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Page 107
"It makes sense all right."
"I don't see how you can say that. 'Meredith elephant
kangaroo--?'"
"Office cipher; I was forgetting. 'Elephant' means 'Seriously ill
and unable to attend to duty.' Meredith is one of the partners in
my firm in New York."
"Oh, I'm so sorry! Do you think he is very sick? Are you very
fond of Mr. Meredith?"
"Meredith is a good fellow and I like him; but if it was simply a
matter of his being ill I'm afraid I could manage to bear up
under the news. Unfortunately 'kangaroo' means 'Return, without
fail, by the next boat.'"
"You must return by the next boat?" Aline looked at him, in her
eyes a slow-growing comprehension of the situation. "Oh!" she
said at length.
"I put it stronger than that," said George.
"But--the next boat---- That means on Wednesday."
"Wednesday morning, from Southampton. I shall have to leave here
to-morrow."
Aline's eyes were fixed on the blue hills across the valley, but
she did not see them. There was a mist between. She was feeling
crushed and ill-treated and lonely. It was as though George was
already gone and she left alone in an alien land.
"But, George!" she said; she could find no other words for her
protest against the inevitable.
"It's bad luck," said Emerson quietly; "but I shouldn't wonder if
it is not the best thing that really could have happened. It
finishes me cleanly, instead of letting me drag on and make both
of us miserable. If this cable hadn't come I suppose I should
have gone on bothering you up to the day of your wedding. I
should have fancied, to the last moment, that there was a chance
for me; but this ends me with one punch.
"Even I haven't the nerve to imagine that I can work a miracle in
the few hours before the train leaves to-morrow. I must just make
the best of it. If we ever meet again--and I don't see why we
should--you will be married. My particular brand of mental
suggestion doesn't work at long range. I shan't hope to influence
you by telepathy."
He leaned on the balustrade at her side and spoke in a low, level
voice.
"This thing," he said, "coming as a shock, coming out of the blue
sky without warning--Meredith is the last man in the world you
would expect to crack up; he looked as fit as a dray horse the
last time I saw him--somehow seems to have hammered a certain
amount of sense into me. Odd it never struck me before; but I
suppose I have been about the most bumptious, conceited fool that
ever happened.
"Why I should have imagined that there was a sort of irresistible
fascination in me, which was bound to make you break off your
engagement and upset the whole universe simply to win the
wonderful reward of marrying me, is more than I can understand. I
suppose it takes a shock to make a fellow see exactly what he
really amounts to. I couldn't think any more of you than I do;
but, if I could, the way you have put up with my mouthing and
swaggering and posing as a sort of superman, would make me do it.
You have been wonderful!"
Aline could not speak. She felt as though her whole world had
been turned upside down in the last quarter of an hour. This was
a new George Emerson, a George at whom it was impossible to
laugh, but an insidiously attractive George. Her heart beat
quickly. Her mind was not clear; but dimly she realized that he
had pulled down her chief barrier of defense and that she was
more open to attack than she had ever been. Obstinacy, the
automatic desire to resist the pressure of a will that attempted
to overcome her own, had kept her cool and level-headed in the
past. With masterfulness she had been able to cope. Humility was
another thing altogether.
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