登陆注册
5231500000146

第146章 LXVII.(1)

Agatha did not come down to supper with Burnamy. She asked August, when she gave him her father's order, to have a cup of tea sent to her room, where, when it came, she remained thinking so long that it was rather tepid by the time she drank it.

Then she went to her window, and looked out, first above and next below.

Above, the moon was hanging over the gardened hollow before the Museum with the airy lightness of an American moon. Below was Burnamy behind the tubbed evergreens, sitting tilted in his chair against the house wall, with the spark of his cigar fainting and flashing like an American firefly. Agatha went down to the door, after a little delay, and seemed surprised to find him there; at least she said, "Oh!" in a tone of surprise.

Burnamy stood up, and answered, "Nice night."

"Beautiful!" she breathed. "I didn't suppose the sky in Germany could ever be so clear."

"It seems to be doing its best."

"The flowers over there look like ghosts in the light," she said dreamily.

"They're not. Don't you want to get your hat and wrap, and go over and expose the fraud?"

"Oh," she answered, as if it were merely a question of the hat and wrap, "I have them."

They sauntered through the garden walks for a while, long enough to have ascertained that there was not a veridical phantom among the flowers, if they had been looking, and then when they came to their accustomed seat, they sat down, and she said, "I don't know that I've seen the moon so clear since we left Carlsbad." At the last word his heart gave a jump that seemed to lodge it in his throat and kept him from speaking, so that she could resume without interruption, "I've got something of yours, that you left at the Posthof. The girl that broke the dishes found it, and Lili gave it to Mrs. March for you." This did not account for Agatha's having the thing, whatever it was; but when she took a handkerchief from her belt, and put out her hand with it toward him, he seemed to find that her having it had necessarily followed. He tried to take it from her, but his own hand trembled so that it clung to hers, and he gasped, "Can't you say now, what you wouldn't say then?"

The logical sequence was no more obvious than be fore; but she apparently felt it in her turn as he had felt it in his. She whispered back, "Yes," and then she could not get out anything more till she entreated in a half-stifled voice, "Oh, don't!" `

"No, no!" he panted. "I won't--I oughtn't to have done it--I beg your pardon--I oughtn't to have spoken,--even--I--"

She returned in a far less breathless and tremulous fashion, but still between laughing and crying, "I meant to make you. And now, if you're ever sorry, or I'm ever too topping about anything, you can be perfectly free to say that you'd never have spoken if you hadn't seen that I wanted you to."

"But I didn't see any such thing," he protested. "I spoke because I couldn't help it any longer."

She laughed triumphantly. "Of course you think so! And that shows that you are only a man after all; in spite of your finessing. But I am going to have the credit of it. I knew that you were holding back because you were too proud, or thought you hadn't the right, or something. Weren't you?" She startled him with the sudden vehemence of her challenge: "If you pretend, that you weren't I shall never forgive you!"

"But I was! Of course I was. I was afraid--"

"Isn't that what I said?" She triumphed over him with another laugh, and cowered a little closer to him, if that could be.

They were standing, without knowing how they had got to their feet; and now without any purpose of the kind, they began to stroll again among the garden paths, and to ask and to answer questions, which touched every point of their common history, and yet left it a mine of inexhaustible knowledge for all future time. Out of the sweet and dear delight of this encyclopedian reserve two or three facts appeared with a present distinctness. One of these was that Burnamy had regarded her refusal to be definite at Carlsbad as definite refusal, and had meant never to see her again, and certainly never to speak again of love to her. Another point was that she had not resented his coming back that last night, but had been proud and happy in it as proof of his love, and had always meant somehow to let him know that she was torched by his trusting her enough to come back while be was still under that cloud with Mr. Stoller. With further logic, purely of the heart, she acquitted him altogether of wrong in that affair, and alleged in proof, what Mr. Stoller had said of it to Mr. March. Burnamy owned that he knew what Stoller had said, but even in his present condition he could not accept fully her reading of that obscure passage of his life. He preferred to put the question by, and perhaps neither of them cared anything about it except as it related to the fact that they were now each other's forever.

They agreed that they must write to Mr. and Mrs. March at once; or at least, Agatha said, as soon as she had spoken to her father. At her mention of her father she was aware of a doubt, a fear, in Burnamy which expressed itself by scarcely more than a spiritual consciousness from his arm to the hands which she had clasped within it. "He has always appreciated you," she said courageously, " and I know he will see it in the right light."

She probably meant no more than to affirm her faith in her own ability finally to bring her father to a just mind concerning it; but Burnamy accepted her assurance with buoyant hopefulness, and said he would see General Triscoe the first thing in the morning.

"No, I will see him," she said, "I wish to see him first; he will expect it of me. We had better go in, now," she added, but neither made any motion for the present to do so. On the contrary, they walked in the other direction, and it was an hour after Agatha declared their duty in the matter before they tried to fulfil it.

同类推荐
  • 瓶粟斋诗话

    瓶粟斋诗话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 脉诀指掌病式图说

    脉诀指掌病式图说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 帝京岁时纪胜

    帝京岁时纪胜

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 狱中杂记

    狱中杂记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 续异记

    续异记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 中国古代传奇小说选

    中国古代传奇小说选

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 人道武修

    人道武修

    诸天万界,大道争锋。少年姜原,自异界而来,青锋三尺,只为与天争高!
  • 做喜欢的事,爱想爱的人

    做喜欢的事,爱想爱的人

    旅行小说家戴帽子的鱼喜廉航、旅行与换宿,数年沉淀。9篇旅行笔记,从北半球到南半球。愿你从容去远方,见过万般风景后自有答案。11篇职人采访,从翻糖蛋糕师到世界语者。愿你年少做的梦,长大终能成真。20个真爱故事,从初见的拘谨美好到热恋的浓情蜜意,一路悲欢总是情。
  • 时光与你有染

    时光与你有染

    古董收藏家傅时谨粉丝千万,微博10条,关注数0。某天,关注数突然变成1。当事人一直没反应,粉丝们将她的微博扒了个底儿朝天,这一扒可不得了!这名字很挫的“你好好想想”来头可不小,某知名歌手和她互关,某集团官微是她的粉丝,几天前,连“平安西京”也关注了她……某天后,向来低调的傅时谨晒了两本结婚证,并@你好好想想。最后,你好好想想是谁?
  • 腹黑皇帝:皇后被软禁

    腹黑皇帝:皇后被软禁

    她刚穿到古代,身边就有俩帅哥,王爷帅,皇帝更帅。这王爷为毛每天都来看她,每天进门就喊:皇嫂,我来看我侄子了。某女黑线:你侄子还在我肚子里呢。悲剧的是,她被皇帝软禁了。不行,这皇帝跟她有过节,她得逃啊!某皇帝阴险道:让她逃,天下都是朕的,她能逃哪去!
  • 刀尖2:阴面

    刀尖2:阴面

    在《刀尖1:阳面》中,国民党特工金深水讲述了他在各种敌对的身份之间转换,在各种纠结的情感中盘旋的心路历程,然而,他并不是一个人在刀尖上行走——本部中,另一位神秘人物的登场,将为日本侵略者这场巨大的阴谋作出全部破解。这位在刀尖“阴面”行走的女侠便是中国共产党的高级特工林婴婴,《刀尖2:阴面》以她的口吻讲述了一场壮烈的爱情,还原了一段半个多世纪前的真实历史。
  • 雨落古城

    雨落古城

    相传在唐初年间,白鸟神妖隐藏在人间的一个没落的村庄里。他们的眼泪是无味的,可以抹清一切,他们的血液可以使凋零的花重新盛开,甚至可以做药引,他们行医救人只求相安无事天下太平。而他们有一个目的,就是要得到上古神物蚕玉,震慑天下的瑰宝。突然在某一天,白鸟一族被不知名的神力蛊惑,不仅伤害普通百姓而且有的自相残杀,仅一夜之间这个族落消失了,仅留下一位年幼的小女孩,她的名字叫笙歌……
  • 所谓伊人,陷阱那边

    所谓伊人,陷阱那边

    当可爱女生遇见所谓的富二代,俗套的灰姑娘戏码再次上演,但是童话仅仅是童话,他们遇见的不仅仅是爱情,还有陷阱!即使一切已经尘埃落定,阴谋的味道也未曾减退。
  • 倾世丑妃:腹黑王爷请接招

    倾世丑妃:腹黑王爷请接招

    考古学家苏叶籽误闯神秘宫殿,穿越时空成为凤鸣王朝太傅之女苏叶梓。复仇寻找归途,一路上磕磕绊绊,打打杀杀,寻寻觅觅。“王爷,我是女的!”女扮男装的苏叶籽双手护胸对某位腹黑王爷大喊。“哦,是吗?”腹黑王爷眉梢一挑,“我怎么觉着不像啊,明明就是个粉雕玉琢的小家伙呢?”情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 重生甜妻:傅先森,mua一个

    重生甜妻:傅先森,mua一个

    重生前,年娆娆为了逃离傅先森可谓是把身边人都给作了个彻底。傅先森临死之言:再见了,我的爱而不得。那一刻她泪眼婆娑双眼泛红,她一直以为自己喜欢的是初恋情人,殊不知傅先森早已在心底扎了根驻了足。重来一世,年娆娆瞧了瞧躺在床上的傅先森的盛世美颜,她决定要宠他!宠他!宠他!【重要的事情说三遍】年娆娆:“傅先森,你的皮肤真好!嘤嘤嘤……我有个请求,可以么?”傅先森一挑眉:“你说,我看情况答应不答应。”年娆娆一脸娇羞:“可……可不可以……我mua一个?”傅先森什么也没说,直接亲了年娆娆一口“乖”【内含耽美,不喜勿入了】