Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/75

 French "confection," bought in the prosperous days of early spring, and the face beneath it a charming one, notwithstanding its pallor and the peculiar expression in the big, dark eyes.

"Good-by," said Miss Imboden, bowing with much elegance to her reflection in the small mirror on the mantel. "I'm going out—and perhaps I shall not see you again. I may go to the river—but I'm sorry, for it seems to me that you and I, if you 're the body and I'm the soul addressing it, deserve a better fate than that. We 've done very well together for twenty-five years, and if we 're overthrown now it's not our fault."

She stood silent, looking into the brown eyes that looked so bravely back at her. She saw them fill suddenly, and she pressed her handkerchief against her face with a little sob.

"I wonder if it's all a horrible nightmare," she murmured aloud—"or perhaps I'm losing my mind." She pulled down her veil and left the room without a glance behind. The landlady heard her light steps going down the stairs and experienced for a moment