A Modern Chronicle, Volume 5

garettes reach her and turn her faint; and she clutched suddenly at the banisters. Thus she stood for a while, motio

inevitable shirt with the wide pink stripes, of the abolishment or even of the effective toning down of which she had long since despaired. On the contrary, like his complexion, they evinced a continual tendency towards a more aggressive colour. There was also the jewelled ring, now conspicuously held aloft on a fat little finger. The stripes appeared that morning as the banner of a hated suzerain, the ring as the emblem of his

more careful of Mrs. Forsythe

from Europe. Things are skyrocketing in Wall Street." He glanced at the ash tray, which she had push

s," she replied; "you do

by the fuss she made over the inventory,

with it," said Hon

ared

u look like tha

ever look at me clo

by the railing. Across the way, beyond the wall, she h

esently, "why do you c

ort?" he repeated. "I

come up here

rom New York; and see men I shouldn't probably see otherwise." He pause

o be sure,"

of w

ou perfectly. You do not feel-

do you

e to stay in Newp

he replied. "I leave t

of it?" s

d. "By the way, Honora, I've got to have a conference

o-night," she told hi

from the table and sent for Mr. Farwell. The forehanded Reginald arrived with a sketch, and the result, as every one knows, is one of the chief monuments to his reputation. So exquisitely proportioned is its simple, two-storied marble front as seen through the trees left standing on the o

ning room, with hangings of Pompeiian red, and frescoes of nymphs and satyrs and pip

w York in the past thirty years, had eaten the same meal in the same little restaurant under the street. This he told Honora, on his left, as though it were not history. He preferred apple pi

hat Frenchman to the little New England hilltown whe

; and he had married a Playfair, a family noted for good living. Honora did not know that he was fond of talking of that apple pie and the New England school a

he face was hidden, indeed, by the red beard. What she read was in the little eyes that swept her with a look of possession: possession in a large sense, let it be emphasized, that an exac

nds of a barometer, sought he

eeling tiptop, is

h old Wing all day. Some

od deal to kn

n't inform you,"

bert apo

dn't suppose you knew. The old man is getting ready to make another killing,

ra s

n't mind,

be ransacking the corne

e while Mr. Wing was talking to you. I d

e answered, smiling a

hed ner

on, undismayed. "I hope you won't think I'm making love to you. Not t

y was un

think that?" she

were a poet, or that fellow Dewing, I might be ab

ou're not,"

oung moon rode serenely in the sky and struck a path of light across the rest

blue, transparent substance that used to be on favours at children'

re a poet, after

oss the flags. Ho

Cuthbert. "I thought you

once to-night," he said,

as si

you a

she answered. "

d in her; and a note of supplication from him touched her strangely. Lo

said unsteadily, "my

ood in fr

ught you would hav

to see y

d n

. "I can't abandon what I have of you-what you will

overing a little; "at least in modern ones.

a flash of humour and a touch of hope

icking up her skirts,

ou one more ch

Howard's presence, that he called her twice from her corner of the carriage after the vehicle had stopped; and he ha

ments, which ordinarily might have aroused her curiosity, if not her alarm, she watched with a profound indifference. He took a stand before the Japanese screen in

e any arrangements for me on Sunday, you'll have to cancel them

" she

say anything about it, all's up between me and Wing. The fact that he picked me out to engineer the thing, and that he

ot tell me, How

ded with a chuckle: "If it goes through, order what you l

udden premonition that the thing

s have tried the thing before, nearer home, and it worked like a charm. Street railways. We buy up the little lines for nothing, and get

nora, slowly, "as though s

th, and how to use it to the best advantage. It's a case," he announced, "of the survival of the fittest. Which reminds me that if I'm going to be fit