“That’s all right, my dear——” A faint smile visited her whitened face at the remembrance of her jesting on the top of the hill back of Naples.
Then tears came suddenly into her eyes, the after effect of the scene she had just witnessed. She brushed them away and smiled at the same time, a sunshine and shower effect.
“Lord, how I have aged since Naples!” She spoke with low emphasis.
“Of course you have,” said he. “You’ve grown up, just as I predicted you would. And you’re much nicer as a young woman than as a pert kid who knew she was good-looking.... Now, don’t worry about mother. She and I are irrevocable chums. I could tell her the whole story—real name and all—to-morrow and she would forgive me. But don’t fear her discovering anything. I’m having the greatest joy out of Richard Richard. I’m going to keep him alive as long as I possibly can. It’s more to me than a new name; it’s a new personality.... I’m just discovering something.”
He stopped to think.
“What is it?”
“Names are important. Galloway told me once that the police changed the name of a street which for years had been a veritable reproach and that instantly the street took on a new tone and in the end cured itself. He was indignant when I scoffed. But I see he was right. This new name has transformed me. I don’t know myself.”
“You, too, have grown up.”
“Really, I don’t seem to be the same person. I used to be a recluse, a member of the Independent Order of Glum.”
“You were.”