the rest. Through the interstices the dim brightness of the moon misted
in, and the multitudinous rays from the hotel. There reached them the
murmur of voices, the languorous lap of water. A serene and reassuring
scene it surely was; there was no menace in the night's silvern
calmness, no shadow of stalking trouble....
Carlisle imagined Mr. Canning to be capable of a rapid advance at his
desire, and was opposed on principle to such a course of events. Still,
she was saying, a moment or two later:
"And in the Payne fort on the Three Winds Road--I suppose you never feel
lonely there?"
"Why fort, if one might know?"
"I've been told that you were awfully well barricaded there, prepared to
stand any sort of siege."
Canning seemed quite amused. He declared, on the contrary, that neglect
and unpopularity were his portion in a strange land.
"I'm an invalid on sick-leave," said he, "and my orders are to go to
bed. Please don't smile, for it's all quite true ..."
He appeared to develop a certain interest in the moonlit talk. He
proceeded in a voice and manner no longer purely civil:
"And, to bare my soul to you, I'm no fonder of being lonely than another
man.... Do you know that, but for Kerr, you're my one acquaintance in
all this part of the world? What shall we say of that? I sit at dinner,
consumed by blue devils. I emerge, and behold, you walk across the
lobby. Haven't I some right to feel that the gods are with me even at
the Beach?"
Perchance she might have given him some information there, but instead
she laughed musically.
"The god of the pretty speeches, at any rate! Must I tell you that you
didn't look quite overjoyed when dear Willie came dragging you up?"
"I've no doubt I looked all sorts of ways, for I'd never felt more unfit
for any society, including my own. The more is my debt to you for
chasing my devils away.... But perhaps I owe you no thanks after all, as
one guesses that you do these little services for others without any
particular effort."
Carlisle glanced at him, smiling a little from her dusky eyes.
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