"
"Restless?--you? Why, I thought you the serenest person I had ever
known."
His mocking, gentle smile curved his lips. But his eyes were not
laughing. For a fleeting, flashing second the whirlpools and the
depths were bared in them. Then the veil fell, the surface lights
came out and danced.
"My father was an excellent teacher," he said, indifferently. "The
whole object of his training was self-control. He was really a very
wonderful man, my father. But he overlooked one highly important
factor in my make-up, my Hynds blood."
I made no reply. I was wondering, perplexedly, how I, I of all
people, should have been picked up and enmeshed in the web of these
Hyndses and their fate.
"Thank you," said he, gratefully, "for your silence. Most women
would have talked, for the good of my soul. Why don't you talk?"
"Because I have nothing to say."
"You evidently inherited a God-sent reticence from your British
forebears. The British have 'illuminating flashes of silence.' It is
one of their saving graces."
I proved it.
Mr. Jelnik, with a whimsical, sidewise glance, drew nearer.
"Why, instead of sitting at the foot of a pine-tree, which is also a
reticent creature, are you not sitting at the feet of our friend The
Author, who is perfectly willing to illumine the universe? Very
bright man, The Author.
Pages:
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191