He felt almost shy when he went back into the car, and though
June greeted him with a smile, her immaculate daintiness made him
unconsciously sit quite far away from her. The little fairy-cross was
still at her throat, but a tiny diamond gleamed from each end of it and
from the centre, as from a tiny heart, pulsated the light of a little
blood-red ruby. To him it meant the loss of June's simplicity and was
the symbol of her new estate, but he smiled and forced himself into
hearty cheerfulness of manner and asked her questions about her trip.
But June answered in halting monosyllables, and talk was not easy
between them. All the while he was watching her closely and not a
movement of her eye, ear, mouth or hand--not an inflection of her
voice--escaped him. He saw her sweep the car and its occupants with
a glance, and he saw the results of that glance in her face and the
down-dropping of her eyes to the dainty point of one boot. He saw
her beautiful mouth close suddenly tight and her thin nostrils quiver
disdainfully when a swirl of black smoke, heavy with cinders, came
in with an entering passenger through the front door of the car. Two
half-drunken men were laughing boisterously near that door and even her
ears seemed trying to shut out their half-smothered rough talk. The car
started with a bump that swayed her toward him, and when she caught the
seat with one hand, it checked as suddenly, throwing her the other way,
and then with a leap it sprang ahead again, giving a nagging snap to her
head. Her whole face grew red with vexation and shrinking distaste,
and all the while, when the little train steadied into its creaking,
puffing, jostling way, one gloved hand on the chased silver handle of
her smart little umbrella kept nervously swaying it to and fro on its
steel-shod point, until she saw that the point was in a tiny pool of
tobacco juice, and then she laid it across her lap with shuddering
swiftness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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