But it was so lonely
and miserable up there. 'Who can come after the king?'"
"Sometimes I think I ought to stir about more--meet the men who lead in the
city. But it seems such a waste of time when I can come and call upon you."
"But might it not be better in the long run if you did meet these men?
Mightn't it make your getting on quicker and easier?"
"Perhaps--if I were a gregarious animal, but I'm not. I'm shy and solitary
and hard to get acquainted with. And it takes time to make friends.
Besides, in making friends you also make enemies, and one enemy can do you
more harm than all your friends can do you good. Then too, friends take up
too much time. We have so little time and--we can spend it to so much
better advantage--can't we?"
Marian pushed herself closer against him and presently said dreamily: "So
much happiness, such utter happiness which no one, nothing can take away. I
wonder when and how the first storm will come?"
"It needn't come at all--not for a long, long time. And when it does--we
can weather it, don't you think?"
* * * * *
During the next two months they were together more than they had been in
the spring. He imposed day office hours upon himself and did no work in the
evenings except the correcting of editorial proofs which he had sent to him
at the house, at the theatre, or at whatever restaurant they were dining.
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