After a time the day would come
again, would look with franker eyes upon this scene of horror. As
the light grew stronger, though yet cold and gray, Dunwody,
sighing, raised his head from his hands and turned. There was a
figure seated close to him--a woman, who reached out a hand to take
his scarred and burned ones in her own,--a woman, moreover, who
asked him no questions.
"Oh! Oh God!" he began, for the first time breaking silence, his
burned lips twitching. "And you,--why don't you go away? What
made you come?"
She was silent for a time. "Am I not your friend?" she asked, at
length.
Now he could look at her. "My friend!" said he bitterly. "As if
all the world had a friend for me! How could there be? But you saw
that,--this--?"
She made no answer, but only drew a trifle nearer, seeing him for
the first time unnerved and unstrung. "I saw something, I could
not tell what--when you came out. I supposed--"
"Well, then," said he, with a supreme effort which demanded all his
courage, as he turned toward her; "it all had to come out, somehow.
Pages:
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469