Athalie - Page 20/222

Bailey Junior's touch on her arm made her turn: "I am sorry," he said.

"I hope you will not be very unhappy.... And--here is a Christmas

present--"

He took the dazed child's icy little hand in his, and, fumbling the

business rather awkwardly, he finally contrived to snap a strap-watch

over the delicate wrist. It was the one he had been wearing.

"Good-bye, Athalie," he murmured, very red.

The girl gazed at him out of her lovely confused eyes for a moment.

But when she tried to speak no sound came.

"Good-bye," he said again, choking slightly. "I'll surely, surely come

back to see you. Don't be unhappy. I'll come."

But it was many years before he returned to the Hotel Greensleeve.