Miss Antonia and Miss Rashleigh rose to their feet.
And beforethey went to bed that night it was all settled.
Thus time passed; one year; two years of time. Yes;
thats what shes called, said Rosalind. Feet could be heardtrampling, yet shuffling,
along the corridor towards the gallery.
They all stood with their glasses raised; they
alldrank; then it was over. Two lean men came in,and drew a table over the hole in
the carpet.
The branches flung and flaunted on the trees in the
Park. She would wait till he was ready to see her. Lappin, Lappin, King Lappin, she
repeated. He straightened his tieat the looking-glass over the
mantelpiece.
Slate blue wereMiss Rashleighs; Miss Antonias red,
like port.
He was slim, lissome, witheyes like licked stones.
Yes, he had done well with the three diamonds;also there was the commission on the
emerald.
She would waitfor ten minutes on a chair at the
counter.
Noone guessed that there was such a place, and that
of course made it allthe more amusing. Perhaps she never wouldget used to the fact
that she was Mrs.
Under the mermaid, under the spears, she lay
buried.
Hismeagre dress clothes made him look unkempt,
insignificant, angular.
It was onlyErnest, turning his key in the door.
Certainly helooked handsome and she looked shy. He looked past her, at the backs of
the houses in Bond Street.
Perhaps it would be betterwhen dusk
fell.
She looked at her father-in-law, a furtivelittle
man with dyed moustaches.
Perhaps it would be betterwhen dusk fell. Peeping
between thechrysanthemums she saw Ernests nose twitch.
And their hands gripped their handslike the claws
of dead birds gripping nothing.
It rippled, it ran withsuccessive twitches. He
looked past her, at the backs of the houses in Bond Street. Luncheon is served,
maam, said the butler.
Was itpossible that he was really Ernest; and that
she was really married toErnest? Brunner piped up, how it was alldue to him they
felt.
Then he had gone behind acounter; had sold cheap
watches; then he had taken a wallet toAmsterdam.
The shield of the Rashleighs crashed from the wall.
It rippled, it ran withsuccessive twitches.
It looked as if it had never twitched at all. They
worried him, they mauled him with their greatyellow teeth.
The telephone buzzed obsequiously in a low muted
voice on his table. It was not the name she would havechosen.
The cries of BondStreet came in; the purr of the
distant traffic.