第45章

``I don't believe in much else,'' said she.``But--not the kind of love you offer me.''

``How do you know?'' cried he.``I have not told you yet how Ifeel toward you.I have not----''

``Oh, yes, you have,'' interrupted she.``This is the second--no, the third time you have seen me.So, the love you offer me can only be of a kind it is not in the least flattering to a woman to inspire.You needn't apologize,'' she went on, laughingly.``I've no doubt you mean well.You simply don't understand me--my sort of woman.''

``It's you that don't understand, Selma,'' cried he.``You don't realize how wonderful you are--how much you reveal of yourself at once.I was all but engaged to another woman when I saw you.

I've been fighting against my love for you--fighting against the truth that suddenly came to me that you were the only woman I had ever seen who appealed to and aroused and made strong all that is brave and honest in me.Selma, I need you.I am not infatuated.

I am clearer- headed than I ever was in my life.I need you.

You can make a man of me.''

She was regarding him with a friendly and even tender sympathy.

``I understand now,'' she said.``I thought it was simply the ordinary outburst of passion.But I see that it was the result of your struggle with yourself about which road to take in making a career.''

If she had not been absorbed in developing her theory she might have seen that Davy was not altogether satisfied with this analysis of his feelings.But he deemed it wise to hold his peace.

``You do need some one--some woman,'' she went on.``And I am anxious to help you all I can.I couldn't help you by marrying you.To me marriage means----'' She checked herself abruptly.

``No matter.I can help you, I think, as a friend.But if you wish to marry, you should take some one in your own class-- some one who's in sympathy with you.Then you and she could work it out together--could help each other.You see, I don't need you--and there's nothing in one- sided marriages....No, you couldn't give me anything I need, so far as I can see.''

``I believe that's true,'' said Davy miserably.

She reflected, then continued: ``But there's Jane Hastings.Why not marry her? She is having the same sort of struggle with herself.You and she could help each other.And you're, both of you, fine characters.I like each of you for exactly the same reasons....Yes--Jane needs you, and you need her.'' She looked at him with her sweet, frank smile like a breeze straight from the sweep of a vast plateau.``Why, it's so obvious that Iwonder you and she haven't become engaged long ago.You ARE fond of her, aren't you?''

``Oh, Selma,'' cried Davy, ``I LOVE you.I want YOU.''

She shook her head with a quaint, fascinating expression of positiveness.``Now, my friend,'' said she, ``drop that fancy.

It isn't sensible.And it threatens to become silly.'' Her smile suddenly expanded into a laugh.``The idea of you and me married--of ME married to YOU! I'd drive you crazy.No, Ishouldn't stay long enough for that.I'd be of on the wings of the wind to the other end of the earth as soon as you tried to put a halter on me.''

He did not join in her laugh.She rose.``You will think again before you go in with those people--won't you, David?'' she said, sober and earnest.

``I don't care what becomes of me,'' he said boyishly.

``But _I_ do,'' she said.``I want to see you the man you can be.''

``Then--marry me,'' he cried.

Her eyes looked gentle friendship; her passionate lips curled in scorn.``I might marry the sort of man you could be,'' she said, ``but I never could marry a man so weak that, without me to bolster him up, he'd become a stool-pigeon.''

And she turned and walked away.

V.

A few days later, after she had taken her daily two hours' walk, Selma went into the secluded part of Washington Park and spent the rest of the morning writing.Her walk was her habitual time for thinking out her plans for the day.And when it was writing that she had to do, and the weather was fine, that particular hillside with its splendid shade so restful for the eyes and so stimulating to the mind became her work-shop.She thought that she was helped as much by the colors of grass and foliage as by the softened light and the tranquil view out over hills and valleys.

When she had finished her article she consulted the little nickel watch she carried in her bag and discovered that it was only one o'clock.She had counted on getting through at three or half past.Two hours gained.How could she best use them.The part of the Park where she was sitting was separated from the Hastings grounds only by the winding highroad making its last reach for the top of the hill.She decided that she would go to see Jane Hastings--would try to make tactful progress in her project of helping Jane and David Hull by marrying them to each other.Once she had hit upon this project her interest in both of them had equally increased.Yes, these gained two hours was an opportunity not to be neglected.

She put her papers into her shopping bag and went straight up the steep hill.She arrived at the top, at the edge of the lawn before Jane's house, with somewhat heightened color and brightened eyes, but with no quickening of the breath.Her slim, solid little body had all the qualities of endurance of those wiry ponies that come from the regions her face and walk and the careless grace of her hair so delightfully suggested.As she advanced toward the house she saw a gay company assembled on the wide veranda.Jane was giving a farewell luncheon for her visitors, had asked almost a dozen of the most presentable girls in the town.It was a very fashionable affair, and everyone had dressed for it in the best she had to wear at that time of day.

Selma saw the company while there was still time for her to draw back and descend into the woods.But she knew little about conventionalities, and she cared not at all about them.She had come to see Jane; she conducted herself precisely as she would have expected any one to act who came to see her at any time.