Her breath gave out so that her faint tired voice trailed away.
"What?" he urged. "What is it, Anna? About tonight—"
What a tumult of weird excitement was within him! Surely this was something momentous. His twenty-first birthday. Different, surely, for Lee Anthony than any similar event had ever been for anyone else.
"He promised me—when you were twenty-one—just then—at this time, if he could manage it—that he would come back—"
"Come back, Anna? Here?"
"Yes. To you and me. Because you would be a man—brought up, the best I could do to make you be—like him—because you would be a man who would know the value of love—and kindness—those things that ought to rule this world—but really do not."
This wild, unreasoning excitement within him...! "You think he will come—tonight, Anna?"
"I really do. I want to live to see him. But now—I don't know—"
He could only sit in silence, gripping her hand. And again the gay voices of his guests downstairs came up like a roar of intrusion. They didn't know that she was more than indisposed. She had made him promise not to tell them.
Her eyes had closed, and now she opened them again. "They're having a good time, aren't they, Lee? That's what I wanted—for you and them both. You see, I've had to be careful—not to isolate you from life—life as it is. Because your grandfather wanted you to be normal—a healthy, happy—regular young man. Not queer—even though I've tried to show you—"