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I told him I had a few pounds still remaining to me, but that after that was gone I should be penniless. "And to think, Kelver, that there are hundreds, thousands of young fellows precisely in your position! How sad, how very sad! How long have you been looking for a berth?" "A month," I answered him. "I thought as much. Do you know why I selected your letter out of the whole batch?"
Then you and the Signora could marry and there would be an end to the whole trouble." "From a strictly worldly point of view," replied the O'Kelly, "it certainly would be; but Mrs. O'Kelly" his voice took to itself unconsciously a tone of reverence "is not an ordinary woman. You can have no conception, my dear Kelver, of her goodness.
Kelver Mr. Paul Kelver. "Minikin's my name," he returned, "Sylvanus Minikin. You don't happen by any chance to know what you've come for, I suppose?" Looking at his body, my inclination was to pick my way among the goods that covered the floor and pull his ears for him. From his grave and massive face, he might, for all I knew, be the head clerk. "I have called to see Mr.
"Delighted to meet Mr. Kelver," he said, speaking in excellent English. "Any friend of my wife's is always a friend of mine." He held out his fat, perspiring hand. I was not in the mood to attach much importance to ceremony. I bowed and turned away, careless whether he was offended or not. "I am glad I saw you," she continued. "Do you remember a girl called Barbara?
Kelver, for any one woman in an eight-roomed house?" But my mother was not to be discouraged. "You will find the woman one day, Hal, who will be all of them to you all of them that are worth having, that is. And your eight-roomed house will be a kingdom!" "A man is many, and a woman but one," answered Hal.
Kelver," explained the Signora, "the whole difficulty arises from my unfortunate profession. It is impossible for me to keep out of dear Willie's way. If I could earn my living by any other means, I would; but I can't. And when he sees my name upon the posters, it's all over with him." "I do wish, Willie, dear," added the Signora in tones of gentle reproof, "that you were not quite so weak."
Hal laid aside his pipe and leant forward in his chair. "Now tell us, Mrs. Kelver, for our guidance, we two young bachelors, what must the lover of a young girl be?" Always very serious on this subject of love, my mother answered gravely: "She asks for the whole of a man, Hal, not merely for a sixth, nor any other part of him.
I've always remembered her words: 'and of all the troubles that come to us in this world, believe me, Mrs. Kelver, money troubles are the easiest to bear." "I wish I could think so," said my father. "She rather irritated me at the time," continued my mother. "I thought it one of those commonplaces with which we console ourselves for other people's misfortunes. But now I know she spoke the truth."
I replied that such was the conclusion to which observation had directed me. "We tried to appear so," explained the Signora; "it was merely on the outside. In reality all the time we hated each other. Tell him, Willie, dear, how we have hated each other." "It is impossible," said the O'Kelly, finishing and putting down his glass, "to give ye any idea, Kelver, how we have hated each other."
The waiting earth, it can make use only of what is true." "You should marry, Hal," my mother would say. It was her panacea for all mankind. "I would, Mrs. Kelver," he answered her on one occasion, "I would to-morrow if I could marry half a dozen women. I should make an ideal husband for half a dozen wives. One I should neglect for five days, and be a burden to upon the sixth."
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