A LETTER & A MEETING

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 31, 30 October 1937, Page 15

A LETTER & A MEETING

Hunchback's Love Story

A HUNCHBACK once got an un> signed letter, in which an appointmeat was given him, writes Ivan Bounine, in Time and Tide. fCome on Saturday,' 24th of April, at 7 p.m., to the publie square near the cathedraL . . . I am young, riqh and free and — why deny it— I have known and loved you for a long time. I love ihe proud .sad look in your eyes, yOur noble, intelligent brow, -your lone* liness. ... I want to hope that you, in your turn, will possible find in me a soul related to your own. ... I will be wearing a dark grey eostume and will carry a mauve silk nmbrella in my left hand and a bunch of violet* in the right one. . . How moved he fejt. How impatiently he waited for Saturday to come. It was the first love letter he had ever received in his life! On Saturday he paid a visit to the barber, then bought himself a new pair of shnes. some gloves and a necktie. Later. at home. he stood grooming himself bofore the mirror, doing and undoing for the hnndredth time his new necktie with long, line fingers, which were now •eld and trembling; a becoming patch

" « of colour showed under the smooth skin of hia oheecks and. his beautiful eyes were darker than usuak . , . Then, he took an armchair — as though he were a guest or a stranger in his own rooms— and sat waiting for the fateful hour. At last, threatening and solemn. the clock in the dinijag room struck half-pasfc six. He got up, passed with measured stepa into the antOroom, donned a light spring ovejrcoat and, pickiag up his hat and stick, slowly left the house. Once in the street, how ever, he could no longer keep himself in hand, and his long thin legs carried hii^.on hurriedly, with the somewhat arrogant stiffness proper to hunchbaeks, though inwardly he was all aglow with that shyness and that feai which always accompany for ua our foretaste of happiness. But, when he reached his goal and entered the square near the cathedral, he ajl of a sudden stood deal still: the girl who in the pink spring twilight came hurrying towards him with long stiff stridea, wearng a dark grey eostume and a smart boyish hat, an umbrella in hei left hand and a bunch of violets in her right — was a hunchback. L