From the Car Behind

esented in the centre of the huge, lofty stone room, bare except for the five automo

en did you two las

y racing car looked up at the

is against me. But Rupert had his beauty bath this morning, all right. You're

eir faces were streaked and spotted with the caked road-soil. There was little difference in color between Gera

er shading of brows and lashes always gave his fair-tinted face a warm vividness of expression. "The course is in fierce shape, already. I say-why did you especially warn me that the road wouldn't

dn't mean to do any speeding to-day, Corrie, but when

ocrite, all right. Her

tly caught the dripping missile

I was wondering how I could take this face into the house, unless

e gimcrack thing and pretending she hasn't been worrying because I was out on the course. She comes downstairs every morning to

e perfunctory toilet without replying. But as he passed Ru

upert, will the girl be

s ain't paining

t suppose

ed for a moment fro

r one house," Rupert impassivel

across the garage, his

signified. "Everyone do

overturned bucket. As Gerard passed

said that purposely! You meant to

quietly, a little sm

bout you and Isabel; that you've seen I want

ined mute. With a quick breath Corrie grasped

For I've been watching, these ten day

diction was possible. After a moment, Gerard w

r its architectural faults, it was a fairy-tale place of gurgling water and soft shadows, shot through with the tints of silver spray, rosy stone and deep green turf. Flavia was seated here, in the summer-

ing in one of the arched openings. "But

welcome of her glance and smile, with t

od of you to tell me; you know how glad I am when he is back. Will you not rest before you go into

il your purple with my dust and poison, yo

ie do

ever saw you, you were watching Corrie.

A

re, if I were brought in on a shutter, there would be

, shocked out

I-please do not

worry me to think about just dying and I forgot that other people dislike th

mmencing to beat heavy strokes, she dared not raise her troubled e

her until he gets-his answer. But in real life we're pretty stupid; we let circumstances interfere, or we don't quite realiz

ze upon her bent head, and the unhurried certainty with which he was moving toward his chosen goal. Only, what was that goal? She remembered Isabel's sureness of her own attraction, Isabel's deliberate monopoly of Gerard's attention wh

e controlled to soft impassivity, the intent gaze on her work which veiled her eyes beneath their heavy lashes, the regular movement of her slender fingers as she sewed, conveyed an impression of unmoved serenity th

remarked, when silence verged on embarrassment. "I have won

am named for her. What does it

innocently undid all her reserve had built up. Gerard's color ran up under

ening, if I may. There's something else I'd like to tell you, but I've got to find some civilized cloth

voice, the ring of his step sounded in the st

t and held Flavia's as, startled, she raised her head. "I was telling Miss Ros

nto the embroidery. Not the omnivorous Isabel's, this! There was nothing to fear, ever again. She had the perfect certainty that Gerard would complete that

n the way to dinner, and the exuberant

in front of me, Perkins; I want my soup right now and a lot of it-about a gallon

ne day before the race?" marve

him over again. He's used to it. Now, I suppose that

inly wou

. I'm afraid of Rupert, myse

n. I saw you kick Frederick the Great all across the veranda yesterd

Gerard, as at the only other grown person present. "You'd best take a porte

if he isn't a Great Dane puppy. But I saw a man to-day in a temper tha

a lunatic," Isabe

nearer his sixteenth year than his nineteenth in this mood of effervescent gayety. Ever since h

y. "Where did you get the grouch? That's

, but she smiled and smoothed a chiffon

t give him the road. Kept getting in front, you know, whenever the Bluette wanted to pass, and cutting it off so it had to fall behind.

of gleaming fair hair. The massively handsome room, with its rich hues of gilded leather, mellow Eastern rugs and hangings, carved wood and glinting m

?" he repeated. "

me drivers!

y n

the car ahead if it tried to keep me back. Oh, I'd have

ly laughing, and t

; I'd resign," he rallied. "Some day I'll challenge

rie retorted, his violet-blu

might take me around the course in one of your cars,"

sulk at Corrie and Gerard because they've got the sense to say no. You'll keep out of the racing cars and off the race tr

ed at her uncle, but she said nothing. Mr. Rose

leaned back in his chair, turning to Gerard his gaze of shining acknowledgment and measureless content. "I don't think I ever spent such a

Gerard suggested. His own feelings were no

ed. "I never heard that story.

iphs. If you care about it, some

I want to h

the full performance. Flavia loves that sort of thing, too; she and I grew up on the Arabian Nights and Byron

of Turkish Delight, sent to-night from the candy s

caught her eyes, no longer qu

to face," he deprecated. "S

sity?" she wondered. "To dream all night of elusive pearls that

and a match, nodding h

" he signified. "B

," exacted Corr

mbling his recollections. "On ascending the throne at Bagdad, in the full noon of the glory of the caliphs; it is told that A

e therein a pearl for every day of perfect happiness he should pass. And when he received the vase from the goldsmith, he complained that the vase was too small. But,

hool for poor children beside every mosque, he the magnificent in war and peace, in all his long reign enriched the vase by two pearls; the day of his coronation and the day of his death; the day befor

moun fell into

ather and take his place with tears, and the day of my death no man knows.

On the day appointed, in that spot assembled his favorite musicians, the scholars in whose conversation he most delighted, the captains whose faces reminded him of victories and the p

delights that was to shelter him from the world for one day. But, as his fo

demanded the

rail answered, his

urt of Fountains, because of grief that your day

turned to the palace, knowing that from h

" Isabel aske

uld there be,

leaning his folded arms on the table, his

bserved Mr. Rose. "A man who had been brought up with the Blarney Stone for a teething-ri

r saw i

own to my office, where it is still lying in the packing-box it

omen are a nuisance," Isabel

demurred. "No, I fancy the moral might be, do not challenge

ave filled the vase had they been content to mark each happy hour, and whether a wise treasur

the secret, no doubt. Mor

how? Not half enough to get all the fun there is in living, as long as you do no harm by it. And who wants to do any harm when there is so much else to do? Not a

smiling, but her cheeks were flushed and her serious eyes caressed her brother.

scarf around her bare shoulders and lured her out on the veranda. She yielded not unwillingly, contrary to her recent custom of neglecting

ere established in the drawing-room. "But I didn't recognize my own son, for that matter. He don't seem like mine, when he's out in those

well to call it that,"

ncies. I've told him to amuse himself for a while. He is too young to settle down to work, when there is no need for it. I neve

nd amaz

; I don't yet. And I never saw why I should make my son a different set of living rules from those I make for myself. Of course, I don't mean there was no law in the

iberate speech with a suggestion of grim inflexibili

ing. The echo of Corrie's fresh young tones was in their ears, as he

she was what they call an aristocrat, nowadays, but I called a lady when I married her. Old family, gentle breeding, the society e

mutual affection which marked all the household intercourse and perv

e loved me. I guess I struck her family like a cyclone; I was self-made and used to my own way, at thirty, and not uglier than my neighbors. Mrs. Tom Rose was a happy wo

are my holidays, although they are an important business feature, too. My factory affairs keep me hard at work most of the year. Then in the intervals I am de

these things as part of that steady purpose whose obj

ented Mr. Rose, coming back to his

ard replied cand

tell you about a deal I put

unseen. In all the previous days she had avoided this, refusing to take cognizance of the physical beauty upon which Isabel dilated, half-unconscious

. Upright against a column, scarlet with determination, Isabel

er husband, yesterday," she urged. "Other wome

urt. Father neve

't want to, that's all. I'll ask

from that sting, but Cor

, Isabel. I

I'm a year ol

en mo

you're afraid to move for fear uncle will catch

ed his hands on her shoulders with the

a woman. You haven't any sense. And there's no use of your dangling after Allan Gerard, fo

awing-room before recovering herself. Then she rushed in p

-wait!

at his own temerity. But Isabel laid

one else, anyhow. Corrie, if you'd take me around the course, early in the morning

e kindling in his face.

get my

ily, and boy-like lavish

ised, half-choked by excitemen

scussion, Corrie and Isabel entered the room, and the evening ended without a

ht, Corrie detained his sister at th

. "I shan't be starting for the course at the usual time. I have been working

young ripples of bright hair resembled each other very strongly in t

ell, dear? You have

e step opposite him, winding the satin-green strip over his finger, "honestly, all in with sleepiness, and I'm

ight, d

that she should rise at dawn for a tête-à-tête breakfast with the guest, at this period when all the fine elements that composed their relation hesitated at the point of crystallization. But sh

xquisite perfume and confronted with a mass of frail yellow roses, lovely with the quaint, virginal beauty of suggestion that separates them from all their other-c

he fancy came to her, had placed this day in the vase of Al-Mansor

whispered to hers