Henry Handel Richardson

“ But when she took the cup that was handed to her, she was so far herself again as to inquire whom she was to have met, although her voice still did not obey her properly.
“Some one who is anxious to know you,” replied Madeleine an air of mystery. “But he couldn’t, or rather would not, wait so long.”
Louise showed no further curiosity. But when Madeleine said with meaning emphasis that Krafft had also been there in the course of the afternoon, she shrank perceptibly and flushed.
“What! Does he still exist?” she asked with an effort at playfulness. ”

“ Mrs. Cayhill withdrew to her bedroom to be undisturbed, and Johanna went out on an errand. Maurice and Ephie sat side by side on the sofa, and he helped her to distinguish chords of the seventh, and watched her make, in her music-book, the big, tailless notes, at which she herself was always hugely tickled, they‘reminded her so of eggs. ”

“ So Madeleine had engaged her immediately! As usual, Furst had kept him waiting for his lesson; it was nearly three o’clock already, and he was so hurried that he could only change his collar; but, on the way there, in a sudden spurt of gratitude, he ran to a flower-shop, and bought a large bunch of carnations.
He arrived at Madeleine’s room in an elation he did not try to hide; and over the carnations they had a mock reconciliation. Madeleine wished to distribute the flowers in different vases about the room, but he asked her put them all together on the centre table. She laughed and complied. ”

“ But it was not Louise. Instead, two persons entered, one of whom was Heinrich Krafft, the other a short, thickset girl, in a man’s felt hat and a closely buttoned ulster.
On recognising her visitors, Madeleine made a movement of annoyance, and drew her brows together. “You, Heinz!” she said.
Undaunted by this greeting, Krafft advanced to her and, taking her hands, kissed them, one after the other. He was also about to kiss her on the lips, but she defended herself. “Stop! We are not alone.” ”

“ No one ever is. He is allowed to say and do just what he likes. He’s our spoilt child.”
Maurice laughed. “The fellow is either a cad, or an unutterable fool. You, Madeleine, may find his impertinence amusing. I tell you candidly, I don’t!” and he went on to make it clear to her that the fault would not be his, were Krafft and he ever in the same room together again. “The kind of man one wants to kick downstairs. What the deuce did he mean by guffawing like that when you told him who was coming?”
“You mean about Louise?” Madeleine gave a slight shrug. ”

“ They could not hinder him from carrying through what he had set his mind on. To-morrow was a day, and the next was another, and the next again; and life, considered thus in days and opportunities, was infinitely long. ”