Robert William Chambers

Between Friends Robert William Chambers

Like a man who reenters a closed and darkened house and lies down; lying there, remains conscious of sunlight outside, of bird-calls, and the breeze in the trees, so had Drene entered into the obscurity of himself. Through the chambers of his brain the twilit corridors where cringed his bruised and disfigured soul, there nothing stirring except the automatic pulses which never cease. Sometimes, when the sky itself crashes earthward and the world lies in ruins from horizon to horizon, life goes on. The things that men live through-and live!But no doubt Death was too busy elsewhere to attend to Drene. He had become very lean by the time it was all over. Gray glinted on his temples; gray softened his sandy mustache: youth was finished as far as he was concerned. An odd idea persisted in his mind that it had been winter for many years. And the world thawed out very slowly for him. But broken trees leaf out, and hewed roots sprout; and what he had so long mistaken for wintry ashes now gleamed warmly like the orange and gold of early autumn. After a while he began to go about more or less-little excursions from the dim privacy of mind and soul-and he found the sun not very gray; and a south wind blowing in the world once more. Quair and Guilder were in the studio that day on business; Drene continued to modify his composition in accordance with Guilder's suggestions; Quair, always curious concerning Drene, was becoming slyly impudent."And listen to me, Guilder. What the devil's a woman between friends?" argued Quair, with a malicious side glance at Drene. "You take my best girl away from me-""But I don't," remarked his partner dryly.