He doubled the girl's sovereign, and drove no bargain with her mistress. But the laundry cooped him now. He closed the door, and loitered gratefully on the step. Yes, indeed, he would wait; in the sweetness of relief he was scarcely impatient. A little drizzle was in the air, but he did not heed it. The day, and the morrow, and a hundred days broke into smiles before him. And while he lingered there--on the laundress's step, in the squalid street, under the rain--Conrad suddenly awoke to the exhilaration that sparkled in him, was startled by its freshness. He realised that fizzing in his pulses and his mind was the zest, the buoyancy that he had mourned as dead. It was here, alive! He reviewed with gusto his emotions of the afternoon, the hope, the suspense, the desperation--the quiver of rejoicing. It had been good! he had lived and felt this afternoon; he would not have abated those emotions by a jot! The immoral truth was clear to him, he had made his great discovery--that a man is young as often as he falls in love. That Rosalind had beauty, was an irrelevance. Again, to her lover a woman _is_ what she makes _him feel_. Whether she is fair or ill-favoured, whether she is worthy or worthless, whether she is formed like Venus, or clasps him in arms as thin as penholders, to him she is supreme, and while he adores her he is Young. The rain was pattering more smartly, and he waited under his umbrella. Exultation was in his heart, her promise was in his pocket, ten years of his age had been shed behind the door. And at this point it may be discreet of us to take leave of Conrad--as Rosalind's cab comes jingling round the corner. THE END * * * * * _BY LEONARD MERRICK_ THE POSITION OF PEGGY CONRAD IN QUEST OF HIS YOUTH THE MAN WHO UNDERSTOOD WOMEN: STORIES WHISPERS ABOUT WOMEN: STORIES LYNCH'S DAUGHTER THE MAN WHO WAS GOOD THIS STAGE OF FOOLS CYNTHIA ONE MAN'S VIEW THE ACTOR MANAGER THE WORLDLINGS WHEN LOVE FLIES OUT O' THE WINDOW THE QUAINT COMPANIONS _Several of Mr. Merrick's books are at present unpublished in America. Mitchell Kennerley will publish new volumes from time to time._ End of Project Gutenberg's Conrad in Quest of His Youth, by Leonard Merrick