"At one time he imagined himself back in his courting days, and pleaded,
'Say you love me, Louise. I know you do. I can read it in your eyes.
What's the use of our pretending? We _know_ each other. Put your white
arms about me. Let me feel your breath upon my neck. Ah! I knew it, my
darling, my love!'
"The whole house was deadly still, and I could hear every word of his
troubled ravings. I almost felt as if I had no right to be there,
listening to them, but my duty held me. Later on, he fancied himself
planning a holiday with her, so I concluded. 'I shall start on Monday
evening,' he was saying, and you can join me in Dublin at Jackson's Hotel
on the Wednesday, and we'll go straight on.'
"His voice grew a little faint, and his wife moved forward on her chair,
and bent her head closer to his lips.
"'No, no,' he continued, after a pause, 'there's no danger whatever. It's
a lonely little place, right in the heart of the Galway
Mountains--O'Mullen's Half-way House they call it--five miles from
Ballynahinch. We shan't meet a soul there. We'll have three weeks of
heaven all to ourselves, my goddess, my Mrs. Maddox from Boston--don't
forget the name.'
"He laughed in his delirium; and the woman, sitting by his side, laughed
also; and then the truth flashed across me.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196