“Sacked!” he said briefly, the tears starting to his eyes. “Sacked at a moment’s notice!”
She stared at him, unable at first to grasp the full significance of his words.
“Oh, no, Jack! No!” she said. “No! You can’t mean it! It’s not true?”
He nodded, gazing fixedly out of the window, away from her.
“It’s true!” he replied grimly. “My life’s finished!”
She felt timidly for his hand, pressed it without a word. He turned and faced her. They looked for a moment into each other’s eyes, then suddenly he crumpled into her arms, a dead-beat old man, and sobbed like a child.
“Oh, Jack, dear! Jack!” she said, caressing the gray head upon which her tears fell like rain. “At last we can be together!”
* * * * * *
They sat side by side on the porch of the country-house, overlooking the wide lawns which swept down to a belt of trees and the river. Along the bank two young couples were walking in a close and intimate comradeship whose happiness was indicated by the bright young laughter which floated at intervals, in the stillness of the sunny afternoon, to the porch of the house. He watched them as they went, then turned silently to his companion. Betty sat, sweetly placid, a little smile just accentuating the loose wrinkles on the soft face, her eyes looking perhaps after the young people, perhaps into happy thoughts. He thought she was very beautiful as she sat there—and inestimably precious.
“Betty darling!” he said suddenly, lifting her hand to his lips, “to think that you are seventy to-day!”