What did he mean by saying that? Why was he sobbing? Why did he stand there as white as the tablecloth?
"Olé--ol-é-é-é!"
CHAPTER XXI
Towards noon Lilly awoke in a rapture of joy.
The formidable uncle had been won--the last obstacle cleared from her path--the future lay spread out at her feet like a land of milk and honey. The probation looked forward to with such anxiety and terror had turned out, after all, only a delightful spree. What a mountebank and buffoon that shrewd old man of the world was, who probably had ground women's hearts under his heel as indifferently as he crunched walnuts. When she tried, however, to review the events of the previous evening she felt a slight dismay at nothing emerging from her blurred memory but the sounds of song and uproarious laughter, just as it used to be in that other life when she had spent the night in mad revels with Richard and his friends.
As the mist lifted a little, she saw a deadly white face petrified by pained surprise, heard an exclamation that was half a sob and half a groan, and saw herself, sobbing too, kneeling before someone who pushed her away with his hands.
Had that happened, or had she dreamed it?
And she had danced and sung so beautifully! She had exhibited her art at its best. Could there have been anything displeasing in it? Had she, perhaps, gone a little too far in her high spirits?
Her anxiety grew. She sprang out of bed, and her one thought was that she must go to him instantly.
At twelve the bell rang.