The Monster by Edgar Saltus

Author:Edgar Saltus [Saltus, Edgar]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2024-10-14T18:47:58+00:00

IX

“The strawberries were delicious,” Violet, the following day, remarked to Leilah.

The two women were seated in the garden of the house in the Rue de la Pompe. It was just after luncheon and between them was a table on which coffee had been served. From without came the whirr of passing motors, the cries of those hawkers who are never still. But the garden itself was quiet, scented too and the day superb.

Violet, patting a yawn, resumed: “One never really gets strawberries except in Paris. They are so big! And so expensive, aren’t they? I know that in a restaurant a man gave one to the waiter for a tip.”

She looked about her. “But, mercy! What can have become of Aurelia? She was to have stopped for me.”

“Don’t you think it unwise to let her go on the stage?” Leilah, with an air of talking for talk’s sake, inquired.

“Let her! But she’s got her head. I can’t prevent her. She’ll never come to any harm though. She isn’t the kind to want to do anything she thought was wrong. No indeed. She would never think anything wrong that she wanted to do. But tell me. I could not very well ask before the servants. What are you going to do?”

For a moment Leilah did not answer. Then, a bit resignedly, she folded her hands.

“I do not see that I have the ability to do anything.”

The pause, the gesture, the reply, angered Violet. She bristled.

“Don’t be so modest, you make me nervous!”

For a moment she also paused. Then, ruminantly, as though in self communion, the lady uttered these cryptic words:

“But perhaps⁠—”

Leilah, who had turned away, turned to her. “Perhaps what?”

But Violet, compressing her lips, assumed the appearance which a very worldly, exquisitely gowned and beautiful Sphinx might present.

“Perhaps what?” Leilah, puzzled by the attitude, repeated.

“Oh, nothing. That is, nothing in particular. I was merely thinking from battle, murder and sudden death, Good Lord deliver us! And yet⁠—”

“Well?”

Violet looked her over. “I know I ought not to tell and for that very reason I will. Your two husbands are to fight today. They may be at it now⁠—”

Abruptly she made a face, dropped her voice and threw out:

“No such luck.”

In the doorway Barouffski stood.

Leilah had not seen. Inwardly she had shrivelled. To the sudden knowledge that the two men were to fight, fear, as suddenly, superposed the conviction that Verplank would be killed. It stirred in her a wholly animal longing to get away from herself; to be rid, however transiently, of that sense of horror and helplessness which only the tortured know. In an effort to shut out the pain of it, she closed her eyes.

When she opened them, Barouffski was before her. Affably he was addressing her friend.

“Beautiful day, Lady Silverstairs. In London you do not often have such weather. I hope Lord Silverstairs is planning to keep you here a very long time.”

“What? What?” Violet in a crescendo of surprise, exclaimed.

Affably, smilingly, unperturbedly, Barouffski reiterated the expression of his hope.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.