Richard continued down the street. It was as if he were translated, and
had quitted earth to walk the clouds. And to think that not two hours
before he had come swinging along this identical thoroughfare, never
dreaming of the heaven of those loving arms into which he was walking!
Blessed be Bess! He should never forget that sorceress, who to his
weakness added her strength, and to his ignorance her wisdom. It was
such an extraordinary thing, now that Richard had time to think of it,
that Dorothy should love him! And more amazing that she should press her
cheek to his and tell him of it! Oh, he could still feel that round,
warm, velvet cheek against his own! It was such joy to remember, too,
that it was merely the beginning of an eternity of those soft
endearments! it remade the world; and all things, even those most
week-a-day and commonplace, came upon him in colors so new and strange
and rich and sweet--touched as they were with this transforming light of
Dorothy's love! Richard plowed through the winter evening in a most
ridiculous frame of mind, midway between transports and imbecility.
"You will see me to-morrow?" pleaded Dorothy, as he came away.
Whereat Richard averred doughtily that he should.
Neither of the two having the practical wit to settle hour or place,
Bess, who the moment before had returned to them from Mr. Fopling with
intelligence coolly unimpaired, said:
"Four o'clock, then; and, if I may make a suggestion, you might better
meet here."
It was among the miracles how the high beatitude consequent upon that
wonderful event of Dorothy's love put Richard in a vaguely belligerent
mood. It was an amiable ferocity at that, and showed in nothing more
dire than just an eye of overt challenge to all the world. Also, he
dilated and swelled in sheer masculine pride of himself, and no longer
walked the streets, but stalked. Naturalists will not be surprised by
these revelations, having observed kindred phenomena in the males among
other species of animals.
In this lofty spirit, and by a fashion of instinct, Richard headed for
the club. At the club, by the best of fortune, as he would have said in
his then temper, he located Storri; and thereupon he bent upon said
patrician such an iron stare of confident insolence that the object of
it was appreciably worried, turning white, then red, then white, and in
the finish leaving the room, unable to sustain himself in the face of so
much triumph and truculence.
In the midst of this splendor of the soul, and just as Richard had begun
to feel a catholic pity for all mankind to think not one beyond himself
was loved by Dorothy, a message was thrust between his fingers. It ran
thus:
R. Storms,
Washington, D. C.
What's the matter? Where is your letter to-night?
_Daily Tory_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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