The Turn of 
 the Road 
 
 * 
 
 Eugenia Brooks Frothingham 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 (Cbe RitoetjsiDe re$#, Cambribfle 
 
 1901
 
 COPYRIGHT, IpOl, BY EUGENIA BROOKS FROTHINGHAM 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 
 TO 
 MY SISTER 
 
 2045727
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. WINIFRED CHOOSES 1 
 
 II. INTERLUDE 21 
 
 III. KATE 32 
 
 IV. NEARING THE FIRST MILESTONE . . 36 
 V. DAN'S PATH is CHOSEN FOR HIM . . 51 
 
 VI. REALIZATION 62 
 
 VII. ACCEPTANCE 78 
 
 VIII. AT THE CROSSWAYS .... 91 
 
 IX. SHADOWS 109 
 
 X. DAN'S LIGHTS GO OUT .... 128 
 
 XI. TEMPTATION 141 
 
 XII. ON THE WAY 156 
 
 XIII. HOME 172 
 
 XIV. THE CLOSED DOOR .... 178 
 XV. WINIFRED PAYS HER DEBT . . . 189 
 
 XVI. Too LATE 195 
 
 XVTL THE WORLD'S VIEW 203 
 
 XVIII. THE FRIEND'S VIEW .... 210 
 
 XIX. KATE ATONES 216 
 
 XX. DR. DAVAGE AGAIN .... 226 
 
 XXI. WINIFRED AND DAN 234 
 
 XXII. WOMAN AND ARTIST .... 248 
 
 XXIII. THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW . . 258
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 Chapter I 
 
 WINIFRED CHOOSES 
 
 THE June air was full of sunshine and the 
 rapturous singing of bobolink and thrush. 
 In the fields was a gay riot of wild flowers. 
 
 Winifred sang with careless, joyous passion as 
 she walked in the garden between flaming poppy 
 beds: 
 
 "Sweetheart, thy lips are touched with flame" 
 
 The clear young voice rang out gloriously. She 
 flung her head back with a gesture of joyous aban- 
 donment, and her song rose higher in restless, 
 swinging measures : 
 
 " Sweetheart, the blood leaps in thy cheek ; 
 Sweetheart, thy very heart-throbs speak; 
 Sweetheart" 
 Her voice ceased suddenly as her eyes met those 
 
 1
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 of some one who leaned over the garden gate, 
 watching her with amused admiration. 
 
 " Dan ! " she exclaimed, " I did n't know I was 
 singing to you." 
 
 "I was daring to hope you did," he answered 
 with ready audacity, as he vaulted over the gate 
 and joined her. 
 
 The flush in her face faded quickly, and she 
 shook hands, with a laugh. In his level lips and 
 steady eyes her mirth found no response, which 
 was rare. Before speaking he hesitated, which 
 was rarer still. He remembered certain documents 
 in a green bag he carried, which would take the 
 happy confidence out of her young life. He was 
 unaccustomed to be the bearer of bad news ; more- 
 over, he loved this girl with the passion of his 
 youth, with the strength of his manhood, and from 
 the depths of his soul. So he hesitated, not know- 
 ing how to tell her, and the shadow deepened on 
 his face. 
 
 Winifred looked perplexed. 
 
 "You are worried, or something," she said 
 lightly. " I am sure it is the fault of the green 
 bag, and I don't blame you. Drop it behind the 
 lilac bush, and come and see my roses." 
 
 Dan ignored the words. " I have news for you," 
 he said. 
 
 2
 
 WINIFRED CHOOSES 
 
 "News for me?" questioned Winifred. "It is 
 bad news," she added quickly. 
 
 " Yes, bad news." 
 
 She looked at him for a moment in displeased 
 silence. 
 
 " I know what it is : the will has been found, 
 and papa has left half our money to a home for 
 aged ladies and trade unions." She smiled, half 
 bitterly, half contemptuously. 
 
 "No will has been found," he answered her 
 gravely, and they walked to the house through the 
 brilliant garden. 
 
 Winifred looked a sombre young figure in her 
 black dress, with her masses of dark hair, and a 
 seriousness on her face as rare as it was striking. 
 Her personality was too strong and independent to 
 be wholly feminine, nor was she a girl the average 
 man would love or be happy in loving. An affair 
 with her would involve elements of doubt and fear 
 doubt of winning her, fear of her restive power 
 when won. 
 
 The man who walked beside her now, with the ob- 
 stinate chin and daring eyes, neither doubted the one 
 nor feared the other. He had loved her since they 
 were boy and girl, and as desire and possession were 
 synonymous terms in his vocabulary he had vowed 
 within himself to win her. As yet his confidence 
 3
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 seemed somewhat misplaced, and it was in this con- 
 nection that his best friend had been known to say, 
 " Howard is a man who should fail in something, 
 lest he grow to fancying himself omnipotent." 
 
 There was no arrogance now in the eyes that 
 looked down into hers ; only a grave, protective 
 tenderness. 
 
 " Win," he began, when they were seated on the 
 broad veranda, " you must prepare yourself for a 
 great blow. I don't ask you to be brave, for I know 
 you can never be anything else." He paused. Her 
 eyes, questioning but fearless, met his. 
 
 "You remember," he went on, "that last week 
 we found a clue to the whereabouts of your father's 
 safety vault, and you gave me your written per- 
 mission to open it. I did so yesterday, and found 
 only worthless bonds, some few certificates of good 
 stock, and records of vast sales of property made 
 during the last years of his life, when he seems to 
 have lived entirely on his principal. This was al- 
 most exhausted at the time of his death." 
 
 Winifred was pale, but her eyes did not falter. 
 "How much is left ? " she asked. 
 
 " Enough to yield you and Edith about fifteen 
 hundred a year." 
 
 "And the extravagant improvements made on 
 the place last winter?" 
 
 4
 
 WINIFRED CHOOSES 
 
 " They were done on credit." 
 
 " And there was no credit ? " 
 
 " There was no credit." 
 
 She drew in her breath quickly. 
 
 " Of course we must pay the money back at once, 
 if we starve for it. Oh, it is shameful shameful." 
 A flush half of anger, half of pain, came into her 
 face. She rose, and leaning on the balustrade 
 looked out on the sunlight and flowers. Dan 
 tramped up and down the piazza noisily. He 
 wanted very much to swear. 
 
 " So we are poor," she said wonderingly, trying 
 to adjust her thoughts to the fact. " We are poor 
 and in debt." Here was a very tangible, prac- 
 tical fact. She flushed again. 
 
 Dan sat down astride of a chair and folded his 
 arms on the back. 
 
 " The place ought to bring fifty thousand," he 
 said practically. " That would more than pay all 
 you owe, and leave something to invest. Walter 
 should see to it for you." 
 
 Winifred flung out her strong young arms with 
 an impatient gesture. " How Aunt Betsy and 
 Uncle Charles will moan over and pity us ! I feel 
 my temper rising in anticipation. I have had so 
 much pity during the past weeks that I can't stand 
 another ounce of it." 
 
 5
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 She paused, and a swift change came into her 
 face and voice. 
 
 " Dan, I want to tell you something something 
 that I am more ashamed of than of anything else 
 in the world something " She hesitated ; 
 there was almost a tremor on her lips. 
 
 "Yes, Win; out with it," came Dan's deep 
 voice. His lips were commendably grave, but in 
 his eyes was amused incredulity. 
 
 " I want to tell you because because I want 
 you to know me just as I am, and because I feel I 
 am not honest in taking sympathy from you when 
 I don't need it, and because now that this wrong of 
 father's has come to us I may say things." 
 
 " Yes, Win." 
 
 Her face was white, but she went on hurriedly : 
 "Every one thought, because I did not lose my 
 head or cry at the time of father's death, that I 
 was strong and proud, but broken-hearted. I was 
 not. I mean I did not really grieve for one single 
 hour." 
 
 " I knew it, dear." 
 
 "You knew it?" she asked in astonishment. 
 " Then how can you go on caring, if you know 
 me so well ? Oh, you can't think of the shame I felt 
 when they all kissed and cried over me and called 
 me a brave girl! How ashamed I felt when I 
 6
 
 WINIFEED CHOOSES 
 
 thought of father, and how he loved me best ! Of 
 course I was fond of him and missed him dread- 
 fully, but it was not love and it was not grief. I 
 know that very well ; I know what they both must 
 be, though I can't seem really to love any one in the 
 whole world. Only a little while after he died, I was 
 thinking with part of me that it was good to be free, 
 so that I could go abroad and study singing." Her 
 eyes were dark with remorseful passion. " Dan, 
 why don't you tell me you despise me ? Why 
 don't you say something ? " 
 
 " I can never say less than this to you, dear," he 
 answered, and taking her hand in his kissed it re- 
 verently. Then he went on in his deep, rich voice 
 while he kept her hand : " Whether you love or 
 not, you are always the bravest, truest woman in 
 the world, the one prize in life most worth win- 
 ning. Some day you will love, and so well that it 
 is worth while losing the lesser love of a thousand 
 lesser women for the chance of winning you and 
 yours." 
 
 For the moment he was holding her in the spell 
 of his eyes and words. She did not withdraw her 
 hand. 
 
 " Dan," she almost whispered, " can't you make 
 me love you?" 
 
 " Yes, dear, some day I shall find the way." 
 7
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Her being was vibrating with a hint of something 
 strange, and strong, and madly sweet, but it was 
 only a hint. Fortunately Dan knew this. 
 
 He knew that her powerful nature was crude as 
 yet ; that she must come up to many of her mile- 
 stones and discover their small value before she 
 would pause and hearken to the deep whisperings 
 of life and love. Some of her lamps must be put 
 out before she could see the stars. 
 
 The light died quickly in her eyes, and she with- 
 drew her hand and nature from him. There was 
 a rushing in his ears, and for an instant the sun- 
 light looked red; but he controlled himself, and 
 forced his voice to a steady if constrained quiet, 
 while he discussed with her such commonplace 
 details as the placing of property, the payment 
 of debts, and the adjustment of living expenses 
 to a reduced income. He even brought her to in- 
 vestigate certain contents of the green bag, and 
 explained technical points with praiseworthy steadi- 
 ness, while she leaned over his shoulder. 
 
 When there came a pause she looked at him 
 quizzically and somewhat doubtfully. The color 
 had come back to her face and the confidence to 
 her bearing. 
 
 " Of course you know what I am going to do," 
 she said, a suppressed excitement in her voice. 
 8
 
 WINIFKED CHOOSES 
 
 " Yes," answered Dan, bending his head over the 
 papers he held. 
 
 " Now don't spoil it by objecting. Besides, ob- 
 jecting won't do the smallest good." 
 
 " I am not objecting. Have you any idea how 
 soon you start ? " 
 
 " Just as soon as I can settle estates, debts, and 
 so forth, here. That ought to be by early autumn, 
 don't you think so ? It must be early autumn. Oh, 
 how blissful it will be, back in my dear Europe, 
 free, and learning to be a great artist ! There is 
 no reason why I should n't go on the stage now, and 
 every reason why I should. Edith and I are poor, 
 and I must make money for us both. I am glad 
 we are poor do you hear me, Dan ? glad. The 
 world shall be at my feet ; I shall have everything 
 I want, and more more. Ah, it is glorious to 
 think of. Dan, you don't know you don't know ! " 
 
 Dan made no answer. She paced restlessly to 
 and fro on the piazza. 
 
 " I shall succeed," she went on "I know that. 
 I was made for success, just as you were. Nature 
 never cut me out for a mere paving stone. Why 
 don't you say something ? Oh, how irritating you 
 are ! Why don't you say you feel sure I shall suc- 
 ceed ? " She stopped in front of him. 
 
 " Because I don't feel sure of it," he answered. 
 9
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Dan ! " She looked at him in wide-eyed aston- 
 ishment and some displeasure. " How absurd ! 
 Why don't you think so ? I should like to know 
 simply for the sake of argument. Of course I don't 
 really care what you think, because you don't know. 
 You are a very clever lawyer, and have, I am told, 
 exceptional powers of convincing juries of things 
 they don't want to believe, that no reasonable per- 
 son could believe, and that you probably don't be- 
 lieve yourself ; but that does n't prove you know 
 anything of the elements that go to make up a great 
 singer. Now will you kindly tell me what I lack ? 
 Have n't I voice ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " And is n't it beautiful ? " 
 
 " It is beautiful." 
 
 " Well, then. Can't I act ? " 
 
 " Up to a certain point." 
 
 " Up to a certain point ? What do you mean by 
 that?" 
 
 " I mean that you can act well up to a certain 
 point." 
 
 " So you said before." 
 
 " I will say it again, if you wish." 
 
 Winifred was irritated, Dan correspondingly 
 amused. Then, with feminine tact, she carried her 
 point by an appeal to his most vulnerable quarter. 
 10
 
 WINIFRED CHOOSES 
 
 " Dan, please don't chaff. You know that, what- 
 ever I say, I care for your opinion more than I do 
 for any one else's. I really want to know what you 
 think I lack." 
 
 He was only softened within certain limits. 
 " Well, then, I think you are crude. You cannot 
 be great at any art till you put some of your life's 
 blood into it, and you have n't been bled yet." 
 
 " Oh, is that all ? " she said, with a sigh of relief. 
 " Then I don't mind. Your words are only theory. 
 I have temperament, and that anticipates all expe- 
 rience of an emotional kind, lives it in the nerves 
 and imagination. Musicians don't need to live; 
 through music alone they learn all that is greatest 
 of love and life." 
 
 " That is only another theory," said Dan obsti- 
 nately. " The proposition that temperament takes 
 the place of and anticipates experience remains to 
 be proved." 
 
 " Proof ? Nonsense ! A woman does n't need 
 proof. She knows." 
 
 " Exactly," said Dan dryly, " she knows." 
 
 " Well, what more do you want than knowing ? 
 Dan, you are laughing at me ! " 
 
 Then she laughed herself, with good-humored 
 appreciation of his point of view, but went on imme- 
 diately to express an unconscious sense of rebellion. 
 11
 
 THE TUEN OF THE KOAD 
 
 " Of course, I might have known you would put 
 all sorts of objections in the way. You think a 
 woman ought to stay at home and make a home ; 
 making a home means being troubled with pots and 
 pans. You know very well I can't do that, and 
 what do you want me to do ? I ask you to answer 
 me reasonably what do you want me to do ? " 
 
 This was a reckless question, and Dan answered 
 as she might have known he would : 
 
 " Marry me." 
 
 She flushed and moved uneasily. " You know 
 that is more impossible than anything else." Her 
 voice dropped a little. " Please don't talk so any 
 more. I mean, what do you expect me to do ? An 
 unmarried woman has her choice of four things : 
 society, charity, literary clubs, and melancholia. I 
 don't feel inclined to any of those. There is one 
 thing more : I can follow out some of papa's social- 
 istic studies. I can think about the greatest good 
 of the greatest number. I can have theories con- 
 cerning the disposition of economic rent ; not that 
 I could ever understand what economic rent was, 
 but I suppose I could learn in time, as other people 
 have. I could even form a woman's club for the 
 propagation of my ideas, and write pamphlets, 
 and"- 
 
 " God forbid ! " ejaculated Dan fervently. 
 12
 
 WINIFRED CHOOSES 
 
 "Very well, then, what is the use in talking 
 about it ? " 
 
 " I can't imagine," he answered quietly, with a 
 tormenting smile ; then he added more seriously : 
 " Don't let us misunderstand each other any longer, 
 Win. I can't say I am glad to have you go away 
 and study for the stage ; but, all things consid- 
 ered, I think you are doing the only thing you 
 can do." 
 
 " Then why could n't you have said so in the be- 
 ginning ? " Winifred was only partly pacified. 
 
 " In the first place you did n't give me a chance. 
 Then I am usually so weak-minded with you that 
 my self-respect now and then requires the stimulus 
 of teasing you." He rose. " And now good-by. 
 I have some work to do on an important case, when 
 I must deal with a more than usually obstinate jury. 
 Shall I put the estate into the hands of a broker ? 
 I can see to it without troubling you to come up to 
 town. No, don't thank me ; that is n't allowed, you 
 know ; besides, it 's no trouble. I shall be down 
 again in a day or two with some papers for you 
 and Edith to sign. I hope the poor child will take 
 the loss of her fortune as easily as you have done. 
 Good-by again." 
 
 Before she could speak he had gone. With sof- 
 tening eyes she watched the retreating figure. 
 13
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Dear old Dan ! " she said. " What should I do 
 without him ? I suppose I ought to give him up, 
 but I'm too selfish. Besides, he wouldn't go." 
 She smiled with pride in his strength. 
 
 Three months later Winifred and her sister were 
 leaning over the side of an Atlantic liner, and 
 watching idly the confusion of leave-taking and 
 baggage-hunting going on between deck and wharf. 
 There was only one more good-by to say ; then the 
 great ocean the new life ! Winifred told herself 
 she was jubilant, and held her head high. Her eyes 
 were bright and her face pale. Edith's mouth was 
 quivering, and her eyes were suspiciously red ; but 
 she said nothing. Then Dan appeared from the 
 cabin; his face looked worn, but he spoke with 
 determined cheeriness. "There are your table 
 seats," he said. " I have said a good word for you 
 with the captain, and your fee will have due effect 
 on the steward, I don't doubt. I wish you had felt 
 like affording outside staterooms ; yours seem 
 stuffy. Mrs. Smith thinks her berth is small, and 
 said there was no place in the brackets for her 
 cologne bottle. She is rather tearful ; but she will 
 feel better in a day or so, I dare say. She is old, 
 eminently respectable, and will let you have your 
 own way ; so she possesses the essentials. Where 
 14
 
 WINIFRED CHOOSES 
 
 are you putting your tickets ? That is n't safe. 
 How will you ever learn to take care of your 
 things ? Fold them this way see." 
 
 "Yes," said Winifred with unusual meekness, 
 " I think I understand. They are almost as hard 
 to fold as time-tables. There, Dan, that 's the bell 
 for you to go. Please go it makes me nervous. 
 I hate saying good-by. Please go now they 
 are taking up the gangway." 
 
 " That 's all right," said Dan coolly. " I made 
 arrangements to go on with you a bit and take the 
 tug back. You don't look as pleased as you ought 
 to, to hear it. Edith, you look tired. Has n't the 
 headache gone ? " 
 
 "No. I think I should like to lie down, if I 
 could find my chair." 
 
 There was a little catch in Edith's voice, for a 
 strip of green water was widening between them 
 and home. 
 
 " Your chair is here. It 's a little windy now, 
 but when we get out more to sea the breeze will 
 be on the other side. I arranged it on purpose. 
 Here are the shawls ; let me undo them and spread 
 one on the chair before you sit down. They are 
 first cousins to gridirons, these chairs, but you can 
 circumvent them with practice. Is that all right ? 
 Shan't I open your umbrella? There is nothing 
 15
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 like an umbrella for keeping off wind. Now are 
 you comfortable ? " 
 
 " Yes, thank you. How kind you are ! You 
 think of everything. I am sorry to reward you by 
 crying. I know men hate it, but I can't help it." 
 
 " That 's all right," said Dan kindly. " I like to 
 see a woman cry sometimes." 
 
 Then he went back to Winifred. He had never 
 seen her cry. " We will walk," he said. " There 
 are one or two things I want to say to you. We 
 may not see each other again for a long time." 
 
 *' I know, Dan," she broke in hurriedly ; " I have 
 something to say also. I meant to write it, but 
 that 's because I am a coward. I think I had better 
 say it now. First, I want to thank you oh, but I 
 can't thank you enough for all you have done, when 
 I think what you give me, and what I " 
 
 " Stop there, Win. I don't want thanks, and 
 I don't want reward, even supposing I deserved 
 either. To serve you is and must always be " 
 He paused, and closed his lips firmly on the words 
 in his heart. The strain of prolonged leave-taking 
 was wearing on his nerves. 
 
 " That is just what I have been thinking about," 
 
 Winifred went on. " Things can't go on as they 
 
 are. You are too good a man for some woman to 
 
 miss. Your love is too precious to be poured out 
 
 16
 
 WINIFRED CHOOSES 
 
 before some one like me, who I was just think- 
 ing now, when I saw you taking care of Edith, that 
 I have somehow missed the right angle of woman- 
 hood." 
 
 " You will find it," he broke in. 
 
 " Don't make it hard for me," she continued; "I 
 am not the kind that loves and marries. I am go- 
 ing away forever, perhaps, and this is the moment 
 for us to say good-by ; our friendship must end. I 
 can't ever forget you I don't think I shall ever 
 find any one to take your place ; but it is best 
 it must be. I don't want you to write to me ; I 
 shall not write you. I want you to put me out of 
 your life " Her voice had grown so very low 
 that Dan bent his head to listen. 
 
 When she paused, he smiled. 
 
 " That reminds me," he said, " you have n't given 
 me the address of your pension in Paris. I may 
 write there instead of to the bank. I shall expect 
 a letter from you once a month at least, and if you 
 ever write me such nonsense as you have just 
 spoken, I shall be obliged to cross the ocean at once 
 and marry you against your will." 
 
 Winifred drew a deep breath and then laughed 
 a short, low laugh that had something of tri- 
 umph in it. She gave him a whimsical sidelong 
 glance. 
 
 17
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " I do like your combativeness, Dan," she said. 
 
 " Did you dream for the shadow of a second that 
 I would let you go ? " he asked. 
 
 " I don't know ; I tried to believe it, because I 
 know it 's right that you should." 
 
 " But you did n't want to believe it ? " 
 
 " No. I should miss you more than any one." 
 
 " Thank you, Win." 
 
 For a while they walked in silence. Most of the 
 passengers were in their staterooms, and the deck 
 was deserted. The great steamer began to throb 
 rhythmically to her depths with a mighty life of 
 steam and steel. The wind from out of the sea 
 came to meet them, and its first greeting thrilled 
 mournfully in the rigging. 
 
 Dan kept his eyes on the watery horizon. There 
 were deepening lines round his mouth, and his face 
 looked older than his years. Win easily kept pace 
 with his swinging stride ; but there was an odd 
 hollow feeling at her heart. She shivered and drew 
 her cloak about her, wishing that Dan were gone. 
 
 He turned at her movement. " You don't look 
 right," he said; "surely this motion is not too 
 much ? " 
 
 "No, but I don't feel altogether natural. I 
 very much suspect, Dan, I very much suspect that 
 I don't like saying good-by to you." She smiled 
 18
 
 WINIFRED CHOOSES 
 
 as she spoke, with a full, candid look into his 
 eyes. 
 
 Dan stooped to fasten her cloak. "Let us sit 
 down," he said. And then, during the time that 
 remained, he spoke to her only of his love spoke 
 passionately, tenderly, powerfully always, with a 
 certain sturdy eloquence entirely his own. Wini- 
 fred listened in silence, and was moved as only he 
 had power to move her ; but she did not answer 
 him, and kept a pale face turned to the sea. 
 When a shrill, discordant whistle surprised them, 
 and a tug appeared suddenly under their bows, she 
 started. 
 
 " It 's the tug ! " she cried. 
 
 "Yes." Dan wheeled about and caught her 
 hands. " Dearest, one word more. You don't 
 know what you are going to, what temptations you 
 are going to have. But whatever comes to you, 
 however you are tempted, however you yield you 
 don't know what I am talking about, but you will 
 learn too soon I am ready to be at your side to 
 take your part against the world ; for whether you 
 ever love me or not, you will always be the greatest 
 thing in the world to me, the greatest happiness, 
 the greatest pain the Alpha and Omega of all 
 my life. Never forget this : whatever danger threat- 
 ens, whatever happens, never forget to say, ' Dan 
 19
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 loves me for better, for worse.' Promise to re- 
 member that, dear. * Dan loves me for better, for 
 worse, and is always there when I need him.' " 
 
 " Oh, I am not worth it I am not I can't 
 give it back." 
 
 " That is my affair. Promise me, Win." 
 
 " Yes, Dan." 
 
 A warning cry came from the tug. 
 
 " Good-by, my love good-by." 
 
 " Don't forget," he called up to her from where 
 he swung on the ladder, halfway down the steamer's 
 side. 
 
 "No. Oh, Dan, good-by good-by." 
 20
 
 Chapter II 
 
 INTERLUDE 
 
 WHEN Dan went back to his room that night, 
 Walter Garrison, the friend he lived with, 
 looked at him doubtfully over the edge of the 
 " Transcript." 
 
 " Why were n't you at your office this morning ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 Dan rolled a cigarette in silence. "Can you 
 give me a light ? " he said finally ; and that was 
 the only answer Walter received, and the last time 
 he asked that particular question. 
 
 Walter Garrison was Dan's most intimate friend, 
 which means that they shared the same apartment, 
 breakfasted and dined together, spoke little, held 
 opposite views on nearly everything concerning 
 this life or the next, and would have cheerfully cut 
 off their right arm for each other, if such a sacri- 
 fice had seemed beneficial. 
 
 Dan always said that Walter had been born 
 several centuries too late. If he could have lived 
 in the time when all ladies were fair and all men 
 21
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 were brave, and when evil was a thing to be fought 
 with a spotless name and silver armor, he would 
 have made his mark. As it was, he dealt in cor- 
 poration paper and collateral loans, wore the un- 
 picturesque garb of the nineteenth century, and, 
 concealing his sensitiveness and chivalry under a 
 rough beard and a slow manner, passed as a very 
 commonplace young man indeed. 
 
 The friendship between the two men began in 
 their boyhood on the mutual discovery of a good 
 place for finding angleworms ; it had lasted through 
 the rough-edged gladness of college life, and it held 
 fast in their early manhood, though Walter was a 
 struggling note broker, and Dan the most success- 
 ful lawyer of his age in the State, and though there 
 was the name of a woman which could never be 
 mentioned between them. 
 
 During the days at Harvard they had roomed 
 together as they did now. The arrangement had 
 been mutually satisfactory in spite of difference of 
 temperament and belief. Dan read Plato, while 
 Walter went to church. Dan loved such diverging 
 possibilities as the classics and football ; he was 
 aggressive in both. Walter plodded through the 
 average college courses, and preferred rowing to 
 the strenuous wrestling of football fields ; he was 
 aggressive in nothing. Dan was confident with 
 22
 
 INTERLUDE 
 
 what his enemies called " confounded arrogance," 
 and his friends considered "splendid audacity." 
 He thought with lightning-like speed and power, 
 but Walter's mind moved slowly and obstinately ; 
 his ideas were more easily formed than changed. 
 
 It was in his Junior year that Dan one day 
 rescued Winifred from drowning, and discovered 
 while bearing her to the shore that he loved her. 
 He told her so before her hair had time to dry, and 
 though she did not laugh, she treated the matter 
 lightly and reproached him for having spoiled their 
 fun. Then Dan went back to college with an added 
 doggedness of jaw, and spent hours in silences that 
 were never satisfactorily explained. 
 
 During the years that followed he laid his best 
 at her feet, and she learned to accept it as a 
 matter of course. There were times when he grew 
 restive and claimed impossible things, when his 
 words made her cheek burn and his eyes shamed 
 her light indifference ; but Winifred's spirit was 
 cool and free ; she defied him easily. 
 
 So Dan went hungry through his early manhood, 
 and about his mouth there came lines that do not 
 belong to youth. 
 
 Walter disliked Winifred ; she was too self- 
 assertive, and according to his views there must be 
 something wrong about a girl who did not return 
 23
 
 THE TUKN OF THE KOAD 
 
 Dan's love. He hoped her departure for Europe 
 and intention to go on the stage would end Dan's 
 hopes and desires, but asked no questions. 
 
 And Dan was not forgetting. His working hours 
 were troubled with visions of Winifred imprudently 
 going with wet feet in a new climate, and commit- 
 ting hygienic offenses against which there was no 
 one to warn her. He wrote pages of instructions, 
 and to her amused protestations he agreed, adding, 
 " But you see I had rather the world begged than 
 that you should want for a glove." 
 
 Winifred, on her side, was rapidly learning care 
 of herself, and other singers' lessons of renounced 
 freedom, limited amusement, and general slavery to 
 the condition of vocal cords. 
 
 " Whoever could think you would submit to all 
 these precautions, Win?" said Edith, when her 
 sister wrapped her throat in scarfs and refused to 
 go out damp evenings. " Have you written Dan 
 that you have given up talking except on state 
 occasions ? " 
 
 " That is only when I have a cold," protested 
 Winifred. 
 
 " It seems to me you have colds very often ; 
 you never used to have them. Perhaps it's the 
 climate." 
 
 24
 
 INTERLUDE 
 
 " No, I am afraid it 's just because they 're so 
 inconvenient now." 
 
 " I hope it will all come out right," sighed Edith. 
 
 " It must come out right," said Winifred. 
 
 " What must ? " asked a third voice from the 
 doorway. 
 
 Edith welcomed the visitor cordially, inwardly 
 asking herself why Kate always seemed ill or un- 
 happy ; Winifred indifferently, and wondering why 
 she could never like her. 
 
 Kate Randolph possessed that " elegant super- 
 ficiality " which is the graceful mask of women of 
 the world. It would be difficult to tell what she 
 thought on any subject whatsoever, or if she thought 
 at all. A shallow woman, people called her 
 dainty, exquisite, patrician, thinking little, feeling 
 less, and one to whom a crime would be easier 
 than an act of bad taste. But there were her eyes 
 which could not be accounted for large, dark, 
 hungry eyes, that had no right to be in that deli- 
 cate face, and that gave the lie to her thin lips. 
 Moreover, there were whispers about Kate to which 
 no one gave open credence, because she was Kath- 
 erine Randolph, and the name of Randolph could 
 cover a multitude of sins ; but it was suspected 
 that Kate had been responsible for Jack Sunder- 
 25
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 land's going wrong, and her best friends could not 
 defend her treatment of Lord de Normandy. That 
 she was untruthful no one attempted to deny, and 
 she was worldly ; but public opinion was her con- 
 science, so she would keep straight if it were not 
 for those eyes. 
 
 " What must come right ? " she repeated, when 
 greetings were over. " If Winifred says it must, 
 it will ; but what is it ? " Kate handled her words 
 daintily. 
 
 " It 's the voice," explained Edith. " Winifred 
 does not think things are going well." 
 
 " Oh, I am so sorry ! " exclaimed Kate. " I was 
 looking forward to hearing you." 
 
 Winifred smiled an irritating smile, delicately 
 suggestive of incredulity. 
 
 " You do not believe me ? " Kate's eyes changed 
 suddenly till they overweighted the flower-like face, 
 and the effect, coming as it did in the midst of her 
 light chatter, was almost startling. Edith won- 
 dered why it was that Kate so often looked at 
 Winifred in this way. 
 
 Winifred's eyes had met Kate's with an expres- 
 sion of cool inquiry. " I did n't know you were 
 fond of music." 
 
 " I wish I were not," said Kate ; " it makes 
 me"
 
 INTERLUDE 
 
 "You surely don't mean cry?" interrupted 
 Edith. 
 
 " No, it makes me wish I could. It makes me 
 think of everything I am not, and reminds me of 
 all I want to forget. So you see how very much I 
 must have wanted to hear you sing." 
 
 Kate never laughed ; but she smiled now, and 
 the smile and ease of her last words contradicted 
 the sudden weariness of her first. 
 
 " Winifred has a strange effect upon her," re- 
 flected Edith. " When they are together she looks 
 at no one else, and yet I always feel that she dis- 
 likes her." 
 
 " I doubt if Win will ever be able to sing to any 
 one," she said aloud ; " and if she does, it won't be 
 before one or both of us have had melancholia. You 
 cannot imagine how discouraging it is, Kate. She 
 is always taking cold, which means two weeks with- 
 out a lesson, and now, just as she was becoming ac- 
 climated, she finds that What was it you found, 
 Win ? You were telling me when Kate came in." 
 
 "I seem to be singing wrong," said Winifred, 
 forgetting her guest in gloomy preoccupation. " I 
 could n't take a high C yesterday." 
 
 " Must she have a high C ? " asked Kate inno- 
 cently. 
 
 " She says she must," said Edith. 
 27
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Of course I must," replied Winifred, with some 
 impatience. " There is n't a grand opera in the 
 world that has n't a high C in it. A prima donna 
 without a high C ! Why, you might as well think 
 of a nightingale without a trill." 
 
 " You see, it 's a very grave matter," explained 
 Edith. " Everything about singing is a grave mat- 
 ter. I am sure Win will lose her sense of humor. 
 Did you ever hear of an opera singer with a sense 
 of humor ? " 
 
 Kate's experience in opera singers was limited, 
 and they let the matter rest on Edith's assertion 
 that humor was incompatible with care of, and de- 
 pendence upon, vocal cords. 
 
 Kate seemed to take more interest in the affair 
 than the occasion required. 
 
 " Perhaps you will have to give it up, and go 
 home," she said suddenly. " Perhaps your voice 
 cannot stand professional work." 
 
 "Yes, it can," answered Winifred resentfully. 
 " My voice is splendidly strong by nature, but I 
 am being badly taught. I am not sure about the 
 chest or head tones, but I know my middle is 
 back." 
 
 " Your middle is back ? " repeated Edith help- 
 lessly. " Win, dear, I hate to seem stupid, but 
 what do you mean by your middle's being back?" 
 28
 
 INTERLUDE 
 
 " I mean that my middle tones are not forward 
 enough," explained Winifred, with some impa- 
 tience. 
 
 " What does she mean by a tone's being forward 
 or back? "asked Kate. 
 
 " I don't know," sighed Edith. " It is as bad 
 as learning to talk golf." 
 
 Winifred tried to explain, but her audience was 
 stupid and possibly uninterested. 
 
 " I cannot help feeling that it is all wasted time," 
 said Edith inconsequently. " I do not mean the 
 explanation, but your studying for the stage. We 
 have been here over six months, and I don't see 
 that much has been accomplished besides the loss 
 of a high C. If this goes on much longer, I shall 
 write Dan myself and tell him the truth. It is just 
 possible that he might bring you to reason." 
 
 No one looking at Kate in that moment could 
 have noticed anything except her eyes, and these 
 eyes, dilating and darkening, were fixed upon 
 Winifred's face. 
 
 "And I will tell him how imprudent you are 
 about going out alone," continued Edith. " Win 
 never thought of such a thing as prudence in her 
 life," she added, addressing Kate, "and if she 
 were beautiful she would have been in trouble more 
 than once. Don't look surprised ! She knows she 
 29
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 is not beautiful, and does n't mind at all ; do you, 
 Win?" 
 
 Winifred smiled. " I never think of it," she 
 said. 
 
 Then Kate spoke with a bitterness that was like 
 the escape of a hidden flame. 
 
 " If you were the most beautiful woman in the 
 world, you would n't care ! " she exclaimed. " If 
 you had the greatest gift in the world, and the 
 greatest love in the world, still you would n't care ! " 
 
 Winifred looked out of the window and beyond 
 the housetops to the clouds. There was a look of 
 far-away things in her eyes, and her face was 
 shaded with that gravity which Dan loved so well 
 to see there. 
 
 "I wonder if you are not partly right?" she 
 said. 
 
 Kate watched her with tightening lips. " Now 
 I know why he loves her," she told herself. " She 
 has something most of us lack she is worthy of 
 him. How I hate her ! " 
 
 Then Kate took her leave with something less 
 than her usual grace, and left Edith wondering 
 over her abruptness, her odd outbursts of bitter- 
 ness and passionate weariness. Kate did not ap- 
 pear to the world like this. 
 
 More self-absorbed than ever, Winifred relapsed 
 30
 
 INTERLUDE 
 
 into the surprised and somewhat indignant gloom 
 with which she met these first checks in her career. 
 
 " I wonder why she always seems to dislike you 
 so much?" said Edith aloud. 
 
 "I have sometimes suspected she didn't alto- 
 gether like me," observed Winifred. 
 
 " Sometimes suspected ! Good heavens, Win, if 
 I did n't know you were a thousand times cleverer 
 than I am, I should often say you were positively 
 stupid ! " 
 
 31
 
 Chapter III 
 KATE 
 
 MRS. RANDOLPH was awaiting her daugh- 
 ter's return in the private parlor, au pre- 
 mier, of the Hotel Westminster. Mrs. Randolph's 
 face expressed a grievance, and Kate, when she 
 entered, looked tired and restless. 
 
 " Where have you been ? " asked her mother. 
 
 Kate was conscious of the grievance and the 
 cause of it, but she chose to ignore both. 
 
 " I stopped at the Merediths'," she said lightly. 
 
 "Ah, was that very disagreeable Winifred 
 there ? " 
 
 " That very disagreeable Winifred was there." 
 
 "And you have missed a visit from Lord de 
 Normandy." 
 
 " I supposed he would come, after his note. 
 Are n't you going to give me some tea, mamma ? " 
 
 The grievance was very evident now. " What 
 note, Kate?" 
 
 " One I received last night. I knew he would 
 32
 
 KATE 
 
 come this afternoon, and, as I did n't wish to see 
 him, I went out." 
 
 " You are a very selfish and a very ungrateful 
 daughter," Mrs. Randolph said, with some excite- 
 ment. 
 
 " I am sorry, mamma, but I cannot marry Lord 
 de Normandy. What did he say? Was he try- 
 ing?" 
 
 " Lord de Normandy is a gentleman, my dear." 
 
 " Gentlemen are sometimes trying. What did 
 he say?" 
 
 " He felt he had been badly treated, and he is 
 justified in feeling so." 
 
 " I don't see that feeling has anything to do with 
 it, mamma. It 's merely a question of American 
 gold versus a foreign title ; and it all happened a 
 long time ago." 
 
 " We talked the affair over, and I could not de- 
 fend you, though you are my own child," continued 
 Mrs. Randolph. " When it came to your promis- 
 ing to marry him one morning, and taking back 
 your word that very evening, for a mere whim 
 really, Kate " 
 
 " I behaved badly, but I could n't help it," said 
 Kate in a low voice of growing intensity. 
 
 " Nonsense, my dear ; you speak like a child. 
 33
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 He could not be persuaded that you had not seen 
 some one during his absence who had influenced 
 you. I told him you were alone all the afternoon, 
 but I remembered afterwards that some one had 
 been sitting in the garden with you. I think it 
 was Dan." 
 
 " It was Dan," said Kate. 
 
 " Yes, it comes back to me now, for you sat on 
 the grass in your new white muslin, and ruined it. 
 I remember the whole circumstance. Dan laughed 
 when I was annoyed, and said sitting on the grass 
 under apple blossoms was good for the soul, or 
 something equally ridiculous." 
 
 " I remember," said Kate. 
 
 " Well, my child, it was all a great mistake, and 
 I only hope you will think things over carefully, for 
 Lord de Normandy dines with us to-morrow." 
 
 "That is as you like, mamma; but I cannot 
 marry Lord de Normandy. I shall not marry any 
 one. I had better say this now, so that we may 
 avoid more trouble. I tried hard to marry him, 
 and I meant to do so, until he came in the evening 
 after that that afternoon, you remember, and 
 then I knew it was of no use to try any longer. I 
 cannot marry." 
 
 Kate's face was pale, and certainly she was 
 growing very odd. Her mother realized it with 
 34
 
 KATE 
 
 resentment, intensified by the sense of her helpless- 
 ness. 
 
 "You are mad, Kate," she said. "You are 
 mad and reckless." 
 
 " I should be worse if I married." 
 
 " Kate ! For what have I brought you into the 
 world?" 
 
 " I don't know, mamma. I often wonder." 
 
 In her own room Kate flung herself face down- 
 ward on the bed. 
 
 " Winifred does not care," she said. " She has 
 what no other woman has, and does n't know it. 
 Some day she will find out what the world is worth, 
 and what the other is worth, and then " Kate 
 turned wearily on her side. " I wish I could cry," 
 she said. 
 
 35
 
 Chapter IV 
 
 NEAKING THE FIKST MILESTONE 
 
 rwas two years later. Madame Alberto's class 
 was drawing to a close, and Winifred was sing- 
 ing. The other pupils were seated about the room, 
 silent, attentive, their faces expressing various 
 degrees of wonder and reluctant admiration. Ma- 
 dame Alberto stood with her baton in her hand. 
 
 " (Test une voix pa," she said in an aside to her 
 pupils. The tone implied that theirs were not 
 voices ; but they felt compelled to nod smilingly. 
 
 Winifred, with her height, her distinction, her 
 talent, was queen among them, and wore the crown 
 as lightly and carelessly as all else that came to 
 her. 
 
 She stood now with her hands loosely clasped, 
 her dark eyes on the treetops seen through the 
 window, and sang on, indifferent alike to their 
 jealousy or admiration. The aria chosen was from 
 an Italian opera ; it was not beautiful music, but 
 it charmed the senses, and confused the critical 
 power with a perfume, a suavite, a passionate, 
 36
 
 NEARING THE FIRST MILESTONE 
 
 sensuous sweetness, that the old Italian masters 
 alone had at their command. She sang with the 
 highly colored art of the Italian school, and her 
 voice bewildered the listeners with its brilliancy 
 and purity. The cheapness of the musical climax 
 was forgotten in the wonder of its execution. One 
 listened, breathless, to the working up of common- 
 place cadences that led to the inevitable high note, 
 and compelled applause. 
 
 Madame looked at Winifred critically. 
 
 " The voice is glorious ; you have rare intelli- 
 gence. Your method is my own ; mais il y a 
 quelque chose qui manque id." Madame pointed 
 to her heart. 
 
 It was the old story, and Winifred frowned with 
 helpless impatience. 
 
 " I have it," cried Madame suddenly: "you must 
 fall in love. I do not say une grande passion, but 
 un petit sentiment, just to fire the temperament, 
 put tears in the voice. Take Bordeaux, now " 
 Madame pointed to the accompanist, a little man 
 with black hair and mustache " take Bordeaux, 
 for instance ; he has been casting eyes at you this 
 long time." 
 
 There was a general laugh at this. 
 
 " It is only for Mademoiselle to say," Bordeaux 
 replied gallantly. 
 
 37
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Winifred just lifted her eyes to his, and then 
 put her music together with an expression of cold 
 disgust on her face. The vulgar brutality of the 
 suggestion would have angered her had she not felt 
 so immeasurably above it. 
 
 Madame's expression became one of displeasure. 
 
 " Sapristi I You Americans are intolerable. 
 Wait till you are on the stage, and see if it is easy 
 to keep the airs of an empress." 
 
 " The next lesson is at ten, is it not ? " Winifred 
 asked quietly, meeting many pairs of disapproving 
 eyes with her cool New England gaze. There was 
 even a smile on her lips as she left the room with 
 brief words of farewell. She knew she had made 
 an eternal enemy of Bordeaux, and that her fellow 
 pupils had been enemies from the first, but these 
 facts were beneath her notice. 
 
 As she walked home on the shady side of the 
 well-known lane that led from Madame Alberto's 
 villa to her own lodgings, she remembered that 
 Dan was coming in a day or two ; and as it was by 
 his annual visits that she measured her progress 
 on the road to fame, she thought over in detail the 
 occurrences of the past few months. There had 
 been much success, and no actual failure ; but her 
 serene confidence in herself was becoming troubled. 
 As Madame had said, something was lacking.
 
 NEAEING THE FIRST MILESTONE 
 
 While it had been a question of mere study, she 
 had held the first place ; but now it was a question 
 of artistic completion, and there were those with- 
 out her voice or intelligence who were pleasing the 
 managers that passed her by. Winifred frowned 
 at the thought, but held her head defiantly high. 
 Her eyes expressed indignation and surprise, but 
 no discouragement. 
 
 A few days later Dan came. She was unfeign- 
 edly glad to see him. 
 
 " Dan is coming to-day, to-day, 
 Dan is coming to-day," 
 
 she caught herself singing on the morning of his 
 expected arrival. " How do you suppose he will 
 look ? It is ages and ages since I have seen him. 
 I wonder if he will find me changed ? And will 
 he like my singing ? But of course he can't help 
 that." 
 
 " Really, Win, you are growing insufferably 
 conceited. I hope he will not and will you 
 either go out of the room or stop talking. I 
 have n't been allowed to write a straight sentence 
 during the last half hour." 
 
 " I am going out to sit on the doorsteps in the 
 sun," said Winifred. " Sitting on the doorsteps is 
 a solace for all the ills of existence." 
 39
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 It was there that Dan found her, and, possessing 
 himself of both her hands, devoured her with his 
 eyes in a silence that she dared not break. In the 
 strong face, almost haggard with eagerness, that 
 bent above hers, she read what made her life seem 
 small. 
 
 " You are the same," he said at last, " only a 
 little grave just now." 
 
 " You make me so, Dan," she answered very 
 low, not trying to withdraw her hands. Then, with 
 her face raised to his, " You have changed. You 
 look as if you had been fighting battles, and con- 
 quering." 
 
 He smiled. " The hardest fight is still to be lost 
 or won," he told her. 
 
 With one accord they turned and walked through 
 the village street, and beyond to the sunny, windy 
 hillside. Winifred spoke of her hopes, her plans, 
 and a thousand details of her life, while he listened 
 eagerly, scolding her now and then, as was his 
 wont, but generally silent in the strong joy of 
 being near her. When she talked of her career, 
 Dan noticed little lines between her eyebrows that 
 did not belong to the Win of old. 
 
 " Something is wrong," he told himself ; and 
 very soon she reluctantly confessed. 
 
 " I would not acknowledge it to any one in the 
 40
 
 HEARING THE FIRST MILESTONE 
 
 world but you," she said, " but it is not as easy as 
 it seemed ; there is something lacking, not in my 
 gifts, but in me." 
 
 Dan generously refrained from saying, " I told 
 you so." 
 
 " I can command admiration, but I cannot cap- 
 ture enthusiasm, except by a high note every now 
 and then. The public don't know much, but they 
 do know when their hearts are touched, and I can- 
 not reach their hearts." 
 
 She sighed impatiently, and Dan wondered if 
 the years were not taking her further from him. 
 
 " If you loved your art for its own sake, I should 
 feel better about it all," he said. " But you care 
 only for such power and success as you can get out 
 of it, not for anything you can put in." 
 
 " That is true," assented Winifred unexpectedly. 
 " Art is not spelt with a big A for me. But I do 
 want the success." 
 
 " And what do you expect to get from the suc- 
 cess?" 
 
 " I do not know ; but I am going to find out," 
 she said, with a confident ring to her voice, and a 
 glance of amused defiance at the man by her side. 
 Then she sighed suddenly. 
 
 " The other day a little girl came to the class," 
 she continued : " she was plain and ordinary, her 
 41
 
 THE TUEN OF THE EOAD 
 
 voice had neither volume nor range ; but when she 
 sang I can't describe it, but the pupils were in 
 tears, and Madame Madame herself could not 
 speak, and in her face one read all the might- 
 have-beens. Think of it, Dan that hardened old 
 woman." 
 
 " Did you cry ? " questioned Dan. 
 
 She shook her head. " No ; but I felt so many 
 things that it was some time before I remembered 
 to wonder why I could n't move people so." 
 
 " You must be moved yourself first." 
 
 "That is trite, Dan." 
 
 " I know ; but it 's true." 
 
 Winifred set her lips. " I believe there is an- 
 other way." 
 
 "Very well; find it if you can. Don't look 
 alarmed ; I am not going to recommend myself as 
 a medicine, or love as a means to an end. But 
 you are crude still. Some day an awakening will 
 come, and you must suffer." 
 
 " Other people have become great artists without 
 great experience," she persisted. 
 
 "Were they New Englanders? Were reserve 
 and self-restraint the watchwords of their natures ? 
 You, of all women I know, were born and nurtured 
 amidst ice-fields and granite. Your real nature has 
 the depth and stillness and mystery of the northern 
 42
 
 NEAKING THE FIRST MILESTONE 
 
 night. You have given me glimpses of it now and 
 then, but as a rule it is as difficult for you to 
 express real self as it is for any man. When ice- 
 fields melt, the floods are so great that nothing can 
 stand before them ; but in the meantime don't be 
 surprised that you cannot express yourself in arie 
 and ballads." 
 
 Winifred thought deeply, with troubled brows. 
 
 " But I am not convinced," she said. 
 
 " I suppose not. You think I am talking fanci- 
 fully. Please remember that I am a hard-headed 
 lawyer ; facts and logic are my livelihood, so when 
 I choose to come down, or up, whichever you will, 
 to metaphor, I do not do so without reason, and 
 am entitled to respect. You will know that I am 
 right some day." 
 
 Dan's visit was a short one, but he made the 
 best of it. Madame Alberto obligingly took to 
 her bed with a cold, and singing lessons were sus- 
 pended. 
 
 " Why did n't Mr. Garrison come with you ? I 
 think he said something to Edith about joining us 
 again this summer," asked Winifred once. 
 
 Dan looked at her suddenly. " Did he, though ? " 
 he exclaimed. " He said nothing to me of it. 
 Were they especially good friends last year ? " 
 
 " I never noticed," said Winifred. " Yes, they 
 43
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 were together a good deal; but I don't think it 
 meant anything." 
 
 " I am not sure of that," said Dan. " In the 
 dim ages before Walter saw the light of this planet, 
 a woman must have buckled on his soul's armor. 
 He has been unconsciously hunting for her all his 
 life, and when he looks at your sister there is some- 
 thing in his eyes which makes me think that he has 
 found her now ! " 
 
 " I never noticed it," said Winifred again. 
 
 On the last day of his stay Dan became restive 
 and hard to please. 
 
 " Who is that Austrian beast on the other side 
 of the street ? " he asked. " I don't like the way 
 he looks at you. He has passed your house several 
 times." 
 
 Winifred colored angrily. "It must be von 
 Reidnitz," she said. 
 
 " And who is von Reidnitz ? " 
 
 " One of Madame's pupils." 
 
 " Why does he look at you ? " 
 
 " I can't imagine can you ? " 
 
 " Win, that man has annoyed you." 
 
 " A little. Dan, don't look so." There was & 
 furious gleam in his eyes. 
 
 "The creature is following us; wait for me 
 here." 
 
 44
 
 NEARING THE FIRST MILESTONE 
 
 " Don't, don't what are you going to do ? " 
 
 He strode back to von Reidnitz, and after a few 
 words returned to Winifred with a slightly relieved 
 countenance. 
 
 "What did you say?" 
 
 " I told him that if I heard of his troubling you 
 again I should be unable to deny myself the plea- 
 sure of dropping him into the lake." 
 
 She laughed. " I am glad you said it ; but he 
 is n't worth much disturbance." 
 
 Rage was still in Dan's eyes. 
 
 " To think that you you should subject 
 yourself to things of this kind." 
 
 " But they don't hurt me." 
 
 He muttered something about a stain on a lily. 
 Winifred raised her head proudly. "This stage 
 life is hell," he went on. "A woman can't go 
 through it and " 
 
 " Stop, Dan ! " Her clear eyes met his without 
 a tremor, and his anger fell. 
 
 "I think I am a little ashamed of you," she 
 said. 
 
 " You don't understand," he protested helplessly. 
 
 " Yes, I do. It is you who do not understand. 
 No soul is moved by what it does not possess, and 
 I I thought you knew me better, Dan." 
 
 He was silent. Surely the woman who dared 
 45
 
 THE TUEN OF THE KOAD 
 
 speak so with clear, unfaltering eyes raised to his, 
 was worthy of a lifetime's love and reverence. 
 
 For a longer time than usual they walked in 
 silence. Then he made her talk of herself, as he 
 was never tired of doing; but the details of her 
 life made him frown. 
 
 *' It all seems unworthy of you, somehow," he pro- 
 tested. " Even the music you sing is trash " 
 
 " The art with which I sing it is not trash," she 
 interrupted. 
 
 " Even the music is trash, and you know it, but 
 go on because you win admiration. And how long 
 do you think admiration is going to satisfy you? 
 Do you think you can starve your heart and your 
 brain forever? All this excitement and bidding 
 for adulation is cheapening ; it will cheapen even 
 you in the end. Turn off the gas, Win ; turn off 
 the gas, and let the stars shine." 
 
 " If you think me capable of all this worthless- 
 ness," said Win, "why do you why do you" 
 
 "Why do I love you?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Primarily because you are you, I suppose." 
 
 " That is no reason." 
 
 " It is enough for me," he said doggedly ; and 
 then added, half smiling, " I suppose I love you for 
 the possibilities of that empty heart and brain." 
 46
 
 NEARING THE FIRST MILESTONE 
 
 "Winifred's eyes were mischievous. 
 
 " I am not sure that I like being loved for my 
 possibilities," she said. 
 
 Twilight found them at a remote Gasthaus high 
 among the mountains. Winifred sat on the ter- 
 race, idly watching the clouds trail their gray edges 
 over silent hills, while Dan went to make inquiries 
 as to their whereabouts. His words and tones 
 floated through her consciousness, and in this quiet 
 hour she could stand face to face with her soul, 
 and know, as in the depths of her being she always 
 knew, that he was right. 
 
 He loomed up before her suddenly, looking some- 
 what grim through the dusk. 
 
 " We must take a carriage back," he said. " And 
 while they are tackling you had better come in and 
 have something warm to drink. It will be cold, 
 driving." 
 
 In a dimly lighted room she sipped coffee, and 
 watched him play with a tiny crippled boy, who 
 seemed to belong to the inn. The child had pre- 
 ternaturally large eyes, grown grave through that 
 most pitifid of all things in the world, childish pain. 
 At first he was chary of accepting this very tall 
 stranger's advances ; but Dan's manner with chil- 
 dren was not to be resisted, and very soon he lifted 
 the frail little form from its chair, and the child 
 47
 
 THE TUEN OF THE EOAD 
 
 nestled confidingly into arms at once so gentle and 
 so strong. Before the time came to go, Dan had 
 brought a light to the wan face, and uncertain 
 childish laughter echoed through the room. 
 
 Winifred left her coffee half finished. 
 
 " What is it? " he asked, looking down into seri- 
 ous eyes while he fastened her cloak. 
 
 " You make me ashamed, Dan," she said very 
 low. 
 
 "Ashamed you?" 
 
 " Yes. I could not have spoken to, or touched 
 that child as you did. You teach tenderness to me 
 you, a man, and I am ashamed. How did you 
 learn it?" 
 
 " Through loving you." 
 
 For a moment they stood so in the dim room, 
 her eyes meeting and questioning his. Then they 
 went out into the night, and very silently drove 
 down through the cool, damp darkness. There was 
 a sound of running streams, and the air was pun- 
 gent with the odor of pine and balsam. The great 
 mountain loomed black against a sky brightened 
 by the rising moon, and over the still, dark world 
 mists trailed and lingered caressingly. 
 
 Winifred leaned back, her face turned to the 
 stars. In her eyes was something of awe and of 
 wonder. Dan bent once and put his coat about 
 48
 
 NEARING THE FIRST MILESTONE 
 
 her, and his silent action changed the mental at- 
 mosphere. The silence between them became elec- 
 tric with unuttered words. 
 
 " ' Ye have taught my lips one single speech, and 
 a thousand silences,' " he said to her at last. " I 
 know you best in your silent moments, Win." 
 
 She turned towards him, and her eyes met his. 
 
 " You are wondering if you will tell me that the 
 silences are all mine," he continued. "You need 
 n't ; for I know it." 
 
 Then for another time they drove under the re- 
 mote, solemn stars, without words passing between 
 them. 
 
 Before long the moon floated up from behind the 
 mountain, drowning the stars, and flooding the val- 
 ley with mystic light. The mists passed away from 
 the earth, and many lights twinkled from the village 
 beneath. 
 
 " We are almost there," said Win. 
 
 " We are almost there," he repeated. " And I 
 am going away to-morrow." 
 
 The driver was sleepy. He nodded on his seat, 
 and the horses jogged lazily through a silent village 
 street, and out into the open fields again. 
 
 " Win ! " His eyes, dark and stern, claimed 
 hers. " How many more times am I to come and 
 go, before you go with me ? " 
 49
 
 : THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Winifred moved restlessly. " I have never given 
 you the right to say I would some day go with you." 
 
 " I have taken the right." 
 
 She met his eyes bravely. 
 
 " I do not love you I do not know that I ever 
 shall." 
 
 " But I know. You may try the life you have 
 chosen, but you cannot starve your brain or silence 
 your heart forever. You will reap as you have 
 sown, but the harvest will be bitter, and then I 
 shall claim you by the right and might of my love." 
 His face, stern with passion, was close to hers. 
 " Winifred, Winifred, how long are you going to 
 keep me waiting ? " 
 
 Something moved within her as a sleeper moves 
 in his dream. His words and tones rang with con- 
 quering manhood. 
 
 " Win, I love you ! I love you ! I love you ! 
 Sooner or later you will leave all and come to me. 
 How long are you going to keep me waiting ? God 
 help me how I love you!" He took her into 
 his arms, and though she would have struggled 
 against the strange compelling power of his plead- 
 ing, she lay almost passive in his clasp. 
 
 " Dan, I can't I can't I am not ready 
 yet," she whispered. 
 
 50
 
 Chapter V 
 
 DAN'S PATH IS CHOSEN FOR HIM 
 
 irrOR several days after Dan's departure Wini- 
 JL fred was unusually silent. Edith shrewdly 
 suspected that he had been troublesome the night 
 of the drive, for Winifred had come in alone, look- 
 ing pale and shaken out of her habitually careless 
 gayety, and Dan had not appeared to say good-by 
 the next morning. It was several days before 
 Edith found courage to mention his name. 
 
 "Dan was looking older," she remarked one 
 morning, tentatively. 
 
 " That is nonsense," answered Winifred with 
 some sharpness. " He is only thirty-one." 
 
 " I only said he looked older not old. I sup- 
 pose you will allow that even I look older than 
 when I was eighteen." 
 
 " He looked tired. I think he is working too 
 hard," admitted Winifred. 
 
 Edith hesitated. " Did he ever say anything 
 about Mr. Garrison ? " she asked, with every ap- 
 pearance of indifference. 
 
 51
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 "I must write him not to work so hard," said 
 Winifred, ignoring her sister's remark. " He cer- 
 tainly has changed in some way. I noticed it at 
 once. The lines in his face have worn deeper; but 
 more with strength than with years, I think." 
 
 In the mean time, Dan was making the best of 
 the long journey to Paris. Sunk in the dark cor- 
 ner of a compartment, he thought of Winifred, her 
 vividness, her gallant, joyous bearing, and more 
 than all he thought of the hints of deep and per- 
 fect womanhood he caught now and then in her 
 eyes and voice. At Paris, he found a letter from 
 her, written the day after his departure. 
 
 " I lay awake nearly an hour last night, worry- 
 ing," she wrote. Dan smiled, remembering the 
 entire nights he had lain awake thinking of her. 
 " And this morning, I am more than ever troubled 
 for fear that you have taken false meaning from 
 my last words. You wrung them from me, for I 
 am not altogether a stone, and I don't believe the 
 woman lives whom you could not move. I was at 
 high pressure, almost breaking pressure, when I 
 spoke them. Under the stars it is easy to believe 
 in shadows. This morning, in broad, positive day- 
 light, I see myself as I am. It is no use, Dan. 
 Your love for me is the greatest honor in my life, 
 but I can't live up to it or satisfy it. You love me 
 52
 
 DAN'S PATH IS CHOSEN FOR HIM 
 
 partly for what is in yourself, partly for what I am 
 not. I can't change I don't wish to. I am 
 young, happy, successful. You tell me of myste- 
 ries beyond my horizon line. I do not believe in 
 them. You tell me the flood tide of a woman's 
 life reflects the lives of others, and I do not wish 
 to believe it. I want life ! life ! life ! for myself, 
 for myself, Dan. It is my hands that feel, my eyes 
 that see ; what do I know of others ? It is / that 
 enjoy, or suffer, or struggle, not somebody else. I 
 want all of life there is to be had, every drop and 
 dreg, and I want it for myself. Please understand, 
 once for all, Dan, I want it for myself. 
 
 " Don't think I am unkind to speak so strongly. 
 The kindest thing of all would be for me to stop 
 our friendship ; but I can't do it, partly because 
 you will not yield, partly because I am selfish, and 
 your friendship is the only one in the world that 
 means anything to me." 
 
 Dan buttoned this discouraging epistle under his 
 breast pocket, and smiled a smile of quiet mastery. 
 He did not answer her at length. 
 
 "Dear child, don't trouble yourself about it," 
 he wrote. " Your letter -makes me feel how young 
 you are, and I am sad when I think of what must 
 come to you before your plucky spirit will bend. 
 "We are all tried by flood and fire sooner or later, and 
 53
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 the misfortune is generally fitted to the size of the 
 soul that knows it." 
 
 During the voyage home Dan thought constantly 
 of how young she was, how much younger than 
 himself, though there were only seven years be- 
 tween them. He wondered, and then laughed at 
 himself for wondering, if an odd tired feeling in 
 his head and eyes meant that he was growing old, 
 or was only overworked. Certainly he found the 
 quiet of an Atlantic voyage infinitely refreshing, 
 and went back to Garrison and his winter quarters 
 in good spirits. 
 
 The first evening was cold, and both men sat 
 smoking over a wood fire. They talked with a cer- 
 tain indifference of their vacations, which had been 
 spent in different parts of Europe. 
 
 " Did you finally get to the Tyrol? " asked Wal- 
 ter. 
 
 His friend glanced at him keenly. " Yes. Why 
 would n't you go with me ? " 
 
 Walter leaned over and knocked the ashes out 
 of his pipe. Some moments elapsed before he said 
 very slowly : 
 
 " It seemed best not this time." 
 
 " I wondered if that were the reason." 
 
 " That was the reason," he answered quietly. 
 
 For a little while the two men smoked in silence. 
 54
 
 DAN'S PATH IS CHOSEN FOR HIM 
 
 They understood one another, and being men, 
 words were superfluous. Dan spoke first. 
 
 " I suppose it is largely a question of money ? " 
 
 " It must be entirely a question of money before 
 it can be a question of her." 
 
 Again it did not seem necessary for Dan to say 
 that he agreed with him. 
 
 " How much are you making now ? " he asked. 
 
 " A bare eight hundred." 
 
 After another pause Dan rose with a short 
 laugh. " Providence needs guiding," he said. " I 
 make more than I can spend, and have no use 
 for it." 
 
 With the beginning of winter Walter Garrison 
 went back to his business and plodded on doggedly 
 after his usual fashion. He watched with an ach- 
 ing heart for advancement which never came. 
 
 Dan's season began brilliantly. He was grow- 
 ing to be feared by some, admired by many, loved 
 by a few. In no case was he ignored. Resolutely 
 and confidently did he walk the road he had chosen. 
 With unflinching eyes did he look into the years 
 to come, audaciously challenging their power to 
 give him other than what he wished. He feared 
 nothing, believing that a man holds his success in 
 the hollow of his hand, and having conquered so 
 much, it was easy to believe that the woman with- 
 55
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 out whom all else must be as nothing would some 
 day be his also. 
 
 It was almost imperceptibly that he first came 
 to a consciousness of unusual effort in his work. 
 Night hours especially were exhausting to his eyes 
 and brain. 
 
 " Am I ill, or growing old ? " he asked himself 
 indignantly. 
 
 One night, Walter came in from the theatre 
 about eleven, to find the light out in the study and 
 Dan smoking by the fire. 
 
 " What on earth are you loafing for ? " he asked 
 him, turning up the gas. 
 
 Dan rose impatiently. " I can't seem to manage 
 night hours," he said. " There 's something wrong 
 with my head. I think it 's neuralgia." 
 
 " Perhaps it 's astigmatism," suggested Garrison. 
 " Why not consult an oculist ? " 
 
 " Bah ! There 's nothing wrong with my eyes, 
 and I don't like oculists. My uncle went blind 
 when I was a boy and drowned himself in a mill- 
 pond. I used to think the oculist had something 
 to do with it, and the memory of the man's face 
 frightened me more than tales of ghosts carrying 
 their heads in their hands." 
 
 " You don't look overworked," said Garrison, 
 reverting to the original point. 
 56
 
 DAN'S PATH IS CHOSEN FOR HIM 
 
 " I am not overworked. I never felt better in 
 my life." 
 
 " Sometimes a pair of glasses is all one needs 
 for pain in the head," he persisted quietly. 
 
 "Glasses!" Dan laughed contemptuously. "No, 
 there 's nothing wrong ; if I am not all right soon 
 I '11 get a prescription for neuralgia." 
 
 For awhile Walter heard no more of the matter. 
 He noticed that Dan had a worn look unusual to 
 him, and that his temper was increasingly short, 
 but he made no further allusion to his trouble, 
 knowing that what Dan chose to say he would say 
 without being questioned. 
 
 The evening work went on as before, till one 
 night when Walter was disturbed by a constant 
 tramp of heavy footsteps in the study. 
 
 " What the devil are you up to ? " he called 
 sleepily. 
 
 " I am up to nothing," answered Dan's voice 
 with uncalled-for gruffness. 
 
 " Then keep quiet ; other people want to sleep if 
 you don't." 
 
 After that he remembered nothing till he met 
 Howard in the morning. 
 
 " What in the name of reason were you doing 
 last night ? " he asked. 
 
 " I could n't sleep," answered Dan ; " there was 
 57
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 a hideous pain in my head which had to be walked 
 into submission." 
 
 Walter looked at him narrowly and saw that he 
 did not look right. 
 
 " How long has this been going on ? " he asked. 
 
 " A lifetime, it seems. It began last winter." 
 
 " Better go to the doctor." 
 
 " I mean to. What are Randolph's hours ? " 
 
 " From two to four, I think. So it is to be an 
 oculist after all ? " 
 
 " Yes ; the trouble is with my eyes. I 've known 
 that all along." 
 
 After breakfast he felt sufficiently fortified to 
 laugh at pains and doctors. 
 
 " Meet me at the club for luncheon. I don't be- 
 lieve I '11 go to the doctor after all," he called to 
 Walter, and went his way down town, walking 
 vigorously through the cold. 
 
 Walter watched his friend tramping down the 
 hill. " What a splendid specimen of manhood he 
 is ! " he thought ; " all the same I don't like his 
 looks." 
 
 During the morning Dan looked in at Garrison's 
 office. 
 
 " Don't expect me for luncheon. I am going to 
 Randolph's and may be kept hours." 
 
 " Got the jumps again ? " queried Walter. 
 58
 
 DAN'S PATH IS CHOSEN FOR HIM 
 
 Dan nodded and disappeared. 
 
 Walter got home early. He had been haunted 
 by the possibility of Dan's being obliged to knock 
 off work. " He won't take easily to limitations," 
 he thought, as he opened the study door. It was 
 not too dark to see that Dan sat alone, without the 
 comfort of pipe or fire. 
 
 "Well, what's the verdict?" Walter asked 
 with an attempt at cheer which felt oddly unnat- 
 ural. " You don't look festive ; let 's have a light." 
 
 Dan winced as the gas flared up. 
 
 " You damn fool, can't you see you 're putting 
 my eyes out? " he cried savagely. 
 
 Walter paused in amazement, the lighted match 
 still in his hand. He saw that Dan's face was gray 
 and running with perspiration. " For God's sake, 
 man, what 's the matter ? " he asked. 
 
 " I am going blind," said Dan. 
 
 "Blind you" Walter repeated the words 
 dully. He had a sense of being confronted with 
 something his imagination could not grasp. 
 
 Dan rose heavily and with a shaking hand poured 
 himself out a glass of whiskey. " I 've taken enough 
 of this stuff to give me D. T.'s," he said, " but I 
 can't even get confused." 
 
 " I guess you 've had all you want now," said 
 Walter, removing a nearly empty bottle to the side- 
 59
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 board. Then he felt the need of sitting down. 
 He looked at Dan, and Dan stared back at him 
 with haggard eyes in which there was deadly fear. 
 
 " You say you are going to be blind ? " 
 
 Dan nodded. " That 's it. My sight may not 
 hold out through the year. What do you think of 
 it ? " he asked grimly. 
 
 Walter dropped his head in his hands. 
 
 " My God ! " he said. 
 
 "Yes, I know. I 've been doing that all the after- 
 noon, and it 's no use." Dan kicked a chair out 
 of the way and began pacing the room. " It 's 
 hell, thunder, fire, and all the devils," he went on, 
 " but there 's no escape." 
 
 " Did n't the doctor give hope? " 
 
 " None. I was a doomed man six months ago. 
 It's my uncle's trouble, and I thought I could 
 choose my own life ! The Fates must find a 
 good deal to laugh at, if they have any sense of 
 humor." 
 
 Walter did not answer. As yet he loved no 
 woman as he loved Dan Howard. There was a 
 silence, and then Dan stood above him laughing. 
 
 " You look as if you were going blind yourself, 
 old boy," he said. "Come, buck up. I'll be a 
 man till the light goes, and then you can make it 
 all right by giving me a knock on the head." 
 60
 
 DAN'S PATH IS CHOSEN FOK HIM 
 
 "Stop talking that rot," said Walter, as he forced 
 Dan into a chair. "And don't take any more whis- 
 key we need clear heads." 
 
 Dan tried to square his shoulders. " I am not 
 going to funk, Wally. I shall come round in a 
 day or so ; only when a man has received a blow 
 between the eyes he can't see straight right off. 
 You'll allow that to be left in the dark is not 
 cheering." 
 
 He spoke with laboring breath, and drops of 
 perspiration stood on his forehead. 
 
 " I am no coward," he said, " but to be blind 
 not to know noon from midnight to become ab- 
 ject, helpless, pitiable to be blind My God 
 I am afraid." 
 
 61
 
 Chapter YI 
 
 REALIZATION 
 
 IF there is help in the mind of any man, in the 
 wisdom of the ages, or in the earth or in the 
 heavens, I am going to find it," said Dan a few 
 days later. He spoke in a voice that grated, and 
 the lines in his face were deep and harsh. Walter 
 stood opposite. 
 
 " The greatest oculist in the world does n't 
 practice any more," he said with dreary hopeless- 
 ness. 
 
 " Where is he ? " asked Dan. 
 
 " San Francisco." 
 
 Dan consulted a time-table." 
 
 " I can leave to-morrow morning." 
 
 " But he won't see you." 
 
 " Can you get me his address ? " 
 
 " Randolph has it. But what 's the use ? He 
 won't see you," Walter persisted, with dull ob- 
 stinacy. 
 
 " If you say that again I '11 throw you out of the 
 window. He will have to see me."
 
 REALIZATION 
 
 A valise was packed in feverish haste while 
 Walter looked on. 
 
 " What are you loafing round here for ? " Dan 
 inquired at last, exasperated by his friend's inar- 
 ticulate sympathy. 
 
 " There is nothing going on at the office." 
 
 " I don't believe it." Dan was wrestling with 
 shirtstuds and an over-stiff collar. 
 
 " I know I am not much good," said Walter, 
 " but you can use me to blow off steam on." 
 
 If Dan was touched he did not show it. 
 
 " I could n't read the quotations of the stock 
 exchange this morning," he remarked a little later, 
 and then paused with lowering brows. " The 
 doctor won't fix a time limit," he continued. " It 
 may come soon." 
 
 " Don't you want me to go with you ? " Walter 
 asked eagerly. 
 
 " Thank you, I don't need a keeper yet." Dan 
 looked at his friend with ill-concealed ferocity. 
 " Damn it all, Walter, what do you mean by that ? 
 Do you expect me to go blind on the journey ? " 
 
 " No, but you just said " 
 
 " Never mind what I said, and keep your con- 
 founded croaking to yourself." Dan sat down for 
 a moment, and wiped his forehead with an un- 
 steady hand. Then out of a drawer he took a 
 63
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 heavy pistol and balanced it in his hand. " If one 
 were a coward, how simple the way out of the fight 
 would be! " he observed. 
 
 " But you are not a coward." 
 
 "It would be interesting to find out." He 
 moved toward his valise. 
 
 " You are not going to take it with you ! " 
 
 " Your voice is anxious, Wally ; that settles it ; 
 the pistol goes." 
 
 Walter's long-suffering patience gave way. 
 
 "Are you a child, to indulge in such bravado ? " 
 he cried. " Give that infernal thing to me." 
 
 " Take your hand away or it will go hard with 
 you." There was a moment's struggle, while the 
 men breathed heavily ; then Dan stowed the pistol 
 away in his bag. 
 
 "The bravado amuses me," he said quietly. 
 " It 's not my fault if your sense of humor is 
 defective." 
 
 A few minutes before the Chicago express left 
 the city, Walter hurried through the car in search 
 of Dan. "I have just met Randolph," he ex- 
 plained. " He did n't approve of your going west 
 said the journey would be bad, and told me 
 you must n't read a word or look out of the win- 
 dow overmuch, and guard, above all, against glare 
 64
 
 KEALIZATION 
 
 from the snow. He suggested a dark corner of 
 the car, or blue glasses." 
 
 Dan laughed shortly. " Are we men, or slaves ? " 
 he said. " And how am I to get the glasses at 
 this hour?" 
 
 "I had time to buy them as I came along." 
 Walter handed over his purchase, which Dan sur- 
 veyed with a twisted smile. 
 
 " I don't like their looks," he said, " but it was 
 good of you to get them, Wally. I have been a 
 brute these last days, but Well, the fight is 
 about as hot as I can stand it." 
 
 " I know it, old man. Trample on me all you 
 want, if it relieves you. God knows I would " 
 The sentence was finished by a silent hand grip. 
 "But I should be happier if you hadn't taken 
 the pistol," he added. 
 
 "You will find it on the smoking-table when 
 you get home," said Dan. " I left it as a legacy 
 in case I got smashed up. You blessed old idiot, 
 what did you think I was taking it for ? " 
 
 " To torment me, I suppose." 
 
 " Exactly ; but you looked so superlatively mis- 
 erable about it that I had n't the heart only I 
 am sorry you thought I was going to funk." 
 
 The journey seemed to Dan a desperate run for 
 the light, a race in which every hour increased the 
 65
 
 THE TUKN OF THE KOAD 
 
 chance of loss. In the darkness and solitude of a 
 private room he sat with his head in his hands 
 trying to think clearly. But visions of Winifred's 
 face confused him, and from the dread and horror 
 of his probable future there was no escape. After 
 a night in which broken sleep brought no f orget- 
 f ulness, it came to him that the dark was no longer 
 bearable, and as he must undoubtedly go blind in 
 spite of the San Francisco doctor, it would be well 
 to see while he might. So he pushed up the cur- 
 tain and took cognizance of men and things. To 
 his tortured consciousness the world assumed the 
 qualities of nightmare. Chicago seemed a mighty 
 and a hideous city, where an eager life roared in 
 canon-like depths, and huge buildings loomed dark 
 and ominous against the sky. The train, shrieking, 
 quivering, panting as if goaded by intolerable fear, 
 rushed from the cavernous station into the mo- 
 notony of farms and grainfields. Then came more 
 thoughts of Winifred, more visions of the future. 
 The miles were hemispheres, the hours years. As- 
 suredly the doctor would die before he could be 
 reached, and every moment brought increasing 
 certainty of blindness. He tried to imagine how 
 it would be, and when the realization assumed a 
 certain degree of distinctness, the perspiration 
 66
 
 REALIZATION 
 
 would break out on him and his hands shake like 
 a woman's. 
 
 The next day the Missouri River was passed, 
 but the Pacific coast seemed as distant as ever. 
 Now he was in the prairies, and with breathless 
 haste the train sped onward through a level, color- 
 less world, where there was neither wind nor sun, 
 nor tree nor stream, where life was hushed and 
 strife was futile, and anguish would be lost. At 
 intervals of a hundred miles or so, some houses 
 huddled together in fear of the loneliness. 
 
 All that afternoon Dan thought of Winifred 
 and what might have been. 
 
 After dark the cold became intense, and through 
 wind and snow and fitful moonlight, two gasping, 
 struggling engines drew the train up the Rocky 
 Mountains. Dan slept brokenly, oppressed by a 
 sense of gigantic effort in his progress, which de- 
 creased chances of salvation. But assuredly Wini- 
 fred would come before the end. At last he felt 
 her hand, and heard her voice saying, "Never mind 
 the dark, Dan, I shall always be here." 
 
 The morning light showed him the summit of 
 
 the Rockies, a strange, desolate spot, without 
 
 grandeur or beauty, where huge rocks, hideous, 
 
 naked, distorted, loomed against the sky. Dan 
 
 67
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 looked with hatred and dread in his heart. Then 
 came the land of the sage-brush, the desert, a spot 
 forsaken by God and man ; a gaunt, scarred, deso- 
 late world, arid and parched ; a dead world, with- 
 out shadow, or voice, or breath. In these brown, 
 echoless distances, in this huge desolation, Dan 
 felt the numbness of despair. The day was an 
 eternity, the horizons slipped away like grains of 
 sand in an hourglass, and nothing mattered much 
 save the quantity of sage-brush. The thought of 
 their millions made him giddy ; he felt there could 
 be no escape from them, they would be before his 
 eyes long after the sight of men's faces had gone 
 forever. If Winifred were here, but Winifred 
 must go with the light. The voice of a man out- 
 side his door complaining of hunger brought him 
 to the realization that his fancies were those of a 
 diseased brain. As no dream could be worse than 
 his reality, so madness might be a relief ; but his 
 soul sent up a passionate prayer that he might 
 never know such relief, whatever his sufferings, or 
 however many his years. 
 
 The next morning he remembered with a sense 
 of wonder that this was the last day of his jour- 
 ney, and courage, if not hope, returned. The 
 desert lay behind ; his way was upwards through 
 the Sierra Nevada, where there was luxuriant 
 68
 
 REALIZATION 
 
 nature and dazzling beauty. There were shouting 
 mountain torrents, regal snow - burdened ever- 
 greens ; over all was a cloudless sky, and in all, 
 vigor and joy. During a pause in the ascent he 
 stood alone beside his car. In front of him a val- 
 ley led the eye away to a distance of more moun- 
 tains, more snow and pines. It seemed eternal ; a 
 beautiful, triumphant world, dazzling and virginal 
 as on the first day of its creation. Then Dan 
 wondered what man had done to deserve so glori- 
 ous a heritage, and drew in breaths that were deep 
 and strong with the pride of being. Surely failure 
 was but a word, and darkness a dream. Then he 
 swayed suddenly, caught by swift, intolerable pain, 
 and gray fog rolled between him and the bright- 
 ness. The mountains were no more, and the car 
 was a dark indistinct mass. With difficulty he 
 made his way to it, and by a fortunate chance 
 stumbled into his own compartment ; his face was 
 gray with dread, and his hands shook, but he sat 
 down very quietly to wait. 
 
 " When is this fog going to lift ? " he said. 
 " Perhaps it won't lift. My God ! I wish Wally 
 were here." 
 
 After a while daylight came back to him, and a 
 tolerable clearness of vision ; but he kept the cur- 
 tain drawn, and looked no more on the snow. In
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 future the bright worlds, the worlds of triumph 
 and freedom, were not for him. 
 
 The final arrival in San Francisco was not till 
 late that night, and the next morning a cab 
 dropped him at the door of the great specialist, 
 Dr. Davage. As was to have been expected, the 
 servant refused him admittance. " The doctor 
 never receives strangers," the man told him, and 
 was about to shut the door. Dan presented his 
 card and a letter of introduction, receiving in 
 return an assurance that they would be delivered 
 in the course of the day, but that at present the 
 doctor was having his morning smoke on the back 
 piazza, where disturbing him would be out of the 
 question. Dan considered a moment before the 
 closed door. 
 
 " I don't see very well, but I think I can trust 
 myself to find the back piazza," he told himself. 
 
 Dr. Davage sat alone, enjoying a pipe, a good 
 digestion, and the view. His eye swept beyond 
 the carefully kept garden, over the housetops to 
 the gleaming waters of the bay, and the mountains 
 beyond. He had a lazy sense of vast ownership, 
 and knew a distinct satisfaction that no one was 
 present to share his delights. Suddenly his privacy 
 was broken by a footfall on the gravel, and a 
 figure came between himself and the sun. 
 70
 
 EEALIZATION 
 
 " What the devil " he began, and then paused 
 in amazement, as a man, gaunt-featured and hag- 
 gard-eyed, stumbled up the steps. 
 
 "You are Dr. Davage?" said this man in the 
 voice of an autocrat. 
 
 " The same. May I inquire the cause of this 
 er" 
 
 "I am losing my eyesight; I am half blind 
 already, and I have come to see if you can save 
 me." 
 
 "Ah. I shall dismiss my servant to-morrow. 
 How is it he allowed you to " 
 
 " He did not allow me ; I came. When can you 
 give me an appointment ? " 
 
 " Not so fast, my friend. I see that you are a 
 gentleman, and as such you must be aware of hav- 
 ing taken an unwarrantable liberty." 
 
 "Just now I have no time to be a gentle- 
 man." 
 
 " Ah," said the doctor again. " Won't you sit 
 down, Mr." 
 
 "Howard." 
 
 " The name is familiar. I have met you before." 
 
 " The fact is immaterial. Will you see me to- 
 day?" 
 
 The doctor knocked the ashes from his pipe. 
 " I practice no longer," he said. 
 71
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " I ask you to make an exception in my favor. 
 You may name your price." 
 
 " My dear sir," a movement of the hands sug- 
 gested superiority to dollars and cents, " pray 
 spare me the pain of repeated denial. I remem- 
 ber now where I have seen you, and you should 
 have good reason to remember my face. You were 
 the opposing counsel in the case of Hoyt versus 
 Davage, and you won by a rather clever argu- 
 ment, I remember. As a result I was some thou- 
 sands out of pocket. I suppose you had forgotten 
 this little circumstance when you came to me to- 
 day." 
 
 " I had forgotten, but recollection would not 
 have prevented my coming." 
 
 " Ah, this becomes interesting. I wonder what 
 blindness will make of you." 
 
 " You will see me, doctor ? " 
 
 " Certainly not." Simultaneously the men rose 
 and faced each other. The doctor was quiet and 
 cool. Dan breathed heavily. He realized that 
 in this man of whims he had met a will equal to 
 his own. 
 
 To himself the doctor said, " I like his damned 
 audacity." Aloud he added, " Rest is a question of 
 life and death to me." 
 
 " Sight is a question of more than life or death 
 72
 
 EEALIZATION 
 
 to me. You can't condemn a man to blindness for 
 the sake of a whim." 
 
 " I wish you a very good morning, Mr. Howard." 
 
 Then Dan's pride gave way. 
 
 " I see less every day," he said hoarsely. " For 
 God's sake, give me a chance." 
 
 Doctor Davage smiled, and Dan turned away 
 heavily. 
 
 " Stop one moment," said Davage. " When a 
 man like you takes to begging, he must be listened 
 to. Come into the house, and I will see what can 
 be done for you." 
 
 Without a word, Dan turned and followed him, 
 wondering if awakening pity rather than use of 
 power was to be his weapon of the future, as it had 
 been of to-day. 
 
 " Sit down there no, with your back to the 
 light ; the glare annoys you, I see. You will have 
 to wait while I prepare my apparatus, which is not 
 on tap for every one." 
 
 There was only kindness in the doctor's voice 
 now. He talked briskly while polishing a reflect- 
 ing mirror. 
 
 " I am not entirely a brute," he continued, " but 
 
 I have as many whims as a schoolgirl, and it 
 
 amuses me to startle people by showing them off ; 
 
 when a man forces me to meet him under the crust 
 
 73
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 as you have done, I like him. I like you, and hope 
 to be able to save those eyes. Have you confidence 
 in me?" 
 
 Dan smiled wearily. " I have no especial respect 
 for whims," he said, " but there must be something 
 big about you or you could not have stood against 
 my will as you did." 
 
 "Ah! " The doctor looked up with a twinkle in 
 his eyes. " The arrogance of expecting me to do 
 anything for you after you had made me pay those 
 thousands. Oh, I owed them I owed them, all 
 right. I hope you realize that I did not yield un- 
 der your will to-day." 
 
 " No ; you were sorry for me." 
 
 " Well, well I might have spared your pride 
 that admission ; but I owed it to my vanity." 
 Then with a complete change of countenance, " I 
 am ready for you now, Mr. Howard ; sit here, if 
 you please." 
 
 The little man suddenly became a great special- 
 ist. He surveyed his patient with a settling of 
 brow and lip that changed his face oddly. 
 
 " Now then what 's your trouble ? " 
 
 Dan told him, and there was a moment's pause. 
 
 " That is bad," said the doctor slowly. " The 
 end of such a trouble is usually a foregone conclu- 
 sion. We shall see. Your pulse is not steady." 
 74
 
 KEALIZATION 
 
 " I should like to have the examination over as 
 soon as possible, if you please." 
 
 " Move forward so." 
 
 Under the rays of the reflector, Dan was dazzled 
 and tortured almost to unconsciousness. There 
 was a pause, and then 
 
 " The case is entirely hopeless," said the doctor. 
 
 Dan sat silent, with bowed head. He did not 
 speak at once. 
 
 " There are certain things I want to do," he said 
 at last. " How long a time do you give me ? " 
 
 " With reasonable precautions you are safe for 
 several months yet." 
 
 " There will be time to see Win again," he 
 thought. Aloud he continued, " I see badly to-day 
 after a strain I had yesterday, above the snow-line 
 of the Sierra. Can you tell me if the results are 
 likely to be permanent? Shall I be better be- 
 fore "- 
 
 " Before you are worse ? yes, I should think it 
 probable." 
 
 " Thank you ; I will go now. You have been 
 very good. For how much am I in your debt ? " 
 
 " You owe me a few thousands or so ; but not 
 for this occasion. I no longer practice profession- 
 ally. This is a positive rule. You must submit to 
 taking my advice as a gift, Mr. Howard." 
 75
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 The point seemed to Dan unworthy of consider- 
 ation. He rose and walked unsteadily toward the 
 door. 
 
 The doctor was quiet and grave. " I should be 
 glad to have you stay longer," he said. " Do you 
 feel equal to the glare yet ? " 
 
 Dan winced at the sunlight. " I think it will be 
 all right," he said. " I must go. There are things 
 to do." 
 
 Win was to be seen, of course, and there were 
 certain business matters he alone could wind up. 
 His mind was painfully clear. For a moment he 
 paused on the veranda steps, realizing that the 
 world was good to look upon. 
 
 Dr. Davage saw and understood. "You care 
 especially for this sort of thing ? " he asked. 
 
 " One might give it up, if that were all." 
 
 Davage nodded. " I know ; it is the putting 
 out of hands for help to women and children." 
 
 A spasm crossed Dan's lips. 
 
 "Why submit to it?" asked the doctor. 
 " There 's a way out." 
 
 " It 's too much like turning a back to the 
 enemy." 
 
 " Nonsense ! It is merely a question of choice. 
 You take the easy road instead of the difficult. 
 What will life hold for you? I should not think 
 76
 
 KEALIZATION 
 
 you were the man to submit to the insolence of a 
 fate that never asks permission." 
 
 " I shall put it through somehow," answered 
 Dan. 
 
 Davage held out his hand. " I like you, How- 
 ard," he said. " I knew your father ; he was a good 
 fighter ; but you are a bigger man than he. If you 
 will allow me to say so, 1 am sorry for you. I 
 shall hope to see you again." 
 
 " I suppose I cannot hope for the same pleasure," 
 said Dan with a faint smile. 
 
 " I fear not. I shall hardly go east before a year 
 or two, and by that time you can scarcely ex- 
 pect " 
 
 " I suppose not. Good-morning, doctor." 
 
 On the journey home there were no more weak- 
 minded fancies about dead worlds and an eternity 
 of sage-brush. Behind closely drawn curtains Dan 
 sat weighing the future with a pitilessly clear brain, 
 that spared him the knowledge of no single bitter- 
 
 77
 
 Chapter YII 
 
 ACCEPTANCE 
 
 WALTER sat alone, with an account of the 
 stock market lying untouched on his 
 knees. The drop in sugar, the depression in rail- 
 way bonds, and the tightness of money were ephem- 
 eral matters, unworthy of consideration. Dan 
 might, and probably would, go blind. Beyond 
 this fact Walter's mind refused to go. Hour by 
 hour the realization of all blindness would mean 
 deepened in his consciousness, and the horror and 
 pity of it grew upon him. Suddenly Dan stood in 
 the doorway. 
 
 Neither of the men spoke. Walter's eyes 
 questioned hungrily, and Dan's face answered. 
 On the table lay a large pile of unopened letters, 
 with a bulky envelope addressed in Winifred's 
 handwriting lying conspicuously near the top. 
 He put this in his pocket, and tossed the others 
 aside. 
 
 "I can't waste my eyes on those things," he 
 said, and flung himself wearily into a chair. 
 78
 
 ACCEPTANCE 
 
 Walter broke the silence. "You saw the 
 doctor ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Dan stared into gathering shadows. 
 
 " There 's no hope," he continued. " Life is a 
 lost game for me." 
 
 " How soon ? " Walter's lips were dry. 
 
 " A breathing space." 
 
 "A year?" 
 
 " A few months. Oblige me by not looking at 
 me that way again while I can see you." 
 
 He spoke with subdued ferocity ; for in Walter's 
 eyes he could take the measure of his own future. 
 
 There was a pause, and then Walter rose to 
 shade the lamp which shone in Dan's eyes. The 
 latter looked up. 
 
 "Thank you, Wally," he said. 
 
 " What are you going to do? " asked Walter. 
 
 " I am going to Europe, and then I am going 
 blind, and then after a century or so, I am going 
 to die." 
 
 " And during the * century or so ' ? " 
 
 " I shall keep up my profession. I suppose that 
 is what you want to know." 
 
 "It can be done?" 
 
 " It must be done. I shall get a secretary, pay 
 him extra for being sworn at, and work him like a 
 79
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 dog. It 's either work or something worse than 
 madness or death." 
 
 " You say you are going to Europe ?" 
 
 "There 's a famous specialist in Paris," Dan 
 said briefly. Then he rose and stood with his back 
 to the fire. " There 's another point," he began. 
 " When my eyes go, you must move out find 
 lodgings for yourself." 
 
 " Can you give me any reason why I should ? " 
 
 " Certainly. I don't choose to have you bother- 
 ing about me while you might be at work, or with 
 the fellows." 
 
 " That 's rot I am not going," said Walter. 
 
 " If you don't, I shall, and I would rather live 
 on here, because I know the place and could find 
 things in the dark." 
 
 " I am not going," repeated Walter obstinately. 
 " Nor are you. You and I have always been " 
 He paused. 
 
 " Yes, I know all that, and I know you, and so 
 we '11 part company, please. My darkness is my 
 own. I don't want any one to share it." 
 
 Walter puffed at his pipe, and settled himself 
 more deeply in the armchair. 
 
 " How do you expect to get rid of me ? " he 
 asked. " I am wondering how I should get rid of 
 you in a like circumstance." 
 80
 
 ACCEPTANCE 
 
 " I would go to the other end of the world to 
 escape from a man who could n't see to find his 
 collar button. However, your consent doesn't 
 matter. If you can't go with it, you must go with- 
 out it." 
 
 That night he read Winifred's letter. She wrote 
 jubilantly of her final engagement to sing in the 
 Paris Opera House, and filled pages with accounts 
 of her hopes and fears. Dan read with pain and 
 some difficulty. He must tell her to write with 
 darker ink and on less transparent paper, and 
 then he laid his head down on the letter with an 
 inarticulate moan. It was doubtful if he ever 
 read more of her writing ; doubtful also if he could 
 see her face by the time he arrived in Paris. 
 
 During the next few days a secretary was chosen 
 on trial. 
 
 "He hasn't the eyes and lips that blab, and 
 he 's clever," Dan decided after a few days' work 
 with a slight, pale boy. " Poor little devil, he has 
 a threadbare coat, and looks hungry." 
 
 Gazing down at the very small secretary, he felt 
 a strong disinclination to confess his own coming 
 weakness. 
 
 " Stirling, how would you like to enter my office 
 and stay there subject to advancement ? " he asked 
 one evening, suddenly. 
 
 81
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Stirling looked up at the prominent lawyer. 
 
 " Your office, sir ? " he said, a hungry eagerness 
 in his usually quiet eyes. 
 
 " That 's what I said." 
 
 There were awe, admiration, and reverence in 
 Stirling's face. Dan saw this, and swallowed 
 hard. 
 
 " The fact is," he said, bracing his broad shoul- 
 ders, " the fact is I 'm losing my eyesight. I don't 
 expect it to last me through the year. I should 
 wish you to be eyes for me. It will be dog's work, 
 and I can't afford to consider your strength. If 
 you can't do the work, some one else can. I 
 shall require something else besides law work. 
 You would have to take me down town and back 
 every day, besides being constantly with me. Do 
 you know anything about blind people ? " 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 " No more do I, but we can both learn. How 
 will it be about vacations ? Shall you be wanting 
 leave every few months ? Because I can't spare 
 you." 
 
 " I think that will be all right." 
 
 " You hesitate what is it ? Family? or sweet- 
 heart?" 
 
 " I have a mother," answered Stirling. 
 
 " Is she old, or ill?" 
 
 82
 
 ACCEPTANCE 
 
 " She is both." 
 
 " Ah, that is bad. Where is she ? " 
 
 " In New York State." 
 
 " I see, and you will want to be with her con- 
 stantly. Then I am afraid we can't arrange it." 
 
 " I don't think she or I will be unreasonable." 
 Stirling spoke eagerly. " I want to work with 
 you," he added. 
 
 Dan considered. " You can't desert a mother," 
 he said. " I never had one myself, but I always 
 thought they must be more or less desirable arti- 
 cles." 
 
 Stirling looked up quickly, whereat Dan smiled. 
 " He lacks humor," he thought, " and is shocked at 
 my calling a mother a desirable article ; but he is 
 not afraid to show it, so I like him." 
 
 " Could n't you bring your mother here, or near 
 here ? " he suggested. 
 
 "That would depend on my salary," said the 
 boy frankly. 
 
 " Of course. Considering the peculiar circum- 
 stances, I mean personal attendance and the 
 rest of it, I will give you twenty-five hundred a 
 year. You must be extravagant if you can't sup-- 
 port yourself, and bring your mother wherever you 
 like, on that. Are you an only son ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; but I have a sister." 
 83
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Then you don't need to go away often. Think 
 it over, and let me know." 
 
 "I don't require to think it over, sir. I can 
 say now that I shall be glad, I shall be proud, to 
 take the situation." 
 
 With immense pity in his eyes the little sec- 
 retary looked up at the big man. Dan winced, 
 and felt a sudden desire to strangle some one. 
 
 After a short pause he spoke again. "All 
 right," he said. " Only don't expect to have an 
 easy time, for I shall work you like a dog ; nor a 
 good time, for I don't expect to be especially cheer- 
 ful at first." 
 
 "I fear neither the one nor the other," said 
 Stirling. 
 
 " That 's right, and spoken like a man. I think 
 we shall rub along all right. I am not often wrong 
 in reading faces. Of course our agreement is a 
 secret until it can't be a secret any longer." 
 
 " What an ass I am to stick at the word ! " Dan 
 added to himself. 
 
 Stirling hesitated, with his hand on the door 
 knob. 
 
 " Can you tell me how long it will be before " 
 
 " Before I go blind?" finished Dan, swallowing 
 hard. " It will be some time within the year. 
 What is that to you?" 
 
 84
 
 ACCEPTANCE 
 
 " I asked because I had better go to my mother 
 and make arrangements for moving her before you 
 absolutely need me." 
 
 " I foresee the mother is to be a bone of conten- 
 tion. You can go next week while I am in Europe, 
 and stay till I come back. If I get into trouble 
 while I am away, I shall cable you to meet me at 
 the steamer on her arrival in Boston. What is 
 it now? " For Stirling still lingered. 
 
 " I wish " he began hesitatingly, " I wish I 
 could say or do something to express " 
 
 " Yes, yes, I understand all that," interrupted 
 Dan hastily. " Never mind. You had better go 
 now." 
 
 After the door had closed, Dan remained stand- 
 ing. 
 
 "The boy is a sensitive little animal," he re- 
 flected. " It 's a pity he has no humor, but other- 
 wise he is clever enough, and I only want his eyes. 
 He is the kind to die for his principles ; people 
 without humor usually are, and his heart is all 
 right. I could tell that by the way he looked at 
 me." Dan set his teeth. " Fancy a little beggar 
 like that looking at me so." 
 
 During the few days that passed before the sail- 
 ing of his steamer, Dan marshaled the forces of his 
 soul and fought a good fight. He was a man of 
 85
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 arrogant power, who faced a life of pitiable depend- 
 ence, and would not run away ; but such battles are 
 not waged for nothing, and in his face something 
 of the barbaric strength and savagery of elemental 
 man were showing through the veneer of civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 On the day of his final conversation with Stir- 
 ling he walked alone on one of the great bridges 
 north of the city. He walked slowly, with massive 
 brows lowered over sombre, brooding eyes, and 
 suddenly he met Kate Randolph. 
 
 She was holding out her hand, and reluctantly 
 he brought his eyes and thoughts down to her. 
 
 Under the toque of gray fur and violets, Kate's 
 upturned face looked pale and tense. 
 
 " Dan, what did the doctor in San Francisco 
 say ? " she asked him. 
 
 He bent his brows angrily. " What do you 
 mean, Kate ? " 
 
 " I know all about it." She drew in her breath 
 quickly. " Don't look at me so, Dan. Papa did n't 
 tell but" 
 
 "Goon!" 
 
 " It was n't papa's fault " she spoke in a hard 
 
 voice. " I saw you come out of his office you 
 
 did n't notice me and your face made me afraid, 
 
 so I asked papa if anything was wrong; he 
 
 86
 
 ACCEPTANCE 
 
 would n't tell me. The next day you came again, 
 and I crept downstairs and listened, Dan. I knelt 
 by the keyhole for half an hour and I heard 
 every word." 
 
 He looked at her in silence, and she saw that his 
 contempt was greater than his anger. 
 
 " I had to do it, Dan," she said. " I had to do 
 it. What did the San Francisco doctor say ? " 
 
 He turned on his heel with a short laugh. He 
 had wished to meet the world of men on equal 
 terms as long as he could, and now his last foothold 
 was gone. As for this girl, she was only one of 
 the insects who carry poison. 
 
 " Dan." The little face looked old. " Dan, do 
 you think I am going to tell ? " 
 
 " Is n't that what you listened for ? " 
 
 The intense light in her eyes wavered like a 
 flame in the wind. " How can I make you believe 
 me? " she cried breathlessly. 
 
 " I would n't waste time trying, if I were you," 
 he answered. 
 
 " How can I make you believe me ? " she re- 
 peated. 
 
 " It is no great matter ; " he spoke more to him- 
 self than to her. " A few months sooner or later, 
 that is all." 
 
 " Then there is no hope ! " With a pitiful, un- 
 87
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 controllable gesture her hands moved towards him, 
 and then she caught them in each other as if she 
 would have wrung them off. She faced him in 
 silence a moment longer ; then, " I have n't said I 
 was sorry for you, Dan, and you ought to be grate- 
 ful to me for that," she said, and the bitter, de> 
 spairing misery in her eyes was one of the memo- 
 ries that haunted Dan through the first months of 
 his darkness. Kate turned and left him. Her 
 face was that of a woman who has stood before the 
 scorn of the man she loves. 
 
 Walter saw Dan off at the steamer. 
 
 " I wonder," said Dan, with a rare acquisition of 
 wistf ulness, " I wonder, Wally, if I shall be able to 
 see you when I get back." 
 
 Walter wrung his hand. " It is breaking my 
 heart, old boy." 
 
 Dan smiled. " I would n't let it do that." 
 
 " Perhaps the Paris doctor can do something." 
 
 " Perhaps," answered Dan without conviction. 
 
 " I had rather take it myself." 
 
 " Don't be a fool, Wally. Can I give any mes- 
 sages for you in Paris ? " 
 
 Then Walter knew the real reason for the jour- 
 ney. He went home cursing the wanton cruelty 
 and huge stupidity of fate. 
 88
 
 ACCEPTANCE 
 
 In Paris, Dan hunted up the office of a world- 
 famed oculist. 
 
 " Have you come with hope ? " the Frenchman 
 asked him, after completing an examination. 
 
 " No," said Dan. 
 
 " That is well, since I can give you none." He 
 paused, looking at the tall, powerfully built Ameri- 
 can. 
 
 " C'est dur," he said reflectively. " You are a 
 comparatively young man yet." 
 
 " Thirty-two," Dan told him. 
 
 " Tiens. I had thought you older. Oui, c'est 
 dur. Mais que voulez-vous f C'estlavie. There 
 are many others. Most of them get used to it, 
 sooner or later sooner or later. You don't look 
 as if you would get used to it easily." 
 
 " I don't expect to," answered Dan dryly, as he 
 rose. " Can you tell me how much longer my eyes 
 are likely to last ? " 
 
 The little doctor shrugged his shoulders. " Im- 
 possible to say. It may be months, it may be 
 weeks. Avoid late hours and many lights. I 
 regret I can do nothing for you. My fee is peu 
 de chose, thirty francs." 
 
 Dan paid him the money, and went on his way 
 wondering of what use was the man of science, 
 since knowledge of worlds could not cure a diseased 
 89
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 nerve, and of what use the so-called man of God, 
 since he could only tell one stumbling in utter 
 darkness to hope for possible light beyond, and to 
 trust what no one has ever seen. 
 
 He wandered aimlessly down the Boulevard des 
 Italiens, his broad shoulders and gaunt featured 
 face towering above the small, nimble Frenchmen. 
 On passing the Opera House he read the announce- 
 ment that Mademoiselle Winifred Meredith would 
 make her debut there that night, in Verdi's Otello. 
 90
 
 Chapter VIII 
 
 AT THE CROSSWAYS 
 
 TELE gorgeous Paris Opera House, a fit expres- 
 sion of the most brilliant, the most frivolous, 
 the cleverest, and the wickedest people in the world, 
 was rapidly filling. 
 
 Slowly Daniel Howard moved down the centre 
 aisle. Silent and sombre and massive in the midst 
 of much laughter and dazzling scintillations from 
 lights and jewels, he took his seat and stared at the 
 great green curtain. His lips were dry, and his 
 heart pounded like the screw of a steamer when the 
 seas run high. 
 
 He had forgotten himself, for the woman he loved 
 was going to stand before this great audience, a 
 candidate for their admiration or contempt. 
 
 The overture began, and during the excited, por- 
 tentous music of the first act he waited, tense and 
 maddened, for the face he had last seen under the 
 stars the face that had been tremulous, and pas- 
 sionately questioning the power of love. At last 
 there was a stir among the audience, a universal 
 91
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 adjustment of opera glasses, and amid an expectant 
 silence Winifred came on the great stage. 
 
 She moved gracefully, quietly, with a delicate 
 queenly poise, before hundreds of critical eyes. 
 The next moment she was singing singing easily, 
 joyously somewhat as he had heard her years 
 ago in the poppy garden. 
 
 And this was the same Winifred, his Winifred, 
 the love of his youth, the deep need of his soul. 
 Her singing, fresh and spontaneous, rang through 
 his consciousness till its sweetness became a pain, 
 the pain a passion, and the whole a love wilder and 
 deeper than he had yet known. 
 
 The man next to him tapped his arm, offering an 
 opera glass. " Elle riest pas mal" he said criti- 
 cally. Dan adjusted the glass to his eyes, wondering 
 dully why he did not strangle the man where he sat. 
 Through the powerful lens he saw her distinctly, 
 and with an odd sense of familiarity and strange- 
 ness traced the dearly loved features. " Elle a une 
 belle voix," said his neighbor, addressing him again ; 
 and a little later he added that she was a good 
 actress. To these remarks Dan made no reply. 
 They caused him unreasoning rage; but his head 
 was clearing. He could look and listen with com- 
 parative calm, for above and beyond his own pain 
 grew the thought, "What matters it how I suffer, 
 92
 
 AT THE CKOSSWAYS 
 
 if she is happy ? " In her singing and acting he 
 saw qualities of unrealized greatness; but to-day she 
 was a good artist, and nothing more. Her voice 
 was pure and strong, her acting intelligent, but her 
 audience were unmoved save by respect and criti- 
 cal admiration. There was no definite fault to 
 find, and much to praise ; but certainly it was 
 not for such success as this that Winifred had 
 worked. 
 
 During the entr'acte he scribbled a few words to 
 her on his card. 
 
 " What time can I see you to-morrow ? " he 
 wrote briefly, and procured an usher who promised 
 to deliver it into her own hands. The reply came 
 before the third act : " To-morrow after four," she 
 had written. 
 
 As the great tragedy gathered force for its close, 
 Dan realized that Winifred was carrying her audi- 
 ence as much by the invincible assurance of her per- 
 sonality as by the excellence of her art. She failed 
 to profit by the chance for pathos in the exquisite 
 prayer of the last act ; but in Desdemona's sudden 
 cry there was a passion and terror that startled, and 
 proved her capable of stirring where she could not 
 touch. 
 
 When the curtain dropped Winifred received 
 several recalls from an appreciative but unenthusi- 
 93
 
 THE TUKN OF THE EOAD 
 
 astic audience, and bowed her acknowledgment with 
 a confident grace and reserve that gave no hint of 
 disappointment. 
 
 Dan smiled. " It is so like the child to treat 
 her audience as a queen treats her subjects," he 
 thought. " After all, it is doubtless the best way. 
 Audiences, like individuals, take you largely on your 
 own estimation." But he knew that Winifred could 
 not be content ; he knew that years of disappoint- 
 ment and bitterness must be hers before the goal 
 of success was reached, and he knew that she would 
 struggle without faltering to the end. 
 
 On his way out some one tapped him on the shoul- 
 der, and he turned to face the doctor who had pro- 
 nounced his final doom that morning. 
 
 " My dear sir," said the little man, " this will 
 not do. If you continue to put strains of this 
 kind on your eyes, they will fail you piff sud- 
 denly as one blows out a candle." 
 
 Dan thanked him indifferently and would have 
 passed on, but the Frenchman faced him with ear- 
 nest professional scrutiny. " Have you any friends 
 in Paris ? " he asked. 
 
 Dan told him no. 
 
 " Then go home at once. It would not be agree- 
 able to go blind in a strange city. Perhaps you are 
 with your wife." 
 
 94
 
 AT THE CROSSWAYS 
 
 Dan looked at him as one might look at an ob- 
 jectionable insect. 
 
 " I have not asked your advice," he said. 
 
 The doctor spread out his hands deprecatingly. 
 
 " Mon cher monsieur, I am sorry I offended," he 
 protested. There was a certain compassion in his 
 eyes which Dan took to mean that it was not worth 
 while resenting the words of a man who would soon 
 be blind. He went out into the streets with his hat 
 pulled over his eyes. He thought of Winifred bow- 
 ing before the footlights in the days of triumph 
 that would surely be hers : he thought of himself 
 an object of pity through black years to come ; and 
 then he thought of the dark river, slipping silently 
 under granite bridges. 
 
 Suddenly he became aware of intense pain in his 
 eyes, and remembered the doctor's words : " Your 
 eyes will fail suddenly as one blows out a candle." 
 Dan wanted one more day of sight as he never could 
 want anything again ; to stand before Winifred 
 and see her face was the last and supreme wish of 
 his life. But he made no appeal to infinite mercy. 
 In these days of suffering he had never wavered in 
 his belief that what God there was knew best ; he 
 had never been weak enough to beg that eternal 
 laws might be put aside for him, and now he did 
 not pray, as men name prayer, but fought through 
 95
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 the night with no help beyond the forces of his 
 own soul and a belief in eternal wisdom. 
 
 The dawn was so long in coming that he feared 
 never to see another day, and with thanksgiving 
 unspeakable saw at last the light filter through the 
 folds of his window curtain, and familiar objects 
 detach themselves from surrounding darkness. 
 
 There were many hours still to be lived through 
 before he could see Winifred, and he partially em- 
 ployed them by engaging a passage on the next 
 steamer, and cabling to Walter. 
 
 At four o'clock he climbed the narrow stairway 
 to her rooms. A maid opened the door and ushered 
 him into a small antechamber where he heard 
 laughter and excited voices from the room beyond. 
 Dan had not expected this. 
 
 " Mademoiselle is occupied ? " he asked. " I 
 must see her alone." 
 
 " Oui, Monsieur. I will present Monsieur's card 
 to Mademoiselle." The little maid disappeared 
 hastily. She was frightened by the gaunt sombre- 
 ness of Dan's face. 
 
 " Mon Dieu, quel homme ! I believe he is dan- 
 gerous, and these foreigners are so big," she said 
 to herself. 
 
 There was another man in the anteroom. He 
 addressed Dan in bad French. 
 96
 
 AT THE CROSSWAYS 
 
 " Monsieur does not remember me ? " 
 
 Dan looked him over carelessly. 
 
 "I do not," he answered briefly, being in no 
 humor for the elaborate veneer of French cour- 
 tesy. 
 
 " Permit me to recall myself. My name is von 
 Reidnitz. Monsieur insulted me once, and since 
 then I have not ceased to cherish the hope of re- 
 venge. For the present the world is large enough 
 for us both." 
 
 " Doubtless, but the room is not." Dan stood 
 carelessly with his hands in his pockets ; the in- 
 difference of his attitude and the easy insolence of 
 his words enraged the Austrian. He drew a fierce 
 breath. 
 
 " It happens that I was just going, otherwise 
 Monsieur has insulted me a second time. I offer 
 Monsieur my card, and to-morrow my friends will 
 call upon him." 
 
 Dan laughed shortly, and tearing the card in 
 two he tossed it into the grate. 
 
 " Monsieur refuses my challenge ! " 
 
 " You imagine yourself to be acting melodrama," 
 said Dan in a casual tone. 
 
 And then Winifred parted the curtains and 
 stood before him, not an operatic prima donna, 
 but the Win of old, fresh and true and wholesome. 
 97
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 In the joy of seeing her a world of pain and long- 
 ing slipped from his consciousness. 
 
 " I am so glad to see you, Dan," she said, hold- 
 ing out both hands with frank pleasure. "It is 
 too bad all these people are here." She indicated 
 her visitors with a girlish, backward nod. " But 
 I felt I ought to see them ; they will go soon, and 
 you can wait, can't you ? I am longing to know 
 all you thought about last night." 
 
 Dan said he could wait, and, with an indifferent 
 acknowledgment to introductions, seated himself 
 in a shadow and watched her. She was dressed in 
 some white stuff that floated when she moved, and 
 there were crimson roses near her throat. The 
 effect was French, and he did not like it, though 
 it gave her a subtle womanly charm that had not 
 been hers in the days gone by. His eyes rested 
 with relief on her smooth dark hair, which she 
 wore in the old, simple, girlish fashion, brushed 
 back loosely, and twisted in a heavy knot behind. 
 
 Quite a circle of people were about her, and she 
 talked to them with light-hearted gayety. Yet in 
 some way she had changed. Public life had al- 
 ready set its stamp on her. She had lost girlish 
 gestures, exaggerated enthusiasms, and gained dig- 
 nity and grace. There was a delicate poise to her 
 head, which differed from the aggressive confidence
 
 AT THE CROSSWAYS 
 
 of her girlhood. The somewhat abrupt lines of 
 her personality had become rounded, and softened, 
 and polished. The brown eyes were as direct and 
 true as ever : fearless eyes, though one saw in their 
 depths that they had looked on much ; innocent 
 eyes that were no longer ignorant. 
 
 The people round her, men particularly, were 
 loud in praise of her last night's appearance. She 
 took their compliments easily, with a certain 
 charming insolence that was too delicate to offend, 
 and conveyed a piquant sense of aloofness and in- 
 difference. 
 
 Mrs. Smith, the chaperon, dispensed tea and 
 propriety from a small table. She seemed used 
 to being ignored. Minutes wore on, and Dan 
 watched and waited. The air of the room was 
 close and sweet with the perfume of flowers. The 
 doorbell rang constantly to admit new visitors, 
 and there was continual passing to and fro. Was 
 this what he had come for ? A passion of pain 
 and jealousy tore him. 
 
 Still he waited, and watched Winifred in the 
 flush of her young triumph, receiving adulation, 
 surrounded by flowers. What would she think of 
 him, halting and groping she who worshiped 
 success and strength ? 
 
 " My God ! " he cried under his breath. It was 
 99
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 for this that he had waited all these years; for 
 this to sit down in the dark and hear her go by 
 in the distance. It was chiefly to lay them at her 
 feet that he had worked to conquer wealth and 
 fame, and now it was all over; the work of his 
 life had gone for nothing ; he was to be turned to 
 the wall like a worthless picture. 
 
 Gradually the guests were leaving, and before 
 he knew what was coming he was alone with her. 
 She put her hands to her head with a weary little 
 gesture. 
 
 " I am so glad they have gone, and I am so glad 
 you are here," she told him. 
 
 He sat down by her in the dusk and firelight, 
 and keeping well in the shadow himself, fed his 
 eyes hungrily and despairingly on every line of her 
 face. 
 
 She leaned back in an attitude of physical list- 
 lessness, and looked at him with a smile. " I 
 think I am tired, for the first time in my life," she 
 said. " It is so nice and restful to have you here, 
 Dan ; but how do you happen to be in Paris at 
 this season ? " 
 
 He was noting that her hair had become loos- 
 ened on one side, and thinking how lovely her eyes 
 were with their shade of weariness. She had to 
 repeat her words before he thought to answer. 
 100
 
 AT THE CROSSWAYS 
 
 " Why are you here ? I suppose it is business." 
 
 " Yes, business." 
 
 " It is the most fortunate business I ever knew. 
 Now tell me exactly what you thought of last 
 night." 
 
 He was striving to see her more distinctly, and 
 realizing how nearly the darkness was upon him ; 
 but aloud he said, " I think you will be a great 
 artist some day." 
 
 She sat up with an increase of animation. " You 
 were disappointed ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " I was. I am not satisfied ; I am not satisfied 
 at all. Now I don't want you to try to comfort 
 me. I want the truth." 
 
 " Would you take my version of it ? " 
 
 " Not unless it agreed with my own." She 
 laughed a little. "Speaking seriously," she con- 
 tinued, "speaking seriously, I should; for I can't 
 see myself or hear myself as you see and hear 
 me." 
 
 It seemed to him that she had grown thinner, 
 and he liked her better so ; but he was never to 
 see her again. 
 
 "One person says one thing, another says an- 
 other," Winifred went on with troubled eyes. Ma- 
 dame Alberto says I have not been touched by the 
 101
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 'feu sacre.' Edith says the difficulty lies in the 
 reserve and indifference of my nature. The news- 
 papers say I am to be admired with tranquil pulses. 
 But what is the remedy to all this ? I Dan, 
 you are not listening to me ! " 
 
 Forgive me, Winifred." He passed his hand 
 across his forehead ; she was puzzled by the ges- 
 ture, which was new to him. 
 
 " I believe you are tired," she spoke kindly. 
 
 " No. I am all right." Dan's lips were dry. 
 He was saying good-by to her eyes, to her lips, to 
 every line, and curve, and gesture. After this 
 nothing could matter much. 
 
 " It is growing dark. Could n't we have a light ? ' ' 
 he asked. 
 
 She looked surprised. 
 
 " Of course ; but I thought you liked to sit in 
 the dark." 
 
 " I believe I did once." 
 
 She rose to light a lamp. "I always do this 
 myself," she explained ; " Marie makes it smoke 
 so." 
 
 He watched with wistful eagerness as the light 
 grew on her face. Unconsciously he spoke her 
 name. 
 
 " Winifred." 
 
 She turned to him with gravely wondering eyes. 
 102
 
 AT THE CEOSSWAYS 
 
 "I have always been Win to you as to every 
 one. Only papa called me Winifred the day he 
 died. Why have you called me Winifred twice 
 to-night, Dan ? " 
 
 Without answering he rose and came to where 
 she stood with the light streaming full upon her. 
 Her face was touched by the shadow of grave 
 thoughts, and her eyes, dark, shining, and some- 
 what questioning, were raised to his. Through the 
 years to come he would remember her oftenest so. 
 
 " You are not like yourself," she said. " I do 
 not believe you are well. You ought not to work 
 so hard." 
 
 He was thinking how easy it would be to take 
 her in his strong arms. Her voice came to him 
 from a distance. 
 
 " Last week Jack Allison passed through Paris," 
 she was saying. " He told me you were looking ill 
 and seemed irritable. This should not be, Dan. 
 I can imagine you angry to the killing point ; but 
 you are too large for irritability." 
 
 It was necessary for him to pause before speak- 
 ing. " I will do better in the future," he said. 
 
 Some one knocked at the door. "Letters for 
 Mademoiselle, and a box of flowers." 
 
 Unreasoning rage seized upon Dan. " Who 
 sends you flowers? " 
 
 103
 
 THE TURN OF THE EOAD 
 
 " A great many people ; there is safety in their 
 numbers." 
 
 As Winifred opened the box, the heavy odor of 
 tuberoses filled the room. A card lay on the waxen 
 mass, and at the sight of it her lips tightened. 
 She replaced the cover on the box and handed 
 it to Marie. " A man waits ? " 
 
 " Oui, Mademoiselle." 
 
 " I supposed so. Tell him there has been a mis- 
 take. I do not receive flowers from Count C ." 
 
 " Who is he ? " asked Dan when they were left 
 alone. 
 
 " A horrid little roue who has been rather per- 
 sistent." 
 
 " And you subject yourself to these things." 
 Dan drew in a deep, fierce breath. " There are 
 other flowers here that you do receive." His voice 
 was harsh. 
 
 " Of course. It is part of my life. Don't be 
 foolish, Dan ! " 
 
 She motioned him to a seat ; but he remained 
 standing before her, and she sighed somewhat im- 
 patiently. It was certainly selfish of Dan to spoil 
 her little triumphs by his personal feeling. She 
 did not know that he had come three thousand 
 miles to see her face for the last time. 
 
 " And the life satisfies you? " he asked. 
 104
 
 AT THE CROSSWAYS 
 
 " Yes." She spoke a little defiantly. 
 
 " It is not the life for a high-bred woman." 
 
 "A lady can be a lady always, everywhere." 
 She met his eyes steadily. " Don't you trust me ? " 
 
 " Utterly and for always." 
 
 * Well, then ? " She spoke lightly. 
 
 "You court admiration, when you might have 
 love ; you cultivate brilliancy instead of tenderness. 
 It is the century's lesson ; you are learning it too 
 well." He was speaking with his lips to silence 
 the words in his heart. 
 
 " My dear Dan, have you come here to lecture 
 me on woman's rights ? " she asked wearily. 
 
 " No, I did not come here for that. Good-by, 
 Winifred." 
 
 " Good-by ? Why, you have only just come 
 you can't go. I want to know all you think of my 
 singing." 
 
 " I think you have a great talent which you will 
 use greatly when you have learned the lesson of 
 love or pain." 
 
 She smiled faintly. It was easier not to meet 
 Dan's eyes. 
 
 " I think you have said something of this sort 
 before," she remarked, putting up her hands to 
 unpin the roses from her throat. Their perfume 
 made her faint. 
 
 105
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Who gave them to you ? " he asked fiercely. 
 
 " What right have you " But he crushed her 
 hands, roses and all, in his. His face, hungry and 
 savage, bent close to hers, and a great oath crashed 
 through his set teeth. 
 
 " Dan ! " she whispered, " Dan ! " And her ter- 
 rified eyes appealed to him as they had done once 
 before, when they had been boy and girl together, 
 and she had fallen into deep water. The shock of 
 the memory made him reel. 
 
 "My God, my God! what have I done?" he 
 cried, releasing her. " Winifred forgive me ; " 
 with infinite tenderness he took her hands into 
 both of his big trembling ones. " Winifred, for- 
 give me. I am going now " His deep voice 
 broke. 
 
 " Winifred " he looked at her with dumb, im- 
 ploring eyes " Winifred, little Win, I 'm going. 
 Tell me first that up to this moment I never hurt 
 you that I have not brought shadows across your 
 life." 
 
 " You have always brought what was good and 
 happy," she spoke tremulously, forgiving him since 
 his face showed so great a pain. 
 
 " Thank God ! " he said, and bending he kissed 
 her hand as one going into the valley of shadows 
 kisses the holiest and loveliest thing he leaves be- 
 106
 
 AT THE CROSSWAYS 
 
 hind. For a moment longer his eyes lingered on 
 her, and then he was gone. 
 
 A little later Edith came in quickly. 
 
 " What have you been doing to Dan Howard ? " 
 she asked excitedly of Winifred, who stood with a 
 pale face where he had left her. 
 
 " I have done nothing," she answered. 
 
 " I met him just now on the stairs. He did not 
 know me till I got quite close, and then his face 
 frightened me." 
 
 " I have done nothing," she repeated. 
 
 "Nothing! Nothing! All these years you 
 have taken the best of him, to send him away with 
 empty hands at last and it is nothing." 
 
 Winifred disregarded the reproaches. " Dan 
 must be in some great trouble," she said, and drew 
 in her breath quickly. " How could I let him go ? " 
 Her own partial success looked pale and worthless 
 beside the memory of Dan's face, and the broken, 
 despairing tenderness of his last words. 
 
 " I must write to him," she moved to her desk. 
 Then her hands dropped helplessly. " I don't know 
 his address! " she exclaimed. "He did not tell me 
 where he was staying." 
 
 The girls stared at each other speechless, with 
 a sense of disaster unjustified by circumstances. 
 Then Edith flung out her hands. 
 107
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 "You put aside his love for the sake of what 
 you called success," she cried, " and now you have 
 let him go, and nothing so much worth while will 
 ever come into your life again ! Oh, Winifred, 
 you have been a fool ! a fool ! a fool ! " 
 108
 
 Chapter IX 
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 THAT night, as Dan passed through the court- 
 yard of his hotel, he again came face to face 
 with the little French specialist. 
 
 " I followed you in here," said the latter. " I 
 have been thinking over your case. Would you 
 be willing to take a risk ? " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " demanded Dan, stand- 
 ing above him. 
 
 " Small chance and much danger," continued the 
 doctor. " Do you care to try ? " 
 
 " You speak of an operation ? " 
 
 " Precisely. Whom did you see last ? " 
 
 "Dr. Davage." 
 
 " And he advised nothing of the sort ? " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " Hum il s'y connait. Pourtant one might 
 try, one might also hesitate." 
 
 " How great is the chance ? " 
 
 " Very small, my friend, almost invisible." 
 
 "What is the danger?" 
 109
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Greatly increased loss of sight." 
 
 "Can the operation be performed to-morrow?" 
 
 " The sooner the better. But you should con- 
 sider it well." 
 
 " It does not need consideration. Be so good as 
 to fix the hour and place." 
 
 " Mon Dieu ! and they say we French move 
 quickly ! If you come to my office to-morrow at 
 nine o'clock we can arrange details. But first I 
 beg of Monsieur not to take offense but first it 
 would be well to notify some friend, some acquaint- 
 ance even. If the worst should come Monsieur 
 speaks French well, but without the eyes and 
 alone in a strange city." 
 
 "At nine to-morrow, you say?" Dan spoke 
 quietly. 
 
 " At nine to-morrow ; and remember I promise 
 little, and fear much. Think well before you come. 
 Au revoir, Monsieur. Think well." 
 
 One day early in March, Walter received a ca- 
 blegram from Dan. " Sailing in the C , March 
 
 3d. Meet me or send Stirling," the message ran. 
 A week later he was waiting on the wharf for the 
 great ocean liner. 
 
 He was impatient and anxious, and spoke ab- 
 sent-mindedly to the few acquaintances he met. 
 110
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 Over and over he asked himself the meaning of the 
 cable. Dan's doom must be already upon him, that 
 he had asked to be met. The March wind was 
 cold ; low-flying hurrying clouds looked eager and 
 angry. The harbor waters were dark and troubled 
 by ungainly ferryboats and aggressive tugs, which 
 plied their way here and there with much noise and 
 disturbance. Everywhere was gloom and apparent 
 chaos, which seemed natural enough since Dan was 
 going blind. Stirling appeared suddenly from an 
 inconspicuous corner. 
 
 " I don't think there 's any need of your stay- 
 ing," Walter told him. 
 
 " I want to stay," answered Stirling. " I won't 
 be in the way," he added. 
 
 The man and the boy, who were almost strangers, 
 looked into each other's eyes, and finding a common 
 grief, grasped hands silently. 
 
 " I suppose it 's all up with him," said Walter, 
 as they fell in pace side by side. 
 
 " He may have only wanted to make sure of us 
 in case anything happened on the voyage," sug- 
 gested Stirling. 
 
 " Why, that 's so ! I never thought of that." 
 Then Walter added with quick hopefulness, " Per- 
 haps he is better ; perhaps the Paris doctor could 
 cure him." 
 
 Ill
 
 THE TUEN OF THE ROAD 
 
 "No, he would not have cabled in that case," 
 objected Stirling. Then he fixed his quiet, obser- 
 vant eyes on Walter. " Why did Mr. Howard go 
 to Paris ? " he asked. 
 
 The older man betrayed himself by a minute's 
 hesitation. 
 
 " He said it was to consult an oculist," he an- 
 swered. 
 
 " Did you believe him ? " 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " I did n't." 
 
 Walter turned up the collar of his coat and set- 
 tled his chin into it. " It is little good he will get 
 out of whatever he goes for," he said, with gloomy 
 impatience. 
 
 " You don't mean that she does n't care for 
 him?" 
 
 "She? who?" 
 
 " The woman he went abroad to see." 
 
 Walter glanced suspiciously over the edge of 
 his collar. " Look here," he said. " I did n't tell 
 you that, did I ? " 
 
 Stirling smiled a little. " No, you did n't exactly 
 tell me." 
 
 Walter felt something akin to awe of this slight, 
 pale-faced boy. " I suppose it's your legal training," 
 he remarked inconsequently. " Is this process to 
 112
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 which you have subjected me commonly known as 
 cross-examination ? " 
 
 "Not exactly." Stirling smiled again. He 
 was thinking that law cases would be vastly sim- 
 plified if all witnesses were as ingenuous as this 
 big, gentle-eyed man. 
 
 " How did you happen to settle upon a woman 
 as the reason of Dan's trip ? " asked Walter. 
 
 "By the process of elimination. I could see 
 the doctor was only an excuse, and owing to his 
 dependence on my eyes I knew he could have few 
 or no business secrets from me. So I argued that 
 it must be a personal matter; but only about a 
 woman would a man be so secretive. The day he 
 sailed he said I was to open all his letters save any 
 that might come from Paris. One came a few days 
 later, and it was in a woman's handwriting. I sup- 
 posed he had crossed the ocean to ask her to marry 
 him." 
 
 Walter shook his head. "Dan will never do 
 that now." 
 
 " Why not ? " There was no longer occasion 
 for shrewd suspicion of superficial motives, and 
 Stirling was talking like a boy again. 
 
 "He wouldn't think it right if he were blind." 
 
 " But if they loved each other ? " 
 
 " He would n't think it honorable even then." 
 113
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " She might." 
 
 " Yes she might." 
 
 " You mean she does n't care for him? " 
 
 " I don't mean anything. He never mentions 
 her name to me. I know no more than the rest of 
 his acquaintances." 
 
 Stirling longed to know more, and did not doubt 
 his ability to entrap Walter into a partial confes- 
 sion, but a nice sense of honor kept him silent. 
 
 They paced the dismal, draughty place for some 
 time without speaking. There was a growing bus- 
 tle from cabmen and custom-house officials; but 
 no steamer came in sight. 
 
 At last they paused on the edge of the wharf and 
 looked seaward. 
 
 " There she is ! " cried Stirling suddenly. 
 
 " You 're right," said Walter, and in silence they 
 watched the ocean monster enter the harbor. 
 
 "I wish it were over," said Stirling, at last. 
 
 " If it were any one in the world but Dan." 
 Walter's voice was husky. 
 
 " I know," answered Stirling. For a moment 
 Walter dropped his eyes from the incoming steamer 
 to the boy's face. 
 
 " You have n't known him long." 
 
 Stirling kept his face turned seaward. " He 
 has been very generous about helping me with 
 114
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 money to move my mother, and but it isn't 
 only that." 
 
 " I know," said Walter in his turn. 
 
 They were silent again till the steamer came near 
 enough for the faces to be distinguished. 
 
 " Do you see him ? " asked Walter. 
 
 "Not yet." 
 
 A little crowd pressed to the edge of the wharf. 
 Some one jostled Garrison's shoulder. 
 
 " Waiting for Daniel Howard ? " asked a man's 
 voice. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "So am I." Walter recognized a prominent 
 politician. 
 
 " What do you want of him ? " he asked. " He 
 
 he is not well." 
 
 " Sorry to hear that. We want him to speak 
 next Thursday at a meeting of the sound-money 
 Democrats." 
 
 " He won't do it," said Walter. 
 
 " Well, I guess I '11 give him the chance," drawled 
 the man. 
 
 " I see him," cried Stirling quickly. " There, 
 standing by one of those what do you call 'em ? 
 
 they look like magnified trumpets and are painted 
 red inside. He is talking to a steward, he is feeing 
 him he is all right ! " 
 
 115
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " I see him, dear old Dan. Yes, lie is all right.*' 
 
 Walter wrung Stirling's hand. 
 
 " Perhaps he is cured." 
 
 " Why did he cable, then ? " 
 
 In a little while the gang-plank was flung to the 
 steamer's deck, and an eager stream of passengers 
 passed over it. Dan, walking leisurely, came down 
 among the last. 
 
 "Well, Dan," was Walter's only greeting as 
 he grasped his hand. 
 
 " So you came," answered Dan. " I did n't need 
 you, but I thought I might. Hullo, Stirling, you 
 here too ? I could n't have needed you both in any 
 
 " I wanted to come," explained the boy. 
 
 " That 's all right. Who is this ? " 
 
 The politician stepped up. " Don't you remem- 
 ber me, Mr. Howard ? I am Jim Allison of " 
 He passed his arm through Dan's and drew him to 
 one side. 
 
 " Will he do it?" asked Stirling. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " How can he now ? " 
 
 " That 's Dan," answered Walter. 
 
 The conference was a short one, and Dan dis- 
 missed the man with a careless nod. 
 
 " Are you going to speak for him ? " asked Walter. 
 116
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 " Yes ; I have wanted a fling on the sound money 
 question for some time." 
 
 " Is this the time to have it? " 
 
 " It is as good as any other." 
 
 " Are you better ? " 
 
 " No, it is pretty bad ; and there is always the 
 satisfaction of knowing it will be worse before it is 
 better," answered Dan with an attempt to smile. 
 "The operation left me so much worse, that I 
 did n't expect to be able to find my way down the 
 gangway alone by the time I reached home." 
 
 " The operation ! " exclaimed Walter. " You 
 said nothing to me of that." 
 
 " There was little to say. I was offered the pro- 
 bability of immediate increase in loss of sight, for 
 the improbability of arresting the disease. Natu- 
 rally, I took the chance and lost it." 
 
 Walter offered no sympathy. " You ought to 
 have cabled me," he said. " One of us could have 
 gone over." 
 
 " Sometimes I think you are more of a fool than 
 most of us, Wally," was the answer. " But I 
 won't deny that I wanted you rather. It was 
 dismal coming out of it." 
 
 In Dan's worn, deeply lined face there was more 
 of gravity and less of harshness than when he went 
 away, and his lips were showing something of the 
 117
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 austere strength which was to be theirs in the years 
 to come. 
 
 After Stirling had been sent to the office for some 
 business papers, the two friends drove home almost 
 in silence. Once within the old room Dan put a 
 strong hand on his friend's shoulder and wheeled 
 him to the window. 
 
 " I want to have a look at you," he said ; and 
 looking, the lines in his face softened somewhat. 
 
 "It is good to see you again," he commented at 
 last. " I can see you right enough in this light. I 
 thought I could n't, at the wharf." The two men 
 faced each other a little longer in silence ; then Dan 
 smiled. 
 
 "Do you remember where we used to hide our 
 fishing tackle on old Scotch Henty's farm ? " he 
 risked, with a half quizzical, half wistful look which 
 sat oddly on his gaunt face. 
 
 Walter nodded in silence. 
 
 " I wonder how many of his Scotch oaths we could 
 remember now," went on Dan. " We used to share 
 our luncheon in those days ; we have shared nearly 
 everything since ; but the time has come when we 
 share things no longer. Lucky for you we don't, 
 is n't it, Wally?" 
 
 Walter shook off the detaining hand and paced 
 the room, swearing softly under his breath. For a 
 118
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 little while Dan watched him in silence ; then he 
 clapped him on the back with rough affection. 
 
 " Dinna greet for me, lad," he said. " Dinna 
 greet. I sha'n't be found wanting when the hour 
 arrives." 
 
 He shook his huge frame as a dog shakes off 
 water after a bath. 
 
 "Just now I feel like a smoke," he went on. 
 " Give me a light and tell me the news." 
 
 Walter hesitated. " I had a letter this morning 
 that might interest you," he said, and handed him 
 an envelope with a foreign stamp. " Can you make 
 it out?" 
 
 "I '11 try; is it legible ?" 
 
 Dan walked to the window, and as his back was 
 turned Walter could not see if his face changed 
 when he recognized Winifred's firm handwriting. 
 The note was short : 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GARRISON (it ran). Will you 
 kindly send me Mr. Howard's address? or else 
 some news of him ? I saw him a short time ago, 
 looking so ill and seeming so unlike himself that 
 I am troubled, particularly as I have had no word 
 from him since then, and he left me neither ad- 
 dress nor clue to future movements. 
 
 Sincerely yours, WINIFRED MEREDITH. 
 119
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Dan took a long time to read these few words, 
 whether from failing sight or emotion Walter could 
 only guess. When he turned round his face was 
 impassive. 
 
 " What do you want me to do ? " asked Walter. 
 " Shall you answer it yourself ? " 
 
 " No," said Dan. " I should like you to write 
 her that I am at home and well." 
 
 "Only that?" 
 
 " Only that." 
 
 " Then you have not told her " 
 
 " No." 
 
 Walter took another turn down the room and 
 tugged at his mustache. 
 
 " Of course you know she will have the right to 
 feel hurt." 
 
 " Yes, I know." 
 
 " Let me tell her on my own account." 
 
 Dan knocked the ashes from his cigar before 
 answering. 
 
 " There is no use in troubling her about it," he 
 said slowly. " I don't care to discuss it. There 
 is only one thing to do. I am doing it, as you 
 would in my place." 
 
 By a reluctant silence Walter acknowledged 
 Dan to be in the right. It is an obvious point 
 in masculine ethics that a man who cannot see to 
 120
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 walk by himself must not ask a woman to walk 
 with him. 
 
 During the afternoon Stirling returned accord- 
 ing to directions. 
 
 " You 're not going to do business now ! " ex- 
 claimed Walter. 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " Better come to the club" 
 
 "No. It bothers me not to recognize people. 
 Has any one got wind of it ? " 
 
 " Not that I know of." 
 
 " You had better go to the club yourself. Now, 
 then, Stirling." 
 
 Instead of going to the club Walter took a long, 
 never-to-be-forgotten walk. He would have given 
 his life over and over to save Dan, but apparently 
 God did not want his life. Nothing but Dan's 
 eyesight would do. As men go, Walter was a 
 good churchman ; his creed was simple, compre- 
 hensive, and up to this moment had been equal to 
 all demands put upon it, but to-day the founda- 
 tions of his belief rocked. Walter was not one to 
 read universal meanings, or to see beyond the hour. 
 It could not be for the best that Dan should go 
 blind, and so, in this hour of doubt and pain, 
 Walter unconsciously took Dan's side against the 
 Infinite Powers. 
 
 121
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 He went home to find Dan standing with his 
 back to the empty fireplace, this being a mascu- 
 line, if somewhat incomprehensible, attitude to 
 which he was especially prone. Stirling was put- 
 ting papers together. 
 
 " Come in, Wally," said Dan. " We sha'n't 
 worry you with any more work to-day. It is grow- 
 ing dark and I can't afford to lose Stirling's eyes 
 as well as my own." 
 
 He spoke in a casual tone of easy self-posses- 
 sion which was in strong contrast to Walter's de- 
 spairing gloom, and Stirling's dumb, watchful 
 anxiety. 
 
 "How did your mother stand the move?" he 
 asked Stirling. 
 
 " Very well," began the boy eagerly. "I we 
 can never thank you enough for " 
 
 "Nonsense," broke in Dan, who had not out- 
 grown a ludicrous objection to being thanked. 
 " Did she resent your being used as another man's 
 eyes?" 
 
 " She was as proud of my connection with you 
 as I am myself." 
 
 " Ah, proud, you say ? I should n't have thought 
 of it in that light ; there is little to be proud of in 
 connection with me. I suppose your mother and 
 sister think you a very remarkable young man." 
 122
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 " They do exaggerate things a good deal," said 
 Stirling modestly. 
 
 " Yes, mothers and sisters have that way, I be- 
 lieve. They endow you with all their own virtues 
 and add a few, such as courage and strength, 
 wrongly supposed to be purely masculine. You 
 have one great objection, Stirling : you are too good 
 to be sworn at." 
 
 " I hope I shall never give you occasion for 
 that," answered the boy seriously. 
 
 Dan reflected a few moments. " Stirling," he 
 said at length, " did you ever suspect yourself to 
 be lacking in a sense of humor ? " 
 
 " No, sir," he answered, evidently puzzled. " I 
 never thought about it." 
 
 " So I imagined. It is a pity, for it would help 
 things along amazingly. Well, never mind. You 
 may go now ; I shall not need you again this even- 
 ing." 
 
 The next day Dan went over some of the per- 
 sonal effects for which he could no longer find use. 
 There were his books, collected during the brief 
 years of his youth, when he had found time for 
 gratifying his love of the best in literature, and 
 satisfying his thirst for knowledge of the. great 
 thoughts of great minds. The dust lay on his 
 book -shelves now, but he passed his hands over 
 123
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 them with affection. There was a goodly company 
 of Greeks and Latins and the English classics, a 
 list of immortal names dear to the scholar's heart, 
 and a fair representation of German philosophers. 
 Voltaire and Rousseau were side by side, and Dan 
 smiled. Certainly his taste for reading had been 
 catholic. On the lower shelves were the modern 
 poets of modern tongues, and many a well-thumbed 
 volume of political economy, social reform, and 
 the revolutionary philosophy of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 Dan reflected that he had certainly made the 
 best of life while it had been under his own order- 
 ing, nor had the light of his eyes been wasted. 
 Had action tempted him less, scholarship had 
 tempted him more ; as it was, he had secretly 
 nourished visions of years to come when he could 
 own a library of worth, and enjoy it with Winifred. 
 He smiled now at the futility of his dream. There 
 had been two summers when Winifred had learned 
 and read Greek with him. He was proud to re- 
 member her appreciation of the rugged, remote 
 sublimity of ^Eschylus, and her enjoyment of the 
 more human and versatile Sophocles. He could 
 never read a line of his books again, and was puz- 
 zled to know how to dispose of them. There was 
 Winifred ; but she no longer cared for books. 
 124
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 The vision of a life before the world had dazzled 
 her eyes. He knew that her ambition was more 
 the result of abundant vitality than of desire for 
 gratified vanity, but in the mean time it sucked the 
 life of her mind like a vampire. When she had 
 conquered the longed-for lands she would find how 
 little they were worth, and then, but not till then, 
 would she recognize her own. He decided to keep 
 his little library in expectation of a day when they 
 might find room in her house and mind. There 
 was no one else to want them ! Few men were as 
 detached from ties of relationship as himself, and 
 he was glad now that there was neither father, 
 mother, nor sister to grieve when he entered into 
 the life that was no life, the death that was no 
 death. 
 
 In a carefully locked drawer were Winifred's 
 letters, everything she had ever written him since 
 the day he first knew and told her of his love. 
 The package was not large, for she had never 
 been a good correspondent. He undid the twine 
 that held it, and slowly, one by one, he handled 
 the letters. The handwriting was blurred to his 
 failing sight, but one of the envelopes, addressed 
 in larger letters than the others, he opened and 
 read : " You are always so cross when I thank you 
 for anything ; but please let me say how delighted 
 125
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 I was with " Then the letters grew dim and 
 confused under his eyes. The words were from 
 the past of his dead hope and living love. With 
 the letter crushed in his hand he stretched his 
 arms across the table and dropped his head on 
 them. So he stayed during the long sunny after- 
 noon ; but when the dusk came he rose, and gather- 
 ing up her letters, burned them one by one in the 
 empty grate. 
 
 It was several days after this that he came home 
 late to find Walter waiting for him with ill-con- 
 cealed anxiety. 
 
 " What did you suppose had happened to me ? " 
 Dan dropped into a chair and stretched his long 
 legs. " Don't make me feel like a child under 
 orders any sooner than is necessary," he said. 
 
 Walter paced the room. "There are the 
 churches," he suggested, doubtfully and relevantly 
 of nothing. 
 
 " Not for me," was the answer. " There are 
 questions to which a man may find the answer only 
 in his own soul." 
 
 "I wish I could say something," Walter said 
 huskily. 
 
 " I am so glad you can't." 
 
 " How is it going ? " 
 
 " Time allowance is getting short." 
 126
 
 SHADOWS 
 
 " Do you still have pain ? I heard you walking 
 your room last night." 
 
 " I should n't mind the pain if every attack did 
 not take something from my sight." 
 
 Walter made an inarticulate exclamation, then 
 he said aloud, " If you only would n't be so infer- 
 nally uncomplaining about it." 
 
 " Bah ! I am not a dog to whine," answered 
 Dan. Then he added more gravely, " I can't be 
 peevish, it 's rather too solemn this slow passing 
 from light into darkness. It is the renunciation of 
 life without the release of death," he added a little 
 later, which was the only revelation of personal 
 feeling he was ever heard to make. 
 127
 
 Chapter X 
 
 DAN'S LIGHTS GO OUT 
 
 A FEW days later Dan came into Walter's 
 office late in the afternoon. 
 
 " Have you anything on for this evening ? " he 
 asked, " because if you have n't I should like you 
 to go with me to the political meeting at which I 
 have been asked to speak." 
 
 " That 's all right," answered Walter. " Wait 
 a moment ; I '11 go along with you now, if you 're 
 going home." 
 
 " I want you to come because I hate being alone 
 in a crowd," explained Dan a little later, as they 
 pushed their way through the streets. " My nerve 
 is going," he added with grim disgust. 
 
 Walter looked into the haggard face. " Your 
 nerve would be all right if you would go to bed at 
 reasonable hours," he suggested. 
 
 Dan shook his head. " It is n't that. I am a 
 
 coward," he said. " I am afraid every minute of 
 
 the day and night of being suddenly left in the 
 
 dark. I can't cross these down-town streets with 
 
 128
 
 DAN'S LIGHTS GO OUT 
 
 out getting damp with fear, because I don't make 
 out which way the cars are going till they get on 
 to me." 
 
 As he spoke they stood on the edge of a great 
 thoroughfare swarming with electric cars and teams. 
 Walter slipped his arm through Dan's. 
 
 " Come along with me," he said. The help was 
 accepted in silence, and Dan learned his first agoniz- 
 ing lesson of dependence. 
 
 " What a pity there is such a prejudice against 
 sending bullets through the hearts of superfluous 
 human wretches ! " he remarked. 
 
 That night Dan spoke, and Walter watched him 
 anxiously from a front bench. " The light is badly 
 arranged ; it must trouble him," he thought, look- 
 ing with disgust at a powerful electric jet that was 
 suspended from the ceiling almost on a line with 
 the speaker's eyes. 
 
 Dan was not at his best. He showed his usual 
 grasp of the situation in its entirety as well as in 
 technical detail, and there were occasional flashes 
 of subtle wit, stinging rather than humorous ; but 
 in every tone and gesture there was a sense of 
 effort, and the usual compelling magnetism of his 
 personality was lacking. The audience listened 
 attentively, partly convinced by his unanswerable 
 logic, but unenthusiastic. Suddenly Dan's voice 
 129
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 faltered and a gray shadow fell on his face. With 
 bent head his body swayed forward till his hand 
 rested heavily on the table beside him. 
 
 There was a moment of breathless silence, and 
 then an uncomfortable movement throughout the 
 hall. A friend on the platform stepped for- 
 ward quickly and said a few words in his ear. 
 Walter hurried to the stage, but as he entered 
 the door Dan raised his head with the movement 
 of a hunted animal at bay, and began to speak 
 again. His words came slowly, doubtfully at first, 
 but with increasing confidence and power, till 
 Walter's fear was lost in wonder. He felt the 
 pulse of the great assembly quicken and vibrate in 
 response to an eloquence that was new to Dan. 
 Never had he spoken with the nobility of thought, 
 with the breadth and passion that were his in this 
 hour. Campaigning issues were forgotten ; a poli- 
 tician was not speaking to a party, but a statesman 
 to a people, and the crowd were moved by his words 
 as a grain-field is swayed by the wind. 
 
 In the breathlessness of that awful moment when 
 he stood bowed and dumb before the great audi- 
 ence, blindness had come to Dan. Every force of 
 the man's being rose to meet the occasion, and so 
 far overleaped it that he could command mind, 
 nerve, and people. His convictions, sluggish be- 
 130
 
 DAN'S LIGHTS GO OUT 
 
 fore, were forged in the white-hot passion of his 
 suffering ; his mind and will, strengthened by 
 months of conquering struggle, rose triumphant 
 over this moment of supreme pain. 
 
 There is no power greater or more mysterious 
 than that of eloquence ; there is no race more 
 easily fired by it than the shrewd, proverbially 
 calculating American. On this night the man 
 must believe where the reason was unconvinced. 
 The dishonest were honest. Those who had lived 
 sordidly found themselves thinking loftily. Those 
 who had known nothing beyond party issues were 
 aglow with patriotism. In this electric hour men 
 were not what they had been, but what the speaker 
 chose them to be, and none present ever forgot 
 the ringing words, or the pale impassioned face 
 of the young orator as he stood in the glare of the 
 lights, pleading for the integrity of our national 
 life. 
 
 As the last sentence died away Dan put out his 
 hands, and staggered with a groan that was lost in 
 the wild applause that greeted the close of his 
 speech. Several people sprang to his side, but 
 Walter reached him first and led him away. There 
 was much shouting, and whistling, and insistent calls 
 for his reappearance. Some excited young spirits 
 struck up " The Star Spangled Banner," which 
 131
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 was taken up by many voices in many keys. The 
 walls shook with noise and the shuffling of feet. In 
 the midst of the confusion an opposition leader 
 struggled to the platform and tried to make him- 
 self heard, but his words were drowned and his 
 passionate gestures were futile and ridiculous in the 
 babel. The people roared at him good-naturedly. 
 A few cool heads came together to discuss the 
 speech, and the speaker. It had been a big speech, 
 they said, and Howard was going to be a big man, 
 a dangerous man possibly, a power to be reck- 
 oned with by the coming administration. 
 
 " He is an honest man," said one. 
 
 " Yes, and he will make other men honest, curse 
 him ! " was the answer, and then individual words 
 were drowned in another wave of enthusiasm, and 
 there were ringing cheers and calls for Daniel 
 Howard, who never came. 
 
 In the coat-room he reeled like a drunken man, 
 and clung to Walter. " Don't leave me," he said 
 hoarsely. " It has come." 
 
 " Yes, I know. Steady, boy. I am not going 
 far just to get our coats." 
 
 " Take me with you," he pleaded. 
 
 So Walter took him, and while hundreds of 
 voices shouted his name in the hall they had left, 
 Dan stood a broken, helpless man, clinging to his 
 132
 
 DAN'S LIGHTS GO OUT 
 
 friend's arm with groping fingers. " It came 
 suddenly before I got through speaking," he 
 said. 
 
 " I know," answered Walter again. 
 
 They went out into the lighted streets, and the 
 agony of the hours that followed was burned for- 
 ever into the consciousness of both. Dan refused 
 to be taken home, and they walked all night 
 through a driving rain and bitter wind. He was 
 maddened with physical pain that did not subside 
 with loss of sight, and after the long strain of sleep- 
 less nights and mental anguish his nerves had given 
 way. He lurched heavily in walking and blamed 
 Walter for letting him stumble, and there were ter- 
 rible times when he fought for the light with his 
 hands, as a drowning man fights for air. At those 
 moments Walter held him with all his strength and 
 with a prayer on his lips. The night seemed an 
 aeon of chaotic and hideous darkness. It was not 
 till the east grew pale that Dan allowed himself to 
 be forced upon a bench, and, leaning his head 
 against a tree behind him, fell into the unconscious- 
 ness of utter exhaustion. 
 
 They had come out of the city, and Walter, 
 wide-eyed and alert, waited beside his friend, 
 watching the black outline of distant houses de- 
 tach itself from a brightening sky, while the rain 
 133
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 ceased, the clouds drifted seaward, and the stars, 
 immeasurably serene and distant, faded from his 
 view. 
 
 In a gray dawn the earth lay spent and still and 
 ghostly, exhausted from the storm of the night, and 
 in the growing light Walter could see Dan's face, 
 weary and spent also, but quiet at last. The com- 
 ing day sent a breath out from the east, the naked 
 trees stirred, and there was an undefined whisper 
 of awakening life through the fields and woods. 
 Suddenly the sun shot up, glorious and mighty ; a 
 thousand voices answered his joyous challenge, and 
 the brown earth was on fire with sparkling rain- 
 drops. 
 
 Dan moved and opened his eyes. The sun shone 
 straight into them, but could bring no life or light 
 there. For a few moments he was silent. His face 
 looked too weary for further emotion ; then he 
 raised his head and put out his hand. 
 
 " You are there, Walter ? " he asked. 
 
 Walter slipped his arm round Dan's shoulders. 
 " Yes, old man. Shall we go home now ? " Then 
 he feared the unwonted gentleness of his tone 
 might be resented, but Dan appeared to notice 
 neither words nor gesture. He did not speak again 
 at once. 
 
 " Are we in the country ? " he asked finally in a 
 134
 
 DAN'S LIGHTS GO OUT 
 
 strangely dead voice. "I seem to hear things 
 singing." 
 
 " Yes, nearly as far as Newton." 
 
 " Is it daylight ? " 
 
 " The sun rose about five minutes ago." 
 
 " The sun rose five minutes ago." Dan repeated 
 the words slowly and paused as if adjusting him- 
 self to the fact, but there was no change in the 
 utterly weary lines of his face. He rose heavily. 
 " Let us go home," he said, but after walking a few 
 steps he stopped. " We must find a cab or some- 
 thing," he announced. " I am done up. I have 
 been down to hell, and don't feel sure I am back 
 alive." 
 
 They were near a small suburb where a carriage 
 was easily obtainable in spite of the hour. Almost 
 in silence they drove home. Dan shivered once 
 and felt wonderingly of his coat, then of Walter's. 
 
 " We are wet," he said. " It must have rained." 
 
 "It did, nearly all night." 
 
 "I never noticed it. It can't have been good 
 for your neuralgia." 
 
 " That 's all right," said Walter, somewhat in- 
 articulately. He put his hand on Dan's knee and 
 neither of them spoke again. When the carriage 
 drew up before their lodgings, the city was well 
 awake, and by the time Dan had been laboriously 
 135
 
 THE TUEN OF THE ROAD 
 
 and distressfully gotten into dry clothes, and pre- 
 vailed upon to take a cup of tea, it was time to go 
 down town. 
 
 " Are you here still, Walter ? " asked Dan ; he sat 
 in an armchair with his head sunk on his chest. 
 
 Walter put his hand on Dan's shoulder. 
 
 " Dan old fellow " he said brokenly. 
 
 " Yes, I understand ; don't try to say it, 
 Wally." 
 
 Walter's breath labored with a great sob. 
 
 " We can't have any of that," said Dan. " You 
 had better go ; I heard the clock strike ; I am 
 best alone." 
 
 " I '11 behave myself if you let me stay." 
 
 "No. I must fight it out alone. There is a 
 strangeness and horror just at first ; but there 's 
 the satisfaction of knowing that there 's plenty 
 of time in which to get used to it." He spoke with 
 effort through stiffened lips. 
 
 " Can't I do something for you down town ? " 
 
 "Go to the office, and tell Stirling and the 
 others. Stirling can come round to-morrow." 
 
 "Anything else?" 
 
 Dan collected his thoughts with evident diffi- 
 culty. " I had an appointment at the club with 
 Rowland, and one or two others. Tell 'em I 
 can't go because I am blind. But tell 'em I am all 
 136
 
 DAN'S LIGHTS GO OUT 
 
 right ; they are not to come round to sympathize 
 and all that." 
 
 Reluctantly Walter left him and heard the key 
 turn on the inside of the study door as he closed it. 
 The sound startled him. He paused and rattled 
 the handle. 
 
 " Unless you swear not to do anything rash, I '11 
 break down the door," he called. 
 
 " Don't be an ass," came Dan's voice with some- 
 thing of its old spirit. "What do you take me 
 for?" 
 
 Walter was satisfied. From Dan bowed in his 
 armchair, from the despair of Dan's ruined life, 
 and the tragedy of Dan's sightless eyes, Walter 
 went into the busy streets. In his slow deep way 
 he almost hated the light and life, because Dan 
 could no longer share them. 
 
 The morning papers were full of the great 
 speech ; they spoke in flowery language of " the 
 young orator whose star had just risen above the 
 nation's horizon." Walter read with a set face. 
 He felt like dashing his head against the wall in 
 impotent rage and pain. When he entered Dan's 
 office, Stirling rose to meet him with a pale, ques- 
 tioning face. 
 
 " Has it " he began. 
 
 Walter nodded. 
 
 137
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Last night at the speech ? " questioned Stir- 
 ling. 
 
 Walter nodded again. 
 
 " I thought so. I was there." There was a 
 short silence. Stirling mechanically put some 
 papers together, and the two men in Dan's em- 
 ployment looked up inquiringly. 
 
 " Does he want me ? " 
 
 " To-morrow. Tell the other fellows ; I can't." 
 
 One of the men rose and came forward. " Mr. 
 Howard spoke to us himself yesterday," he said. 
 
 " It 's all up with him to-day," said Walter. 
 
 " That 's a pretty close call ; we ought to have 
 been told sooner," said the man. " 1 am more 
 sorry for Mr. Howard than I ever was for any one 
 in my life ; but business is business. I can't af- 
 ford to trust my fortunes with a man handicapped 
 by blindness." 
 
 " Better get out of the office then," said Walter, 
 goaded into unusual roughness. 
 
 " And lose my half-year's pay ? " 
 
 " You '11 get it all right," said Stirling, flushing 
 angrily. 
 
 " What security have I of that ? " 
 
 " Mr. Howard's word." 
 
 *' Ah, I did n't know you were in his confidence. 
 Then I guess I '11 go. Coming with me, Cooledge ? " 
 138
 
 DAN'S LIGHTS GO OUT 
 
 " No," said the other. 
 
 " Nonsense, man ; business is business." 
 
 "I stay as matter of business. I had rather 
 trust my fortune with Mr. Howard blind than with 
 most lawyers who can see." 
 
 " And I had rather lose a fortune with Mr. 
 Howard than make it with any other," said the boy 
 defiantly. 
 
 Walter listened dully to this discussion. " I had 
 better be going," he interrupted. " Be sure you 
 come round early to-morrow." 
 
 Stirling followed him to the door. " I wish I 
 might go to-day," he said wistfully. 
 
 " Better not ; you know how he is when he says 
 a thing." 
 
 Stirling still lingered. " Tell him " he began, 
 then added quickly, " No, there is nothing one can 
 tell him." 
 
 " That 's just it," said Walter. He moved and 
 spoke like one in a stupor ; the whole world might 
 die or suffer, but Dan 
 
 Before night he was besieged by questions from 
 friends and reporters. There was nothing to tell 
 except the bald fact that Daniel Howard had gone 
 stone blind ; but as facts go, this was a startling 
 one. At the clubs little else was talked of. 
 
 " Howard, of all men ! " was the most usual ex- 
 139
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 clamation. " Poor fellow, does he take it hard ? " 
 asked one of his friends. 
 
 " How would you expect him to take it?" asked 
 Walter angrily. 
 
 "Jove! I know how I'd take it!" exclaimed 
 a prominent stock broker. " I 'd knock my brains 
 out against the first stone I stumbled over." 
 
 "I shouldn't wait to stumble," said the first 
 speaker. " Imagine Daniel Howard stumbling ! " 
 
 There were many things for Walter to do that 
 day, and all the time he saw Dan sitting alone in 
 the dark. There were moments when he heard 
 again the click of the turning lock. Why had Dan 
 locked himself in ? He shivered as he ran up the 
 stairs of his lodgings two hours earlier than usual. 
 The door opened easily to his hand, and all he found 
 was a lonely man who had grown old in a single 
 day, and on whom some mysterious seal had already 
 descended which set him forever apart from other 
 
 men. 
 
 140
 
 Chapter XI 
 
 TEMPTATION 
 
 MRS. RANDOLPH and her daughter sat 
 over their French coffee and rolls. It was 
 a warm day for March, even in Paris, and the 
 windows were carefully shaded by Venetian blinds ; 
 but the blinds had been long unused ; they fastened 
 imperfectly, so that a ray of sunlight strayed 
 through them and rested on Kate's face, and 
 Kate's mother was looking at her with sudden 
 awakening. 
 
 " She is growing old," Mrs. Randolph told her- 
 self. " You are not eating anything," she said 
 aloud. 
 
 " I can't, mamma ; food chokes me. Are you 
 quite sure there was no American mail last night ? 
 Did Louise ask the concierge ? " 
 
 " I told her to do so. Try to eat something, 
 Kate. It is not becoming to you to be thin." 
 
 " I know it I shall be a very plain old maid. 
 I wish papa would write. It is not kind to leave 
 us so long without home news." 
 141
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 "What are you expecting to hear? You are 
 not usually so anxious for news from Boston." 
 
 Kate was silent. 
 
 " Your father does n't often trouble us with let- 
 ters," continued her mother tranquilly. 
 
 " No, he is too good for us." 
 
 " My dear ! " Mrs. Randolph put down her cup 
 and looked at Kate with displeasure. " My dear ! 
 I think you are forgetting yourself." 
 
 " On the contrary, mamma, I am remember- 
 ing." Kate pushed back her chair and flung her- 
 self on the sofa. There was abandoned misery in 
 her attitude, and in her face something that neither 
 years nor illness could explain. Mrs. Randolph 
 understood little, but felt that the time had come to 
 speak. 
 
 " Kate, my dear," she began. 
 
 Kate did not answer. 
 
 " Do you hear me, Kate ?" 
 
 " Yes, mamma." 
 
 " I want to speak to you." 
 
 " Yes, mamma. I am listening." 
 
 Now that it came to the point of speaking, Mrs. 
 Randolph found that she had nothing to say. " I 
 think it is time you should end this sort of thing," 
 she said vaguely. 
 
 " What sort of thing ? " 
 142
 
 TEMPTATION 
 
 " Why, not eating, and making strange remarks 
 about other people being better than we are, and 
 calling yourself an old maid. You know well 
 enough what I mean." 
 
 Kate turned wearily on her side. " What do you 
 want me to do? " she asked. 
 
 Her mother's wishes became suddenly and start- 
 lingly definite. 
 
 " I want you to marry Lord de Normandy," she 
 said. 
 
 " I have told you often that I cannot marry." 
 
 Her mother began to cry weakly. "I don't 
 know what I have brought you up for," she pro- 
 tested, "or how I could have done differently. 
 Why should you reproach me for your being un- 
 happy ? I always sent you to the best schools, and 
 took you where you could meet the best people, 
 and never spared money on the best dressmakers." 
 
 " I don't reproach you, mamma," answered Kate 
 wearily. " We have n't either of us made much 
 of our lives ; but I am more to blame than you, 
 for you lack in some essential I don't know what 
 it is and I lack in nothing. I have what other 
 women have, and it tortures me. Don't answer ! 
 Don't argue ! You can't understand. What is 
 that ? Some one knocked ! " Kate sat up with 
 sudden eagerness, and then with a little cry de- 
 143
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 scended on some letters that were pushed under the 
 door. " Here is one from papa," she said with an 
 odd breathlessness. " May I open it ? " 
 
 " Certainly not. My letters are my own. Give 
 it to me." 
 
 On the point of her self-importance Mrs. Ran- 
 dolph was unvaryingly firm. Kate yielded, and 
 stood by the window with locked fingers while Mrs. 
 Randolph adjusted her eyeglasses. 
 
 " He tells me he has sent our furs by Celeste," 
 she began. " They ought to be here by the twenty- 
 third. That will give us time to have them made 
 up before we leave Paris. I wonder if he remem- 
 bered my sable muff let me see no, he says no- 
 thing more about my affairs how like him ! Here 
 is something about Dan. He made a big speech. 
 What do I care about his speech ? Why, what 
 is this ? I wish your father would write more dis- 
 tinctly ! Don't stand so near, Kate. You are be- 
 tween me and the light. ' Poor Dan has lost his 
 his ' it looks like * eyesight,' but he can't mean 
 that." 
 
 " I will read it." 
 
 Kate took the letter quickly to the window. 
 
 " ' Dan Howard made a splendid speech the other 
 night,' " she read in a hard voice. " ' He had an 
 electrifying effect on the audience, which makes his 
 144
 
 TEMPTATION 
 
 great misfortune to be regretted on public as well 
 as on personal grounds.' " 
 
 " Well, my dear, what is it? what has he lost? 
 I hope it is not his fortune, for I have always hoped 
 that you might be induced to fancy him." 
 
 Kate gave a short laugh, or was it a sob ? Mrs. 
 Randolph did not know. 
 
 " * Poor Dan has lost his eyesight,' " read Kate 
 with her back to the room. " ' I have expected it 
 for some time ' " 
 
 " How like your father, not to have told me ! " 
 
 " * I have expected it for some time, but hardly 
 looked for it so soon. He went blind in the mid- 
 dle of his speech, which makes the whole affair 
 most extraordinary.' " 
 
 Kate laughed again. " How dramatic ! " she 
 said. " It reads like something in a play." 
 
 "Don't be flippant, my dear. Blindness is a 
 very serious thing." 
 
 The letter was shaking in Kate's fingers. She 
 read on : " ' He is a man of splendid courage, and 
 will meet this as he would meet anything else that 
 came to him with his face to the front.' " 
 
 " Is there nothing else ? " 
 
 " I don't know. I can't see. I think I must be 
 going blind too." 
 
 The letter dropped. 
 
 145
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " I am glad you find something to joke about," 
 said Mrs. Randolph gravely. " Poor Dan ! I am 
 sorry he has gone blind and thus put an end to 
 anything between you two. I had always hoped 
 but blindness is even more impossible than loss 
 of fortune. Where are you going ? Here is an- 
 other letter. It seems to be in Edith Meredith's 
 handwriting, and is addressed to you. I did n't 
 know they were in Paris. I suppose that disagree- 
 able Winifred is here too." 
 
 Kate carried her letter to her own room. 
 
 " I wonder if she knows," she asked herself, tear- 
 ing open the note with trembling fingers. 
 
 "I saw your name in the bank register, this 
 morning," Edith had written, " and suppose you 
 must have just come out. Do drop in and have 
 tea with us to-morrow. Win has a good opportu- 
 nity to tour in Russia, and we leave this week, 
 Heaven knows for how many months or years. Did 
 you see Dan before you left Boston ? He was here 
 four weeks ago looking dreadfully ill ; since then 
 we have heard nothing, and are afraid something 
 is wrong." 
 
 Kate flung the note aside. Her slight frame 
 quivered convulsively. 
 
 " He came out here to see her for the last time, 
 and he never told her he never told," she cried. 
 146
 
 TEMPTATION 
 
 " That was like him. He loved her too well. I 
 can tell her now. I can hurt her. Oh, how I 
 long to hurt her ! " 
 
 She began to dress herself with blind haste. 
 
 " What will she do ? What will she say ? I can 
 see her looking at me with those eyes of hers. 
 When I think of him, I feel as if I should go mad. 
 She never cared for any one. But why should she ? 
 She had him. Perhaps now, when she hears, she 
 may give up everything and go to him." Kate 
 paused. " If I keep silent now, she may not know 
 it for months ; no one writes to her from Boston. 
 I can't do it I can't. It is my turn now. I 
 have loved him longest, I have loved him best. I 
 would have given up everything at any moment for 
 him. I did n't need to know he was blind to know 
 that I loved him. No, I can't do it. He could n't 
 expect it of me after all these years. It is my only 
 chance of being happy." Kate was crying with her 
 head on the dressing-table. " I should have loved 
 him so well. What must he not be living through 
 now ! Win could make him almost happy if she 
 would. If I could only think of him as happy 
 but not with another woman not that ; I could n't 
 bear that. Could he ever care for me ? I shall 
 never forget the scorn in his eyes that day. If I 
 should tell Win now and she should go to him 
 147
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 and he should be made happy through me 
 perhaps he might hate me less." 
 
 Kate pinned on the thickest veil she owned and 
 hurried down stairs to order a close carriage. " If 
 I tell her, I shall deserve less contempt from him, 
 though he will never know he will never know," 
 she repeated. " If I tell her, I shall throw away 
 my one chance of being happy or good. What is 
 he doing? What is he feeling? How he must 
 want her ! I know what it is to want a person 
 night and day to want, and want, and want till 
 you almost go mad. I suppose he feels so, and 
 he is blind blind ! I cannot bear it. I cannot 
 think of him so. He must be happy, and if Win 
 can make him so he must have her. Oh, why was 
 I never taught to pray ! I will tell her. Perhaps 
 then I can forget the scorn in his eyes. Why was 
 I never taught to pray ? " 
 
 The carriage stopped. 
 
 Yes, Mademoiselle was chez elle, but Mademoi- 
 selle Edith had gone out. 
 
 For five maddening minutes Kate waited in a 
 dark corner of Winifred's studio, and then Wini- 
 fred came in to receive her with polite indifference. 
 Winifred's cool, steady fingers touched Kate's fever- 
 ish ones, and Winifred's poise and self-possession 
 contrasted oddly with Kate's nervous tension. 
 148
 
 TEMPTATION 
 
 " I hate her ! I hate her ! I hate her ! " said 
 Kate over and over to herself. 
 
 " I heard you were going to Russia, so I came to 
 say good-by," she remarked aloud. 
 
 " Yes, we go in a day or so. I don't know when 
 we shall come back. Home is as distant as 
 dreams." 
 
 Winifred's tone was devoid of either elation or 
 doubt. She sat with the full light on her clear, 
 colorless skin, unwavering eyes, and firm lips. 
 
 Because she was a woman, Kate longed to break 
 the news to her ; because she loved Dan, she feared 
 to do so ; and because she hated Winifred, she 
 could not part with the superiority her knowledge 
 gave her. 
 
 "Have you a satisfactory engagement?" she 
 asked, to save time. 
 
 " Financially it is." 
 
 Then a silence fell between them. Kate's lips 
 moved to say, " Did you know that Dan was blind?" 
 What she actually said was, " I saw him Dan, I 
 mean in Boston just before I sailed." Then she 
 waited. 
 
 None but the eyes of a jealous woman could have 
 detected the change in Winifred's face ; but it was 
 there, and Kate saw it. 
 
 " Edith wrote me you were anxious about him," 
 149
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 she continued, " and I came round to tell you that 
 I had seen him." 
 
 "Ah." Winifred raised her eyebrows. Her 
 serene, self-absorbed consciousness was unaccount- 
 ably antagonized by Kate's manner. " It was very 
 good of you," she said coldly. " But we had news 
 of him the other day. I am sorry you took the 
 trouble to come. It is most unlikely that you 
 could know anything we had not already heard." 
 
 There was another silence, during which Wini- 
 fred despised herself for the smallness of her last 
 remark, while Kate suffocated with anger and pain. 
 She rose suddenly. " I must go. Say good-by 
 to Edith for me." 
 
 " She will be sorry to have missed you. " 
 
 Both women faced each other. Certain words 
 were crying aloud in Kate's consciousness, but her 
 lips were silent. 
 
 Winifred was sorry for her pettishness. " It was 
 good of you to come," she said cordially. " If we 
 had n't had news last week, we should have been 
 eager to hear all you knew. When you go home 
 which will be long before we do be sure and tell 
 Dan not to overwork himself. I am afraid he has 
 done so lately. Good-by." Then Kate hated her 
 more than ever. 
 
 " She despises me too much to dislike me," she 
 150
 
 TEMPTATION 
 
 cried, hurrying down stairs. "She fears me so 
 little that she sends him messages through me. 
 How could I do her a good turn when it meant 
 the end of my only chance of happiness ? " Kate 
 cried, in short, gasping sobs. " Is he living in 
 a worse hell than I ? Poor Dan ! Oh, my poor 
 Dan ! I love him, and I have done him wrong ! 
 Just as if it mattered about her or me about any- 
 thing but his happiness." 
 
 Madame, who sat in the conciergerie, was startled 
 by the sudden appearance of a beautifully dressed 
 girl with a haggard face. 
 
 " Give me paper and pencil, quick anything 
 will do," said this lady; and Kate wrote: "I 
 thought you might care to know that Dan went 
 blind two weeks ago." 
 
 " Take that to Mademoiselle Meredith at once. 
 Do you understand ? " she said. 
 
 " Oui, Madame. I go at once a V instant" 
 
 " But you are not going." 
 
 " I show Madame the door first ; permettez-moi. 
 This is Madame'sj/ftzcre? " 
 
 " Don't fail to let her have it," said Kate with 
 feverish eagerness, as she pulled up the cab window. 
 
 " Madame may rely upon me. I go to stop le 
 petit Jean from playing with the fire, and within 
 four minutes Mademoiselle Meredith has the note." 
 151
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 It happened that le petit Jean had put the note 
 in the fire. Madame boxed his ears soundly. 
 
 " Mon dieu quel enfant 1 " she sighed, return- 
 ing to her knitting. " But it can be of no great im- 
 portance. If it had been from a man " Madame 
 shrugged her shoulders significantly. 
 
 A few days later Kate returned, to find that 
 Winifred had gone to Russia. 
 
 She breathed quickly. " What did she do when 
 you gave her my note ? " 
 
 " Just this * Merci.' " Madame gave an ad- 
 mirable imitation of Winifred's careless manner. 
 
 " And afterwards you say she went to Rus- 
 sia, not to America? " 
 
 "It was Russia, I know, for she left her ad- 
 dress." 
 
 Kate went out with a new look in her eyes. " It 
 is my turn now," she said. " I sacrificed myself 
 to save him ; she took the best of his life, and left 
 him in his hour of need. I can look her in the face 
 now, for I am as worthy of him as she." 
 
 Winifred sat alone after Kate's visit, wondering 
 why it had disturbed her so. She was troubled 
 about Dan. Walter Garrison had written that he 
 was well, and at work ; but why had not Dan writ- 
 ten himself? 
 
 152
 
 TEMPTATION 
 
 Von Eeidnitz came that afternoon to coach her 
 for a new opera, and Winifred disliked him more 
 than ever. 
 
 " You go to Russia ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, this week." 
 
 " I have been away a month, and come back to 
 this news. You never told me." 
 
 " Why should 1 have told you ? " 
 
 There was an unpleasant look in the Austrian's 
 eyes. Here was an unmarried woman, who saw 
 him alone daily, and whose fingers he dared not 
 kiss. Such women as these, women who met his 
 eyes without thought of evil, and spoke to him 
 without restraint, were beyond the bounds of his 
 very questionable experience. Winifred was fear- 
 less ; her careless power and splendid vitality at- 
 tracted him, while her indifference and apparent 
 coldness left him baffled and amazed. 
 
 Something of all this Winifred might have read 
 in his eyes, had she cared to look ; but though his 
 personality sometimes disturbed her, she was more 
 often unconscious of anything but his artistic pos- 
 sibilities. 
 
 She moved to the piano now. " We will go 
 through the first act," she said. 
 
 " I did not come here for music." 
 
 "What then?" 
 
 153
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 "Winifred's eyes silenced him. When he spoke 
 again it was on a different subject. 
 
 " Mademoiselle," he began, " the last time I came 
 here, I was insulted by one of your friends." 
 
 " How strange ! Who was it ? " 
 
 " Your American. I know not his name." 
 
 Winifred tried not to smile. " Oh, why did n't 
 I hear it ! " she thought. " What did he say to 
 you ? " she asked aloud. 
 
 " Let it suffice to know that he insulted me for 
 the second time. I regret to tell you that he is a 
 coward." 
 
 " A coward ! " Winifred laughed. 
 
 " You laugh ; you think it a small thing to be 
 a coward." 
 
 She had never angered him more than at this 
 minute. 
 
 " I offered him honorable redress," he continued. 
 
 " You challenged him how absurd ! " She 
 laughed again. " It is like something on the stage. 
 What did he do ? " 
 
 " He refused." 
 
 " Of course. I suppose he laughed at you ? " 
 
 " Americans laugh in strange places. I am, un- 
 fortunately, unable to share your merriment. He 
 is a coward." 
 
 This time Winifred flushed. " Coward is not a 
 154
 
 TEMPTATION 
 
 nice word," she said slowly, " and I think you have 
 said it too often, Herr von Reidnitz. From this 
 day you will consider these lessons at an end." 
 
 Herr von Reidnitz rose and bowed. " I hope 
 the Fraulein will some day see fit to pardon." 
 
 " I do not pardon easily." Winifred spoke 
 haughtily. She was unaccountably indignant, and 
 felt that such musical criticism as he could give her 
 would be too dearly bought. 
 
 Von Reidnitz hurried down stairs. " Ach, these 
 Americans ! " he muttered. " The women you 
 think are free till you find they are only fearless ! 
 The men who laugh at the word a Frenchman 
 would shoot you for ! This girl is splendid, dar- 
 ing, charming, amazing, all at once. I was a fool 
 to offend her for some day it would have been 
 worth while to make her afraid." 
 
 It was among such men as these that Winifred 
 passed with her serene pride untouched. Von 
 Reidnitz had not reached the street before she 
 had forgotten him, and his kind ; but she sat long 
 by the empty grate, thinking ; and once she spoke 
 to herself aloud. 
 
 " It is unkind of him not to write," she said. 
 155
 
 Chapter XII 
 
 ON THE WAY 
 
 IT was a year later, and Winifred was coming 
 home. 
 
 " The captain says we shall be over the bar by 
 ten o'clock to-morrow," announced Edith. 
 
 She was arranging her hair before an infinitesi- 
 mal mirror, and Winifred sat on the sofa looking 
 out of the port-hole. The year had changed her, 
 taken something from her radiant confidence, 
 drawn a tiny line between her brows, and brought 
 a curious compression to the corners of her lips. 
 Disappointment had not discouraged, but neither 
 had it softened her. Her moments of silence were 
 longer, her moments of expansion rarer, than when 
 she went to Kussia. She did not answer Edith's 
 remark ; but as Edith had said, " One would talk 
 so very little if one talked only when sure of being 
 answered by Win." 
 
 " I suppose we shall be in New York by mid- 
 day," Edith continued. " When we left home five 
 years ago we could not have afforded a stateroom 
 156
 
 ON THE WAY 
 
 like this. You must at least be pleased by the 
 money you have been able to make." 
 
 " Yes," said Winifred. " It helps while waiting 
 for the real thing." 
 
 " Perhaps the ' real thing ' will come this win- 
 ter." 
 
 " If I have a chance to sing." 
 
 " The impresario promised it to you." 
 
 " What is an impresario's promise ? " 
 
 "Not golden, certainly." Edith had finished, 
 and sat watching Winifred's profile in the light 
 that streamed through the port-hole. 
 
 "Win." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " When you have the real thing, what then ? " 
 
 " I shall enjoy it." 
 
 " Will you ? Sometimes I think you will not 
 for long." 
 
 " What do you suppose I am doing it for ? " 
 
 " For the sake of doing it. Have you ever no- 
 ticed that admiration is the thing you tire of most 
 easily ? " 
 
 " It is n't for admiration, it 's for power." 
 
 If Edith had no intellect, she possessed its best 
 substitute practical intuition. 
 
 " What do you mean, exactly, by power ? " she 
 
 157
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Winifred evaded the question. "It is better 
 than anything else life can give me," she said. 
 
 "It would be the least life could give me 
 power of that kind, I mean." 
 
 Edith still looked at the dark, irregular profile ; 
 a shadow she was learning to recognize brooded in 
 Winifred's eyes. 
 
 "I wonder if you would confess something to 
 me, now that we are talking frankly ? " began 
 Edith. 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " Have n't you been disappointed in Dan ? " 
 
 " No." The answer came quickly, and then the 
 shadow deepened in Winifred's eyes. 
 
 " He has never answered your letters, nor sent 
 an explanation." 
 
 "Dan would never need to explain to me." 
 
 " How do you explain ? " 
 
 " I don't explain, only I know that whatever 
 Dan does is well done." 
 
 " It is not like you to believe in people so." 
 
 " Other ' people ' are not Dan." 
 
 " Do you expect to see him, now that we are at 
 home again ? " 
 
 " It will be as he chooses." 
 
 Edith puckered her brows. " I did n't think 
 Dan would give up like that," she complained. 
 158
 
 ON THE WAY 
 
 " It destroys all one's ideas of fidelity. I don't 
 know whom to believe in now." 
 
 " I believe in him as I always have, as I always 
 shall. If he decided we had better be separated, 
 he decided it as much for me as for himself. I 
 wouldn't need letters to tell me that: he knows 
 that I know." 
 
 Winifred rose. She had spoken with a ring of 
 proud confidence in her voice. 
 
 " Where are you going? " asked Edith. 
 
 " Out," said Winifred. 
 
 As she passed along the deck, some men who 
 stood in the smoking-room door commented upon 
 her. 
 
 " Can you imagine those lips tremulous ? " said 
 one of them. " The mouth shows what you are, 
 the eyes what you might have been. Have you 
 ever noticed her eyes ? " 
 
 " Yes, they are mysterious at times. Then again 
 they have the frank, unspoiled gaze of a child. I 
 wonder how long they will keep it." 
 
 " What does a woman with those eyes want of 
 artificial lights, empty praises, and the drudgery of 
 stage life? " said the first speaker impatiently. 
 
 An old man who smoked a little apart looked up 
 suddenly. " I understand she has not made any 
 striking success," he said. 
 -159
 
 THE TUEN OF THE ROAD 
 
 **I believe not. That makes it all the more 
 astonishing." 
 
 " Does it ? " said the old gentleman with a quiet 
 smile. 
 
 There was a little pause and then a comprehen- 
 sive look. 
 
 " I think Mr. Rivers has hit the right nail," 
 said one of the men. " You 're old-fashioned, 
 Meriman. You can't stop the modern woman from 
 doing." 
 
 " She would accomplish so much more if she 
 would satisfy herself with being," growled Meri- 
 man. " Take the sister." 
 
 " The sister 's a dear little girl, no one denies 
 that ; but who can think of her when the other one 
 is about ? " 
 
 Winifred, unconscious of and indifferent to in- 
 terested eyes, had flung herself down on a coil of 
 rope in the bow of the steamer. The wild, salt 
 wind blew cold in her face, and the waste of flowing 
 waters suggested infinite things. 
 
 " Dan would have liked this." She sat long, 
 and her eyes deepened and darkened. One of 
 those moments when no self-deceit is possible had 
 come to her. In this lonely sublimity of sky and 
 sea she could not seem other than she was. She 
 knew that she should always hold out empty hands 
 160
 
 ON THE WAY 
 
 to life, though the flattery, the wealth, the power of 
 the world were hers. She knew that she should be 
 alone, though she lived and talked with men and 
 women. Other women were happy, in friends, or 
 lovers, or work, and Dan had spoken to her of what 
 could make her happy, but she had never been able 
 to love Dan as other women would have done. She 
 had not loved him ; but had always known that 
 there could never be other man, other friend, other 
 lover in her life than he. Some day she wanted 
 him to know this, because in after years, when he 
 ceased to love her, he might blame her for taking 
 so much and giving so little ; and this had been 
 her only excuse, this knowledge of hers that if it 
 could not be he it would be no one. Now he had 
 gone out of her life, and none could take his place. 
 It was best so ; he would be happier in the end. 
 For herself there would never be anything but her 
 career, even though it left her with empty hands 
 at the last. 
 
 But this was not what she had expected of life. 
 It had looked so simple and joyous, on that June 
 day five years ago when Dan had found her sing- 
 ing in the poppy garden. And now she asked 
 herself with startled wonder if she were not going 
 to be an unhappy woman; but that was absurd, 
 when one had youth, and health, and talent such 
 161
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 as hers. No, unhappiness was not the word ; not 
 for an instant would she acknowledge unhappiness 
 only nothing was very much worth while, and 
 she was lonely, and she must be lonely all her life. 
 
 This was not her first moment of awakening, and 
 she met it as she had met others. She rose and 
 smiled a challenging smile straight into the heart 
 of the setting sun. Life should give her what she 
 chose, what would make it abundantly worth living. 
 It was weak to consider unhappiness because the 
 day was dying; it was morbid to fear loneliness 
 because she was alone with the sky and sea. 
 
 She turned from the solitude to lighted cabins 
 and the sound of chattering voices. Edith had 
 been hunting for her. 
 
 " Have you forgotten the concert to-night ? " she 
 asked. " You promised to rehearse, and then you 
 
 " I was in the bow ; any one might have found 
 me." 
 
 " Who would have thought of finding you in 
 that windy spot ! It was very imprudent of you." 
 
 "Winifred clasped her hands behind her head, 
 and laughed a low, defiant laugh. 
 
 " I do not care," she said. " Sometimes I dare 
 not to care, and it is so nice." 
 
 " Which daring, or not caring ? " 
 162
 
 ON THE WAY 
 
 "Both." 
 
 " How queer you are, Win ! You are perfectly 
 capable of spoiling the climax of your career by 
 one of these crazy moods." 
 
 " I know it, but I am not going to spoil to-night. 
 I am going to sing well. Wait." 
 
 A reaction had set in. Winifred's mood was 
 reckless, confident, brilliant. She talked gayly as 
 she dressed for the concert. 
 
 " After all," she said, " though a great operatic 
 success must be a great thing, it might be just as 
 good to be a red cross nurse on a post of danger in 
 war time." 
 
 Edith sat on her berth and shivered. " I should n't 
 mind being a nurse, but I should hate a post of 
 danger," she said. 
 
 " The danger is what I should like, danger and 
 a laugh in the teeth of it. It must be glorious. 
 Only," she added reflectively " only I probably 
 should n't laugh, I should run away." 
 
 Edith sighed. 
 
 " Win, dear, sometimes I fear you are not at all 
 the person for an opera singer." 
 
 Winifred laughed. " Wait till you hear me to- 
 night," she said. 
 
 " Nobody will hear you if you keep on talking so 
 much. There won't be a note left in your voice." 
 163
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Wait," she said, laughing again, and stood be- 
 fore the mirror with careless amusement. " I am 
 glad I have n't beauty," she continued. " It is so 
 much more triumphant to be able to do without it. 
 I am going to take the geranium the captain gave 
 you to-day, Edith. A red geranium is the only 
 flower I don't like, it is so aggressive and blatant ; 
 but to-night I want it. I shall wear it in my hair 
 -like this." 
 
 The effect was daring, and seemed part of what 
 Edith called " one of Win's invincible moods." 
 
 In the saloon, Winifred, with her black hair aud 
 dress and her scarlet flower, created a sensation of 
 which she was serenely conscious. 
 
 " What is she, an American, or a duchess, or 
 both?" asked a passenger who appeared for the 
 first time. 
 
 " An American, and an opera singer." 
 
 " Good heavens an opera singer, you say ? " 
 A pair of lorgnettes went up. " But she is a lady." 
 
 "Undoubtedly." 
 
 " Then how can she " 
 
 " She is so far above the dirt of the stage that 
 she does n't see it." 
 
 " Ah. How long do you suppose that will last ? " 
 
 " I don't know. She looks rather incorruptible, 
 don't you think so ? " 
 
 164
 
 ON THE WAY 
 
 Winifred sat down near the door in a seat that 
 old Mr. Rivers had found for her. 
 
 " You look well, my child," he said. 
 
 " Why do you call me a child? " asked Winifred. 
 '* Do you know that I am twenty-six ? " 
 
 " That is young enough to be a child to me." 
 
 She smiled. " I am glad the parentage exists 
 only in years. You would n't have let me go on 
 the stage." 
 
 " You are right ; I should not." 
 
 " You could n't have helped it," she said with 
 mischievous defiance. 
 
 " Possibly not." 
 
 Edith came to say that the concert was about to 
 begin ; but Winifred announced her intention of 
 staying where she was for the present. 
 
 " They make such dreadful music," she explained. 
 " Are you going ? " she asked of Mr. Rivers. 
 
 " No, I am not fond of music as a rule. I shall 
 go to hear you sing, however." 
 
 She rested her elbows on the table, and with 
 chin in hands looked at him for a short time in 
 silence. 
 
 "I think you will be disappointed," she said 
 finally. 
 
 " That depends upon what I expect." 
 
 " Don't you expect me to sing well ? " She 
 165
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 looked surprised. " People always expect more of 
 me than they find." 
 
 " That is on account of your confident air, Win," 
 said Edith, who had also seated herself. 
 
 " Don't you expect me to sing well ? " persisted 
 Winifred ingenuously. 
 
 Well yes ; not greatly." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " You are still a child." 
 
 "That is the old story," she said impatiently. 
 " Besides, it is n't altogether true." She thought 
 of that sunset hour when she had been alone with 
 the sky and sea. Looking out of the open door, 
 she could see the deck slope into the night, and a 
 solemn path of moonlight on the water. 
 
 " There are far better things for you than oper- 
 atic success," said the old man. He spoke in 
 undertones, for the concert had begun. "You 
 worship power without understanding the deepest 
 meaning of the word." He drummed on the table 
 with his fingers and looked at her reflectively. " I 
 should like you to know a particular friend of 
 mine," he said. 
 
 " Why ? What has he done ? " 
 
 " Is n't it quite as important to ask what he is ? " 
 
 " Well, what is he, then ? " She smiled. 
 
 " Several things. Incidentally he is blind." 
 166
 
 ON THE WAY 
 
 " Ah, how can blindness be an incident ? " 
 
 " He makes it one. I think you would like 
 him." 
 
 " Would he like me ? " she asked, smiling. 
 
 " I do not know," he answered, smiling also. 
 Then he continued seriously : 
 
 " He went blind in the middle of his own speech." 
 
 " You don't mean he finished it ? " 
 
 " He finished it." 
 
 Winifred drew a deep breath. 
 
 " How could he do it ? How could he ? " cried 
 Edith. 
 
 " It would make life worth living just to have 
 done a thing like that," said Winifred in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " Which remark proves what I say about your 
 inexperience," Mr. Rivers answered. "You are 
 struck by the act, not by the pain." 
 
 " What has he done since then ? " 
 
 " He has made himself one of the most promi- 
 nent lawyers in the state. Just before I left Eu- 
 rope I heard of his having won the biggest law 
 case that has appeared in the courts for some years." 
 
 " I wonder if I could ever meet him," Winifred 
 said slowly. 
 
 " How terrible it must be to be blind ! I can't 
 bear to think of it," whispered Edith. 
 167
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Why do you think of it, then ? " Winifred 
 gave herself a mental shake. " Why do you think 
 of it ? There are so many pleasant things in the 
 world. My sister is so foolish," she explained with 
 a smile. " She is a great deal softer hearted than 
 I am, yet she continually dwells on unfortunates. 
 If I felt as badly as she does, I would never look 
 at one or speak of one, unless, of course, I could 
 do some good, and then I suppose I should feel 
 obliged As it is, unhappy people do not want 
 me any more than I want them." She spoke 
 lightly, with graceful defiance. 
 
 " That is why you don't sing better," said Mr. 
 Rivers gravely. 
 
 But Winifred would not be grave. A mischiev- 
 ous devil laughed in her eyes. She drew a pro- 
 gramme towards her and wrote rapidly on the 
 back. 
 
 " What are you doing ? " inquired Edith curi- 
 ously. 
 
 " Beginning a new musical education. It seems 
 necessary that I should enlarge my bump of com- 
 passion. How is this ? " She read from her pro- 
 gramme. " ' Wanted. A lady desires to adopt 
 poor boy or girl, cripple preferred.' I shall put it 
 in the New York Herald the moment we land." 
 Then she laughed and tore the paper in two. " No, 
 168
 
 ON THE WAY 
 
 I don't like unfortunates. I leave them to Edith. 
 Happiness and success are my chosen friends." 
 
 " How Dan would have hated to hear you talk 
 so," said Edith reproachfully. 
 
 " I wonder if Mr. Rivers could tell us anything 
 of him," said Winifred, laughing no longer. 
 
 "Who? Dan?" 
 
 " Yes." She looked up. " You are a lawyer 
 and come from Massachusetts ; do you know an old 
 friend " 
 
 A strange voice interrupted her. 
 
 " Miss Meredith, it is your turn to sing." 
 
 She consulted the programme. " There is one 
 more number first. I will go after that. I want 
 to ask a question." 
 
 " Very well, don't ask it too loud. Mrs. Bart- 
 lett's voice is easily extinguished." 
 
 She continued in a low tone. 
 
 " Do you know a Mr. Howard, a lawyer of the 
 Massachusetts bar? " 
 
 " Why, that is the name of the man I was telling 
 you of ; could n't it be " 
 
 " Of course not. Dan blind ! What an idea. 
 Don't you know more than one Howard ? " 
 
 "I know only one of the Massachusetts bar. 
 How long is it since you have seen your friend ? 
 Are you sure " 
 
 169
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Of course I am. How persistent you lawyers 
 are. Why, Dan is n't any more blind than you are ! 
 Perhaps you will recognize his full name. Daniel 
 Maitland Howard. Your friend is probably some 
 Jim Howard, or Jack Howard." 
 
 Mr. Rivers looked at her doubtfully. 
 
 " He is Daniel Maitland Howard," was the 
 answer. 
 
 Edith gave a little cry. 
 
 Winifred was leaning forward on the table. She 
 did not stir or speak, but the color went drop by 
 drop from her face till Mr. Rivers was frightened. 
 
 " Miss Meredith, it is your turn to sing." 
 
 She rose mechanically. 
 
 Edith was crying. 
 
 " Be quiet ! " commanded Winifred fiercely. 
 It is n't Dan it can't be Dan." 
 
 Two of the men who had discussed Winifred in 
 the afternoon watched her entrance now. 
 
 " Look at Miss Meredith," said Meriman quickly. 
 " Good heavens ! what 's wrong? Is it the electric 
 light, or the scarlet flower ? " 
 
 " By Jove! " exclaimed the other, putting on his 
 glasses, " what a change ! It 's neither light nor 
 flower. Look at her lips. I '11 wager she does n't 
 sing." 
 
 Winifred faced a hundred eyes. The pallor of 
 170
 
 ON THE WAY 
 
 her face was startling beside the black dress and 
 the cruel red of a scarlet geranium. 
 
 " Is she going to faint? Is she stage-struck?" 
 whispered some one. 
 
 " Stage-struck that woman ? Nonsense I I 
 did n't know she was so tall, did you ? " 
 
 Edith played the opening bars of the accompa- 
 niment, but Winifred made no sound. She played 
 them again, and Winifred caught her throat. 
 
 " I can't," she whispered. " I can't breathe. 
 It may be Dan." 
 
 171
 
 Chapter XIII 
 
 HOME 
 
 ME. EIVEES awaited Winifred's return. He 
 had known she would not sing. 
 
 " I wonder if Dan Howard knows or cares," 
 he asked himself. 
 
 Very soon Winifred stood before him with 
 fiercely questioning eyes. 
 
 " I must know if it is Dan," she said. 
 
 " We will telegraph Mr. Garrison to-morrow." 
 Edith spoke soothingly. 
 
 " I must know to-night." 
 
 Mr. Eivers placed a chair for her, and addressed 
 himself to Edith. " Walter Garrison is Howard's 
 most intimate friend," he said. " They lived to- 
 gether for years on Beacon Hill." 
 
 " Then it is our Dan." Edith gave a little sob. 
 " Poor Dan, how dreadful ! " Winifred said no- 
 thing. She was strangely still and white and 
 breathless. 
 
 Looking at her, Mr. Eivers asked himself what 
 part this woman played in Daniel Howard's life. 
 172
 
 HOME 
 
 " I did not know he was such an old friend of 
 yours, or I should have broken the news less bru- 
 tally." He continued to address Edith. "Mr. 
 Howard lost his eyesight about two years ago, but 
 since then he has won more admiration than pity. 
 I don't think his friends should grieve for him over- 
 much." 
 
 " He might have told us," said Edith. And 
 then some men came up to ask if Winifred was 
 feeling better, and if there was nothing to be done 
 for her. 
 
 Winifred was not feeling better, and there was 
 nothing to be done. 
 
 " It is only a little faintness," Edith assured 
 them. She longed to go away and cry ; but it 
 wouldn't be fair to leave Winifred looking like 
 this. She had never looked so before, and Edith 
 was startled. Why did n't Win speak, or move, 
 or cry ? This stillness of hers made every one un- 
 comfortable. 
 
 The men lingered. " I heard you speaking of 
 Dan Howard just now," said one of them. " Did 
 you know he had won his great case ? " 
 
 Mr. Rivers nodded assent. 
 
 " I had a letter from an eye-witness just before 
 I sailed," continued the speaker. " It must have 
 been worth seeing and hearing. They say there 
 173
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 was n't a dry eye in the court. Howard has an odd 
 power of moving people when he chooses. I sup- 
 pose his personal experience helps somewhat. You 
 always feel the man must have suffered hideously." 
 
 Mr. Rivers rose and turned out the light that 
 shone on Winifred's face. 
 
 " I wonder if you 're speaking of the Dan How- 
 ard I knew in college," said another man. " He 
 was in my class of '84." 
 
 " I think that 's the one a tall, loosely hung 
 fellow with a face you might n't like, but could n't 
 forget." 
 
 " Yes and over fond of his own way. It must 
 be the same. And he 's gone blind ? That boy ! 
 He used to play half-back on the 'Varsity eleven. 
 He was the roughest player on the team, and now 
 he's blind. Good heavens! Poor old Howard! 
 What does it make of him ? " 
 
 " He is one of the men who are always bigger 
 than the occasion." 
 
 " He used to be when he played football, but 
 what can a man do when he can't see to keep out 
 of the gutter?" 
 
 " Wait till you meet him. It is rather odd, the 
 impression he gives of being a larger force than 
 you, even while you lend him the guidance of your 
 hand." 
 
 174
 
 HOME 
 
 " I wonder why he did n't shoot himself before 
 it came to that," said Dan's old classmate reflec- 
 tively, as he passed out to the moonlit deck. 
 
 "When you see him, perhaps you will under- 
 stand." 
 
 " I don't know. I suppose he is changed." 
 
 " I doubt if you would know him." 
 
 The voices were lost in the distance. 
 
 " Come to bed, Win," said Edith. 
 
 Mr. Rivers put his hand over hers. " My child." 
 He spoke with grave tenderness. 
 
 Winifred shivered, and rising, she went out 
 alone into the night. 
 
 The next day she stood opposite Walter Gar- 
 rison in the private parlor of a Fifth Avenue 
 hotel. 
 
 " I do not understand," she was saying slowly. 
 "You were his friend, and you left him." 
 
 She spoke with pale lips, and her face was with- 
 out color or life. 
 
 " If you will let me I should like to explain," 
 said Walter. 
 
 " It can hardly be worth while," she answered 
 wearily. 
 
 " Pardon me, Miss Meredith, it is worth while." 
 
 Walter was not angry; he knew too well the 
 175
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 loyalty of his own heart and actions, but he had 
 certain things to say and he meant to say them. 
 
 She listened to him on sufferance, with a 
 strangely still face and inscrutable eyes. 
 
 " Dan got me the position himself," continued 
 Walter in his slow, gentle way, " because he knew 
 it would help me to earn a living, and give me a 
 chance of winning the woman I love. I would 
 have given up that chance for Dan, but I could 
 not force the sacrifice upon him. To accept from 
 others seemed the one intolerable thing " Here 
 Walter broke off suddenly. " You know Dan," 
 he added in a lower tone. " It was for his own 
 sake that I left him." 
 
 An almost imperceptible tremor passed over the 
 stillness of her face, and he saw that she under- 
 stood. 
 
 " Where is he ? " she asked. 
 
 Walter became suddenly ill at ease. "He is 
 taking a vacation at Lilton," he said. 
 
 " At Lilton? " It was the home of Winifred's 
 childhood. 
 
 " I think he is staying with your aunt," he 
 added. 
 
 Winifred was silent for a moment ; then 
 
 " Telegraph her that I shall be at Lilton to-mor- 
 row," she said. 
 
 176
 
 HOME 
 
 Edith entered the room in time to hear the last 
 remark. 
 
 " Why, Win, you are crazy," she exclaimed. 
 " You can't leave New York now ; there are con- 
 tracts to sign, and fifty things to be done about 
 your debut." 
 
 Walter had taken out his note-book. " What 
 train shall I tell her to meet ? " he asked quietly. 
 He was smiling under his beard. 
 
 "Why do you want to go to Lilton, of all 
 places ? " said Edith. 
 
 " Dan is there," answered Winifred. 
 177
 
 Chapter XIY 
 
 THE CLOSED DOOR 
 
 DAN was blind, and though Winifred stood be- 
 fore his face for a thousand years, he would 
 never look into her eyes again. The journey was 
 an agony of weariness and impatience Dan was 
 waiting. 
 
 At last she stood on the platform of the little 
 country station ; but there was no one to meet her. 
 The station-master regarded her with suspicion as 
 he locked the ticket office, and when she asked for 
 a carriage to drive to Mrs. Sumner's place, suspi- 
 cion changed to contempt. 
 
 " I guess you be a stranger in these parts," he 
 said. "Mrs. Sumner's place went in the crash 
 when old Meredith died ; she has been living on 
 Mr. Howard's estate ever since." 
 
 " Mr. Howard's estate ! " repeated Winifred. 
 
 " Why, yes ; Mr. Howard bought the Meredith 
 
 estate soon after the old man died, five years ago. 
 
 If you be going that way, you might as well take 
 
 along this telegram which came for Mrs. Sumner 
 
 178
 
 THE CLOSED DOOR 
 
 yesterday noon." He thrust a bit of yellow paper 
 into her hand ; it was her own telegram. She 
 looked at it dully. So after all she was not ex- 
 pected, and it was Dan who had bought her place ; 
 it was owing to him that she had been cleared of 
 debt, owing to him that she had been able to go 
 abroad and gratify her heart's desire. 
 
 " Be you feeling bad ? " asked the man, struck 
 by her pallor, and partially mollified by the impor- 
 tance of giving information. " If you don't feel 
 like walking, I can hitch up and take you over to 
 Mr. Howard's place 's well 's not." 
 
 " I will walk," she told him. 
 
 The way was the old familiar one of her child- 
 hood ; but memory was blotted out by the thought 
 that she was near Dan again. Only once she 
 stopped to lean against a huge oak, for it was here 
 that he had first told her of his love. She remem- 
 bered well a sense of rebellion at his calm assump- 
 tion of mastery. " What makes you so sure of 
 winning me?" she had asked him. "The strength 
 of my need of you," he had answered. In those 
 days she had wondered that any one person should 
 need another. 
 
 She was then a girl of fifteen, ambitious, happy, 
 and confident. She stood to-day a woman in the 
 prime of her youth, in the pride of her success, but 
 179
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 her lips were pale with the strangeness and bitter- 
 ness of pain. Of what she would say to Dan and 
 of why she went to him, she did not pause to think. 
 He was in trouble, and she must be with him ; that 
 was all. 
 
 With dim eyes she walked up the well-remem- 
 bered avenue, and stood by the gate where Dan had 
 leaned one springtime many years ago, watching 
 her as she sang. 
 
 A sunbonnet bobbed among the withered flowers 
 now, and under it the pale, worn little face of her 
 aunt looked up with a cry of surprise. 
 
 "Winnie, my dear, is it you? I thought you 
 were thousands of miles away. I was asking Dan 
 only the other day whether " 
 
 "Dan is still here?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, poor fellow. You must n't be shocked 
 to find him changed." 
 
 Winifred had a sense of suffocation. 
 
 " Where is he ? " she asked. 
 
 " Don't see him yet, dearie. You look ill. Per- 
 haps the sun was too " 
 
 " Where is Dan ? " 
 
 " I think he is on the back piazza, but " 
 
 Winifred swept by her aunt without a word. 
 Swiftly she passed up the steps, through the long 
 180
 
 THE CLOSED DOOR 
 
 hall, and to the veranda beyond, where Dan sat 
 alone. Swiftly she went to him with a low cry. 
 
 "Dan! Dan!" 
 
 He rose to his feet. " Winifred ! " was all he 
 said, and he put out his hand to her. 
 
 " Oh, Dan, what can I say to you ? What can 
 I say?" 
 
 He could not speak, for the sudden touch and 
 sound of her was more than he could bear. 
 
 She saw that the face above hers was lined and 
 seamed ; her breath came broken with sobs. 
 
 " You never told me you never told, you let 
 me find it out from a stranger. When I heard 
 I thought my heart would break." She quivered, 
 and clung to the hands that held hers. 
 
 " Dan, Dan," she cried again, and then because 
 of her weakness he found his strength. 
 
 He put her gently but firmly from him. 
 
 "You mustn't mind so much, Win," he said. 
 " You '11 get used to it after a little, though it 's 
 puzzling at first, I admit. Won't you sit down ? 
 There must be a chair round here somewhere. 
 Why did n't you let me know you were coming ? 
 You startled me." 
 
 For his sake she tried to steady her voice ; but 
 it was hard to breathe while standing before Dan's 
 181
 
 THE TUKN OF THE KOAD 
 
 sightless eyes, and an attempt to tell him of the 
 telegram ended in terrible, convulsive sobbing. 
 
 " I cannot bear it I cannot. Dan, you are 
 strong tell me how to bear it ; I cannot bear it 
 alone." 
 
 The utter abandonment of her grief, the strength 
 and violence of it startled him, and passion was 
 forgotten in tenderness. He made his way to 
 her. 
 
 " Dear child, I cannot have you so troubled about 
 me," he said. 
 
 She clung to his hand. " There must be some 
 hope," she cried. " There must be some help in 
 the world somewhere ; did you try to find it ? 
 Dan, it is breaking my heart; tell me there is 
 hope." 
 
 " Would it have been like me to give in without 
 a struggle ? " he said quietly. 
 
 Her wild passion of weeping frightened him. 
 He bent over her, and putting his hand on her 
 bowed head, spoke with grave command. 
 
 " Win," he called, " Win." She seemed com- 
 forted by the touch of his hand on her hair. 
 
 " Win, you must stop," he said in his deep voice. 
 
 Then as her sobbing grew quieter he went on, " I 
 
 cannot tell you what your sympathy is to me; I 
 
 will not try. You have given proof of your deep, 
 
 182
 
 THE CLOSED DOOR 
 
 tender heart, and I hope the time is not far off 
 when you will know the happiness of finding some 
 one worthy of the great love it is in you to give." 
 
 She stopped crying suddenly, and having done 
 his duty, Dan, with a white, drawn face, groped his 
 way back to his chair. 
 
 She put out her hand and touched his arm. 
 " Did you know, that time in Paris ? " she asked. 
 
 "Know what? Oh, that I was going to be 
 blind? Yes, I knew then." 
 
 " And you never told me ! Why not, Dan ? " 
 
 He hesitated. " There were many reasons." 
 
 " Could any of them have made it kind to have 
 kept it from me ? Did all our years together go 
 for nothing?" 
 
 " That was just it, Win ; they went for nothing. 
 We had come to the parting of the roads." 
 
 " And did you think we could part with the 
 roads?" 
 
 Dan straightened himself. "The poor child 
 feels she owes me something," he thought. 
 
 Then with a shudder of indignation he asked 
 himself if she could be thinking of making the 
 great sacrifice ; if she could think he would use 
 her beautiful life to keep him from tripping in the 
 dark. 
 
 He had never seen tears in her eyes, and now 
 183
 
 THE TUEN OF THE ROAD 
 
 her voice had come to him broken with sobs ; he 
 had felt her tears on his hand, and her fingers had 
 clung to his in weakness and appeal. Her grief 
 was for him, her pity, her new tenderness for him, 
 and his temptation was almost more than he could 
 bear. 
 
 A certain affection she had always given him, 
 and her love he knew he could win even now ; 
 for the pendulum of his inner life swung as 
 strongly and boldly as ever. What she felt to-day 
 was only pity; but in after years he set his 
 teeth it was too late ! 
 
 There was silence between them, and in the 
 autumn fields. Once a crow called from a hay 
 rick, and some withered leaves dropped from the 
 woodbine. 
 
 Winifred looked into Dan's face ; she could only 
 guess at the bitterness of an infirmity that had 
 been worn before thousands of eyes, at the agony 
 of a humiliation regarding which austere lips were 
 proudly silent. In the rugged lines of that face 
 she read no resignation ; but something of proud 
 patience. The brows were graver, the mouth un- 
 conquerable as ever. 
 
 In the silence, Winifred looked, understood, and 
 stepped royally and gladly into her own. " I love 
 him," she said in her soul, and was dumb with 
 184
 
 THE CLOSED DOOR 
 
 the wonder and joy of it. * 4 1 love him," and she 
 wanted to cry it aloud, she wanted the stars to 
 hear. She rose and stood by him, and it seemed 
 to her that he must know. 
 
 "Dan, do you remember our grainfield with the 
 wind and sun on it ? " she asked softly. 
 
 Yes, Dan remembered. Why must she remind 
 him of that ? in those days there had been light 
 O God ! there had been light. He had heard her 
 move towards him, and her nearness in the dark 
 was a torture. 
 
 " It would have been better to have told me," 
 she was saying. 
 
 " To have told " 
 
 " What was coming to you." 
 
 " It was best for me to pass from your life, as 
 you must pass from mine." 
 
 In his pain he spoke harshly. He felt that this 
 interview must end, or he could not answer for his 
 manhood. 
 
 Winifred was speaking again, and there was a 
 bewildering sweetness in her voice. " Won't you 
 come out into the woods with me ? " she said. 
 " There is a stillness, and a glory, and a wonder in 
 them, that is more to be felt than seen, and autumn 
 leaves are dropping through the silence, and the 
 nuthatches are calling. Don't you remember how 
 185
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 we used to hear them when we were boy and girl 
 together ? " 
 
 At any price let Winifred think what she 
 would this must end. Dan's face grew resolute, 
 and his moment of weakness was past. 
 
 " I don't think you understand me, Winifred," 
 he began almost sternly. " The past is gone, trod- 
 den down and sealed. You are to think of me as 
 if I had never been." 
 
 Winifred drew back from him, startled. Dan 
 had never spoken to her with this voice. 
 
 " Shall I put it plainer ; or do you understand ?" 
 
 " I don't think I do, Dan quite." 
 
 He had said he hoped she would love some other 
 man. It was for his honor's sake to renounce all 
 claims ; but now he was speaking as if he did not 
 love her. His voice was deep, quiet, resolute. 
 
 " Most of my early life was passed trying to 
 make you love me." 
 
 " Yes, Dan." 
 
 " The great thing I feel gratitude for to-day is 
 that you never loved me." 
 
 "Yes, Dan," and now her answer was little 
 more than a whisper. She put out her hand as if 
 to ward off a blow. 
 
 " One word more. The part of that past that 
 related to my love for you has no longer a mean- 
 186
 
 THE CLOSED DOOR 
 
 ing. I have ceased to expect, ceased to wish any 
 woman to love me, or to be my wife. You ae 
 quite sure you understand me, Winifred ? " 
 
 She was looking at him with wide, terrified eyes, 
 and parted lips. She was numb, and dumb, and 
 breathless, a dethroned queen, an agonized 
 woman. It was all over, then ; she had learned her 
 love too late, and must pay the price. 
 
 " You are sure you understand me ? " Dan said 
 again. 
 
 He must never know Winifred found her 
 voice, and answered him quietly through white 
 lips. 
 
 I think I understand it all*" she said. " Good- 
 by, Dan." 
 
 He paused a moment before speaking, then 
 " Your aunt will be alone here after to-morrow," 
 he told her. " It would be a pleasure to me if you 
 could still feel that this was your home. I only 
 bought it to hold for you." 
 
 " That was like you, Dan ; but I think I had 
 better go." She paused and looked at him in 
 his face she could see no sign of weakness, nor 
 doubt, nor need of her love. Suddenly she turned, 
 aiid passed through the garden, and down the well- 
 remembered avenue to the high road beyond. Not 
 once did she look back. 
 
 187
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Dan sat on, motionless, in the sunny silence 
 where she had left him. The world was very still. 
 Now and then crows cawed from the meadow as 
 they had done in the moment of his temptation, and 
 once he felt a withered leaf drop on his hand. For 
 a long time he sat there, then his lips moved and 
 two tears the terrible tears of a strong man 
 came slowly into his eyes. 
 188
 
 Chapter XV 
 
 WINIFRED PAYS HER DEBT 
 
 doubt Dan's love was like doubting the 
 existence of suns and moons, and Winifred 
 doubted this love in the very hour of pain and 
 glory when she recognized her own. 
 
 Suffering was startling, bewildering, hideous, 
 and she struggled with it as a new-born child fights 
 with air. This was on the long journey home, 
 when she sat in silence through hours of darkness, 
 and saw the stars fade and the waning moon 
 climb a sky that was gray with dawn. Then Wini- 
 fred prayed. 
 
 There had been a time when Dan and she had 
 stood under a waning moon, when he had looked 
 into her eyes and spoken his love ; but that was 
 an aeon ago. He could never look into her eyes 
 again, or see the light of moon or sun. There had 
 come to him what was worse than any death, and 
 there had come to her 
 
 When the day was bright, those who traveled 
 with her saw a still, white-faced woman, beside 
 189
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 whom it seemed best not to sit. Within herself 
 Winifred was wondering how it was that, suffer- 
 ing so, she lived. 
 
 Edith met her at the door of her own room, and 
 a pair of questioning eyes had to be parried. She 
 turned a cold cheek to her sister's lips. 
 
 "You saw him, Win?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "How how is he?" 
 
 " He is blind." 
 
 Winifred shivered as she put Edith from her. 
 Then she caught sight of her own face in the 
 mirror, and paused ; for it was not so that she had 
 looked yesterday, or on any other day of her life, 
 and Edith must not know. 
 
 She sat with her back to the light, and removed 
 her veil deliberately. Edith was nervous and re- 
 strained. She played with her handkerchief, and 
 started several times, without success, to speak. 
 
 " Is it true about Kate ? " she ventured at 
 last. 
 
 " About Kate ? " repeated Winifred. After all 
 it might be well to talk of Kate, of everything 
 in the world, save that which was more than this 
 world or the next. 
 
 " What is it about Kate ? " she asked. 
 
 Edith seemed puzzled, and a little tremulous. 
 190
 
 WINIFRED PAYS HER DEBT 
 
 Her eyes questioned Winifred, but Winifred's fin- 
 gers were composedly busy with her hair. 
 
 " What about Kate ? " she repeated. 
 
 "Nothing I suppose, or he would have told 
 you." 
 
 " Who ? " 
 
 "Dan." 
 
 The busy fingers paused ; but only for an in- 
 stant, for Winifred saw the danger signal, and the 
 instinct of self-preservation was strong within her. 
 She was dreaming or insane ; but in her eyes, 
 looking at her from the glass, there was that which 
 no one must know. 
 
 " What should he have told me of Kate ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Only whether he I mean if it is true what 
 people say." 
 
 " What do people say ? " 
 
 Edith had suspected herself to be treading on a 
 charged mine ; but if Win could speak in such a 
 tone, it was all right. 
 
 " Of course it 's only gossip, or he would have 
 told you," she continued more easily. " Only they 
 say Kate is no longer the same person ; she has 
 given up society, and she and Dan " 
 
 " She and Dan ? " questioned Winifred quietly 
 Assuredly she was dreaming. 
 191
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " She and Dan are together a good deal ; that is, 
 they go to concerts, and he sees nothing of any one 
 else, so of course people talk." 
 
 " I see ; they say Dan is going to marry her." 
 
 Winifred leaned her chin on her hand ; she felt 
 an hysterical desire to laugh. So it was Kate 
 Kate Randolph whom Dan had despised, and 
 she had laughed at. 
 
 "I think Kate has loved Dan all her life," 
 Edith was saying. 
 
 Yes ; Winifred saw it all now, a thousand long- 
 forgotten words and looks flashed through her con- 
 sciousness. Kate had loved him all her life, but 
 she too had loved him, and on looking back, she 
 could remember no time when she had not loved 
 him, only she had never known her heart till it 
 had been half broken. Kate was wiser, and to 
 Kate 
 
 Edith was still talking. Herr Grim had sent a 
 message that morning to the effect that Winifred 
 could have a hearing at the Cosmopolitan Opera 
 House at half past three, on the afternoon of Thurs- 
 day next. He wished to hear her sing " Lucia," or 
 if not that, then a scene from " Traviata," and if 
 she were not there at the exact hour, another 
 would take her place. 
 
 " He will probably be an hour late himself," 
 192
 
 WINIFRED PAYS HER DEBT 
 
 remarked Edith wisely, "but you must be there 
 on time. The message was rather high-handed, 
 but I suppose you had better accept the terms." 
 
 Winifred said she supposed so too ; and then, 
 at last, she was alone. So this was all that was 
 left her. The life of an opera singer, work 
 without success, or valueless triumph. She had 
 lost Dan's love lost it through her own fault, 
 and the rest of her life must pay the price. And 
 Dan was blind ; she had stood unseen before his 
 face, as the world of men must forever stand. 
 Winifred moaned and shivered, thinking of the 
 pity, the loneliness, the horror of it. What was 
 her own life, or death, or pain, to this ? But she 
 could have made him happy once, for a few years 
 before the darkness came, and after it would 
 have been enough to answer his loss with the de- 
 votion of her life, and well she knew she could 
 have kept his love, for there was no mystery of his 
 nature which she could not understand, no depth 
 or height where she could not meet him. 
 
 But Kate Kate Randolph ! Winifred heard 
 a step in the next room. No one must see her 
 or speak to her now. She crossed swiftly, and 
 locking the door leaned against it, panting. To- 
 morrow she would find strength to face the world ; 
 but this hour was hers.
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Once or twice she felt she must be going mad : 
 she was afraid of her own thoughts ; but she was 
 more afraid of the eyes that looked from the mir- 
 ror, for in them she saw what must be with her to 
 the end of her life. 
 
 When the darkness came to hide the eyes, she 
 was glad ; but the night was hideous. Once or 
 twice she slept from exhaustion, and once she 
 dreamed that she struggled with a great flood 
 struggled, cried out, and was drowning, when Dan 
 caught her in strong arms, strove against the wa- 
 ters with her, and laughed, and kissed her on 
 the lips. Then she awoke. Sunlight was coming 
 through the window, and another day was ready 
 for her. 
 
 She rose to meet it with pale lips that faltered 
 no longer. Life must be lived, and she would live 
 it proudly and strongly, though it might not hold 
 another hour of happiness. 
 194
 
 Chapter XVI 
 
 TOO LATE 
 
 A PAKT from her love for Dan and the selfish 
 .XJL pain of it, there was the knowledge of his mis- 
 fortune which roused all that was in her of divine 
 womanhood ; and this very tenderness, this aching 
 pity, saved her from becoming hard and embittered. 
 In the days that followed she spoke little, and the 
 lonely eyes asked for no sympathy ; but in a new 
 gentleness and thought of others she paid uncon- 
 scious tribute to the exquisite and glorified service 
 that might have been hers. Outwardly she lived 
 as the rest of the world, doing such work as there 
 was to do, and smiling when others smiled ; but at 
 night she would lie looking into the darkness, and 
 pray fiercely, " O God, kill me kill me ! " 
 
 Dan had said, " Don't pray for a breaking of the 
 law, Win," and this was the law that he should 
 be blind, and under the solemn hand of his fate, in 
 the loneliness and darkness of his life, should find 
 that which made herself and love seem small. 
 
 But Kate how could there be room for Kate ? 
 195
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 She had loved him always and given freely what 
 Winifred denied ; and if in the ruin of his hopes 
 he had stooped to lift the one remaining gift, who 
 was she Winifred to blame him ? But it was 
 not like Dan to stoop, and though she might have 
 lost his love, she knew that to no other woman 
 would it be given. For herself there would be no 
 other love than Dan, no other husband, or lover ; 
 but she had her career, and in pursuit of this Win- 
 ifred never wavered. Gladden existence it could 
 not ; justify it to some extent it could, and did. 
 
 Her manager was anxious about her. " It would 
 seem as if the climate of New York did not agree 
 with you," he said once ; " your voice is bad to-day 
 and good to-morrow. How do you expect to make 
 a success of your debut ? " 
 
 " It must be a success." 
 
 " Must must " He shrugged his shoulders 
 impatiently. " How is it to be accomplished, this 
 ' must ' of which you Americans are so fond ? " 
 
 " But you said the other day when I sang the 
 4 Ave Maria' that there was something in my voice 
 that had not been there before." 
 
 " Yes, I have not forgotten. You made me want 
 
 to be good, and I do not often want that to be 
 
 good. It is true you have something that is new 
 
 to you ; but you cannot command it, it is here to- 
 
 196
 
 TOO LATE 
 
 day and gone tomorrow. That is not the way to 
 become great." 
 
 The man left Winifred toying absently with her 
 music. Her career was all she had, little enough, 
 but all ; and in the immediate present, success was 
 threatened by more or less sleepless nights and days 
 of misery. Suddenly she looked up, and Kate 
 Randolph stood in the doorway. 
 
 During a moment of silence the two women faced 
 each other. Kate saw, not the cool, buoyantly con- 
 fident girl she remembered, but a still, pale wo- 
 man, with sensitive lips, and eyes that were as depth 
 upon depth of shadow. 
 
 Winifred came forward and put out her hand ; 
 then she saw that in Kate's face was more of sad- 
 ness and less of bitterness than there had been two 
 years ago, and Kate's eyes no longer looked at her 
 with reluctant respect, but fairly, as one looks at 
 an equal or an inferior. 
 
 " Are you ill, Winifred ? " asked Kate quietly. 
 
 Winifred moved a chair to the fire. " Won't you 
 sit down ? " she said. " Edith is out, but I hope 
 you can stay and see me. No, I am not ill." 
 
 Kate seated herself, and unbuttoned her coat, 
 talking the while as rapidly, but not so naturally, as 
 usual. 
 
 " What a charming parlor you have I I suppose 
 197
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 you are great now what, not great ? I have n't 
 heard you sing, you see. You are advertised to 
 appear this winter, and when you do, quite a party 
 of us are coming on to hear you. We only left 
 Boston yesterday, and are going back at once." 
 
 Kate paused ; she had come into the room fear- 
 ing and respecting Winifred too little to dislike 
 her for had she not deserted Dan in his time of 
 trial ? But Winifred was holding her with still, 
 dark eyes, and though she must be heartless, and 
 ungrateful, and vain, there was that in her person- 
 ality which made Kate feel at a disadvantage, and 
 chatter foolishly in self-defense. 
 
 Winifred watched her gravely. She rarely ex- 
 erted herself to make conversation, but just now 
 she wanted to keep Kate, and questioned her about 
 unimportant matters, such as mutual acquaintances, 
 and the success of the grand opera troupe on its 
 visit to Boston. Kate answered eagerly to hide 
 her unaccountable nervousness. 
 
 " ' La Mira ' was the favorite," she said, " but 
 every one did n't like her. Dan thought " she 
 caught her breath, startled that this name should 
 have been spoken between them. 
 
 After a moment's pause Winifred said quietly, 
 " You are with him often ? " 
 
 " Yes," answered Kate. 
 198
 
 TOO LATE 
 
 Winifred did not move ; but now she looked at 
 Kate hungrily. " How is he ? " she asked. 
 
 "I am afraid he works too hard," said Kate. 
 When she spoke of Dan, there was a new look in 
 her face. Winifred saw it. Perhaps Kate could 
 give him something of happiness, and if so 
 
 Because they both loved him, and because he 
 was blind, the barriers between them were falling. 
 Their questions and answers came slowly, as things 
 from the depths will. 
 
 " Have you seen him, Winifred?" 
 
 "Yes." She grew paler as she said it. 
 
 " I mean since " 
 
 " Yes," said Winifred again. 
 
 " Did you think he had changed much ? " 
 questioned Kate, almost in a whisper. 
 
 Winifred did not answer, but she turned her face 
 so that her cheek rested against the high-backed 
 chair. It was a movement oddly suggestive of pain. 
 Kate was startled, and began to watch her strangely. 
 
 " He is more like himself than he was a year 
 ago," she said. 
 
 " Were you with him soon after his sight 
 went ? " questioned Winifred without moving. 
 
 " No ; he would n't see any of us at first. I 
 think he suspected us of wanting to be kind 
 because we pitied him." 
 
 199
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " I know," whispered Winifred. Then she turned 
 her eyes to Kate's face, and in that look the bar- 
 riers went down. They were two women loving 
 the same man, and neither was ashamed. Kate 
 spoke suddenly with low-voiced, tremulous passion. 
 
 " But you went to Russia, Winifred ; you left 
 him when he needed you, and only you in all the 
 world." 
 
 "It was only two months ago that I heard," 
 answered Winifred. 
 
 " That you heard " 
 
 " That he was blind." 
 
 The beating of Kate's heart was suffocating. 
 Winifred was strangely still. 
 
 " But my letter " 
 
 "What letter?" 
 
 " The one I wrote in Paris you must remem- 
 ber. You know the time I saw you. Dan was 
 blind then, and I knew it. I meant to tell you, 
 only only I could n't ; so I wrote instead." 
 
 " You wrote me two years ago that he was 
 blind?" 
 
 " Yes, yes ! you must have received it, Winifred. 
 The concierge took it herself ; she told me you had 
 it and you went to Russia just the same." 
 
 " I never saw the letter," said Winifred, and 
 again she turned away her face, with closed eyes. 
 200
 
 TOO LATE 
 
 There was a silence, and then Kate cried out 
 piteously, 
 
 "Winifred! Winifred! if you had seen the 
 letter, would you have come back? " 
 
 But Winifred did not answer, and the moveless 
 profile outlined against the chair told nothing. 
 
 ' Dan thinks you knew two years ago," con- 
 tinued Kate. 
 
 " It is no matter now," said Winifred. 
 
 " Shall I tell him how it was ? " 
 
 " It is no matter now," repeated Winifred. Then 
 she turned and looked at Kate. 
 
 " Why did n't you tell me, instead of writing ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 "Because I hated you and because I have 
 loved Dan all my life," said Kate. " Afterwards I 
 wrote, because I loved him more than I hated you, 
 and if you would make him happy " 
 
 Winifred rose, and walked to and fro across 
 the room. Kate watched her with her hand at her 
 side. Since Winifred loved Dan, it was all over 
 for her, and there was a look of wild misery in her 
 eyes. Suddenly Winifred paused by her chair. 
 
 " Kate," she said gently. 
 
 Kate looked up to meet grave, deep eyes and 
 smiling lips. Winifred was holding out her hand- 
 
 " I wish you would try not to hate me any 
 201
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 longer," she said. " I have been a hard woman 
 an unkind one often, I am afraid ; but perhaps I 
 have been most unkind to myself, and that should 
 make it easier to forgive me, Kate." She smiled 
 again. The hand that held Kate's was firm, and 
 the steady voice low and thrilling. "Perhaps 
 some day you will tell Dan of the lost letter," she 
 continued ; " I don't like to have him think his old- 
 est friend could be so unkind as to have kept silent 
 during these two years. You will tell him ? " 
 The last words were more a command than a 
 request. 
 
 " Yes," answered Kate tremulously, as she rose. 
 
 " And you will not keep on hating me always? " 
 
 Kate looked up. 
 
 " I never knew you before," she said with a dry, 
 choking sob. " I might have known I might 
 have known he could never care for me, after lov- 
 ing you." 
 
 202
 
 Chapter XVII 
 
 THE WORLD'S VIEW 
 
 IT was during these first winter months that 
 Walter Garrison won the desire of his life : 
 Edith Meredith returned his love. 
 
 "I thought," she confided to him, "that you 
 would never find it out." 
 
 " Did you find it out about me about my car- 
 ing, I mean?" he asked with a lover's incoher- 
 ence. 
 
 She raised her head from his shoulder to look at 
 him. " Stupid," she said, and nestled back into 
 her former position. " Stupid," she repeated. 
 " Why, I knew it ages and ages ago." 
 
 " No ! did you, though ! " he exclaimed with 
 honest surprise. " How many ages ago ? " and this 
 involved a discussion as to the precise moments in 
 which certain words, looks, and feelings had come 
 
 " Why did n't you ask me before ? " she inquired 
 audaciously. 
 
 " I was afraid you would say no." 
 203
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Afraid ! Nonsense ! A man should never be 
 afraid. Poor Dan never was he told Win he 
 loved her every minute he was with her." 
 
 "Did she repeat his words to you?" asked 
 Walter indignantly. 
 
 " Of course not ! She would never talk of him, 
 but have n't I eyes and ears ? and as for words, do 
 you think words are the only things with which to 
 say I love'?" 
 
 Edith hesitated. There was one point which 
 she felt almost afraid to approach with Walter, 
 but on this occasion she ventured. 
 
 " Is he going to marry Kate ? " she asked. 
 
 Walter crossed his knees and looked gloomily at 
 the toe of his boot. 
 
 " I don't know," he answered. 
 
 " What do you think ? " 
 
 " I don't know," he said again. 
 
 " It destroys all one's ideas of constancy ; I can't 
 believe in any one now," complained Edith. 
 
 Walter frowned. " Dan is not to blame," he 
 said. " Your sister took the best he had for the 
 best part of his life, and gave him nothing back. 
 Dan 's not to blame." 
 
 " No, dear, of course not. Did I ever say he 
 was ? " 
 
 Walter continued an obstinate defense of his 
 204
 
 THE WORLD'S VIEW 
 
 friend in the longest sentence he was ever heard to 
 make. 
 
 " She gave him nothing. God knows what she 
 made him suffer, and what he has had to suffer 
 from life since, and what he must suffer till he dies. 
 And now, if there comes a woman who gives him 
 all Winifred denied him, he is blamed for taking 
 it. Do you ever think of the loneliness of blind- 
 ness, Edith ? " 
 
 " Yes, dear ; and will you think of something 
 else Win's eyes when his name is mentioned." 
 
 Walter recrossed his knees, and looked at the toe 
 of his other boot. 
 
 " Have you noticed ? " asked Edith. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " She loves him, Walter." 
 
 " Yes," he assented gravely. 
 
 " Now that you have got over being angry with 
 me for blaming Dan which I never did tell 
 me what we can do about it ? " 
 
 " We can't do anything ; I know Dan." 
 
 " He is going to marry Kate." 
 
 Walter tugged at his mustache. 
 
 " Dan 's a fool," he said gloomily. 
 
 " Does he " began Edith, and paused. 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 "It is terrible two such lives being ruined 
 205
 
 THE TUKN OF THE KOAD 
 
 through a misunderstanding! Couldn't you ask 
 him could n't you tell him " 
 
 " I should like to see any one try," he said em- 
 phatically. 
 
 " I should never dare to say anything to Win," 
 acknowledged Edith. " She and Dan are the kind 
 who must make or spoil their own lives ; no one 
 can help or save them. But it 's terrible ! They 
 were made for each other." 
 
 A few days later, Walter announced his inten- 
 tion of going to tell Dan of his engagement. 
 
 "Oh, Walter, must you? How long will it 
 take ? " cried Edith, much distressed. 
 
 " I can go one night and come back the next." 
 
 " Then I cannot see you for a whole day. Why 
 not write to him ? " 
 
 " And have Stirling read it ? " 
 
 That was of course impossible, and Walter 
 went. 
 
 " I think I am a little, just a little, jealous of 
 Dan," said Edith, while Walter's arms held her in 
 a good-by embrace. "I used to think when I first 
 knew you, that you would never care for any 
 woman as you cared for him." 
 
 " I used to think so too." 
 
 " And now no, don't kiss me and now? " 
 
 " Now I do." 
 
 206
 
 THE WORLD'S VIEW 
 
 " As much no, you can't kiss me yet only 
 as much ? or more ? " 
 
 " More," answered Walter with a deep breath. 
 
 When he arrived in Boston, Walter was told 
 that Dan had gone out of town to interview a sick 
 client, but was expected back during the early 
 afternoon. So he renewed old associations, and 
 several of his classmates lunched with him at the 
 club. 
 
 Of Dan he heard different accounts. Some 
 spoke of him as the greatest lawyer in the state, 
 but reproached him for sternness and coldness in 
 his personal relations. It was agreed that Stirling, 
 the little secretary, would give his life as a step- 
 ping-stone to anything his employer might need, 
 from which it was argued that Dan must have his 
 moments of relenting. But many there were who 
 feared him, or felt uncomfortable before the im- 
 mense reserve and gravity of his personality. Ex- 
 cept in court his words were few, and the dryly 
 humorous smile that sometimes crossed his face 
 never softened it. 
 
 It was agreed that in this one winter he had 
 withdrawn more than ever into himself, and that 
 human intercourse with him became increasingly 
 difficult. 
 
 If his acceptance of his lot were plucky, it was 
 207
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 said to be unchristian; but then it was a well 
 known fact that Dan Howard was not a church- 
 man, and had refused all religious consolation. 
 Upon this there ensued a discussion concerning 
 the meaning of the word religion, and many things 
 were said of an unorthodox nature. One man 
 claimed that the church was only for those who 
 were not strong enough to do without it ; and this 
 statement provoked an angry retort, to the effect 
 that it was just like Daniel Howard to think he 
 was stronger than any one else, and the argument 
 reached that point where each man feels a contrary 
 opinion to be a personal grievance. 
 
 Walter took no part in the conversation. The 
 days when a blow answered abuse of Dan were 
 over, and when it came to words, Dan had many 
 more eloquent defenders than he. 
 
 He left the table with a heavy heart and wrote 
 to Edith, an occupation which afforded him infi- 
 nite consolation, although he knew that the letter 
 could not reach her before he did. It was a long 
 letter, but the writing of it did not occupy him till 
 the hour of Dan's arrival. So he wandered aim- 
 lessly about the streets, pausing at old landmarks 
 and recalling the days of his lifelong friendship 
 with Dan. There were the early memories of him, 
 a wild, whimsically reckless boy; and then, in the 
 208
 
 THE WORLD'S VIEW 
 
 pride of his youthful arrogance, as the roughest 
 player on the eleven, the hero of " bloody Monday 
 night." Later there came the shadow of Wini- 
 fred and a grim settling of lips and jaw as Dan 
 recognized his life's object. Then followed years 
 of unwavering pursuit of the goal, a fearless chal- 
 lenge of results, and finally the awful hour when 
 the heavens crashed through his life, leaving it in 
 ruins. After the first moments of fear and horror 
 he had turned his face resolutely towards the 
 waste spaces in which he must walk the rest of his 
 days, and no one had seen him falter. Walter 
 knew that the reserve and apparent coldness were 
 assumed as an armor, an evidence of the untam- 
 able pride that had been his in his youth. The 
 change in him this winter could only be accounted 
 for by this advent of Winifred, which had brought 
 an added strain to bear on his powers of endurance. 
 Even thoughts of Edith could not quiet the 
 ache in Walter's heart as he neared his old friend's 
 office. 
 
 209
 
 Chapter XVIII 
 
 THE FRIEND'S VIEW 
 
 "YT'ES, Mr. Howard had returned," the clerk 
 J_ told him. He was in the inner office dictat- 
 ing to a stenographer, and through the open door 
 Walter could see him. He looked tired, and older ; 
 there was some gray in his hair that surely had not 
 been there in the autumn, but there was more than 
 this, and Walter did not wonder that some feared 
 the tragedy of that granite hewn face with its 
 sightless eyes. And this was Dan, who had dared 
 so much and whose hopes had been so high. 
 
 Walter would not interrupt him. " I will wait 
 till he finishes this piece of work," he said in a low 
 voice. But Dan raised his head suddenly, and 
 stopped dictating. 
 
 " Who is in the outer office ? " he called, and 
 Walter was forced to declare himself. 
 
 There was no lack of warmth in the powerful 
 grip of Dan's hands. " I am awfully glad to see 
 you hear you, I mean," he said heartily. " When 
 do you go back ? " 
 
 210
 
 THE FRIEND'S VIEW 
 
 " To-night. Can't you knock off work soon ? " 
 
 " There 's only one letter to finish. I can be 
 with you in a moment." 
 
 Walter waited while last affairs were concluded. 
 There were questions to ask and answer, and a gar- 
 rulous client came in with a grievance. Being 
 Saturday, the clerks were anxious to go, and the 
 delay caused confusion and impatience. Dan sat 
 unmoved in the midst of it all, directing, control- 
 ling, quieting, without a sign of impatience or 
 hurry. 
 
 " I notice you never swear now," Walter said, 
 as they went out into the street together. " Is it 
 the result of special virtue ? " 
 
 " No, it is the result of inadequacy. If I could 
 find an oath big enough, I should use it. But I 
 don't believe the man who invented swearing ever 
 went blind. Tell me about yourself, Wally. You 
 don't know how good it is to hear your voice 
 again." 
 
 Yes, Dan had grown older. Walter did not 
 want to tell his happiness to that worn face. 
 
 " You are working too hard," he said. " What 's 
 the use ? " 
 
 " It 's the only way. It keeps me tired, and then 
 I don't feel so young." 
 
 "Where is Stirling?" 
 
 211
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Gone to see his mother and sister. Imagine 
 having a mother and sister to go to ! " 
 
 It would have been better had Dan been cold, as 
 the world thought him. How could Walter tell 
 this lonely man of his love and happiness ? 
 
 " I should n't have thought of you as domestic, 
 exactly," he said. 
 
 " No, I suppose I get weak-minded sitting in the 
 dark." 
 
 " Is Stirling still satisfactory ? " 
 
 " Yes. I don't know what I should do without 
 him ; he is a good boy, but he has his limitations." 
 
 Dan smiled and his face softened amazingly. 
 
 " Stirling and I have queer experiences," he con- 
 tinued. " Sometimes when I am in the country I 
 have a foolish hankering to know if the sky is blue. 
 Stirling often describes it as brown. I am hardly 
 an authority on color, but I do know that no sky 
 ever was brown. Then he tells me the Green 
 Mountains look green, which is the one and only 
 color they never are. I told him his sense of color 
 was defective, and that I should have to send him 
 to an art school. Of course he took the remark 
 seriously, as he takes everything, and feared he 
 should not be able to find time for such study. By 
 what followed I imagine the threat troubled him, 
 and the next time I asked how the country looked, 
 212
 
 THE FRIEND'S VIEW 
 
 I was amazed to hear him launch doubtfully at 
 first into a description of such extravagant pic- 
 turesqueness and variety of color and form as I 
 know never existed among our New England hills. 
 I wanted to laugh, but thought better of it ; and 
 then began to wonder where I had heard some- 
 thing like this before. At last, it came to me he 
 was quoting Walter Scott ! The poor boy, prob- 
 ably distressed by his inability to satisfy me, had 
 gone to an authority on nature, and leaving out 
 such cliffs and ramparts and waterfalls as would 
 be too incongruous, was reciting whole pages of 
 highland scenery. Since then he has grown bold 
 under my apparent unsuspicion. I listen atten- 
 tively, and probably look as edified as I feel. It 
 is almost as pathetic as it is ludicrous. He must 
 have sat up many nights to learn all that stuff, and 
 I laugh at him in my sleeve ; but I can't find it in 
 my heart to tell him that I know, and the memory 
 of my Lilton meadows has become confused and 
 lurid. Stirling is absurdly young in many things, 
 and his lack of humor is a trial ; but he is clever 
 and shrewd in other directions, besides which he 
 thinks I have all the known virtues, with the addi- 
 tion of a few invented for my particular use, and 
 such an attitude is very gratifying in a constant 
 companion." 
 
 213
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Walter listened and laughed, but felt none the 
 less heavy hearted. 
 
 " Have n't you anything to tell me about your 
 own affairs ? " asked Dan at last, and Walter could 
 contain himself no longer. He turned about and 
 grasped Dan's hand. 
 
 " I have won her ! " he cried, with joy and tri- 
 umph in his voice. 
 
 Dan nearly wrung his hand off. " But what a 
 secretive dog you are ! " he said. " Why did n't 
 you tell me before, instead of letting me talk on 
 about myself?" 
 
 Walter needed no encouragement to continue. 
 He extolled, declaimed, and congratulated himself 
 in a more or less insane manner and at indefinite 
 length, for being what he firmly believed he was 
 the happiest man in the world. The reserve and 
 quiet of a lifetime were forgotten, and for this one 
 hour Walter was nothing but a love-mad boy. 
 
 Dan wondered if he could ever have sounded so 
 deliriously foolish if things had turned out differ- 
 ently. He thought not ; his love for Winifred had 
 always been too deep and sacred to speak of, even 
 with Walter. 
 
 " I suppose you go back to her this evening," he 
 said. 
 
 " I promised." Walter spoke doubtfully, for he 
 214
 
 THE FRIEND'S VIEW 
 
 remembered that not even Stirling would be with 
 Dan to-night. 
 
 " Of course. You would n't be fool enough to 
 stay over for me, even if I did n't always go with 
 Kate to the Saturday evening concert." 
 
 "With Kate you mean Kate Randolph?" 
 asked Walter quickly. 
 
 " Yes. I think I used to be unjust to poor 
 Kate." 
 
 " Why poor Kate ? " 
 
 " Because something in her voice tells me she is 
 a very unhappy woman." 
 
 Dan's face and words were unsuspecting, but it 
 seemed odd that Kate should take to concert going. 
 
 When the moment for parting arrived, Walter 
 took his leave reluctantly. "You mustn't think 
 this will make any difference between you and me," 
 he said. 
 
 Dan smiled. 
 
 " Hang it all," exclaimed Walter, " you do think 
 so. What 's the use of getting married, if old 
 friends are going to the wall ? " 
 
 " I don't know," said Dan. " I am not getting 
 married." 
 
 215
 
 Chapter XIX 
 
 KATE ATONES 
 
 night's concert had been postponed, as 
 JL Dan had known when he sent Walter away ; 
 so there followed hours of silence, while he sat 
 alone in the dark, fighting with such untamable 
 elements as still cried out in his life. 
 
 Walter's visit had stirred memories of what had 
 been, and of what might have been, if fate had 
 not chosen to make him blind. His thoughts grew 
 clamorous as hungry things will, and with head in 
 hands he wrestled with himself till the night 
 seemed nearly over, when he felt the hands of 
 the clock to find that it was only ten. 
 
 He stretched out his long arms and knew their 
 strength ; he counted the years of his life and 
 knew his youth. Then he groped his way to a 
 chair. 
 
 " I wonder if I shall ever have the satisfaction 
 of knowing why I was born," he said aloud. 
 
 Suddenly he heard Kate's voice. " May I come 
 in, Dan ? " she called. 
 
 216
 
 KATE ATONES 
 
 " I am not sure," he answered as he opened the 
 door for her. " It was imprudent of you to come. 
 I hope no one saw you." 
 
 " Will you hold my cloak while I find a light? " 
 she answered, quietly ignoring his fear for her. 
 
 As she touched the electric button she scanned 
 Dan's face eagerly and saw signs of recent strife. 
 
 " You have been having the blues," she said. 
 
 " I think every blue devil that walks abroad is 
 rampant to-night. Your voice tells me they have 
 been with you, too." 
 
 " You have a quick ear, Dan. I am on my way 
 to a party next door; but it is early yet, and I 
 have some things to say to you. First, you must 
 let me stir the fire. It is bitterly cold here." 
 
 Dan was pleased by the sound of a woman's 
 voice, and the gentle rustle of her skirts; very 
 soon he felt a welcome warmth from the revived 
 fire. Kate's opera cloak still lay across his knees. 
 
 " It is nice to have you here," he said ; " but 
 you ought not to have come. I suppose the party 
 accounts for the magnificence of this cloak. It 
 seems to be all lace and velvet and things. I 
 don't think I have had anything so pretty in my 
 hands for many a long day. What color is it ? " 
 
 " Yellow," said Kate. 
 
 Dan remembered an evening when Winifred 
 217
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 had worn a yellow dress. He did not speak again 
 at once, and Kate watched him from where she 
 knelt on the hearth-rug, her brilliant dress in 
 strange contrast to the bareness of the room. 
 
 " I am going away," she said suddenly. 
 
 " Going away ? " 
 
 " Yes. I have brought you my season ticket 
 for our concerts. Give it to any one you choose. 
 Where shall I put it ? " 
 
 " On the table, please. I can't think of any 
 one to give it to just now. Why are you going ? " 
 
 " Mamma is ill. The doctor says we must go 
 away. I shall not come back." 
 
 " I shall miss you, Kate." 
 
 "Really, Dan?" 
 
 "' Really truly,' " he quoted the childish 
 phrase with a smile. " Perhaps you will come 
 back." 
 
 "No I am going to marry Lord de Nor- 
 mandy." 
 
 " You love him ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " I hope you will be happy." 
 
 " But you don't think so ; neither do I. Mamma 
 will be, and she has n't many years to live." 
 
 " That is a wrong idea of sacrifice," said Dan 
 quickly. 
 
 218
 
 KATE ATONES 
 
 "Not for me. After all, it doesn't make so 
 much difference what one does. The great thing 
 is to get through with it life, I mean as soon 
 as possible." 
 
 " I have never felt that I had the right to ask 
 you what your trouble was," said Dan. 
 
 She still knelt on the hearth-rug and leaned her 
 head against the arm of a chair. 
 
 " I have loved one man all my life, and that 
 is all," said Kate. 
 
 " That is the worst." He spoke gravely and 
 pityingly. " Is there another woman ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but if there were not it would have been 
 the same for me." 
 
 The firelight danced and gleamed on the bare 
 room, on Dan with his stern, gravely brooding 
 face, on Kate's brilliant dress, on Kate's closed 
 eyes, and the tears that slipped from under her 
 lids. The clock struck. 
 
 " I ought to go," she said, but knelt on without 
 moving. " And this is good-by. We have n't got 
 much out of life, have we, Dan ? I wonder how 
 much longer it is going to last." 
 
 " I sometimes wonder that myself." 
 
 " I don't suppose we shall pass this way again," 
 continued Kate. " We have had our chance and 
 we have lost it. Life ought not to have failed for 
 219
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 you," she said passionately. " For me that was 
 different. I brought things on myself; but you, 
 Dan, you deserved the best." 
 
 " Instead of which, something stepped on me," 
 he interrupted dryly. " It seems as if there must 
 be a mistake somewhere, does n't it ? " 
 
 Kate rose. " I must go," she said. 
 
 " Tell me first if this De Normandy is a good 
 sort of man." 
 
 " Would the best sort of man marry me ? " 
 
 " I hoped that was all over," said Dan earnestly. 
 
 " It has been since I have been with you 
 since last winter, I mean. Oh, Dan, you believe 
 me, don't you ? " There was piteous appeal in her 
 voice. 
 
 " I do, Kate." 
 
 She caught her breath. " We are parting, you 
 know and and there is one more thing. You 
 remember once I listened and you thought I 
 would tell you despised me so." Her voice 
 failed, and he stood above her waiting, ignorant 
 of the passion of appeal, despair, and love that 
 was in her face. 
 
 "You looked at me," she continued breath- 
 lessly, " and the look has been scorching my life 
 away ever since. Could n't you take it back now ? 
 I was wrong to listen ; but I thought trouble was 
 220
 
 KATE ATONES 
 
 coming to you. And I would n't have told, not if 
 they had killed me for it. So can't you take back 
 what you thought of me then, now that we are 
 parting now that we are parting, Dan Won't 
 you try, honestly, to take it back?" 
 
 " I think I can take it back without trying very 
 hard," he said kindly. " Indeed, I took it back 
 some time ago. I am sorry I was so much of a 
 brute ; it is you who must try to forgive me. You 
 see I was n't very cheerful at that time." 
 
 He held out his hand to her. 
 
 " Poor little Kate," he said. 
 
 She clung to him. " You mean it Yes, I 
 know you mean it. I was so afraid to ask. Good- 
 by, Dan Don't always remember me by to- 
 night. I don't usually talk so about myself only 
 we were parting, and you understand partly. 
 When I tell mamma, she says I ought not to blame 
 her for my unhappiness, because she has always 
 done her duty by me, and sent me to the best 
 dressmakers." Kate laughed mournfully. 
 
 " Poor little Kate," said Dan again. 
 
 " Don't don't be kind to me. I can't bear it 
 to-night. And there is one thing more." She 
 faltered and caught her voice on the edge of a 
 frightened sob. " There is one thing I want to 
 ask of you ; I will never ask anything again. But 
 221
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 you say you said just now that you had changed 
 your mind about me. I know I have n't been the 
 right sort of girl, not the kind the best men want 
 for sisters or wives. And then you looked at me 
 that way, and I understood for the first time, and 
 I have tried to change only people would not 
 believe me. It makes it so hard when no one be- 
 lieves. But there has n't been anything since that 
 you could n't respect. I swear it, Dan I swear 
 it Oh, my God, how can I make you believe 
 me!" 
 
 " Hush, Kate hush. I do believe you." 
 
 She was quivering hysterically. 
 
 " I never had a brother to tell me, or to care how 
 I went. Mamma never cared, nor you. But now 
 now that we are parting, do you think you could 
 
 you said you believed me do you think you 
 could kiss me just once as a brother kisses a sister 
 he respects ? I never had any one to kiss me that 
 way, and if you could if you can't, don't pretend 
 
 but if you could kiss me just once like that I 
 think I think it would make me a better woman 
 all my life, Dan." 
 
 " My poor little girl ! Where are you ? " 
 She came to him, and bending, he kissed her 
 lightly on the forehead. He was pale, for it might 
 222
 
 KATE ATONES 
 
 have been Winifred, but he kept Kate's hands, 
 though she trembled and tried to draw from 
 him. 
 
 " Be careful what you do. Living can hurt too 
 much to be trifled with," he said. " I cannot bear 
 to think of your marrying this man. Have you 
 given the other one a fair chance ? " 
 
 " Yes, it 's no use. I was fool enough to think 
 it might be once. It doesn't matter for me. 
 I shall do as well with De Normandy as I could 
 with any one." 
 
 She looked up into his face, and met the unsee- 
 ing eyes. " I never can believe it has come to 
 you," she whispered tremulously. 
 
 " Why not to me as well as to another ? " 
 
 " If I could only think of you as happy I should 
 n't mind the other things so much. I think I 
 think you will be happy some day. Dan, the last 
 time I went to New York I never told you 
 but I want you to know before I go I saw Win- 
 ifred, and she never heard about you till this 
 autumn. My letter miscarried." 
 
 " That 's all right," said Dan. 
 
 " She told me to tell you," continued Kate. " She 
 looked as if her heart were broken, Dan. If you 
 saw her you would hardly know her." 
 223
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " I am not likely to see her," he answered dryly. 
 
 Kate was talking insane nonsense, and he evi- 
 dently resented intrusion into his holy of holies ; 
 but she went on bravely. 
 
 " She is going to sing next week at the Cosmo- 
 politan-. Are you going to hear her ? " 
 
 " I had not thought of it." 
 
 " She wants you to be there." 
 
 " Suppose we change the subject, Kate ? " 
 
 Then Kate told her last lie. 
 
 " She told me she hoped you would be there. 
 Good-by, Dan good-by." 
 
 He heard Kate close the door, listened to her 
 vanishing steps, then went back to silence and 
 loneliness. 
 
 Kate sobbed as she ran down the dark stairway. 
 " He will marry Winifred some day," she cried, 
 " but nothing can ever make me forget that once 
 he kissed me as a brother would kiss a sister he 
 honored." 
 
 Dan sat in his chair. It was not in the man to 
 suspect Kate's love for him. He knew as little of 
 it as he knew of the light that streamed into his 
 eyes. There was only room in his thoughts for 
 one love, and this great love must be love without 
 service to the end. An hour later he had not 
 224
 
 KATE ATONES 
 
 moved, and iron tongues from the church spires 
 called out the midnight. 
 
 " Life is long," he said aloud to himself. " The 
 mills of God grind slowly." And he bowed his 
 head as if in prayer. 
 
 225
 
 Chapter XX 
 
 DOCTOR DAVAGE AGAIN 
 
 DAN decided to go on to New York for Wini- 
 fred's debut ; also he would call upon her, 
 and stop her from worrying about the lost letter. 
 He did not feel sure that she would care to see him ; 
 but it could not do any harm to take one hour of 
 her life, and he was hungering intolerably for 
 the sound of her. " She will have to want to see 
 me," he said with a whimsical flash of his old arro- 
 gance. 
 
 Poor Kate had evidently some ridiculous notions 
 about Winifred's feeling for him ; but it was pos- 
 sible she wished him to be present at her debut, 
 and he felt that he had received orders. He must 
 take Stirling, of course, and leave his business to 
 Providence and the devil. He told himself that he 
 was a fool ; but felt the fact to be immaterial. 
 
 A few days before his departure, he was coming 
 home from his office, when a vaguely familiar 
 voice addressed him. 
 
 "I am Dr. Davage," said the voice. "You 
 226
 
 DR. DAVAGE AGAIN 
 
 should have good cause to remember me. I thought 
 I should like to see what had become of you." 
 
 " Which is easily seen." 
 
 " And that means that you want to be rid of me. 
 Won't you dismiss your companion instead, and let 
 me walk with you wherever you are going? " 
 
 Dan smiled. " I should not imagine myself a good 
 advertisement for an oculist," he said. " You may 
 go, Stirling. Take a bicycle ride. Never mind the 
 work. You 're tired I hear it in your voice." 
 
 The doctor looked keenly into Dan's face. " You 
 are killing yourself by degrees," he observed. " I 
 suppose you know that." 
 
 " I had n't thought about it," said Dan tran- 
 quilly. 
 
 " Then you 're playing a fool's part. When 
 your health goes, work goes with it. Why have n't 
 you shot yourself ? I never believed you would 
 stick it out two years." 
 
 " I am inclined to think you ought to be ashamed 
 of yourself," said Dan. " Suppose I were to take 
 your advice." 
 
 " You would do no more than I intend doing 
 myself." 
 
 " You mean " 
 
 " Exactly. I have a trouble which won't kill 
 or cure, but I have no mind to lengthen the chain 
 227
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 of an unprofitable existence, and am debating as to 
 the easiest way of ending it. Won't you have a 
 light?" 
 
 " No, thank you. I can't seem to enjoy smoking 
 in the dark." 
 
 " True, the blind don't smoke. Seems like add- 
 ing insult to injury, does n't it ? " 
 
 " You mean depriving a man of sight and vices 
 at the same time ? I have thought so myself." 
 
 The doctor grinned delightedly. " I like to see a 
 fellow game, though he is a fool," he said. " Let 's 
 argue the matter out. What have you got from 
 existence during the last two years ? " 
 " No particular satisfaction." 
 " What has any one else got from it ? " 
 " Nothing, that I can think of at the moment." 
 " Why not get out then ? It 's easy enough." 
 " In the first place I am inclined to think it a 
 sin." 
 
 " Bah ! I did n't suppose you would be afraid 
 of a sin." 
 
 Dan smiled. " I could n't be more afraid of 
 anything than I am of living. But some one sooner 
 or later suffers from every sin that is committed. 
 I don't want to swell the world's sum of pain." 
 
 " So you believe in divine ordering ? You have 
 reverence." 
 
 228
 
 DR. DAVAGE AGAIN 
 
 " There is something bigger than myself, or I 
 should not be blind to-day." 
 
 " Nonsense, my dear sir, nonsense ! It is fate, 
 circumstance, call it what you will." 
 
 " Exactly. Call it what you will." 
 
 " I see ; you call it God." 
 
 " I am not sure." 
 
 " Ah." The doctor was silent for a short time. 
 " Ah," he said again. " I was right. You have 
 reverence, too much to label and ticket your be- 
 liefs. You 're one of the devout freethinkers. 
 The twentieth century will be peopled with them." 
 He puffed impatiently at his cigar. " It is the in- 
 solence of the whole business that I don't like," he 
 continued. " We never asked to be born." 
 
 " It does seem as if we might have been con- 
 sulted about that," Dan admitted. 
 
 " We are not consulted about coming here, nor 
 about much that happens while we are here. Why 
 should we submit ? There is only one way of de- 
 fying fate. I am going to profit by it. I rather 
 hoped you would, too, it would be vastly more 
 sociable." 
 
 " No. I shall keep at it as I have begun," said 
 
 Dan. " Nobody ever lived who did n't die. I can 
 
 keep that knowledge for days of unusual length. 
 
 I would n't do it if I were you, doctor. You 're 
 
 229
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 too good a man. Think about it, and remember 
 there 's nothing to prevent your going any moment 
 you want." 
 
 " There 's something in that view," said Davage. 
 " And it would be interesting to know what became 
 of you." 
 
 " I am written in the past tense," said Dan, 
 " but you what if you are ill. Good God, man, 
 you have your sight ! " He spoke with fierce, sud- 
 den passion, and then he caught himself and almost 
 immediately raised a white face with a twisted 
 smile on it. " I don't think any one ever heard 
 me do that," he said. 
 
 Dr. Davage answered nothing for a moment, and 
 Dan walked in silence also. "There is some- 
 thing else beside his blindness," thought the doc- 
 tor. " Perhaps some fool of a woman has jilted 
 him." 
 
 " I wish I might have met a man like you ear- 
 lier," he continued aloud. " It is too late now." 
 
 " It 's never too late," said Dan. 
 
 " Yes it is. "We 've lived our lives, and I am on 
 the brink. It seems as if we ought to have more 
 than one chance of living, does n't it ? " 
 
 " I don't want another I got too hard hit the 
 first time." 
 
 " Well, well, perhaps you 're right. I sha'n't 
 230
 
 DR. DAVAGE AGAIN 
 
 see you again after to-day. You 're a brave fel- 
 low, Howard, but I think you 're a fool for your 
 pains." 
 
 It happened that on the afternoon of Dan's jour- 
 ney to New York, Dr. Davage knocked at the door 
 of his room. " Do you know me this time ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " Yes so you thought better of it." 
 
 " Humph ! if you call it better. Let me sit down. 
 The stairs have knocked me up." 
 
 "I am sorry," said Dan. "Can't I get you 
 something? I think I might find some whiskey 
 after a certain amount of blundering." 
 
 " No, it will pass it 's my heart." Dan found 
 his way back to a chair. 
 
 "I am sorry my secretary is buying railroad 
 tickets," he said; "he might have been of some 
 use." 
 
 " I don't want your secretary," said the doctor 
 testily, being much put to it to get his breath. 
 " Why do you live seven stories high ? " 
 
 " I used to like the view," said Dan with a dry 
 smile. " And when my eyes went, I knew the lay 
 of the land, and could find things." 
 
 " It 's rather a gloomy looking room, but I don't 
 suppose you mind that." 
 
 231
 
 THE TUEN OF THE ROAD 
 
 "It doesn't trouble me seriously," answered 
 Dan. 
 
 There was a kindness in the doctor's voice that 
 took from his pitiless plainness of speech. 
 
 " I came to tell you that I have decided to stick 
 it out," he said after a pause. 
 
 " I am glad to hear that," Dan answered heart- 
 ily. " What changed your mind ? " 
 
 " I saw you find your way upstairs alone the 
 other day after I said good-by." 
 
 " Ah and the moral of that is " There was 
 an almost imperceptible contraction of Dan's lips. 
 
 " I was ashamed of myself. If you could stand 
 up under such fire, I thought I might face mine." 
 
 " That 's rather amusing," said Dan. 
 
 " Can't see it," answered Davage. 
 
 " I always knew I must be a spectacle when I 
 went round by myself, people can look the other 
 way if they don't like it, but now it seems I am 
 a promoter of virtue." 
 
 " I am glad you regard it as a virtue ; I call it 
 damned obstinacy, or pride, or anything else you 
 like. But I thought it might be a satisfaction to 
 you to know that your example is responsible for 
 my continued existence and suffering. In fact, 
 I came up these troublesome stairs to-day to tell 
 you that as far as I am responsible, I shall continue 
 232
 
 DR. DAVAGE AGAIN 
 
 to exist and suffer as long as you do. Do you 
 expect me to thank you for it ? " 
 
 *' No," answered Dan. 
 
 " That 's sensible of you, for I am not conscious 
 of gratitude as yet. It will be interesting to 
 see what becomes of you." 
 
 Davage looked at him for a little while in silence, 
 then he rose and put a hand on his shoulder. 
 
 " Do you know that I like you better than any 
 man I ever saw ? " he said. 
 
 " That 's curious," answered Dan. " I like you, 
 too, which is more curious still, for you don't spare 
 my sensibilities especially." 
 
 " I am not as bad as I sound." 
 
 " I have suspected as much." 
 
 " So it 's friendship, then for what 's left to 
 us?" 
 
 " Here 's my hand on it," said Dan. 
 
 " And if I don't bring you anything else, you 
 will have the never ending satisfaction of knowing 
 that you are responsible for my being alive, and 
 cursing pretty much every day that comes along." 
 
 " Thanks," said Dan. " I don't get much satis- 
 faction from life, so I '11 make the best of that." 
 233
 
 Chapter XXI 
 
 WINIFRED AND DAN 
 
 THE day before Winifred's appearance at the 
 Cosmopolitan was bitterly cold. She shivered 
 and drew her furs about her as she stepped into 
 the street after the last rehearsal. The occasion 
 had been a trying one : the tenor was hoarse and 
 had sworn with due regard for vocal cords 
 at his inability to sustain his highest note. The 
 contralto had flatted, and ruined her duet with 
 Winifred, who shared the consequent blame. The 
 impresario, who sat in the first gallery, was out 
 of temper, and shouted hoarse commands across a 
 waste of empty theatre. Nothing went well, and 
 the cast an illy clad set of Italians and French 
 frowned upon Winifred, who had laughed when 
 the high-priest tripped over his worsted muffler in 
 the very act of a solemn prayer. 
 
 Every one has heard of the disillusion of an 
 empty theatre, and many have seen it the barren 
 stage, with its dust and heaps of shabby scenery, 
 234
 
 WINIFRED AND DAN 
 
 the vast, dimly lighted, echoing spaces beyond, and 
 the gaping galleries. 
 
 When Winifred stepped on the stage for her 
 last duet and solo, she had been in a mood of reck- 
 less misery, and looking into the shadowy theatre 
 had sung out something of the passion and despair 
 that was in her heart. 
 
 The chorus ceased whispering, and the impre- 
 sario nodded, and rubbed his hands. "Zat will 
 do zat will do," he exclaimed, coming down to 
 the footlights when she had finished. " If you 
 sing like zat to-morrow night I gives you any 
 single zing you want ; but if you do not " 
 He shook his fist playfully, and dismissed the 
 troupe with restored good-humor. Winifred went 
 out into the early twilight, shivering, and, partly 
 because of a deadly weariness, forgetful of her 
 success. 
 
 There was no cab as usual at the corner, and 
 the cars were crowded with Christmas shoppers. 
 In spite of her fatigue, Winifred preferred walk- 
 ing to the crush of a Broadway train, and the 
 rattle of Fifth Avenue 'buses jarred her nerves 
 intolerably. Nerves were a new discovery to 
 Winifred, as was the possibility of being tired and 
 the wakeful nights. She despised herself for these 
 235
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 weaknesses ; surely Dan would have been braver. 
 To-day she was more tired than usual, and the 
 ache of simple every-day existence seemed almost 
 unbearable. Of course she would live to be old 
 
 she was so strong, and after awhile living 
 would n't hurt so much ; but Winifred knew she 
 could never be very glad, or very sorry, for any- 
 thing again. 
 
 The walk home seemed endless, and she told 
 herself the twilight on the snow was as the light 
 on a dead face. At her hotel the elevator boy in- 
 formed her that a gentleman was waiting in her 
 apartments; and in the parlor she found dusk, 
 and firelight, and Dan rose to meet her. She 
 gave a little cry when she saw him, and stood still 
 on the threshold. 
 
 " Is it you, Winifred ? " he asked. 
 
 She went to him swiftly. " You surprised me 
 
 I did n't expect you," she said, hoping he would 
 not hear the breathlessness in her voice. 
 
 His hand held hers with the strong clasp she 
 knew so well ; but standing before the unseeing 
 eyes it seemed as if her heart broke afresh. 
 
 " How was the rehearsal ? " he asked her quite 
 naturally. " But you have grown thin," he added. 
 " Why is that ? " 
 
 With a great effort Winifred commanded her- 
 236
 
 WINIFRED AND DAN 
 
 self. " How did you know I had been to a re- 
 hearsal, or that I had grown thin ? " she was able 
 to ask him lightly. 
 
 " Edith told me the first she has gone out 
 now with Walter, who brought me here. The sec- 
 ond I felt when you gave me your hand. Are n't 
 you well, Win ? Kate feared you were not." 
 
 She drew her breath sharply. Had he come to 
 tell her of his engagement ? 
 
 " Why have you come ? " she asked. 
 
 " Because I wanted to," he answered dryly ; 
 " and now that I am here I must remind you of 
 the insignificant fact that I am blind, that I don't 
 know where the chair is I have just left, and that 
 I must stand indefinitely unless you show me to 
 another. Possibly you prefer standing, in which 
 case I am willing to stand also ; but we should 
 both be uncomfortable and " Winifred's hands 
 were on his arm. 
 
 " I am so sorry ! " she interrupted brokenly, " I 
 was thinking I mean but don't think I ever 
 forget for a single hour, or minute, or second 
 don't think I shall ever forget till I die " 
 
 " There, there," he said quickly, " I did n't want 
 you to say all that ; I was in fun." 
 
 " What kind of a chair do you like ? Have 
 you grown very particular about your chairs ? " 
 237
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Winifred asked, with something that might have 
 been a sob or a laugh. 
 
 "I prefer one with arms, if you ask me," he 
 said, " for I like to be able to get hold of some- 
 thing with my hands." He laughed himself 
 through set teeth. " We did n't use to do things 
 this way did we, Win ? " he added as she took 
 him to a seat. 
 
 Then he asked her about herself, her health, her 
 success or failure. He had heard the catch in her 
 voice when she first saw him, and told himself that 
 probably he was something of a shock to her since 
 he had gone blind, for she had been fond of him 
 if she had been fond of any one. If seeing him 
 continued to distress her as it had done to-day, he 
 must keep out of her way; but he hoped she 
 would get used to it, for now that she knew he 
 made no claims on her, there could be no harm in 
 his seeing her once a year or so, learning of her 
 life from her own lips, knowing the strong joy of 
 being near her, and going to hell for a day or two 
 afterwards. 
 
 There was no one thing he could give her, no 
 
 service he could ever render her while he lived 
 
 that was the worst of it. He would have liked to 
 
 have stood between her and the world, instead of 
 
 238
 
 WINIFRED AND DAN 
 
 which he could only hope not to be a shadow on 
 her life. 
 
 Perhaps when she got used to seeing him 
 stumble and grope she might be glad to meet 
 him from time to time, for she had given him the 
 best she had for eight years, and he had been the 
 only man in her life. Dan knew this as he knew 
 his own soul. 
 
 In the mean time she seemed to be getting used 
 to him. She answered him naturally, told of her 
 life in Russia, of the people she had met, of where 
 she had succeeded and failed. The mutual sympa- 
 thy and comprehension that had been theirs in the 
 past was like an undertow between them to-day ; 
 each knew the other's unspoken word, and the 
 larger meaning of the spoken one. So it hap- 
 pened that in the joy of this hour's companionship 
 they forgot past and future. 
 
 His interest was vital and inexhaustible, and 
 the old whimsical humor was keen as ever. Often 
 he would laugh at her. "That is so like you, 
 Win," and again he would disapprove and scold 
 her. " If I had been there you would not have 
 done it," he said to her once. 
 
 " I know it," she admitted, " but you see you 
 were not, so I did ; but I knew what you would
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 say. I always knew how you would feel about 
 everything ; I used to long to talk things over with 
 you. I could n't understand why you did n't write 
 you see I never knew " 
 
 They paused, and realizing the brink of the 
 precipice could forget no longer. 
 
 " I never heard, till I came back two or three 
 months ago." 
 
 " I know," he answered. " Kate told me her 
 letter did not reach you." 
 
 " And you thought I knew, Dan, all these 
 years, and kept silent ? " 
 
 " What else could you have done ? crossed the 
 ocean to tell me you were sorry ? I can't have you 
 troubled about that; Kate gave me to under- 
 stand that you were troubled." 
 
 Kate again ; what else had Kate told him ? 
 Winifred was not jealous, and she had thought her 
 love too great for pride ; but the blood rushed 
 hotly to her head. Had Dan suspected, and was 
 he trying to be good to her ? 
 
 " Kate was right," she said with a firm, clear 
 ring to her voice. " I was troubled it seemed a 
 poor return " 
 
 " Did I ever ask for payment, Winifred ? " He 
 spoke gravely and proudly, and her own pride fell 
 before the memory of that past. 
 240
 
 WINIFRED AND DAN 
 
 " You don't understand," she said brokenly. 
 
 " Perhaps not, it does n't matter now, only I 
 won't have you worried." 
 
 " No, it does n't matter now," she repeated. 
 There was a note of heart-break in her voice. 
 The room was quite dark, save for the firelight ; 
 and they were silent. 
 
 Dan spoke first. " I am afraid I worry you, 
 Winifred," he said. " You seem to have notions 
 about unpaid debts of gratitude, and other non- 
 sense; besides which, I suppose my blindness 
 troubles you somewhat, and makes the debt seem 
 worse. If this is so, tell me plainly, it is the 
 only charity I ask of you, and I '11 never come 
 within the sound of your voice again." 
 
 " You don't understand," she said, and paused ; 
 when she spoke again, he had to listen for the 
 words. 
 
 " I feel I may never see you after to-night, Dan. 
 Whether I fail or succeed to-morrow, I sail next 
 month for Europe, and such home as I know must 
 be there." 
 
 There was no faltering in the low, even voice, 
 but she paused now and again, and then he could 
 hear the ashes fall from the dying fire. 
 
 " Before we part I want to say one thing : there 
 can be no such words as debt or gratitude between 
 241
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 us, and pride is a small thing ; so I want you to 
 know that there has never been another friend in 
 my life than you, Dan, and this will still be true 
 at the end." 
 
 There was another silence, and the low voice 
 dropped lower. 
 
 " In the past you did me the honor to wish for 
 my love ; it was, and will always be the honor of 
 my life. I may have denied this love, but I knew 
 it would be yours or no one's ; I knew that years 
 ago, as I know it to-day, and as I shall know it in 
 the hour of my death. I tell you this because, as 
 the years go on, you will blame me unless you 
 understand, and because I cannot bear that you 
 should think I want to pay you, even if payment 
 were necessary or possible." 
 
 He did not answer her till he could do so 
 lightly. 
 
 "You are generous to speak these words," he 
 said, " but don't for an instant imagine that I ex- 
 pect you to make them good. You are still obsti- 
 nate in denying yourself a heart ; I supposed you 
 had learned better. As for thinking you cannot 
 love any one, because you could not love me, that 
 is nonsense, as you must find out some day." He 
 paused, and then laughed a short, grim laugh. 
 "You should have loved me, Winifred, and no 
 242
 
 WINIFRED AND DAN 
 
 other if I had not lost my sight and though 
 it took a lifetime to make you," he said. 
 
 Womanlike, she loved him better for his auda- 
 cious strength than for a thousand speeches of 
 humility and self-effacement. She could have 
 laughed with him from pride ; but instead she 
 cried within herself, " My God what I have 
 lost ! " How had she lost it ? how was it possible 
 that such love could have died? He had chosen 
 that it should that was the only explanation 
 he had chosen, and it had come to pass. 
 
 Suddenly she spoke with passionate question- 
 ing. 
 
 " Dan, how have you done it ? How have you 
 overcome ? Do you can you believe for a single 
 hour that what has come to you is best ? " 
 
 He did not answer her at once. There was no 
 bitterness, but an immense gravity in his face. 
 
 "Yes I think I can believe that much," he 
 said quietly. " Perhaps not best for me ; but best, 
 and necessary to the ultimate intention." 
 
 " I don't understand," she cried bitterly. 
 
 " Neither do I, altogether ; we only see the half. 
 But law and order are eternal verities. When a 
 law is broken, a life must fall and break to restore 
 the balance, for it seems to have been necessary 
 since the beginning of the world that some should 
 243
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 fall by the wayside that many may reach the 
 heights." 
 
 " That is cruel," whispered Winifred ; " must we 
 perish that others may live ? " 
 
 " Better that, than perish to no purpose. 
 What is troubling you, Winifred ? There is some- 
 thing, I know." 
 
 " Only the cruelty the cruelty of it." 
 
 " Dear child I am so sorry," said Dan, "and 
 you won't tell me what it is? But try not to 
 worry. Some day you will learn that the ultimate 
 meaning of it all is happiness through love ; and 
 I don't believe any of us can sin or suffer so 
 greatly that we shall not come into our own at the 
 end." 
 
 " Dan," she almost whispered, " do you ever 
 pray?" 
 
 " Why, no," he answered, " not as men mean 
 prayer. It always seems an impertinence to divine 
 reason. The only real prayer is in beholding and 
 worshiping." 
 
 " I know I know ; but sometimes when we 
 are weak, we cry out just as one does in bodily 
 pain, without hoping for relief ; but just because 
 we must. Have you ever prayed that way, Dan ? " 
 
 " I am afraid I have cried out once or twice," 
 he confessed. 
 
 244
 
 WINIFRED AND DAN 
 
 A log from the fire broke suddenly, and she saw 
 his face turned towards her with something of 
 wistfulness in it. 
 
 " You say you are going away, Win ? It would 
 be rather nice to see your face once before you go. 
 You have changed I heard it first in your voice, 
 and now I know it from your words. You are in 
 trouble, and I suspect you of doing something fool- 
 ish ; but how can I know without seeing you, and 
 how can I scold you if I don't know ? " 
 
 " I have n't been doing anything foolish, Dan, 
 and I don't deserve to be scolded," she said, her 
 lips tremulous with the pity his strength had al- 
 most made her forget. She was looking at the 
 deeply lined face, and realized that it was suddenly 
 sad with a very dreadful sadness, and he had been 
 speaking to her as he had done long ago when 
 he loved her. Her heart gave a great leap, like 
 some glad, half -tamed thing. Then she told her- 
 self that she was mad to hope. 
 
 " We are going to say good-by," she said 
 aloud, " and won't you tell me how it is with you ? 
 Your power your success it means something 
 to you ? " 
 
 " What it is worth no more, no less," he said. 
 
 " You have not answered me, Dan." 
 
 " You 're trying to make me whine, Winifred." 
 245
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 She was silent ; then 
 
 " There is one more thing " 
 
 " A question ? " 
 
 " Yes, the last I shall ever ask you." 
 
 " Well, I am waiting." 
 
 "You remember once, long ago, we stood by 
 the stone wall near the apple-tree, and vowed to 
 have no secrets from each other ever so long 
 as we lived ? " 
 
 " Yes ; the apple-tree died last year, and the boy 
 who made the vow died two years ago. Evidently 
 you 're afraid to ask that question." 
 
 " No, I shall ask it. Tell me first why the apple- 
 tree died?" 
 
 " It was burned ; with the old barn." 
 
 " So the old barn is burned." Winifred paused. 
 " It is hard to believe, Dan." Her voice was 
 suddenly low, and eager, and tremulous. " Dan, 
 there was a place in the loft, where " 
 
 " I know," said Dan. 
 
 " Tell me now if you love Kate ? " 
 
 "If I love Kate?" He repeated her words 
 slowly with reproach. "If I love Kate ? 
 Winifred! Winifred!" 
 
 " Then no I hear Edith and Walter in the 
 entry." Winifred spoke rapidly, with a strange 
 ring to her voice. " After all, I think I will ask 
 246
 
 WINIFRED AND DAN 
 
 you one more question, and see you once again. 
 Listen, Dan, and promise me quick before they 
 come in. I sing to-morrow night you will be 
 there to hear me ; and after, the next day, you 
 will come here promise me you will come." 
 " Why, yes, Win, if you wish, but what " 
 " Never mind, the questions are all mine now. 
 Remember you have promised." 
 
 " Yes," said Dan, growing suddenly grave, and 
 then Edith and Walter entered the room. 
 247
 
 Chapter XXII 
 
 WOMAN AND ARTIST 
 
 DURING the past few days many rumors had 
 gone abroad concerning Winifred Meredith 
 and her appearance before the New York public. 
 Some people said that Daniel Howard had come on 
 from Boston to marry her, and take her away on the 
 eve of her performance. How her operatic contract 
 had been disposed of no one could explain ; but it 
 was argued that a woman in love disdains contracts, 
 and believed among the ignorant that Daniel How- 
 ard could do what he chose with contracts, legal or 
 illegal. Other people claimed that Winifred had 
 lost her voice in the New York climate, and that 
 her name appeared on the bills merely to swell the 
 impresario's bank account. Still more claimed for 
 her a voice and talent such as had not been heard 
 since the days of Patti, while others asserted that 
 her voice amounted to little, but that her beauty 
 was great, which accounted for a certain success 
 with the European public. The only undisputed 
 fact was that Winifred Meredith had no superior 
 248
 
 WOMAN AND ARTIST 
 
 in birth or breeding, and the ticket agents were 
 kept inconveniently busy for several days before 
 the performance. 
 
 The day itself was an anxious one for four 
 people. Edith was especially troubled, for Wini- 
 fred's voice had been uncertain all winter, and there 
 were hundreds of people waiting to hear and con- 
 demn her. Walter was anxious because Edith was, 
 and Dan had been entertained by them both with 
 stories of Winifred's shaken nervous system, and 
 tortured with fear that she was overdoing, and 
 would ruin her health by her profession. More 
 nervous than all was Herr Grim, the impresario. 
 He had staked a good deal on this new singer's 
 success. If she failed, he would be out of pocket 
 for extensive advertising outlays ; but if she suc- 
 ceeded, if she sang as she had sung yesterday in 
 the empty theatre, Herr Griin would be a made 
 man. One of the best voices, the most perfect 
 training, and the most magnetic genius in the op- 
 eratic world would be his. 
 
 He called to see Winifred that morning, to as- 
 sure himself that all went well. " In ze name of 
 ze Blessed Virgin, do not talk," he entreated her, 
 " or laugh ; was it you laughing as I came in ?" 
 
 Winifred said that it was, and she laughed again, 
 an odd, joyous, reckless little laugh. " Ach ! mein 
 249
 
 THE TUEN OF THE KOAD 
 
 Gott ! " you drive me on ze verge of ze distraction," 
 cried Herr Griin. " It is better to talk even, zan 
 to laugh and ze cold ! and ze snow outside ! 
 are you sure you have not a hoarseness ; try a note 
 for me." 
 
 Winifred took a chest tone and swept upwards 
 triumphantly to a high B. She held the note, 
 played with it, swelled it, hit it again and again, 
 trilled on it, and finally let it trail off into a tiny 
 sound of shivering ecstasy. Then she turned away, 
 laughing. 
 
 " Himmel ! zat is enough enough ; more zan 
 enough you will tire yourself for to-night ; but 
 what a voice ! what a voice ! Zere is only one 
 ozer in ze world who can do zat to-day. If you sing 
 so to-night, you have ze world at your feet to-mor- 
 row; and yet you talk you laugh, and lose your 
 chance. But you will not dare Ach! you will 
 not dare to go out in ze air wiz your mouf uncov- 
 ered. Tell me you will not dare." 
 
 "Do not worry about me, Herr Griin; every- 
 thing is going well," said Winifred. 
 
 But he shook his head as he left the room. " She 
 would dare," he told himself. " Zere is a new look 
 in her eyes to-day. When a woman looks so she 
 dares anyzing ze heaven, or ze hell, or ze world 
 between." 
 
 250
 
 WOMAN AND AETIST 
 
 Winifred alone was not anxious. There was a 
 strange intensity about her this morning, and Edith 
 wondered at her smiling eyes and grave lips. All 
 winter Winifred had smiled with her lips only. Yet 
 Edith did not wonder much, for Dan had been 
 there the day before, and she had found Winifred 
 and him sitting in the twilight when she came home 
 to make tea for Walter, and Winifred's face had 
 been almost beautiful with tenderness and radiance 
 when she looked at Dan ; while Dan himself was 
 graver than usual, but less stern, and his face 
 turned toward the sound of Winifred wherever 
 she moved, and great sadness and great love had 
 been in that face for any one to see. 
 
 Through this day of anxious waiting, Winifred 
 told her nothing ; but she wore the look of one who 
 holds a wonderful secret. At last the night came. 
 The audience filled tiers and boxes, and overflowed 
 into the aisles. It was a magnificent house. " The 
 biggest one there has been for years," announced 
 Edith, who slipped into Winifred's dressing-room 
 to see that everything was well. 
 
 " Oh ! Win, dear, I hope you 're going to sing 
 your best." 
 
 " Has Dan come ? " asked Winifred. 
 
 " Yes, I passed him as I came along. He looks 
 a good deal upset." 
 
 251
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " Tell him not to worry," she said. 
 
 Edith left her standing in a blaze of lights, while 
 two maids arranged the folds of her priestess robes ; 
 but Winifred's face was pale and rapt, with smil- 
 ing eyes and grave lips, which suggested the wind 
 and starlight that were above the footlights and the 
 people, their praise or their blame. 
 
 " How does she say she feels ? " asked Walter, 
 who met Edith on her return from the wings. 
 
 " She said nothing, except to ask if Dan were 
 here, and to send him word not to worry. Some- 
 thing wonderful is going to happen, Walter ; wait 
 and see." 
 
 They stopped for a moment by Dan, who was 
 sitting with Stirling in the first gallery. 
 
 " She says you 're not to worry," Edith told him, 
 with dancing eyes. 
 
 " That 's all very well," complained Walter, 
 " but how can she tell till she begins to sing ? 
 This public life is a bad business. If she does n't 
 succeed, Edith will be miserable for a week." 
 
 Dan smiled. " If it were possible for Winifred 
 to make more than one first appearance, I should 
 fear for your life's happiness, Wally," he said. 
 
 The house was full, and the audience were wait- 
 ing, gossiping, and speculating the while on Wini- 
 fred's probable looks and talent. Those who knew 
 252
 
 WOMAN AND ARTIST 
 
 " Lakme," that most impetuous, seductive exotic of 
 operas, wondered if any woman New England born 
 and bred could be temperamentally equal to it. 
 Artists questioned the power of so young a voice 
 to sustain the passionate, soaring music. There 
 were some present who remembered Winifred 
 Meredith as a vigorous young hoyden with a mass 
 of straight dark hair, and a glance and speech of 
 singular directness ; these last waited her appear- 
 ance as a prima donna with amused curiosity. 
 
 The opening measures of the opera were listened 
 to with indifference, and the tenor's singing of his 
 beautiful solo roused the first enthusiasm. In the 
 hush that followed his applause there floated out 
 from behind the scenes some soprano notes, sweet, 
 virginal, strangely thrilling, and the next moment- 
 Lakm6 stepped into the garden, a priestess of the 
 gods, childlike and queenlike. Robed in trailing 
 folds of white, an arch of diamonds spanning her 
 dark hair, she moved through the flowers, joyous 
 and regal, with serene eyes and laughing lips, sing- 
 ing as the first woman might have sung in the gar- 
 den of Paradise before learning the lesson of sin 
 and pain. Her voice recalled to world-worn men 
 and women half forgotten memories of dawns when 
 the world had been young for them, and some faded 
 eyes were dim with tears for a childhood that had 
 253
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 been sweet and true. The story moved quickly, 
 borne by the impetuous music that was full of sen- 
 suous, unexpected cadences, music that charmed 
 and bewitched. Still a child of the gods, she 
 played in the gorgeous garden till a man came, and 
 looking into her eyes sang of joy and love, and she 
 was priestess no longer ; but a woman with burn- 
 ing lips and eyes. Her voice deepened, grew warm, 
 luxurious, vibrant, tropical. 
 
 " What an actress ! " said some. 
 
 " What a singer ! " said others. 
 
 " What a woman ! " said a few who were wise 
 and knew that none can give what they have not. 
 
 The ballet and gorgeous spectacle in the first 
 part of the second act aroused scant interest in the 
 audience, but when Lakme came forward to sing 
 the famous air des cloches, men and women held 
 their breath. This great aria demands all that a 
 singer's throat can do. Winifred sang it with au- 
 dacious ease. The house rang with magnetic, com- 
 pelling notes, daring flights of execution, runs that 
 tingled on the air like whiplashes, long-drawn tones 
 in the mezza voce, notes of bewildering sweetness 
 that floated and thrilled and brought tears of ex- 
 quisite delight to the listeners' eyes ; yet never for 
 an instant could it be forgotten that she was a 
 woman who loved and feared, and was in mortal 
 254
 
 WOMAN AND ARTIST 
 
 anguish while singing in the market-place to the 
 betrayal of her lover. 
 
 Then enthusiasm ran like wildfire through the 
 audience, and was only held in check after the fall 
 of the curtain by impatience for the next and last 
 act. Here it is that, united at last, Lakme and 
 Gerald sing together in the forest. 
 
 Passionately tender, deliriously sweet, was her 
 voice then; rapturous and triumphant, swinging 
 and soaring above orchestra and tenor in a very 
 ecstasy of love. Hearing her, sordid men remem- 
 bered the face of the woman they had first loved. 
 Hearing her, worldly women saw the ideals of their 
 girlhood looking out of the past, with beautiful, 
 reproachful eyes. Hearing her, both men and 
 women with jaded senses knew only the pain and 
 sweetness and passion of grand elemental emotions. 
 Such knowledge is not bought every day. 
 
 When the curtain had fallen on Lakme's swift 
 despair and tragic end, there followed one of those 
 moments which sweep away the self-control of a 
 lifetime. To-morrow would be time enough for 
 reason ; to-night was for splendid, delirious enthu- 
 siasm. She had made them live to the uttermost 
 limits of their beings, lived as some had never 
 dreamed of living, and no demonstration was too 
 insane for her. 
 
 255
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 Again and again she came before the curtain, 
 graceful and stately, but somewhat indifferent, to 
 bow her acknowledgments, and every time she 
 came the sound of voices was as the rush of a great 
 tide, and the walls of the building shook. 
 
 Few had time to notice the one man among them 
 who sat silent and bowed in his chair. 
 
 Dan heard her that night Dan, whose senses 
 were not jaded, who did not need to recall the face 
 of the woman he had first loved, for the first wo- 
 man had been the last. Hearing her he knew what 
 he had always felt that the wild, strong, passion- 
 ate heart of her was as his own, that she was his by 
 all laws human and divine. And more than this, 
 Dan knew with a fierce, suffocating, almost mad- 
 dening joy, that Winifred loved him. It was to 
 him that she had sung, and to-morrow she would 
 tell him of her love. 
 
 By the sounds of her triumph he guessed when 
 she came before the lights, and once he raised his 
 head, and turned his storm-beaten face toward her, 
 as if he could see. There was only one word for 
 him: renunciation. The head bowed again, and 
 the broad shoulders bent lower. 
 
 Stirling touched his arm. " They are beginning 
 to go," he said timidly. 
 
 Dan did not move. 
 
 256
 
 WOMAN AND AKTIST 
 
 " Has she come for the last time ? " he asked. 
 Yes." 
 
 Then Dan lifted his powerful frame slowly, as if 
 under a burden, and put his hand out to the boy. 
 " We will go," he said. 
 257
 
 Chapter XXIII 
 
 THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW 
 
 IT was the next day, and Edith looked at her 
 sister with awe. 
 
 " Winifred, it was glorious ! " 
 
 Winifred leaned her head on her hand ; she was 
 pale and oddly still. Only her eyes showed life 
 life burning, expectant, radiant. 
 
 " It was glorious ! You have conquered, Win. 
 You are a great artist, and the world knows it." 
 
 Winifred smiled. A London impresario had 
 just called with a handsome offer, humbly proffered, 
 for an engagement at Covent Garden. On the 
 table lay a contract awaiting her signature, which 
 assured her a little fortune for singing in ten per- 
 formances to be given in New York during what 
 remained of the season. The signature was with- 
 held. 
 
 " Herr Griin's offer is a splendid one," continued 
 Edith. " Why don't you sign it ? " 
 
 Winifred took the precious document and tore 
 258
 
 THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW 
 
 it across the middle. Then she folded it deliber- 
 ately and tore it again. 
 
 " Winifred, you are crazy ! Why, Win ! " 
 
 Winifred rose and dropped the fragments into 
 the fire. Then she laughed, softly, and recklessly, 
 and gladly. 
 
 Edith went out in the early afternoon, and Win- 
 ifred waited for Dan. He had promised he 
 would come. She leaned her elbows on the mantel- 
 piece and watched the clock. It seemed that the 
 hands scarcely moved, but suddenly she saw an 
 hour had gone. " If Dan did not come to-day 
 if he had gone without seeing her," she caught her 
 throat fiercely, and then somehow Dan was in the 
 room. Winifred could never remember how he 
 came there, for her nerves were strained to the 
 breaking point. 
 
 " I thought you were not coming," she said 
 breathlessly. 
 
 " I promised," he answered. His face was drawn 
 and gray, and very stern. He had fought the 
 night through with hungry devils, and with the 
 higher longings of his being which were marshaled 
 against the absolute, and clamoring for this woman ; 
 but when the day came he had conquered. 
 
 " You are late, Dan, and I have so much to tell 
 259
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 you," she said with a strange, sweet thrill in her 
 voice. 
 
 He did not answer her ; but sat with his elbow 
 on the table, and his face shaded by his hand. 
 
 Winifred was white, with burning eyes. He 
 heard her near him, he heard her catch her breath 
 in the silence then he heard her voice, low and 
 clear. " Do you love me still, Dan ? " she asked 
 him. 
 
 " Yes, Winifred, I love you for all time," he an- 
 swered with grave calm, " but we will talk of some- 
 thing else to-day." 
 
 " I brought you here for one thing," she said. 
 
 He knew he could not keep her from speaking, 
 so he waited motionless. 
 
 " I love you, Dan I love you." 
 
 The hand that hid his face shook a little ; but 
 his deep voice was steady, and tender beyond all 
 words. 
 
 " My child," he said, " you do not know what 
 you are saying." 
 
 " I know nothing else in all the world, Dan." 
 
 " You don't understand," he said. " You have 
 a wonderful and glorious life before you and I 
 am blind, Winifred." Her hand stole into his. 
 
 " Do you think I love you less well for that? " 
 
 " I could have made you happy once," he con- 
 260
 
 THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW 
 
 tinued, " but now I am worthless. To take your 
 life would be a crime." 
 
 But she gave a laugh with a little sob in it. " I 
 am afraid you must, Dan ; there is nothing in the 
 world for me but you, and so as you are re- 
 sponsible for the loss of the world, don't you think 
 don't you think it 's your duty as an honorable 
 man to make the loss good to me ? You don't 
 know how well I love you. You are going to make 
 me tell you and say the words a woman should leave 
 to a man. Is it quite generous of you, dear? " 
 
 He bent his head, and she felt his lips tremble on 
 her hand. 
 
 " I cannot do it," he said hoarsely. " God help 
 me ! I cannot take the sacrifice." 
 
 " Sacrifice ! where is the sacrifice ? I love you, 
 Dan, I love you, I say, and you do not believe it 
 yet ? Listen to me, Dan. You think I am offer- 
 ing you a slight thing born of pity, generosity, and 
 some affection, which shows how little you know 
 me. You think that because you are blind, you 
 have less right than other men to hold a woman's 
 love, which shows how little you know a woman's 
 heart. Ah, Dan," leaning on the table she bent 
 over his bowed head with yearning tenderness 
 " can't you understand that just because you have 
 not all most men have, I love you the more ? Can't 
 261
 
 THE TURN OF THE ROAD 
 
 you understand that for every lost happiness of 
 yours I give you more love, and for every bitter 
 moment more love? Dear, if it had been I in- 
 stead of you that had been blind, would you have 
 shrunk from me loved me less ? " 
 
 " If it had been you if it had been you 
 hush, Winifred, don't say the words." He spoke 
 brokenly. 
 
 "Yes, if it had been I instead of you, what 
 would you have done ? Answer me quickly, Dan." 
 
 He stretched out his hands with a passionate 
 gesture. 
 
 "I should have taken you into my arms and 
 never let you out of them till death came between 
 us." 
 
 She gave a little cry that was half a sob. 
 
 " I knew it ! I knew it ! It is no use for you 
 to turn your head away from me now." Kneeling 
 beside him she spoke swiftly. " Listen to me, Dan. 
 There has never been any one in the world for me 
 but you, neither mother nor father nor brother 
 nor friend ; but I did not understand. I thought 
 I had some power greater than the power of loving 
 you ; I thought the world could give me some honor 
 greater than the honor of being loved by you. I 
 thought life could give me some happiness greater 
 than the happiness of being your wife. When I 
 262
 
 THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW 
 
 heard what had come to you oh, my love " 
 Her voice broke ; and then she went on with low- 
 toned passionate tenderness. " It was the know- 
 ledge of your loss, dear, which showed me my gain. 
 I knew then that I loved you, had always loved 
 you, should always love you ; that there could never 
 be honor nor power nor happiness apart from you. 
 Dear, how long are you going to let me do the 
 suing ? Dan listen, Dan how often must I 
 say the words ? I love you, dear I love you 
 I love " 
 
 With a great sob he swept her into his arms, 
 silenced her lips with his kisses, drowned her 
 thoughts, her consciousness almost, in the storm of 
 his love, love that had been chained and starved 
 and denied during all the years of his youth and 
 early manhood, love that had lost joy and hope, but 
 would not falter nor turn pale, love that had come 
 into its own at last. Finally she lay passive and 
 breathless in his arms, while he murmured ten- 
 der, incoherent sentences over her, kissed her hair, 
 her eyes, her lips, and the beatings of their wild, 
 powerful hearts grew quieter. Once she put up 
 her hands with a little sob and touched his eyes, but 
 he drew the hands down and laughed with his lips 
 against her fingers. 
 
 " Now that I have the right to hold them always 
 263
 
 THE TUKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 here, I do not need to see that the sun shines," he 
 said. " But can I make you happy ? " 
 
 " That depends upon how well you are going to 
 love me." 
 
 " You will go on with your career, Winifred ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 "But Winifred" 
 
 " It would take me away from you." 
 
 Dan began to show signs of combativeness. " I 
 cannot have you give that up," he said ; " it is your 
 life work." 
 
 " Dear, don't you know yet how well I love 
 you ? " 
 
 He was silent, and Winifred had withdrawn her- 
 self from him. 
 
 " Don't you want to make me happy, Dan ? " 
 
 " God knows I do. Where are you, Winifred ? " 
 
 "Then never try to send me away from you." 
 
 " Let it settle itself then since you say so. 
 But where are you Win ? Come nearer nearer 
 yet. Remember I can't see you, dear, and deserve 
 more privileges than most lovers." 
 
 Winifred slipped to her knees beside him and 
 he touched her hair. 
 
 " Do you twist it in the same coil I used to know ? 
 No, don't tell me I want to find it all out for 
 264
 
 THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW 
 
 myself. Here is the parting ; I remember how I 
 used to love the silver line of it, and here are 
 the smooth thick braids just the same. You have 
 n't lost that one curl behind your left ear, have 
 you ? No, here it is and on your forehead there 
 used to be a place yes, I have it where the 
 hair would not lie smoothly. It is better to kiss 
 it so, and so, than be able to see it with the room 
 between. I used to love it for breaking the line 
 that might have been too severe over eyes less true 
 and fine than yours." 
 
 He took her face between his hands and turned 
 it up towards his own as if to look. " How many 
 years of life would it be worth to see your eyes 
 with love in them," he said. 
 
 She gave a little pitying cry and slipping her 
 hands round his neck drew his head down to her 
 own. 
 
 " Dearest, tell me can I ever make up for the 
 least part of your loss ? " 
 
 " Where is your hand, love ? Now you make up 
 for all, save for not seeing your face. When will 
 you marry me, Winifred ? On what day, and 
 hour, and minute ? " 
 
 " On the one you say." 
 
 " To-morrow ? " 
 
 265
 
 THE TTJKN OF THE ROAD 
 
 " To-morrow ! Is n't that too soon ? " 
 
 " It is ten years too late." 
 
 In a little while she was laughing with her face 
 against his shoulder. 
 
 " Dear after all these years, are you not 
 ashamed to have left me to do the final wooing?" 
 266
 
 EUctrotyped and printed by H. O. Hottghton & Co. 
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