The Unknown Critic to Robin Adair, or the Lady Anne Garland to Peter the Piper
The Terrace,
July 20th.
Dear Robin Adair,—I did not smile—at any rate not ironically. If there was a little smile it was verging close on tears. Are you really so lonely? Somehow I had fancied that when you spoke of yourself as a recluse it was a mere figure of speech. Have you no friends who dine with you, who visit you—no material friends?
The little mental picture your letter called up was pathetic. I wish—well, never mind what I wish. Probably it would be no atom of good. I believe—I am sure—your thoughts do reach me. Send them to me, and I will send mine to you.
Robin Adair to the Unknown Critic, or Peter the Piper to the Lady Anne Garland
July 22nd.
Dear Lady,—Forget my letter. I did not mean to drivel. I did not mean to cause you the faintest suspicion of tears. I am not, I believe, a sociable person. My disembodied Lady is more to me than hundreds of material friends. I am utterly and entirely grateful for her invisible presence—and the thoughts she sends me. Whatever you wish must be of benefit. Whatever that unexpressed wish was, I endorse it.
Thank you for your letter.
Robin Adair.
CHAPTER XVII
A THUNDERSTORM
“There is a Lady sweet and kind,
Was never face so pleased my mind,
I did but see her passing by,
And yet I love her till I die,”
sang Peter, in a pleasant tenor voice.
He was sitting by the window of his cottage, engaged—truth will out—in darning a pair of green socks. Occasionally he lifted his head from his work and gazed through the window. It was intensely still outside; not a leaf, not a blade of grass was stirring. It was almost overpoweringly close and sultry. Peter had set both door and window open in invitation to a non-existent breeze to enter.
From the north, where a great bank of ominous black clouds was piled, came a low, sinister rumble.
“It’s coming,” said Peter aloud, looking through the window. “The storm, the tempest, the whole [Pg 172]wrath of the furious elements will shortly be loosed upon us. The clouds are coming up with extraordinary rapidity, considering there’s no wind at all down here. Up there it must be blowing half a gale. We’ll get rain soon.”