第48章

"No--I suppose not.I've thought so before; but somehow I've always managed to gather myself together.This time it was the work of years apparently undone--hopelessly undone.They"--she understood that "they" meant the leaders of the two corrupt rings whose rule of the state his power with the people menaced--"they have bought away some of my best men--bought them with those `favors' that are so much more disreputable than money because they're respectable.Then they came to me"--he laughed unpleasantly--"and took me up into a high mountain and showed me all the kingdoms of the earth, as it were.I could be governor, senator, they said, could probably have the nomination for president even,--not if I would fall down and worship them, but if I would let them alone.I could accomplish nearly all that I've worked so long to accomplish if I would only concede a few things to them.I could be almost free.ALMOST--that is, not free at all."She said: "And they knew you no better than that!""Now," he continued, "it looks as if I'll have to build all over again.""I think not," she replied."If they weren't still afraid of you they'd never have come to you.But what does it matter? YOUdon't fight for victory, you fight for the fight's sake.And so"--she looked at him proudly--"you can't lose.""Thank you.Thank you," he said in a low voice.

She sighed."How I envy you! You LIVE.I can simply be alive.

Sometimes I feel as if I were sitting in a railway station waiting to begin my journey--waiting for a train that's late--nobody knows how late.Simply alive--that's all.""That's a great deal," he said.He was looking round at the sky, at the horizon, at the fields far and near, at her."Agreat deal," he repeated.

"You feel that, too?" She smiled."I suppose I should live on through anything and everything, because, away down under the surface, where even the worst storms can't reach, there's always a sort of tremendous joy--the sense of being alive--just alive."She drew a long breath."Often when I've been--anything but happy--a little while ago, for instance--I suddenly have a feeling of ecstasy.I say to myself: Yes, I'm unhappy, but--I'm ALIVE!"He made a sudden impulsive movement toward her, then restrained himself, pressed his lips together and fell back on his elbow.

"I suppose I ought to be ashamed of myself,' she added.

"You mustn't say that." He was sitting up, was speaking with all his energy."All that you were telling me a while ago to encourage me applies to you, too--and more--more.You DO live.

You ARE what you long to be.That ideal you're always trying to grasp--don't you know why you can't grasp it, Pauline? Because it's your own self, your own image reflected as in a mirror."He broke off abruptly, acutely conscious that he was leaning far over the barrier between them.There was a distant shout, from vigorous, boyish lungs.Gardiner, mad with the joy of healthy seven, came running and jumping across the field to land with a leap astride the hillock, scattering wisps of hay over his mother and Scarborough.Pauline turned without getting up, caught her boy by the arms and with mock violence shook and thrust him deep down into the damaged hillock.She seemed to be making an outlet for some happiness too great to be contained.He laughed and shouted and struggled, pushed and pulled her.Her hat fell off, her hair loosened and the sun showered gold of many shades upon it.She released him and stood up, straightening and smoothing her hair and breathing quickly, the color high in her cheeks.

Scarborough was already standing, watching her with an expression of great cheerfulness.

"Good-by," he now said."The caravan"--his tone was half-jesting, half-serious--"has been spending the heat and dust of the day on the oasis.It makes night journeys only.It must push on.""Night journeys only," repeated Pauline."That sounds gloomy.""But there are the stars--and the moon."

She laughed."And other oases ahead.Good-by--and thank you!"The boy, close to his mother and facing Scarborough, was looking from her to him and back again--curiously, it almost seemed suspiciously.Both noticed it; both flushed slightly.

Scarborough shook hands with her, bowed to the little boy with a formality and constraint that might have seemed ludicrous to an onlooker.He went toward his horse; Gardiner and his mother took the course at right angles across the field in the direction in which the towers of the Eyrie could be seen above the tree-tops.

Suddenly the boy said, as if it were the conclusion of a long internal argument: "I like Mr.Scarborough.""Why not?" asked his mother, amused.

"I--I don't know," replied the boy."Anyhow, I like him.Iwish he'd come and stay with us and Aunt Gladys."Gladys! The reminder made her uncomfortable, made her feel that she ought to be remorseful.But she hastened on to defend herself.What reason had she to believe that Gladys cared for him, except as she always cared for difficult conquest? Hadn't Gladys again and again gone out of her way to explain that she wasn't in love with him? Hadn't she said, only two days before:

"I don't believe I could fall in love with any man.Certainly Icouldn't unless he had made it very clear to me that he was in love with me."Pauline had latterly been suspecting that these elaborations of superfluous protestation were Gladys' efforts to curtain herself.

Now she dwelt upon them with eager pleasure, and assured and reassured herself that she had been supersensitive and that Gladys had really been frank and truthful with her.