The Real Adventure

y Rodney Aldrich, thereby giving that lady a greater shock of surprise than,

tifully at her mother's side until she saw the pen make a period, made then her momentous announcement, much in

of-fact inflection of Rosalind's voice. Then she laid down her pen, smiled in a puzzled way up in

ey Aldrich and I are

er's face, she sat down on the arm of the chair, slid a strong

at I ought to have broken it more gradual

ld, her mother res

th hands, "that you would jest about a solemn subject like that, R

ne evening, when we were all so suffocatingly polite. You know about those times. But three or four times more, he's come down to the university-he's great friends with several men in the law faculty, so

ith astonishment, "that you even liked him. You've been

him, mother. I like everything about him. I love his looks-I don't mean just his eyes and nose and mouth. I like the shape of his ears, and his hands. I like his big loud v

ot the most wonderful mind to-wrestle with, you know. I love to start an argument wit

r. "If you'll talk rationally and seriously, my dear," she said, "we can continue the

being flippant and vulgar," she said. "I didn't mea

onsented. It seems to me you have done so hastily and thoughtlessly. He's told you he loves you,

out it, and think it out reasonably. We're both strong and healthy, and we like each other.... I mean-things about each other, like I've said. So, as far as we can tell, we-fit. He said he couldn't guarantee that we'd be happy; that no pair of people could be sure of that till they'd tried. But he said it looked to him lik

oken. But this only increased the bewilderment. She had listened with a sort of incredulous

er, dropped on the floor at

care for him and been shy and coy"-in spite of herself, her voice got an edge of humor in it-"and a startled fawn, you know, running away, but just not fast enough so that he wouldn't come runn

id, she spoke humbly-resignedly, as if admitting that the

ething that-not in words, of course, but in all the little facts of married life-she'll need to be reassured about every day. Doubt of it is the one thin

hat's true of the man, too, isn't i

t answer that exce

r room to think, that any other aspect of the situation occurred to her-even that there was a

d hopes, to the furtherance of the cause of Woman, whose ardent champio

eglected, of course, and she was dearly loved. But when, for the first time since actual babyhood, she got into the focal-plane of her mother's mind again, there was a subtle, but, it seemed, ineradicable antagonism between them, though that perhaps is too strong a word for it. A difference there was, anyway, in the grain of their two minds, that hi

g, though not facile, affection became marked characteristics, the hope grew in her mother that here was a new leader born to the great Cause. It would need new leaders. She herself was conscious of a side drift t

ught she did; saw to it that the girl understood the Eighteenth Century Liberalism, which, limited to the fields of politics and education, and extended to include women equally w

to the cause-won perhaps by her advocacy at the bar, of some legal case involving the rights of w

n the course of their arguments, presented a violent contrast to the ideal husband she had selected. Indeed, it sh

n't thought of that du

hope. It was all so obviously what she ought to feel. Yet the moment she relaxed the effort, her mind flew back to a vibration between a hope and a fear: the hope, tha

ia's room. Portia, much quicker always about such matters, was already on the point of turning out the light, but guessing wh

isn't. She's terribly unhappy. Do you suppose it's because she thinks I've-

h. Because really, child, you had no more chance of growing up to be a lawyer

ded to be told why not. She had been get

he'd taught six months in that awful school-remember?-she was used to being abused and ridiculed. And she was working hard enough to have killed a camel. But you!... Why, Lamb, you've never really had to

lt is," she concluded, "that you have grown up into a big, splendid, fearless, confiding creature that it's p

e been lazy and selfish, I know," she said. "Perhaps more than I thou

n't possibly occur to you now to say to yourself, 'Poor old Portia! She's always been jealous because

are, you know. I'm just a little sorry for myself. Curious, anyway, to see where I've missed all the big important things you've kept. I've been afraid of my instincts, I suppose. Never able to take a leap because I've a

fine lips, the twist of her eyebrows, the poise of her body as she sat up in bed watching the blue-brown smoke risin

ought to have looked a little longer. She thinks Rodney would ha

ast. "It's been said for a long time that the only way to make a man want anything very wildly, is to make him think it's desperately h

e moment of silence while she pondered this remark. "Why should I-make

existence by deciding they're horrid, child," she said. "Open my window, will you? And thro