There was a silence, for if the dazzled young man could have spoken at
all, he could have found nothing to say; and, perhaps, the lady would
not trust her own voice just then. His eyes had fallen again; he was
too dazed, and, in truth, too panic-stricken now, to look at her. She
was seated beside him and had handed him her parasol in a little way
which seemed to imply that, of course, he had reached for it, so that it
was to be seen how used she was to have all such things done for her. He
saw that he was expected to furl the dainty thing; he pressed the catch
and let down the top timidly, as if fearing to break or tear it; and, as
it closed, held near his face, he caught a very faint, sweet, spicy
[v]emanation from it like wild roses and cinnamon.
"Do you know me?" asked the lady at last.
For answer he could only stare at her, dumfounded; he lifted an unsteady
hand toward her appealingly. Her manner underwent an April change. She
drew back lightly; he was favored with the most delicious low laugh he
had ever heard.
"I'm glad you're the same, Joe!" she said. "I'm glad you're the same,
and I'm glad I've changed, though that isn't why you have forgotten me."
He arose uncertainly and took three or four backward steps from her. She
sat before him, radiant with laughter, the loveliest creature he had
ever seen; but between him and this charming vision there swept, through
the warm, scented June air, the dim picture of a veranda all in darkness
and the faint music of violins.
_"Ariel Tabor!"_
"Isn't it about time you were recognizing me?" she said.
* * * * *
Sensations were rare in staid, dull, commonplace Canaan, but this fine
Sunday morning the town was treated to one of the most memorable
sensations in its history. The town, all except Joe Louden, had known
for weeks that Ariel Tabor was coming home from abroad, but it had not
seen her. And when she walked along the street with Joe, past the Sunday
church-returning crowds, it is not quite truth to say that all except
the children came to a dead halt, but it is not very far from it. The
air was thick with subdued exclamations and whisperings.
Joe had not known her. The women recognized her, [v]infallibly, at first
sight; even those who had quite forgotten her. And the women told their
men. Hence the un-Sunday-like demeanor of the procession, for few towns
held it more unseemly to stand and stare at passers-by, especially on
the Sabbath. But Ariel Tabor had returned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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