Lady Baltimore

to? It seemed now more as if the boy had been running away from somebody. The waitress had stared at him with extraordinary interest; she had seen his bruise; perhaps she knew how he had got i

company of gossiping strangers. Still, that would scarcely account for it--the dismay with which he had so suddenly left me. Was

en I was moralizing over the misfortune of marrying a jackass! I

t it was exclusively about our Civil War; you would have supposed that nothing else had ever happened in the world. When conversation among the rest of us became general, she preserved a cold and acrid inattention; when the fancy took her to open her own mouth, it was always to begin some reminiscence, and the reminiscence always began: "In September, 1862, when the Northern vandals," etc., etc., or "When the Northern vandals were repulsed by my husband's cousin, General Braxton Bragg," etc., etc. Now it was not that I was personally wounded by the term, because at the time of the vandals I was not even born, and also because I know that vandals cannot be kept out of any army. Deeply as I believed the March to the Sea to have been imperative, of "Sherman's bummers" and their excesses I had a fair historic knowledge and a very poor opinion; and this I should have been glad to tell Juno, h

ry"; a Louisiana poetess, who wore the long, cylindrical ringlets of 1830, and who was attending a convention the Daughters of Dixie; two or three males and females

" inquired the poetess

mous onslaught,

r eyes and crooned, "No

o indeed, mada

y good for your eye,"

id not appear to

on continued. He's my best friend n

d Juno. "He requires no b

on reddened. "Too gr

l. "Daphne! I have said to y

ded 'em twi

't be so forgetful." It was not easy t

son," she declared, "I would sooner witness him st

r him to experience than for you to

s made a sort of snuffing no

who next spoke. "Must have

" repeated Juno. "Wish I'd see

gly. "You'd have felt right lo

yet been offered

ogize besides taking a lic

ies are due. Mr. Mayrant's family" (she paused here for blighting emphasis) "are

ss my doubts as to the family coercion being fou

ation might not soothe your n

wered Juno. "I have just

uld," the poetess murmured. "If he were

rly well enoug

and blew his nose so rema

followed, whic

redit they deserve," she stated. "The whole c

o it. "Is it known what exactl

s a gentleman from whose lips no

tera, mildly. "He sa

ll-merited rebuke

terms?" inqui

f cards. My nephew protested against any gentleman remaining

ersation, because, having no wish to converse with Juno at any time, I especially did not desire it now, just after

ng interior, though I will say for that one that he would never have stooped to humiliate the family name as his son is doing. His regiment was near by when the Northern vandals b

er?" asked a t

ed at the

contribution. "The father di

mured the et cet

woman's life would

a person's niece than for th

hand moved to

such hereditary bloodthirstiness, who can tell?

ther gentleman is laid up, too?" inq

derstand that he

I burst out, "Oh!"

from opposite; the poetess, who had worn an absent expression since being told that the injured champion was not nearly well enough to listen to her

igence than what I bring

en! Well, she should be enlightened, they all should be enl

fear, are still confused by

you know about h

toward her bell; but she wished to hear all about it more than s

o, pray, has later ne

enemy in the hand is worth I d

's bedside, because I have just left him at the front d

silence, and then Juno became truly superb

ve been lost, when the Briton suggested: "

e words which I was too disconcerted to follow, the other et ceteras and the honeymooners hectically effervesced into small talk. I presently found myself eating our last course amid a reestablished calm, when, with a rustle,