University of Virginia Library

XI

At sunset John and his two companions reached the
high cliff which had marked the boundaries of the Washingtons'
dominion, and looking back found the valley tranquil
and lovely in the dusk. They sat down to finish the
food which Jasmine had brought with her in a basket.

"There!" she said, as she spread the table-cloth and
put the sandwiches in a neat pile upon it. "Don't they
look tempting? I always think that food tastes better
outdoors."

"With that remark," remarked Kismine, "Jasmine
enters the middle class."

"Now," said John eagerly, "turn out your pocket and
let's see what jewels you brought along. If you made
a good selection we three ought to live comfortably all
the rest of our lives."

Obediently Kismine put her hand in her pocket and
tossed two handfuls of glittering stones before him.

"Not so bad," cried John, enthusiastically. "They
aren't very big, but—Hello!" His expression changed
as he held one of them up to the declining sun. "Why,
these aren't diamonds! There's something the matter!"

"By golly!" exclaimed Kismine, with a startled look.
"What an idiot I am!"

"Why, these are rhinestones!" cried John.

"I know." She broke into a laugh. "I opened the
wrong drawer. They belonged on the dress of a girl
who visited Jasmine. I got her to give them to me in
exchange for diamonds. I'd never seen anything but
precious stones before."

"And this is what you brought?"

"I'm afraid so." She fingered the brilliants wistfully.
"I think I like these better. I'm a little tired
of diamonds."

"Very well," said John gloomily. "We'll have to
live in Hades. And you will grow old telling incredulous
women that you got the wrong drawer. Unfortunately
your father's bank-books were consumed
with him."

"Well, what's the matter with Hades?"

"If I come home with a wife at my age my father is
just as liable as not to cut me off with a hot coal, as they
say down there."

Jasmine spoke up.

"I love washing," she said quietly. "I have always
washed my own handkerchiefs. I'll take in laundry
and support you both."

"Do they have washwomen in Hades?" asked Kismine
innocently.

"Of course," answered John. "It's just like anywhere
else."

"I thought—perhaps it was too hot to wear any
clothes."

John laughed.

"Just try it!" he suggested. "They'll run you out
before you're half started."

"Will father be there?" she asked.

John turned to her in astonishment.

"Your father is dead," he replied somberly. "Why
should he go to Hades? You have it confused with
another place that was abolished long ago."

After supper they folded up the table-cloth and spread
their blankets for the night.

"What a dream it was," Kismine sighed, gazing up
at the stars. "How strange it seems to be here with one
dress and a penniless fiancé!

"Under the stars," she repeated. "I never noticed
the stars before. I always thought of them as great big
diamonds that belonged to some one. Now they frighten
me. They make me feel that it was all a dream, all my
youth."

"It was a dream," said John quietly. "Everybody's
youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness."

"How pleasant then to be insane!"

"So I'm told," said John gloomily. "I don't know
any longer. At any rate, let us love for a while, for a
year or so, you and me. That's a form of divine drunkenness
that we can all try. There are only diamonds
in the whole world, diamonds and perhaps the shabby
gift of disillusion. Well, I have that last and I will
make the usual nothing of it." He shivered. "Turn
up your coat collar, little girl, the night's full of chill
and you'll get pneumonia. His was a great sin who
first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few
hours."

So wrapping himself in his blanket he fell off to sleep.