He was so proud of the
result that he felt he could not wait until the tale was finished
and in print to try its effect. He wanted appreciation and
encouragement upon the instant. He thought of Blix.
"She saw the point in Morrowbie Jukes' description of the slope of
the sandhill," he told himself; and the next moment had resolved
to go up and see her the next evening, and read to her what he had
written.
This was on Thursday. All through that week Blix had kept much to
herself, and for the first time in two years had begun to spend
every evening at home. In the morning of each day she helped
Victorine with the upstairs work, making the beds, putting the
rooms to rights; or consulted with the butcher's and grocer's boys
at the head of the back stairs, or chaffered with urbane and
smiling Chinamen with their balanced vegetable baskets. She knew
the house and its management at her fingers' ends, and supervised
everything that went forward. Laurie Flagg coming to call upon
her, on Wednesday afternoon, to remonstrate upon her sudden
defection, found her in the act of tacking up a curtain across the
pantry window.
But Blix had the afternoons and evenings almost entirely to
herself. These hours, heretofore taken up with functions and the
discharge of obligations, dragged not a little during the week
that followed upon her declaration of independence. Wednesday
afternoon, however, was warm and fine, and she went to the Park
with Snooky.
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