Amnesiacs -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Trials -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Eleanor could remember a very slight defect, a front tooth slightly
broken. "He had fine teeth," she said, "and that break was teasingly
noticeable." George Ledyard's widow took from the chain about her neck
a rather large old-fashioned locket which she drew up from beneath her
lace collar and silently she handed the thing to him. Its slight warmth
came to the man's fingers in a way that made him glance suddenly at
her, wondering at the calm, unconscious face. Keeping his thoughts down
as best he might, Shipman opened the side opposite from the reckless
face of George Ledyard, that face he had seen go through, at the
trial, every swift change of the reckless speculator and desperate
trapped man; he glanced for an instant upon the lips that Ledyard's
own wife had said, "Lured one until one was wrecked upon them." "With
such a face," thought Watts bitterly, "a man can beckon a woman down to
hell or up to heaven." Watts dared not look again at the wife drooping
there, her little boy's head against her knee. He turned to the other
side of the locket. Something, as he looked, rose like a finger post
in his heart; it pointed to a set of conditions, a tangled net of
human things he had recently known; but the lawyer did not instantly
recognize it, only slowly came the gradual shaping of curious mists,
and these settled in his mind like fog settling around the tops of
houses.
The other face was younger than George's, finer and firmer, singularly
a tempered man's face, free from recklessness, but with the look of
adventure and an illumined look of pure kindness and intelligence,
very unusual in a face so dominant and assured. The eyes, a little
wide apart, were set under brows of resolution; the build of chin and
cheek were of a spare sobriety; the lips, mobile and gracious, were a
scholar's lips.
"Do you suppose he's gray now, if he's alive? Same hair as George's?
No?"
Eleanor shook her head. "I don't believe hair like that can change,
the curious red chestnut; we used to think that the birds and animals
he tamed so easily came to him because he had that crest, a fine
glittering plumage like their own."
"He must have seen strange birds in West Africa," Watts said dreamily,
"strange men and things." The lawyer looked at her. "He might have
gone crazy," he said suddenly. "He may be shut up somewhere; have you
thought of that? The man's rotten cowardly, else why should he have
left you to face this alone?"
Her eyes, deep and misty, looked at him. "He loved George," she said
quietly; "he would have come if he could have; he loved George. Even
you," she looked at him a little childishly, "never did that."
Watts smiled at the feminine pettishness.
"No," he said gravely, "I just loved George's wife, and I do still, God
help me!"
She half rose; but his look held her. "I hoped not," she said almost
defiantly. "I hoped that that girl might have----"
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