A Modern Chronicle -- Volume 04

scattered cards on the drawing-room floor. There were voices on the porch, whe

Trixy ahead to prepare us. When I first caught sight of her, I thought it was my own dear mother who had come all the way from Cleveland, and the

t into her

l hurt that she neglected to say good night to me. I thought I had made an impression.

d lau

hands in his pockets. He looked at her for a moment, and laughed again. He, too, had apparently seen the incident only in a humorous light. "Well, Honora," he remarked, "you have a sort of a P. T.

for anger, reproaches, arraignments. Nay, she was surprised to find now that she had actually hoped for these. She deserved to be scolded: it was her right. If he had been all of a man, he would have called her to ac

to enter the drawing-room, still

there!" she

oing quickly. She crossed the hall and turned on the

feel well

said, "weren't

and May Barclay had seen you in the automobile in

y," she repe

had run off with Mr.

lau

s some joking

t take it

y shou

nd this was marriage! Trixton Brent-short as their acquaintance had been-had some conception of her character and possibilities her husband none. W

to be saved from her

if I had loved him," she said aft

said Howard, and pu

had meant to tell him that she did not until now perceive he w

ng her shoulder. "What would I have

he cried. "Oh, Howard

ed importantly, smiling down at her, a

I told you that I'd decided I didn't want it whe

air of one who derives amusement f

k. For the first time in months you get up for breakfast-a pretty sure sign you hadn't changed your mind. You drag me to see it, and when you land me there, because I don't lose my head immediately, you say you don't wan

in the picturesque language to which he commonly resorted. Quite the contrary. He was s

demanded. "It can't be because you wa

been influenced by Trixton Brent. If he had, she told herself, she did not wish to know. He

a clumsy attempt at banter. "They tell me the elder Maitlands

s. Rindge's house," she answered

e said mysterio

his pause he gave the impression of physically swelling. She reme

emphasis and a palpable attempt at complacency.

ean, Howard?"

th twitched in the att

st company can afford to live in a better house

er own voice-so distant it sounded. The room rocked, and she clu

k it to you until morning. But I think I'll go in on the seven thirty-five." (He glanced significantly up at the ceiling, as

pany? Did you say the

lf, I handled some things pretty well for Brent this summer, and he's seemed to appreciate it. He and Wing wer

e to you?" she a

s office. Well, we talked it over, and I left on the one o'clock for Newport to see M

und and round the circle she went in each waking period. To have implored him to relinquish the place had been waste of breath; and then-her reasons? These were the moments when the current was strongest, when she grew incandescent with humiliation and pain; when stray phrases in red letters of Brent's were illuminated. Merit! He had a contempt for her husband which he had not taken the trouble to hide. Bu

, struck here and there with crimson. She listened; some one was whistling an air she had heard before-Mrs. Barclay had been singing it last night! Wheels crunched the gravel-Howard was

Mrs. Spence would be greatly, obliged if he stopped a

ced anxiously at Mrs. Holt's door; and scarcely had she reached the lower hall before he drove into the circle. She was struck more forcibly than ever by the physical freshness of the man, and he be

vant," he said, as he followed her int

ed to him. "But I couldn't wait. I-I did not know until last night. Howard only

ely, "we wanted your husband for his abilitie

soul behind, ignorant or heedless that others before her had

e truth,"

e-to a woma

t on. "I'd rather scrub floors, I'd rather b

And he said it with a gentleness

u-Mr. Brent, I am sorry. I-I liked you, and I like you to-day better than ever before. And I can quite see n

d to emphasize the hitherto unsuspected fact that sportsmanship in Trixton Bre

ed the difference between nature and art. I am something o

she asked,

call them. I have been fairly and squarely beaten-

no longer to be distinguished. And in that moment she wondered what would have happene

asked. "That dinner with her was one of the great events o

breakfast with her," s

d like to se

quite forgotten it. Au revoir!" He reached the end of the porch, turne

g after him, until she heard a

my dear?" she a

replied, rousing herself. "I must m

th a slight upward lift of the faint ey

red a little

e had to catch a train. He -wished to be

Holt, "that his fancy i

to Silverdale w

g her arm through that of her friend,

note for Howard