“I suppose you must go, but—” he hesitated; it seemed a tremendous thing to ask of her because it meant so much to him—“I’d like to write to you if you’d answer my letter. Pardners always write to each other, you know.” He was smiling, but Helen was almost startled by the wistful earnestness in his eyes. “I’d like to know how it feels,” he added, “to draw something in the mail besides a mail-order catalogue—to have something to look forward to.”
“To be sure—we are partners, aren’t we?”
“I’ve had a good many but I never had one I liked better.” Bruce replied with such fervor that Helen felt herself coloring.
“I don’t like being a silent partner,” she returned lightly. “I wish I could do my share. I’m even afraid to say I’ll pray for your success for, to the present, I’ve never made a prayer that’s been answered. But,” and she sobered, “I want to tell you I do believe in you. It’s like a fairy tale—too wonderful and good to be true—but I’m going to bank on it and whatever happens now—no matter how disagreeable—I shall be telling myself that it is of no importance for in a few months my hard times will all be done.”
Bruce took the hand she gave him and looked deep into her eyes.
“I’ll try—with all my might,” he said huskily, and in his heart the simple promise was a vow.
He watched her as she ran up the steps and disappeared inside the wide doors of the office building—resenting again the thought that she had “hours”—that she had to work for pay. If all went well—if there were no accidents or miscalculations—he should be able to see her again by—certainly by October. What a long time half a year was when a person came to think of it! What a lot of hours there were in six months! Bruce sighed as he turned away.
He looked up to meet the vacant gaze of a nondescript person lounging on the curbing. It was the fourth or fifth time that morning he thought he had seen that same blank face.
“Is this town full of twins and triplets in battered derbies?” Bruce asked himself, eying the idler sharply as he passed, “or is that hombre tagging me around?”