The best short stories of 1918, and the yearbook of the American short story
General
The best short stories of 1918, and the yearbook of the American short story
American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories -- 20th century -- Bibliography; Short stories -- 20th century -- Indexes; Short stories, American
Mr. Ewing had only been able to follow after, and say, lamely, and in
spite of himself, that he mustn’t say or do anything he might be sorry
for, and that they would see each other again. And then he stood in the
open door and watched Corey go down the path to the gate, and along the
walk, until he had turned the corner, and so out of sight.
And then he had gone back into the house and spent the remainder of that
afternoon trying to realize what had passed, trying to decide upon what
he should say the next time they met.
But he had reached no conclusion, and in the end had decided to leave it
to chance. And Chance had solved his problem with her usual original
simplicity. She took away the need for his saying anything at all; for
the following day the station cab drove up to Corey’s front gate and
stopped. The driver got down from his seat and went up the walk and into
the house. A moment later he came out again, bearing on his shoulder the
small-size officer’s trunk, the lid forced down now and locked, and in
one hand, dragging slightly, a full dunnage-bag. And after him followed
Corey. And no one followed him. No one came out on the porch to say
good-by. No one stood at the window. The driver put the trunk on the
seat beside him, and the dunnage-bag into the seat beside Corey. And
then, without a word or a sign, they drove away toward the station.
It was understood in Dubuque after the next few days that Corey had gone
to help in the war; he had received an urgent message from France.
And Mr. Ewing received, the day after Corey’s departure, a little note
of farewell, written in pencil, while he was waiting for his train, and
mailed at the station. It said merely good-by, and that he hoped he
would understand.
The next week Mrs. Corey closed up the house and went to Des Moines, to
stay with her people, she said, until her husband’s return.
And that was all Mr. Ewing had ever known of what passed between those
two, of the details that led to the sudden and final decision to go. And
it was all that he had heard of Corey until that day, three months ago,
when there came to him the unexpected letter from the man in New York,
telling of Corey’s death, and of a message and papers he had to deliver.
Mr. Ewing had replied at once that he would go, and had followed his
letter almost immediately. He had seemed to feel, ever since that Sunday
afternoon, when he had failed to be of use, an increasing sense of
responsibility.
He had met the man at his club; and I had, as he told of the meeting, as
he described the man, a curious impression of actually seeing them
there, in the big Fifth Avenue club, sitting in deeply luxurious chairs
and no table between—the gentle, gray-haired, gray-eyed, gray-garbed Mr.
Ewing, who had never been in New York City before; and the other, tall,
very tall, with black hair, black eyes, and brown burned skin, who
looked, Mr. Ewing said, as if he’d done all the things Corey had done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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