A Rose of Yesterday

erly lips, frowned severely, and talked to herself with an occasional energetic shaking of the head. She always did up her hair very securely and neatly, so that thi

examining one's own conscience. But Miss Wimpole could not help it, and the question of returning the price

dreadfully. If I tell nobody, I shall break my promise to Sylvia, besides putting her in the position of accepting a hat from a young man. Ridiculous present, a hat! If it had only been a parasol! Parasols are not so ridiculous as hats. I won

Mrs. Harmon's hands?" enquired the

talking while he was in the corridor. She utt

ally cure myself of talking when I am alone!

s. Harmon eighty francs. It is very easy, for s

s Wimpole. "I know it to my cost! S

hat is the matter?

nsitive about anything that

nel looked at

I do not blame you in the least. But such a dreadful thing has happened. I

y with the Paris Herald. He was still rat

mildly, "don't be silly.

window and looked through the blinds, and at last turned and

. It's awful. That boy suddenly appeared in a shop where

ide. "I don't think I quite understood, Rachel. I mu

was buying a hat, just now, Archie Harmon suddenly appeared in the shop and spoke to us. Then he asked Sylvia whether she liked the hat she was tr

e could not help it, though he had not felt in the least as though he could laugh

aid solemnly, "y

ou as funny?" asked t

irony, "since you make so light of the matter, you will be good enough to return

achel," said the colonel. "It'

f rushing into a shop where a lady is buying something, and suddenly paying

ghtfully, for he remembered the miniature he had bought for He

know what can be the matter with you. First, you manage to make Sylvia cry her eyes out--Heaven knows what dreadful thing you said to her! And n

ly, and he laid down the folded newspaper. "How much did the h

him with gratitude and

e, it would have been totally untrue, and in the second place, it would have been--what shall

On the other hand, I really did not assert that you applied the epithet to me. I applied i

-or something like it, why

returned the colonel. "And s

er for a few seconds; then she s

said. "Richa

and as their cool grey cheeks touched, each kissed the air somewhere in the neighbourhood of the other's ear. They had been little children together, and their mother had taught them to 'kiss and make friends,' as good children sh

a few minutes. The folded newspaper lay on the table unr

st. "That is the only possible explanation. She has grown up since he saw h

pole. "But I wish you would not suggest such

onel, thoughtfully. "We

on the paper, just visible above the folded edge. The words were 'Harmon

at Henry Harmon, who has been an inmate of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum for some years, is recove

gain. There was no possibility of a mistake. There had never been but one Henry Harmon, and there could certainly be but one in the Bloomingdale asylum. The

nd to a man little better than a beast; but it had never occurred to him that she might have had much to bear of which he had known nothing, even to violence and physical danger. The knowledge had cha

men, for he had seen enough to know that many things were done by men whom no one would dare to call dishonourable, which he would not have done to save his own life. He understood that such a lasting love as his was

e loved him once, much less that she loved him now, as he did her, with the same resolution to hide from her inward eyes what she could not tear from her inmost heart. But it is never fair to say th

a younger time, who fought for wives not theirs so openly and bravely, and so honestly that the spotless women for whom they faced death took lustre of more honour from such unselfis

shed to do. The trouble had all come little by little in Helen's existence, and there had n

how to do it, nor whither to turn, but he felt, as he sat by the table with the little newspaper in his hand, that unless he could prevent Harmon

see Harmon and tell him what he thought, and force from him a promise to leave Helen in peace, some unbre

e thought of the interview and of the quiet, hard words he would select. Each one of them should be a

an insult to Helen, what right Wimpole had acquired to take Helen's part against him, her lawful husband. It would b

he at least resigned the hope of that right, when Harmon had been hi

ip until the present moment. But the sight of the cut on Helen's forehead had changed him very quickly. He was not sure that he could keep his hands from Harmon

reading. She heard him move in his chai

th you, Richard?" she

started

almly. "I suppose you are gradually beginning to be

passed his hand over his eyes. "I mean, it is perhaps th

ve so strangely to-day--as

or with his head high, his eyes as hard as polished grey stones, a

ically, then slowly and sadly, as

row old than men!" she said al