Philip Curtiss

“ Even to think of Miss Marshall still excited him as the thought of no other human being on earth had ever excited him, but still, there it was! The dirt of the alley even clung to her innocent skirts. This was Bellsmith at his best and his worst, instinctively fine or instinctively contemptible. One can take one's choice. But something within him gripped his arm as in a vise of steel every time he sat down to write that letter or sat down to call on the telephone. ”

“ For several minutes in the twilight Bellsmith sat staring at that senseless line, and as he stared the letters seemed to assume a personal, individual appearance. He felt himself back in the hot, close air of the Massapauk dining-room, and there came to him a strong scent of violets. Curious, for Miss Marshall had not worn violets. But some one must have. ”

“ After the telephone wires were disconnected and the plain-clothes policeman went on duty at the iron fence not a soul came near the door; not even from the Pilgrim Trust; and in the ensuing quiet a spirit of mild, chaste hilarity began to run through the house. The five inmates had never been so close to one another as they were in those days. At night, on the second day, William put candles and flowers on the table for dinner and turned off the electric bulbs. ”