Families -- Fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Husband and wife -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction
Long and intently his searching gaze went through the crowd, seeking
the remote corners and shadows of the foyer, and a deep breath of relief
escaped him when it became evident that the Hindu was not there. He had,
in a measure, proved his own cause; his emotions were genuinely his own
and not the outgrowth of an influence for good exercised over him by the
Brahmin.
He began what he was pleased to term a systematic analysis of his
emotions covering the entire evening, all the while regarding the couple
in the orchestra chairs with a gaze unswerving in its fidelity to the
sensation that now controlled him--a sensation of impending peril.
All at once he slunk farther back into the shadow, a guilty flush
mounting to his cheek. Yvonne had turned and was staring rather fixedly
in his direction. Despite the knowledge that he was quite completely
concealed by the intervening group of loungers, he sustained a distinct
shock. He had the uncanny feeling that she was looking directly into his
eyes. She had turned abruptly, as if someone had called out to attract
her attention and she had obeyed the sudden impulse. A moment later her
calmly impersonal gaze swept on, taking the sections to her right and
the balcony, and then went back to her husband's face.
Frederic was many minutes in recovering from the effects of the queer
shock he had received. He could not get it out of his head that she
knew he was there, that she actually turned in answer to the call of his
mind. She had not searched for him; on the contrary, she directed her
gaze instantly to the spot where he stood concealed.
Actuated by a certain sense of guilt, he decided to leave the theatre as
soon as the curtain went up on the next act, which was to be the last.
Instead of doing so, however, he lingered to the end of the play, secure
in his conscienceless espionage. It had come to him that if he met them
in front of the theatre as they came out he could invite them to join
him at supper in one of the near-by restaurants. The idea pleased him.
He coddled it until it became a sensation.
When James Brood and his wife reached the side-walk they found him
there, directly in their path as they wedged their way to the curb to
await the automobile. He was smiling frankly, wistfully. There was an
honest gladness in his fine, boyish face and an eager light in his eyes.
He no longer had the sense of guilt in his soul. It had been a passing
qualm, and he felt regenerated for having experienced it, even so
briefly. Somehow it had purged his soul of the one longing doubt as to
the sincerity of his impulses.
“Hello!” he said, planting himself squarely in front of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account