was content to wait if she wished it
Their next meeting had prolonged and deepened theimpression. They had found each other again, a few dayslater, in an old country house full of books and pictures,in the soft landscape of southern England. The presence of alarge party, with all its aimless and agitateddisplacements, had served only to isolate the pair and givethem (at least to the young man’s fancy) a deeper feeling ofcommunion, and their days there had been like some musicalprelude, where the instruments, breathing low, seem to holdback the waves of sound that press against them.
Mrs. Leath, on this occasion, was no less kind than before;but she contrived to make him understand that what was soinevitably coming was not to come too soon. It was not thatshe showed any hesitation as to the issue, but rather thatshe seemed to wish not to miss any stage in the gradualreflowering of their intimacy.
Darrow, for his part, was content to wait if she wished it.
He remembered that once, in America, when she was a girl,and he had gone to stay with her family in the country, shehad been out when he arrived, and her mother had told him tolook for her in the garden. She was not in the garden, butbeyond it he had seen her approaching down a long shadypath. Without hastening her step she had smiled and signedto him to wait; and charmed by the lights and shadows thatplayed upon her as she moved, and by the pleasure ofwatching her slow advance toward him, he had obeyed her andstood still. And so she seemed now to be walking to him downthe years, the light and shade of old memories and new hopesplaying variously on her, and each step giving him thevision of a different grace. She did not waver or turnaside; he knew she would come straight to where he stood;but something in her eyes said "Wait", and again he obeyedand waited.
On the fourth day an unexpected event threw out hiscalculations. Summoned to town by the arrival in England ofher husband’s mother, she left without giving Darrow thechance he had counted on, and he cursed himself for adilatory blunderer. Still, his disappointment was temperedby the certainty of being with her again before she left forFrance; and they did in fact see each other in London.
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