"I sat there a long while with him in Riverside Park," Darrie reported,
"it was chilly and he wore an old overcoat because he couldn't afford a
new one. His hair was greying at the temples. He looked stooped, aging,
frail as if an extra wind might lift him up and carry him away from
me....
"He was worried about my having been brought into what he called 'the
mess' ... wondered how the papers had not scented 'the other woman' in
me, no matter how innocent I was of that appellation.
"He seemed so lonely ... admitted he was so lonely....
"Johnnie, you're both poor, dear innocents, that's what you are--
"But of the two of you, you are the harder, the best equipped to meet
the shock of life ... for you will grow wiser, where Penton never will."
"How did Penton speak of me?"
"Splendidly--said he considered that in a way, perhaps, he had worked
you a wrong, done an injustice to you."
"Nonsense, the poor little chap!"
"He made me cry, he acted so pathetic ... he seemed like a motherless
little boy that needed a woman's love and protection."
"Darrie, why don't _you_ marry him?"
"Now you're trying to do with me as he tried to do with Ruth and you ...
marry him ... no ... I'm--I think I'm--in love with 'Gene Mallows."
Penton was pleased to hear, she said, that Daniel and I had got on so
nicely together, while he was down at West Grove.
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