The Golden WebOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
The Golden Web
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories
He went out and did some shopping. The sun was shining, and a soft west
wind blowing. London, which seems to hold its populace longer than any
other great city, was gay, almost joyous. He had to elbow his way
through crowds as he passed along Piccadilly. The streets and shops were
thronged. The sky above was blue. The rare sunshine seemed to make
cheerful even this most sombre of cities.
Deane had the feeling of a man who has escaped from a great danger,--who
has been able to throw off a heavy weight. This miserable document of
Sinclair's was as good as in his possession! After all, Basil Rowan was
not suffering in vain. The girl should have every penny that he had
promised her brother! Her way in life should be made easy! It was a
very small price, indeed, to be free from such torture as he had
suffered during the last few weeks. He bought presents a little
recklessly--presents for Olive--something, too, for Winifred Rowan, a
gold cigarette-case for himself. He ordered a great basket of flowers to
take with him to Scotland, and paid a visit to his gunmaker's. Then he
returned to his chambers, fully expecting to have some news of Winifred
Rowan.
"Any one rung up?" he asked his man.
"No one, sir, of any importance," was the answer.
"Did you ask the office about Miss Rowan?"
"No young lady at all has inquired for you there, sir," Grant answered.
Deane was a little surprised, but after all what did it matter? He
travelled up to Scotland with a lighter heart than he had carried for
months. Lady Olive, who met him early in the morning at the small
wayside station which was nearest to her father's seat, was amazed at
his vivacity.
"I expected to find you a pale, worn-out thing," she remarked, as their
motor-car climbed the white, stone-bordered road which crossed the
heather-covered mountain. "You don't look as though you needed a change
at all."
"I've found so swift a tonic, you see," he answered, pressing her hand.
She laughed gayly. This was more the man as he had been before the days
of their engagement! "I think it is the smell of the powder," she said.
"You men are all like schoolboys for your holidays. Father says that the
birds are much too wild, and that it will be all even you can do to hit
them."
Deane smiled. "There is nothing in the world," he answered, "which I
want to do so much as to lie up there in the heather and close my eyes,
and feel the sun and the wind."
"In other words," she said, "you are lazy!"
"Is that laziness?" he asked. "I don't think so."
"Rest, then," she said.
"Ah! That is a very different thing!" he replied. "We all need rest."
"Especially you," she said, "who carry about with you always the memory
of some things from which you can never escape."
He looked at her quickly, but it was obvious that her speech was wholly
unpremeditated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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