Read "The Wave" by Algernon Blackwood online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
He was wakened by the white-robed Arab housemaid with his breakfast. He felt hungry, but still tired; sleep had not rested him. On the tray an envelope caught his eye -- sent by hand evidently, since it bore no stamp. The familiar writing made the blood race in his veins, and the instant the man was gone he tore it open. There was burning in his eyes as he read the pencilled words. He devoured it whole with a kind of visual gulp -- a flash; the entire meaning first, then lines, then separate words.
Come for lunch, or earlier. My cousin is invited out, and Tony has suddenly left for Cairo with his friends. I shall be lonely. How beautiful and precious you were last night. I long for you to comfort me. But don't efface yourself again -- it gave me a horrid, strange presentiment -- as if I were losing you -- almost as if you no longer trusted me. And don't forget that I love you with all my heart and soul. I had such queer, long dreams last night -- terrible rather. I must tell you. "Do" come. -- Yours, L.