Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/205

The Heart's Desire and speak to her. But a sudden terrible embarrassment seized him before he could do this, and in his new sense of shame and dread he slipped down and dodged away among the stream of hurrying carriages.

He grew content merely to watch her from the sidewalk, probably much the same as Ferdinand once watched his window in the Florentine Riccardi.

So when Mar'gut MacDougall, without previous warning, confronted him with a new pair of pants and declared he was growing up an idle young ignoramus, and that on the next morning he should start to school, his heart sank like lead and he knew that he and the Angel should see each other no more. He said nothing, but slipped quietly out of the house and made his way up the Avenue, with a new fire in his childish eyes and a mad despair gnawing at his heart.

The hours slipped away, but he waited and waited, resolved that this last time he must and should speak to her.

It was late in the afternoon before the waiting child caught sight of her as she 193