The Project Gutenberg EBook of Homo, by F. Hopkinson Smith

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Title: Homo
1909

Author: F. Hopkinson Smith

Release Date: December 3, 2007 [EBook #23694]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMO ***

Produced by David Widger

HOMO

By F. Hopkinson Smith

1909

Dinner was over, and Mme. Constantin and her guests were seated under
the lighted candles in her cosey salon.

With the serving of the coffee and cigarettes, pillows had been adjusted
to bare shoulders, stools moved under slippered feet, and easy lounges
pushed nearer the fire. Greenough, his long body aslant, his head on the
edge of a chair, his feet on the hearth rug, was blowing rings to the
ceiling. Bayard, the African explorer, and the young Russian Secretary,
Ivan Petrovski, had each the end of a long sofa, with pretty Mme.
Petrovski and old Baron Sleyde between them, while Mme. Constantin lay
nestled like a kitten among the big and little cushions of a divan.

The dinner had been a merry one, with every brain at its best; this
restful silence was but another luxury. Only the Baron rattled on. A
duel of unusual ferocity had startled Paris, and the old fellow knew its
every detail. Mme. Petrovski was listening in a languid way:

"Dead, isn't he?" she asked in an indifferent tone, as being the better
way to change the subject. Duels did not interest the young bride.

"No," answered the Baron, flicking the ashes from his cigarette--"going
to get well, so Mercier, who operated, told a friend of mine to-day."

"Where did they fight?" she asked, as she took a fresh cigarette from
her case. "Ivan told me, but I forgot."

"At Surenne, above the bridge. You know the row of trees by the water;
we walked there the day we dined at the Cycle."

"Both of them fools!" cried the Russian from the depths of his seat. "La
Clou wasn't worth it--she's getting fat."

Greenough drew his long legs back from the fender and, looking toward
the young Secretary, said in a decided tone:--

"I don't agree with you, Ivan. Served the beggar right; the only pity is
that he's going to get well."

"But she wasn't his wife," remarked Mme.