Читать книгу Hard-Pan. A Story of Bonanza Fortunes онлайн

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Viola stirred uneasily, and said quickly:

“No—no; of course not. Why should you?”

John Gault rose here, and she rose, too. Her embarrassment, which had vanished during the evening’s conversation, now returned, and she plucked nervously at the paper flower on the lamp-globe. It seemed to him that she was anxious for him to go.

With the colonel it was otherwise. Rising and standing upright in the patched limpness of his dressing-gown, he affected incredulity at the thought that his guest contemplated such an early departure. Then, being politely assured that this was unavoidable, and that, for the matter of that, it was now close upon eleven, he urged him to repeat the visit at an early date.

“We are always here, Viola and I,” he said. “We have not many engagements, as you see—just a friend here and there. But we value our friends more highly than the people do who count them by dozens.”

He had followed John Gault out into the hall, and from here his voice called:

“The lamp, Viola. Mr. Gault can’t put on his overcoat in the dark.”