第121章

He was standing with one knee upon a sofa.Unconsciously he had moved round to the side of Celia; and as he caught the effect of her face now in profile, memory-pictures began at once building themselves in his brain--pictures of her standing in the darkened room of the cottage of death, declaiming the CONFITEOR; of her seated at the piano, under the pure, mellowed candle-light; of her leaning her chin on her hands, and gazing meditatively at the leafy background of the woods they were in; of her lying back, indolently content, in the deck-chair on the yacht of his fancy--that yacht which a few hours before had seemed so brilliantly and bewitchingly real to him, and now--now--!

He sank in a heap upon the couch, and, burying his face among its cushions, wept and groaned aloud.His collapse was absolute.He sobbed with the abandonment of one who, in the veritable presence of death, lets go all sense of relation to life.

Presently some one was touching him on the shoulder--an incisive, pointed touch--and he checked himself, and lifted his face.

"You will have to get up, and present some sort of an appearance, and go away at once," Celia said to him in low, rapid tones."Some gentlemen are at the door, whom I have been waiting for."As he stupidly sat up and tried to collect his faculties, Celia had opened the door and admitted two visitors.

The foremost was Father Forbes; and he, with some whispered, smiling words, presented to her his companion, a tall, robust, florid man of middle-age, with a frock-coat and a gray mustache, sharply waxed.The three spoke for a moment together.Then the priest's wandering eye suddenly lighted upon the figure on the sofa.He stared, knitted his brows, and then lifted them in inquiry as he turned to Celia.

"Poor man!" she said readily, in tones loud enough to reach Theron."It is our neighbor, Father, the Rev.Mr.Ware.

He hit upon my name in the register quite unexpectedly, and I had him come up.He is in sore distress--a great and sudden bereavement.He is going now.

Won't you speak to him in the hall--a few words, Father?

It would please him.He is terribly depressed."The words had drawn Theron to his feet, as by some mechanical process.He took up his hat and moved dumbly to the door.It seemed to him that Celia intended offering to shake hands; but he went past her with only some confused exchange of glances and a murmured word or two.

The tall stranger, who drew aside to let him pass, had acted as if he expected to be introduced.

Theron, emerging into the hall, leaned against the wall and looked dreamily at the priest, who had stepped out with him.

"I am very sorry to learn that you are in trouble, Mr.Ware,"Father Forbes said, gently enough, but in hurried tones.

"Miss Madden is also in trouble.I mentioned to you that her brother had got into a serious scrape.I have brought my old friend, General Brady, to consult with her about the matter.He knows all the parties concerned, and he can set things right if anybody can.""It's a mistake about me--I 'm not in any trouble at all,"said Theron."I just dropped in to make a friendly call."The priest glanced sharply at him, noting with a swift, informed scrutiny how he sprawled against the wall, and what vacuity his eyes and loosened lips expressed.

"Then you have a talent for the inopportune amounting to positive genius," said Father Forbes, with a stormy smile.

"Tell me this, Father Forbes," the other demanded, with impulsive suddenness, "is it true that you don't want me in your house again? Is that the truth or not?""The truth is always relative, Mr.Ware," replied the priest, turning away, and closing the door of the parlor behind him with a decisive sound.

Left alone, Theron started to make his way downstairs.

He found his legs wavering under him and making zigzag movements of their own in a bewildering fashion.

He referred this at first, in an outburst of fresh despair, to the effects of his great grief.Then, as he held tight to the banister and governed his descent step by step, it occurred to him that it must be the wine he had had for breakfast.Upon examination, he was not so unhappy, after all.