Didactic fiction; Political fiction; Social problems -- Fiction
They had been back in the city many months before their faces lost the
mark of the sun. In due course of time Comrade Yetta Braun qualified to
edit the "Mother's Column."
CHAPTER XXXII
OLD FRIENDS MEET--AND PART
Four years after their marriage Yetta and Isadore received a tangible
token of the respect in which they were held by their Comrades. They
were chosen among the delegates to the International Socialist Congress
which was to meet in London. No one who is not an active worker in the
Socialist party can appreciate how much this election means to the
Comrades. Every three years the party has to choose half a dozen of its
members as most worthy to represent them in the international councils.
It is a real honor.
They were, after their four years of unremitting work on _The Clarion_,
in need of a vacation. They had not had one since their honeymoon in the
woods. But, except for the eight lazy days in the second cabin of a slow
steamer, they found very little rest at the Congress. Besides the
regular sessions, so much time went to getting acquainted with the
European Comrades, whose names they had long revered, whose books they
had read. It took a big effort to escape long enough to have a look at
the Houses of Parliament and the Abbey. That was all the sight-seeing
they did in London.
The next to the last day, when Yetta reached her seat in the convention
hall, she found a letter on her desk. She did not at first recognize the
handwriting.
"DEAR YETTA.
I suppose you've quite forgotten me. But try to remember.
Can't you and Isadore come down to Oxford for a few days after the
Congress? Walter noticed your name in the paper among the
delegates. We are both anxious to renew the old friendships. When
can we expect you?
Sincerely,
BEATRICE LONGMAN."
Yetta was glad that Isadore had been detained in the corridor. She put
the letter in her pocket before he joined her. All day long this
invitation was flitting back and forth from the back of her brain to the
front. In every moment of half leisure she thought about it, and more
and more she wanted to go. It was partly curiosity to see what sort of a
life Walter had made for himself, partly a desire to exhibit her own
happiness. She did not want him to think she was still broken-hearted.
And it was partly a very real tenderness for these old friends who very
long ago had meant so much to her. But it was not until they were alone
together in their modest hotel room at night that she spoke to Isadore
about it.
"Oh, I forgot. Here's a letter that came from Mrs. Longman.--You
remember she used to be Mrs. Karner."
"Well," he said, when he had read it, "that's simple. We're too busy."
"But I'd like to see them again."
"You would?" he asked in surprise--and a little hurt. "All right; of
course, if you want to. I've got to rush back. But there's no reason why
you shouldn't stay."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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