FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96  
97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   >>   >|  
him. He sauntered over to the news stand, stared at the display of periodicals, but had not sufficient interest to buy even an evening paper. So he idled about the marble-columned lobby, now crowded with a typical early-autumn throng in quest of dinner and the various nocturnal amusements which the city offers at all times to the frequenters of its thousand temples. Rue came out of the ladies' dressing room, and he went to her and guided her into the dining-room on the left, where an orchestra was playing. In her blue, provincial travelling gown the slender girl looked oddly out of place amid lace and jewels and the delicate tints of frail evening gowns, but her cheeks were bright with colour and her grey eyes brilliant, and the lights touched her thick chestnut hair with a ruddy glory, so that more than one man turned to watch her pass, and the idly contemptuous indifference of more than one woman ended at her neck and chin. What Rue ate she never afterward remembered. It was all merely a succession of delicious sensations for the palate, for the eye, for the ear when the excellent orchestra was playing some gay overture from one of the newer musical comedies or comic operas. Brandes at times seemed to shake off a growing depression and rouse himself to talk to her, even jest with her. He smoked cigarettes occasionally during dinner, a thing he seldom did, and, when coffee was served, he lighted one of his large cigars. Rue, excited under an almost childishly timid manner, leaned on the table with both elbows and linked fingers, listening, watching everything with an almost breathless intelligence which strove to comprehend. People left; others arrived; the music continued. Several times people passing caught Brandes' eye, and bowed and smiled. He either acknowledged such salutes with a slight and almost surly nod, or ignored them altogether. One of his short, heavy arms lay carelessly along the back of his chair, where he was sitting sideways looking at the people in the lobby--watching with that same odd sensation of foreboding of which he had been conscious from the first moment he had entered the city line. What reason for apprehension he had he could not understand. Only an hour lay between him and the seclusion of the big liner; a few hours and he and this girl beside him would be at sea. Once he excused himself, went out to the desk, and made an inquiry. But there was no telephone or tele
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96  
97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Brandes

 

playing

 

watching

 
orchestra
 
dinner
 

people

 
evening
 

Several

 

passing

 

caught


smiled
 

intelligence

 

arrived

 

People

 

comprehend

 
breathless
 

strove

 

continued

 

elbows

 
cigars

occasionally

 
excited
 

lighted

 

seldom

 

coffee

 

served

 

cigarettes

 
childishly
 

linked

 

fingers


leaned

 

smoked

 

manner

 

listening

 

seclusion

 

apprehension

 

reason

 

understand

 

telephone

 

inquiry


excused

 

entered

 

altogether

 

carelessly

 

salutes

 

slight

 
foreboding
 

conscious

 

moment

 

sensation