She laid this last across a chair, and tried to go on packing. That
was the frock she had worn when John came to her in the woods, and
was so kind, and so good, and told her he would let her have her
happy month.... Well, she'd had it. And it was worth it--it was
worth anything!
But she put her head down on the side of the trunk and sobbed and
sobbed.
Presently she went on with her packing, and finished it by a little
after four-thirty. The suitcase had to be filled. When it was done
she took a bath and dressed, and lay down on the bed as she was.
There was a train at nine-ten, that got her back home late in the
afternoon, and she was taking no chances.
She slept a little, always with the nine-ten train on her mind, and
finally rose and locked her trunk at half-past seven. She put the
key and her ticket and what money she had in her hand-bag, fastened
on her cap, took her suitcase, and stole downstairs. Nobody was
astir yet but Lily-Anna, and Viola, who was giving the early-waking
Angela her breakfast in an informal way in the corner of the
kitchen.
"Could I have a cup of coffee in a little while now, Lily-Anna?" she
asked the cook, who was making beaten biscuit in an echoing fashion
that would have penetrated any but the thick hundred-year-old walls
of the kitchen.
"Why, Miss Joy--you goin' off on a ride with Dr. Johnny this early?"
inquired Lily-Anna, thinking the natural thing. "Course you can.
I'll make it right now. An' I'll tell Mis' Harrington."
Joy had forgotten Phyllis in her wild desire for flight. But she
remembered now. She would have to call Phyllis and tell her. Indeed,
she would rather tell her herself than have Gail know. She couldn't
go off this way, as if she was taking the silver with her.
She retraced her steps up the stairs, opened the door of Phyllis'
room softly. Phyllis' bed was near the door, and she sat up at the
slight noise. Joy beckoned to her, and she slipped out of bed,
flinging around her a blue kimono that lay across the footboard and
setting her feet noiselessly in slippers as she came out with the
swift, gliding step that was characteristic of her. She gathered
back the loose masses of her amber-colored hair and flung them over
her shoulder, shut the door softly in order not to disturb Allan,
and followed Joy down the hall.
"What is it, dear?" she asked. "Telephone at this unchristian hour?"
"I'm sorry to disturb you," Joy answered, "but I had to. Where can
we go where I can talk to you for half an hour--or maybe ten minutes?"
There was a glowing fire in the living-room, and, of old custom, a
long couch stood before it. Phyllis led the way downstairs to this,
and established Joy on it, drawing a chair up to it herself.
"Now tell me all about it," she said comfortingly. "And lie down,
child--you look dead."
But Joy was too nervous to lie down.
"I have to go away on the nine-ten," she said.... "No, please,
Phyllis, wait till I tell you, and you'll see I do. You would, too."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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