The Silver Butterfly

be informed that she was not at home. Kitty, he reflected, was never at home when any one wanted to find her

eld the black irregular network of their twigs against the gray sky, with its faint, dull reflection of sunset gold, and the twilig

olent exercise; but for loitering and reverie. Presently, he looked up from his musings, to see, to his i

and her furs, also black, were slipping from her shoulders, while her muff dangled from a cord about her wrist. Hayden thought she looked a little ti

et his she started slightly, a start of unmistakable amazement, and as it seemed

ey had exchanged the conventional greetings, and he had asked and had rece

s to see to since my return. I have been very busy. You know I have a studio away

ly. The town was full of people and yet, at the same time, it was very empty." That faint and lovely carna

n with a change of tone, as if warning him from dang

"To me it is the most delightful, the m

if Kitty and Bea were both of them awaiting me now." His boldness was incapable of ruffling her composure; b

t her lightly to slip through his fingers again, as it were, now, when he had the opportunity to press his claims for further recognition. Should a man who had suc

. Why, it amounts almost to--to--brutality," casting about him for a good strong word. "You will pass on into light and warmth and comfort; t

ot your mark." She lifted her face t

sort of cloud yonder," waving his stick toward the west, "always indicates a drenching shower. Oh," in answer to her incredulous smile, "you can't tell me anything about weather conditions, I've lived too much in the open not to be thoroughly conve

the subways and street-cars and taxicabs and

the hot climates I have lived in so long--" He paused and coughed tentatively. "But what is the use of a

tter quite unnecessarily. Then, apparently arriving at a sudden decision, she said with a sort of sweet, prim courtesy: "I should be very g

ith equal formality. "I very much

n a measure, the reserve, the absorption which seemed almost habitual with her, and

n to me that evening at the Gildersleeve, about the young woman livin

d. "It often amuses me to indulge in

be a ghost, trusting to your noiseless and mysterious manner of appearing and disappearing to work on my fears and fri

t her breath sharply, but if it were so she recovered herself immediately and went on: "The man with whom I was dining--I had to see him that evening. He was leaving town. I was leaving him at the station when I bowed

hould. It was in itself a full period, definitely closing the subject. It also held resentment,

so cold, poor little waifs from Indian Summer, that they wrap themselves in all the clouds and mists they can find. Ah, isn't it soft and dim and sweet and myste

lled his family a few months before the crash came and his subsequent death. It was a handsome house, within as well as without; dark, stately, and sumptuous in effect.

hen her face, her figure, the way she wore her hair, seemed to cry aloud for knickerbockers; and there was Bea Habersham in velvet, of the cerise shade she so much affected, and Edith Symmes suggesting nothing s

ke the very best tea in all the world." Marcia's voice, in speaking to her mother, seemed

hen noted, for the carriage of her head and shoulders gave the impression of her being above medium height; she had evidently been an extremely pretty creature of the Dresden-china type, and she still bore the manner and assurance of beauty, forti

king in the mother's. Two rather striking blemishes on the older woman's beauty, a wandering eye and a scar on the soft cheek, she took her own peculiar method of ignoring, thus completely and effectively discount

hat!" cried Kitty. "And new. It

charming laugh. "Yes, it's new

s something new every day. I never saw such a spe

ention was taken up by the entrance of Wilfred Ames, big, stolid a

Symmes, Kitty and Bea, and that Ames had drawn Marcia a little apart, urged Hay

She sighed heavily. "It is enough to make Mr. Oldham turn over in his grave if he could see all the care and responsibility that is thrown on my shoulders. He couldn't endure the thought of such a thing. He always said to me:

or years before he ever saw it. I happened to mention it and he simply would not believe me until I convinced him by standing before him in a very strong light with my eyes wide open. Do let me give you a little more tea. No? Then some sugar or lemon

d to be head-strong, heedless, wilful, and I'm afraid, sweet as Mrs. Hampton and Mrs. Habersham are--dear girls! I love them like my own daughters--that they encourage Marcia in her defiance of proper authority and

have blown out his light and gone back to the sec

r. Hayden, what a charming thing of you to say! I must remember that, and so witty, too!

from you. Here is Mr. Penfield to take his place, and tell you a lot of new scandals all spri

n a remote corner. "I had an idea that I was never goi

Marcia and Ames stood, still engrossed in conversation. "And poor Wilf

oo, a Venus wi

which was always touched with a slight malice. "Mr. Hayden, some people are c

sured her. "I should

been maturing in his mind during the last hour, Hayden approached Kitty and Mar

ting, "don't you or Kitty want to give me the address o

" Kitty spoke quickly. "You insisted that they wer

that I have met th

d, "and tell whether you have met her or not, unless, of course, she acknowledges the acquaint