The Best Short Stories of 1920 | Page 9

tobacconist's wife, went with me. I do not mean she went
in fact. What I am trying to say is that something of her faith in her
own desires and her courage in seeing things through went with me. Is
that clear to you? When I got to my fiancée's house there was a
crowd of people standing about. Some were relatives from distant
places I had not seen before. She looked up quickly when I came into
the room. My face must have been radiant. I never saw her so moved.
She thought her letter had affected me deeply, and of course it had. Up
she jumped and ran to meet me. She was like a glad child. Right before
the people who turned and looked inquiringly at us, she said the thing
that was in her mind. 'O, I am so happy,' she cried. 'You have
understood. We will be two human beings. We will not have to be
husband and wife.'
"As you may suppose, everyone laughed, but I did not laugh. The tears
came into my eyes. I was so happy I wanted to shout. Perhaps you
understand what I mean. In the office that day when I read the letter my
fiancée had written I had said to myself, 'I will take care of the dear
little woman.' There was something smug, you see, about that. In her
house when she cried out in that way, and when everyone laughed,
what I said to myself was something like this: 'We will take care of

ourselves.' I whispered something of the sort into her ears. To tell you
the truth I had come down off my perch. The spirit of the other woman
did that to me. Before all the people gathered about I held my
fiancée close and we kissed. They thought it very sweet of us to be
so affected at the sight of each other. What they would have thought
had they known the truth about me God only knows!
"Twice now I have said that after that evening I never thought of the
other woman at all. That is partially true but sometimes in the evening
when I am walking alone in the street or in the park as we are walking
now, and when evening comes softly and quickly as it has come
to-night, the feeling of her comes sharply into my body and mind. After
that one meeting I never saw her again. On the next day I was married
and I have never gone back into her street. Often however as I am
walking along as I am doing now, a quick sharp earthy feeling takes
possession of me. It is as though I were a seed in the ground and the
warm rains of the spring had come. It is as though I were not a man but
a tree.
"And now you see I am married and everything is all right. My
marriage is to me a very beautiful fact. If you were to say that my
marriage is not a happy one I could call you a liar and be speaking the
absolute truth. I have tried to tell you about this other woman. There is
a kind of relief in speaking of her. I have never done it before. I wonder
why I was so silly as to be afraid that I would give you the impression I
am not in love with my wife. If I did not instinctively trust your
understanding I would not have spoken. As the matter stands I have a
little stirred myself up. To-night I shall think of the other woman. That
sometimes occurs. It will happen after I have gone to bed. My wife
sleeps in the next room to mine and the door is always left open. There
will be a moon to-night, and when there is a moon long streaks of light
fall on her bed. I shall awake at midnight to-night. She will be lying
asleep with one arm thrown over her head.
"What is that I am talking about? A man does not speak of his wife
lying in bed. What I am trying to say is that, because of this talk, I shall
think of the other woman to-night. My thoughts will not take the form

they did the week before I was married. I will wonder what has become
of the woman. For a moment I will again feel myself holding her close.
I will think that for an hour I was closer to her than I have ever been to
anyone else. Then I will think of the time when I will be as close as that
to my wife. She is still, you see, an awakening woman. For a moment I
will