Don't Pick Me

CHAPTER XVII

In July the Paxtons were asked to spend a week with the Abercrombie Brendons, at their country place. One of the guests was to be a woman who wanted her portrait painted, because she admired Jerry's portrait of Mrs. Brendon so extravagantly. Jerry read the note, which Jane passed to him, at the breakfast table one morning.

"How do you feel about it?"

"Would you mind if I stayed here? Bobs could come and keep me company."

"You look all right, if that's it."

"I'll go, if you think I should, Jerry."

"I don't see why you should, if it would bore you. I don't want to go myself, I like it here. Suppose you write her that you don't feel up to it, or have some guests, but that I will come. I'd like you to go with me," he added.

"Thanks. I'm better off here."

It was settled that way, and in due time Jerry departed, and Bobs arrived.

"My-o-me, but this is Paradise, Jane Judd, after the hot streets of New York," sighed Bobs, as they walked in the garden the night of her arrival.

"I could hardly bear to think of you in that studio these days. It must be an oven, with all that skylight."

"I've been too busy to notice."

"Too busy to eat, too, I judge by this thin hand," said Jane, patting the hand on her arm. "I'm going to give you such a dose of rest and fresh air that you will protest."

"Have rest and air done it to you, Jane? You have a sort of radiance about you."

"It's the moonlight," Jane smiled.

"How do you manage it, Jane?"

"Manage what, dear?"

"To keep your balance all the time? Not to be bowled over by your own emotions?"

"I know a man who said to me, 'I find it necessary to cover my troubles with a protective coating, a something of my mind that prevents them from poisoning the whole internal atmosphere.' There is some quality of mind and heart that does this, just as the healthy blood does it for the germs. It does not kill them, but it cuts them off from poisonous contact."

"I don't know how to get this spiritual antiseptic. Would your friend give me the formula, do you think?"

"I think we all have to work out our own, Bobs."

They paced the little garden paths in silence for a time.

"You've helped me, more than any one, to get through the most difficult period of my life, Jane."

"I'm glad, dear."

"You're a good soldier; you stand up to things. I'm ashamed to whimper to you about a bullet in my heart."

"It helps some people to whimper, Bobs. It helps me not to. It's nothing to my credit, and I shall think no less of you, if you let go, give way to it, submit to a surgeon. Then we can build new tissue."

"I'm all right, Jane, I'm building now."

"Isn't the garden fragrant to-night?"

"It's like distilled peace. Have you and Jerry been happy here?"

"We've enjoyed it very much. Jerry seems contented. He works and swims and loafs. We take long tramps in the woods, and up the beach; it is pleasant."

"Why didn't you go to the Brendons', Jane?"