The Happiest Time of Their Lives

in his own library, feeling somehow not so safe as usual. He felt attacked, insulted; and yet he also felt vivified and encouraged. He felt as he might have felt if so

e did not think that the expedition to the pier could be given the judicial, grandfatherly

et sown as thickly with bright little flowers as the Milky Way with stars, her last words to Vincent, who was standing by the fire, wi

looked steadily at him all the time that central was making the connection; she was trying to answ

u don't know what I mean by that? Why, Papa!" "Well, did she appear respectable

and turned to Vincent,

e he has had an unsatisfactory interview with the Wayne boy's mot

y be better for y

he possibility, the most terrible of any that had occurred to her, that the balance was changing between them; that she, so willing to be led, was to be forced to guide. She had seen it happen so often between married couples-the

soon as her stepfather had gone down town. She had had a

REST

gagement can be allowed to exist between us. I feel as if they were all meeting to discuss whether or

still in bed, but one long, pointed fingertip, pressed continuously upon the dangling bell, a summons th

principal interest seems to be to tell me nothing at all, and he has bee

to indulge in mimicry, but she had a way of catching and repeating the exact phrasing of some foolish sentence that was almost better-or worse-than mimicry. Mathilde remembered a governess, a kind and patient person of whom Adelaide had greatly wearied, who had a habit of beginning many observations, "It may strike you as strange, but I am the sort of pers

ve she was prepared to offer this unknown figure, but because it might very slightly alter her attitude toward her own mother.

that her mother was not so elaborate. Hitherto she had always gloried in Adelaide's elegance as a part of her beauty; but now, as she watched the ritual of rib

long process complete, Adelaide stood holding out her h

ther s

with young men who live up four flights of stairs. I have always avoided

when her car stopped at the

d slowly up at the house and up and down the street. They were at one in their fee

the arm-chairs and one fearful calamity with an ink-bottle that Pete had once had on the rug. Even Mrs. Wayne, who sprang

uld not conceal that four flights were an exertion. Her fine nostril

ent that was no more untrue than t

which she perhaps unconsciously counted, that her mere appearance made nine people out of ten aware of their own physical imperfections.

charming person, M

ing boyish and friendly; but now she suddenly gr

g more unusual tha

stion is, does your wretched son possess it?" But she didn't; she asked instead, w

say. She had learned to distrust nothing so much as her own candor,

rron," she said aloud, and for her

want time to judge. But how can we get time, Mrs. Wayne? If we do not take definite action against an engagement, we are giving our consent to it. I want a little reasonable delay, but we can get delay only by refusing

k. She liked neither

y no control over

't in a position t

he would liv

nd. She looked round her wonderingly, and said

ere, yo

somewhere

uld imagine suffering privations very happily in a Venetian palace or on a tropical island. It was an esthetic, not a moral, problem; it was a question of that profound and essential thing in the life of any woman who was a woman-her charm. She wished to tell Mrs. Wayne that her son wouldn't really like it, that he would hate to see Mathilde going out in overshoes; that the background that she, Adelaide, had so expertly provided f

oes and simple, boyish shirt and that twelfth-century saint's p

gan, still smo

ese modern girls, with their own motors and their own bills. Still, she has had a certain background. We

ayne l

you know,

id, and Adela

mand on a young creature when we know marr

yne hes

r daughter, and I don't know wh

ow one feels to one's first lover. She is a sweet, kind, unformed little girl, not heroic. B

and Adelaide was astonished to fin

t responsibility for Pete.

d fight to protect her daughter from the passive wear and tear of poverty; but she would have died to

eapest ready-made variety. But nothing could look cheap or ill made on those splendid muscles. He wore a silk shirt, a flower in his buttonhole, a gray tie in which was a pearl as big as a pea, long patent-leather shoes with elaborate buff-colored tops; he carried a thin stick and a pair of new gloves

ood there, with his feet wide apart and his e

aid, with his back teeth set together, a meth

ed Mrs. Wayne, with a utmost good temper. "Sti

owering brows; he had stopped swinging his elbows, and was now very slightly

rightened, but the sensation was pleasurable. He was, she knew,

there with strange nasal tones, and here and there with the remains of

on't be absurd, Marty,

cely. "What else is it? They wanting to get married

over that again. I have

her hands contentedly into her muff. She rather expected the frivolous cour

it, and he wants it, and her family wants it, and

o not want it

with me. I was talki

as a black eye, is i

h a horizontal gesture of his hands,

boy. I will never give my consent to putting a child of her

f good manners, was on the point of turning to her and explaining the whole situation; but fortunately the exigencies of the dispute swept her on too fast. Adelaide was shocked, physically rather than morally, by the nakedness of their talk; but she did not want them to stop. She was fascinated by the spectacle of Marty Burke in action. She recognized at once that he was a dangerous man, not dangerous to female virtue, like all the other men to whom she had heard the term applied, but actually dangerous to life and property. She was not in

he had a strong dramatic instinct, and he had just led Mrs. Wayne to the climax of her just

on, and a boutonniere." The change was so sudden that no one answered, a

d him in a flash. Sh

u don't mean to say you've go

ss of a pure heart. Mrs. Farron had never seen such a smile. "I thought I'd just drop around and give you the news," he said, and now for the first time took off his hat, displaying his crisp, black hair and round, pugna

joyed his triumph. To do her justice, however, Mrs. Farron w

s marriage a v

all her hair awa

arty Burke put anything over. The district is absolutely under his thumb. I do

husb

ud of his job, and it gives him power over the laborers. He wouldn't want to lose his place. If you

etween them-the effort of Vincent to put the fear of God into this man. Would he be able to? Which one would win? Never before had she dou

Mr. Farron

elation to Vincent about to be put to the test? What weapons had he agains

ask him, Mr

ot want to be the one to thr

She hesitated, knowing that no opportunity for this would offer unless she herself arranged it

ery attractive, and Mrs