Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/151

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CONSIDERING KEDDO
139

behind, gazing into somebody's driveway with a preoccupied air. If he caught your eye or tone, the distance between you widened slightly, but if you disappeared behind the doors of the Public Library say, an almost instant yelp outside, rising into agonized howls, roused everybody's startled attention and brought the blush of guilty consciousness to your cheek. Chastisement without was so humbly received and so evidently mitigated by gratitude for your reappearance, that you couldn't slap very hard in spite of your best efforts and well-justified wrath. After all, one cannot be so very angry with a little shrinking culprit whose chief offense rises out of his desire to be with you.

I became, I hope, a kinder, certainly a wiser person, because of knowing Keddo. I learned from him much more than he learned from me. By reason of him I realized something of what unconditional confidence is—a bridge upon which angels meet and pass, angels of kind intent and perfect understanding. I learned too, what a little gayety of disposition can achieve, coupled with consideration for other people's feelings. It is the emollient of life, the only real mitigation of the rasping "do-