Madcap

loner had arisen and departed for a morning ride before the breaking of the dawn. She peered out of the window and contracted her shoulders expressively. To ride in t

reluctantly obliged to confess that s

the linen cabinet and took out some fluffy things of lace and ribbon, then to a closet from wh

om a dog, a rush of feet on the stairs and the door of the room gave way before the precipitate entrance of a slight, almost boyish, fe

f bringing not only herself into the room, but also the

ou!" And as he refused to obey she waved her crop threateningly and

bath and-why, what

e," in alarm, "It is b

good face. What's

l glass. Her hat was smashed in at one side and s

e chucked me into s

ble horse-M

idn't get away. I got on without help, too. Lor

gloves and tossed her hat and crop on the bed and sprawled into a chair with a s

ll-will kill her

halloner

ther he dies or not. I shall die comfortably in bed at the age of eighty-three, I'm su

ting lotion on her injured cheeks and temple. Her hair arranged, she sent the maid for her breakfast tray while she finished her toilet in leisurely fashion and went into her morning room. The suede slippers contributed their three inches to her stature, the long line

r of fashionable stationery. Hermia eyed her Dresden chocolate-pot uncheerfully. This breakfast gift had reached her with an ominous regularity on Mondays and Thursdays for a month, and the time had come when something must be done about it. But she did not permit unpleasant thoughts, if unpleasant they really were, to distract her from the casual delights of retrospection and the pleasures of her repast, which she finished with a thoro

ices. Her father's death, some years before, had fallen heavily upon her, but youth and health had borne her above even that sad event triumphant, and now at three and twenty, with a fo

t with the sad devotional air which its givers had learned meant that in the end she would do exactly as she cho

if one's character may be judged by that of one's friends, Hermia was of infinite variety. Perhaps the sportive were most often in her company, and it was against these that Mrs. Westfield ineffectually railed, but there was a warmth in her affection for Gertrude Brother

denly into lines of discontent. It was a kind of reaction which frequently followed moments of intense activity and, realizing its significance, she yielded to it sulkily, her

herny and Mees Ashhurst?" Titine was a

pecting her. Tell th

Countess, dainty, dark-eyed and svelte, with the flexible voice which spoke of familiarity with many tongues and rebuked the nasal greeting of her more florid companion. Hermia met them with a si

Hermia's expression a m

Hermia! It's dreadful to be the one

ing in a family of

y with a million francs a year. Such a fortune would beaut

unimp

so. You don't care. You don'

ink about it? I

ke herself beautiful, a beautiful woman-Dieu! There is noth

ot cle

e Piper of Hamelin with a queue of gentlemen reaching back into the corridors of infinity. Instead of which you wear mannish clothes, do

at Trevvy Morehouse's roses, helped

the imputation. It was only that her art an

omes mystified he cease

rm

n the dark. Women were born to mystify. Some of us do it one way-some in another. If you wear mannish clothes and a Bath-bun, it is becaus

isgu

ity-which refuses to be extinguished. You do not hate men. If you did you would not go to so much trouble to look like them. One day you will love very badly-very madly. And then-" the Countess paused and raised her eyebrows and

f ill-omen you are. And

ut her cigarette daint

ove in vai

tre aim, c'e

er, c'est Pres

m not that kin

shhurst

ga

d Hermia with a

ung affections away upon that owl-like no

t belie

ite mad about him. He has the mind of a philoso

d the impudence of the dev

untess Olga's narrowed ey

rk of mediocrity. And as for impudence-that is the

t," sai

shoulder moved toward her

quickly, "a gorilla of a man, with a low

rable," in

er, with the impudence of the devil, and the blue chin of a go

le of mine. He had already made his way. He has been back in America only a year. We met early in the win

were going, wasn't it? I'll

eft in the shopping d

said Miss Ashh