Violet, in anticipation of his coming, had sent her maid away, and was brushing her hair, golden as Colin’s own, before her glass. Often and often in the days of their intimacy had he come in for a talk during this ritual; on dry, frosty nights Violet would put out her light, and pale flashes of electricity and cracklings and sparks would follow the progress of her brush. Her hair would float up from her head and cling to Colin’s fingers as sea-weed that had lain unexpanded on the shore spreads out, floating and undulating, in the return of the tide. To-night it lay thick and unstirred, rippling for a moment under her brush, and then subsiding again into a tranquil sheet of gold.
She saw him enter in the field of her mirror and heard the click of the key as he turned it.
“Just in case Raymond takes it into his head to say good-night to you,” he said.
She had risen from her chair and stood opposite to him.
“What have you got to tell me, Colin?” she said.
He looked at her a moment with parted lips and sparkling eyes. Each seemed the perfect complement of the other; together they formed one peerless embodiment of the glory of mankind. Through them both there passed some quiver of irresistible attraction, and, as two globules of quick-silver roll into one, so that each is merged and coalesced in the other, so with arms interlaced and faces joined, they stood there, two no longer. Even Colin’s hatred for Raymond flickered for that moment and was nearly extinguished since for Violet he existed no more. Then the evil flame burned up again, and he loosed Violet’s arms from round his neck.
“Now you’re to sit and listen to me,” he said. “What I have got to tell you will take no time at all.”
He opened the envelope which he had brought with him, and drew out the two letters. He had decided not to tell Violet any more than what, when his father was dead, all the world would know.
“Salvatore Viagi gave me these,” he said. “He is my mother’s brother, you know, and I saw him at Capri. They were written by my mother to him, and announce the birth of Raymond and me and her marriage to my father. Take them, Vi, look at the dates and read them in order.”
She gave him one quick glance, took them from him, read them through and gave them back to him. Then in dead silence she got up and stood close to him.