Alexander's Bridge

he tedious passage up the Mersey, were things that he noted dimly through his growing impat

took him up to Hilda's living-room. The room was empty when he entered. A coal fire was crackling in the grate and the lamps were lit, for it was already beginning to grow dark outside. Alexander did not sit down. He stood his ground over by the windows until Hilda came in. She called his name on the threshold, but in her swift flight across the room she felt a change in him and caught herself up so deftly that he could not tell just when she did

own on a stool at the opposite side of the hearth, her kne

y, and how did it happen?

I landed at Liverpool this mornin

med his hands before the blaze.

troubling you, Ba

re. "It's the whole thing that

at his heavy shoulders and big, determined h

artley?" she aske

o the bluish flame, while the coals crackled and the clock ticked and a street

ryth

sperately from Bartley to the door, then to the windows, and back again to Bartley.

Bartley," she said tremulously. "I

myself any longer,"

k miserably about the room, seeming to find it too small

trembling and scarcely breathing, d

you miserable, has it?" Her ey

ow. It's unbearable. It t

asked piteously,

ife spoils the other. I get nothing but misery out of either. The world is all there, just as it

into Hilda's face as suddenly as if she had been struck by a whiplash. She bit

ut it quietly, Bartley, as if I were a fri

e fire. "It was myself I was defying, Hilda.

oftened. He put out his hand toward her

stool after her. "When did you firs

. The first was-sort

s, I think it must have been. But why didn't

I couldn't. We had only a few days, and your

ressed his hand gently in gratitude

he fragrance of those days. Something of their troubling sweetness c

n. You know. Bu

ly it stole back to his coat sleeve. "Please tell me one thing, Bartley

estioning fingers on his sleeves. "Yes

d against his arm

elieved that I could take all the bad consequences for you. I wanted you always to be happy and handsome and successful-to ha

p and read in the deepening lines of his face that you

ust I not do?" She listened intently, but she heard nothing but the creaking of his chair. "You want me to say it?" she whispere

" he said

"It's got to be a clean break, Hilda. I can't see you at all, anywhere. What I mean is that I

stood over him with her hands cl

ou to ask me. Keep away if you wish; when have I ever followed you? But, if you come to me, I'll do as I see fit. The shame

nough at first, but now I don't dare trifle with it. It's getting the better of me. It's different now. I'm growing older, and you've got my young s

ou let me be angry with you? You ask me to stay away from you because you want me! And I've got nobody b

chair again. Hilda sat on the arm of it a

understand what that means to me?" She pressed his shoulders gently. "You see, loving some one as I love you makes the whole world different. If I'd met you later, if I hadn't loved you so well-but that's all over, long ago. The

red to sit up any longer. Bartley bent over and took he

ve tortured each other enough for tonight.

ything but that already," she