It was a nice bracelet--a beauty. No one could call it unbecoming on
her wrist. She had had no idea that a single ornament could have made
such a difference. She was convinced that it made her hand seem much
smaller than it really was. She wondered if he had sent for it
specially to New York, or if he had been carrying it about with him in
his pocket. But that was not the point. The point was that, since she
could not frame a note which, in all respects, met her views, she would
herself see Mr. Huhn to-morrow and return him his gift with her own
hands. Then the incident would be closed. Having arrived at which
decision she slept like a top all night, with the bracelet under her
pillow.
In the morning she dressed herself with unusual care--with so much
care, indeed, that Mrs. Palmer greeted her with a torrent of
ejaculations.
"You look lovelier than ever, my dear. Just like What's-his-name's
picture, only ever so much sweeter. Dosen't she look a darling, Dick?"
"Dick" was Mr. Palmer. As this was said not only in the presence of
that gentleman, but in the hearing of several others, Miss Donne was so
distressed that she found herself physically incapable of telling the
speaker that, as she was perfectly aware, she intensely disliked
personal remarks, which were always in the very worst possible taste.
Nothing was seen of Mr. Huhn. She went with the Palmers to the market;
to the man who carved grotesque heads out of what he called vegetable
ivory; to watch the people bathe, while listening to the band upon the
terrace; then to lunch. All the time she had that bracelet on her
person. After lunch she accompanied her friends on a queer sort of
vehicle, which was not exactly a brake or quite anything else, on what
its proud proprietor called a "fashionable excursion" to the forest of
Arques. It was nearly five when they returned. The Palmers went
upstairs. She sat down on one of the chairs which were on the pavement
in front of the hotel. She had been there for some minutes in a sort of
waking dream when someone occupied the chair beside her.
It was Mr. Huhn. His appearance was so unexpected that it found her
speechless. The foolish tremors to which she seemed to have been so
liable of late seemed to paralyze her. She gazed at the shabby theatre
on the other side of the square, trying to think of what she ought to
say--but failed. No greetings were exchanged.
Presently he said, in his ordinary tone of voice:--
"Come with me into the Casino."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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