Ragged Lady, Part 1

m, and several graduates just going into business, who chose to take their outing there instead of going to the sea-side or the North Woods. This was a chance that mi

, at the hops, and the young people sat so thick upo

t preserved what was left of his sight, while his wife read to him. She was soon acquainted with a good many more people than he knew, and was in constant request for such occasions as needed a chaperon not averse to mountain climbing, or drives to other hotels for dancing and supper and return by moonlight, o

u don't put in a great deal of elocution, I guess you can read full well enough. All he wants is just something to keep him occupied, and all she wants is a chance to occupy

o her about me?"

tell you. I couldn't

like," said Clementina

ld have to

at your motha'd be will

down and see

hat she shared with the spectators. She kissed him with lively affection, and charged him not to let the child read herself to death for him. She cap

e towering coach, by means of the ladder held in place by two porters, and by help of the down-stretched hands of all

nose and the jut of the thin lips and delicate chin, which had not been lost in the change from youth to age. One could never have taken it for the profile of a New York lawyer who had early found New York politics more profitable than law, and after a long time passed in city affairs, had emerged with a name shadowed by certain doubtful transactions. But this was Milray's history, which in the rapid progress of American events, was so far forgotten that you had first to remind people of what he had helped do before you could enjoy their surprise in realizing that this gentle person, with the cast of intellectual refinement which distinguished his face, was the notorious Milray, who was once in all the papers. When he made his game and retired from politics, his family would have sacrificed itself a good deal to reclaim him socially, though they were of a severer social than spiritual conscience, in the decay of some ancestral ideals. But he had rendered their willingness hopeless by marry

of a certain paragraph. She read it, while he listened attentively. "Could you tell me just w

she answered, "I don't believe

nd I've an idea that the author is in the same box," and C

eetness in her laugh, and he asked, smi

en," said

ixteen myself; I have never been so old since. But I

d Clementina, laughing agai

you that you have a very a

said Clementina, "I

face distinctly; I've a great curiosity about matching voices and faces; I must get Mrs. Milra

ed Clementina. "Do I r

t the meaning come thr

hildren ah' so impatient when I'm reading to them at home, and th

said Milray. "Are there ma

ah' six

you the

nt not to say sir, too, but she tried to make her

t a very p

Motha gave it to me; she took it out o

" said Milray. "Are y

I am pret

hat by your voice; you've got a light

tina laughed a

londe voice. Do you think-has anybody

y have," said Clemen

she did not answer, and now Milray laughed. "I felt the little tilt in your st

't bear malice. I can hear the grudge in your voice; but I didn'

anybody does,"

h a thing I should be afraid you would make it

said Clementin

forgive me, because I'm an old fellow. I

he clerk; she had certa

read on?"

indeed; she should like it ever so much, if he would tell her when she was wrong. After that he corrected her, and he amused himself by studying forms of respect so delicate that they should not alarm her prid

mstances, and he said he would like to meet her father and make the acquaintanc

to arrange with Mrs.

he stayed at Middlemount

at the good round sum,

asked in the