The Pagan Madonna Part 43

A spell of silence and immobility. Not a word about his battle with Flint, thought Jane. A little s.h.i.+ver ran over her. But what a queer, whimsical madman! To have planned it all so that he could experience a thrill! The tragic beauty of his face and the pitiable, sluing, lurching stride! She sighed audibly, so did the two men.

"Denny, I don't know," said Cleigh.

"I do!" said Dennison, antic.i.p.ating his father's thought. "He's a man, and some day I'd like to clasp his hand."

"Maybe we all shall," said Cleigh. "But open the box, Jane, and let's see."

Between the layers of cotton wool she found a single pearl as large as a hazelnut, pink as the Oriental dawn. One side was slightly depressed, as though some mischievous, inquisitive mermaid had touched it in pa.s.sing.

"Oh, the lovely thing!" she gasped. "The lovely thing! But, Denny, I can't accept it!"

"And how are you going to refuse it? Keep it. It is an emblem of what you are, honey. The poor devil!"

And he put his arm round her. He understood. Why not? There are certain attractions which are irresistible, and Jane was unconscious of her possessions.

Jane raised the bottom layer of cotton wool. What impulse led her to do this she could not say, but she found a slip of paper across which was written:

"An' I learned about women from 'er."

All this while, across the street, in the shadow of an areaway, stood a man in a mackintosh and a felt hat drawn well down. He had watched the van disgorge and roll away, the arrival and the departure of the messenger boy.

He began to intone softly: "'Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.'"

With a sluing lurch to his stride he started off down the street, into the las.h.i.+ng rain. A great joke; and now there was nothing at all to disturb his dreams--but the dim white face of Jabez Flint spinning in the dark of the sea.

THE END

BOOKS BY HAROLD MACGRATH

ADVENTURES OF KATHLYN ARMS AND THE WOMAN BEST MAN CARPET FROM BAGDAD DEUCES WILD ENCHANTED HAT GOOSE GIRL HALF A ROGUE HEARTS AND MASKS LUCK OF THE IRISH: A ROMANCE LURE OF THE MASK MILLION DOLLAR MYSTERY PARROT & CO.

PIDGIN ISLAND PLACE OF HONEYMOONS PRINCESS ELOPES PUPPET CROWN SPLENDID HAZARD THE DRUMS OF JEOPARDY THE GIRL IN HIS HOUSE THE GREY CLOAK THE MAN ON THE BOX THE MAN WITH THREE NAMES THE PAGAN MADONNA THE PRIVATE WIRE TO WAs.h.i.+NGTON THE YELLOW TYPHOON VOICE OF THE FOG