When in those places where women are beautiful,
gracious and soulless, he saw that life can be made into mere convention
and be governed by a code, he said that he had learned how to forget; but
a pale young figure rose before him with the simple reproach of falsehood,
and he knew that he should always remember.
She stood before him now. Maybe some premonition--some such smother at
the heart as Hamlet knew--came to him then, made him almost statue-like in
his quiet and filled his face with a kind of tragical beauty. Hagar saw it
and was struck by it. If he had known Jack Gladney and how he worshiped
this man, he would have understood the cause of the inspiration. It was
all the matter of a moment. Then Mark Telford stepped down, still
uncovered, and came to them. He did not offer his hand, but bowed gravely
and said, "I hardly expected to meet you here, Mrs. Detlor, but I am very
glad."
He then bowed to Hagar.
Mrs. Detlor bowed as gravely and replied in an enigmatical tone, "One is
usually glad to meet one's countrymen in a strange land."
"Quite so," he said, "and it is far from Tellavie."'
"It is not so far as it was yesterday," she added.
At that they began to walk toward the garden leading to the cloisters.
Hagar wondered whether Mrs.
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