the library was filled with the pallid twilight of a rainy day. since early morning the summit of mount tom, a dozen miles to the westward, had been enveloped in ponderous, leaden clouds, and for two hours past the storm, travelling along the connecticut valley, had been deluging the slopes with autumnal ferocity.
rainy day
through the rain-drenched windows a cold white light entered, flooding the stack room with its iron tiers of slumbering volumes, and, here at the barrier-like counter, illumining faintly the rebellious brown hair of the girl who, with pen in hand, bent over the pile of catalogue cards. the library was very still, so still that the sibilation[192] of the moving pen sounded portentously loud. now and then the rustle of a turning leaf or the scraping of feet on the floor came from around the corner of the arched doorway where sat a solitary occupant of the reading room. save for these two the library was deserted. the hands of the clock above the commemorative tablet pointed to a quarter past twelve and the stack-boy and the assistant librarian had both gone to their luncheons.
a more prolonged scraping of feet, followed by the sound of a moving chair, caused the girl at the desk to raise her head and pause at her work. a little frown of annoyance gathered and then gave place to a smile of humorous resignation as footfalls sounded on the echoing silence. from the reading room emerged a tall, thin youth of about twenty, a youth with a[193] pale, cadaverous face lighted by a pair of patient, contemplative brown eyes which looked strangely incongruous and out of place. he carried two books which he laid apologetically on the counter.
“excuse me, miss hoyt,” he said gently.
“yes, mr. winkley?” she asked, looking up.
“i am very sorry to trouble you, but could you let me have burton’s anatomy of melancholy?”
“have—what did you say, please?” she asked startledly.
“burton’s anatomy of melancholy, please,” he repeated in his patient voice. she turned hurriedly and disappeared into the stack room. once out of sight she leaned against one of the cases and laughed silently and hysterically.
[194]
“oh,” she thought, “if he doesn’t stop it and go away i shall have to—to—i shall go crazy!”
presently, with a final gasp, she brushed the back of her hand across her eyes and went on down the concrete aisle in search of the volume. out at the counter, the youth, left to himself, watched her while she was in sight and then leaned across to peer at the neatly arranged cards. she had left her handkerchief beside her work. with a timorous glance about him, he reached forward, picked it up and with a quick, vehement movement pressed it to his thin, unsmiling lips. he held it so a moment, his brown eyes staring widely through the rain-bleared window as though beholding visions. then, as her steps came back toward him, he laid the handkerchief again in its place, straightened himself and waited.
[195]
“here it is, mr. winkley,” she said soberly.
“thank you. i am sorry to trouble you,” he answered gravely.
“it is only what i am here for,” she answered coldly, taking up her pen once more. he remained for an instant looking at the bent head. then, lifting the anatomy of melancholy from the counter, he turned and walked slowly and quite noiselessly back to his table. but as he went the ghost of a sigh trembled across the silence.
the girl raised her head with a despairing glance toward the reading room, jabbed her pen viciously into the ink-stand and went on with her writing. the clock overhead ticked slowly and softly. the rain swished past the windows.
but presently a new sound made[196] itself heard. dim at first, it grew insistently until the girl heard it and again lifted her head and listened with a new light in her violet eyes.
chug-chug, chug-chug-chug, chug-chug!
big blue touring car
automobiles are not common in ellington, especially after the summer colony departs, and the approach of this one brought a tinge of color to the soft cheeks and a flutter to the heart of the librarian. so often during the past three months she had listened with straining ears to the panting of an automobile on the road below! usually the sound had died away again in the distance, and she had told herself, sighing, that she was very glad. but to-day the sounds increased every instant. the chug-chug was slower now and more labored; the car had left the village road and[197] was climbing the circling gravelled drive to the library. every beat brought an answering beat from her heart.
oh, it was foolish! she told herself angrily. and she didn’t want it to happen! she hoped it wouldn’t! resolutely she began her work again, but the noise of the approaching machine seemed to fill the world with a tumult of sound. then, close at hand, the measured chugs suddenly became hurried and incoherent, as though the intruding monster was violently incensed at being stopped. then—silence, appalling, portentous! with white face the girl bent closer to her desk, her pen tracing quivering figures and letters. the outer door opened and closed again with a muffled jar. she heard the swish ... swish of the inner doors as they swung inward[198] and back. firm footfalls sounded on the oaken floor. very different they were from the soft tread of the library habitué, and there was a determined, resolute character to them that put the brown-haired librarian in a panic. oh, how she wished that she had fled while there had been time! she no longer doubted; the unexpected, which all along had been the expected, had happened; the thing which she had feared, and always hoped for, had come to pass. the steps came nearer, straight from the doorway, scorning the longer and quieter paths provided by the cocoa-fibre matting. the brown head still bent over the desk. then the footsteps stopped. a terrible silence fell over the room. there was no help for it.
slowly, reluctantly the girl raised her head.
