The Turmoil Booth Tarkington (best reads .txt) đ
- Author: Booth Tarkington
Book online «The Turmoil Booth Tarkington (best reads .txt) đ». Author Booth Tarkington
It was the telephone that called him from his vision. It rang fiercely.
He lifted the thing from his desk and answeredâ âand as the small voice inside it spoke he dropped the receiver with a crash. He trembled violently as he picked it up, but he told himself he was wrongâ âhe had been mistakenâ âyet it was a startlingly beautiful voice; startlingly kind, too, and ineffably like the one he hungered most to hear.
âWho?â he said, his own voice shakingâ âlike his hand.
âMary.â
He responded with two hushed and incredulous words: âIs it?â
There was a little thrill of pathetic half-laughter in the instrument. âBibbsâ âI wanted toâ âjust to see if youâ ââ
âYesâ âMary?â
âI was looking when you were so nearly run over. I saw it, Bibbs. They said you hadnât been hurt, they thought, but I wanted to know for myself.â
âNo, no, I wasnât hurt at allâ âMary. It was father who came nearer it. He saved me.â
âYes, I saw; but you had fallen. I couldnât get through the crowd until you had gone. And I wanted to know.â
âMaryâ âwould youâ âhave minded?â he said.
There was a long interval before she answered.
âYes.â
âThen whyâ ââ
âYes, Bibbs?â
âI donât know what to say,â he cried. âItâs so wonderful to hear your voice againâ âIâm shaking, Maryâ âIâ âI donât knowâ âI donât know anything except that I am talking to you! It is youâ âMary?â
âYes, Bibbs!â
âMaryâ âIâve seen you from my window at homeâ âonly five times since Iâ âsince then. You lookedâ âoh, how can I tell you? It was like a man chained in a cave catching a glimpse of the blue sky, Mary. Mary, wonât youâ âlet me see you againâ ânear? I think I could make you really forgive meâ âyouâd have toâ ââ
âI didâ âthen.â
âNoâ ânot reallyâ âor you wouldnât have said you couldnât see me any more.â
âThat wasnât the reason.â The voice was very low.
âMary,â he said, even more tremulously than before, âI canâtâ âyou couldnât mean it was becauseâ âyou canât mean it was because youâ âcare?â
There was no answer.
âMary?â he called, huskily. âIf you mean thatâ âyouâd let me see youâ âwouldnât you?â
And now the voice was so low he could not be sure it spoke at all, but if it did, the words were, âYes, Bibbsâ âdear.â
But the voice was not in the instrumentâ âit was so gentle and so light, so almost nothing, it seemed to be made of airâ âand it came from the air.
Slowly and incredulously he turnedâ âand glory fell upon his shining eyes. The door of his fatherâs room had opened.
Mary stood upon the threshold.
ColophonThe Turmoil
was published in 1915 by
Booth Tarkington.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Alex Cabal,
and is based on a transcription produced in 1997 by
Lois Heiser and David Widger
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at
Google Books.
The cover page is adapted from
Randolph Street, Chicago,
a painting completed in 1905 by
Colin Campbell Cooper.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
October 4, 2020, 6:35 p.m.
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