Dressmakers -- Fiction; Love stories; Young women -- Fiction
Gaga came leaping out upon the balcony as Toby stumbled on towards
Sally. The two men were sharply in conflict, and Gaga's arm was raised.
She could see it even in the shadow--the raised arm, and the impact of
the two bodies. Gaga was in his sleeping-suit, spectral in his gauntness
and his pallor. Maddened, Toby swept his enemy aside with one violent
blow that would have killed the strongest man. Gaga went down, his head
and body thrown with great force against the brick wall of the hotel,
and sliding to the ground with such momentum that there was a further
concussion.
"Toby!" shrieked Sally. "Toby! You've killed him!"
Gaga lay in the shadow, quite motionless, a horrible twisted body
without life. And the two others stood panting in the twilight, staring
down at his ghastly upturned face. Toby was as if paralysed by the
sight, his hand sleepily raised to his brow.
A voice sounded from downstairs.
"Did you call, Mrs. Merrick?" And then ascending steps followed.
Sally made a frantic gesture.
"Get out!" she cried. "Quick. They're coming. They'll find you. He's
dead. Get out!" She waved to the windows.
With one glance round, and with fear at his heels, Toby ran to the side
of the balcony, pulled aside one of the windows, and climbed out into
the darkness. Sally saw him no more. She was only aware that something
terrible happened, and that he missed his footing and plunged downwards
towards the running water and the sickening mud. Then, as she
convulsively jerked the window close again, she was overcome with deadly
faintness, and herself fell upon the matting, striking her head as she
fell, and losing consciousness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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