"She leaned closer and closer to me," Wrexler went on; "then she smiled,
and before I could find my breath to speak, she was gone. This is the
second time she has smiled at me. I felt a nameless fear, as though
there was a threatening quality in those red lips. She looked at me as
though I might have been Black George himself."
In that moment, all my envy was swept away by anxiety for my friend.
Indeed, I wished she had kissed him, for then he would have been safe. I
started to speak, to beg Wrexler to leave Rougemont, but before the
words could leave my mouth, I saw her. She was standing in the path some
distance away, directly in line with my eyes, and she was shaking her
head impressively.
I knew instantly what she meant. I was not to send Wrexler away. He
could not see her, because at the moment he was facing me, his hand on
my arm. His fingers touching me were not quite steady. It brought me
back to reality. "Wrexler," I cried, "you--could leave Rougemont."
Her eyes clouded with anger. She looked at me reproachfully,
commandingly. As though I were dreaming, I heard my own voice, "I don't
want you to go, I would be lonely without you. Perhaps there is no
danger."
Wrexler looked at me curiously. "There is risk, I know that, but I do
not care, I am like a man who has eaten a strange and terrible drug, who
knows the danger, but can not resist it. I will stay."
Beyond him Helene smiled a satisfied smile, as she looked at Wrexler's
broad back. It made me feel afraid. Then suddenly her gaze swept to me,
and the smile changed into a languorous one that promised all things. My
heart beat faster, and I forgot my fear.
Wrexler moved restlessly, turning so that we were side by side. Even in
that second Helene had vanished--how, I do not know. One minute she was
there, the next she was not.
We walked along slowly. Finally Wrexler spoke. "No matter what happens,
and I mean that widely, my friend, you are not to regret. For a little
time I have been happy. I have come alive. I have loved, even though the
woman that I love is a wraith. I have felt a sensation I thought never
to feel. If I could hold her in my arms and press my lips to hers, I
would count the world well lost."