Fred did as he was bidden. Storch followed suit.
"Would you like a turn in the open?" Storch inquired, not unkindly.
"Yes," Fred assented.
They put on their hats. When they were outside Storch made a little gesture of surrender. "You lead … I'll follow," he said, indulgently.
The night was breathless—still touched with the vagrant warmth of an opulent April day. The spring of blossoming acacias was over, but an even fuller harvest of seasonal unfolding was sweeping the town. A fragrant east wind was flooding in from the blossom-starred valleys, and vacant lots yielded up a scent of cool, green grass. A soul-healing quality released itself from the heavily scented air—hidden and mysterious beauties of both body and spirit that sent little thrills through Fred Starratt. He had never been wrapped in a more exquisite melancholy—not even during the rain-raked days at Fairview. He knew that Storch was by his side, but, for the moment, this sinister personality seemed to lose its power and he felt Monet near him. It was as it had been during those days upon Storch's couch with death beckoning—the nearer he approached the dead line, the more distinctly he saw Monet. To-night his vision was clouded, but a keener intuition gave him the sense of Monet's presence. He knew that he was standing close to another brink.
For a time he surrendered completely to this luxury of feeling, as if it strengthened him to find stark reality threaded with so much haunting beauty. But he discovered himself suddenly yearning for the poetry of life rather than the poetry of death. He wanted to live, realizing completely that to-morrow might seal everything. He was not afraid, but he was alive, very much alive—so alive that he found himself rising triumphant from sorrow and shame and disillusionment.
He came out of his musings with a realization that Storch was regarding him with that puzzled air which his moods were beginning to evoke. And almost at the same time he was conscious that their feet were planted upon that selfsame corner past which Ginger walked at midnight. He put a hand on Storch's shoulder.
"Let us wait here a few moments," he said. "I am feeling a little tired."
A newsboy bellowing the latest edition of the paper broke an unusual and almost profound stillness.
"There doesn't seem to be many people about to-night," Fred observed, casually.