"What do you want me to do?" he asked."Have you thought of anything?""Of course I have.In the morning, early, before they find out that I've bolted, you must drive me to New York and take me to Alice Palgrave.She'll put me up, and I can telegraph to Mother for money to buy clothes with.Does it occur to you, Marty, that you're the cause of all this? If I hadn't turned and found you that afternoon, I should still be eating my soul away and having my young life crushed.As it is, you've forced my hand.So you're going to take me to the magic city, and if you want to see how a country cousin makes up for lost time and sets things humming, watch me!"So they talked and talked, sitting in that room which was made the very sanctum of romance by young blood and moonlight.Eleven o'clock slipped by, and twelve and one; and while the earth slept, watched by a million glistening eyes, and nature moved imperceptibly one step nearer to maturity, this boy and girl made plans for the discovery of a world out of which so many similar explorers have crept with wounds and bitterness.
They were wonderful and memorable hours, not ever to be lived again.
They were the hours that all youth enjoys and delights in once--when, like gold-diggers arrived in sight of El Dorado, they halt and peer at the chimera that lies at their feet--"I'm going to make my mark," Martin said."I'm going to make something that will last.My father's name was Martin Gray, and I'll make it MEAN some thing out there for his sake.""And I," said Joan, springing to her feet and throwing up her chin, "will go joy-riding in the huge round-about.I've seen what it is to be old and useless, and so I shall make the most of every day and hour while I'm young.I can live only once, and so I shall make life spin whatever way I want it to go.If I can get anybody to pay my whack, good.If not, I'll pay it myself--whatever it costs.My motto's going to be a good time as long as I can get it, and who cares for the price?"The boy followed her to the window, and the moonlight fell upon them both."Yes," he said, "you'll get a bill, all right.How did you know that?""I haven't lived with all those old people so long for nothing," she answered."But you won't catch me grumbling if I get half as much as I'm going out for.Listen to my creed, Martin, and take notes, if you want to keep up with me.""Go ahead," he said, watching the sparkle in her eyes.
She squared her shoulders and folded her arms in a half-defiant way.
"I shall open the door of every known Blue Room--hurrying out again if there are ugly things inside, staying to enjoy them if they're good to look at.I shall taste a little of every known bottle, feel everything there is to feel except the thing that hurts, laugh with any one whose laugh is catching, do everything there is to do, go into every booth in the big Bazaar; and when I'm tired out and there's nothing left, I shall slip out of the endless procession with a thousand things stored away in my memory.Isn't that the way to live?"From the superior height of twenty-four, Martin looked down on Joan indulgently.He didn't take her frank and unblushing individualism seriously.She was just a kid, he told himself.She was a girl who had been caged up and held in.It was natural for her to say all those wild things.She would alter her point of view as soon as the first surprise of being free had worn off--and then he would speak;then he would ask her to throw in her lot with his and walk in step with him along the street of adventure.
"I sha'n't see the sun rise on this great day," she said, letting a yawn have full play."I'm sleepy, Marty.I must lie down this very instant, even if the floor's the only place you can offer me.Quick!
What else is there?" Before he could answer, she had caught sight of a low, long, enticing divan, and onto this, with a gurgle of pleasure, she made a dive, placed two cushions for her head, put one little hand under her face, snuggled into an attitude of perfect comfort and deliberately went to sleep.It was masterly.
Martin, not believing that she could turn off so suddenly at a complete tangent, spoke to her once or twice but got no other answer than a long, contented sigh.He stood for a little while trying to make out her outline in the dim corner of the room.Then he tiptoed out to the hall, possessed himself of a warm motor-rug, returned with it and laid it gently and tenderly over the unconscious girl.
He didn't intend to let sleep rob him of the first sight of a day that was to mean so much to him, and he went over to the open window, caught the scent of lilac and listened, with all his imagination and sense of beauty stirred, to the deep breathing of the night....Yes, he had cut through the bars which had kept this girl from taking her place among the crowd.He was responsible for the fact that she was about to play her part in the comedy of life.
He was glad to be responsible.He had passionately desired a cause to which to attach hirmelf; and was there, in all the world, a better than Joan?
Spring had come again, and all things were young, and the call to mate rang in his ears and set his heart beating and his thoughts racing ahead.He loved her, this girl that he had come upon standing out in all her freshness against a blue sky.He would serve her as the great lovers had served, and please God, she would some day return his love.They would build up a home and bring up a family and go together up the inevitable hill.
And as he stood sentinel, in a waking dream, waiting for the finger of dawn to rub the night away, sleep tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned and went to the divan and sat down with his back to it, touched one of Joan's placid hands with his lips and drifted into further dreams with a smile around his mouth.