CONFESSIONAL
this girl to him: a knowledge that robbed his mind of all other thought and his tongue of words, so that to her fell the task of rousing him.
"Please," she said gently—"please tell the cabby to take me home, Mr. Maitland."
He came to and in confusion stammered: Yes, he would. And he climbed up on the step with no other thought than to seat himself at her side and drive away for ever. But this time the cabby brought him to his senses, forcing him to remember that some measure of coherence was demanded even of a man in love.
"Where to, sir?"
"Eh, what? Oh!" And bending to the girl: "Home, you said?"
She told him the address,—a number on Park Avenue, above Thirty-fourth Street, below Forty-second. He repeated it mechanically, unaware that it would remain stamped for ever on his memory, indelibly,—the first personal detail that she had granted him: the first barrier down.
He sat down. The cab began to move, and halted
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