FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148  
149   150   >>  
r the boys talk--they'd lie down and let you walk on 'em, if you wanted to." Max's eyes were bright, and his face red with exercise and excitement. He came to the gate and stood wiping his feet and looking from one to the other for several moments before he felt the awkwardness that had come over him. His long rubber coat was thrown back, and little streams of water ran down his back and formed a pool on the floor behind him. "You'd better come out," he said. "It's the prettiest thing I ever saw--a clean straight span from the main house to the tower." Bannon stood watching him quizzically; then he turned to Hilda. She, too, had been looking at Max, but she turned at the same moment, and their eyes met. "Do you want to go?" he said. She nodded eagerly. "I'd like to ever so much." Then Bannon thought of the rain, but she saw his thought as he glanced toward the window, and spoke quickly. "I don't mind--really. Max will let me take his coat." "Sure," said Max, and he grinned. She slipped into it, and it enveloped her, hanging in folds and falling on the floor. "I'll have to hold it up," she said. "Do we have much climbing?" "No," said Max, "it ain't high. And the stairs are done, you know." Hilda lifted the coat a little way with both hands, and put out one small toe. Bannon looked at it, and shook his head. "You'll get your feet wet," he said. She looked up and met Bannon's eyes again, with an expression that puzzled Max. "I don't care. It's almost time to go home, anyway." So they went out, and closed the door; and Max, who had been told to "stay behind and keep house," looked after them, and then at the door, and an odd expression of slow understanding came into his face. It was not in what they had said, but there was plainly a new feeling between them. For the first time in his life, Max felt that another knew Hilda better than he did. The way Bannon had looked at her, and she at him; the mutual understanding that left everything unsaid; the something--Max did not know what it was, but he saw it and felt it, and it disturbed him. He sat on the table, and swung his feet, while one expression chased another over his face. When he finally got himself together, he went to the door, and opening it, looked out at the black, dim shape of the elevator that stood big and square, only a little way before him, shutting out whatever he might else have seen of rushing sky or dim-lighted river, o
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148  
149   150   >>  



Top keywords:
looked
 

Bannon

 

expression

 

turned

 

thought

 
understanding
 
elevator
 

closed

 
square
 

puzzled


shutting

 

rushing

 
lighted
 

chased

 
disturbed
 

unsaid

 
mutual
 
finally
 

opening

 

plainly


feeling

 

quickly

 

formed

 

streams

 

thrown

 

rubber

 

prettiest

 

watching

 

quizzically

 

straight


awkwardness

 
moments
 

wanted

 

bright

 

wiping

 
exercise
 

excitement

 
moment
 

falling

 
hanging

grinned
 

slipped

 
enveloped
 
climbing
 

lifted

 

stairs

 
eagerly
 

nodded

 
glanced
 

window