She grew suddenly earnest; leaned down to them. "You haven't time to
think of it either," she told them; "have you, men of Tinkersfield?"
Her appeal was direct, and the answer came back to her in a roar from
the men who knew courage when they saw it; who knew, indeed, innocence!
"No!"
And it was that "No" which beat Tillotson.
"The way she put it over," Atwood exulted afterward, "to a packed crowd
like this!"
"The thing about Jane"--Henry was very seriously trying to say the thing
as he saw it--"the thing about Jane is that she sees things straight.
And she makes other people see."
IX
Well, Tillotson was beaten, and the men who supported O-liver came out
of the fight feeling as if they had killed something unclean.
And the morning after the election O-liver had a little note from Jane.
"I've got to go away. I didn't want to worry you with it before this. I
have saved enough money to start in at some college where I can work for
a part of my tuition. I have had experience in my little lunch room that
ought to be a help somewhere.
"When I finish college I'm going into some sort of occupation that will
provide a pleasant home for mother and me. I want books, and lovely
things, and a garden; and I'd like to speak a language or two and have
cultured friends. Then some day when you are made President you can say
to yourself: 'I am proud of my friend, Jane.' And I'll come to your
inauguration and watch you ride to the White House, and I'll say to
myself as I see you ride, 'I've loved him all these years.'
"But I shan't let myself say it now. And that's why I'm going away. And
I'm going without saying good-bye because I think it will be easier for
both of us. You and I can't be friends. What we feel is too big. I found
that out about myself that night when you sat there on the platform, and
I wanted to save you from Tillotson. If I'm going to work and be happy
in my work I've got to get away. And you will work better because I am
gone. I mustn't be here--O-liver."
Jane had indeed seen straight. O-liver laid the note down on his desk
and looked up at the mountain. He needed to look up. If he had looked
down for a moment he would have followed Jane.
X
And now there was no sandwich stand in Tinkersfield. But there was a
good hotel. O-liver saw to that. He got Henry Bittinger to put up the
money, with Tommy and his mother in charge. O-liver lived in the hotel
in a suite of small rooms, and when Atwood Jones passed that way the
four men dined together as O-liver's guests.
"Some day we'll eat with you in Washington," was Atwood's continued
prophecy.
They always drank "To Jane." Now and then Atwood brought news of her.
First from the college, and then as the years passed from the beach
resort where she had opened a tea room. She was more beautiful than
ever, more wonderful. Her tea room and shop were most exclusive and
artistic.
"Sandwich Jane!" said O-liver. "How long ago it seems!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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