Ape's Face
Page 17
She put her hand out to lower the window. The strap had not been mended, and it vividly recalled to Armstrong their first drive.
‘Then if that is not your moral, what is?’ he persisted.
‘I don’t know. I only know I care a great deal about them all. . . .’
‘Then it’s charity!’ he cried triumphantly.
‘When I was young,’ she said with a sort of laugh, ‘I always liked everything about moral stories except the moral: it seemed so dull. I suppose that is why so few people like me. Goodnight and goodbye.’
‘So you are going to leave me just where you left me before?’
‘Just to finish the circle.’
‘Please to remember a circle has no ending—which would be my definition of real friendship: a ring which has no beginning and no end. And that means I shall come back again very soon. May I?’
‘Whenever you like.’
‘No; that is not the answer, I want.’
‘What shall I say then?’
‘Whenever I like: say that.’
‘Whenever I like.’
‘That is better. And it will be soon, please?’
‘Quite soon.’
‘Then I’ll let you go now, into the dark again.’
‘I don’t fear the dark!’ she cried, springing out, and the door shut upon him.
The words sounded strangely with something of their old force, and something new besides. Armstrong nodded to himself, smiling. All around the whiteness of the snow defied the night.