Their faces now being brought within view of the elderly person who was
so absorbed in his newspaper, the latter shifted that sheet the merest
trifle, possibly because the sun struck his eyes too directly, possibly
because he wished to catch sight of two very remarkable men. If so, the
opportunity was good, as they stopped within a few feet of his chair.
One of them was elderly, as old as, if not older than, the man watching
him; but he was of that famous Scotch stock whose members are tough and
hale at eighty. This toughness he showed not only in his figure, which
was both upright and graceful, but in the glance of his calm, cold eye,
which fell upon everybody and everything unmoved, while that of his
young, but equally stalwart companion seemed to shrink with the most
acute sensitiveness from every person he met, save the very mild old
reader of news near whom they now paused for a half-dozen words of
conversation.
"I don't think it does me any good," was the young man's gloomy remark.
"I am wretched when with her, and doubly wretched when I try to forget
myself for a moment out of her sight. I think we had better go back. I
had rather sit where she can see me than have her wonder--Oh, I will be
careful; but you must remember how unnerving is the very silence I am
obliged to keep about what is destroying us all. I am nearly as ill as
she."
Here they drew off, and their apparently disinterested hearer turned the
page of his paper. It was five minutes before they came back. This time
it was the old gentleman who was speaking, and as he was more discreet
than his companion or less under the influence of his feelings, his
voice was lower and his words less easy to be distinguished.
"Escape? South coast--she will forget to watch you for--a clinging
nature--impetuous, but foolishly affectionate--you know that--no
danger--found out--time--a cheerful home--courage--happiness--all
forgotten."
A gesture from the young man as he moved away showed that he did not
share these hopes. Meanwhile Miss Butterworth--you surely have
recognized Miss Butterworth--had her opportunities too. She was still
stooping over the dog, which wriggled under her hand, yet did not offer
to run away, fascinated perhaps by that hesitating touch which he may or
may not have known had never inflicted itself upon a dog before. But her
ears, and attention, were turned toward two girls chatting on a bench
near her as freely as if they were quite alone on the lawn. They were
gossiping about a fellow-inmate of the big hotel, and Miss Butterworth
listened intently after hearing them mention the name Adams. These are
some of the words she caught:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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