第52章

The court-house bell rang nine, and as the tremors following the last stroke pulsed themselves into silence, she heard a footfall on the stairs and immediately relapsed into a chair, folding her hands again in her lap, her expression composing itself to passivity, for the step was very much lighter than Joe's.

A lady beautifully dressed in white dimity appeared in the doorway.She hesitated at the threshold, not, apparently, because of any timidity (her expression being too thoughtfully assured for that), but almost immediately she came in and seated herself near the desk, acknowledging the other's presence by a slight inclination of the head.

This grave courtesy caused a strong, deep flush to spread itself under the rouge which unevenly covered the woman's cheeks, as she bowed elaborately in return.Then, furtively, during a protracted silence, she took stock of the new-comer, from the tip of her white suede shoes to the filmy lace and pink roses upon her wide white hat; and the sidelong gaze lingered marvellingly upon the quiet, delicate hands, slender and finely expressive, in their white gloves.

Her own hands, unlike the lady's, began to fidget confusedly, and, the silence continuing, she coughed several times, to effect the preface required by her sense of fitness, before she felt it proper to observe, with a polite titter:

"Mr.Louden seems to be a good while comin'.""Have you been waiting very long?" asked the lady.

"Ever since six o'clock!"

"Yes," said the other."That is very long.""Yes, ma'am, it cert'nly is." The ice thus broken, she felt free to use her eyes more directly, and, after a long, frank stare, exclaimed:

"Why, you must be Miss Ariel Tabor, ain't you?""Yes." Ariel touched one of the roses upon Joe's desk with her finger-tips."I am Miss Tabor.""Well, excuse me fer asking; I'm sure it ain't any business of mine," said the other, remembering the manners due one lady from another."But I thought it must be.I expect," she added, with loud, inconsequent laughter, "there's not many in Canaan ain't heard you've come back." She paused, laughed again, nervously, and again, less loudly, to take off the edge of her abruptness:

gradually tittering herself down to a pause, to fill which she put forth: "Right nice weather we be'n havin'.""Yes," said Ariel.

"It was rainy, first of last week, though._I_ don't mind rain so much"--this with more laughter,--"I stay in the house when it rains.Some people don't know enough to, they say! You've heard that saying, ain't you, Miss Tabor?""Yes.""Well, I tell YOU," she exclaimed, noisily, "there's plenty ladies and gen'lemen in this town that's like that!"Her laughter did not cease; it became louder and shriller.It had been, until now, a mere lubrication of the conversation, helping to make her easier in Miss Tabor's presence, but as it increased in shrillness, she seemed to be losing control of herself, as if her laughter were getting away with her;she was not far from hysteria, when it stopped with a gasp, and she sat up straight in her chair, white and rigid.

"THERE!" she said, listening intently."Ain't that him?" Steps sounded upon the pavement below; paused for a second at the foot of the stairs;there was the snap of a match; then the steps sounded again, retreating.She sank back in her chair limply."It was only some one stoppin' to light his cigar in the entry.It wasn't Joe Louden's step, anyway.""You know his step?" Ariel's eyes were bent upon the woman wonderingly.

"I'd know it to-night," was the answer, delivered with a sharp and painful giggle."I got plenty reason to!"Ariel did not respond.She leaned a little closer to the roses upon the desk, letting them touch her face, and breathing deeply of their fragrance to neutralize a perfume which pervaded the room;an odor as heavy and cheap-sweet as the face of the woman who had saturated her handkerchief with it, a scent which went with her perfectly and made her unhappily definite; suited to her clumsily dyed hair, to her soiled white shoes, to the hot red hat smothered in plumage, to the restless stub-fingered hands, to the fat, plated rings, of which she wore a great quantity, though, surprisingly enough, the large diamonds in her ears were pure, and of a very clear water.

It was she who broke the silence once more.

"Well," she drawled, coughing genteelly at the same time, "better late than never, as the saying is.I wonder who it is gits up all them comical sayings?" Apparently she had no genuine desire for light upon this mystery, as she continued, immediately: "I have a gen'leman friend that's always gittin' 'em off.`Well,' he says, `the best of friends must part,' and, `Thou strikest me to the heart'--all kinds of cracks like that.He's real comical.And yet, "she went on in an altered voice, "I don't like him much.I'd be glad if I'd never seen him."The change of tone was so marked that Ariel looked at her keenly, to find herself surprised into pitying this strange client of Joe's; for tears had sprung to the woman's eyes and slid along the lids, where she tried vainly to restrain them.Her face had altered too, like her voice, haggard lines suddenly appearing about the eyes and mouth as if they had just been pencilled there: the truth issuing from beneath her pinchbeck simulations, like a tragic mask revealed by the displacement of a tawdry covering.