Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/232

220 But the Colonel again experienced that swift cold pang of fear. The hotels after all were a side issue in life. Corona del Monte was life itself. He had made it; and it had made him. It was a sentient, plastic, living entity composed of its many elements of living human beings and animals, of customs grown old, of experiences joyous and tragic, of sentiments and sympathies shared. To the Colonel it had seemed as much a matter of course as the air he breathed; and as immortal. Now, apparently, that life might be in danger. Corona del Monte, as a living, breathing thing, might actually cease to exist. The possibility had never crossed the Colonel's mind before. What were the hotels in comparison to this? Nothing: less than nothing!

He turned in to the long Avenue of Palms, and the lights of the ranch house twinkled intermittently through the trees. The Colonel thrust his body upright, as though throwing off a physical weight, and carefully composed his features. To all intents and purposes it was the same old debonair Colonel who entered the low living room and strode around the centre table to kiss his wife; who, as usual, occupied her worn, old wooden "Boston" rocker. She looked up at him and smiled; but into her eyes came a trouble. It was only after supper, however, when they were once again beside the study lamp, that Allie revealed what her perceptions had told her.

"What is it, Richard?" she asked, quietly.

"What is what?" he countered, with an air of well-imitated surprise.

"That won't do. Something is on your mind. You may as well tell me first as last."

The Colonel hesitated. His first instinct was to evade; for in his simple, old-fashioned code one kept all matters of worrisome business from one's women folk. It was almost a defect of chivalry to permit the dear creatures to realize that their lightest wish could not be granted. To talk about money was nearly as indelicate as to talk about legs. Man must shelter woman from all business worries. But the Colonel was very human, and very much alone in a new and bewildering experience. It did not require much more of Allie's gentle authority to bring him to confession.