The Heart Line: A Drama of San Francisco — John Shaqi
The Heart Line: A Drama of San FranciscoBurgess, Gelett
General
The Heart Line: A Drama of San Francisco
Burgess, Gelett
Bohemianism -- Fiction; Fortune-tellers -- Fiction; San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction
At four o’clock Clytie’s mind seemed to wander from her occupation, and
now, when she ceased and looked out of the window, her abstracted gaze
was evidently not directed at what she saw. Her mental vision, rather,
seemed alert. Her slender golden eyebrows drew closer together, her
narrow, sharp nostrils dilated; her lips, half open, inhaled deep,
unconscious breaths. The pupils of her eyes contracted like a cat’s in
the light. Then she shook herself, passed her hand over her forehead,
shrugged her shoulders and resumed her work.
A little later this performance was repeated; this time, after her
momentary preoccupation, she rose more briskly, put her tools away, laid
her book carefully aside and took off her pinafore. After washing her
hands she went into her own room on the same floor. She went
down-stairs ten minutes after, in a fresh frock, her hair nicely
arranged, radiating a faint perfume of violet water. She opened the
front door and walked slowly down the path to the gate where the wall,
though but waist-high on the garden side, stood high above the sidewalk.
Here she waited, touching the balustrade delicately with her
outstretched fingers, as if playing upon a piano. The breeze loosened
the severity of her coiffure, which relaxed into slight touches of
curling frivolity about her ears and neck. Her pink frock billowed out
into flowing, statuesque folds as she stood, like a figurehead, gazing
off at the mountains. Her mouth was set into a shape not quite a smile,
a queer, tremulously subtle expression of suspense. She kept her eyes
in the direction of Hyde Street.
It was not long before a man turned the corner and walked briskly toward
her. He looked up at the first house on the block, searching for the
number; then, as his eyes traveled along to the next gate, he caught
sight of her. Instantly his soft felt hat swung off with a quick
flourish and he sent her a pleased smile.
"Here I am, Mr. Granthope!" Clytie called down to him, and on the
instant her face was suffused with pink. She had evidently expected
him, but now she appeared as agitated as if his coming had surprised
her.
He ran up the flight of wooden steps, his eyes holding hers all the way.
His dark, handsome face glowed; he abounded with life and spirit as he
stood before her, hand outstretched. In the other, he held a small
leather-bound book.
"Good afternoon, Miss Payson!" he said heartily. He shook hands eagerly,
his touch, even in that conventional greeting, consciously managed; the
grasp was sensitive and he delayed its withdrawal a suggestive second,
his dark eyes already at work upon hers. "How lucky I was to catch you
out here!" he added, as he dropped her hand.
"Oh, I’ve been expecting you for some time," Clytie replied, retreating
imperceptibly, as from an emotional attack, and turning away her eyes.
He noticed her susceptibility, and modified his manner slightly.
"Why! You couldn’t possibly have known I was coming?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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