. "I'll say no more."

Neil caught at one of the hands on his shoulders and kissed it.

"For one thing," he said, "Judith or any girl needs a mother with a
heart in her--like I've got, but you're the one in the world. I'm
going."

But he did not go at once. Standing beside her, suddenly awkward and
shy, he first gave her the confidence that she could not force from him,
all in one generous breathless burst of words.

"Mother, Charlie's not the only one with his heart broke. But
heart-break isn't the worst thing I've got to bear. There's something
else. I can't tell you. I'd rather bear it alone. I've got to.
Good-bye."

Then he left her standing still in the door, shading her cloudy blue
eyes with one small hand and looking after him. He swung into the dusty
road and, keeping his head high and his eyes straight ahead, undazzled
by the sharp sunlight of mid-afternoon on the long stretch of unshaded
way, passed out of sight toward Green River.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Neil turned into Post-office Square just on the stroke of four. The
square was as empty and strange to the eye as his mother's kitchen,
though this was the rush hour of the day in that business centre upon
ordinary days, when the fair had not emptied the town.

A solitary Ford of prehistoric make stood before the post-office, and
even that was just cranking up. It lurched dispiritedly off, leaving a
cloud of dust behind. A dejected-looking group of children hung about
the door of the ice-cream parlour, and appeared to lack the initiative
to enter in. Half the shops were shut. In the big show-window of the
central section of Ward's Emporium Luther Ward, usually on parade and
magnificently in charge of his shop and his staff of employees at this
time of day, stood in his shirt sleeves, embracing an abnormally slender
lady in a mauve velveteen tailored suit.

At first glance he seemed to be instructing her in the latest dance
steps, but on a nearer view the visible part of her proved to be wax,
and the suit was ticketed nineteen-fifty. He jerked her into place,
turned and saw Neil, and hailed him cheerfully, waving him round to the
main entrance door, where he joined him, still wiping his brow.

"If you want a thing well done, do it yourself," he said, explaining his
late exertions with the air of believing the explanation was original
with him and did credit to his intellect. "What are you here for,
brother? Isn't Madison good enough for you?"