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Of course the country people turned out for the funeral, but for the most part they came from curiosity. To Norvin the presence of such spectators at the last sacred rites for the dead seemed sacrilegious, indecent, and he knew that it must add to Margherita's pain.
The old gentleman, however, still waited, while the watchman took his place at the top of the steps as if determined to do his duty, come, what might. Norvin found Vittoria's eyes upon him, and saw that beneath her self-possession she was intensely embarrassed. Evidently there was nothing to do now but accept the situation and put an end to the painful scene at any sacrifice.
A gentleman returning from a lodge-meeting had even found himself on the edge of the battle, and had been so frightened that he ran straight home. He had learned, later, the significance of the fray, and had told nobody about his experience until Norvin Blake had traced him out and wrung the story from him.
Martel had been the finest, the cleanest fellow he had ever known; his life, so full of promise, had just begun, and yet he had been ruthlessly stricken down. Norvin shuddered at the memory.
Norvin had been quick to sense the possible danger to the two women, and had urged them to accept his protection; but they had convinced him that such a course had its own dangers, for in case the Mafioso was really unsuspicious the slightest indiscretion on their part might frighten him. Therefore they had insisted upon living as usual until something more definite was known.
"Why not?" he exclaimed, with a start. "The idea! You don't mean it!" "I do." "Why, Norvin, you're old enough to be my father." "Oh, no, I'm not." "Do you think I could marry a man with gray hair?" "It all gets gray after a while." "No. I'll be engaged to you, but I'll never marry any one, never. That would spoil all the fun.
I never heard a man talk the way he did, and I was really worried about his heart. I said no for fifteen minutes, then we arranged to be married secretly. When it was all over, I was frightened and ran away. You're such a deep, desperate, unforgiving person, Norvin. I I think it was positively horrid of you." "Good Lord!" breathed her brother. "What a perverted sense of responsibility!"
When the tension broke Norvin saw that Caesar had lost again, and smiled at the excited conversation which ensued. There was a babble of laughter, of curses, of expostulation, shafts of badinage flew at the Sicilian merchant. In the midst of it he raised a huge, hairy fist and brought it down, smiting the table until the coins, the cards, and the glasses leaped.
Norvin is it really nougat?" "It is, the most unhealthy, the most indigestible " "You duck! You may hold my gory hand for Wait!" Blake heard a faint shriek. "Don't ring off. Something terrible " Then the wire was dead. "Hello! Hello!" he called. "What's wrong, Myra Nell?" He rattled the receiver violently, and getting no response, applied to Central.
And through his mad panic of confusion he saw her standing there, calm, tawny, self-possessed. "Caro Norvin! You have found me, indeed," he heard her say. "I wondered when the day would come." "You you!" he choked. His arms were hungry for her, his heart was melting with the wildest ecstasy that had ever possessed it.
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