Short stories, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
“Really, you are very odd, both you and Mr. Blount. You are always
saying such odd things and then adding that you don’t mean anything.
And what’s cryptic?”
Gregory, still laughing at her, explained.
“Do you know, you’re exceedingly interesting to me as a type. I’m
watching you all the while.”
“Yes?” she commented, with a lifting of the eyebrows and a slight
distention of the eyes. “That’s interesting. Have you made up your mind
as to what type I am?”
“No, not quite yet. But if you’re the type I think you are, you’re very
clever. I’ll have to hand you the palm on that score.”
“Really, you puzzle me,” she said seriously. “Truly, you do. I don’t
understand you at all. What is it you are talking about? If it’s
anything that has any sense in it I wish you’d say it out plain, and if
not I wish you wouldn’t say it at all.”
Gregory stared. There was an odd ring of defiance in her voice.
“Please don’t be angry, will you?” he said, slightly disconcerted. “I’m
just teasing, not talking sense.”
She arose and walked off, while he strolled up and down the veranda
looking for Blount. When he found him, he narrated his experience.
“Well, it’s just possible that we are mistaken. You never can tell.
Give her a little more rope. Something’s sure to develop soon.”
And thereafter it seemed as if Mrs. Skelton and some others might be
helping her in some subtle way about something, the end or aim of
which he could not be quite sure. He was in no way disposed to flatter
himself, and yet it seemed at times as if he were the object of almost
invisible machinations. In spite of what had gone before, she still
addressed him in a friendly way, and seemed not to wish to avoid him,
but rather to be in his vicinity at all times.
A smug, dressy, crafty Jew of almost minute dimensions arrived on the
scene and took quarters somewhere in the building, coming and going and
seeming never to know Mrs. Skelton or her friends, and yet one day,
idling across some sand dunes which skirted an adjacent inlet, he saw
them, Imogene and the ant-like Jew, walking along together. He was so
astounded that he stopped in amazement. His first thought was to draw
a little nearer and to make very sure, but realizing, as they walked
slowly in his direction, that he could not be mistaken, he beat a hasty
retreat. That evening Blount was taken in on the mystery, and at dinner
time, seeing the Hebrew enter and seat himself in state at a distant
table, he asked casually, “A newcomer, isn’t he?”
Mrs. Skelton, Imogene, and the one broker present, surveyed the
stranger with curious but unacquainted indifference.
“Haven’t the slightest idea,” answered the broker. “Never saw him
before. Cloaks and suits, I’ll lay a thousand.”
“He looks as though he might be rich, whoever he is,” innocently
commented Imogene.
“I think he came Thursday. He doesn’t seem to be any one in particular,
that’s sure,” added Mrs. Skelton distantly, and the subject was dropped.
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