Journalists -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Rich people -- Fiction; Social classes -- Fiction
"I am Miss Wynrod."
"Oh, so that's it, is it. Well then, ye can be takin' it an' save me the
trouble. An' by the way--there's a letter, too. I fergot about that. One
moment an' I'll have it fer ye...."
She disappeared noisily. Judith stood staring out of the window. Imrie
tried to fix his attention upon the books, but his eyes kept wandering
miserably to Judith's unresponsive back, drooping like a wilted flower.
Neither spoke. The stout woman returned in a surprisingly short time,
considering her bulk.
"Here 'tis," she cried cheerfully, puffing like some inadequate engine.
"I spilt a little cranberry on it, but that won't hurt the inside." She
handed the envelope to Judith and stood waiting expectantly.
But Judith turned and accepted it without a word, her grey face as
immobile as if made of stone. Quietly she moved nearer the whistling
gas-light, and after a pause, as though she were girding herself for a
struggle, she tore the flap quickly.
It was a short note:
* * * * *
"Dearest of Friends:
"This is my 'thirty.' My story's done--the candle's out.
"But after all, each one of us is only a page--perhaps only a letter--in
the great Book. We're blotted out or torn away, but the Story goes
on--always.
"The forms are closed on my tale. The wires are dead. But there's 'more
to follow' in _your_ story. And the big Yarn isn't finished because my
take's all set. Even when the Foreman puts the blue envelope in _your_
box, even then--there will be 'more to follow.'
"I have loved you well."
* * * * *
Still moving like an automaton, she folded the scrap of paper and placed
it carefully in her bag. Then, as if she could not speak, she bowed to
the landlady, who surveyed her in patent disappointment, and walked
slowly from the room. Imrie followed, understanding something of her
suffering, impotent to help.
But once in the automobile, he could stand it no longer.
"Oh, Judith, Judith," he cried brokenly, "won't you let me...." He put
his arm around her and drew her to him.
She freed herself mechanically.
"No, Arnold," she said very gently. "Not--not now...."
Then the tears came.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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