Quick Action - 1914 Author:Robert W. Chambers Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: his awakening, "is to consider you impersonally and make notes of everything." And he fumbled for pencil and note-book, and, rising, stepped across to the front ... more »door, where a light was burning. Standing under it he resolutely composed his thoughts; but to save his life he could remember nothing of which to make a memorandum. This worried him, and finally alarmed him. And so long did he stand there, note-book open, pencil poised, and a sickly expression of dismay imprinted upon his otherwise agreeable features, that the girl rose at last from her chair, glanced in through the door at him, and then came forward. "What is the matter ?" she asked. "The matter is," said Brown, "that I don't seem to have anything to write about." "You are tired," she said. "I think we both are a little tired." "I am not. Anyway, I have something to write about now. Wait a moment till I make a note of how you walk—the easy, graceful, flowing motion, so exquisitely light and " "But 7 don't walk like that!" she said, laughing. "—Graciously as a youthful goddess," muttered Brown, scribbling away busily in his notebook. "Tell me; what motive had you just now in rising and coming to ask me what was the matter—with such a sweetly apprehensive expression in your eyes?" "My—my motive?" she repeated, astonished. "Yes. You had one, hadn't you?" "Why—I don't know. You looked worried; so I came." "The motive," said Brown, "was feminine solicitude—an emotion natural to nice women. Thank you." And he made a note of it. "But motives and emotions are different things," she said timidly. "I had no motive for coming to ask you why you seemed troubled." "Wasn't your motive to learn why?" "Y-yes, I suppose so." He laid his head on one side and inspected her critically. "And...« less