England -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Mothers and daughters -- Fiction; Paris (France) -- Fiction; Women -- Fiction
He served a double fault to Tommy, and then a fault to Audrey. The fourth
ball he got over. Audrey played it. The two males rushed with appalling
force together on the centre line in pursuit, and a terrible collision
occurred. Musa fell away from Gustave as from a wall. When he arose out of
the pebbly dust his right arm hung very limp from the shoulder. No sooner
had he risen than he sank again, and the blood began to leave his face, and
his eyes closed. The fourth, having recovered from the collision, knelt
down by his side, and gazed earnestly at him. Tommy and Audrey hurried
towards the statuesque group, and Audrey was thinking: "Why did I refuse to
let him play with me? If he had played with me there would have been no
accident." She reproached herself because she well knew that only out of
the most absurd contrariness had she repulsed Musa. Or was it that she had
repulsed him from fear of something that Tommy might say or look?
In a few seconds, strongly drawn by this marvellous piece of luck,
promenaders were darting with joyous rapidity from north, south, east and
west to witness the tragedy. There were nurses with coloured streamers six
feet long, lusty children, errand boys, lads, and sundry nondescript men,
some of whom carefully folded up their newspapers as they hurried to the
cynosure. They beheld the body as though it were a corpse, and the corpse
of an enemy; they formulated and discussed theories of the event; they
examined minutely the rackets which had been thrown on the ground. They
were exercising the immemorial rights of unmoved curiosity; they held
themselves as indifferent as gods, and the murmur of their impartial voices
floated soothingly over Musa, and the shadow of their active profiles
covered him from the sparkling sunshine. Somebody mentioned policemen, in
the plural, but none came. All remarked in turn that the ladies were
English, as though that were a sufficient explanation of the whole affair.
No one said:
"It is Musa, the greatest violinist in Paris and perhaps in Europe."
Desperately Audrey stooped and seized Musa beneath the armpits to lift him
to a sitting position.
"You'd better leave him alone," said Tommy, with a kind of ironic warning
and innuendo.
But Audrey still struggled with the mass, convinced that she was showing
initiative and firmness of character. The fourth with fierce vigour began
to aid her, and another youth from the crowd was joining the enterprise
when Miss Ingate arrived from her stool.
"Drop him, you silly little thing!" adjured Miss Ingate. "Instead of
lifting his head you ought to lift his feet."
Audrey stared uncertain for a moment, and then let the mass subside.
Whereupon Miss Ingate with all her strength lifted both legs to the height
of her waist, giving Musa the appearance of a wheelless barrow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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