New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Short stories, American
In time the hansom turned from Fifth Avenue into Broadway; it went on
down-town past Union Square, with its broad trees, and past Grace
Church, with its grateful greenery; but the younger of the two men was
no longer taking note of what sped before his gaze. He was wondering
what the woman he loved would think when she would hear of his going to
prison--whether she would care very much--whether she would suspect that
his crime was due to his passion for her. That, of course, she could not
guess--that he had yielded to the temptation to lay hands on what was
not his, solely because he wanted more money to place at her feet. For
himself, he had been making enough; but for her he must have more. He
could not have ventured to invite her to give up anything for his sake.
He wanted to be able to offer her all she had been accustomed to
have--and more too, were that possible. He was conceited enough
ordinarily, he feared; and yet when he thought of her he felt so humble
that he had never dared to dream of going to her empty-handed--of asking
her to make any sacrifice in loving him. He had never told her of his
love, and perhaps she did not even guess it; and yet women are swift to
discover a thing like that. It might be that she had seen it; and that
when others should speak of him as he knew he deserved to be spoken of,
she might come to his defence and find some word of extenuation for his
misdeed. This possibility, remote as it was, gave him pleasure; and he
smiled at the suggestion as it came to him.
From this day-dream he was aroused as the driver of the hansom jerked
the horse back on his haunches to avoid running down a little old woman
who was trying to cross Broadway with a bundle of sticks balanced on her
head. As the animal almost touched her she looked up, and her glance
crossed that of the prisoner. He perceived instantly that she was an
Italian, that she was not so old as she looked, and that she had been
beautiful not so long ago. Then he wondered whether any man had done
wrong for her sake--whether or not two of her lovers had fought in the
soft Sicilian moonlight and one had done the other to death. Well, why
not? There were worse things than death, after all.
As they went on farther and farther down-town, Broadway began to seem
emptier. It was the first Saturday in June, and most of the stores were
closed. When they drew near to the City Hall, the great street, although
not so desolate as it is on a Sunday, lacked not a little of its
week-day activity. It was as though a truce had been proclaimed in the
battle of business; but the forts were guarded, and the fight would
begin again on the Monday morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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