WEDDING RING
385
"I can see perfectly clearly the expression on her face even now,
but I cannot interpret it. Sometimes I have thought of it as having a
smiling hidden in it, but I cannot be sure. (I am only sure of this:
that man is never safe and damnation is ever at hand, 0 God and
iny Redeemer!) I sat there, one hand clenched upon my knee and
the other holding an empty glass, and I felt that I could not breathe.
Then she said to her husband, who stood in the room behind me,
'Duncan, do you see that Mr. Mastern is in need of refreshment?' "
The year passed. Cass, who was a good deal younger than Dun–
can Trice, and as a matter of fact several years younger than Annabelle
1 rice, became a close companion of Duncan Trice and learned much
from him, for Duncan Trice was rich, fashionable, clever, and high–
Sfllrited ("much given to laughter and full-blooded"). Duncan Trice
led Cass to the bottle, the gaming table and the racecourse, but not
to "the illicit sweetness of the flesh." Duncan Trice was passionately
and single-mindedly devoted to his wife. ("When she came into a
room, his eyes would
fix
upon her without shame, and I have seen
her avert her face and blush for the boldness of his glance when com–
pany was present. But I think that it was done by him unawares, his
partiality for her was so great.") No, the other young men, members
of the Trice circle, led Cass first to the "illicit sweetness." But de–
spite the new interests and gratifications, Cass could work at
his
books.
There was even time for that, for he had great strength and endur–
ance.
So the year passed. He had been much in the Trice house, but
no word beyond the "words of merriment and civility" had passed
between him and Annabelle Trice. In June, there was a dancing party
at the house of some friend of Duncan Trice. Duncan Trice, his wife,
and Cass happened to stroll at some moment into the garden and to
sit in a httle arbor, which was covered with a jasmine vine. Duncan
Trice returned to the house to get punch for the three of them, leav–
mg Anr.abelle ani Cass seated side by side in the arbor. Cass com–
mented on the sweetness of the scent of jasmine. All at once, she burst
out ("her voice low-pitched and with its huskiness, but in a vehe–
mence which astonished me"), "Yes, yes, it is too sweet. It is suffo–
cating. I shall suffocate." And she laid her right hand, with the fingers
spread, across the bare swell of her bosom above the pressure of the
corset.
"Thinking her taken by some sudden illness," Cass recorded in
the journal, "I asked if she were faint. She said no, in a v,ery low,
husky voice. Nevertheless I rose, with the expressed intention of get-
