Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/266

 if tortured by some physical pain; his face was so haggard and drawn that involuntarily I tightened my grasp on his arm.

His eyes gazed into mine for a moment with a wistful expression which hurt me, then dropped to my hand. Slowly he put out his hand and took mine into its clasp, turned away from the mantel, and made a movement with his lips as if he would have spoken. Seeing how impossible it was for him, I took the initiative, and said, in a voice which I hardly recognized as my own,—

"I came—to—to—see how the—room—the room would look."

This profound remark met with no response. Being senseless, however, it was harmless, and broke the spell which silence had cast upon us.

George held my hand in his, and looked at it tenderly, almost reverently, for a moment. Then he quietly let it drop, and I held it in front of me, and surveyed it stupidly myself, as if to discover some new line in it.

Finally he spoke, in a deep, earnest tone.

"Have you arranged it with Thurber?"

"No," I answered, turning my face up to his; "there has been no opportunity."

"You will let me hear it in some way when it is decided?"

"Yes," I said in a half whisper.

"I shall see you at the station to-morrow, and then you will go away with him," George continued thoughtfully.

He put his hands behind him, and leaned against the mantel.