Show IMAGINATION I BY ANTHONY HOPE Copyright 1S94 by the Author I met her on the shores of the lake There were tears lae I tear in her eyes Oh Mr Vansittart she cried What V rt n crie Yhat shall j do shal My husbands 1Iy out in a boat ever so far away and the winds rising arid the boatman says its awfully danger ous when thEres a storm aWfuly danger my I tilted head my hat forward and scratched I dont see what yOU can do said I compasiontel r had sat next three nights her extremely at table dhote and liked her Look at those And see Great waves trees Oh how i blows admitted The Oh Mr wind sitting Is certainly on a garden getting seat up I I be drowned Vansitart suppose he should SUppose he was a flew one to r paused The idea in my mind Well me I turned it over Vl suppose he should I aid at last m an And e fst only inquirIng tone ben married a yes yes saId I ea love is still fresh thoughtfully Your As fresh as the day a te when Your romance has husbands day of disillusion has not not worn come off Your the of consolations memory to YOu would be the sweetest But II Vansit here lections would be no alloy in your recol You Clonl ou are 1 young lot be spoilt but it your life would spoit would be hallowed a it were halOHd by sweet and not too lence regrets of grief In the would course wear or off time Phmat She sat down on the bench and dug the beside me end of the pathYou hdug paal Into time You would feel r pursue cred as thee memories purue that sa hey wereprecious as I in yereyou would not be justified I giving justi giIJ your whole life to at last It may be that lfe them And who another would come whoOh I Oh I can hardly rnnsjttart haly Imagine that Mr Try sad I who though not encouragingly One all respects Perhaps hJi the equal In al repects of him had i yet shelter froVthe lost could T should you from the world war And iveToutaSOIh shouldnt I give you an honest wavering 6Wohonest enduring un It wouldnt be the same she sae thing said Depend It I upon returned It retured earnestly would be m some ernesty your second ways better For he Who could husbadmtght well b one you ware the serious when Instead of always Yees Mr ansi ttart making jokes Serious and yet able to enter 3our ed lighter moo5alwa s godtemper into He would be a then rW wonderful husband thenGenerous I Generous nay lavish in giving i w ei giving you Fancy fort You to wished please you for unspaing I his ef What > after marriage Devoted marriageto a lovely picture absolutely to you Why Its Yes It doe sound nice she conclud e Could digging wIth the parasol not such a one I continued leaning towards her hy his affectionate and constant efforts in the course of I time heal the wound caused ci calamity l by your cmu I dont know YesI crj suppose 50well Perhaps 1 in time Mr owel might I tme Vansitart he imagine He would said I positively I can i myself I r beg your pardon Mr Vansittart I say I can imagine myself making it the wOIkthe whole preocupaUonthe worthy taskf my life thus to restore happiness to one from whom it seemed to have departed forever I would be a splendid thing for a man to do wouldnt it thing There was a pause Then she said But Mr ansittart would you who are so young and so end sopnd soand 501 mean who are so youngbe content with a heart that had spent its first wih another in which the freshness of youth fulI I sometimes think I interrupted in low but urgent tones that affection of affecton that kind is nobler higher better than the rash impulsiveness of an ignorant i girl I would be a sympathetic com smpathetc munion of minds of souls Mrs Law rence Yes I see Yes It would ll Vansit tartMy My sympathy for you I pursued would soften and inspire my nature I should be elevated to your level And perhaps at last when long years ha obliterated Well had blurred Mr Vansittart Vansitart Yes had blurred the pain of memory v e might come to see to understand how what once seemed so distressing was really in spite of its sadness the neces nees I sary condition for the perfect develop ment of two human lives For a few moments we sat In thought Then Mrs Lawrence observed Good so often conies out of suffering doesnt it I indeed seems to be the way of the world A woman placed as you describe Mr Vansittart would feel Im sure so deep so ctrong a gratitude for the man who had nobly dedicated his life to her that as time wore cn she would give to him an affection different in kind perhaps to that which she had felt for the man who first won her heart That would be the only reward I should hope for said ISo I-So that in the end I should feelit would be borne in upon me that this man was my real my true my only At this point Mrs Lawrence stopped abruptly for a shadow fell between us and on looking up we saw a stout el deny man wearing a blue jersey stand trig just In front of us Beg pardon mum said he but are I you the lady what asked Jim Dobbs about the gentleman whats out in the boat I About the hat Oh yes I suppose suppse oh yes I am Well youve no cause to be put out I about Im mum Hes just rounding the point and hell be ashore in two minutes time timeBut Dobbs said it was very dangerous danger-ous I protested Dobbs dont know everything sir beggln your pardon Anyways the gen tlemans safe enough Glad of It for your sake mum Thank you thank you so much said Mrs Lawrence The elderly man stood looking at me In such a manrer that I took sixpence out cf my pocket and gave It to him To be frank I have seldom grudged a sixpence more Then the elderly man passed on There was a long silence Mrs Lawrence Law-rence had made quite u little pit in the gravel walk Once she looked up at mend me-nd finding ma regarding her rather gloomily 1 believe hastily turned away again with a blush At last the silence became fact intolerable almost improper in factWhat were we talking about when that man interrupted us asked Mrs of Lawrence ese with a desperate assumption r v I It Is a rule l of mine to give a plain answer I an-swer to a plain question queston We were talking said I of what would have happened i DobbS nad known everything and having thus said I suddenly began to laugh Women are strange creatures Mrs Lawrence leaped up from her seat and stood over me Her eyes flashed with indignation in-dignation and she positively brandished her parasol at me You horrid horrid boy she cried My dear Mrs Lawrence I protested pro-tested Youve made me talk as if I I was a mere hypothesis I pleaded As if Ih Anyhow if my husband were drowned a thousand times over I d never speak to you So you say now said I composedly But you no you were quite taken with the prospect a little while ago MrVansittart lte wicked How can I go and tel my poor dear Robbie I dont Insist on your telling him said I In a conciliatory tone Perhaps conciatory dont care for him she cried defiantly The detant that you did said I Thats what made it so Interesting teresting terestng shal sit somewhere else at dinner tonight Mrs Lawrence announced naughtily I you go on like this I observed warningly I shall end by being You can be just what you like By being glad I concluded Glad Glad of what Glad said I that I see your husband hus-band walking toward us in perfect health As I spoke he came within speakirag distance Hullo Georgie he cried to his wife Hulo Here I amhad a bit of a blow though Mrs Lawrence ran a few steps towards him I took the liberty of following Vansittart been looking after you asked Lawrence with a smile Oh my darling Robbie cried Mrs Lawrence darlng Ive imagining all sorts of things about you Foolish child said he fondly Did chid you think I was going to be drowned We didnt exactly think I I broke in We exacty by way of Please Robbie will you take me into the house said Mrs Lawrence hastily Mrs Lawrence did sit elsewhere at dinner but Lawrence said to me as we played billiards afterwards Tell you what old chap I a fellow Tel wants his wife to be extra pleasant to him he cant do better than risk his life on this beastly beter and he smiled most contentedly I was merely penitence of course But I let him alone |