He was not armed. He had thrown his revolver away a week before. His
only desire now was to learn the extent of her duplicity. If she
obeyed the call of the letter then there could be no doubt that
she was coming at the call of the lover. His hands twitched and
he shivered as if with a dreadful chill. His heart was shouting a
warning to her, but his head was urging her to come and have done
with it all.
He was there early--long before the hour named in the decoy. His
eyes never left the sidewalk that ran past his own home, but a short
distance from the Drive. They stared without blinking across that
dark border, through the circle of light from the arc lamp and far
into the shadows of blackness beyond. It was very dark where he
stood. The lake had battered through the sea wall for many rods
at this particular point and no one ventured out beyond the bridle
path for fear of slipping down into the cavities that had been
washed out by the waves. His station was on the edge of the piles
of stone and cement that had been tossed up to await the pleasure
of the park commissioners.
For a while, he tried to take Jane's future into consideration,
but it was impossible to substitute anything before his own wrongs.
David Cable was not the kind of man who would go on living with a
faithless wife for the sake of appearances. He was not an apologist.
Time and circumstance and the power of true love would adjust the
affair of Jane and Graydon Bansemer. This was HIS affair. Time
could not adjust it for him.
At last he saw a woman's figure hurrying down the street. The wild,
eager hope that the light from the electric lamp would prove it
to be other than that of his wife was quickly dispelled. His worst
fears were true, His Frances--his wife of more than a score of
years, his pretty sweetheart through all those days, was false to
him! As he fell back against the wall something seemed to snap in
his breast; a groan of misery arose to his lips.
With eyes which saw red with rage and anguish, he watched
the hesitating approach of the woman. She stopped at the corner
and looked up and down the Drive, peering intently into the dark
shadows by the lake. The sky was overcast; no stars peeped through
its blackness. With uncertain, halting steps she crossed the boulevard,
still glancing about as if in search of someone. He moved forward
unconsciously, almost blindly, and she caught a glimpse of his tall,
dark figure. He was not unlike Bansemer in height and carriage. As
she drew near, his legs trembled and tears of despair flooded his
eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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