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Webster, Henry Kitchell, 1875-1932

"The Real Adventure"

Facial planes just a hair's breadth
more defined perhaps--a bit more of what that painter Burton calls edge.
But not a line, not a mark. Her skin's still got that bloom on it, and
she still flushes up when she smiles. She's lost five pounds, perhaps,
but that's just condition. And vitality! My God!--But a thousand years
old just the same."
"I'd like to know what you mean by that," said Rodney. He added, "if you
mean anything," but the words were unspoken.
Randolph did mean something.
"Why, look here," he said. "You know what a kid she was when you married
her. Schoolgirl! I used to tell her things and she'd listen, all
eyes--holding her breath! Until I felt almost as wise as she thought I
was. She was always game, even then. If she started a thing, she saw it
through. If she said, 'Tell it to me straight,' why she took it,
whatever it might be, standing up. She wasn't afraid of anything.
Courage of innocence. Because she didn't know.
"Well, she's courageous now, because she knows.


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