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The Guest of Quesnay, a novel by Booth Tarkington |
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Chapter 23 |
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_ CHAPTER XXIII It was Oliver Saffren--as I like to think of him--who helped me to my feet and wiped my face with his handkerchief, and when that one was ruined, brought others from his bag and stanched the wounds gladly received, in the service of his wife. "I will remember--" he said, and his voice broke. "These are the memories which Keredec says make a man good. I pray they will help to redeem me." And for the last time I heard the child in him speaking: "I ought to be redeemed; I must be, don't you think, for her sake?" "Lose no time!" shouted Keredec. "You must be gone if you will reach that certain town for the five-o'clock train of the morning." This was for the spy's benefit; it indicated Lisieux and the train to Paris. Mr. Percy struggled; the professor knelt over him, pinioning his wrists in one great hand, and holding him easily to earth. "Ha! my friend--" he addressed his captive--"you shall not have cause to say we do you any harm; there shall be no law, for you are not hurt, and you are not going to be. But here you shall stay quiet for a little while--till I say you can go." As he spoke he bound the other's wrists with a short rope which he took from his pocket, performing the same office immediately afterward for Mr. Percy's ankles. "I take the count!" was the sole remark of that philosopher. "I can't go up against no herd of elephants." "And now," said the professor, rising, "good-bye! The sun shall rise gloriously for you tomorrow. Come, it is time." The two women were crying in each other's arms. "Good-bye!" sobbed Anne Elliott. Mrs. Harman turned to Keredec. "Good-bye! for a little while." He kissed her hand. "Dear lady, I shall come within the year." She came to me, and I took her hand, meaning to kiss it as Keredec had done, but suddenly she was closer and I felt her lips upon my battered cheek. I remember it now. I wrung her husband's hand, and then he took her in his arms, lifted her to the foot-board of the cart, and sprang up beside her. "God bless you, and good-bye!" we called. And their voices came back to us. "God bless YOU and good-bye!" They were carried into the enveloping night. We stared after them down the road; watching the lantern on the tail-board of the cart diminish; watching it dim and dwindle to a point of gray;--listening until the hoof-beats of the heavy Norman grew fainter than the rustle of the branch that rose above the wall beside us. But it is bad luck to strain eyes and ears to the very last when friends are parting, because that so sharpens the loneliness; and before the cart went quite beyond our ken, two of us set out upon the longest way to Quesnay. [THE END] _ |
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