You Never Know Your Luck; being the story of a matrimonial deserter. Volume 1. by Gilbert Parker
page 16 of 66 (24%)
page 16 of 66 (24%)
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When he talked like this she did not understand him, but she thought it
was clever beyond thinking--a heavenly jumble. "If it wasn't for me you'd be carted for rubbish," she replied joyously as she helped him on with his coat, though he had made a motion to take it from her. "I heard you singing--what was it?" he asked cheerily, while it could be seen that his mind was preoccupied. The song she had sung, floating through the air, had seemed familiar to him, while he had been greatly engaged with a big business thing he had been planning for a long time, with Jesse Bulrush in the background or foreground, as scout or rear- guard or what you will: "'Whereaway, whereaway goes the lad that once was mine? Hereaway, I waited him, hereaway and oft--'" she hummed with an exaggerated gaiety in her voice, for the song had saddened her, she knew not why. At the words the flaming exhilaration of the man's face vanished and his eyes took on a poignant, distant look. "That--oh, that!" he said, and with a little jerk of the head and a clenching of the hand he moved towards the street. "Your hat!" she called after him, and ran inside the house. An instant later she gave it to him. Now his face was clear and his eyes smiled kindly at her. "'Whereaway, hereaway' is a wonderful song," he said. "We used to sing it when I was a boy--and after, and after. It's an old song--old as the hills. Well, thanks, Kitty Tynan. What a girl you are--to be so kind to a fellow like--me!" |
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