Page:Willa Cather - The Song of the Lark.djvu/91

 edge. He pulled out a smooth linen handkerchief that smelled of German cologne water. "Well, how goes it? Working hard? You must know about all Wunsch can teach you by this time."

Thea shook her head. "Oh, no, I don't, Dr. Archie. He 's hard to get at, but he 's been a real musician in his time. Mother says she believes he 's forgotten more than the music-teachers down in Denver ever knew."

"I 'm afraid he won't be around here much longer," said Dr. Archie. "He 's been making a tank of himself lately. He 'll be pulling his freight one of these days. That 's the way they do, you know. I 'll be sorry on your account." He paused and ran his fresh handkerchief over his face. "What the deuce are we all here for anyway, Thea?" he said abruptly.

"On earth, you mean?" Thea asked in a low voice.

"Well, primarily, yes. But secondarily, why are we in Moonstone? It is n't as if we 'd been born here. You were, but Wunsch was n't, and I was n't. I suppose I 'm here because I married as soon as I got out of medical school and had to get a practice quick. If you hurry things, you always get left in the end. I don't learn anything here, and as for the people— In my own town in Michigan, now, there were people who liked me on my father's account, who had even known my grandfather. That meant something. But here it 's all like the sand: blows north one day and south the next. We 're all a lot of gamblers without much nerve, playing for small stakes. The railroad is the one real fact in this country. That has to be; the world has to be got back and forth. But the rest of us are here just because it 's the end of a run and the engine has to have a drink. Some day I 'll get up and find my hair turning gray, and I 'll have nothing to show for it."

Thea slid closer to him and caught his arm. "No, no. I won't let you get gray. You 've got to stay young for me. I 'm getting young now, too."