She said:
"Where shall I send you word?"
"I've an apartment at Sherry's now."
"Then--a week from today."
She put out her hand. He took it, and she marveled as she
felt a tremor in that steady hand of his. But his voice was
resolutely careless as he said, "So long. Don't forget how
much I want or need you. And if you do forget that, think of
the advantages--seeing the world with plenty of money--and all
the rest of it. Where'll you get such another chance? You'll
not be fool enough to refuse."
She smiled, said as she went, "You may remember I used to be
something of a fool."
"But that was some time ago. You've learned a lot since
then--surely."
"We'll see. I've become--I think--a good deal of a--of a New Yorker."
"That means frank about doing what the rest of the world does
under a stack of lies. It's a lovely world, isn't it?"
"If I had made it," laughed Susan, "I'd not own up to the fact."
She laughed; but she was seeing the old women of the
slums--was seeing them as one sees in the magic mirror the
vision of one's future self. And on the way home she said to
herself, "It was a good thing that I was arrested today. It
reminded me. It warned me. But for it, I might have gone on
to make a fool of myself." And she recalled how it had been
one of Burlingham's favorite maxims that everything is for the
best, for those who know how to use it.
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