There ain't nothing, no more than there was that day when I had
the coffee."
She added to Julian, reproachfully:
"You've been drinkin'. Now, dearie, you have."
Suddenly his two companions became intolerable to Julian. He thought them
stupid, boorish, dense, devoid of the senses of common humanity, not to
see what he saw, not to feel as he felt,--that this vague flame had a
meaning and a message not yet interpreted, perhaps not even remotely
divined. With an angry exclamation he sprang to his feet, turning once
more to the stage. And as the curtain fell, he distinctly saw the flame
glowing like a long and curiously shaped star above the head of Margaret.
And this man and woman would not see it! A sudden enmity to them both
came to him in that moment. He abruptly opened the door of the box, and
went out without another word to either of them. Cuckoo's voice shrilly
calling to him to stop did not affect his resolution and desire to escape
from them if only for a moment.
Out in the corridor at the back of the dress circle people were beginning
to circulate, relieved from the tension of examining the ballet. Julian
was instantly swallowed up in a noisy crowd, hot, flushed, loud-voiced,
bright-eyed. Masses of excited young men lounged to and fro, smoking
cigarettes, and making fervent remarks upon the gaily dressed women, who
glided among them observantly.
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