Isn't it wonderful how young people become attracted by one another, and
their heads and hearts get filled while we old people can only worry, for
whether they choose well or ill it always ends in our being left alone.
I noticed that Frenchy and Sammy were not among the people who crowded
about us to say good-by. I looked for them in vain, and was a bit hurt
that they should be absent, for we have become very fond of them. Helen
was also searching the friendly faces, and I knew that she missed them.
Her head was held high up, and but for the little curling up of her lip,
in which her teeth bit hard, she would have looked a picture of serene
indifference. We were nearing Frenchy's shack, in front of which the path
leads to the cove, and finally we were opposite the ramshackle place. It
must be very dreadful to a girl, who has learned to admire a man, perhaps
even to love him, to discover that her idol has feet of clay. She had
allowed the best of her nature, I could see it now, to be drawn in
admiration and regard towards a man she deemed unworthy. That odor of the
fish-houses had always been bad enough before, but now it seemed to rise
in her nostrils and sicken her. And now, Jennie, I can only repeat Puck's
words, "What fools we mortals be!"
That man Frenchy rushed out of the door as we were going by. His face
looked as if he had been suffering tortures.
"Please, please!" he cried.
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