The Flirt

f both daughters remained, and a change of costume by Cora occasioned a long postponement. Justice demands the admission that her reappearance in a glamour of lilac was reward for the

rs. Madison constantly turned the other cheek to the cook. Laura assisted in the pacification; Hedrick froze the ice-cream to an impenetrable solidity; and the no

e a miraculously slender chain of gold and enamel, with a pendant of minute pale sapphires scrolled about a rather large and very white diamond. Laura started when she saw it, and involuntarily threw a glance almost of terror a

Laura's eye, he applied a handkerchief with renewed presence of mind, affecting to have sneezed, and stared searchingly over it at Corliss. He perceived that the man rema

eart released to happiness. The still air of the room filled with wonderful, golden sound: a song like the song of a mother flying from earth to a child in the stars, a torrential tenderness, unpent and glorying in freedom. The flooding, triumphant chords rose, crashed-st

room. Richard was sitting beside a vacant

ura's playing, which is possible, cert

e porch," she said composedly,

ed, blankly. "I b

on the porch w

nfusedly. "I was thinking-- I b

ink," she said. "

said, his perplexi

sit with them." And she compelled his obedience by preceding him

tion which would not have disturbed a sick-room. The pursuers came upon them, boldly sat beside them; and Laura began to talk with unwonted fluency to Corliss,

achful look. He was kind, but he was a man; and Laura saw th

ing not an angel, obs

're quite right

u say?" he a

e of the house beyond which the other couple had just disappeared. "I s

e sky which had been cloudless for severa

ttle sharpness, "will you ple

ter. "What did you say?" He laughed apologetically. "Wa

take Cora away from you li

d with a rueful shake of the head.

ou let he

th Cora, especially when she's punishing me. I co

. Corliss?" ask

't. She's convinced it's a good thing: she t

ently. "You mean for you

ghtfully, "that's the way she stated it

!" said Laur

p inquiry. "Do you mean you

t; there's something veiled about him, and I don't believe he is an easy man to know. W

course-thinking I deferre

she said agai

I can," he retu

again. It would mean postponing everything. Cora isn't a girl you can ask to share a little salary, an

nd as if pleading a cause. And Laura, after a long look at him, turned away,

aid. "Perhaps

nce for us to be millionaires; and then, too, I think she may feel that it would please Mr. Co

at him, but

a manly, straightforward sort, too-so far as one can tell-and when he came to me with his scheme I was strongly inclined to go into it. But it is too big a gamble, and I can't, though I was s

ave. "I think he doe

g just like him before, and she's seen us all her life. She likes change, of course. That's natural," he said gently.

Vilas under your wing,

nly try to keep him with me so he'll stay

talk much

him. I suppose he can't help it,

ather-rather

'?" he

robably you don't think it's `queer' of you to sit h

et' him, Laura,

just d

must admit my efforts to

heir view upon the sidewalk in front, taking his departure. Seeing that they observed h

andchild. The two men met and passed, each upon his opposite way, without pausing and without salutation, and neither Richard nor Laura, whos

ity as singular as the restrained but perceptib

is to be deduced that "got" was argot.

to the other. He fanned himself with his hat as he went on. Mr

said Laura, "since you wo

" said Richard

dded b

in prophecy of no very encouraging reception indoors. The manner of this glance recalled to Laura what his mother had once said of him.

er small garden of asters, regarded it anxiously, then spread his handkerchief upon the ground, knelt upon it, and with thoughtful care uprooted a few weeds which were beginning to sprout, and also such vagra

he kneeling boy and the asters-submerged in ardent sunshine-would have a

nsation of being stared at with some poignancy from behind. Unchanged in attitude, she unravelled an imag

usied boy, though he coughed again, hollowly now-a proof that he was an a

I've caught cold," he said, simply. "I got a good man

eal, no striving for effect, no pressure on the str

sister, shaking her head. "It won't last if

he put all his wrongs into one look, rose in manly

iolist of a theatre orchestra. Sighing, she went to her own room by way of the kitchen and t

not know how to say it. But it was in my playing-I played it and played it. Suddenly I felt that in my playing I had shouted it from the housetops, that I had told the secret to all the world and everybody knew. I stopped, and for a moment it seemed to me that I was dying of shame. But no one understood. No one had even listened. . . . Sometimes it seems to me that I am like Cora, that I am very deeply her sister in some things. My heart goes all to You-my revelation of it, my release of it, my outlet of it is all here in these pages (except when I play as I did to-day and as I shall no

rupted by a hurried rapping upon the door and her

state of anxious perturbation, and admitted the s

ore with her than I can. She and your father have be

ed down to