Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 21, 2025
The next few days, they were continually together, when they would mostly ramble by the old-world fortifications of the town. During all this time, neither of them made any mention of events in the past in which they were both concerned. One evening, an unexpected shower of rain disappointed Windebank's expectation of seeing Mavis after dinner.
For all Windebank's outward impassivity, Mavis noticed that, when he put the ring on her finger, his hand trembled so violently that he all but dropped it. Directly the wedding was over, Windebank and Mavis got into the former's motor, which was waiting outside the church. "At last!" said Windebank, as he sat beside his wife. "Where next?" asked Mavis.
Mavis also learned that Windebank and Charles Perigal had had words on the subject words which had culminated in blows when Windebank had told Perigal in unmeasured terms what he thought of his conduct to Mavis. As Mavis recalled Windebank's generosity with regard to her illness, it seemed to her that this proposal of marriage was all of a piece with his other behaviour since her baby had died.
Again and again the thought would recur to her that she might have been Windebank's wife at any time that she had cared to encourage his overtures, and if she were desirable as a wife in his eyes, why not in Charlie Perigal's! Gregarious instincts ran in her blood. For all her frequent love of solitude, there were days when her soul ached for the companionship of her own social kind.
In this, she told Mavis that the desire of her life had been for independence; but that she had held out against taking the money because she had latterly become jealous of Mavis, owing to Windebank's lifelong infatuation for her.
"Then we come to to-day," continued Windebank. "The least said of to-day the better." "I'm not so sure; it may have the happiest results." "Don't talk nonsense." "Do let me go on. Assuming you were little Mavis, where do I find her eh?" Here Windebank's face hardened. "That woman ought to be shot," he cried. "As it is, I've a jolly good mind to show her up. And to think she got you there!" "Ssh!"
One moment, she blamed herself for having left Windebank as she had done; the next, she told herself and tried hard to believe that she had done the best conceivable thing under the circumstances. She walked quickly, careless to where her footsteps led her, as if hurrying from, or to Windebank's side; she was not certain which she desired.
She often contrasted the two men in her thoughts, when it would seem as if Windebank's presence, so far as she remembered it, had affected her life as a bracing, health-giving wind; whereas Perigal influenced her in the same way as did appealing music, reducing her to a languorous helplessness.
He was so against this contemplated proceeding that he had vainly offered to settle money on her if only it would induce her to forego her intention. Miss Toombs had by letter joined her entreaties to Windebank's. She pointed out that if Mavis brought her child to Melkbridge, as she purposed doing, it was pretty certain that its identity would be discovered.
No one seemed to care what became of her; it was as if she were deserted by the world. A sullen anger raged within her; she would not acknowledge to herself that much of it was due to Windebank's latent defection. She longed to get away and have done with it; the suspense of waiting till the morrow was becoming intolerable.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking