Maybe it would help some if
you would tell me just how badly you think I
treated Lucy."
"You ruined her life, and then deserted her,"
says Colonel Tom agin, looking at him hard.
"I DIDN'T desert her," said Doctor Kirby. "She
got disgusted and left ME. Left me without a chance
to explain myself. As far as ruining her life is
concerned, I suppose that when I married her--"
"Married her!" cries out the colonel. And David
Armstrong stares at him with his mouth open.
"My God! Tom," he says, "did you think
--?"
And they both come to another standstill.
And then they talked some more and only got more
mixed up than ever. Fur the doctor thinks she has
left him, and Colonel Tom thinks he has left her.
"Tom," says the doctor, "suppose you let me
tell my story, and you'll see why Lucy left me."
Him and Colonel Tom had been chums together
when they went through Princeton, it seems--I
picked that up from the talk and some of his story
I learned afterward. He had come from Ohio in
the beginning, and his dad had had considerable
money. Which he had enjoyed spending of it,
and when he was a young feller never liked to work
at nothing else. It suited him. Colonel Tom,
he was considerable like him in that way. So they
was good pals when they was to that school together.
Pages:
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279