Instead of going up to him, she sat down on the corded trunk and began
to sob. It was the sobbing of a child whose school-treat has been
cancelled, of a girl whose ball-dress has not come home in time. It only
irritated Hilary, whose nerves had already borne all they could bear.
He stood literally trembling, as though each one of these common little
sobs were a blow falling on the drum-skin of his spirit; and through
every fibre he took in the features of the dusty, scent-besprinkled
room--the brown tin trunk, the dismantled bed, the rust-red doors.
And he realised that she had burned her boats to make it impossible for
a man of sensibility to disappoint her!
The little model raised her face and looked at him. What she saw must
have been less reassuring even than the first sight had been, for it
stopped her sobbing. She rose and turned to the window, evidently trying
with handkerchief and powder-puff to repair the ravages caused by her
tears; and when she had finished she still stood there with her back to
him. Her deep breathing made her young form quiver from her waist up to
the little peacock's feather in her hat; and with each supple movement
it seemed offering itself to Hilary.
In the street a barrel-organ had begun to play the very waltz it had
played the afternoon when Mr.
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