FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156  
157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   >>   >|  
ina Nora McGinnis Caravaggio called him to one side and confided a most delicate message to him. "Your friend, Mr. Bates," she began with an embarrassed hesitation quite unusual in the direct Irish girl; "he's a nice boy, from the ground up, and give him an easy word from me. But, Mr. Burnit, give him a hint not to do any more traveling on my account; for I've got a husband back in New York that ain't worth the rat poison to put him out of his misery, but I'm not getting any divorces. One mistake is enough. But don't be too hard on me when you tell Biff. Honest, up to just the last, I thought he'd come only to see you; but I enjoyed his visits." And in the eyes of the Caravaggio there stood real tears. A newsboy met Bobby on the train with the morning papers from home, and in them he read delightfully flavored and spiced accounts of the great Villenauve breach-of-promise case, embellished with many details that were entirely new to him. He had not counted on this phase of the matter, and it struck him almost as with an ague. The notoriety, the askance looks he would receive from his more conservative acquaintances, the "ragging" he would get at his clubs, all these he could stand. But Agnes! How could he ever face her? How would she receive him? From the train he took a cab directly home and buried himself there to think it all over. He spent a morning of intense dejection and an afternoon of the utmost misery. In the evening, not caring to dine in solitary gloom at home nor to appear yet among his fellows, he went out to an obscure restaurant in the neighborhood and ate his dinner, then came back again to his lonely room, seeing nothing ahead of him but an evening of melancholy alone. His butler, however, met him in the hall on his return. "Miss Elliston called up on the 'phone while you were out, sir." "Did you tell her I was at home?" asked Bobby with quick apprehension. "Yes, sir; you hadn't told me not to do so, sir; and she left word that you were to come straight out to the house as soon as you came in." "Very well," said Bobby, and went into the library. He sat down before the telephone and rested his hand upon the receiver for perhaps as much as five long minutes of hesitation, then abruptly he turned away from that unsatisfactory means of communication and had his car ordered; then hurriedly changed to the evening clothes he had not intended to don that night. In most uncertain anticipation, b
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156  
157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
evening
 

misery

 

morning

 

called

 

receive

 
hesitation
 
Caravaggio
 

dinner

 
lonely
 

neighborhood


directly

 

intense

 
solitary
 

caring

 
utmost
 

afternoon

 
dejection
 
buried
 

obscure

 

fellows


restaurant

 

abruptly

 

minutes

 

receiver

 

telephone

 

rested

 

turned

 

intended

 

clothes

 

uncertain


anticipation

 
changed
 

hurriedly

 

unsatisfactory

 

communication

 
ordered
 

library

 
Elliston
 

return

 
butler

apprehension
 

straight

 
melancholy
 
husband
 

traveling

 

account

 
poison
 

mistake

 
divorces
 

Burnit