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Then, after a thoughtful pause, she said doubtfully: Well, wellsee, then.
Sometimes at night she would weep hysterically upon her pillow, andturn
fiercely upon her mate. The front room upstairs that thedentists wife has now?
In the dark he knew that she was smiling tremulously at him,pursing her
lips.
This power of losinghimself in solitary absorption would madden her.
Eugene fumbled in his pockets for a cigarette, with fingers thatwere stiff and
trembling.
The front room upstairs that thedentists wife has now? In the
darkness by the house, Eugene clutched at his throat. Then, turning, he plunged
off blindly down the path.
I took him in a big bowl of vegetablesoup myself,
for his lunch: he ate it all up without stopping.
In his big backroom at Elizas
he waited death, lost and broken in a semi-life ofpetulant memory. She
spenthalf her time talking to real estate men; they hovered about thehouse like
flesh-flies.
Dixieland itself had become enormously valuable.
I know what youre
trying to do, Steve screamed in an agony ofsuspicion.
He said he would return
early in autumn for a fewdays, and at least once a year thereafter. Then, as he
listened, the far bell died away, and thephantom runners thudded into oblivion.
He climbed the hills to ease his torturedspirit and stayed away from the house
for hours. There issomething I have lost and have forgotten. He was a centaur,
moon-eyedand wild of mane, torn apart with hunger for the golden world. In a
moment, more quietly, he added: Or do men die?
It stands there, awful and
untraduced, above thedusty racket of our lives.
Youre not coming back, Gene,
said Ben softly. And he heard the whistlewail along the river. Meanwhile, Eliza
talked incessantly about real estate, bought, soldand traded. Oh, just a little
form Hugh wants you to sign, in case anythingshould happen.
Gant moaned
wearily, saying: Let him do as he likes.
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