When she had finished her cigarette she rose and went to the piano where she played for a long time, rather sentimentally and without her usual ecstatic dash. She played as if a yearning sadness had descended upon her. It may have been the thought of quitting the old house which had come to the end of the road. In another week its only occupants would be Sarah and Hennery. The others would have vanished.... Irene, Lily, even the black servants. There was no such thing as age or tradition. The Town had no time for such things. There was no longer room for Cypress Hill. It stood in the way of progress. The Town council was eager to buy and destroy it in order to raise on its site a new railway station, more vast and pretentious than any in the state.
It may have been this which made her sad.
Certainly her mood drove her to the depths, for she played such music as the Liebesträume and a pair of sentimental German waltzes. And gradually she played more and more softly until at length her hands slipped from the keyboard to her lap and she sat with bowed head regarding the pink tips of her polished finger-nails.
The curtains were drawn across the windows so that no sound penetrated from the outside. In the grate the fire of cannel coal crackled softly and new flames leapt up.
Presently she returned to her chair and novel, but she did not read. She remained staring into the fire in the same distracted fashion.
XLIX
SHE was sitting thus when she turned at the sound of shuffling footsteps and saw Sarah coming softly toward her. The countenance of the mulatto carried a vague, indefinable expression of fear. It was gray with terror.
“What is it, Sarah?” asked Lily. “In the name of Heaven what is the matter?”
The woman trembled. “There’s trouble a-brewin’, Miss Lily,” she said. “The park is full of men. They’ve been comin’ in at the gate and they’re all over the place.” The woman hesitated again. “Hennery’s watching now. He sent me to ask if he was to send for the police?”
Lily stood up and fastened the black and silver kimono higher about her throat.