"The Bishopsgate
Street winter does not suit me," he briefly explained to the
Superior. "I must go south or southwest."
But he did neither. He saw Golly, who was living west. He
upbraided her for going on the stage. She retorted: "Whose life is
the more artificial, yours or mine? It is true that we are both
imperfectly clothed," she added, glancing at a photograph of
herself in a short skirt, "and not always in our right mind--but
you've caught nothing but a cold! Nevertheless, I love you and you
love me."
Then he begged her to go with him to the South Seas and take the
place of Father Damien among the colony of lepers. "It is a
beautiful place, and inexpensive, for we shall live only a few
weeks. What do you say, dearest? You know," he added, with a
faint, sad smile, glancing at another photograph of her,--executing
the high kick,--"you're quite a leaper yourself."
But that night she received an offer of a new engagement. She
wrote to John Gale: "The South Seas is rather an expensive trip to
take simply to die. Couldn't we do it as cheaply at home? Or
couldn't you prevail on your Father Superior to set up his
monastery there? I'm afraid I'm not up to it. Why don't you try
the old 'Oilan,' nearer home? There's lots of measles and
diphtheria about there lately."
When the heartbroken John Gale received this epistle, he also
received a letter from his uncle, the First Lord of the Admiralty.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67