Page:Adams - A Child of the Age.djvu/108

96 new life, could possibly envy. Their wealth might give me the chance of leading another life which would not be without its charm, nay, its delight; yet how much nobler this one that I was entering upon now, this one that had work to do, work for others, that is, which would require self-sacrifice—conquest of self!

And after that I came up home, buying on the way fruit and cakes and other things, for a tea I had in my mind with the Rosebud in my room. Then I set about making it all ready, so that, by the time she came in, half-past seven, the room, lit up with gas and fire and well-laid table, was most cheerful.

But the tea was not. For Rosy took my good news most gravely, and did not laugh once the whole time.

After tea we went out for a walk together, and, when we had gone a little way, I said, smiling, that I intended to get her a bonnet to wear as a memory of me. But she would not see anything to laugh at in that, and refused the bonnet with dignity. Then I tried a coat, but she suddenly exclaimed:

'And do you think I would keep it all rags and tatters?' Dismissing the idea.

I tried a locket as a last resource.

After some persuasion she at last agreed. We went into a jeweller's (the very jeweller's under whose window I had counted my money on the first night I was in London) in the Edgware Road together, and she chose a small round silver locket, and relented a little.

'No,' she said, as we were walking slowly away.

'For the bonnet and the jacket would wear out, and I couldn't very well keep them then—eh? And they wouldn't look nice, all in rags and tatters, would they? But I shall always be able to keep the locket, you know: and when I look at it I shall think of you and give a sigh; for you've been very nice to me.' 'Ah,' I said, 'who's talking nonsense now?' And proceeded to demonstrate that, if anybody had been 'nice' to anybody, it was she to me. To which she answered that she liked to hear me talk so,—and for a moment I felt rather foolish, and proposed that we should go up to the top of Primrose Hill, and she agreeing, we set off.

I began to question her a little about herself, and she