life rush to a moment? But whatever it was she really did say, there is no doubt she left it half unsaid.
He glanced up at her abrupt pause, and she was looking at the house.
"Do. . . ris! Do. . . ris! Are you there?" It was Mrs. Bunting's voice floating athwart the lawn, the voice of the ascendant present, of invincibly sensible things. The world grew real again to Melville. He seemed to wake up, to start back from some delusive trance that crept upon him.
He looked at the Sea Lady as if he were already incredulous of the things they had said, as if he had been asleep and dreamed the talk. Some light seemed to go out, some fancy faded. His eyes rested upon the inscription, "Flamps, Bath Chair Proprietor," just visible under her arm.
"We've got perhaps a little more serious than—" he said doubtfully, and then, "What you have been saying—did you exactly mean———?"
The rustle of Mrs. Bunting's advance became audible, and Parker moved and coughed.
He was quite sure, they had been "more serious than ———"
"Another time perhaps———"
Had all these things really been said, or was he under some fantastic hallucination?
He had a sudden thought. "Where's your cigarette?" he asked.
But her cigarette had ended long ago.
"And what have you been talking about so long?"
406
