Given a fortnight longer, during which he remained master of himself
instead of a young fool with a smashed temperament, and the unfledged woman
in her, whose subtle projection he had witnessed during that moment of his
capitulation, would have recognized him as her mate; as for the moment she
had in his arms.
Not the least of his ordeals during those last days was the inevitable call
on Gora Dwight. He felt like a cad, after what she had been to him at the
end of an appalling experience, to have let, nearly three weeks go by with
no apparent recognition of her existence. But he had been unable to find
a messenger, there was no post; and then, after his ill-starred visit to
Rincona, he had forgotten her until his final visit to the undertaker; when
she had seemed to stand, an indignant and reproachful figure, at the head
of the casket.
III
He had a note in his pocket and hoped she would be out. But she opened the
door herself, and her dark face, thinner than he recalled it, flushed and
then turned pale. But she said calmly as she extended her hand: "Come in.
I wondered what had become of you." "I'm sorry. But--perhaps--you can
understand--it was not easy for me to come here!"
"Of course. Come up to my diggings."
He followed her up to the attic studio, where as before he took the easy
chair and accepted one of her cigarettes; which he professed to be grateful
for as his were exhausted and every decent brand in town had gone up in
smoke.
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