Page:Honore Willsie--Judith of the godless valley.djvu/156

 about it. There is nothing in marriage, Doug. No, sir!"

"Pshaw! And you were sitting and quoting love poetry to Peter last night!"

"Yes, I was! Certainly! I'm not idiot enough to say here's no such thing as love. But I do know that a few years of marriage kills it. Yes, sir!"

Douglas eyed her wistfully. She was so vivid. Yes, vivid, that was the word. Her eyes glowed as if her brain glowed too, and her lips were so full of meanings, too changing and too subtle for him to read. If only they could work out this strange enigma of life together! "They can't hold out against the years," Judith repeated dreamily. "It's as if love was too delicate for every-day use. They get over caring."

"I wonder why?" said Douglas.

"I think people get sick of each other, Doug! Why, I think a lot more of you, since you've been away for a few months. And I get tired of my own mother, bless her dear old heart, and I love her to death. But she's my mother and I can't stop loving her. But I certainly couldn't stand a man around the house, year after year. No marriage for me! No, sir!"

"But what will you do about love?" asked Douglas.

Judith's burning eyes grew soft. "Cherish it," she answered in a low voice. "Keep it forever. Never murder it by marriage. It's the most wonderful thing that comes into human life."

Douglas smiled sadly. "You talk as if you were a thousand years old, Judith, on the one hand and like a baby on the other. What will you do, marry without love? Somehow the children have got to be cared for by responsible parties."