She was the most exquisite creature in all the wide world; and here she
was, within reach of my hungry arms!
"You?" she cried, stepping back, one hand at her throat and the other
against the jamb of the door.
Dumb as ever was Lot's wife (after the turning-point in her career), I
stood and stared and admired. A woman would instantly have noticed the
beauty of her sables, but I was a man to whom such details were
inconsequent.
"I did not expect ... that is, only the number of the apartment was
given," she stammered. "I...." Then her slender figure straightened, and
with an effort she subdued the fright and dismay which had evidently
seized her. "Have you Mr. Chittenden's hat?"
"Mr. Chittenden's hat?" I repeated, with a tingling in my throat
similar to that when you hit your elbow smartly on a corner. "Mr.
Chittenden's hat?"
"Yes; he is so thoughtless that I dared not trust him to search for it
alone. Have _you_ got it?"
Heavens! how my heart beat at the sight of this beautiful being, as she
stood there, palpitating between shame and anxiety! She _was_ beautiful;
and I knew instantly that I loved her better than anything else on
earth.
"Mr. Chittenden's hat?" I continued, as lucid as a trained parrot and in
tones not wholly dissimilar.
"Can't you say anything more than that?"--impatiently.
How much more easily a woman recovers her poise than a man, especially
when that man gives himself over as tamely as I did!
"Was it _your_ letter he was seeking?" I cried, all eagerness and
excitement as this one sane thought entered my head.
"Did he tell you that there was a letter in it?"--scornfully.
"Yes,"--guiltily. Heaven only knows why I should have had any sense of
guilt.
"Give it to me at once,"--imperatively.
"The hat or the letter?" Truly, I did not know what I was about. Only
one thing was plain to my confused mind, and that was the knowledge that
I wanted to put my arms around her and carry her far, far away from
Toddy-One-Boy.
"Are you mad, to anger me in this fashion?" she said, balling her little
gloved hands wrathfully. Had there been real lightning in her eyes I'd
have been dead this long while. "Do you dare believe that I knew you
lived in this apartment?"
"I ... haven't the hat."
"You dared to search it?"--drawing herself up to a supreme height, which
was something less than five-feet-two.