Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/26

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14
SHEILA AND OTHERS

permanently located within reach, are as a rock of refuge to the weary housekeeper, battered amid the tides of successive domestic upheavals and infelicities.

I did not at the time altogether abandon hope that it might yet be so for Sheila and me. I thought "me friend" was a permanency, and would ultimately bring her back. But it appears that even a gold-filled watch is not to be taken as a sign of indissoluble affection, for when I made some discreetly distant reference to the young man left behind, the dimple in Sheila's cheek became a line and she said in a laconic tone "Oh, him!"

So when I was "suited," Sheila bought her an expensive, braided blue serge suit in the latest mode, and a hat with a curly cock's feather that nodded aggressive defiance to all the world, happily belying the smiling face beneath, and set forth for new and greener pastures.

It was not without foreboding I saw her go. She seemed to me so young to face the great world alone, the Juggernaut world of allurement and shallow estimate, and self-seeking and easy indifference.

True to her promise to let us know how she