Maxwell came for Anne promptly. "You must get me back by ten," she told
him. "I have a key, and Charlotte's out."
It was a night of nights, never to be forgotten. Maxwell did not take
Anne into the Gallery. He had not brought her there to hear speeches or
to be conspicuous in the glare of lights. He led her through shadowy
corridors--up wide dim stairways.
At one turn he touched her arm. "Look!" he whispered.
"What?"
"Lafayette passed us--on the stairs."
It was a great game! On the east front Columbus spoke to them of ships
that sailed toward the sunset; in the Rotunda they kept a tryst with
William Penn; from the west-front portico they saw a city beautiful--the
streets under the moon were rivers of light--the great monument reached
like the soul of Washington toward the stars!
Out there in the moonlight Maxwell spoke of another great soul, gone of
late to join a glorious company.
"It was he who taught me that life is an adventure."
"Greatheart?"
"Yes."
"You loved him too?"
"Yes."
Anne caught her breath. "To think of him dead--to think of them
all--dead."
Maxwell looked down at her. "They live somewhere. You believe that,
don't you?"
"Yes."
He was silent for a moment; then he laid his hand lightly on her
shoulder. "I feel to-night as if they pressed close."
Oh, it was a rare game to meet great souls in odd corners! They could
scarcely tear themselves away. But he got her home before her sisters
arrived, and Anne went to bed soberly, and lay long awake, thinking it
out. She had never before had such a playmate. In all these years she
had starved for other things than food.
IV
In due time Congress adjourned, but Maxwell did not go home. He
continued to see Anne. Amy was at last driven to her duty by Murray. She
could not forbid Maxwell the house. There was nothing to do but talk to
Anne.
Having made up her mind she sought Anne's room at once. Anne, in a
cheap cotton kimono, was braiding her hair for the night. The sleeves of
the kimono were short and showed her thin white arms. Amy had on a
blanket wrapper. Her hair was in metal curlers. She looked old and
tired, and now and then she coughed.
Anne got into bed and drew the covers up to her chin. "I'm so cold, I
believe there are icicles on my eyebrows. Amy, my idea of heaven is a
place where it is as hot as--Hades."
"I don't see where you get such ideas. Ethel and I don't talk that way.
We don't even think that way, Anne."
"Maybe when I am as old as you---" Anne began, and was startled at the
look on Amy's face.
"I'm not old!" Amy said passionately. "Anne, I haven't lived at all, and
I'm only thirty."
Anne stared at her. "Oh, my darling, I didn't mean---"
"Of course you didn't. And it was silly of me to say such a thing. Anne,
I'm cold. I'm going to sit on the foot of your bed and wrap up while I
talk to you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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