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"’You see I’ve forgiven this morning entirely.’

"She answered him rather coolly:

"’Ah, but you are constitutionally forgiving. However, I’ll be fair and forgive too. It’s more comfortable.’

"Then he said in a slow insinuating tone, and I could fairly see him thrust out those impudent red lips of his as he said it: ‘If I can teach you to forgive, I wonder whether I could not also teach you to forget? I almost think I could. At any rate I shall make you remember this night.

Rappelles-toi lorsque les destinÔøΩes
M’auront de toi pour jamais sÔøΩparÔøΩ. ’

"As they came in, I saw him slip one of Larry’s red roses into his pocket.

"It was not until near the end of the dance that the clock of destiny sounded the first stroke of the tragedy. I remember how gay the scene was, so gay that I had almost forgotten my anxiety in the music, flowers and laughter. The orchestra was playing a waltz, drawing the strains out long and sweet like the notes of a flute, and Freymark was dancing with Helen. I was not dancing myself then, and suddenly I noticed some confusion among the waiters who stood watching by one of the doors, and Larry’s black dog, Duke, all foam at the mouth, shot in the side and bleeding, dashed in through t
he door and eluding the caterer’s men, ran half the length of the hall and threw himself at Freymark’s feet, uttering a howl piteous enough to herald any sort of calamity. Freymark, who had not seen him before, turned with an exclamation of rage and a face absolutely livid and kicked the wounded brute halfway across the slippery floor. There was something fiendishly brutal and horrible in the episode, it was the breaking out of the barbarian blood through his mask of European civilization, a jet of black mud that spurted up from some nameless pest hole of filthy heathen cities. The music stopped, people began moving about in a confused mass, and I saw Helen’s eyes seeking mine appealingly. I hurried to her, and by the time I reached her Freymark had disappeared.

"’Get the carriage and take care of Duke,’ she said, and her voice trembled like that of one shivering with cold.

"When we were in the carriage she spread one of the robes on her knee, and I lifted the dog up to her, and she took him in her arms, comforting him.

"’Where is Larry, and what does all this mean?’ she asked.’You can’t put me off any longer, for I danced with a man who came up on the extra.’

"Then I made a clean breast of it, and told her what I knew, which was little enough.

"’Do you think he is ill?’ she asked.

"I replied, ‘I don’t know what to think. I’m all at sea.’ For since the appearance of the dog, I was genuinely alarmed.

"She was silent for a long time, but when the rays of the electric street lights flashed at intervals into the carriage, I could see that she was leaning back with her eyes closed and the dog’s nose against her throat. At last she said with a note of entreaty in her voice, ‘Can’t you think of anything?’ I saw that she was thoroughly frightened and told her that it would probably all end in a joke, and that I would telephone her as soon as I heard from Larry, and would more than likely have something amusing to tell her.

"It was snowing hard when we reached the Senator’s, and when we got out of the carriage she gave Duke tenderly over to me and I remember how she dragged on my arm and how played out and exhausted she seemed.