In another moment Van Degen would be gone. Worse yet, while he wavered
in the doorway the Shallums and Chelles, after vainly awaiting her,
might dash back from the Bois and break in on them. These and other
chances rose before her, urging her to action; but she held fast,
immovable, unwavering, a proud yet plaintive image of renunciation.
Van Degen's hand was on the door. He half-opened it and then turned
back.
"That's all you've got to say, then?"
"That's all."
He jerked the door open and passed out. She saw him stop in the
ante-room to pick up his hat and stick, his heavy figure silhouetted
against the glare of the wall-lights. A ray of the same light fell
on her where she stood in the unlit sitting-room, and her reflection
bloomed out like a flower from the mirror that faced her. She looked
at the image and waited. Van Degen put his hat on his head and slowly
opened the door into the outer hall. Then he turned abruptly, his bulk
eclipsing her reflection as he plunged back into the room and came up to
her.
"I'll do anything you say. Undine; I'll do anything in God's world to
keep you!"
She turned her eyes from the mirror and let them rest on his face, which
looked as small and withered as an old man's, with a lower lip that
trembled queerly....
XXI
The spring in New York proceeded through more than its usual extremes of
temperature to the threshold of a sultry June.
Ralph Marvell, wearily bent to his task, felt the fantastic humours of
the weather as only one more incoherence in the general chaos of his
case.
Pages:
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275