United States or Norway ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
So absorbed in earnest talk with one another were the bride and bridegroom that they did not seem to see where they were going; but when close to Mrs. Archdale they stopped short, and turned towards one another, still talking so eagerly as to be quite oblivious of possible eavesdroppers. John Coxeter, standing back in the shadow, felt a sudden gust of envious pain.
Archdale, as Coxeter had good reason to know, was exceptionally discreet.... She had evidently been very much interested in all he had told her, and he had enjoyed the conversation. Coxeter became dimly conscious of what it would mean to him to have Nan to come back to when work, and the couple of hours he usually spent at his club, were over.
To him it had been a tragedy, and an ugly, ignoble tragedy to boot. The deck was now clear of passengers. Out in the open sea the fog had become so thick as to be impenetrable, and the boat seemed to be groping its way, heralded by the mournful screaming of the siren. Mrs. Archdale felt drowsy; she leant back and closed her eyes. Coxeter was close by, puffing steadily at his pipe.
Coxeter found a comfortable place for Nan rather apart from the others, and sitting down he began to talk to her. The fog-horn, which was trumpeting more loudly, more insistently than ever, did not, he thought, interfere with their conversation as much as it might have done. "We shan't be there till morning," Coxeter heard a man say, "till morning doth appear, at this rate!"
"There is news," he said, "of all the boats; good news with the exception of the last boat " His voice sounded strangely to himself. "Oh, but that must be all right too, Mr. Coxeter! The captain said the boats might drift about for a long time." Coxeter shook his head. "I'm afraid not," he said. "In fact" he waited a moment, and she came close up to him.
I daresay I shan't have occasion to use it, but of course I take that risk." Coxeter, with a quick, unobtrusive movement, released Mrs. Archdale. He turned and stared, not pleasantly, at the man who was making him so odd an offer. Damn the fellow's impudence! "The life-saver is not for sale," he said shortly. Nan had heard but little of the quick colloquy.
Seeing how well you have come through it" the doctor could not help smiling a slightly satirical smile "ought to be a lesson to Mrs. Archdale. It ought to show her that after all she is perhaps making a great deal of fuss about nothing." "Hardly that," said Coxeter with a frown. They had now come to the corner of Queen Anne Street. He put out his hand hesitatingly.
Coxeter has not often occasion to go the little round he went that morning, but when some accidental circumstance causes him to do so, he finds himself again in the heart of that kingdom of romance from which he was so long an alien, and of which he has now become a naturalized subject. As most of us know, many ways lead to the kingdom of romance; Coxeter found his way there by a water-way.
Everything that concerned himself appeared to John Coxeter of such moment and importance that at the time it had seemed incredible that Nan Archdale would be able to keep to herself the peculiar honour which had befallen her, one, by the way, which Coxeter had never seriously thought of conferring on any other woman.
I shall be all right. I shouldn't put it on in any case." He took it then, avidly; and they saw him go forward with a quick, stealthy movement to the place where the last boat was being got ready for the water. "There's plenty of room for you and the lady now, sir!" Coxeter hurried Nan across the deck, but suddenly they were pushed roughly back.
Word Of The Day