Page:Middle Aged Love Stories (IA middleagedlove00bacorich).djvu/171

 ag-gain, for I have forgotten it all. But zere is no time to lose—no, indeed!"

She was amazed at the bitterness of his tone; she could hardly understand, he poured out the words so quickly, but she could see that this was more than a passing irritation, that his years of teaching were beginning to tell on him. Before she could reply he had risen and opened the door, and she found herself passing through to the porch without the formula of invitation that preceded the coffee. When he joined her with the neglected cups the storm had passed, and as he talked quietly of the preparation for the voyage that had formed the subject of their evening conversation for weeks, she could hardly realize the depths of weariness and loathing that the sudden glimpse of exhausted patience had shown her.

That night Miss Sabina did not sing. She played through two or three of the stiff, sweet little preludes, but the lilacs