The Little Moment of HappinessKelland, Clarence Budington
General
The Little Moment of Happiness
Kelland, Clarence Budington
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
They walked on up the boulevard and took seats at a table in that very
café where Kendall had seen Andree and Monsieur Robert the night before.
He could see that table, occupied now by a _poilu_ and his
sweetheart.... Bert ordered coffee for them, which came in thick glasses
accompanied by a bottle of _saccharin_ for the sweetening. Kendall left
his glass untouched while his eyes fixed themselves on the street, now
becoming ever more rapidly hidden by the dusk. Many people were passing,
_habitués_ of the Quartier Latin; young men in uniform with girls on
their arms, skylarking, humming the chorus of “Madelon”; old women
making a last effort of the day to sell bright-colored Rintintins and
Ninettes fabricated out of worsteds, those quaint little charms which
were all the rage in Paris, and which were supposed to make one safe
from Big Bertha and the bomb of the air raid. One young girl passed
clinging to the arm of a youth in a broad hat, baggy corduroy trousers,
paint-daubed coat, and flowing tie—a figure who might have stepped out
of the pages of Henri Mürger. He seemed the very genius of the Latin
Quarter, a hungry _peintre_ with canvas under his arm, and his
gay-hearted little mistress who cooked his meals and shared his hunger
and poverty brightly.... Kendall watched them go and envied them the
thing that was theirs. Now and then a gendarme, wearing his short sword,
passed stiffly.... It became darker and darker, and the crowd in the
café thinned itself away until nobody remained but himself and Bert.
Impatient waiters began piling up chairs and moving tables against the
wall. Dim, hooded, blue street-lights glowed in the distance, making the
boulevard ghastly and somber.... The darkness became impenetrable, but
still Kendall lingered, hoping, demanding that Andree’s dainty little
figure appear.
“No use, Ken,” Bert said. “She won’t come now, and if she did you
wouldn’t be able to see her.”
“I can’t go till I’m sure,” Ken answered.
“Let’s walk, then. More chance of seeing her out on the sidewalk.”
They arose and sauntered slowly toward the Panthéon, crossing the very
spot where Andree had given Kendall that first kiss.... They retraced
their steps. The streets were now all but deserted; only here and there
was a hurrying figure, or upon some bench along the curb a pair of
lovers sitting close and whispering in each other’s ears.
“It’s eleven o’clock,” said Bert. “Come on home.”
“Yes,” said Ken. “It is too late now. She won’t come to-night....”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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