But this was only at
first. In a little while I noticed something in his tone, in his
manner, in his feverish eyes that I did not like."
She paused for a moment; Ashton-Kirk clasped his knee with both hands
and regarded her with interest.
"It was a sort of subdued fierceness," continued Miss Vale--"as though
he were setting his face against some invisible force and defying it.
When he mentioned our happiness that was to be, I could see his hands
close tightly, I could read menace in the set of his jaw. As he was
going, he said to me:
"'There has been something--a something that you've never been able to
understand--keeping us apart. But it is about at an end. Human nature
endures a great deal, sometimes, but it's endurance does not last
forever. To-night, my dear, puts an end to my endurance. I am going to
show what I should have shown long ago--that I'm a man.'
"Then he went away, and I was frightened. All sorts of possibilities
presented themselves to me--vague, indefinite, formless terrors. I
tried to shake them off, but could not. It became firmly fixed in my
mind that something was going to happen--that Allan was about
to--to--" here the steady voice faltered once more, "to take a step
that would bring danger upon him.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131