Page:The Relentless City.djvu/198

188 had often succeeded before, she affected not to notice it, and discoursed on indifferent subjects.

she said.

Charlie brightened up a little; he seemed to have seen much less of her lately.

he said.

she said,

Charlie instantly froze into himself.

he said.

Charlie registered to himself the fact that she had not asked for the doctor's report of him, though Monday was his regular day for being overhauled.

he said, and opened a book. Then his better disposition came to his aid.

he said cordially.

she said.

He sat there after she had left him, with book open, but not reading. A pale, watery sun, instead of the golden monarch enthroned in cloudless blue, peered like a white plate through the clouds blown up by the south wind, and, instead of a dry and vivifying air, the atmosphere was loaded with moisture, the eaves dripped with the melting snow, and every now and then, with a whisper and a thud, some sheet would detach itself form a house-roof and plunge into the roadway below. Instead of presenting an expanse