|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 121
"_Ach, mein freund, mein freund_----"
"Oh, it is Billy----"
"How _gut_ to find you here----"
"Our American Billy."
The last voice, piquantly foreign, was the voice of Fritzi Baroff.
And the first voice gutterally foreign was the voice of Frederick
von Deigen. Arm in arm, flushed, happy, sentimental, the two began
talking in a breath, thanking Billy for the letter he had sent von
Deigen which had brought them together, and apologizing for their
hasty flight--"a honeymoon upon the Nile," the German joyfully
explained.
Discreetly Billy forbore to make any discoveries as to the exact
status of their "honeymoon." The German's face was very honestly
happy, and the little dancer was brimming with restless life and
vivacity.
"It was the picture in my watch--_hein_? The picture I carry night
and day," Frederick repeated in needless explanation, and was about
to draw out the picture when Billy restrained him.
He had a favor to ask. The American girl of Kerissen's palace had
escaped unharmed and returned to her friends who were ignorant of
all. She was this moment in the ruins. It would be a great shock to
her to meet Fritzi, to have Fritzi recognize her. On the morning she
would be gone. Would Fritzi----"
"Fritzi must disappear--for the night?" said the little Viennese
smiling wisely, but with a trace of cynicism. "The little American
must not be reminded--h'm? We will go.... For you have done so much
for me, you big, strange, platonic Mr. Billy!" Dazzlingly she smiled
on him, her dark eyes quizzically provocative.
"You're not at the Grand?"
"No, not that." She named another. "You come see me, when that girl
goes--h'm?"
Billy caught the German's eyes upon him, in their depths a faint
trouble, a vague appeal. He comprehended that the infatuated young
man had engaged in the tortuous business of keeping sparks from
tinder.
"I'm gone to-morrow," he replied.
"Maybe in Vienna?" went on the dancer. "We go soon--another day or
so maybe--and then back over the water to that life I left! Oh, my
God, how happy I am to go back to it all--to dance, to sing--Oh, I
could kiss you, Mr. Billy, if it would not make you so shock!" she
added with a malicious little laugh. "You know the news--about
_him_--h'm?"
"Him?"
"Kerissen--that devil fellow. He is in Cairo with a fever--in the
hospital there. A man who come from that hospital just tells
us--just by accident he tell us. A _bad_ fever, too!" She laughed in
satisfaction. "I hope he burn good and hard up," she added, with
energetic spite, "and teach him not to act like a wild man. That man
say he got a bad hand," she added, with a shrewd glance at Billy.
The young man merely grunted. "I hope he has," he replied. "It
matches the rest of him. Good night."
"Good night--for the now--h'm, Mr. Billy?" and with a quick little
clasp of his big hand and a gay little backward look the girl was
gone into the shadows upon the arm of her jealous cavalier.
Three people were waiting at the statue foot where he had left the
English girl.
"They've come at last, Mr. Hill," Lady Claire's voice struck very
gaily upon him, "and Miss Falconer has just come to tell us we must
see the colored lights in the great court--and then go home. So
hurry!"
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|