Had she
guessed the truth I could see no point at all in her reminiscence of the
mysterious stranger, unless it were sheer pointless mischief, and she did
not seem a pointless lady. Besides, when I glanced at myself in the
drawing room mirror, I said to myself, "Who could possibly guess!"
After that walk, tea and a talk with her father were unexciting
episodes. She kept very much in the background, but when we parted I
seemed to note again that flicker of a very alluring smile.
"Can it be that she has a morbid taste for inebriates?" I wondered. "One
has heard of women with curiously diseased fancies. Or perhaps she has
simply a passion for reforming them. One of those smiles for every sober
hour would be a distinct inducement to behave!"
But this was not business and as I walked home I turned my thoughts
sternly to that scythe blade.
VIII
H.M.S. _Uruguay_
As I neared my bleak sanatorium I said to myself,
"If only something would happen!"
Week after week spent within those walls or in wandering over this
limited space of muddy roads and sodden fields, with nothing to show for
it, was an unexhilarating prospect. Perhaps the recollection of the
comfortable house and the pleasant company I had just left accentuated
this feeling, and the swift disappearance of our glimpse of crispness and
sunshine did nothing to raise the heart.
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