For some moments there was silence, thrilling enough, even for her. Then
Bob gently opened the door once more, though very slightly, and peered
out of the tiniest crack, but he failed to see any one now, so concluded
he must have been mistaken. The shadows were most deceptive. Anyhow,
there was more danger in staying than in going, so he slid out and
closed the door. At the same moment he heard a very faint click. It
seemed to come from the other side of the hall. He didn’t like that, he
told himself, and waited to make sure no one was about. The ensuing
silence reassured him somewhat; and the “click,” he argued, might have
come from the door he himself had closed.
The temperamental young thing, holding her breath, heard him now move
softly but swiftly away. She listened, nothing happened. Then she
stretched her young form luxuriously and pondered on the delirious
secret that was all hers. A secret that made Bob her slave! Abjectly her
slave! Like the servant of the lamp! She could compel him to turn
somersaults if she wanted to.
Bob awoke with a slight headache, which, however, didn’t surprise him
any. He only wondered his head didn’t ache more. People came down to
breakfast almost any time, and sometimes they didn’t come down at all
but sipped coffee in their rooms, continental-fashion. It was late when
Bob got up, so a goodly number of the guests—the exceptions including
Mrs. Dan and Mrs. Clarence—were down by the time he sauntered into the
big sun-room, where breakfast was served to all with American appetites.
The temperamental little thing managed accidentally (?) to encounter him
at the doorway before he got into the room with the others. He shivered
slightly when he saw her, though she looked most attractive in her
rather bizarre way. Bob gazed beyond her, however, to a vision in the
window. “Vision!” That just described what Miss Gwendoline looked like,
with the sunlight on her and making an aureole of her glorious fair
hair. Of course one could put an adjective or two, before the
“vision”—such as “beautiful,” or something even stronger—without being
accused of extravagance.
The little dark thing, uttering some platitude, followed Bob’s look, but
she didn’t appear jealous. She hadn’t quite decided how much latitude to
give Bob. That young gentleman noticed that the hammer-thrower, looking
like one of those stalwart, masculine tea-passers in an English novel,
was not far from Miss Gwendoline. His big fingers could apparently
handle delicate china as well as mighty iron balls or sledges. He
comported himself as if his college education had included a course at
Tuller’s in Oxford Street, in London, where six-foot guardsmen are
taught to maneuver among spindle-legged tables and to perform almost
impossible feats without damage to crockery.
Miss Dolly now maneuvered so as to draw Bob aside in the hall to have a
word or two before he got to bacon and eggs. What she said didn’t
improve his appetite.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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