THE SUPERB MOMENT
"Blanche!" Mrs. Rader's voice broke sharply upon his ears. She had come through the door, and stood now directly in front of them. That smile that had exasperated him so was gone. She looked frightened. "Why don't you answer?" she asked. "Don't you know, it's Mr. Carron."
"Don't you know me?" Carron repeated.
Blanche moved her head with a jerk, shaking off his hand. The concentrated gaze and the voices had reached her, galvanizing her into a consciousness of the world. She got up. The effort of muscles was convulsive, a frozen body waking to living again. The motion carried her to the middle of the floor. She looked around her. It was the impulse for flight. Her body was drawn together for the dash. Even now she did not appear to see them, only to feel them as a pressure, closing in upon them. When Carron made a movement forward her hands went to her face, pressing her temples as if there she felt the attack most. "Don't come, don't come!" she said. Her voice sounded mechanical and flat.
"But I want to talk to you."
Staring between the narrow pent-house of her fingers, her gaze fixed upon him, intensified with the beginnings of recognition. "Don't speak! I can't bear it!"
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