The Reef by Edith Wharton

next moment was questioning him about Cerdine's theatrical situation and her private history. On the latter point some of her enquiries were of a kind that it is not in the habit of young girls to make, or even to know how to make; but her apparent unconsciousness of the fact seemed rather to reflect on her past associates than on herself.
     
      When the second act was over, Darrow suggested their taking a turn in the foyer; and seated on one of its cramped red velvet sofas they watched the crowd surge up and down in a glare of lights and gilding. Then, as she complained of the heat, he led her through the press to the congested cafe at the foot of the stairs, where orangeades were thrust at them between the shoulders of packed consommateurs and Darrow, lighting a cigarette while she sucked her straw, knew the primitive complacency of the man at whose companion other men stare.
     
      On a corner of their table lay a smeared copy of a theatrical journal. It caught Sophy's eye and after poring over the page she looked up with an excited exclamation.
     
      'They're giving Oedipe tomorrow afternoon at the Francais! I suppose you've seen it heaps and heaps of times?"
     
      He smiled back at her. "You must see it too. We'll go tomorrow."
     
      She sighed at his suggestion, but without discarding it. "How can I? The last train for Joigny leaves at four."
     
      "But you don't know yet that your friends will want you."
     
      "I shall know tomorrow early. I asked Mrs. Farlow to telegraph as soon as she got my letter." A twinge of compunction shot through Darrow. Her words recalled to him that on their return to the hotel after luncheon she had given him her letter to post, and that he had never thought of it again. No doubt it was still in the pocket of the coat he had taken off when he dressed for dinner. In his perturbation he pushed back his chair, and the movement made her look up at him.
     
      "What's the matter?"
     
      "Nothing. Only--you know I don't fancy that letter can have caught this afternoon's post."
     
      "Not caught it? Why not?"
     
      "Why, I'm afraid it will have been too late." He bent his head to light another cigarette.
     
      She struck her hands together with a gesture which, to his amusement, he noticed she had caught from Cerdine.
     
      "Oh, dear, I hadn't thought of that! But surely it will reach them in the morning?"
     
      "Some time in the morning, I suppose. You know the French provincial post is never in a hurry. I don't believe your letter would have been delivered this evening in any case." As this idea occurred to him he felt himself almost absolved.
     
      "Perhaps, then, I ought to have telegraphed?"
     
      "I'll telegraph for you in the morning if you say so."
     
      The bell announcing the close of the entr'-acte shrilled through the cafe, and she sprang to her feet.
     
      "Oh, come, come! We mustn't miss it!"
     
      Instantly forgetful of the Farlows, she slipped her arm through his and turned to push her way back to the theatre.
     
      As soon as the curtain went up she as promptly forgot her companion. Watching her from the corner to which he had returned, Darrow saw that great waves of sensation were beating deliciously against her brain. It was as though every starved sensibility were throwing out feelers to the mounting tide; as though everything she was seeing, hearing, imagining, rushed in to fill the void of all she had always been denied.
     
      Darrow, as he observed her, again felt a detached enjoyment in her pleasure. She was an extraordinary conductor of sensation: she seemed to transmit it physically, in emanations that set the blood dancing in his veins. He had not often had the opportunity of studying the effects of a perfectly fresh impression on so responsive a temperament, and he felt a fleeting desire