Page:Meanwhile (1927).pdf/235

 pocket. There was a note there for an amount he didn't dare stop to calculate. Holding it up to the smiling violinist, he said, "Play it all over again, will you, without any cuts."

And still avoiding her eyes, he slid back into motion. Her hat brushed his cheek, and though it was only a structure of wire and silk the effect was electrical. He leaned closer and their cheeks touched, until he trembled and drew away. They had not spoken a word since he had asked her to dance. Although they were dancing in a public room among their friends, he had an overwhelming feeling that it was all illicit, and that gave a sharp tang to the moment.

Again the music came to an end, and their eyes met as they stood still. "Grands dieux!" he whispered, awed by the discovery, "Je vous aime!"

The fingers of which he was still possessed, pressed for a moment around his own, while the baffling lids and puckered lips made a concerted effort to deny the encouragement he read into the blue light in the narrowed gray eyes. Then the fingers relaxed, and the hand went lightly to his arm.

"Don't say foolish things," she replied and turned gaily toward the table where the others were noisily settling into their places.

He sat back in a tumult, alternately laved in soft waves upon which he abandoned himself with a deep sigh of yearning, only to be thrown high and dry on hard ribbed sands of dread, over which his feelings