THE HAPPY-DAY
thing that was just womanliness. She began to smile. It was the smile of a hurt person when the opiate first begins to overtake the pain.
"Oh, I'm sure it was an accidental badness," she volunteered softly. "If I were accidentally bad, you would forgive me, wouldn't you?"
"Oh, yes, yes, yes," you stammered, and reached up your lonesome hands to her.
"Then you don't have to make love," she whispered. "It's all made," and slipped down into your arms.
But something troubled her, and after a minute she pushed you away and tried to renounce you. "But it is not Thursday," she sobbed; "it is Wednesday; and my name is not 'Clarice'; it is Ladykin."
Then all the boyishness died out of you—the sweet, idle reveries, the mystic responsibilities. You shook your Father's dream from your eyes, and squared your shoulders for your own realities.
"A Man must make his own Happy-Day," you cried, "and a Man must choose his own Mate!"
Before your vehemence Ladykin winced back against the rock and eyed you fearsomely.
"Oh, I will love you and cherish you," you pleaded.
But Ladykin shook her head. "That is not
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