Music — Poetry — Fiction 



the government had suppressed many of the old nuisances. It 1886 

 was possible now to hear the roar of the cataract. 



This unaccustomed human stillness was ominous to King. He 

 would have welcomed a Niagara of importunity and impreca- 

 tions; he was bursting with impatience to express himself; it 

 seemed as if he would die if he were silent an hour longer under 

 that letter. Of course the usual American relief of irritability and 

 impatience suggested itself. He would telegraph ; only electricity 

 was quick enough and fiery enough for his mood. But what 

 should he telegraph? The telegraph was not invented for love- 

 making, and is not adapted to it. It is ridiculous to make love by 

 wire. How was it possible to frame a message that should be 

 commercial on its face, and yet convey the deepest agony and 

 devotion of the sender's heart? King stood at the little telegraph 

 window, looking at the dispatcher who was to send it, and thought 

 of this. Depressed and intent as he was, the whimsicality of the 

 situation struck him. What could he say? It illustrates our 

 sheeplike habit of expressing ourselves in the familiar phrase or 

 popular slang of the day that at the instant the only thing King 

 could think of to send was this: " Hold the fort, for I am 

 coming." The incongruity of this made him smile, and he did 

 not write it. Finally he composed this message, which seemed 

 to him to have a businesslike and innocent aspect : ' Too late. 

 Impossible for me to change. Have invested everything. Expect 

 letter." Mechanically he counted the words when he had written 

 this. On the fair presumption that the company would send 

 ** everything " as one word, there were still two more than the 

 conventional ten, and from force of habit he struck out the words 

 " for me." But he had no sooner done this than he felt a sense 

 of shame. It was contemptible for a man in love to count his 

 words, and it was intolerable to be haggling with himself at such 

 a crisis over the expense of a dispatch. He got cold over the 

 thought that Irene might also count them, and see that the cost of 

 this message of passion had been calculated. And with reckless- 



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