第143章

The front pages of the evening newspapers announced the accident to Hambleton Durrett,and added that Mrs.Durrett,who had been lingering in the city,had gone to her husband's bedside.The morning papers contained more of biography and ancestry,but had little to add to the bulletin;and there was no lack of speculation at the Club and elsewhere as to Ham's ability to rally from such a shock.I could not bear to listen to these comments:they were violently distasteful to me.The unforeseen accident and Nancy's sudden departure had thrown my life completely out of gear:I could not attend to business,I dared not go away lest the news from Nancy be delayed.I spent the hours in an exhausting mental state that alternated between hope and fear,a state of unmitigated,intense desire,of balked realization,sometimes heightening into that sheer terror I had felt when I had detected over the telephone that note in her voice that seemed of despair.Had she had a presentiment,all along,that something would occur to separate us?As Iwent back over the hours we had passed together since she had acknowledged her love,in spite of myself the conviction grew on me that she had never believed in the reality of our future.Indeed,she had expressed her disbelief in words.Had she been looking all along for a sign--a sign of wrath?And would she accept this accident of Ham's as such?

Retrospection left me trembling and almost sick.

It was not until the second morning after her departure that I received a telegram giving the name of her Boston hotel,and saying that there was to be a consultation that day,and as soon as it had taken place she would write.Such consolation as I could gather from it was derived from four words at the end,--she missed me dreadfully.Some tremor of pity for her entered into my consciousness,without mitigating greatly the wildness of my resentment,of my forebodings.

I could bear no longer the city,the Club,the office,the daily contact with my associates and clients.Six hours distant,near Rossiter,was a small resort in the mountains of which I had heard.I telegraphed Nancy to address me there,notified the office,packed my bag,and waited impatiently for midday,when I boarded the train.At seven I reached a little station where a stage was waiting to take me to Callender's Mill.

It was not until morning that I beheld my retreat,when little wisps of vapour were straying over the surface of the lake,and the steep green slopes that rose out of the water on the western side were still in shadow.The hotel,a much overgrown and altered farm-house,stood,surrounded by great trees,in an ancient clearing that sloped gently to the water's edge,where an old-fashioned,octagonal summerhouse overlooked a landing for rowboats.The resort,indeed,was a survival of simpler times....