Then, when dawn came, the dull dawn of a foggy morning, and the carriage
drew up at the hotel in Chatham where they were to change horses, Max
discovered that she was asleep.
Dudley opened his eyes when the carriage stopped, but shut them again
without a word to Max, who asked him how he felt.
Max, when the people of the hotel had been roused, succeeded in
borrowing a rug, which he wrapped gently round Carrie, without waking
her. And presently the carriage jogged on again on its journey, and the
morning sun began to pierce the mist as the bare Kentish hop-fields and
orchards were reached.
Max leaned forward and looked at Carrie's sweet face with infinite
tenderness. Now in her sleep she looked like a child, with her lips
slightly parted and her eyelashes sweeping her thin, white cheeks. The
alert look of the Londoner, which gave an expression of premature
shrewdness to her waking face, had disappeared under the relaxing
influence of slumber. She looked pitifully helpless, sad and weak, as
her tired, worn-out little body leaned back in the corner of the
carriage.
Max looked at her with yearning in his eyes. This young ne'er-do-weel,
as his father called him, had enjoyed the privilege of his type in being
a great favorite with women. As usual in such cases, he had repaid their
kindness with ingratitude, and had had numerous flirtations without ever
experiencing a feeling either deep or lasting.
Now, for the first time, in this beautiful waif of the big city he had
found a mixture of warmth and coldness, of straightforward simplicity
and boldness, which opened his eyes as to there being in her sex an
attraction he had previously denied. He felt as he looked at her that he
wanted her; that he could not go away and forget her in the presence of
the next pretty face he happened to see.
This shabbily dressed girl, with the shiny seams in her black frock and
the rusty hat, inspired him with respect, with something like reverence.
In his way he had been in love many, many times. Now for the first time
he worshiped a woman.
When the carriage stopped at the park gate of The Beeches, Max sprang
out, and without waiting to answer the hurried questions of Carrie, who
had awakened with a start, he ran across the grass and up the slope to
the house.
It was nine o'clock, and, when the door was opened by Bartram, Max came
face to face with Doreen, who was entering the hall on her way to the
breakfast-room.
"Why, Max, is it you? What a strange time to arrive! And where have you
been? You look as if you'd been up all night!" cried she, and she ran
forward to kiss him, and swinging him round to the light, examined him,
with an expression of amazement and horror.
"I have been up all night," said he, briefly. "I've driven all the way
from London--"
"What!"
"And--and I've brought some one with me--some one who is ill, who is in
trouble. Some one--"
A cry broke from her lips. She had grown quite white, and her hands had
dropped to her sides.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account