"If you don't mind," he was saying to my father, "I'll send you home
in my car and take May for a little spin in the Park in a taxi-cab. I
think she needs half an hour of quiet and fresh air."
My father smiled at him.
"I think she does," he agreed.
There were more congratulations, more hand-shaking, before I could get
away. Then I found myself with Godfrey in a taxi-cab which was making
its purring way up Fifth Avenue. It was strangely restful to be alone
with him after the strain and excitement of the past three hours. I
closed my eyes and leaned back against the cushions, my mind at first
a whirling kaleidoscope in which the scenes of the evening repeated
themselves over and over. Then, in the darkness and the silence, they
began to disappear. Suddenly there seemed nothing in the world but
Godfrey and me. He had leaned forward and taken my hand. We had
entered the Park and were slipping along an avenue of awake and
watchful trees.
"Well, May," he said, gently.
My heart slipped a beat. There was a new quality in the voice which
throbbed and shook a little. "I've waited almost five years," he went
on. "Isn't that long enough? Won't you come to me now?"
He held out his arms in the dark cab, and I entered them. From their
wonderful shelter I heard his next words.
"Marrying me," he said, "won't mean that you're giving up anything you
have. You are only adding me to it. I shall be as much interested in
your books and your plays as you are yourself. You know that, don't
you?"
But I interrupted him. In that moment books and plays seemed like the
snows of yesteryear.
"Godfrey," I said, "do you imagine that I'm thinking of books and
plays now? Let's talk about the real things."
The taxi-cab sang on its way. The trees that lined the broad drive of
the Park raced beside us, keeping us company. Far above them a tiny
new moon smiled down. My professional life, like the lights of the
Avenue, lay behind me. Little in it seemed to count in the new world
I was entering. Until to-night I had been merely a player waiting in
the wings. Now, out in front, I heard the orchestra playing. The
curtain of life was going up, and I had my cue in Godfrey's voice.