. She found, I think, that by
going to places where she had once seen him--the old church, the little
restaurant--she was more certain to see him again. She never saw him at
home. But in the street or the park he would often walk along beside
her. Once he saved her from being run over. She said she actually felt
his hand grabbing her arm, suddenly, when the car was nearly upon her.
She had given me the address of the clairvoyant; and it is through that
strange woman that I know--or seem to know--what followed.
Mrs. Wilton was not exactly ill last winter, not so ill, at least, as to
keep to her bedroom. But she was very thin, and her great handsome eyes
always seemed to be staring at some point beyond, searching. There was a
look in them that seamen's eyes sometimes have when they are drawing on
a coast of which they are not very certain. She lived almost in
solitude: she hardly ever saw anybody except when they sought her out.
To those who were anxious about her she laughed and said she was very
well.
One sunny morning she was lying awake, waiting for the maid to bring her
tea. The shy London sunlight peeped through the blinds. The room had a
fresh and happy look.
When she heard the door open she thought that the maid had come in. Then
she saw that Hugh was standing at the foot of the bed. He was in uniform
this time, and looked as he had looked the day he went away.
"Oh, Hugh, speak to me! Will you not say just one word?"
He smiled and threw back his head, just as he used to in the old days at
her mother's house when he wanted to call her out of the room without
attracting the attention of the others. He moved towards the door, still
signing to her to follow him. He picked up her slippers on his way and
held them out to her as if he wanted her to put them on. She slipped out
of bed hastily....
* * *
It is strange that when they came to look through her things after her
death the slippers could never be found.
"A CERTAIN RICH MAN----"[18]
[Note 18: Copyright, 1917, by Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright,
1918, by Lawrence Perry.]
BY LAWRENCE PERRY
From _Scribner's Magazine._
Evelyn Colcord glanced up the table with the appraising eye of a young
hostess who had already established a reputation for her dinners. The
room had been decorated with a happy effect of national colors, merged
with those of the allied nations, and neither in the table nor its
appointments was a flaw revealed--w
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