"'Well, how have you got on?'
"'Oh, I am so troubled this evening, dear!'
"'Poor fellow! Tell me all about it. I tried to come to you sooner, but
I couldn't get away.'
"Like that! We talked as if she were really with me. My life was no
longer desolate--the indifference in my home no longer grieved me. All
the interest, the love, the inspiration I had hungered for, was given
to me now by a woman who remained invisible."
Noulens paused again. In the pause I got up to light a cigarette, and--
I shall never forget it--I saw the bowed figure of his wife beyond the
study door! It was only a glimpse I had, but the glimpse was enough to
make my heart stand still--she leant over the table, her face hidden by
her hand.
I tried to warn, to signal to him--he did not see me. I felt that I
could do nothing, nothing at all, without doubling her humiliation by
the knowledge that I had witnessed it. If he would only look at me!
"Listen," he went on rapidly. "I was happy, I was young again--and
there was a night when she said to me, 'It is for the last time.'
"Six words! But for a moment I had no breath, no life, to answer them.
"'Speak!' she cried out. 'You are frightening me!'
"'What has happened?' I stammered. 'Trust me, I implore you!'
"I heard her sobbing--and minutes seemed to pass. It was horrible. I
thought my heart would burst while I shuddered at her sobs--the sobbing
of a woman I could not reach.
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