"Why shouldn't I be here?"
"This isn't your beat."
"It has been my beat since two weeks ago. I've seen you go by every
night, Mary."
She stood looking up at him. And he looked down at her; and so, of
course, their gaze met, and something that she saw in Tommy's eyes made
Mary's overflow.
"Mary, darling," said Tommy tenderly.
"You said you wouldn't forgive me."
"That was fifteen years ago."
"Tommy, I'm sorry."
Tommy stood very straight as became an officer of the law with, the eyes
of the world upon him.
"May," he said, "I just read your letter to Nannie. She dropped it. If
I'd known the things in that letter fifteen years ago I'd have stayed on
my job until I got you. But I thought you didn't care."
"I thought so too," said Mary.
"But the letter told me that you wanted a husband's loving heart and a
strong arm," said Tommy, "and, please God, you are going to have them,
Mary. And now you run along, girl, dear. I can't be making love when I'm
on duty. But I'll come and kiss you at nine."
So Mary ran along, and her heart sang. And when she got home she
unwrapped the fat doll and kissed every curl of her, and she set her
under the lovely lamp; and then she got a long box and put something in
it and wrapped it and addressed it to Kingdon Knox.
And after that she went to the window and stood there, watching until
she saw Tommy coming.
And the next morning when Kingdon Knox found the long box on his desk,
addressed in Mary's handwriting, he thought it was a Christmas present,
and he opened it, smiling.
But his smile died as he read the note which lay on top of a string of
jade beads:
"I am sending them back, Mr. Knox, with my resignation. I should
never have taken them. But somehow you made me feel that I was a
sort of fairy princess, and that jade beads belonged to me, and
everything beautiful, and that some day life would bring them. But
life isn't that, and you knew it and I didn't. Life is just warm
human happiness, and a home, and work for those we love. And so,
after all, I am going to marry Tommy. And Nannie is going to marry
Dick. In a way it is a happy ending, and in a way it isn't, because
I've grown away from the kind of life I must live with Tommy, and I
am afraid that in some ways I am not fitted for it. But Tommy says
that I am silly to be afraid. And in the future I am going to trust
Tommy."
And so Mary went out of Kingdon Knox's life. And on Christmas Day at the
head of a great table, with servants to the right of him and servants to
the left, he carved a mammoth turkey; and there was silver shining, and
glass sparkling and lovely women smiling, all in honor of the merry
season.
But Kingdon Knox was not merry as he thought of the jade beads and of
Mary's empty desk.