather shoes, a tie almost as 有望な as his complexion, and he had a carnation in his buttonhole. This last proof of the 陸軍大佐's mental 条件 was such an 圧倒的な shock to 小道／航路 that all he could do for a moment was 星／主役にする. The 陸軍大佐 saw the 星／主役にする and it （判決などを）下すd him helpless.

行方不明になる Hill （機の）カム to the 救助（する） with pleasant 雑談（する） and most 利益／興味ing news to the 追放するs. She had ーするつもりであるd coming out to the cottage for ever so long, but the 天候 and one thing or another 落ちるing on a Saturday, had 妨げるd until to-day. How pretty the little home! Did not the 陸軍大佐 agree with her that it was so 甘い, so cosy, and picturesquely 据えるd? Did they have chickens? What 楽しみ to have chickens, and flowers, too! Of course they had heard about Mr. Harry White and the 未亡人, about the dissension in Doctor Wallace's church. And Margaret Maynard was far from 井戸／弁護士席, and Helen Wrapp had gone 支援する home to her mother, and Bessy Bell had grown into a tall ravishingly beautiful girl and had distracted her mother by 辞退するing a millionaire, and seemed very much in love with young Dalrymple.

"And I've the worst class of girls I ever had," went on 行方不明になる Hill. "The one I had last year was a class of angels compared to what I have now. I reproved one girl whose mother wrote me that as long as Middleville had preachers like Doctor Wallace and teachers like myself there wasn't much chance of a girl 存在 good. So I'm going to give up teaching."

The little schoolmistress straightened up in her 議長，司会を務める and looked 厳しい. 陸軍大佐 Pepper 転換d uneasily, bent his ちらりと見ること for the hundredth time on his shiny shoes and once more had 頼みの綱 to his 抱擁する handkerchief and heated brow.

"井戸／弁護士席, 陸軍大佐, it seems good to see you once more," put in 小道／航路. "Tell me about yourself. How do you pass the time?"

"Same old story, Daren, same old way, a game of billiards now and then, and a little game of cards. But I'm more lonely than I used to be."

"Why, you never were lonely!" exclaimed 小道／航路.

"Oh, yes indeed I was, always," 抗議するd the 陸軍大佐.

"A little game of cards," mused 小道／航路. "How 井戸／弁護士席 I remember! You used to have some pretty big games, too."

"Er—yes—you see—once in a while, very seldom, just for fun," he replied.

"How about your old 証拠不十分? Hope you've 征服する／打ち勝つd that," went on 小道／航路, mercilessly.

The 陸軍大佐 was thrown into utter 混乱. And when 行方不明になる Hill turned terrible 注目する，もくろむs upon him, poor Pepper looked as if he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 沈む through the porch.

小道／航路 took pity on him and carried him off to the garden and the river bank, where he became himself again.

They talked for a while, but neither について言及するd the 支配する that had once drawn them together. For both of them a different life had begun.

A little while afterward Mel and 小道／航路 watched the 有望な 人物／姿／数字 and the slight dark one go up the hillside cityward.

"What do you know about that!" ejaculated 小道／航路 for the tenth time.

"Hush!" said Mel, and she touched his lips with a soft exquisite gesture.

At three o'clock one June afternoon Mel and Daren were lounging on a mossy bank that lined the shady 味方する of a （疑いを）晴らす 早い-running brook. A canoe was pulled up on the grass below them. With an 表現 of utter content, 小道／航路 was leaning over the brook 吸収するd in the contemplation of a piece of thread which was tied to a crooked stick he held in his 手渡す. He had gone 支援する to his boyhood days. Just then the greatest happiness on earth was the outwitting of 有望な-味方するd minnows and golden flecked sunfish. Mel sat nearby with her （競技場の）トラック一周 十分な of flowers which she had gathered in the long grass and was now arranging. She was dressed in blue; a sunbonnet slipped 支援する from her 長，率いる; her glossy hair waved in the 微風. She looked as fresh as a violet.

"井戸／弁護士席, Daren, we have spent four delightful, happy hours. How time 飛行機で行くs! But it's growing late and we must go," said Mel.

"Wait a minute or two," replied 小道／航路. "I'll catch this fellow. See him bite! He's cunning. He's taken my bait time and again, but I'll get him. There! See him run with the line. It's a big sunfish!"

"How do you know? You 港／避難所't seen him."

"I can tell by the way he bites. Ha! I've got him now," cried 小道／航路, giving a quick jerk. There was a splash and he pulled out a squirming eel.

"Ugh! The 汚い thing!" cried Mel, jumping up. 小道／航路 had flung the eel 支援する on the bank and it just 行方不明になるd 落ちるing into Mel's （競技場の）トラック一周. She 叫び声をあげるd, and then when 安全に out of the way she laughed at the disgust in his 直面する.

"So it was a big sunfish? My! What a disillusion! So much for a man's boastful knowledge."

"井戸／弁護士席, if it isn't a slimy old eel. There! be off with you; go 支援する into the water," said 小道／航路, as he shook the eel 解放する／自由な from the hook.

"Come, we must be starting."

He 押し進めるd the canoe into the brook, helped Mel to a seat in the 屈服する and 押すd off. In some places the stream was only a few feet wide, but there was enough room and water for the light （手先の）技術 and it went skimming along. The brook turned through the 支持を得ようと努めるd and 新たな展開d through the meadows, いつかs lying 冷静な／正味の and dark in the shade and again 向こうずねing in the sunlight. Often 小道／航路 would have to duck his 長，率いる to get under the alders and willows. Here in an 影を投げかけるd bend of the stream a heron rose 板材ing from his weedy 退却／保養地 and winged his slow flight away out of sight; a water wagtail, that cunning sentinel of the brooks, gave a startled tweet! tweet! and went flitting like a gray streak of light 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the bend.

"Daren, please don't be so energetic," said Mel, nervously.

"I'm strong as a horse now. I'm—hello! What's that?"

"I didn't hear anything."

"I imagined I heard a laugh or shout."

The stream was 広げるing now as it 近づくd its mouth. 小道／航路 was sending the canoe along 速く with vigorous 一打／打撃s. It passed under a water-gate, 一連の会議、交渉／完成する a quick turn in the stream, where a 橋（渡しをする） spanned it, and before 小道／航路 had a 疑惑 of anything unusual he was 権利 upon a merry picnic party. There were young men and girls 残り／休憩（する）ing on the banks and several sitting on the 橋（渡しをする）. Automobiles were parked 支援する on the bank.

小道／航路 swore under his breath. He 認めるd Margaret, 刑事 Swann and several other old-time 知識s and friends of Mel's.

"Who is it?" asked Mel. Her 支援する was turned. She did not look 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, though she heard 発言する／表明するs.

"It doesn't 事柄," said 小道／航路, calmly.

He would have given the world to spare Mel the ordeal before her, but that was impossible. He put more 力／強力にする into his 一打／打撃 and the canoe 発射 ahead.

It passed under the 橋（渡しをする）, not twenty feet from Margaret Swann. There was a strange, eager, wondering look in Margaret's （疑いを）晴らす 注目する，もくろむs as she 認めるd Mel. Then she seemed to be swallowed up by the green willows.

"That was damned annoying," muttered 小道／航路 to himself. He could have met them all 直面する to 直面する without 存在 影響する／感情d, but he realized how painful this 会合 must be to Mel. These were Mel's old friends. He had caught Margaret's ちらりと見ること. Old memories （機の）カム 殺到するing 支援する. His gaze returned to Mel. Her 直面する was 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な and sad; her 注目する，もくろむs had darkened, and there was a 影をつくる／尾行する in them. His ちらりと見ること sought the green-lined channel ahead. The canoe 削減（する） the placid water, turned the last bend, and glided into the swift river. Soon 小道／航路 saw the little cottage 向こうずねing white in the light of the setting sun.

One afternoon, as 小道／航路 was returning from the 支持を得ようと努めるd, he met a car coming out of the grassy road that led 負かす／撃墜する to his cottage. As he was about to step aside, a gay 発言する／表明する あられ／賞賛するd him. He waited. The car （機の）カム on. It 含む／封じ込めるd Holt Dalrymple and Bessy Bell.

"Say, don't you dodge us," called Holt.

"Daren 小道／航路!" 叫び声をあげるd Bessy.

Then the car 停止（させる）d, and with two strides 小道／航路 設立する himself 直面する to 直面する with the young friends he had not seen for months. Holt appeared a man now. And Bessy—no longer with bobbed hair—older, taller, changed incalculably, struck him as having 実行するd her girlish 約束 of character and beauty. "井戸／弁護士席, it's good to see you youngsters", said 小道／航路, as he shook 手渡すs with them.

Holt seemed trying to hide emotion. But Bessy, after that first 叫び声をあげる, sat 星／主役にするing at 小道／航路 with a growing comprehending light in her purple 注目する，もくろむs.

Suddenly she burst out. "Daren—you're 井戸／弁護士席!... Oh, how glad I am! Holt, just look at him."

"I'm looking, Bess. And if he's really Daren 小道／航路, I'll eat him," 答える／応じるd Holt.

"This is all I needed to make to-day the happiest day of my life," said Bessy, with serious sweetness.

"This? Do you mean 会合 me? I'm 大いに flattered, Bessy," said 小道／航路, with a smile.

Then both a blush and a glow made her radiant.

"Daren, I'm sixteen to-day. Holt and I are—we're engaged I told mother, and 推定する／予想するd a 列／漕ぐ／騒動. She was really pleased... And then seeing you 井戸／弁護士席 again. Why, Daren, you've 現実に got color. Then Holt has been given a splendid 商売／仕事 適切な時期... And—Oh! it's all too good to be true."

"井戸／弁護士席, of all things!" cried 小道／航路, when he had a chance to speak. "You two engaged! I—I could never tell you how glad I am." 小道／航路 felt that he could have hugged them both. "I congratulate you with all my heart. Now Holt—Bessy, make a go of it. You're the luckiest kids in the world."

"Daren, we've both had our fling and we've both been 傷つける," said Bessy, 本気で. "And you bet we know how lucky we are—and what we 借りがある Daren 小道／航路 for our happiness to-day."

"Bessy, that means a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 to me," replied 小道／航路, 真面目に. "I know you'll be happy. You have everything to live for. Just be true to yourself."

So the moment of feeling passed.

"We went 負かす／撃墜する to your place," said Holt, "and stayed a while waiting for you."

"Daren, I think Mel is lovely. May I not come often to see you both?" 追加するd Bessy.

"You know how pleased we'll be... Bessy, do you ever see my sister Lorna?" asked 小道／航路, hesitantly.

"Yes, I see her now and then. Only the other day I met her in a 蓄える／店. Daren, she's getting some sense. She has a better position now. And she said she was not going with any fellow but Harry."

"And my mother?" 小道／航路 went on.

"She is やめる 井戸／弁護士席, Lorna said. And they are getting along 井戸／弁護士席 now. Lorna hinted that a 親族—an uncle, I think, was helping them."

小道／航路 was silent a moment, too stirred to 信用 his 発言する／表明する. Presently he said: "Bessy, your birthday has brought happiness to some one besides yourself."

He bade them good-bye and strode on 負かす／撃墜する the hill toward the cottage. How strangely 会合s changed the 未来! Holt's pride of 所有／入手 in Bessy brought poignantly 支援する to 小道／航路 his own hidden love for Mel. And Bessy's rapture of amaze at his 改良 in health put 小道／航路 直面する to 直面する with a 可能性 he had dreamed of but had never believed in—that he might live.

That night was for 小道／航路 a sleepless one. He seemed to have traveled in a dreamy circle, and was now returning to memories and pangs from which he had long been 解放する／自由な.

Next morning, without any hint to Mel of his 意向s, he left the cottage and made his way into town. Almost he felt as he had upon his return from フラン. He dropped in to see his mother and was happy to find her 条件 of mind and health 改善するd. She was overjoyed to see 小道／航路. Her surprise was pitiful. She told him she was sure that he had 回復するd.

It was this 事柄 of his physical 条件 that had brought 小道／航路 into Middleville. For many months he had 辞職するd himself to death. And now he could not 否定する even his morbid fancy that he felt stronger than at any time since he left フラン. He had worked hard to try to get 井戸／弁護士席, but he had never, in his heart, believed that possible.

小道／航路 called upon Doctor Bronson and asked to be 完全に 診察するd. The doctor manifestly 設立する the examination a 仕事 of 開始するing gratification. At length he 結論するd.

"Daren, I told you over a year ago I didn't know of anything that could save your life," he said. "I didn't. But something has saved your life. You are thirty 続けざまに猛撃するs heavier and 伸び（る）ing 急速な／放蕩な. That 穴を開ける in your 支援する is 傷をいやす／和解させるd. Your 肺s are nearly normal. You have only to be careful of a very violent physical 緊張する. That weak place in your 支援する seems gone... You're going to live, my boy... There has been some 魔法 at work. I'm very happy about it. How little doctors know!"

Dazed and stunned by this 知能, 小道／航路 left the doctor's 住居 and turned through town on his way homeward. As he plodded on, he began to realize the marvelous truth. What would Blair say? He hurried to a telephone 交流 to 熟知させる his friend with the strange thing that had happened. But Blair had been taken to a sanitarium in the mountains. 小道／航路 hurried out of town into the country, 負かす／撃墜する the river road, to the cottage, there to burst in upon Mel.

"Daren!" she cried, in alarm. "What's happened?"

She rose unsteadily, her 注目する，もくろむs dilating.

"Doctor Bronson said—I was—井戸／弁護士席," panted 小道／航路.

"Oh!... Daren, is that it?" she replied, with a wonderful light coming to her 直面する. "I've known that for weeks."

"After all—I'm not going—to die!... My God!"

小道／航路 急ぐd out and strode along the river, and followed the creek into the 支持を得ようと努めるd. Once hidden in the leafy 休会s he abandoned himself to a frenzy of rapture. What he had given up had come 支援する to him. Life! And he lay on his 支援する with his senses magnified to an 激しい degree.

The day was late in June, and a rich, 厚い amber light floated through the glades of the forest. Majestic white clouds sailed in the 深い blue sky. The sun shone hot 負かす／撃墜する into the glades. Under the pines and maples there was a 冷静な／正味の 甘い shade. Wild flowers bloomed. A fragrance of the 支持を得ようと努めるd （機の）カム on the gentle 微風. The leaves rustled. The melancholy song of a hermit thrush pierced the stillness. A crow cawed from a high oak. The murmur of shallow water running over 激しく揺するs （機の）カム faintly to 小道／航路's ears.

小道／航路 降伏するd utterly to the sheer 原始の exultation of life. The 最高の ecstasy of that hour could never have been experienced but for the long hopeless months which had に先行するd it. For a long time he lay there in a 輸送（する） of the senses, without thinking. As soon as thought 回復するd dominance over his feelings there （機の）カム a subtle change in his reaction to this 状況／情勢.

He had forgotten much. He had lived in a dream. He had unconsciously grown 井戸／弁護士席. He had been strangely, unbelievably happy. Why? Mel Iden had nursed him, loved him, 奮起させるd him 支援する to health. Her very presence 近づく him, even unseen, had been a 深遠な happiness. He made the astonishing 発見 that for months he had thought of little else besides his wife. He had lived a lonely life, in his room, and in the open, but all of it had been 支配するd by his dreams and fancies and emotions about her. He had roused from his last illness with the past 明らかに dead. There was no 未来. So he lived in the moment, the hour. While he lay awake in the silence of night, or toiled over his 支持を得ようと努めるd pile, or wandered by the brook under the trees, his dreamy thoughts 中心d about her. And now the truth burst upon him. His love for her had been stronger than his 廃虚d health and 爆破d life, stronger than misfortune, stronger than death. It had made him 井戸／弁護士席. He had not now to 直面する death, but life. And the 発覚 brought on shuddering dread.

小道／航路 ぐずぐず残るd in the 支持を得ようと努めるd until late afternoon. Then he felt 軍隊d to return to the cottage. The look of the whole world seemed changed. All was actual, vivid, striking. Mel's loveliness burst upon him as new and strange and terrible as the fact of his 回復. He had hidden his secret from her. He had been like a brother, 肉親，親類d, thoughtful, gay at times, always helpful. But he had remained aloof. He had basked in the 日光 of her presence, dreamily reveling in the consciousness of what she was to him. That hour had passed forever.

He saw her now as his wife, a girl still, one who had been cruelly wronged by life, who had turned her 支援する upon the past and who lived for him alone. She had beauty and brains, a wonderful 発言する／表明する, and personality that might have fitted her for any career or 駅／配置する in life. She thought only of him. She had 設立する content in 大臣ing to him. She was noble and good.

In the light of these truths coming to him, 小道／航路 took 在庫／株 of his love for Mel. It had come to be too mighty a thing to understand in a moment. He lived with it in the 不明瞭 of midnight and in the loneliness of the hills. He had never loved Helen. Always he had loved Mel Iden—all his life. （疑いを）晴らす as a 水晶 he saw the truth. The war with its 廃虚 for both of them had only augmented the 力／強力にするs to love. 小道／航路's year of agony in Middleville had been the mere cradling of a 開始するing and 熱烈な love. He must 直面する it now, no longer in dreamy なぎd unconsciousness, but in all its insidious and コンビナート／複合体 meaning. The spiritual 味方する of it had not changed. This girl with the bloom of woman's loveliness upon her, with her grace and sweetness and 解雇する／砲火／射撃, with the love that comes only once in life, belonged to him, was his wife. She did not try to hide anything. She was unconscious of 控訴，上告. Her wistfulness （機の）カム from her lonely soul.

The longer 小道／航路 dwelt on this 事柄 of his love for Mel the deeper he 設立する it, the more inexplicable and alluring. And when at last it stood out appallingly, master of him, so beautiful and strange and bitter, he realized that between him and Mel was an insurmountable and indestructible 障壁.

Then （機の）カム 嵐／襲撃する and 争い of soul. Night and day the 衝突 went on. Outwardly he did not show much 調印する of his trouble, though he often caught Mel's dark 注目する，もくろむs upon him, sadly conjecturing. He worked in the garden; he fished the creek, and 列／漕ぐ／騒動d miles on the river; he wandered in the 支持を得ようと努めるd. And the only change that seemed to rise out of his tumult was 増加するing love for this girl with whom his 運命／宿命 had been linked.

So once more 小道／航路 became a 苦しんでいる人, 重荷（を負わせる）d by pangs, a wanderer along the naked and lonely shore of grief. His passion and his ideal were at 半端物s. Unless he changed his nature, his reverence for womanhood, he could never realize the happiness that might become his. All that he had sacrificed had indeed been in vain. But he had been true to himself. His pity for Mel was 最高の. It was only by the most desperate self-支配（する）／統制する that he could resist taking her in his 武器, 自白するing his love, 断言するing with lying lips he had forgotten the wrong done her and asking her to 直面する the 未来 as his loving wife. The thought was maddening. It needed no pity for Mel to 強化する it. He needed love. He needed to 実行する his life.

But 小道／航路 did not 産する／生じる, though he knew that if he continued to live with Mel, in time the sweetness and enchantment of her would be too 広大な／多数の／重要な for him. This he 自白するd.

More and more he had to fight his jealousy and the 背信の imagination that would create for him scenes of torment. He 悪口を言う／悪態d himself as base and ignoble. Yet the truth was always there. If Mel had only loved the father of her child—if she had only loved blindly and passionately as a woman—it would have been different. But her sacrifice had not been one of love. It had been one of war. It had the nobility of woman's sacrifice to the race. But as an individual she had 死なせる／死ぬd.

CHAPTER XXIII

Summer 病弱なd. The long hot days dragged by. The fading 急ぐs along the river drooped wearily over their 乾燥した，日照りの beds. The yellowing leaves of the trees hung dejected; they were mute petitioners for 冷静な／正味の 微風s and rain. The grasshoppers chirped monotonously, the locusts screeched shrilly, both 存在 製品s of the long hot summer, and 生存者s of the heat, inclined to 発言する／表明する their exultation far into the 落ちる season.

September 産する／生じるd them 十分な sway, and 燃やすd away day by day, week by week, dusty and scorching, without even a 約束 of rain. October, however, 夜明けd, misty and dark; the clouds crept up reluctantly at first and then, as if to make 修正するs for neglect, 軍隊／機動隊d 黒人／ボイコット and 脅すing toward the zenith. 嵐／襲撃する followed 嵐／襲撃する, and at evening, after the violent 衝突，墜落ing 雷鳴 and vivid 雷 and 運動ing 激流s of rain had 中止するd, a soft, 安定した downpour 固執するd all night and all the next day.

The 干ばつ was broken. A 雨の 落ちる season was prophesied. The old danger of the river rising in flood was 恐れるd.

After the sear and lifeless color of the fields and forests, what a welcome 救済 to Daren 小道／航路 were the freshened green, the 夜明けing red, the tinging gold! The forest on the hill was soft and warm, and but for the gleams of autumn, would have showed some of the tenderness of spring. 負かす／撃墜する in the lowlands a sea of color waved under a blue, smoky, melancholy 煙霧.

小道／航路 climbed high that Sunday afternoon and 侵入するd 深い into the 支持を得ようと努めるd.

There was 残り／休憩（する） here. The forest was rich, warm with the scent of pine, of arbor vitae. There was the haunting 約束 of more brilliant hues. Thoughts swept through 小道／航路's mind. The 広大な／多数の／重要な 努力する／競うing world was out of sight. Here in the gold-flecked shade, under the murmuring pines and pattering poplars, there was a world 十分な of joy, wise in its teaching, 重要な of the glory that was fading but which would come again.

小道／航路 loved the low hills, the 深い, colorful 支持を得ようと努めるd in autumn. There he lost himself. He learned. Silence and 孤独 taught him. From there he had 見通し of the horde of men 権利ing 負かす／撃墜する the 誤った impossible 追跡するs of the world. He felt the sweetness, the frailty, the dependence, the glory and the doom of women 戦う／戦いing with life. He realized the hopeless traits of human nature. Like dead 規模s his egotism dropped from him. He divined the weaving of chances, the unknown and 無名の, the pondering 運命／宿命s in 蓄える／店. The dominance of 苦痛 over all—the wraith of the past—the importunity of a 未来 never to be 伸び（る）d—the 主張 of nature, ever-圧力（をかける）ing closer its ruthless （人命などを）奪う，主張するs—all these which became intelligible to 小道／航路, could not keep life from ぼんやり現れるing 甘い, 希望に満ちた, wonderful, worthy man's best fight.

And いつかs the old haunting 発言する／表明するs whispered to him out of the river 影をつくる／尾行するs—deeper, different, strangely more unintelligible than ever before, calling more to his soul.

Next morning 小道／航路 got up at the usual hour and went outdoors, but returned almost すぐに.

"The river is rising 急速な／放蕩な. Listen. Hear that roar. There's a 正規の／正選手 old Niagara just below."

"I imagined that roar was the 勝利，勝つd."

"The water has come up three feet since daylight. I guess I'll go 負かす／撃墜する now and pull in some driftwood."

"Oh, Daren! Don't be so adventurous. When the river is high there's a dangerous 早い below."

"You're 権利 about that. But I won't take any 危険s. I can easily manage the boat, and I'll be careful."

The に引き続いて three days it rained incessantly. Outside, on the gravel walks, there was a ceaseless drip, drip, drip.

Friday evening the rain 中止するd, the murky clouds （疑いを）晴らすd away and for a few moments a rainbow mingled its changing hues with the ruddy glow of the setting sun. The next day 夜明けd 有望な and dear.

小道／航路 was indeed 感謝する for a change. Mel had been unaccountably depressed during those 暗い／優うつな days. And it worried him that this morning she did not appear her usual self.

"Mel, are you 井戸／弁護士席?" he asked.

"Yes, I am perfectly 井戸／弁護士席," she replied. "I couldn't sleep much last night on account of that roar."

"Don't wonder. This flood will be the greatest ever known in Middleville."

"Yes, and that makes more 苦しむing for the poor."

"There are already many homeless. It's fortunate our cottage is 据えるd on this high bank. Just look! I 宣言する, jostling スピードを出す／記録につけるs and whirling drifts! There's a pen of some 肉親，親類d with an 反対する upon it."

"It's a pig. Oh! poor piggy!" said Mel, compassionately.

A hundred yards out in the 急ぐing yellow 現在の a small house or shed drifted 速く 負かす／撃墜する stream. Upon it stood a pig. The animal seemed to be stolidly 熟視する／熟考するing the turbid flood as if unaware of its danger.

Here the river was half a mile wide, and 十分な of trees, stumps, 盗品故買者s, 橋（渡しをする）s, sheds—all 肉親，親類d of drifts. Just below the cottage the river 狭くするd between two rocky cliffs and roared madly over 暗礁s and 激しく揺するs which at a low 行う／開催する／段階 of water furnished a playground for children. But now that space was terrible to look upon and the dull roar, with a hollow にわか景気 at intervals, was dreadful to hear.

"Daren—I—I've kept something from you," said Mel, nervously. "I should have told you yesterday."

"What?" interrupted 小道／航路, はっきりと.

"It's this. It's about poor Blair... He—he's dead!"

小道／航路 星／主役にするd at her white 直面する as if it were that of a ghost.

"Blair! You should have told me. I must go to see him."

It was not a long ride from the terminus of the car line to where the Maynards lived, yet 手段d by 小道／航路's growing 苦しめる of mind it seemed a never-ending 旅行.

He breathed a 深い breath of 救済 when he got off the car, and when the Maynard homestead ぼんやり現れるd up dark and silent, he hung 支援する わずかに. A maid 認める 小道／航路, and 知らせるd him that Mr. Maynard was ill and Mrs. Maynard would not see any one. Margaret was not at home. The maid led 小道／航路 across the hall into the 製図／抽選-room and left him alone.

In the middle of the room stood a long 黒人／ボイコット cloth-covered box. 小道／航路 stepped 今後. Upon the dark background, in striking contrast, lay a white, 厳しい 直面する, marble-like in its 石／投石する-冷淡な rigidity. Blair, his comrade!

The moment 小道／航路 saw the 直面する, his strange 恐れる and old 暗い／優うつな bitterness returned. Something 発射 through him which trembled in his soul. To him the story of Blair's sacrifice was there to read in his 静かな 直面する, and with it was an 表現 he had never seen, a faint wonder of 救済, which 示唆するd peace.

How strange to look upon Blair and find him no longer responsive! Something splendid, loyal, generous, loving had passed away. Gone was the 決定的な 誘発する that had quickened and glowed to noble thoughts; gone was the strength that had been 証拠不十分; gone the quick, nervous, high-strung spirit; gone the love that had no recompense. The drawn 直面する told of physical 苦しむing. Hard Blair had 設立する the world, bitter the reward of the 兵士, wretched the unholy worship of money and 高級な, vain and hollow mockery the home of his boyhood.

小道／航路 went 負かす／撃墜する the path and out of the gate. He had faint perceptions of the dark trees along the road. He （機の）カム to a little pine grove. It was very 静かな. There was a hum of insects, and the familiar, sad, ever-現在の swishing of the 勝利，勝つd through the trees. He listened to its soft moan, and it 緩和するd the intensity of his feelings. This emotion was new to him. Death, however, had touched him more than once. 井戸／弁護士席 he remembered his stunned faculties, the unintelligible mystery, the awe and the grief consequent on the death of his first 兵士 comrade in フラン. But this was different; it was a strange 騒動 of his heart. 圧迫 began to 負わせる him 負かす／撃墜する, and a nameless 恐れる.

He had to cross the river on his way home to the cottage. In the middle of the 橋（渡しをする） he 停止（させる）d to watch the 事情に応じて変わる flood go over the dam, to see the yellow turgid threshing of waves below. The mystic 発言する／表明するs that had always 攻撃する，非難するd his ears were now roaring. They had a message for him. It was death. Had he not just looked upon the 悲劇の 直面する of his comrade? Out over the 宙返り／暴落するing waters 小道／航路's 緊張するd gaze swept, up and 負かす／撃墜する, to and fro, while the agony in his heart reached its 高さ. The tumult of the flood 似ているd his soul. He spent an hour there, then turned slowly homeward.

He stopped at the cottage gate. It was now almost dark. The evening 星／主役にする, lonely and radiant, peeped over the 黒人／ボイコット hill. With some strange working at his heart, with some strange presence felt, 小道／航路 gazed at the brilliant 星／主役にする. How often had he watched it! Out there in the gloom somewhere, perhaps 近づく at 手渡す, had lurked the grim enemy waiting for Blair, that now might be waiting for him. He trembled. The old morbidness knocked at his heart. He shivered again and fought against something intangible. The old 有罪の判決 thrust itself upon him. He had been 示すd by 運命／宿命, life, war, death! He knew it; he had only forgotten.

"Daren! Daren!"

Mel's 発言する／表明する broke the （一定の）期間. 小道／航路 made a savage gesture, as if he were in the 行為／法令／行動する of striking. Thought of Mel 解任するd the stingingly 甘い and bitter fact of his love, and of life that called so imperiously.

CHAPTER XXIV

"If Amanda would only marry me!" sighed 陸軍大佐 A Pepper, as he stacked the few dishes on the cupboard shelf and 調査するd his untidy little kitchen with disparaging 注目する，もくろむs.

The once-contented 陸軍大佐 was 存在 消費するd by two 広大な／多数の／重要な 解雇する／砲火／射撃s—悔恨 and love. For more years than he could remember he had been a 犠牲者 of a deplorable habit. Then two soft 注目する，もくろむs shone into his life, and in their light he saw things 異なって, and he tried to redeem himself.

Even good fortune, in the 形態／調整 of some half-forgotten meadow 所有物／資産／財産 suddenly becoming 価値のある, had not 生き返らせるd his once genial spirits. 悔恨 was with him because 行方不明になる Hill 辞退するd to marry him till he overcame the habit which had earned him 望ましくない fame.

So day by day poor 陸軍大佐 Pepper grew sicker of his lonely rooms, his lonely life, and of himself.

"If Amanda only would," he murmured for the thousandth time, and taking his hat he went out. The 日光 was 有望な, but did not give him the old 楽しみ. He walked and walked, taking no 利益／興味 in anything. Presently he 設立する himself on the 郊外s of Middleville within sound of the muffled roar of the flooded river, and he wandered in its direction. At sight of the old 木造の 橋（渡しをする） he remembered he had read that it was 推定する／予想するd to give way to the 圧力 of the 急ぐing water. On the levee, which 保護するd the low-lying country above the city, were （人が）群がるs of people watching the river.

"Ye've no rivers loike thot in Garminy," 観察するd a half-drunken Irishman. He and several more of his 肉親，親類d evidently were teasing a little German.

陸軍大佐 Pepper had not stood there long before he heard a number of witticisms from these red-直面するd men.

After the manner of his 肉親，親類d the German had stolidly swallowed the 発言／述べるs about his big 長，率いる, and its shock of stubby hair, and his checked buff trousers; but at 言及／関連 to his native country his little blue 注目する，もくろむs snapped, and he made a 発言／述べる that this river was 極端に like one in Germany.

At this the characteristic contrary spirit of the Irishman burst 前へ／外へ.

"Dutchy, I'd loike ye to know ye're exaggeratin'," he said. "Garminy ain't big enough for a river the loike o' this. An' I'll leave it to me intilligint-lookin' fri'nd here."

陸軍大佐 Pepper, thus 控訴，上告d to, blushed, looked embarrassed, coughed, and then replied that he thought Germany was やめる large enough for such a river.

"Did ye 熟考する／考慮する gographie?" questioned the Irishman with 罰金 軽蔑（する）.

陸軍大佐 Pepper retired within himself.

The unsteady and excitable fellow had been （人が）群がるd to the 後部 by his comrades, who evidently wished to 少なくなる, in some degree, the 可能性s of a fight.

"Phwat's in thim rivers ye're spoutin' about?" asked one.

"Vater, ov course."

"Me 木造の-shoed fri'nd, ye mane beer—beer."

"You insolt me, you red-長，率いるd——"

"Was that Dutchman addressin' of me?" 需要・要求するd the half-drunken Irishman, trying to 押し進める by his friends.

"It'd be a foiner river if it wasn't yaller," said a peacemaker, 持つ／拘留するing his comrade.

In the slight scuffle which 続いて起こるd one of the men unintentionally jostled the German. His 麻薬を吸う fell to the ground. He bent to 回復する it.

Through 陸軍大佐 Pepper's whole 存在 発射 the 雷 of his strange impulse, a tingling （軽い）地震 ran over him; a thousand 巨大（な）s 解除するd and swung his arm. He fought to check it, but in vain. With his 血 bursting, with his strength expending itself in one irresistible 成果／努力, with his soul 拡大するing in fiendish, unholy glee he brought his powerful 手渡す 負かす／撃墜する upon the bending German.

There was a 広大な／多数の／重要な shout of laughter.

The German fell 今後 at length and knocked a man off the levee 塀で囲む. Then the laughter changed to excited shouts.

The 塀で囲む was 法外な but not perfectly perpendicular. Several men made frantic 得る，とらえるs at the 事情に応じて変わる 人物／姿／数字; they failed, however, to catch it. Then the man turned over and rolled into the river with a 広大な／多数の／重要な splash. Cries of horror followed his 見えなくなる in the muddy water, and when, an instant later, his 長，率いる bobbed up yells filled the 空気／公表する.

No one had time to help him. He tried ineffectually to reach the levee; then the 現在の whirled him away. The （人が）群がる caught a glimpse of a white despairing 直面する, which rose on the crest of a muddy wave, and then was lost.

In the excitement of the moment the 陸軍大佐 hurried from the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. Horror 所有するd him; he felt no いっそう少なく than a 殺害者. Again he walked and walked. 天罰 had overtaken him. The accursed habit that had 不名誉d him for twenty years had wrought its 罰. 急落（する），激減（する）d into despair he plodded along the streets, till at length, out of his stupefaction, （機の）カム the question—what would Amanda say?

With that an 圧倒的な truth awakened him. He was 解放する／自由な. He might have killed a man, but he certainly had killed his habit. He felt the thing dead within him. Wildly he gazed around to see where he was, and thought it a 行為 of 運命／宿命 that he had unconsciously traveled toward the home of his love. For there before his 注目する，もくろむs was Amanda's cottage with the red geranium in her window. He ran to the window and tapped mysteriously and peered within. Then he ran to the door and knocked. It opened with a vigorous swing.

"Mr. Pepper, what do you mean—（電話線からの）盗聴 on my window in such 内密の manner, and in 幅の広い daylight, too?" 需要・要求するd 行方不明になる Hill with a 厳しい 発言する／表明する 非，不，無 of her scholars had ever heard.

"Amanda, dear, I am a 殺害者!" cried Pepper, in トンs of unmistakable joy. "I am a 殺害者, but I'll never do it again."

"法律s!" exclaimed 行方不明になる Hill

He 押し進めるd her aside and の近くにd the door, and got 所有／入手 of her 手渡すs, all the time 注ぐing out incoherent speech, in which only it was distinguishable.

"Man alive! Are you crazy?" asked 行方不明になる Hill, getting away from him into a corner. But it happened to be a corner with a couch, and when her trembling 脚s touched it she sat 負かす／撃墜する.

"Never, never again will I do it!" cried the 陸軍大佐, with a grand gesture.

"Can you talk sense?" 滞るd the schoolmistress.

陸軍大佐 Pepper flung himself 負かす／撃墜する beside her, and with many breathless stops and repetitions and eloquent ちらりと見ることs and 使用／適用s of his bandana to his heated 直面する, he finally got his 悲劇の story told.

"Is that all?" 問い合わせd 行方不明になる Hill, with a touch of sarcasm. "Why, you're not a 殺害者, even if the man 溺死するs, which isn't at all likely. You've only fallen again."

"Fallen. But I never fell so terribly. This was the worst."

"Stuff! Where's the chivalry you tried to make me think you were 十分な of? Didn't you humiliate me, a poor helpless woman? Wasn't that worse? Didn't you humiliate me before a （人が）群がる of people in a candy-蓄える／店? Could anything be more monstrous? You did it, you remember?"

"Amanda! Never! Never!" gasped the 陸軍大佐.

"You did, and I let you think I believed your lies."

"Amanda! I'll never do it again, never to any one, so long as I live. It's dead, same as the card tricks. 許す me, Amanda, and marry me. I'm so fond of you, and I'm so lonely, and those meadow lots of 地雷, they'll make me rich. Amanda, would you marry me? Would you love an old duffer like me? Would you like a nice little home, and an 時折の silk dress, and no more teaching, and some one to love you—always? Would you, Amanda, would you?"

"Yes, I would," replied Amanda.

CHAPTER XXV

小道／航路 was returning from a restless wandering in the 支持を得ようと努めるd. As he 近づくd the flooded river he thought he heard a shout for help. He hurried 負かす／撃墜する to the bank, and looked around him, but saw no living thing. Then he was brought up はっきりと by a cry, the unmistakable 叫び声をあげる of a human 存在 in 苦しめる. It seemed to come from behind a boathouse. Running as far 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the building as the water would 許す he peered up and 負かす／撃墜する the river in both directions.

At first he saw only the half-潜水するd float, the sunken 船体 of a 開始する，打ち上げる, the 急速な／放蕩な-running river, and across the wide expanse of muddy water the 輪郭（を描く） of the levee. Suddenly he 秘かに調査するd out in the river a piece of driftwood to which a man was 粘着するing.

"Help! Help!" （機の）カム faintly over the water.

小道／航路 ちらりと見ることd quickly about him. Several boats were pulled up on the shore, one of which evidently had been used by a boatman collecting driftwood that morning, for it 含む／封じ込めるd oars and a long pike-政治家. The boat was long, wide of beam, and flat of 底（に届く）, with a sharp 屈服する and a blunt 厳しい, a （手先の）技術 such as experienced rivermen used for 激しい work. Without a moment's hesitation 小道／航路 押すd it into the water and sprang 船内に.

一方／合間, short though the time had been, the スピードを出す／記録につける with its human freight had disappeared beyond the open space in the willows.

Although 小道／航路 pulled a powerful 一打／打撃, when he got out of the slack water into the 現在の, so swift was it that the boat sheered 突然の and went 負かす／撃墜する stream with a sweep. 場内取引員／株価 the piece of driftwood and 補佐官d by the 速く running stream 小道／航路 soon 精密検査するd it.

The スピードを出す／記録につける which the man appeared to be clutching was a square piece of 木材／素質, probably a beam of a 橋（渡しをする）, for it was long and 十分な of spikes. When 近づく enough 小道／航路 saw that the fellow was not 持つ／拘留するing on but was helpless and 急速な／放蕩な on the spikes. His 長，率いる and 武器 were above water.

小道／航路 steered the boat と一緒に and shouted to the man. As he made no 激しい抗議 or movement, 小道／航路, after shipping the oars, reached over and しっかり掴むd his collar. 安定したing himself, so as not to overturn the boat, 小道／航路 pulled him half-way over the gunwale, and then with a second 成果／努力, he dragged him into the boat.

The man evidently had fainted after his last 激しい抗議. His 団体／死体 slipped off the seat and flopped to the 底（に届く） of the boat where it lay with the white 直面する fully exposed to the glare of the sun. A 幅の広い scar, now doubly 悪意のある in the pallid 直面する, disfigured the brow.

小道／航路 recoiled from the 井戸／弁護士席-remembered features of Richard Swann.

"God Almighty!" he cried. And his caustic laughter rolled out over the whirling waters. The boat, now 解放する／撤去させるd from the driftwood, floated 速く 負かす／撃墜する the river.

小道／航路 星／主役にするd in bewilderment at Swann's pale features. His amazement at 存在 brought so strangely 直面する to 直面する with this man made him deaf to the 増加するing roar of the waters and blind to the greater 勢い of the boat.

A 激しい 強くたたく, a grating sound and 後援ing of 支持を得ようと努めるd, followed by a lurch of the boat and a splashing of 冷淡な water in his 直面する brought 小道／航路 支援する to a 現実化 of the 状況／情勢.

He looked up from the white 直面する of the unconscious man. The boat had turned 一連の会議、交渉／完成する. He saw a 抱擁する 石／投石する that poked its ugly nose above the water. He turned his 直面する 負かす／撃墜する stream. A sea of 不規律な waves, 新たな展開ing 現在のs, dark, dangerous 激しく揺するs and patches of 渦巻くing 泡，激怒すること met his gaze.

When 小道／航路 stood up, with a boatman's instinct, to see the water far ahead, the spectacle thrilled him. A yellow flood, in changeful yet 一貫した 活動／戦闘, rolled and whirled 負かす／撃墜する the wide incline between the stony banks, and lost itself a mile below in a smoky 隠す of もや. 見通しs of past scenes whipped in and out his mind, and he saw an ocean careening and frothing under a golden moon; a tide 広範囲にわたる 負かす／撃墜する, curdled with sand, a grim stream of silt, 急ぐing on with the sullen sweep of doom and the wildfire of the prairie, leaping, cavorting, reaching out, turning and 狙撃, irresistibly borne under the 攻撃する of the 勝利，勝つd. He saw in the 現在の a live thing 解放する／自由なing itself in terror.

A roar, like the blending of a thousand 嵐／襲撃するs の中で the pines, filled his ears and muffled his sense of 審理，公聴会 and appalled him. He sat 負かす／撃墜する with his cheeks blanching, his 肌 強化するing, his heart 沈むing, for in that roar he heard death. Escape was impossible. The end he had always 推定する／予想するd was now at 手渡す. But he was not to 会合，会う it alone. The man who had 廃虚d his sister and so many others must go to （判決などを）下す his accounting, and in this 司法（官） of 運命／宿命 小道／航路 felt a wretched gratification.

The boat ちらりと見ることd with a hard grind on a 激しく揺する and 発射 負かす／撃墜する a long yellow incline; a 広大な／多数の／重要な curling wave whirled 支援する on 小道／航路; a 激しい shock sent him 飛行機で行くing from his seat; a gurgling demoniacal roar deafened his ears and a 冷淡な eager flood （海，煙などが）飲み込むd him. He was drawn under, as the whirlpool sucks a feather; he was 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd up, as the 勝利，勝つd throws a straw. The boat bobbed upright 近づく him. He しっかり掴むd the gunwale and held on.

It bounced on the buffeting waves and 棒 the long swells like a cork; it careened on the brink of 落ちるs and glided over them; it 強くたたくd on hidden 石／投石するs and floating スピードを出す／記録につけるs; it sped by 黒人／ボイコット-nosed 激しく揺するs; it drifted through 霧s of yellow もや; it ran on piles of driftwood; it trembled with the shock of （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing waves and 新たな展開d with the 渦巻くing 現在の.

Still 小道／航路 held on with a vise-like clutch.

Suddenly he seemed to feel some mighty propelling 軍隊 under him; he rose high with the 厳しい of the boat. Then the 屈服する pitched 負かす／撃墜する into a yawning 穴を開ける. A long instant he and the boat slid 負かす／撃墜する a ちらりと見ることing 落ちる—then thunderous roar—furious 競うing 格闘する—冷淡な, yellow, 飛行機で行くing spray—icy, immersing, enveloping blackness!

A 巨大（な） tore his 手渡すs from the boat. He whirled 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する as he sank. A languid softness stole over him. He saw the smile of his mother, the schoolmate of his boyhood, the old attic where he played on 雨の days, and the spotted cows in the pasture and the running brook. He saw himself a tall young man, favorite of all, winning his way in life that was 有望な.

Then terrible blows of his heart 大打撃を与えるd at his ribs, throbs of mighty 苦痛 burst his brain; 広大な／多数の／重要な constrictions of his throat choked him. He began fighting the encompassing waters with frenzied strength. Up and up he fought his way to see at last the light, to gasp at the 空気／公表する. But the flood sucked at him, a 負わせる pulled at his feet. As he went 負かす／撃墜する again something hard struck him. With the last 直感的に desperate love of life in his 活動／戦闘 he flung out his 手渡す and しっかり掴むd the saving thing. It was the boat. He 麻薬中毒の his 肘 over the gunwale. Then 不明瞭 filmed over his 注目する，もくろむs and he seemed to feel himself whirling 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する. A long time, seemingly, he whirled, while the 不明瞭 before his 注目する，もくろむs gave way to smoky light, his dead ears awoke to 混乱させるd blur of sound. But the 負わせる on his numb 脚s did not 少なくなる.

All at once the boat grated on a 激しく揺する, and his 膝s struck. He lay there 持つ／拘留するing on while life and sense seemed to return. Something 黒人／ボイコット and awful 退却／保養地d. Then the 急ぐ and roar of the 早いs was again about him. He saw that he had drifted into a 支援する eddy behind the ledge of 激しく揺する, and had whirled slowly 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する with a miscellaneous collection of driftwood.

小道／航路 安定したd himself on the slippery ledge and got to his feet. The boat was half 十分な of water, out of which 群れている's 恐ろしい 直面する protruded. By dint of 広大な／多数の／重要な 成果／努力 小道／航路 pulled it sideways on the ledge, and turned most of the water out.

Swann lay limp and sodden. But for his 注目する，もくろむs he would have appeared dead, and they shone with a conscious light of terror, of 熱烈な 控訴，上告 and hope, the look with which a man prayed for his life. Presently his lips moved imperceptibly. "Save me! for God's sake, save me!"

Shuddering emotion that had the shock of electricity shook 小道／航路. In his ears again rang the sullen, hollow, reverberating にわか景気 of the flood. Here was the man who had done most to 害（を与える） him, begging to be saved. Swann, poor wretch, was afraid to die; he 恐れるd the unknown; he had a terror of that seething 騒動 of waters; he could not 直面する the end of that 冷淡な ride. Why?

"Fool!" 小道／航路 cried, glaring wildly about him. Was it another dream? Unreality swayed him again. He heard the roar, he saw the splitting white-crested waves, the clouds of yellow vapor. He （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 his numb 脚s and shook himself like a savage dog. Then he made a 発見—in some way he could not account for, the oars had remained in the boat. They had been loose in their oar-locks.

Questions formed in 小道／航路's mind, questions that seemed put by a 夜明けing significance. Why had he heard the cry for help? Why had he 設立する the boat? Why had the 溺死するing man 証明するd to be one of two men on earth he hated, one of the two men whom he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to kill? Why had he drifted into the 早いs? Why had he come 安全に through a vortex of death? Why had Swann's lips formed that 祈り? Why had the oars remained in the boat?

Far below over the choppy sea of waves he saw a 橋（渡しをする）. It was his old familiar 残り／休憩（する）ing place. Through the white enveloping glow he seemed to see himself standing on that 橋（渡しをする）. Then （機の）カム to him a strange 発覚. Yesterday he had stood on that 橋（渡しをする）, after seeing Blair for the last time. He had stood there while he lived through an hour of the keenest anguish that had come to him; and in that agony he had watched the 急落（する），激減（する）ing river. He had watched it with 注目する，もくろむs that could never forget. His mind, exquisitely alive, with the sensibility of a plexus of racked and broken 神経s, had taken up every line, every channel and 石／投石する and 早い of that flood, and had engraved them in ineffaceable characters. With the unintelligible vagary of thought, while his breast seemed 鎮圧するd, his heart broken, he had imagined himself 流浪して on that 殺到するing river, and he had planned his escape through the 早いs.

As 小道／航路 stood on the ledge, 膝-深い in the water, with the certainty that he had a perfect photograph of the field of 宙返り／暴落するing waters below in his mind's 注目する，もくろむ, a strange 発言する／表明する seemed to whisper in his ear.

"This is your 広大な／多数の／重要な 裁判，公判!"

Without その上の hesitation he 押すd the boat off the ledge.

一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 支援する eddy he floated. At the 出口 on the 負かす／撃墜する-stream 味方する, where the gleaming line of 泡，激怒すること 示すd the escape of water into the on-急ぐing 現在の, he whirled his boat, 厳しい ahead. 負かす／撃墜する he 発射 with a 急落（する），激減（する） and then up with a rise. Racing on over the uneven swells he felt the hissing spray, and the malignant tips of the waves that broke their fury on the boat and expended it in a にわか雨 of stinging 減少（する）s. The 勝利，勝つd 削減（する） his 直面する. He 棒 a sea of 泡，激怒すること, then turgid rolling 塚s of water that heaved him up and up, and 負かす／撃墜する long 計画（する）s that laughed with hollow にわか景気, then into channels of smooth 現在の, where the 激流 花冠d the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石するs in yellowish white.

小道／航路 saw the golden sun, the blue sky, the fleecy clouds, the red and purple of the colored hills; and felt his chest 拡大する with the 開始するing glory of 広大な／多数の／重要な 成果／努力. The muscles of his 支援する and 武器, 強化するd by the long toil with his 激しい axe, rippled and swelled and 燃やすd, and stretched like rubber cords, and strung tight like steel 禁止（する）d. The boat was a toy.

He 棒s the waves, and threaded a 迷宮／迷路 of ugly 石／投石するs, and 発射 an unobstructed channel, and 避けるd a 脅迫的な drift. The 現在の carried him irresistibly onward. When his keen 注目する，もくろむ caught danger ahead he sunk the oars 深い and pulled 支援する. A powerful 一打／打撃 made the boat pause, another turned her 屈服する to the 権利 or left, then the swift water hitting her obliquely sheered her in the 安全な direction. So 小道／航路 kept afloat through the spray that smelled fresh and dank, through the 衝突，墜落 and 殺到する and roar and にわか景気, through the boiling caldron.

The 降下／家系 quickened. On! On! he was borne with 増加するing velocity. The yellow demons rose in fury. Boo—oom! Boo—oom! The old river god 発言する／表明するd his remorseless roar. The shrill 叫び声をあげるing shriek of splitting water on sharp 石／投石するs 削減（する） into the にわか景気. On! On! Into the yellow もや that might have been smoke from hell streaked the boat, out upon a curving 大波, then 負かす／撃墜する! 負かす／撃墜する! upon an upheaving curl of frothy water. The river, like a 抱擁する yellow 塚, 投げつけるd its 集まり at 小道／航路. All was 霧 and steam and whistling spray and rumble.

At length the boat swept out into the open with a long 急落（する），激減（する） over the last bit of roughened water. Here the 現在の 始める，決める in a curve to the left, running off the rocky 堤防 into the natural channel of the river. The dam was now only a couple of hundred yards distant. The water was smooth and the drift had settled to a slow, ponderous, 事情に応じて変わる movement.

小道／航路 pulled powerfully against the 現在の and toward the 権利-手渡す shore. That was closest. Besides, he remembered a long sluice at the end of the dam where the water ran 負かす／撃墜する as on a mill-race. If he could 列／漕ぐ／騒動 into that!

In 前線 of 小道／航路, 延長するing some distance, was a 幅の広い 無傷の expanse of water 主要な to the dam. A tremendous roar 問題／発行するd from that 落ちる. The muddy spray and もや rose high. To drift over there would be 致命的な. スピードを出す／記録につけるs and pieces of 破片 were kept rolling there for hours before some vagary of 現在の caught them and 解放（する）d them.

小道／航路 calculated the distance with cunning 注目する，もくろむ. He had been an 専門家 boatman all his boyhood days. By the 支出 of his last bit of reserve strength he could make the sluice. And he redoubled his 成果／努力s to such an extent that the boat scarcely went 負かす／撃墜する stream at all, yet 辛勝する／優位d closer to the 権利 手渡す shore. 小道／航路 saw a （人が）群がる of people on the 橋（渡しをする） below the dam. They were waving 激励. He saw men run 負かす／撃墜する the 法外な river bank below the mill; and he knew they were going to be ready to 補助装置 him if he were fortunate enough to ride 負かす／撃墜する the sluice into the shallow backwater on that 味方する.

列／漕ぐ／騒動ing now with the most powerful of 一打／打撃s, 小道／航路 kept the 屈服する of the boat upstream and a little to the 権利. Thus he 伸び（る）d more toward the shore. But he must time the moment when it would be necessary to turn はっきりと.

"I can—make—it," muttered 小道／航路. He felt no excitement. The thing had been given him to do. His 一打／打撃s were swift, but there was no hurry.

Suddenly he felt a strange catching of breath in his 肺s. He coughed. 血, warm and salt, 井戸／弁護士席d up from his throat. Then his bitter, strangled cry went out over the waters. At last he understood the 発言する／表明するs of the river.

小道／航路 quickened his 一打／打撃s. He swung the 屈服する in. He pointed it shoreward. Straight for the 開始 of the sluice! His last 一打／打撃s were prodigious. The boat swung the 権利 way and 発射 into the channel. 小道／航路 dropped his oars. He saw men below wading 膝-深い in the water. The boat 棒 the incline, 負かす／撃墜する to the long swell and curled yellow 大波s below, where it was checked with violent shock. 小道／航路 felt himself propelled as if into 不明瞭.

When 小道／航路 opened his 注目する，もくろむs he 認めるd as through a 隠す the little parlor of the Idens. All about him seemed 薄暗い and far away. 直面するs and 発言する／表明するs were there, indistinguishable. A dark cloud settled over his 注目する，もくろむs. He dreamed but could not understand the dreams. The 黒人／ボイコット 隠す （機の）カム and went.

What was the meaning of the numbness of his 団体／死体? The 巨大な 負わせる upon his breast! Then it seemed he saw better, though he could not move. Sunlight streamed in at the window. Outside were maple leaves, gold and red and purple, swaying gently. Then a 広大な／多数の／重要な roaring sound seemed to （海，煙などが）飲み込む him. The 早いs? The 発言する／表明する of the river.

Then Mel was there ひさまづくing beside him. All save her 直面する grew vague.

"Swann?" he whispered.

"You saved his life," said Mel.

"Ah!" And straightway he forgot. "Mel—what's—wrong—with me?"

Mel's 直面する was like white marble and her 手渡すs on his trembled violently. She could not answer. But he knew. There seemed to be a growing 影をつくる／尾行する in the room. Her 注目する，もくろむs held a terrible 不明瞭.

"Mel, I—never told—you," he whispered. "I married you—because I loved you... But I was—jealous... I hated... I couldn't 許す. I couldn't understand... Now I know. There's a 法律 no woman—can transgress. Soul and love are the same—in a woman. They must be inviolable... If I could have lived—I'd have 降伏するd to you. For I loved you—beyond words to tell. It was love that made me 井戸／弁護士席... But we could not have been happy. Never, with that spectre between us... And, so—it must be—always... In spite of war—and wealth—in spite of men—women must rise..."

His 発言する／表明する failed, and again the strange 急ぐ and roar enveloped him. But it seemed 内部の, dimmer and さらに先に away. Mel's 直面する was fading. She spoke. And her words were 甘い, without meaning. Then the fading grayness 合併するd into night.

THE END

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