The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories

ar boy?" Halidon asked me gently, o

lying outstretched beside him in a willow chai

ace beside me. A little way off, at the other end of the terrace, M

rfully,"

us next to nothing, and it was quite her idea, our

the plural pronoun, for the blood rose under Ned's sensitive skin, and he said with

is that you both thin

no more than a wretched parasite if

ly enjoyment. The bud of her beauty had at last unfolded: her vague enigmatical g

r own happiness," I mused, "and why i

veness. She's-there's nothing she wouldn't do for his memory-because-in other ways.... You understand," he added, lowering h

z, then in Rome. The second summer Ned wrote me a line from St. Moritz. He said the place agreed so well with his wife-who was still delicate-that they were "thinking of building a house there: a mer

New York, and I heard with surprise that the

even hint at a restriction. Why should I expect a pretty woman with two children" (for now there was

he devil's adv

enthusiasm. Well, he was a father, a householder-yes, and a capitalist now. It was fitting that his manner should show a sense of these responsibilities. As for Mrs. Halidon, it was evident that the only responsibilities she was conscious of w

ingered on to smoke with Ned while his wife went alone to the opera.

nough exercise-I must l

k eye on that homely regimen-but I had to remind myself that, after all,

om London, but I'm not quite satisfied with them myself," he gru

those execrable weeds of his?-I wonder how I knew you were? Probably because I have been wanting to talk to you of our plan-I

re many technical det

didn't suppose there were till I began to look into things a little more closely. You know I never

figur

sed. "Have you any idea how mu

imately

ow much we-how much Dais

er," I haste

"Well, we simply c

iv

" He rose and began to walk the floor. Presently he paused and halted in front of me, defensively, as Paul had once done years before.

dear f

and children to carry out a plan-a plan so nebulous that even its inventor.... The long and shor

the fire. "There were some thi

, facing me unea

t him with not havin

e muscles of his forehead relaxed, a flush suffuse

od deal from

once for all, as he expressed it; but my suggestion that we should pro

t have the face- Wait till I can go to them and say

f figures. His nimble fancy was recalcitrant to mental discipline, and h

d that short of living on bread and water-" and the

in; but before the day came, I learned casually that the Halidons had gone south. Some weeks later Ned wrote m

ly the most economical thing they could do. "You don't understand about such things, dear boy, living in your Diogenes tub; but wait till there's a Mrs. Diogenes. I can assure you it's a lot cheaper than building, which is what

t would be necessary to defer what he called "our work-" "Of course, after we've rallied from this amputation, we shall grow fresh supplies-I mean my wife's investmen