"
Ruth reflected.
"Oh, well, it's rather difficult to say if you put it like that.
They're just people, you know. They are amusing sometimes. I used to
know most of them. I suppose that is the chief thing which brings us
together. They happen to be there, and if you're travelling on a road
you naturally talk to your fellow travellers. But why? Don't you like
them? Which of them didn't you like?"
It was Kirk's turn to reflect.
"Well, that's hard to answer, too. I don't think I actively liked or
disliked any of them. They seemed to me just not worth while. My point
is, rather, why are we wasting a perfectly good evening mixing with
them? What's the use? That's my case in a nut-shell."
"If you put it like that, what's the use of anything? One must do
something. We can't be hermits."
A curious feeling of being infinitely far from Ruth came over Kirk. She
dismissed his dream as a whimsical impossibility not worthy of serious
consideration. Why could they not be hermits? They had been hermits
before, and it had been the happiest period of both their lives. Why,
just because an old man had died and left them money, must they rule
out the best thing in life as impossible and plunge into a nightmare
which was not life at all?
He had tried to deceive himself, but he could do so no longer. Ruth had
changed.
Pages:
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214