The Third Window

and misunderstood each other and their talk had left a strain; yet such hurts, in natures as intimately united as his and Tony's, only brought one the near

es and taunts, made her see her own; and Tony's truth was, simply, that she could never give him up. So he had computed and analyzed during the evening, while Tony had again sung to them and while Miss Latimer sat, her head bent beneath a lam

t, always, his deepest tenderness aroused. And he was aware now, as he meditated her announcement, of the curious check it gave to his tenderness. "Did you?" he said. His tone was dry. He was not glad to hear that Miss Latimer was in their counsels; but it was a more subtle disquiet than that that took his thoughts from Tony

might marry you," Antonia went on, "though I think she must know it. I said nothing a

them, standing before her, his cigarette between hi

h more definite than yours; much deeper; for she's always believed, and you, I think, from what you tol

h from his cigarette and examined the t

ot the right word. She is sure of it. And she told me something else. Malcolm believed like that. He and she had talked about it; twice. Once when he was hardly more than a boy. And once before he went t

w much more, this morning, he found himself analyzing and computing new difficulties. He had more than Tony's fluidity to deal wi

dy voice. "Never like that. Though I remember,

st confidence had been given to his cousin and not to her? Could he really have hoped that a touch of spiritual jealousy might help him? How complete her trust in her husband, and how justified, was

re her, a new hardness in their gaze. She was, this morning, neither the frightened child nor the helpless lover. She had withdrawn from him, and whether in coldness or

and he heard the coldness in his voice, a coldness not fo

, doesn't it?" she said, sitti

has so much more weig

contradic

y she is more definite than I am. I think definiteness in such matters pure illusion, and I only ask you to r

Malcolm, too,

pler than you, and you know it; and far simpl

n. "Wasn't their definiteness intuition rather than illusion?

and she had admitted it, was complex; yet his terrible disadvantage with her was that, while too clever to be satisfied by anything she did not understan

son means memory, feeling, will. So, if Malcolm is immortal, he exists now, as he existed here; unchanged; loving me, as he told Cicely h

s suggested. "You've changed to that extent, after all

ons of his exasperation, nor could he unsay

but with, at last, an almost recognized hostility. He

ured. "It's as if, already, you had no respect for me because you know

t her, but at the fire and slightly wagging his

er dropping (it wasn't anger against her; she must know t

-All I really mean is that we mustn't be like children in a nursery slapping at each other. You're as unlikely to get over me as I am to get over y

away from him, vaguely, and she went towa

after their personal dispute-stirred him, so that, rising, with a sigh, he followed her, and, as he had done the other day, looked out over her shoulder at the cedar, the fountain, and t

ing his hand on her shoulder. S

nothing to do with love and heaven; really it hasn't. You'll see it yourself some day. Let's go away at once, darling, and get married." The urgency of what he now saw as escape was suddenly so strong in him that he really meant it, really planned, wh

he turned her eyes on him; but she heard his

u frighten me more than I can tell you. I seemed to see, just now, when you said that, about get

w her from the window, feeling a foretaste of the final triumph as he did so, fo

him. "You don't really take my flings seriously. And didn't you begin! How like a woman! What a woman you ar

re you so bitter?" Her voice tremb

n't. You know perfectly well that it was Miss Latimer whose neck I wante

Was it only Cicely's, t

k of her, and want to get away from her, and to get you

n him, showed the plaintive sweetness of reviving con

impos

run away. I'm not afraid of Cicely, though you seem to be. And I couldn't

od augury. He could afford to relinquish his project, though he did so rel

aithful and that I've fallen in love with you, although my husband isn't really dead; and that perhaps, if I go on tor

ting on her, in her loveliness, her foolishness, her pathos, while he drew her more clo

oser, yielding to his arms. "Nothing can ever come bet

assured her, with his