I thought that day there was some kind of feel-ing, something unusual, between them. I meant to talk to you about it. But on my way back I met Lou and Oscar and got so angry that I forgot everything else. You mustn't be hard on them, Alexandra. Sit down here by the pond a minute. I want to tell you something."They sat down on the grass-tufted bank and Carl told her how he had seen Emil and Marie out by the pond that morning, more than a year ago, and how young and charming and full of grace they had seemed to him. "It hap-pens like that in the world sometimes, Alexan-dra," he added earnestly. "I've seen it before.
There are women who spread ruin around them through no fault of theirs, just by being too beautiful, too full of life and love. They can't help it. People come to them as people go to a warm fire in winter. I used to feel that in her when she was a little girl. Do you remem-ber how all the Bohemians crowded round her in the store that day, when she gave Emil her candy? You remember those yellow sparks in her eyes?"Alexandra sighed. "Yes. People couldn't help loving her. Poor Frank does, even now, Ithink; though he's got himself in such a tangle that for a long time his love has been bitterer than his hate. But if you saw there was any-thing wrong, you ought to have told me, Carl."Carl took her hand and smiled patiently.
"My dear, it was something one felt in the air, as you feel the spring coming, or a storm in summer. I didn't SEE anything. Simply, when I was with those two young things, I felt my blood go quicker, I felt--how shall I say it?--an acceleration of life. After I got away, it was all too delicate, too intangible, to write about."Alexandra looked at him mournfully. "I try to be more liberal about such things than I used to be. I try to realize that we are not all made alike. Only, why couldn't it have been Raoul Marcel, or Jan Smirka? Why did it have to be my boy?""Because he was the best there was, I sup-pose. They were both the best you had here."The sun was dropping low in the west when the two friends rose and took the path again.