He lingered over it; gave
it up ... returned to Susan.
"Wonderful," she said gravely, with a comprehensive wave of her muff.
And her simplicity thrilled him the more with the knowledge that she
shared his feeling. She drew up the fur collar of her cloak, shivered;
and, in the wordless harmony that pervaded them, they turned and
retraced their way.
The rhetoric mistress had left the office with a low turned lamp, and
Jasper Penny stopped, taking the furred wrap from Susan's shoulders. She
slowly untied the velvet strings of her bonnet, and laid it on the
table. She extended her hands toward him, and, taking their cool
slightness, he drew her to him. She rested with the fragrance of her
cheek against his face, with her hands pressed to his breast. They stood
motionless; he closed his eyes, and she was gone. He was confused in the
dimness empty except for himself, and fumbled with, his gloves. Susan's
wrap lay limply over a chair; the damp bonnet ribbons trailed toward the
floor. He looked slowly about, noting every object--a pile of folded
yellow papers, the stove, the globe bearing a quiver of light on its
varnished surface.
The willow trees and board above the entrance were dripping ceaselessly;
the lights of the city, increasing at its centre, like the discs of
floating sunflowers.
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