"
They were in that No-Man's-Land. She was neither maid, wife, nor
widow, but divorcee. He was neither bachelor, husband, nor widower;
he was not even a divorce. He was a _Nisi Prius_.
CHAPTER XV
The childish old fates played one of their cheapest jokes on Jim
Dyckman when, after they had dangled Charity Coe just out of his
reach for a lifetime, they flung her at his head. They do those
things. They waken the Juliets just a moment too late to save
the Romeos and themselves.
Jim had revered Charity as far too good for him, and now everybody
wondered if he would do the right thing by her. Prissy Atterbury
in a burst of chivalry said it when he said:
"Jim's no gentleman if he doesn't marry Charity."
Pet put it in a more womanly way:
"Unless he's mighty spry she'll nab him. Trust her!"
Among the few people who had caught a glimpse of Charity, no one had
been quite cruel enough to say those things to her face, but Charity
imagined them. Housed with her sick and terrified imagination for
companion, she had imagined nearly everything dismal.
And now, when, by the mere laws of gravitation, she had floated into
Jim Dyckman's arms for a moment, she heard the popular doom of them
both in the joke he attempted:
"Charity, I've got to marry you to make you an honest woman."
She wrenched free of his embrace with a violence that staggered him.
He saw that she was taking his effort at playfulness seriously, even
tragically.
Pages:
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670