I stood unable to say one word. Her voice, her eyes, even the manner
in which she stood before me, assured me that she meant everything she
said. It was almost impossible to believe that such an amiable
creature could turn into such an icicle.
"I do not want you to feel worse than you can help," she said, "but it
was necessary for me to speak as firmly and decidedly as I could, and
now it is all settled."
I knew it was all settled. I knew it as well as if it had been settled
for years. But, with my eyes still ardently fixed on her, I remembered
the little flush when she came into the room.
"Tell me one thing," said I, "and I will go. If it were not for what
you say about your position in life, and all that--if there had not
been such a place as this inn--then could you--"
She moved away from me. "You are as great a bear as the other one!"
she exclaimed, and turning she left the room by a door in the rear.
But in the next moment she ran back, holding out her hand. "Good-bye!"
she said.
I took her hand, but held it not a second. Then she was gone. I stood
looking at the door which she had closed behind her, and then I left
the house. There was no reason why I should stay in that place another
minute.
As I was about to mount my bicycle the boy came around the corner of
the inn. Upon his face was a diabolical grin. The thought rushed into
my mind that he might have been standing beneath the parlor window.
Instinctively I made a movement towards him, but he did not run. I
turned my eyes away from him and mounted. I could not kill a boy in
the presence of a nurse-maid.