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Trumps: A Novel, a novel by George William Curtis |
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Chapter 88. Waiting |
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_ CHAPTER LXXXVIII. WAITING The woman Abel had left sat quivering and appalled. Every sound started her; every moment she heard him coming. Rocking to and fro in the lonely room, she dropped into sudden sleep--saw him--started up--cried, "How could you stay so?" then sat broad awake, and knew that she had dozed but for a moment, and that she was alone. "Abel, Abel!" she moaned, in yearning agony. "But he kissed me before he went," she thought, wildly--"he kissed me--he kissed me!" Lulled for a moment by the remembrance, she sank into another brief nap--saw him as she had seen him in his gallant days, and heard him say, I love you. "How could you stay so?" she cried, dreaming--started--sprang up erect, with her head turned in intense listening. There was a sound this time; yes, across the river she heard the solemn city bells strike three. Wearily pacing the room--stealthily, that she might make no noise--walking the hours away, the lonely woman waited for her lover. The winter, wind rose and wailed about the windows and moaned in the chimney, and in long, shrieking sobs died away. "Abel! Abel!" she whispered, and started at the strangeness of her voice. She opened the window softly and looked out. The night was cold and, calm again, and the keen stars twinkled. She saw nothing--she heard no sound. She closed it again, and paced the room. There were no tears in her eyes; but they were wide open, startled, despairing. For the first time in her terrible life she had loved. "But he kissed me before he went," she said, pleadingly, to herself; "he kissed me--he kissed me!" She said it when the solemn city bells struck three. She said it when the first dim light of dawn stole into the chamber. And when the full day broke, and she heard the earliest footfalls in the street, her heart clung to it as the only memory left to her of all her life: "He kissed me! he kissed me!" _ |
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