arm. "Why shouldn't I
trust you?"

"Will you marry me? Wait! Let me make clear to you what I have in mind.
I'm all alone. I loved your mother. It breaks my heart that while I have
everything in the way of luxuries you have nothing. I can't settle a sum
on you--an income. The world wouldn't understand. Your friends would be
asking questions among themselves. This telegram from Washington means
but one thing: that in a few weeks I shall be on my way to the East. I
shall be mighty unhappy if I have to go leaving you in the rut. This is
my idea: marry me an hour or so before the ship sails. I will leave you
a comfortable income. Lord knows how long I shall be gone. Well, I
won't write. After a year you can regain your freedom on the grounds of
desertion. Simple as falling off a log. It's the one logical way I can
help you. Will you?"

Station after station flashed by. Kitty continued stare through the
window across the way, by and by she turned her face toward him, her
eyes shining with tears.

"Cutty, there is going to be a nice place in heaven for you some day. I
understand. I believe Mother understands, too. Am I selfish? I can't say
No to you and I can't say Yes. Yet I should be a liar if I did not say
that everything in me leaps toward the idea. It is both hateful and
fascinating. Common sense says Yes; and something else in me says No.
I like dainty things, dainty surroundings. I want to travel, to see
something of the world. I once thought I had creative genius, but I
might as well face the fact that I haven't. Only by accident will I ever
earn more than I'm earning now. In a few years I'll grow old suddenly.
You know what the newspaper game does to women. The rush and hurry of
it, the excitements, the ceaseless change. It is a furnace, and women
shrivel up in it quicker than men."

"There won't be any nonsense, Kitty. An hour before I go aboard my ship.
I'll go back to the job the happiest of men. Molly's girl taken care of!
Just before your father died I promised him I'd keep an eye on you. I
never forgot, but conditions made it impossible. The apartment will
be yours as long as you need it. Kuroki, of course, goes with me. It's
merely going by convention on the blind side. To leave you something in
my will wouldn't serve at all, I'm a tough old codger and may be
marked down for a hale old ninety. All I want is to make you happy and
carefree."

"Cutty, I'd like to curl up in some corner and cry, gratefully.