Now, Ik, we understand each other. Happy the man
who wins, and if you are the fortunate one, I'll dance at your
wedding, and no one shall see that I carry a thousand pounds weight,
more or less, in my heart."
"I can't promise to do as much for you, Van," said Stanton, trying
to smile. "I could not come to your wedding. In fact, Van, I--I
hardly know what I would do--what I will do. A few weeks since
and the world was abundantly satisfactory. Now it is becoming a
vacuum. I fear I haven't a ghost of a chance, and I--I--don't like
to think of the future. Ye gods! What a change one little woman
can make in a man's life! I used to laugh at these things, and
for the past few years thought myself invulnerable. And yet, Van,"
he added with sudden energy, "I think the better of myself that I
can love and honor that woman. Did I regard her now as I supposed
I would when you first uttered your half-jesting prophecy, what a
base, soulless anatomy I would be---"
"SACRE! here comes Sibley and others of the same ilk, gabbling like
the unmitigated fools that they are."
Van Berg turned his back upon the advancing party in an unmistakable
manner, and Stanton smoked with a stolid, impassive face that had
anything but welcome in it.
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