Once she paused, and, indeed, half turned, whereupon hope knocked at my
heart again; but before I had admitted it, she had resumed her walk towards
the house. Hungrily I followed her graceful, lissom figure with my eyes
until she had crossed the threshold. Then, with a dull ache in my breast,
I flung myself upon a stone seat, and, addressing myself to the setting sun
for want of a better audience, I roundly cursed her sex for the knottiest
puzzle that had ever plagued the mind of man in the unravelling.
CHAPTER XVII
FATHER AND SON
"Gaston," quoth Andrea next morning, "you will remain at Canaples until to-
morrow? You must, for to-morrow I am to be wed, and I would fain have your
good wishes ere you go."
"Nice hands, mine, to seek a benediction at," I grumbled.
"But you will remain? Come, Gaston, we have been good friends, you and I,
and who knows when next we shall meet? Believe me, I shall value your 'God
speed' above all others."
"Likely enough, since it will be the only one you'll hear."
But for all my sneers he was not to be put off. He talked and coaxed so
winningly that in the end--albeit I am a man not easily turned from the
course he has set himself--the affectionate pleading in his fresh young
voice and the affectionate look in his dark eyes won me to his way.
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