Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/284

 light in the window. Somewhere out there she mnight be creeping through brake or hedgerow. Almost he fancied he could see her white face shining at him through the night. Higher he lifted the window and drew back the curtains. Attracted by the light, numerous insects flut- tered into the room. Curiously he watched them as they whirled round and round the lamp. Sometimes they blundered blindly to their death. He saw them die without pity or remorse. Things had a way of dying. Flow- ers and moths—and women.

Mechanically he lit a pipe and sat down to wait and watch. Always in moments of great mental agitation he smoked, smoked in- cessantly, almost unknowingly. It was to him what drink is to another. But his eyes rarely left the window, his ears were ever on the alert. ‘A dozen times he rose swiftly to his feet. What was that? Some sound, heard only by him, seemed to startle the night. Why did she not come? Would she never come? Did she not know that he was waiting for her—that he would be waiting? Together they could steal away and be lost in the wilderness, of men.