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Updated: May 8, 2025
But she was immeasurably relieved that Stefan's name was made, and that they were permanently lifted from the ranks of the needy. That very day, as if to illustrate their change of status, Mrs. Corriani puffed up the stairs with the news that the flat immediately below them had been abandoned over night.
Ultimately, with a very ill grace on Stefan's part who could hardly be persuaded that even a temporary return to America was preferable to starvation it was so arranged. The second-class passage money was 250 francs; for this and incidentals, he had enough, and Adolph lent him another 250 to tide him over his arrival.
For the second time that day she had entered a home of kindly and well-disposed people that seemed to be built of an altogether different clay from that which composed the folk of the big city. In Stefan's home the atmosphere had been gentle, one of earnest, quiet toil, with the simple accompaniment of a kindly religious belief according to the Lutheran persuasion.
Apparently she might never, even for a moment, enjoy the luxury of being a human being with ambitions like Stefan's own, but must remain ever pedestaled as his inspiration. She was irked, too, by his hopelessly unpractical attitude toward affairs. She would have enjoyed the friendly status of a partner as a wholesome complement to the ardors of marriage.
Not until she had watched him drink two cups of coffee and devour the food she guessed he had had no lunch did she allow him to talk, first lighting his cigarette and finding a place for herself on the arm of his chair. By this time Stefan's extreme lassitude, and with it his despair, had vanished. He brightened perceptibly.
A moment and the attendant nymph reappeared, bearing a large canvas framed in glistening green wood. "Against the table toward Mr. Byrd." Miss Berber supplemented the murmur with an indicative gesture. "You know that?" dropped from her lips as the nymph glided away. It was Stefan's pastoral of the dancing faun. He nodded gaily, but Mary felt herself blushing.
The little of her face that was exposed began to feel stiff and queer. Even through the heavy clothing she now wore she seemed to have been plunged in a strange atmosphere. For an instant, after she finally reached Stefan's house, the contrast between the cold outside and the warm living-room, that was also the kitchen, appeared to suffocate her.
"The golden cross is the sign of her house, her token; and you, Captain, have been her messenger." A smile wrinkled Stefan's face, not of amusement at the deception which had been practised upon them, but in expectation of disappointed rage from Ellerey. With diplomacy and the fine points of strategy Stefan the soldier had little to do. His business was fighting.
Madge looked up, startled and again afraid. It was a relief to her to see Stefan's friendly face. She had feared.... She didn't know what she dreaded so much perhaps a face repellent a man who would look at her and in whose eyes she might discern insult or contempt. The big Swede held an armful of heavy clothing. "Ye can't stay here, leddy," he said.
It was obvious that Stefan's conscience pricked him. He spent the morning hanging about her, and even played a little with his son, who now sat up, bounced, crowed with laughter, clutched every article within reach, and had two teeth. Mary's heart reached out achingly to Stefan, but he seemed to her a strange man. The contrast between this and their last Christmas smote her intolerably.
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