'"
It was a riddle with a vengeance. It is so easy to say "I'll cut that
Gordian knot!" and then pack one's tooth-brush and start off unknotting,
but it is quite another matter when one comes face to face with the
problem and is met by the "buts" of those who have previously been
essaying to disentangle it.
"She won't let me go," Mrs. Rosscott had declared, "she won't consider it
for a minute."
"But she must," Jack had declared on his side. "My dearest, you can't stay
and play maid to Aunt Mary indefinitely, and you know that as well as I
do."
"Yes, I know that," the whilom Janice then murmured. "It's getting to be
an awful question. They want me to come home for Thanksgiving. They think
that I've been at the rest-cure long enough."
Jack had laughed a bit just there, and then he suddenly ceased laughing
and frowned a good deal instead.
"You were crying when I came," he said. "The truth is you are working
yourself to death and getting completely used up."
"It is wearing, I must confess," she answered. "Yesterday I played poker
until I didn't know a blue chip from a white one, and she won the whole
pot with two little bits of pairs while I was drawing to a king. I begin
to fear that my mind will give way. And yet, I really don't see how to
stop. She is so sick and tired of life here and she isn't strong enough to
go to town."
"I know a very short way to put an end to everything," said Jack. "I see
two ways in fact,--one is to tell her the truth.
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