"Will you tell me about him?"
"Tell you what about him?"
"Tell me what he looked like, how he spoke and walked—all your impressions of him."
Thomasina lifted her fan and held it spread out against her breast as though it were a shield. She could not quite trust the stranger, though he had uttered a magic name.
"What do you know about him?"
"He published some anonymous work in 'Willard's Magazine' and we are anxious to learn everything we can about his history."
"Basil Everman!" said Thomasina again, slowly. Then the words came rapidly, as rapidly as she could speak. "How he looked? He was tall and very slender. I should say his most remarkable feature was his eyes. They were gray with flecks of black in them. They seemed almost to give out light. Webster's eyes are said to have had that effect. If you had ever seen Basil, you would know what that meant. He was extraordinarily quick of mind and speech and motion. Sometimes, as a boy, he seemed to give an impression of actual flight. He had mentally also the gift of wings. He seemed to live in a different world, to have deeper emotions and more vivid mental experiences than the rest of mankind. He was the most radiant person I ever knew—I think that is the best word for him. He was a creature of great promise. He—"
Utterly turned his head to follow the direction of Thomasina's gaze, which seemed to expand as her speech ceased. He could not see the white, startled face of Mrs. Lister, cameo-like, against the black foliage of the honeysuckle vines. It was plain to Thomasina that what she was saying gave Mrs. Lister distress. Moreover, she remembered, now that her first bewilderment had passed, the stranger's astonishing and ill-natured gossip.
"And then?" Utterly was sure of his quarry at last.
"There isn't much more." From Thomasina's voice the life had gone. "He died when he was a very young man."