Page:Walpole - Fortitude.djvu/275

 “I hear that you've been very ill, Mr. Westcott. I'm so dreadfully sorry and I do hope that you're better?”

He muttered something.

“Your book is out, isn't it? ‘Reuben Hallard’ is the name. I must get father to put it down on his list. One's first books must be so dreadfully exciting—and so alarming the reviews and everything—what is it about?”

He murmured “Cornwall.”

“Cornwall? How delightful! I was only there once. Mullion. Do you know Mullion?” She struggled along. The pain that had begun in his heart was now at his throat—his throat was full of spiders' webs. He could scarcely see her in the dark but her pale blue dress and her dark eyes and her beautiful white hands—her little figure danced against the dark, shining floor like a fairy's.

He heard her sigh of relief at Alice Galleon's return.

“Oh! thank you, dear, so much. Good-bye, Mr. Westcott—I shall read the book.”

She was gone.

“Lights! Lights!” cried Alice Galleon. “How provoking of her not to come to tea properly. Well, Peter? How was it all?”

He was guilty of abominable rudeness.

He burst from the room without a word and banged, desperately, the door behind him.