The Heart's Kingdom - Page 56/148

"Oh, why did you come here?" I positively moaned, as he and I both rose

and I put out my hand as if to force him out of that aloneness in which

we stood together.

"America must lead the world in spiritual as well as material

regeneration, and this is the only real and dispassionate America, with

no foreign pull on its vitals. You must wake up; the cry has been heard

to 'Come over and help.' Why do you fight the--"

"I can't help fighting. I must do what I conscientiously believe--" I

was saying with my hand still outstretched against him, when suddenly

the still place around us was invaded with a crash and its invisible

walls thrown down.

"Charlotte!" came in Nickols' languid, fascinating voice that always

draws me to the edge of his world. "And Greg Goodloe, by all that is

good and holy--in tennis flannels!"