The Glimpses of the Moon

ofamed as the scene of romantic raptures that they were ratherproud

experiment," Susy Lansing opined, as theyhung over the inevitable marble balustrade

ng upward through the branches at a long low patch ofpaleness to whic

we had--you wonder!" He laid his hand on hers, and histouch renewed the sense of marve

ng in the moor tentatively, and yetwith a somewhat exaggerated emphasis, as if to make sure that heshouldn't accuse her of slurring it over. But he seemed to haveno desire to do so. "Poor old Fred!" he merely remarked; andshe breathed out carelessly: "Oh, we

enty-four hours. And Monte Carlo is ruled out because it'sexactly the kind of place everybody expected us to go. So--with all r

blissful assent. "And I must say that Streffyhas done things to a turn. Even the cigars--who do you supposegave him those cigars?" She added thoughtfully: "You'll missthem when we have to go.""Oh, I say, don't let's talk to-night about going. Aren't weoutside of time and space ...? Smell that guinea-a-bottle stuffov

t ...."A faint gurgle shook the magnolias behind them, and a longliq

say good-byeto each other as sweetly."It was in her husband's mind to answer: "They're not sayinggood-bye, but only settling do

a sky powdered with vanishingstars. Across the lake the lights of a little town went out,one after another, and the distant shore became a floatingblackness. A breeze that rose and sank brushed their faces wi

le to make itlast at least a year longer."Her husband received the remark without any sign of surprise ordisapprob

ng yourgrandmother's pearls?""Yes--without the pearls."H

hions best." Hestretched himself in a long willow chair, and she cur

ng of plane-boughs. All about them breathed of peaceand beauty and stability, and her happiness was so acute that itwas a

py as all this," Susymused, letting the

Susy Branch's bugbear;they were still, a

ew nearly all that there was to know about them, andjudged them with the contemptuous lucidity of nearly twentyyears of dependence. But at the present moment her animositywas diminished not only by th

we owe them th

stion; but she was still on the trail of thethought he had started. A year--yes,

bothers, in a comradeship of which both of them hadlong ago guessed the

vaguely rumoured that he had "written," hadpresented himself to her imagination as the sort of luxury towhich Susy Branch, heiress, might conceivably have treatedherself as a crowning folly. Sus

oung man who hadwritten, and as to whom it had at once been clear to her thatnothing his pen had produced, o

s, and also to ascribe it impulsively to those ofthe opposite sex who happened to interest her. She had anatural contempt for people who gloried in what they need onlyhave endured. She herself meant e

as her hurried and entangled life permitted; andthis, thanks to a series of adroit adjustments, turned out to bea good deal. They met frequently all the rest of that winter;so frequently that Mrs. Fr

How could she, when she thought? Thedress she had on had been given her by Ursula; Ursula's motorhad carried her to the feast from which they were bothreturning. She counted on

itated, and then murmured: "But ifit will make you any happier I'll arrange to see him lessof

her word; and the nextday she put on her

ined to keep her promiseto Ursula; but sh

orhe was doing a dreary job on a popular encyclopaedia (V to X)

ly reflected that, if it were thekind that she could bear to read, it probably wouldn't br

his staircase. Susy,knowing him to be addicted to Oriental archaeology, had picturedhim in a bare room

y absent, and noattempt had been made to disgui

to be conscious only of his luck in seeingher on a day when they had not expected to meet. This made Susyall the sorrier to execute her prom

o speak her meaning clearly when there were noreasons, worldly or pecuniary, for its concealment. After amoment, therefore, she told him why

erall, she had been rather afraid that being devoted to Ursula

ve she ever meant me, to begin with--" he protested; butSusy, her com

la to make herself cl

got a word to say about that too, haven't I?"Susy looked slowly and consideringly about the room. There was

'm concerned," she

t case, the protestshould have come from Mrs. Gillow.""Instead of coming from my millionaire bridegroom, Oh, I haven'tany; in that respect I'm as free as y

'm not going tomarry--and I don't suppose

leaning his elbow against the hideousblack marble arch that framed his fireles

you came to tel

ncewe've knocked about so long among exactly the same kind ofp

!"He remained motionless, le

ect to your seeing me too often?"Susy laughed impatiently. "You talk like the hero of a novel--the kind my governess used to read. In th

go to California with theBockheimers-so good-bye."Suddenly in tears, she was out of the door and down his steepthree flights before he could stop her--though, in thinking itover, she didn't even remember if he had tried to. She onlyrecalled having stood a long time on the corner of Fifth Avenue,in the harsh winter radiance, waiting till a break in thetorrent of motors laden with fas

circumambient sweetness, itlaid a drowsy spell upon her lids. Yes, there had been a badmoment: but it was over; and she was here, safe and blissful,and with Nick