The Third Window

s Latimer read her papers carefully and the subject floated them until dessert. She spoke with dry scepticism of the

st?" he said. "I don't suppose we'll have another chance

t the table, from the place where she had ris

y much obliged." Under the compulsion of his courtes

erday. I've heard of things I did not know before. They have changed my life and Antonia's. And since it's o

It was in a dismal sincerity that he made his request. There might be enlightenment. If there were, onl

e. She took a straight chair near the table at a little distance from the fire and sat there wit

d up and do

n't mean that. Of course you would work against me. You would have to. But why haven't you be

im. "I have not worked agai

t happened concern

rned you." She paused and added, in a lower voice,

atural. But now you see me defeated and cast out. So perhaps y

t out as he was-hatred for him he saw now, evident, palpable, like a sword. And why should s

d not told him that she would be merciful, yet, apparently

ame into her eyes as she answered,

this is what I would like to know. Did you see him when you s

was as unexpected to her as it had been to him. She had expected, no doubt, to be questioned as to Malcolm's d

ble?" she repeated.

e seemed to slide his hand along a

the fountain. Did it come to you first w

vision? No. It was when you had gone. It was when I went to the window that I saw him st

, not to arouse her craft. "I see," he said, as if assenting, and again he turned from he

yes turned to him he saw the new edge to their hatred. "Yes.

ony he was

ed her qu

eased by her sa

old irony for his grossness. "It is

alty, one devotion. She would, he felt sure, sacrifice any thing, any one, to it. He considered her and she kept her cold, ironic face uplifted to his scrutiny. There was desecration, h

e always known things and felt them, and sometimes seen them. I have known Malcolm since he was a child. There is nothing he

"That such a bond as that sets her free. It's you he comes for; you he misses. Realities take their place after death. Things come out. He didn't kn

le face, with its lighted glare, was almost terrifying. He saw, as he loo

mer; and her voice, as she spoke, piped to a rising wail. "He was fond of me; never more than fond, and Antonia was the only woman he ever loved. I was with him in it all. I helped him sometimes to answer her letters, for she frightened him with her cleverness, and he was not like that; h

the light had come to him as it blazed from her. It gave him all he needed. He was sure now, as he had not been sure be

hing," he said. "I mean, everything that needs explaining. Don't think I speak as an enemy. It's only that I understand you and what has happened to you, and to us, better than you do yourself. You are so sure of your fact that you feel yourself

traction, strangely young; like the face of a child judged by some standard it does not understand. "A

he is here and you believe he suffers. But you have not seen him. On your

h the eyes of the desperate child. "How could

ngs should be; but you say yourself that, in life, your mind read Malcolm's. In the same

It was more than that. It was more than that. Antonia did not know. I did not know

that. I did know. I did know how he died. You read my mind

at him. "It is not true! Not true!

w, and to Tony to-night. You did not see him. Not what we mean by seeing. Not as Tony believes you saw. You had your inner vision while you leaned there on the ta

which she stumbled, still with her hand held as though to Malcolm's wound. "Not true! Not true!" she cried, and s