The Island of Faith | Page 5

anxious to
convert people, and she's so sincere,--so very sincere. I can't help
feeling that you are a thorn in her flesh, Billy. She says that you won't
read her missionary books--"
The Young Doctor interrupted.
"She's such a pretty girl," he said quite fiercely. "Why on earth didn't
she stay at home, where she belonged! Why on earth did she pick out
this sort of work?"
The Superintendent answered.
"One never knows," she said, "why girls pick out certain kinds of work.
I've had the strangest cases come to my office--of homely girls who
wanted to be artists' models, and anemic girls who wanted to be
physical directors, and flighty girls who wanted to go to Bible School,
and quiet girls who were all set for a career on the stage. Rose-Marie
Thompson is the sort of a girl who was cut out to be a home-maker, to
give happiness to some nice, clean boy, to have a nursery full of
rosy-cheeked babies. And yet here she is, filled with a desire to rescue
people, to snatch brands from the burning. Here she is in the slums
when she'd be dramatically right in an apple orchard--at the time of
year when the trees are covered with pink and white blossoms."
The Young Doctor laughed. He so well understood the
Superintendent--so enjoyed her point of view.
"Yes," he agreed, "she'd be perfect there in an organdy frock with the
sun slanting across her face. But--well, she's just like other girls. Tell a
pretty girl that she's clever, they say, and tell a clever girl that she's a
raving, tearing beauty. That's the way for a man to be popular!"
The Superintendent laughed quietly with him. It was a moment before
she grew sober again.
"I wonder," she said at last, "why you have never tried to be popular
with girls. You could so easily be popular. You're young and--don't try
to hush me up--good-looking. And yet--well, you're such an
antagonistic person. From the very first you've laughed at
Rose-Marie--and she was quite ready to adore you when she arrived.
How do I know? Oh, I could tell! Take the child seriously, Billy

Blanchard, before she actually begins to dislike you!"
The Young Doctor put several bottles of violently coloured pills into
his bag before he spoke.
"She dislikes me already," he said. "She's such a cool little person.
What are you trying to do, anyway? Are you trying to matchmake; to
stir up a love affair between the both of us--" suddenly he was laughing
again.
"I'm too busy to have a romance, you old dear," he told the
Superintendent, "far too busy. I'm as likely to fall in love, just now, as
you are!"
The woman's face was averted as she answered. But her low voice was
steady.
"When I was your age, Billy," she said gently, "I was in love. That's
why, perhaps, I came here. That's why, perhaps, I stayed. No, he didn't
die--he married another girl. And dreams are hard things to forget.
That's why I left the country. Maybe that's why the little Thompson
girl--"
But the Young Doctor was shaking his head.
"She hasn't had any love affair," he told the Superintendent. "She's too
young and full of ideals to have anything so ordinary as a romance.
Everybody," his laugh was not too pleasant, "can have a romance! And
few people can be so filled with ideals as Miss Thompson. Oh, it's her
ideals that I can't stand! It's her impractical way of gazing at life
through pink-coloured glasses. She'll never be of any real use here in
the slums. I'm only afraid that she'll come to some harm because she's
so trusting and over-sincere. I'd hate to see her placed in direct contact
with some of the young men that I work with, for instance. You
haven't--" All at once his voice took on a new note. "You haven't let her
be with any of the boys' classes, have you? Her ideals might not stand
the strain!"
The Superintendent answered.
"Ideals don't hurt any one," she said, and her voice was almost as fierce
as the doctor's. "No, I haven't given her a bit of work with the boys.
She's too young and too untouched and, as you say, too pretty. I'm
letting her spend her time with the mothers, and the young girls, and
the little tots--not even allowing her to go out alone, if I can help it.
Such innocence--" The Superintendent broke off suddenly in the

middle of the sentence. And she sighed again.

IV
THE PARK
Crying helps, sometimes. When Rose-Marie, alone in her room, finally
dried away the tears that were the direct result of her quarrel with Dr.
Blanchard, there was a new resolve in her eyes--a look