Bring her 'round as soon as the
man comes for the trunks. You've only to head up a barrel of dishes,
quick, 'fore Clesta gets in any fine work smashing 'em."
As I passed through the hall, littered with trunks and packing cases, to
the dismantled parlour, Helen looked up from a mass of old letters and
dance cards.
"I'm sorting my--souvenirs," she said.
The face she lifted was white, only the lips richly red, with a shade of
fatigue under the haunting eyes. The graceful figure in its close-fitting
dress looked a trifle less round than it had done earlier in the winter,
and one fair arm, as it escaped from its flowing sleeve, was almost thin.
"Dear," I said wistfully, for something in her drooping attitude smote me
to remorse and inspired me with tenderness; "will you really trust your
life to me?"
She leaned towards me, and beauty breathed about her as a spell. I bent
till my lips caressed her perfumed hair; and then--I saw among the rubbish
on her desk something that made me interrupt the words we might have
spoken.
"What's that?" I asked. "Not--pawn tickets?"
"For a necklace," she said; "and this--this must be my diamond--"
"Pawned and not paid for!"
She offered me the tickets, only half understanding, her great eyes as
innocent as they were lovely.
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