The Hollow of Her Hand

on, as they sat drearily in a window of one of the fashionable up-town clubs, a little more than a year after the eve

terest in a conversation that had died some time before of its own exhaustion.

ew York the end of th

a year. She had a vill

sitive to female loveliness. If I'd been staying on in Rome, I should h

nd year out, all their lives. I don't see where they found time to scratch up the love affairs they're reported to have had. There always must have been some painter or other hanging around. I remember reading that the Duchess of-I c

her with a smile. "I'

liked. A Belgian fellow did it a couple of years ago. Never been exhibited, so of course you haven

nted Brandon Booth,

dmit that, Brandy. They visit 'em in the winter time to get in where it's warm, a

ow about art or

with my eyes closed; and as for 'quality' and 'luminosity' and 'broadness' and 'handling,' I know more this minute about such things than any auctioneer in the world. I am a past master at it, believe me. One can't go around buying paintings with his mother without getting a liberal education in art. She began taking me when I was ten years old. Challis wouldn't go, so she MADE me do it. Then I always had to go back with her when

y alive to a certain breath of self-glorification in his raillery. Leslie felt a delicious sense

ally meaning to do so. He considered Velasquez to be the superior of all those mentioned by Wrandall, and there was the end to it, so far as he wa

r you this summer? She's not going out, you know, and time will hang so

t ask h

sking, if you

be an

if it will help you out, old

me a frightful cub after all those other fellows.

ur. Most wonderful smile. It's a splendid idea. Let her laugh in your face, as you s

have anoth

nge the subject withou

n of Fifth Avenue in the waning light of a drab, drizzly day. A man in a shiny "slicker" was pushing a swee

ford to be eccentric; there remained, in the perspective he scorned, the bulk of a huge fortune to offset whatever idiosyncrasies he might choose to cultivate. Some day, in spite of himself, she contended serenely, he would be very, very rich. What could be more desirable than fame, family and fortune all heaped together and thrust upon one exceedingly interesting and handsome young man? For he would be famous, she was sure of it. Every one said that of him, even the critics, although she didn't have much use for critics, retaining opinions of her own that se

ss, leaving him high and dry and safe on something steadier than Art. They couldn't understand a rich man's son really having aspirations, although they granted him temperament and ability. But he went about it so earnestly, so systematically, that they were compelled to alter the time-honoured tune and to sing praises instead of whistling their insulting "I-told-you-sos." To the dis

ward home, they took off their hats to him, so to speak, and agreed that he ha

dauber of pigments: he was an ARTIST. People argued that because he was a thoroughbred and doomed to be rich, his conscious egotism would show itself at once in the demand for ridiculously high prices. In that they happily were fooled, not to say disappointed. He began by p

f it becomes known that you ask less than five thousand,"

can recommend a dozen or more gentlemen whose work is worth it. Mine isn't. Some day I hope to be able to say five thousand

expostulated. "Really, Brandon, I prefer to pay five thousan

undred?" he asked, h

sur

n hun

ewing me up, not I trying to jew

, it is only fair that I should make concessions. My picture is worth five hundred dollars, but I am w

ou up any high

sit to me ten years from now, I promise faithful

should blush to even think o

" said he gallantly, "but I expect the

re standard of personal attractiveness. Gross women were not allowed to crowd his canvases; ugly ones who succeeded in tempting him were surprised to find how ugly they really were w

hem, they blissfully dropped the matter and went happily on their way. If they found that his time was so fully occupied that he could not paint them they urged him to reconsider-even offering to quadruple his price if he would only "do" them. One exceedingly plain wo

life had been spent abroad, yet he was not a stranger in a strange land when he took up his residence in Gotham. Society

rousers, nor was he careless about his finger-nails. He was simply the ordinary, everyday sort of chap you would meet in Fifth Avenue during parade hours, and you woul

didn't really matter to Booth what Leslie said of his paintin

after a long period of silence spent in contemplati

to open her house in the country. Her place is about two miles from father's. It hasn't been opened in two years. Her fa

rough it one after

f a novelty to her as it was to yo

do you

d the place because old man Gooch built i

man's been de

le lot of us. Sara was quite good enough for a much better man than my brother. She really couldn't help the worsteds, you know. I'm very fond of her

change the subject, but

because we want to be, mind you, but because we're afrai

a very neat way out of

and set him up amongst us, willy-nilly. We don't want strange bed-fellows. We're too snug-and, I might say, too smug. Down in her heart, mother is saying to herself it would be just like Sara to get even with us by doing just that sort of a trick. Of course, Sara is rich enough without acce

hat, Les, if I we

priggish thing t

the

sides with Sara. I forget myself sometime

nt, noting the reflective l

pe that sooner or later the-er-the woman will

f. Perhaps he's right. It sounds reasonable. 'Gad, I felt sorry for the poor girl they had up last spring. She went through the third degree, if ever any one did, but, by Jove, she came out of it all right. The Ashtley girl, you remem

is sh

tled a neat bit of money on her, and she'll never want for anything. She's out West somewh

rd to meeting

to go. Sara's got a most adorable girl staying with her. A daughter of Colonel Castleton, and she's connected in some way with the Murgatroyds-old Lord M

entioned a compan

k it's a pose on her part, this calling herself a companion. An English joke, eh? As a matter of fact, she's an old friend of Sara's and my brother's too. Knew them in England. Most delightful

indifferently. He was watching the m

ute. Positively adorable face. If I thought you had it in you to paint a thing as it really is, I'd commission you myself to do a miniature for

You're dott

Leslie sweepingly. "Come down and have

or it. Thanks for the

ith Joey and Linda.

tant look of the artist at the "slicker" ma

ll you s

ght. I'

casion fourteen months earlier. Then she came in on a fierce gale from the wintry Atlantic; this time the air

p. Redmond Wrandall called at the hotel immediately after banking hours, kissed his daughter-in-law, and delivered an ultimatum second-hand from the power at home: she was to come to dinner and bring Miss Castleton. A little quiet family dinner, you know, because they were all in mourning, he said in conclusion, vaguely realising all the while that it really wasn't necessary to

im in the least if she had declined the invitation, feeling, as he did, that he had in a way come to her with a white fla

n instant, but it made an impression on him. He found himself wondering if the girl was a snob as well as the rest of them. The look in her eyes betrayed unmistakable surprise and-yes, he was quite sure of it-dismay when Sara accepted the invitation to dine. Was it possible that the lovely Miss Castleton considered herself-but no! Of course it couldn't be that. The Wrandalls were good eno

half-open to her in the past. It scratched his pride a bit to think of the opinion she must have of the family, and he was inexpressibly glad that she could no

oundered from one i

to the cemetery to-morrow, I shall be only too re

" she interrupted gently. "I

stand, don't you, father?" he

n we may expect you at eight, Sara, and you, Miss Castleton. Mrs. Wrandall is looking forwar

ra. Smuggled a few things through, eh? Women never miss a chance to get a couple of dozen dresse

ne very informally," he hastened to say, his mind on the smuggled gowns. It

got h

re alone, Hetty tu

em that I am ill-suddenly ill. I-I don't th

, and the words die

play the g

ured the other, her fa

dear," said

girl, suddenly giving way to the dread th

e to enlighten them," said Sara, putting her arm

a,-so very wonderful," cried the girl

t, reflecting. Then, with a swift rush o

l that happened, Hetty! You must

rew dark with

n't understand in you,

not spe

, absolute agony in her voice. "Have I not kep

us

if I cannot talk

are to know. We have not said so much as this in months-in ages, it seems. Let s

ear the thou

e now,

," cried Hetty, as she imp

. "How silly of me to cry. It must be the room we are in. These are the s

me? I am ages and ages

r coming back to

e twent

are twent

s. "About your size and figure," sa