Explore "A Transaction in Hearts" by Edgar Saltus on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Decidedly the days were shorter. As Gonfallon let himself in with a latchkey, it was barely five, yet already night had come. The hall was dark; and as he drew off his gloves, straightening and folding them methodically as was his custom, he told himself that Jane must have forgotten the gas.
From the sitting-room came a murmur, and through the portiere a thread of light. "It is Ruth," he reflected. For that morning she had appeared at breakfast, declaring that she had rested well, and that for the time being at least she was free of pain. "It is Ruth and some visitor," he reflected -- Mr. Qualms, perhaps -- and he made to enter the room, but at once he drew back. The glimpse which he caught had shown him not Ruth, but Claire, and at her side Trement Yarde. They were standing a little apart from each other, their backs turned to the door, and for a moment Gonfallon hesitated, his hand on the curtain's fringe.