United States or Brazil ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Oh!" said Christine with soft sympathy. Sangster laughed. "That's nothing; it's been pawned fifty times since it first came into my possession, I should think. Don't think I'm asking for sympathy I'm not. It's the sort of life that suits me, and I wouldn't change it for another even if I had the chance. But the night I ran across Jimmy I was fairly up against it.
"It came about an hour after we left you." "On your wedding day?" Sangster was flushed now; his eyes looked very distressed. Jimmy turned away. "Yes," he said in a stifled voice. "If I'd only seen the accursed thing but I didn't; she opened it, and then " There was a long pause before he went on again jerkily. "I did my best even then but she wouldn't believe me; she doesn't believe me now.
There was a sort of eagerness in his face; perhaps he hoped that his brother's presence, as Sangster had said, would make all the difference. "We'll hop along to the hotel and fetch her." He walked Sangster off his feet. He pushed open the swing door of the hotel with an impatient hand. "Mrs. Challoner my wife is she in?" The hall porter looked at Jimmy curiously.
"Well, go to the best tailor in the town, and order a naval suit white ducks and a blue jacket two suits you 'll want." I 'll jist gang to Jamie Sangster, wha maks a' my claes no 'at their mony! an' get him to mizzur me. He'll mak them weel eneuch for me. You 're aye sure o' the worth o' yer siller frae him." "I tell you to go to the best tailor in the town, and order two suits."
Jimmy had take great pains to make himself smart; it was almost pathetic the efforts he made to be bright and entertaining. He told her that he had sent a note to Sangster to meet them afterwards for supper. It gave him a sharp pang of jealousy to notice how Christine's eyes brightened. "I am so glad," she said. "I like him so much." She was almost friendly to him after that.
"She's not there, old man; but . . . but there's a wire from her she wired to the manager. . . ." He paused. He looked away from the agony in Jimmy's eyes. He tried twice to find his voice before he could go on, then: "She she's not coming back to-night," he said. "The the wire was sent from from Oxford . . ." And now the silence was like the silence of death. Sangster held his breath.
He would never see her again; never meet the seductive pleading of her eyes any more; never hear her laughing voice calling to him, "Jimmy dear." The thought was intolerable. He moved restlessly in his chair; the sweat broke out on his forehead. "My God! it seems impossible that she's dead," he said hoarsely. Sangster did not look up. There was a long pause.
"She seemed very cheerful," said Sangster slowly. He spoke with care, as if he were choosing his words. "Miss Leighton was with her; and we all had tea together." "At Upton House?" "Yes." Jimmy's eyes were gleaming. "How does the old place look?" he asked eagerly. "Gad! don't I wish I'd got enough money to buy it myself. You've no idea what a ripping fine time we used to have there years ago."
He was very pale; his eyes looked defiant; there was a hard fold to his lips. "Hallo!" he said laconically; he sat down opposite to Sangster. "I don't want any lunch; you fire away." He seemed to avoid Sangster's eyes; there was a little awkward silence. "How's the wife?" Sangster asked nervously. Jimmy laughed mirthlessly. "She's left me; she says she'll never live with me again." "Left you!"
Sangster was a fool; he did not know what he was talking about. Christine and he had been sweethearts as children certainly, but that anything more could ever exist between them was absurd. But he began to remember the little flush that always crept into Christine's face when she saw him, the expression of her beautiful eyes; and the memory gave him back some of his lost self-confidence.
Word Of The Day