Her lip trembled a little but she did not speak.
He sat down in the chair opposite and looked at her——-“Well—?” he said.
She shook the tears from her eyes and smiled through them. “It was a long while!” she said.
XIII
THE man and the woman in the alcove on the right had been talking a long while. Three times the waiter had looked in and withdrawn. If he had stopped long enough he would have seen that it seemed to be the woman who was talking. The man sat silent, one hand shading his eyes and the eyes looking out at her as she talked.
The waiter knew the woman. He had served her—many times. He remembered very well the first day she came to Merwin’s—a year ago—more than a year, perhaps. She was alone, and she had stood just inside the swinging door—looking about her as if she were not used to places like Merwin’s—or as if she were afraid. Something had made him think that she was looking for some one—and he had shown her into the third alcove on the right. But no one had come that day. She had come again many times since, and always alone, and there was always a coin on the table in the third alcove waiting for him.
The waiter was a little disappointed to-day.... He knew the man—Eldridge Walcott—a lawyer—a good enough sort; but the waiter somehow felt that they had not met until today. He had served them both alone—but not together—until to-day.... He pushed aside the curtain and looked in.
She was still talking.... The man made a little gesture of refusal, and he withdrew....