Page:Fashions for Men And The Swan Two Plays (NY 1922).pdf/266

 —No.

—No? Well, then it was before that when I spoke of the poetry of hopelessness.

—No.

—Well, what was it he said that touched you so?

—[To .] He said: "Lad."

—Lad? [She nods.] What did he say "lad" for?

—He said he wasn't a lad any more to believe in fairy tales.

—Oh, that was it?

—[Smiles happily as if in a dream.] You know I had always known the word, but I had never heard it spoken before. We say "boy," don't we? And he, poor fellow, said "lad," with such a quaint lilt to it so sweetly I knew at once it was what they used to call him at home what his family calls him to this very day And I don't know why  but suddenly it seemed as if I, too, had been there in the village where they called him "lad" I saw the tiny, spotless cottages with acacia trees around them and his mother  and his sister who called him "lad" and loved him, and were proud of him That was why. [There is a brief pause.]