She and Doctor Richards came to words about her. He said plainly she would not be worth the money spent upon her. But 119 Miss Armitage insisted on spending it a year when the girl threw up her friend and joined a concert troupe, slipping presently into vaudeville where she was a success.
And out of the dispute came a proffer of love and marriage. Alvah Richards had begun life at the opposite pole from Miss Armitage. There had been a fortune, a love for the study of medicine, a degree in Vienna and one at Paris. Then most of the fortune had been swept away. He returned to America and some way drifted to Newton. They were just starting the hospital and he found plenty to do. He could live frugally. To help his still poorer fellow creatures in suffering, to restore them to strength and teach them to be useful members of society, or to comfort them and make the path easier over the river to the other country; this was his highest aim.
Miss Armitage was almost dumb with surprise. She raised her hand in entreaty.
“Oh, don’t! don’t,” she cried. “It is quite impossible; it cannot be. I like you very much, but I am not in love. And then––”
“Then what?” with eager eyes and incisive voice. 120
“You had a birthday last week. I heard you telling it. You are thirty-one.”
“Well—” There was a proud smile on his manly face.
“And when my birthday comes, I shall be thirty-six. When you are sixty, rich in experience, famous, a real man among men, I shall be quite an old woman. No, I shouldn’t do it for your sake.”
“As if a few years made any difference! Why you could discount seven years at least. Have you been loved so much that you can throw away a man’s honest, honorable, tender love that will last all his life, that wear it as you like, in any stress, you can never wear out.”
“Oh,” she cried. “You have spoiled a splendid friendship. I liked you so much, I have no love to give in return.”