Page 422 - swanns-way

had made her unwell, her head ached, and she warned him
that she would not let him stay longer than half an hour,
that at midnight she would send him away; a little while
later she felt tired and wished to sleep.
‘No cattleya, then, to-night?’ he asked, ‘and I’ve been
looking forward so to a nice little cattleya.’
But she was irresponsive; saying nervously: ‘No, dear, no
cattleya tonight. Can’t you see, I’m not well?’
‘It might have done you good, but I won’t bother you.’
She begged him to put out the light before he went; he
drew the curtains close round her bed and left her. But,
when he was in his own house again, the idea suddenly
struck him that, perhaps, Odette was expecting some one
else that evening, that she had merely pretended to be tired,
that she had asked him to put the light out only so that he
should suppose that she was going to sleep, that the mo-
ment he had left the house she had lighted it again, and had
reopened her door to the stranger who was to be her guest
for the night. He looked at his watch. It was about an hour
and a half since he had left her; he went out, took a cab,
and stopped it close to her house, in a little street running
at right angles to that other street, which lay at the back of
her house, and along which he used to go, sometimes, to
tap upon her bedroom window, for her to let him in. He left
his cab; the streets were all deserted and dark; he walked a
few yards and came out almost opposite her house. Amid
the glimmering blackness of all the row of windows, the
lights in which had long since been put out, he saw one, and
only one, from which overflowed, between the slats of its

422 Swann’s Way