_Wherein Youth finds the Cap and Bells to be but a Bizarre Crown_
As Noll shut himself in, he felt a little injured that Betty was not
home to greet him. He saw her letter lying on the pillow.
He flung himself upon his bed, drew a rug over him, and slept until
nightfall....
When he awoke, heavy and stiff and chill and bewildered, he put out
his feet into the darkness, and sat for awhile on the side of the bed,
whilst his drowsy brain cleared from the fog of sleep.
He felt somewhat ridiculous in the dress of a Roman soldier.
He shivered. He felt miserable--he was overwhelmed with a sense of
loneliness. He wondered where Betty was--and what doing.
“Betty!” he called.
No answering sound. There was a ghostly stillness.
He vaguely remembered seeing a letter lying on the bed when he had
lain down to sleep. He put out his hand, and his fingers struck the
envelope. He opened the letter languidly and tried to read, but the
light was gone. He arose stiffly and took it to the window, but the
darkness wholly baffled him.
He searched about for a light, and only found a box of matches with
difficulty. When he had struck the match he realized that the girl’s
care for him was lacking--that it had never before been lacking--there
was no candle or lamp set out for him.
He felt sorry for himself, neglected, aggrieved....
He went back to the bed, sat down upon it, and struck a match; and by
the light of that match he read the opening lines of the letter. He
struck match after match, and by their light he read to the end of it.
And as his hot eyes took in the last words some of his old dignity came
back to him--he saw that he was sitting in a tomfool’s masquerading
rags reading the generous deed of gift of one who refused to be a clog
upon him to whom she had intended only to be an honour and a delight,
who asked nothing of him, who made no complaint, who simply wished that
he should be free, who would not even embarrass him with the initiative
of her dismissal--who was gone!
And in the darkness he seemed to feel cold hands grope towards him and
clasp icy fingers about his feet; and a whisper spoke in his ear:
“Thou art alone.”