The Bent Twig by Dorothy Canfield
page 323 of 564 (57%)
page 323 of 564 (57%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
|
of innocence widened inimitably before his horrified eyes. And then,
following some line of association which escaped Sylvia, "I'm not fit to _look_ at Judith!" he cried. The idea seemed to burst upon him like a thunder-clap. Sylvia patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. "That's the proper thing for a lover to think!" she said with cheerful, commonplace inanity. She did not notice that he shrank from her hand, because she now sprang up, crying, "But where's Judy? Where _is_ Judy?" He nodded towards the house. "She sent me out to get you. She's in her room--she wants to tell you--but when I saw you, I couldn't keep it to myself." His exaltation swept back like a wave, from the crest of which he murmured palely, "Judith! Judith!" and Sylvia laughed at him, with the tears of sympathy in her eyes, and leaving him there on the bench staring before him at the living fire of the flame-colored flowers, she ran with all her speed into the house. Morrison, lounging in a chair with a book, looked up, startled at her whirlwind entrance. "What's up?" he inquired. At the sound of his voice, she checked herself and pirouetted with a thistle-down lightness to face him. Her face, always like a clear, transparent vase lighted from within, now gave out, deeply moved as she was, an almost visible brightness. "Judith!" she cried, her voice ringing like a silver trumpet, "Judith and Arnold!" She was poised like a butterfly, and as she spoke she burst into flight again, and was gone. She had not been near him, but the man had the distinct impression |
|


