Books › Blue Book v073-n03 [1941-07], 1941 › scan 56
Scan 56
Blue Book v073-n03 [1941-07], 1941
36 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Got off at the [address hidden] stop and walked back. There was a greengrocer's shop. I stopped in to get some tinned things. She was sitting in a chair, in the room back of the shop; she looked just like this, white ruffle and all.
3"Tell me, tell me!" begged Haldon. "The name of the shop!"
5"Lord, man, I don't know!" Moore looked at him blankly. "But I can take you straight there. It'll be shut up now, of course…. See here, you stop for the night and we'll go in the morning."
7"Do you think I'll wait, that I can wait, till morning? No, no!"
9"Very well, have it your own way," said Moore. "Anyhow, this demands a drink. Half a minute, now…. Oh, the violin! There it is, in the case standing in the corner. Take it, case and all. Throw away this horrible thing you have here."
11"No," said Haldon, smiling again. "No; good comes of everything, Moore. I'll leave it with you, and some day I'll bring back your Betts."
13Moore went out into the dining-room, lit another candle, and poured out the drinks. He was exultant, uplifted; it was a wonderful thing that had just happened. It had put him into a glow. He would never forget the face of Haldon, in those moments—a face transfigured, radiant with a glorious happiness. And it was his doing! That is, if one barred out the laws of coincidence. It gave Moore a feeling of exaltation.
15Afterward, long afterward, he remembered with certainty that not now, nor previously, had he told Haldon of his own trouble, nor about Caroline.
17He came back with the drinks to find Haldon sitting with his head in his hands, and tears glinting on his fingers.
19"Hello! Looked at the fiddle yet?" he asked awkwardly.
21Haldon looked up and smiled. "No. I was giving thanks—gratitude and blessings. It makes one feel humble, Moore. I was so certain all this while that she had merely wandered off, that she was alive, that she would have spoken to me if she were dead…. Well, I owe you a great deal. One never knows the greatness of a woman until one loses her."
23Moore winced at that.
25"Me? You owe me nothing at all, Haldon. It makes me very happy, really. All chance, you know."
27"I do not believe in chance." Haldon stood up, put Moore's violin-case on the table by the candle, and opened it. "No; there's no such thing as chance, no such thing! You should know that, yourself. Strange, how from our first meeting I felt there was some bond between us…. Ah, a Betts, sure enough!"
29He took out the violin and cuddled it under his chin. Moore walked over to the mantel, and his eye fell on the Browning. A thin, bitter smile touched his lips. He reached out and touched the weapon. Well, no need to hesitate now! His affairs were in shape, and this letter from Caroline had finished everything.
31Haldon played, and seldom had Moore heard such playing; the wood sang gloriously, the strings rushed with happiness and fervor and triumph. Then, at a concussion that shook the air and the building, Haldon put down the bow.
33"I think you were right," he said. "Something tells me to stay here, if I may; one must not tempt fate. I cannot wait; yet I must wait. It would be madness, after all."
35"Yes," agreed Moore. "See here, I'll draw you a diagram…. I can show you exactly where that shop is located. Then you can go in the morning, yourself; catch a train down to Brompton
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.