The Amethyst Box

MP3 Audio CD. The Amethyst Box

I

THE FLASK WHICH HELD BUT A DROP


It was the night before the wedding. Though Sinclair, and not myself,
was the happy man, I had my own causes for excitement, and, finding the
heat of the billiard-room insupportable, I sought the veranda for a
solitary smoke in sight of the ocean and a full moon.

I was in a condition of rapturous, if unreasoning, delight. That
afternoon a little hand had lingered in mine for just an instant longer
than the circumstances of the moment strictly required, and small as the
favor may seem to those who do not know Dorothy Camerden, to me, who
realized fully both her delicacy and pride, it was a sign that my long,
if secret, devotion was about to be rewarded and that at last I was free
to cherish hopes whose alternative had once bid fair to wreck the
happiness of my life.

I was reveling in the felicity of these anticipations and contrasting
this hour of ardent hope with others of whose dissatisfaction and gloom
I was yet mindful, when a sudden shadow fell across the broad band of
light issuing from the library window, and Sinclair stepped out.

He had the appearance of being disturbed; very much disturbed, I
thought, for a man on the point of marrying the woman for whom he
professed to entertain the one profound passion of his life; but
remembering his frequent causes of annoyance--causes quite apart from
his bride and her personal attributes--I kept on placidly smoking till I
felt his hand on my shoulder and turned to see that the moment was a
serious one.