A Modern Chronicle, Volume 5

. It wore at once an air of age, and of a new and sparkling unreality. Honora found in the very atmosphere a certain magic which she did not try to defi

of trees, its erring perfumes from bright gardens, its massed flowering shrubs beckoning the eye, its lawns of a truly enchanted green. Through tree and hedge, as she drove, came ever changing

pt New England pasture above the sea, and screaming gulls circle where now the swallows hovered about the steep blue roof of a French chateau. Hundreds of years hence, would these great pleasure houses still be standing behind

of of this lay in the comments of a world that is nothing if not critical. No beauty could have received with more modesty the triumph which had greeted her at Mrs. Grenfell's tableaux, in April, when s

in which, if one alights upside down, it is difficult to become righted. To alight upside down, is to alight in a palace. The Graingers did not live in one, but in a garden that existed before the palaces were, and one that the palace owners could not copy: a garden that three generations of Graingers, somewhat assisted by a remarkable climate, had made with loving care. The box was priceles

a stray excursionist, a purple-plumed guard of old lilac trees massed themselves before the house, and seemed to look down with contempt on the new brick wall across the lane. 'Odi profanum vulgus'. It was on account of

ng lavish and pathetic attempts to right himself. Newport had never forgiven him for the razing of a mansion and the felling of trees which had been landmarks, and for the driving out of Mrs. Forsythe. The mere sight of the modern wall had been too much for this lady-the lilacs and the leaves in the l

on her porch as long as he ever sat anywhere. He had reddish side-whiskers, and he reminded her of a buzzing toy locomotive wound up tight and suddenly taken from the floor. She caught glimpses of him s

ve had because certain people refused to come to his balls, he was in Newport to remain. He would sit under the battlements until the cr

y repeating the word pleasure over and over again: not by describing the palaces at which she lunched and danced and dined, or the bright waters in which she bathed, or the yachts in which she sailed. During the week, indeed, she moved untrammelled in a world with which she found herself in perfect harmony: it was new,

l the Monday mornings of the school days of youth, and the indefinite feeling betwixt sleep and waking that to-day would not be as yesterday or the day before? On Saturday mornings, when she went downstairs,

on of ownership, was for two days a rented house. Other women in Newport had week-end guests in the guise of husbands, and some of them went so far as to bewail the fact. Some had got rid of them. Honora kis

d her, with her skirts flying, on the road above the cliffs that leads to the Fort. The wind had increased to a gale, and as she stood on the rocks t

rd. She watched its approach in a sort of fascination, for of late she had been upon the water enough to realize that the feat of which she was witness was not without its difficulties. As the sloop drew nearer she made out a bare-headed figure

ours of a pastoral fresco glowed in the ruby lights of the heavy chandeliers; its grey panelling, hidden here and there by tapestries, and its series of deep, arched windows that gave glimpses of a lantern-hung terrace. Out there, beyond a marble balustrade, the lights of fishing schooners tossed on a blue-bl

heaven sewn with stars. The music had ceased, and supper was being se

Reggie Farwell?"

she? Quite becoming to Reggie's dark beauty. She was sixteen, they tell me, when the old gentleman emerged from the pit, and they packed

n and asked royalties after their wives. Some one had said about him that he was the only edition of the Almanach de Gotha that included the United States. He some

claimed. "Isn't th

r. Carrington's glance. At sight of him, a vivi

ing, "that's Chiltern s

yacht this morni

ng. "Surely not! No yacht cou

h fright, and wanted to put in anywhere. Chiltern sent him below and kept right on. He has a devil in him, I believe. By the

Perhaps she'll take Chiltern next. She looked as though

cigar over the balustrade. The strains of a waltz floated out of the

d become of him, and once or twice she caught herself scanning the bewildering, shifting sheen of gowns and jewels for his face. At last she saw him by the windows, holding a fav

er me, Mrs. Sp

was not a person one would be likel

s. Granger's," w

bbed; nay, the musicians seemed suddenly to have been carried out of themselves, and played as they had not played before. Her veins were filled

, as they came around the

lease

you," he said. "I had

remember me," she repli

arrin

s face, she thought, had not lost that strange look of determina

Carrington. "He might be almost

silver-mounted pin-cushion. Honora arose, picked it up contemplatively, stared at it awhile, and smiled. Then she turned to

e invitations, was a letter from

less. It turns out that these holdings are in a part of the state of Texas that is now being developed; on the advice of Mr. Isham and others I have accepted an offer of thirty dollars a share, and I enclose a draft on New York for nin

But that would be, she knew, to hurt his feelings-he had taken such a pride in handing her this inheritance. She read the letter again, and resolved that she

steady growth. The tie between them might perhaps have been described as intellectual, for Elsie Shorter professed only to like people who were "worth while." Sh

emotions; which she did many times a week with certain gentlemen of intellectual bent who had the habit of calling on her. She had never, to the knowledge of her acquaintances, been shocked. But while she believed that a great love carried, mysteriously concealed in its flame, its own pardon, she had through some fifteen years of married life remained f

. How far have you got? Have you guessed of which woman Vivarce was the lover? And isn't it the most exciting play

nora, apologetically, "I

lanced at the

. "I was too tired to go. Hugh

ere. I met him last wi

ham's yacht, in the midst of all that storm. It appears that Dicky met him in New York, and Hugh said he was coming up here, and Dicky offered to sail

ssness," said Honora,

ppear to be surpr

o run in somewhere, and browbeat Dicky into keeping on for Newport at the risk of their l

ot the bett

?" she r

er. "You wouldn't recognize him now. I've seen a good deal of men, but h

sitting before the glass, wit

er appeare

ing? I do. I wish I could write a novel. Between ourselves, I've tried. I had Mr. Dewing s

a lau

nsformation of Mr. C

ed to him, and how he's going

emed to have relapsed into a contemplation of thi

own there. And he's actually getting ready to write a life of his father, the General-that's the most surprising thing! They never met but to strike fire while the General was alive. It appears that Jerry and Cecil Grainger and one o

seen any women-that is," Mrs. Shorter corrected herself hastily, "of his own class. He's been in the jungle-India, Africa, Cores. That was after Sally Harrington broke the engagement. And I'm positive he's not still in love with Sally. She lunched with me yes

tion Honora thought that her