rst words that came to her lips,--and set aside
the next ones that rose in her mind to say. Silence again reigned for a
moment. Then, with the serious face, almost invisibly rippling, that
betokened in her a secret and successful fight against laughter, she
said in what she called her good English, faintly reminiscent of
Antonia's:

"I am aware, my dear Gerald, of the honor, the very great honor, you do
me. I thank you--for coming up to the scratch like a little man. But the
feeling I have that I could never be _warthy_ of so much honor
deceydes me to declane. Gerald," she went on, discarding her English,
"don't say another word! You dear, dear boy! The things you want to
defend me against don't amount to a row of pins when all I've got to do
if it comes to the pinch is pack my grip and clear out. Thank you all
the same, you pet, for your kindness. Don't think of it again. I am sort
of glad, though, you've got that proposal out of your system. Now we can
go back to a sensible life."

CHAPTER XXI

Aurora, of the excellent three-times-a-day appetite, Aurora of the good
sound slumbers, picked at her food and slept brokenly for part of a week
at that period, such was her impatience at the dragging length of time,
the emptiness of time, undiversified and unenhanced by the presence in
her house of any man devoted to her. No odor of tobacco smoke in the
air, no cane in the corner; Tom on his way to America, Gerald hurt or
cross or both. But, the ladies agreed, when Aurora had told Estelle the
latest about Gerald, her refusal could not possibly occasion a cessation
of relations, since his offer, chivalrous and unpremeditated, had been
at most a cute and endearing exhibition of character. His sensitiveness
could not be long recovering, and everything would be as before.

Aurora had been half prepared for his staying away all Saturday; but
having been justified in that, she the more confidently looked for him
on Sunday. It is simply incredible, as almost everybody has felt at
least once in his life, how long the hours can be when you are waiting
for something.

At the end of a singularly unprofitable day, Aurora sat in the red and
green room with all the windows open to the sweet airs and odors of May,
and no lamp lighted that might attract night-moths, or, worse, the
thirsty, ferocious Florentine _zanzara_. She just sat, not doing a
thing. Estelle after a while left her, to retire to her own quarters,
close the win